Teabagger Theory of The White Penis And The Dumb Housewife

Brilliant socio-psychiatrist Bill Maher does it again. (Brett, you should've stayed retired):

TEA PARTY Remedial Education: Your Candidates Are Financed By Outsource USA Jobs, Inc. Do You Care?

Watch carefully, Teabaggers:

So what can we conclude:

First, you’re being played like a Deliverance mandolin. Got that, Teabaggers? You don’t have to hear it from Bubba Clinton. Just get the facts, for a change, starting right here.

Second, the Chamber of Commerce president is on record singing the praises of outsourcing USA jobs. You don’t have to take it from a “socialist” with a darker skin tone. It’s coming right out of the horse’s mouth. They’re playing you, they’ve co-opted your Astroturf  movement a long time ago, and you don’t even know it. You’re working for Wall Street, the banks, big insurance companies, and foreign corporations. In your universe, by your own absolutist standards, this amounts to treason against America. Sounds about right.

Get used to it, Teabaggers. Honestly, I have never seen a bigger bunch of T.O.O.L.S in my life. And I’ve seen my share of them.

Third, your leader, talk show terrorist Glenn Beck, is playing you with malice aforethought. This multimillionaire charlatan, who is far more chummy with Chamber president Tom Donohue than he lets on to his audience, announced a $10,000 donation to the Chamber to get you to open your collective wallets and donate millions more. How many of you, Teabaggers, are so dependent on Beck’s lunacy, so brainwashed, that you’ll take him up on it?

Can you spell L.E.M.M.I.N.G.S, too, ye Tea Party Patriots? I hope so, but I’m not holding my breath.

Tides CEO Has Had ENOUGH of Glenn Beck's Hate Speech

The founder and CEO of the Tides Foundation, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting social justice, has had enough of Beck's hate speech and incitement to violence. A frequent Beck target himself, Tides CEO Drummond Pike broke his silence after narrowly escaping assassination by a disturbed Beck listener (for details, see "Glenn Beck And The TEA PARTY Armies of The Damned" below) whose plot was foiled by police in a wild shootout.

In a letter to major Fox advertisers, Drummond asked them to drop their sponsorship of the Fox News program or the next assassin may succeed and "if so, there will be blood on many hands."

"I respectfully request that you bring this matter of your company's sponsorship of hate speech leading to violence to the attention of your fellow directors as soon as possible. I believe no responsible company should advertise on Fox News due to its recent and on-going deplorable conduct.

While we may agree to disagree about the role our citizens and our government should play in promoting social justice and the common good, there should be no disagreement about what constitutes integrity and professionalism and responsibility in discourse - even when allowing for and encouraging contending diverse opinions intelligently argued. This is not a partisan issue. It's an American issue. No one, left, right or center, wants to see another Oklahoma City.

The next "assassin" may succeed, and if so, there will be blood on many hands. The choice is yours. Please join my call to do the right thing in this regard and put Fox News at arm's length from your company by halting your advertising with them."

Spot The Civilized Crowd

President Obama Meets With Young People at MTV Event, 10-14-2010

TEA PARTY racism:

Bill Maher on the Teabagger mentality: It’s all about ... you guessed it.

Gay Texas Councilman Makes Emotional Plea to Gay Teens

This is all the more remarkable because it happened in Texas, heart of red state USA. I’m left with two impressions there are hopeful signs: (1) Homophobic, anti-gay attitudes such as expressed by Tea Party candidate for governor in New York, Carl Paladino, are largely generational. Young people simply do not carry with them the attitudes and prejudices of their elders. Paladino’s own nephew, who is gay, repudiated what he said. And (2) social conservatism, which includes the Christian Right (47% of Tea Party identifiers) and has manifested within the Tea Party with such ugliness in this campaign — from gay bashing to Islamophobia and extremist anti-government rhetoric — is about a mile wide and an inch deep.

The Tea Party reflects the narrow, dying convulsions of a generation of older, whiter bigots who were seemingly bypassed by the major civil rights advances of the past half century. It does not represent the America Councilman Joel Burns of Fort Worth, Texas, an openly gay man, lives in and most of us recognize. They will not succeed in bringing our country down or turning back the clock. As Councilman Burns said:

“Attitudes will change, life will get better, you will have a lifetime of happy memories if you just allow yourself and give yourself the time to make them … High school was difficult, coming out was painful … I want to tell any teen who is watching this, life will get better.”

