Anti-Tax Tea Parties Held Across U.S.

[yolland]

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Jan. 13)

NASHVILLE — Members of Tennessee tea parties presented state legislators with five priorities for action Wednesday, including “rejecting” the federal health reform act, establishing an elected “chief litigator” for the state and “educating students the truth about America.” About two dozen tea party activists held a news conference, then met with lawmakers individually to present their list of priorities and “demands” for the 2011 legislative session that opened Tuesday.

Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.” That would include, the documents say, that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.” The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another. The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody—not all equally instantly—and it was their progress that we need to look at,” said Rounds, whose website identifies him as a Vietnam War veteran of the Air Force and FedEx retiree who became a lawyer in 1995.

...The activists also said they want legislators to either start the process of amending the state Constitution to provide for the popular election of the state attorney general or to create a separate position of solicitor general who is directly elected by voters and with much of the litigation authority now vested with the attorney general. In Tennessee, the attorney general is appointed by the state Supreme Court. The group’s printed material says the attorney general has reflected “views of the U.S. Constitution that conflict with those of the people of Tennessee.”

Somewhat reminiscent of Arizona's recently passed HB 2281, which public school superintendents worry will lead to the criminalization of Hispanic Studies courses.

[BVS]

Small government, eh? It was just about the economy, eh?

[Canadiens1131]

I'm all about small government and not artificially redistributing the wealth, as long as you keep those Social Security deposits coming from my grandkids' paycheques.

[2861U2]

Overall, a bunch of racist, bigoted, violent, ignorant, intolerant haters.


No, I'm talking about these people:

YouTube - "Progressive" Rallyists Call for Lynching of Clarence Thomas

[Canadiens1131]

Originally Posted by 2861U2

Overall, a bunch of racist, bigoted, violent, ignorant, intolerant haters.


No, I'm talking about these people:

So there are retarded bigots at all rallys? No, shit? The media always pushed the racist crazies b-roll footage at Tea Party rallies because that's what people want to see. Same thing with these idiots in the video. Is it fair to characterize everyone at the rally as a certain way by showing a few misguided (idiots) people being whacky?

Do you have a whiteboard keeping score between bonkers left-wing groups and bonkers right-wing groups to see who is more 'offensive'?

Yeah, there are nuts people on the left, too. You want a cookie for figuring this out?

[Irvine511]

the difference, of course, is that our one example above has no clout within the Democratic party.

whereas the Tea Party has the GOP over a barrel, and poor Mittens now has to put out a book saying how super the Tea Party is.

big difference. big. huge.

[anitram]

Originally Posted by 2861U2

Overall, a bunch of racist, bigoted, violent, ignorant, intolerant haters.


No, I'm talking about these people:

Who is that man? What is that group? Are they giving a rebuttal to the State of the Union? Are they primary-ing dozens of Democrats across the country? Hollering on talk radio? Forming their own PACs? Do they have a caucus in the Congress?

I mean, how are they relevant to your argument here?

[Pearl]

Wisconsin tea party organizer and children's book author Kim Simac has admitted to comparing American public schools to the Nazi regime.
Simac, also Republican candidate for the Aug. 9 recall election of Democratic state Sen. Jim Holperin, wrote a controversial post on tea party social network Patriot Action Network last October. The post recently disappeared from the site going into the general election, Talking Points Memo reports.
From Simac's blog post:

I am done raising my kids but if I was a young parent today I would take my kids out of the public school system today. At what point will we stop talking about the comparisons to what is occurring today and what actually happened by the regime of the Nazi's in the past?

Although the original piece is now a broken link, TPM located a cached version.
In response to questions about her post, and its subsequent disappearance from Patriot Action Newtork, Simac told Wisconsin Public Radio's Glen Moberg Thursday that officials must be careful of what is being taught in schools.
"I mean we can't deny the fact that the world is changing and that we need to stand up for our American values," Simac told Moberg. "I don't think that that's a conversation that I should hide from."
Simac has the support of her party, but also has a history of touting controversial views. Last month, she recommended teaching creationism alongside evolution in schools, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"Why not put a cross in a school? Why not talk about Easter in our schools?" She said to the Sentinel.
Holperin is one of 14 Wisconsin state Senate Democrats who left Wisconsin for Illinois in February to protest and delay Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill.
Simac has also been connected to conservative political commentator Glenn Beck, who has noted one of her children's books on his show, and reciprocally, Simac's removed post references a Beck commercial. Beck earlier this week criticized Norway's Utoya Island summer camp for kids, calling it "a little like the Hitler Youth or whatever."

Kim Simac, Tea Party Candidate For Jim Holperin Recall, Compares Public Schools To Nazi Regime

These people are truly scary and out of touch with reality.

[INDY500]

Maxine Waters to tea party: Go to Hell - The Washington Post

Maxine Waters to tea party: Go to Hell

Rep. Maxine Waters has four words for the tea party: Go straight to Hell.

