Interesting.... No coverage to speak of in any of the major dailies this morning. What a big fat FAIL!!!!
Okay, I did find this... Obama Is Just Not Their Cup of Tea By Dana Milbank Thursday, April 16, 2009 As a tea party, what happened in Lafayette Square across from the White House yesterday was a washout. There were no buttered scones, none of those dainty cucumber sandwiches and, as it happens, not a spot of tea. Organizers of the conservative protest were told at the last minute that they didn't have a permit to dump a million tea bags in the square, as they had planned. Instead, they served up a rather noxious brew. "Hey Big Brother: Show us Your Real Birth Certificate," said one sign in the rain-soaked crowd. "Blackbeard Obama, King of the Tax Pirates," said another. A third showed the president dressed up as Steve Urkel, the nerdy black kid with big glasses and suspenders from "Family Matters." "Did I do that?" the sign said, showing a graph of the economy plunging. Young girls wore T-shirts printed with the message "Don't tax me, bro" -- a play on a protester's famous "Don't tase me, bro" cry at a John Kerry event. Those messages might explain why Fox News, though actively promoting the "tea party" protests for tax day, tried to argue that it was not behind yesterday's coast-to-coast events. But Fox News analyst Tobin Smith, who took the stage in Lafayette Square yesterday, evidently didn't get the memo. "On behalf of Fox News Channel," he told more than 500 mud-spattered demonstrators, "I want to say: Welcome to the Comedy Channel of America, Washington, D.C." After a few preliminaries, he went into a Fox News commercial for anchor Glenn Beck. "Anybody watching Glenn?" he asked to cheers. "That was a shameless plug, wasn't it? Glenn says hello as well. He's out at another tea party." Indeed he was, as were Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto. A small group of counterdemonstrators, wearing ballgowns, tuxedoes and pig snouts, interrupted and were stripped of their signs. Smith seized the display as an opportunity to highlight the Fox News slogan. "You know what 'Fair and Balanced' means?" he asked. " 'Fair and Balanced' means we take our message and try to overcompensate for their lack of message." Smith left with instructions: "Keep watching Fox, will you?" The theme was echoed in some of the homemade signs the demonstrators carried, including "Watch Fox News," "Thank You Fox News," and even a recommendation: "Move Glenn Beck to 7 PM." Without the spectacle of a 1773-style tea-bag dump in the square, the handmade signs became the focus of the event. Though ostensibly an anti-tax protest, it was more of an anti-Obama festival. Among the messages: "The Audacity of the Dope," "O Crap" and Obama as an acronym for "One Big Awful Mistake America." Some messages were ugly ("Napolitano -- Obama's Gestapo Queen," "Hang 'Em High Traitors," and a sign held by a young girl saying "Victim of Child Tax Abuse"). Others were funny ("Don't Talk to Me! I Forgot My Teleprompter"). Certain ones had sinister overtones ("Tax Slavery Sucks," and "Obama bin Lyin"). Then there was the guy holding a Cabbage Patch doll by its hair with the message: "My kid's growth stunted by your stimulus." Though the left and right will fight over whether the protests were organic or fake AstroTurf, there can be little doubt that the grass roots were well nourished yesterday. The Secret Service informed the protesters that they could not set up their stage in front of the Treasury Department, as they had planned, so they wound up in a muddy patch of grass on the hindquarters side of Andrew Jackson's horse. The legs of the stage began to sink in the mud, and, as the lawn turned into a lake, several of the demonstrators had to wiggle their feet free of the muck. "I don't think it could rain any harder," one of the organizers said. He urged the crowd to embrace the adversity: "When they tell you you can't bring a million tea bags to Lafayette Square, you work with it -- you find a place to put them." For somebody, the "place to put them" turned out to be the North Lawn of the White House. As the protest began to break up, a demonstrator hurled what appeared to be a box of tea bags toward the executive mansion. The Secret Service, much like His Majesty's government in Boston, was not amused. The White House was locked down while a robot examined the tea. Before the main acts, organizers allowed a bit of open microphone time, which resulted in one man telling Obama "You're an idiot!" Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, in a drenched business suit, rallied the crowd before some counterdemonstrators with whistles interrupted; Norquist scolded the "loud brownshirts." Alan Keyes, another headliner, railed against the "orgy of selfishness," the "orgy of debt" and "the scourge of immigration." Americans for Prosperity's Phil Kerpen directed his anger at Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: "The tax cheat got our permit revoked." And Fox's Smith colorfully described Congress as "the only whorehouse in the world that fails to make a profit." Talk-show host Mike Church treated the crowd to a mock fascist salute and said that "it's time to have a little revolution, I think. We don't have to fire weapons. You should own them, you should have a lot of ammo to go with them, but you don't have to shoot them." "Unless we have to!" somebody called out. "No, you're not going to have to," Church answered. That's because these rebels, unlike the patriots of 1773, have Fox News. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041503177_pf.html
no one takes any of these D-bags seriously. The ones who just stick to their one side that they have chosen...endlessly going against the other without having a open and honest discussion and withou even bothering to entertain ideas represented... without actually trying to come to an agreement and resolution or finding any common ground. really, this should be called the D,D & D: Diarrhea, dimwits and D-bags.