AMERICA FOR SALE: Chamber of Horrors Has Chuck Todd Depressed but FASCINATED

Chuck Todd says “it’s kind of a depressing outlook, the fact that we think that being public about where you stand on an issue, you don’t want to go public because of — you just fear some sort of potentially negative retribution.”

Gee, Chuck, do you think you need a prescription for Xanax or something? While Chuck was sulking, ThinkProgress, the progressive blog that broke the story and has been doggedly pursuing it, followed up with an exclusive that the Chamber is receiving at least $885,000 from over 80 foreign companies in disclosed donations alone. Todd emerged from his funk long enough to interview a shill for the chamber of horrors. The question remains why he didn’t interview someone from ThinkProgress to get the opposing view, since it has become abundantly clear that Chuck is constitutionally incapable of asking the tough, off-putting to his guests, or upsetting questions. Much too “depressing.”

Here’s the Todd interview, such as it is, with the chamber of horrors spokesman given free rein to propagandize. This “intimidate and harass” whine from the Chamber is a strawman argument. The outrage is the lack of disclosure. The accidental disclosure, e.g., Target, then fuels the outrage, once people discover why these individuals and corporations were so keen to stay anonymous in the first place. It’s a circular argument that would be invalid under the pre-Citizens United climate of required disclosure. The actors were largely the same. The Chamber was making political ads. But the sunshine kept the shady groups and, let’s be blunt, criminals out of it, to the benefit of our political system. Our disclosure laws may have needed improvement, but they weren’t broken. What the Supreme Court did was break the system, with far-reaching and downright scary consequences.

To cap it all off, this parting Todd remark is all the more outrageous: “It’s an interesting argument and I am fascinated by it …”

Oh go jump in the lake, Todd. Seriously. Go to CNN.

I can’t even begin to say how FED UP progressives are with all this FASCINATION going on in the only semi-progressive cable outlet for liberals and progressives. Indeed, the FASCINATION thing from the Todd-Norah-Luke weasely wing of MSNBC implies a sense of detachment from stronger emotions, e.g., OUTRAGE … a “new normal” that may well be medication-induced.

Evidently, Chuck Todd, Norah O’Donnell (presumably still fascinated to see a Senate filled with Teabaggers, and doing her best to make it happen), and anyone else afflicted with the FASCINATION bug as a substitute for OUTRAGE are obviously not acquainted with the craft and purpose of journalism. They are incapable of mustering a modicum of adversarial skepticism to substitute for the sense of helpless outrage those who cannot match the corporate money deluge feel as we see our democracy slip away from us. Instead of asking the incisive questions — check out Keith Olbermann’s segment below for some J-101 tips — Todd laments the “depressing outlook” in public funding of campaigns.

We can do without your angst, Chuck. We’d much rather see a journalist sitting where you sit. It’s an increasingly privileged position, one not to be taken lightly. Whatever his flaws, at least Chris Matthews isn’t afraid to ask tough questions and show moral outrage. Where’s the outrage? Where’s your moral compass, your backbone, that necessary sense of journalistic ethics?

Talk about a “depressing outlook.” Watching the Chuck Todds of this world and so many unschooled pseudo journalists in prominent anchor spots is enough to depress anyone concerned with getting the truth and the facts to the public. The stakes for our future couldn’t be higher.

Creepy, Crawly Wingnut Misogyny (Best Read On An Empty Stomach)

In case you're wondering where repulsive wingnut James O'Keefe learned his misogynistic chops, it didn't necessarily come from a CD in a plain brown paper wrapper. Here's O'Keefe's slimy mentor, Glenn Beck:

O'Keefe's self-serving defense to sexual harassment (or worse), in which he confuses principle for "principal", and consent for assault, actually expects us to believe he didn't really intend to "seduce" the CNN reporter as the document she obtained describes:

"I provided CNN with a clear statement that the document in question was objectionable. Still, they sent their “Special Investigations Unit” out in a failed attempt to discredit me. They do this not because they want to get to the truth, but because they are threatened by a bunch of independent journalists with video cameras uncovering the stories that they went to J-School to find."

