Tag: Tea Baggers

As Norquist Tries to Kickstart Tea Baggery 2.0, Dick Armey Jumps Ship, Resigns As Head of Freedomworks

Jon Ponder

Armey
Grover Norquist, the Republicans’ austerity czar, has issued a call to arms. It is time, he suggests, for tea baggers to get their tired old fat asses back up off their couches, dust off their poorly spelled, crypto-racist signs and hit the bricks again. The issue that will drive tea baggers into their patented spittle-spewing rage fits this time, Norquist claims, is Pres. Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthy:

“Tea party two is going to dwarf tea party one if Obama pushes us off the cliff,” Norquist said on one of the Sunday shows last weekend. “Let’s not pretend who’s pushing us over the cliff.”

Meanwhile, in back in Realityville, there is no better evidence that the Koch brothers and other billionaire advocates of American oligarchy are done astroturfing tea baggery than the announcement that Dick Armey abruptly resigned as head of Freedomworks, the billionaires’ lobbying group:

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Dim Bulbs Light the Way in Secession Movement

Trish

I’m not deriding these people because it’s so easy to point out their cluelessness

Great leaders are skilled in strategy and compromise that achieves underlying goals, according to “Lincoln” screenwriter Tony Kushner. Which explains why there will never be any great tea party politicians, whose only strategy is to storm off in a huff if they don’t get their way.

But the secession petition Florida rightwingers recently sent to the White House points up another problem for the tea party: many of these folks are not bright.

Was there really no one on the petition writing squad who made an A in English?

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Think of the Savings If These States Secede

Trish

23%

Amount of total federal revenue alloted to the states in 2010 that was taken by six of the seven states with the most signatures on petitions to secede following Pres. Obama’s re-election. The states are Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Alabama also gathered among the most signatures but did not receive as much funding.

You Almost Feel Sorry for the Tea Party. But Not Quite

Trish

This is hard for me to process. With all the debt, all the unemployment and the bad economic indicators, how is it that Obama is only 2.5 percentage points down from where he was in 2008?

— Soon to be former state Rep. Scott Plakon (Longwood), who lost his seat in the Florida House on Tuesday. Plakon was author of the first of 12 tea party inspired state constitutional amendments — the one that would have exempted Florida from healthcare reform, aka Obamacare. Only the three most innocuous amendments were accepted by voters, who turned down Plakon’s along with restrictions on abortion and more tax cuts for industry. Plakon and other tea party members are struggling to understand why sentiment in the country isn’t as portrayed on FOX News. They might start by taking another look at those “bad economic indicators,” which have been steadily improving for about two years.

Two Vile Tea Partyists, Allen West and Joe Walsh, Defeated – But a Third, Michele Bachmann Clings to Power

Jon Ponder

Financial Times:

[The] House will remain under control of Republicans, who also added a seat, increasing the majority they won in 2010.

Republicans picked up two House seats in North Carolina and beat a Democrat in Kentucky, as they looked to widen their advantage.

Analysts watched to see if conservative Tea Party candidates continue to gain stature in this election, or if disillusionment among voters over gridlock in Congress takes its toll on their movement. Tea Party stars such as Allen West, of Florida, and Joe Walsh, of Illinois, were defeated and Michele Bachmann of Minnesota remained locked in a tight race.

Reports this morning indicate that Bachmann has won reelection.

Who’s Lining, Wait I Mean Lieing, Hold On, Let Me Spellcheck That…LYING Now?

Trish

Comments

We knew it would be painful, here in Northeast Florida, to read the comments following a news story about Republican voter fraud.

After it was revealed that Palm Beach County, Fla. prosecutors began investigating Strategic Allied Consulting, one of many names for a “voting consultant” firm run by one man and paid $3.1 million so far by the Republican National Committee to register (Republican) voters, the Republican Party of Florida dumped the firm.

Which leads us to this story on a Jacksonville TV news website, and the colorful comments that followed. The last names were removed to protect the stupid. But one of word of advice: before you attempt to correct someone else’s spelling, make sure your own is at least in the ballpark.

If Even One Woman in Missouri Votes for Todd Akin, I Would Like a 500-Word Essay Explaining Why

Trish

She had a confidence and was much more ladylike (in 2006), but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she feels threatened.

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), describing Sen. Claire McCaskill, the incumbent Democrat whose seat Akin is running for. Akin is still in the race, despite his parsing of rape and legitimate rape, and disclosing his complete lack of understanding of how the female body works.

Why CEOs Are Not Presidential Material

Trish

MittHuffyRightSize

After living through two years of bumbling attempts by a former CEO to run state government like a business, I had a flash of recognition when I heard Mitt Romney’s take on the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

Tea Party Republican and former HCA Columbia Chair Rick Scott, who spent $75 million of his own money on his campaign, took over the Florida governorship confident he would use his business skills to root out waste, slash the state payroll, get rid of regulations that hold back business, and create jobs. One of his first moves was to turn down millions in federal assistance to build a high-speed rail line that would have employed Floridians, taken cars off the eight-lane parking lots that serve as commuter roads, and made the state a leader in the transportation technology of the future.

When Romney says there is no hope for peace in the Middle East, he’s really telling us he doesn’t have what it takes to be president

From there, he rolled out a series of privatization proposals, such as turning over prisons to corporate managers and allowing developers to build golf courses in state parks. Within weeks of taking office, Scott’s approval ratings hit record lows, along with Florida’s employment numbers, which under Scott’s leadership have remained worse than the nation as a whole.

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