Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The mad haters of the Tucson Tea Party will be holding a little soirre Saturday to compare new and creative ways of "how to hate Barack Obama even more!" at Tucson Electric Park. So much hate, so little time. (And a desicration of a cathedral of baseball.)
The teabaggers will not be drinking tea, however, but will be drinking their usual daily dose of Kool-Aid from Faux News (Judge Andrew Napolitano) and right-wing talk radio (Jim Parisi, J.D. Hayworth, James T. Harris). The first step to recovery from an addiction is to admit that you have a problem. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
UPDATE 10/11/09: "About 6,000 people descended Saturday on Tucson Electric Park for the Tucson Tea Party event, billed as 'Tucson's Last Stand.'" Rally seeks new direction for US This is a very generous crowd estimate from what I observed, and far below the 10,000 participants that organizers projected. (Of course, Faux News will report that one million people attended). There were far more people attending the SAHBA Home Show and Tucson Meet Yourself downtown on Saturday.
For some perspective, the population of Pima County in 2009 is estimated at 967,089. In Pima County, there are 188,067 registered Democratic voters, 149,231 Republican voters, 131,179 "other," and just under 5,000 Libertarians/Greens (combined). Maybe the Arizona Daily Star should consider this perspective before giving this small fringe group, yet again, unwarranted media coverage. ("We're not newsworthy. We're not newsworthy.")
The teabaggers lived up to expectations. Rally seeks new direction for US:
Inside the baseball park, Tea Party organizers were raising funds by selling T-shirts, some of which said, "I am the mob."
One man wore a necklace of tea bags. Another wore a T-shirt that said: "Tyranny Response Team."
A man carried a placard with President Obama's face superimposed onto a yellow bull, with a caption reading "21st century golden calf."
A woman carried a sign stating, "First Black President leads U.S. into slavery."
There were signs of Obama with a Pinocchio nose and with the Joker's face paint and smile. There was another with Obama as one of the three Stooges.
A couple carried brooms, with signs stating: "Clean sweep. Vote out the crooks."
Several people in the audience waved yellow flags with the saying, "Don't tread on me." [a hallmark of militia groups]Richard Colasuonno, a 68-year-old retired New York City teacher, carried a sign that said, "Thank you Joe Wilson" on one side, in a nod to the congressman who yelled "You lie!" to the president during his health-care speech. . . On the flip side, the sign read, in part, "The radicals are at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — not here."
* * *
The crowd booed when a reference was made to Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yeah, no blind hatred there.
Oh Thane, go debate with your dining room table.
If nobody is allowed to assert that the efforts of the Obama administration are advocates of socialism then dissent is squelched. I think it is a waste of time and energy to claim that Obama isn’t qualified as a natural born citizen.
If you and the rest of the Democratic Party cheerleaders would stop bringing up those who claim Obama is a Muslim that claim would completely fade from public view (IMO).
I don’t think that you should be allowed to dictate the terms of the debate.
Calling the other comment hateful is saying that it shouldn’t be allowed because you don’t like it. As I said I found both comments to be uncivil and so I’m not crying one tear over its removal (or non-removal).
If you want to push the orthodox answers on your Obama conspiracy claims you should be able to leave it to:
http://fightthesmears.com/
It is my position that the truth will prevail and calling any unapproved or unliked idea to be a conspiracy theory is just another way of saying that you don’t have the facts to support your claim debunking a theory you disagree with.
http://www.google.com/search?q=left+squelch+dissent
Thanks so much for your moral compass and the constitutional lesson, Thane.
Thinking that Obama and his administration represent socialism isn’t a conspiracy theory? This whole Obama socialism, birth certificate, Muslim ridiculousness represents policy differences? Sure.
My comment was snarky. The other was hateful.
And I know the ADS owns the comment space, but you’d think that a newspaper would have a higher standard more in line with the first amendment for allowing comments.
The First Amendment is intended to protect private speech from government regulation. The Arizona Daily Star comment space is the property of the company, they may delete any comment they want and the first amendment remains respected unless the government was involved with their decision.
I found both your comment and the one you pointed out to be less than civil. Using pejorative terms doesn’t advance your point, it indicates that you have no logical point to begin with.
You certainly make a compelling case for leaving Blog for Arizona behind for some other destination.
It is certainly rather disappointing that you feel no motivation to advance your ideals via presenting them to the readership here.
I commented on the article at the ADS about the Tea Party. I said this:
“I looked at the Tea Party itinerary and noticed there were no activities for children, while their parents listen to conspiracy theories. I suggest a table where children can make tin foil hats.”
My comment was ” reported” and removed.
This comment, by a winger though was allowed:
“Yet they voted for the supreme idol of idiot worsippers. A man who is a pathological liar, a avowed socialist, a man bring those who produce down to the level of those that refuse to produce by using redistribution of weath through taxation. A man who shamelessly accepted an award for having done nothing. Who is the real idiot?”
So much for first amendment rights at the AZ Daily Star.
Oh, Thane, your narcissism knows no bounds. The writers of this blog do not write for your personal edification and amusement. I do not give a rats ass about your “let’s secede from the United States and create a Libertarian utopia where everyone is armed with an assault weapon and there are no taxes” nonsense. There are far more people who read this blog than you that it is intended to reach – politicians and the media – and yes, we know that they are regular readers.
As Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said recently, “America doesn’t care about your feelings,” and neither do I. Reading blogs is like watching TV – if you’re not interested in what’s on, change the channel. Buh-bye.
Is Judge Napolitano speaking for free today? Napolitano, a FOX News Senior Judicial Analyst(kind of an oxymoron) books his appearances through exclusive representation by the Greater Talent Network.
http://www.greatertalent.com/JudgeNapolitano
This agency represents a variety of “talent.” http://www.greatertalent.com/allspeakers.php
So who’s paying for Napolitano’s appearance? The state Tea Party, or Freedom Works, or Americans for Prosperity?
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/lobbyists-planning-teaparties/
Or is Napolitano doing it gratis because of the power of his convictions.
(P.S.) I’ll bet there will be lots of puns and analogies about the two disparate Napolitanos.
Presuming that anybody that disagrees with a political position does so because of either unthinking hate or because they imbibe some beverage that compels them to find problems with the latest government solution of the day is a poor, illogical position to start from.
I know of rather few people who are going to drop their opposition to more government because you call them haters. Neither are you going to persuade anybody with your Kool-Aid campaign.
When will you dig out a book from
http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2008/06/progressive-boo.html
and relate the positions and beliefs found therein instead of whining about how motivated the Tea Party crowd is?
Or check out a copy of Andrew Napolitano’s latest book Dred Scott’s Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom In America and point out any faults it has? That I would find far more interesting than this post.
http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1595552650