C'mon boy, what’s to discredit? You’re already a joke, forever branded with “WC” which alternately stands for flush toilet, wingnut creep, or perhaps ... closet. What woman could possibly turn down such a strapping example of American manhood as this:

Idiot Punditocracy Watch: Chuck Todd's Fondest Hope

Heard on the Chuck & Savannah “Daily Rundown” show:

“The Chamber of  Commerce is an advocacy organization dedicated to the creation of jobs.” – Kevin Madden, Republican operative.

Right. Um Kevin, you must mean outsourced USA jobs in China, India, Mexico, et al. The rejoinder from Chuck and useless idiot pundit DeeDee Myers was exactly: Zero, zippo, nada.

CHUCK TODD RIDES GOP "WAVE"

Let’s fill in the gaps, shall we: The Chamber is a partisan pro-Republican organization. (Check their director bios, match them up against the GOP, then run a percentage of their campaign spending on the Republican vs. Democratic parties: 20-1, 30-1, 50-1?) Chuck is too timorous to challenge the constant stream of bullshit coming from his Republican pals. But he gets real excited with electronic clipboard in hand, peddling his fondest hope of a GOP “WAVE” (Chuckie’s revealing all caps) with lots of poli-sci mumbo jumbo.

Dang! I knew there was a good reason I don’t watch Chuck and Savannah … don’t want to heave my breakfast. Or maybe it was Savannah saying something akin to “you complete me.”

MSNBC's Lean Backward Miner Rescue Coverage

Compared with CNN's early coverage, from Anderson Cooper to Larry King, MSNBC had everything to grab the breaking news viewers with superior reporters on site, Kerry Sanders and Natalie Morales. Especially with a cranky Larry saying impatiently as a waiting period ensued before the hoisting of the second capsule with pregnant silences among his guests: "They're 'prepping' the capsule; what the hell does that mean?"

Here's the thing: It's a relatively simple repetitive process. It takes about 16 minutes each way for the capsule to make its way down 2,040 feet to the trapped miners and hoist them to safety. One would think the producers are timing this for commercial breaks and canned footage. Unbelievably, however, the personable but apparently scatter-brained Chris Jansing, who assumed coverage from the competent Lawrence O'Donnell, lost track of rescue number 4. As the capsule was making its way down (16 minutes) she kept repeating, "as we wait for the capsule to go down," apparently unaware that it was on its way.

Then, minutes from the capsule reaching the mine below — whose surreal live feed is no doubt one of the most interesting aspects of the coverage (supplanted only by the family reunions above ground) — Jansing cuts away to a commercial and returns with canned coverage of an earlier rescue, completely missing the live feed as miner number 4 is being prepared to be hoisted up in the capsule. Considering this aspect of the operation is the most perilous in terms of what could go wrong, this was an appaling lapse. At least CNN had the relevant live feed, despite the anchor with an Aussie/New Zealand accent.

It's not brain surgery; the producers and anchor can actually time the descent and ascent, and plan their cutaways, interviews, and commercial breaks accordingly. But when the capsule goes down and when it arrives, you really want to be there live.

One gets the sense that when these networks do wall-to-wall coverage of such events, they go into auto-pilot mode, and daytime folks like Jansing start nodding off before they get their Starbucks fix. For example, Chile's first lady was charming in comforting the families as they waited for their loved one to make his way up. But no one picked up on this. The underutilized Sanders and Morales might have some insights, but they were never asked. They get an A for their limited but vivid and enthusiastic reporting; MSNBC gets a C- for its inconsistent coverage. They could have creamed CNN.

Another Jansing gem: In one window one of the rescued miners is talking away describing his experiences in an interview seen silently. it would be nice to have Morales around to translate his words. From his gestures, he sounds interesting and relevant. Instead, Jansing is going blahblahblah with inconsequential and boring fill-in guests. It seems her main attribute is an ability to talk nonstop. Meanwhile, her viewers everywhere lean so far forward they're tipping over into sleep mode.

Glenn Beck And The Tea Party Armies of The Damned

When Teabaggers say they want to “start a revolution,” this is what they mean. Lately, Glenn Beck has been practicing behavior known in the psychiatric world as projection:

“In Freudian psychology, Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person unconsciously denies their own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world ….Thus, it involves imagining or projecting that others have those [attributes],” in Beck’s case, V.I.O.L.E.N.C.E.

Beck is most likely lashing out at the Left, specifically Media Matters, for calling him out on his wild conspiracies and outright lies. For example, Media Matters completely debunks Beck’s lies about Soros and the Obama administration purportedly making a loan to Petrobrás. Not true. But as can be seen with the reaction of disturbed Beck followers like Williams (see below), such outrageously irresponsible allegations have real-life consequences.