Mc mark, when newspapers ignore rallies that attract thousands of people in hundreds of cities, that is scary and sad. How can you trust a media so given over to ideology? Maybe there is truth to this being "the end of Times."
Lois, you never told us if your geriatric fan club of freeloading neighborhood widows showed up and bleated epithets about communist muslims in all their howling, cackling glory, along with the rest of the enlightened populace of wingnut whiners, wackos, and just plain stupid people, or if they simply stayed home watching the moving picture box and called the police about imaginary Mexicans on their lawns, waiting for the boatman of the Styx to take them on the last ride, clinging to their medic alert bracelets and Social Security checks. please elaborate - thx in advance.
My sad little file clerk, I was writing to mc mark. Now, go back to your playpen while grown-ups exchange ideas and ideologies.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ohmlFwsEqA0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ohmlFwsEqA0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> yeeeha
So I take it this account of a wrinkled quartet of prune eating diaperwearers was entirely fabricated, or became such after you realized nobody cared - surprising. Thanks for the update, lois.
Isn't it just as easy to post pictures of Anti-War rallies and the ridiculous messages on their poster boards? It's people getting out and voicing their opinions. It's fine by me even if I have a hard time swallowing protesting higher taxes when they haven't happened yet. I would love to protest ginormous government, even when Bush was in the White House.
Notice to Teabaggers: Get used to having no say. Fat aging white southern wingnuts are not the future. Nor are your jorts or Members Only jackets. If you haven't noticed, I'm making some changes around here. signed Demography
Do you really have nothing better to do all day than hit softballs in a Houston Rockets baskeball forum? Let's pick on the really stupid ones and just rail on them for 5000 posts. I'm hoping your life would be better without it.
Because the media isn't given over to ideology. How can they be when they printed the untruths about Al Gore claiming to have invented the internet which hurt his candidacy, gave way too much attention the lies of the swift boat fools when Kerry ran, allowed Bush to inflate the numbers he sent to Aid Africa, and even when they did raise questions they presented the idea as if it was some kind of disagreement between political sides, when it was plain and simple math. How can they be solely ideology driven when they initially were gung-ho for the Iraq war? How can they be when they ignored foreign policy gaffe, after gaffe, and mistake and demonstration of ignorance demonstrated by McCain in the election, but still kept running with the out of date idea that foreign policy was an advantage for McCain? The bias in the media goes with making the story attractive and giving people what they want to make money. The reason the tea parties didn't get too much coverage, is because it isn't what it claims to be, doesn't even make sense for a bunch of people getting tax breaks to use a symbol of protesting their taxes, and the manufactured idea hasn't really garnished a widespread interest.
In the grand scheme of things, there are many things I'd rather do. For example, this past weekend I was drinking real ale and watching football in Edinburgh, UK - and I'd still be doing that if I could. However, otherwise, as of right now, this second, I can safely say that there are few things I would rather do (in the range of things immediately possible for me to be doing) than make fun of silly people on the interwebs.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AkOwsIIIe5I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AkOwsIIIe5I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> maybe already posted, but hilarious. 'cheer if you make less than 250,000!' massive cheering doh (from dkos)
What's that line they teach you in high school, "He only makes fun of you because he has low self-esteem." Completely hokey, but true.
First, I am just getting up and around. I need to figure out how to upload the pictures of the crowds to Clutchfans, but my nephew said he would be over later in the morning to help. There are so many observations that I fear making this into a novel. The Alamo tea party was inspiring and encouraging because there were very few fringies and a lot of middle America. First, I was glad I got the widows a room at the Menger -- it sure made bathroom breaks and refreshments a lot easier. They had a blast walking around the Alamo Plaza admiring people's signs and babies and enthusiasm. Packed as it was, the crowds parted for all the elderly, and there were quite a number of geriatrics. Second, let me get to a couple of negatives. I was deeply saddened that the crowd was about 85% caucasian, 10% hispanic and 5% asian (not scientific, just a crude guesstimate), I only saw one black in the crowd around me and several more walking in the distance, but I am not sure if they were participants. Also, the San Antonio talk show person who gave the invocation really annoyed me, but this is just me. His "prayer" was a political speech using God as a prop. I didn't like that. Again, IMO, when one prays to God, one prays for guidance, insight, wisdom to discover what's right, courage to do what's right, and forgiveness for our human frailty. Third, the crowd was civil, enthused, concerned and motivated. There was as many signs excoriating the economic shortcomings of Geithner as Obama, but there was a surprising backlash at George Bush the younger. Beck, at one point, exhorted the crowd to cheer for Rick Perry, but the response was merely "polite." Politicians of any stripe were not regarded as heroes at this rally. Everybody around me was exchanging handshakes and emails. I have 60 or 70 new "penpals" who believe networking is crucial for organizing and forwarding ideas. Most identified themselves as conservatives or moderates, but there were a number that said they were just Americans. There wa one guy wearing a hat that was somewhere between a African bush hat and a cowboy hat who was especially engaging. He was bearing a sign that said "Legalize drugs and end the cartel's profits." No one gave him any guff or vociferously disagreed (life can be stranger than andymoon ). Drat, I'll pick this up again shortly. I have a client with a crisis.
