Tag: Tea Party

Nobody Pepper-Sprayed Enraged, Even Armed Tea Partyists When They Disrupted Public Events in 2009

Jon Ponder

A Summer of Protests and Rage from Nico Colombant on Vimeo.

Despite the frequent eruptions of violence, threats lodged at elected officials and, on at least two occasions, shows of force when protesters arrived at presidential events fully armed, law enforcement across the country all but ignored the rage fits indulged in by pro-corporatist, anti-health-care reform protesters — almost all of whom were over 40 and 99.99 percent of whom were white — in the summer of 2009.

Contrast that with the fall of 2011 when police in New York City; Portland, Oregon; and on the campus of University of California at Davis have pepper-sprayed nonviolent Occupy protesters — most of whom are young and many of whom are not white — who were peaceably assembled, as is their constitutional right.

Keep in mind the images of cops pepper-spraying Occupiers like they were bugs today, as you take a quick stroll down memory lane to the late summer of 2009:

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Balanced Budget Amendment Fails

Trish

When I – along with 86 of my Freshmen colleagues – were elected a little more than a year ago, we pledged to change the conversation in our Nation’s Capital. Despite today’s failed resolution, I believe we have changed that conversation.

Rep. Allen West (R/Tea – Fla.), expressing his disappointment that the balanced budget amendment failed in the House, and co-opting the term, “change the conversation.” Tea partiers weren’t sent to Congress to change the conversation, they were sent to take action. Changing the conversation is the aim of the Occupy movement, which has successfully changed it from the made-up deficit crisis to income inequality and socializing risk.

Cain Again Changes His Story

Trish

Why negotiate against yourself? When somebody comes forward and they have a claim against me and they’re willing to take a lie detector test, I’ll take a lie detector test. I’m not gonna take one against anonymous, no documentation. That’s not good business.

–Herman Cain, presidential candidate, explaining why he is backing away from his earlier proposal to clear his name concerning sexual harassment of female employees by taking a polygraph test.

NBC’s David Gregory’s “Grand Wizard” Freudian Slip

Trish

David Gregory is walking back an analogous term he used during a Today Show interview, in which he said there is no “grand wizard” at the GOP calling the shots on the Herman Cain scandal. Gregory later tweeted, “”Wizard” remark this morning was a very poor choice of words. Did not mean to make that connection at all. Was not thinking. I apologize”.

In fact, Gregory’s comment was perfect. While he might have been visualizing the wizard in Oz, the term “grand wizard” is normally associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

Considering the Republican and tea party embrace of the Koch Brothers-funded ALEC legislative goals of drug testing welfare recipients; making it harder for the poor and young people to vote, in violation the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and imprisoning people who came here illegally and denying an education to their children who are native-born Americans, it’s not a real reach to wonder if there aren’t Klan sympathizers in the Grand Old Party.

Republicans Don’t Care About Sexual Harassment

Trish

54%

Proportion of Republican voters who said they were unconcerned that Herman Cain settled two sexual harassment claims while he was a lobbyist with the National Restaurant Association, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. The poll was taken in between the third and fourth women coming forward with similar experiences of Cain.

The (Tea) Party’s Over: Top Republicans Shunning Florida Tea Party

Trish
ScottTeaSign
So last year.

When you think of the Florida tea party, the names Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio come to mind but neither man came to their state’s tea party convention this weekend.* A new trend of ignoring the once ascendant Koch-funded effort seems to be under way.

It’s hard not to think there’s a connection between the decline in the popularity of the tea party and the generally more favorable ratings for the Occupy movement. Nowhere was the so-last-year quality of support for tea partiers more evident than at their own Florida convention.

Of the major presidential candidates, only Rick Santorum confirmed to the Tampa Tribune this week that he’s attending. Ron Paul’s campaign couldn’t be reached for comment; the event isn’t on his campaign web site schedule, although event organizers said he’ll be there. Spokesmen for Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney all said they won’t make it…

“It’s like they’re throwing a party and the guests of honor aren’t going to show up,” said retired University of South Florida political scientist Darryl Paulson, a Republican.

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Perry’s Texas, Hunstman’s Family Company Taking Taxpayer Millions

Trish

hypocriteIf there’s anything Republicans enjoy, it’s deriding the Affordable Health Care Act, or as they sneer, “Obamacare.” So who do you think was first in line to scarf AHCA funds that help early retirees?

That would be Gov. Rick Perry’s own Texans, followed by employees of Huntsman International, owned by the family of Jon Huntsman. Both men, of course, are running for president against Obama.

If you’ve ever wondered how wealth travels upward from the 99% to the top, here’s a vivid illustration.

“Some people have described this program as ‘Cash for Clunkers,’ in the sense that if you want it, you have to get in line first,” said Paul Fronstin, an economist with [nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute]. “There was a lot of advice given to be first in line.”

…Texas, it seems, heeded the advice. So did Huntsman International.

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