So, when Beck makes inflammatory statements about impending violence coming from the Left, he is projecting onto the Left his own daily dose of violence and hatred. The result of his sick mind’s daily projections to “hundreds of thousands” of indoctrinated, impressionable followers who hang on this charlatan’s every word, is this:

“Glenn Beck is going to deny everything about violent approach, deny everything about conspiracies, but he’ll give you every reason to believe it. He’s protecting himself, and you can’t blame him for that. So, but I understand what he’s doing. So now they’ve got Beck labeled as this guy that is trying to incite violence. And what I say is, if the truth incites violence, it means that we’ve been living too long in the lies … There’s hundreds of thousands of us yes. And more and more people are waking up.”
- Byron Williams

From the Huffington Post:

“The 45-year-old ex-felon opened fire on California Highway Patrol officers who had stopped him on an Oakland freeway for driving erratically. For 12 frantic minutes, Williams traded shots with the police, employing three firearms and a small arsenal of ammunition, including armor-piercing rounds fired from a .308-caliber rifle.

When the smoke cleared, Williams surrendered; the ballistic body armor he was wearing had saved his life. Miraculously, only two of the 10 CHP officers involved in the shootout were injured.

In an affidavit, an Oakland police investigator reported that during an interview at the hospital, Williams 'stated that his intention was to start a revolution by traveling to San Francisco and killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU.'”

Glenn Beck is setting himself up and his millions of followers to be smeared with the blood of innocents if a disturbed individual like Williams acts out Beck’s words. We can only hope the law will stop such individuals before something tragic happens. There are three words to describe what Beck does: Talk show terrorism.

Democrats Open Fire Against Traitorous Chamber of Commerce

The U.S. (a misnomer: Chinese, Russian, Indian, Saudi, Bahrani — take your pick) Chamber of Commerce continued to deny and avoid questions it was soliciting and using foreign money to influence and fund our midterm elections in favor of Republican candidates while it was hosting an event for the Bahrain Banks Association, with arrogant disregard even for the appearance of impropriety. Whether what the Chamber is doing is illegal in this brave new (post-Citizens United SCOTUS decision) world  is beside the point; it is unethical to the nth degree, unpatriotic, and un-American.

Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, who is not up for reelection this year, has asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate the matter. White House senior adviser David Axelrod demanded that the Chamber open its books and prove it isn’t using foreign money to fund its campaigns. President Obama has ramped up the criticism of this threat to our democracy following up on his blunt warning in last year's State of the Union address, in which right wing Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito was seen shaking his head and mouthing the words, “not true.” What about now, Joe Wilson ... er, Sam? Traitorous bastards. Working class hero, Ed Schultz, tells it like it is:

“The DNC ad is rubbish,” said Tom Collamore, senior vice president of Communications and Strategy for the U.S. Chamber. “The U.S. Chamber will continue to discuss ways to create jobs and grow the economy no matter how often others may try to change the conversation. We've been working for growth, jobs, and opportunity for 100 years and we won't be deterred now.” In a Freudian slip, Collamore used a Britishism, rubbish, as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it:

(British English, informal) (also used as an adjective) something that you think is of poor quality
I thought the play was rubbish!
Do we have to listen to this rubbish music?
They said I was a rubbish boss.

Before joining the  Chamber, Collamore was a Republican operative, serving as CEO of the Friends for Fred Thompson Committee. Before that, he spent 14 years with international tobacco giant Altria Group, Inc., as vice president of Corporate Public Affairs. He served George H.W. Bush during the Reagan and Bush administrations, and continues to serve the Republican Party, a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporate America and its funding arm, the Chamber of Commerce. Collamore belongs to the permanent shadow corporate government that includes among its virtual board of directors, the Bush family as well as the funding nations.  

They pay to play in U.S. elections to subvert our democracy.

The Democratic Party is fighting back with this ad. As Big Ed said, this is not a Democratic or Republican issue; this is about our freedom and democracy. If we don't stop this now, we'll be fighting a rearguard acrtion on our own shores to prevent foreign multinationals from turning our democracy into a globalized fascist state, a third world oligarchy for our billionaire rulers to dump their cheap products, an unregulated marketplace playground, as they hoard their money in overseas tax havens and invest it in more overseas jobs or Chinese speed rail and planet-chocking coal burning plants.