At a community summit on Saturday, the California Democrat, who has been increasingly critical of President Obama, as well, had tough words for the other side.

“I’m not afraid of anybody,” Waters said at the summit in Inglewood, Calif. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to Hell.”

A prominent tea party group shot back with a statement calling on Obama to check the members of his party and to condemn the rough talk.

Wow, this woman really, really hates white people.

[PhilsFan]

I wouldn't have even known that she was black from that article.

[yolland]

Actually I think her ire was primarily aimed at Allen West (House Tea Party Caucus), who last week called her "nothing more than an overseer" on the "21st century plantation" of black Democrats (before describing himself as a "modern-day Harriet Tubman" come to liberate them).

[BVS]

Originally Posted by INDY500

Wow, this woman really, really hates white people.

Context always get in the way doesn't it?

[deep]

the Tea Party throws old people under the bus

[MrsSpringsteen]

Tea party favorite O'Donnell fails to draw crowd in Naples | The News-Press | news-press.com

Not even tea party favorite Christine O’Donnell could draw a large crowd for her book signing Wednesday in staunchly Republican Naples during August, a month when there are few tourists and many locals are on vacation.

Still, O’Donnell took the turnout of five people — members of the media outnumbered customers — at Barnes & Noble in stride.

[yolland]

The Hill, Aug. 31

In the summer of 2004, after Tropical Storm Gaston slammed into Richmond, [House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor [R-VA] was on the front lines of efforts to secure millions of dollars in federal assistance to clean the wreckage and repair damaged infrastructure. Although the funding was not offset, Cantor cheered its arrival.

...That episode is raising eyebrows this week, after Cantor told Fox News that disaster aid in the wake of Hurricane Irene should not be funded with borrowed money. Instead, Cantor said Monday, all federal assistance should be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget.

...Cantor is in an awkward position when it comes to disaster aid. Twice in the last week his district was struck by natural disasters—once by the hurricane and once by an earthquake — and his state’s Republican governor has said deficit concerns should not be a factor in the response to the disaster. Yet Cantor is also the leader of a House GOP Conference focused on reducing government spending, and disaster relief that is not offset with other spending cuts threatens to eat away at the savings Republicans have carved from the budget. This has left Cantor straddling between his national role as a popular Tea Party conservative—focused on spending cuts and balanced budgets—and his less-publicized duties as a representative of Virginia.

...Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said Tuesday that the nation’s fiscal environment was different in 2004, when the federal debt was less than $7.4 trillion—roughly half today’s figure. But budget conservatives—as well as many Democrats—have charged Republicans with hypocrisy for focusing on deficit reduction now after years of deficit spending themselves. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, breaking with fellow Republican Cantor, on Tuesday suggested that deficit-spending concerns should not be a factor as Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency respond to Hurricane Irene. “My concern is that we help people in need,” McDonnell said during his monthly radio show. “For the FEMA money that’s going to flow, it’s up to them on how they get it. I don’t think it’s the time to get into that [deficit] debate.”

The White House, for its part, has also left itself flexibility on the topic. While White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday chided Cantor for not demanding that the previous administration pay for an “unprecedented” amount of bills, he also did not take a firm position on the question of offsets. “The principle [is] that when we’re having a natural disaster and an emergency situation...our priority has to be responding to the disaster and helping those regions and states recover,” Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.

[yolland]

CNN, Aug. 31

A spokesman for Democratic Rep. Andre Carson said the Indiana representative and member of the Congressional Black Caucus is not backing down from comments he made previously, when he said members of the Tea Party movement on Capitol Hill would like to see African Americans "hanging on a tree." Jason Tomsci, Carson's aide, confirmed the comments and reaffirmed the sentiment. "He used strong language because the Tea Party agenda jeopardizes the most vulnerable," Tomasci told CNN Wednesday.

...Video surfaced Tuesday on TheBlaze.com, a website run by conservative host Glenn Beck, which shows Carson, who holds a leadership role in the CBC, at an Aug. 22 event in Florida. "Some of these folks in Congress would love to see us as second class citizens. Some of them in Congress right now of this Tea Party movement would love to see you and me...hanging on a tree," Carson said according to the audio. He also equated the efforts of those in the Tea Party movement to Jim Crow laws that historically kept African Americans from voting.

[PhilsFan]

It pisses me off when people say shit like that. There are so many well reasoned critiques you can make about the Tea Party as a whole. Why shoot for the fringe? You're just going to make an ass of yourself and confirm what the majority of the Tea Party thinks about Democrats.

[INDY500]

Memo to Rep. Carson. Tea Party as lynchin' racists is out. Tea Party as hostage-taking terrorists is in.

This hack has a legacy seat in a gerrymandered safe district. Embarrassing that he represents the great state of Indiana in the Congress.

[PhilsFan]

Fuck gerrymandering.

[INDY500]

Originally Posted by PhilsFan

Fuck gerrymandering.

Spot on to you. Anti-republican. Both parties are guilty.