This is our future — the end of history — if we don't take a stand and stop it.

Funnin’ Rachel Maddow: Rachel’s Secret Ties to Art Robinson UNVEILED!

Long before Rachel Maddow became the infamous “Madam Maddow, Sarcastic Political Analyst,” her secret connection to political neophyte Art Robinson was a carefully guarded secret. That is, until their daringly staged faux adversary interview (below) ripped apart the “Lost in Space” veil of  a shared past, our forensic journalist investigation revealed.

The secret began to unravel when an individual, identified only as “Will,” tipped us off to Rachel’s participation in a popular sci-fi reality TV series, based on a 60s cult classic, with a real family Robinson and a mysterious scientist using the common alias, “Smith,” Zachary Smith. According to Will, a precocious Rachel muscled him aside for the brain child-genius role because “I’m gonna be a Rhodes Scholar, and you’re not!”

THE SECRET IS FINALLY OUT: PROFESSOR ZACHARY SMITH IS ART ROBINSON!

The show was abruptly cancelled when the mysterious Professor “Smith” began peddling bizarre ideas about the healing powers of radiation with a controversial method known as Radiation-Hormesis. First, he tried to peddle jewelry stones on Rachel and the Robinsons. Rachel declined — “I don’t do bling,” she said diffidently — but Mrs. Robinson took the bait, only to freak out on-camera when she learned the stones were radioactive. Art Robinson, a.k.a Zachary Smith, was unable to quell her hysterics with arch explanations that “it excretes microtoxins” as Mrs. Robinson registered low-level radiation on a Geiger counter.

At this point Rachel decided to bolt the set. She borrowed some fare money from Art, whom she’d taken to calling her “fake uncle.” The enigmatic Art Robinson said, “Don’t worry about paying me back; when I need a favor I’ll look you up.” So when he got in touch with Rachel asking her to boost his campaign, her only question was: “You’re a Republican, right … No Tea Party or something weird like the Hormesis Party?”

ART: “I’m a Republican.”

RACHEL: “you’re in! I’m soooo excited!”

It didn’t go so well for Art Robinson. Minutes into the interview his tone turned frosty toward Rachel, calling her “Madam” and “sarcastic.” Later, Rachel explained with a shrug: “I made no representations about what questions I’d ask. You WOULDN’T BELIEVE  how many Republicans only agree to come on our show if I give them my questions in advance!”

Madam, Hands Down THE BEST Political Interview of The 2010 Campaign Season

Who is Art Robinson …?

Madam Rachel: “I am sorry, Professor Robinson, I am afraid I goofed. That does not compute. Does not compute. Figaro, Figaro, Figaro!” 

And what is HORMESIS?!?

"YOU" Responds to Christine O'Donnell

A BLOW-UP of the WHITE BRAIN

SOURCES OF WHITE STRESS ( courtesy Village Voice):

 

Republicans Trot Out Three Scary-Looking “Dark” Dudes to Terrorize White America

What Took The TEA (Republican) PARTY So Long to Play the RACE CARD?

Maybe they’ve been “playing” it all along for so long that Washington GOP operatives running the  campaigns figured showing racist images in political ads would have little electoral impact on  racist Tea Party voters. Maybe with less than a month to go and nonpartisan women breaking for the Democrats, Republicans felt it was time to scare the bejeezus out of them. So they run ads meant to conjure up one of those subliminal visceral images ingrained in the minds of racist white America:

Three dark guys walking your way on a sidewalk. Terrified white woman clutches purse and thinks, “do I cross the street, or do I act casual. Oh Lord, what do I do …” Too late. The dudes are almost upon her. They’re speaking in tongues. Spanish. She holds her breath. They walk past her, voices receding in the yawning distance between them. She releases her breath and gulps for air. Her hands can’t stop shaking. Her knees are trembling. They buckle under her. She leans against a building for support …

Maybe white America has gone totally over the edge, as this Village Voice article posits:

 There is no substance to the ads. The ads say “BENEFITS FOR ILLEGALS.” That is a lie. A rehash of  Joe Wilson’s “YOU LIE!” outburst at the President before the public and an assembled Congress. An unprecedented act of disrespect against a sitting president of the United States. When pressed on this issue, they make the same argument: If an illegal shows up with a medical emergency at a clinic or emergency room no one checks their citizenship status before treatment. Pure sophistry, considering that is the status quo NOW, absent healthcare reform. The law has enforcement mechanisms to detect fraud, e.g. in billing for services. So it’s a straw man argument; a LIE.

Ironically, it should be noted that illegal immigration in the U.S. has declined by almost one million from its peak of 12 million in 2007 to 11.1 million in 2009. In California the number of illegals as a percentage of the total U.S. population has had an even more precipitous decline, from 42% to 23%. Which also gives the lie to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s fearmongering, that illegals are in this country to spread crime. No, they are in this country seeking work. When the jobs dry up, they don’t cross the border.

So Republicans trot out three scary-looking DARK dudes to stoke white America’s visceral racist fears with a veneer of lies about illegal immigration. The ads are even more reprehensible because they expose the lie that Arizona’s SB 1070 law isn’t racial profiling. How can anyone tell these three dudes are “illegal”? From the backward tilt of  a hat? (Glenn Beck wears his caps backwards.) From the defiant looks in their eyes? Or from their features and the chocolate color of their skins?

 

 Apparently, these three “ILLEGALS” are busily crisscrossing the country in search of “BENEFITS” because they show up in Louisiana and Nevada airwaves, two predominantly red states that do not border Mexico. Fascinating. In Louisiana, the ads are being run by David Vitter, the Republican “values” senator with a history of wearing diapers and seeking out the services of dominatrix prostitutes. In Nevada, the ads are being run by Tea Party darling Sharron Angle, who inveighed against people with autism in HER government-run healthcare, called for 2nd Amemdment “remedies” (guns, for the uninitiated) against a “tyrannical” government, and offered her “JUICE” to the other Tea Party candidate in a backroom deal to get him to drop out of the race.

It would be nice if these three semi-anonymous actors could be tracked down and made an appearance on GMA or MSNBC to opine about their faces being used to spread fear and racism. The trade-off would be, they could no longer make racist ads but would likely get a career boost in TV or the movies. And they’d vote for the Democrat in their state and electoral district. I see the possible outlines of a Democratic counter-ad with devastating national impact.

Bill Maher Tells It Like It Is

Who was it that said, “The choice is not between US and the Almighty, it’s between US and the ALTERNATIVE.” Here some things to reflect on when voting this November:

“The frenzy on the right is pure fear of stepping out of line with the Republican politburo and getting shipped to Siberia. This lockstep mentality is rare in American history. Here is a grand old party frozen, suspended, mesmerized, in thrall to a gaggle of showboats and radio entertainers and small mobs of fist-shakers standing staunch for unreality, and no Republican elected official dares say, "Let us not be nuts." There will be books written about this in years to come, and they will not be kind to the likes of Rep. Boehner and Sen. McConnell.

GARRISON KEILLOR, "The Old America is Fading," Salon.com, Mar. 30, 2010”

“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends ... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.

ADLAI STEVENSON, speech, Sep. 10, 1952”

“To the cheater, there is no such thing as honesty, and to Republicans the idea of serving the public good is counterfeit on the face of it — they never felt such an urge, and therefore it must not exist.

GARRISON KEILLOR, Homegrown Democrat”

TEA PARTY America: Homeowner Forgets To Pay $75 Fee, House Burns Down

From the Huff Post:

“A smoldering rage may be all that remains after Gene Cranick's home burned to the ground last week in Obion County, Tennessee.

Firefighters are usually the bold "veni, vidi, vici" sort, but those from neighboring South Fulton could only say "veni, vidi." They came. They watched. That's it.

Cranick lives outside of the city limits and he admits that he forgot to pay a $75 annual service fee that would have provided him with fire protection. Firefighters wouldn't lift a finger, much less the hoses that might have saved the house.”

Or as KO’s Countdown dubbed it, “Pay to Spray: A Preview of Tea Party America:”

How Patriotic Are The Teabaggers? Not Much.

An explosive and exclusive investigation by Think Progress reports that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been pouring millions into ads to help Tea Party/Republican candidates defeat Democrats in the midterm elections, is receiving political campaign funds from foreign entities. That’s right, Teabaggers. Your candidates may be funded by foreigners.

How does this occur? The Chamber of Commerce solicits money from foreign entities and companies that goes into their general fund in Washington, D.C. The general fund is fungible, therefore if would be difficult to distinguish what money is coming from where. Simply taking the Chamber’s vociferous denials (at first they didn’t) that they have a system in place to do this isn’t sufficient.

This is a direct result of the Citizens United decision allowing unlimited funding by corporations in our electoral campaigns. The funding disparity between corporations and what the Democratic Party can raise from unions, small contributors and progressive PACs is of an order of 7-1. Thanks to the radical right wing fascists on the Supreme Court, our electoral system is being skewed in favor of foreign and domestic corporations. Why would foreign entities wish to influence our elections? Listen up, Teabaggers, I can give you at least three very good reasons:

1. Influence. A foreign company that sells its products in our markets has billions riding on the most favorable trade deals possible. The next time you think your Tea Party candidate is working for you, Teabaggers, think again. They are funded by Astroturf groups like the Chamber of Commerce, and when the time comes to cast a vote favorable to foreign companies or blocking Democratic legislation to help American workers or impose fair trading policies, they’ll be there to filibuster. 

2. Blocking pro-American laws. Foreign entities will call in their chips to Teabaggers when the time comes to block legislation like Illinois Senator Dick Durbin’s bill to close tax loopholes for American companies shipping jobs overseas and reward companies that keep those jobs in America. Senator Durbin’s bill was filibustered by Senate Republicans. The Chamber of Commerce called his legislation “bad” for American business. Foreign money (probably Saudi, Indian, Chinese) is used to grease Republicans willing to vote for shipping American jobs overseas. 

3. Dependence on Fossil Fuels.  Maintaining our reliance on foreign fossils fuels, particularly oil from Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners as well as Venezuela and Brazil, among others, is key for foreign oil-producing countries. It is no accident that a Saudi prince owns a major part of Fox, the Teabaggers’ network of choice. The more we are dependent on foreign countries for our energy needs the less independent we are as a nation.

This, aside from turning America into a third world country by killing Social Security and Medicare and transferring borrowed foreign funds to millionaires and billionaires, saddling our kids with the debt, is the agenda Teabaggers are supporting. Not really a surprise considering 47 percent of Teabaggers belong to the Christian Right, the ultra-conservative group of American mullahs, who want to impose their own Christian brand of Sharia law in the U.S. and completely destroy the social fabric of this country. Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell are two perfect examples of the kinds of wingnut religious radical candidates fielded by the American mullahs.

The Teabaggers do not represent America. In fact, their activites and those “persons” with the deepest pockets in the universe — domestic and foreign corporations — are close to committing treason. It’s a matter of interpretation. “Liberty” my ass. Our democracy is imperiled. By the Teabaggers. Can you spell 'T.O.O.L.S.', Teabaggers? It’s what you are. And if you believe in Heaven and Hell, you’re going down.

My Back Pages: The Anti-Tea Party Anthem

Some 45 years ago, Bob Dylan wrote this song that rejects everything the Teabaggers stand for. It’s not too late, people, to look inside yourselves for that “freedom” and “liberty” your hardened souls deny. Dylan could have been writing about the Tea Party. He wrote of moving on from a protest movement with simplistic notions: “Romantic flanks of musketeers” (Revolutionary War costumes), “foundation deep” (Founding Fathers, Constitution), “Lies that life is black and white,” good and bad, deceived into thinking he had “something to protect,” and fearing he’d become his enemy “in the instant that I preach.” He wrote of transitioning to a poetry that rejected absolutisms, one that embraced the subtle and complex, not only black and white but shades of gray inbetween. He described his transformation from an “older” person set in his ways with ossified fundamentalist views — the Tea Party movement is overwhelmingly 50 and older — to one who is “younger” and open to a world that is ever changing and complicated: “Ahh, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.” This is the Byrds’ classic version:

My Back Pages

By Bob Dylan

Crimson flames tied through my years

Rollin' high and mighty trapped

Countless violent flaming roads

Using ideas as my map

"We'll meet on edges soon," said I

Proud 'neath heated brow

Ahh, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now

Half wracked prejudice leaped forth

"Rip down all hate," I screamed

Lies that life is black and white

Spoke from my skull, I dreamed

Romantic flanks of musketeers

Foundation deep, somehow

Ahh, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now

In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand

At the mongrel dogs who teach

Fearing not I'd become my enemy

In the instant that I preach

Sisters fled by confusion boats

Mutiny from stern to bow

Ahh, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now

Ahh, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now

My guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow

Ahh, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now