VIDEO- Cawffee Tawk: Coffee Party kickoff a "huge success"

By GottaLaff




(A little something for you Streisand fans)

Coffee, tea, or me?

The new Coffee Party movement deemed its official kickoff Saturday a "huge success," with dozens of talks held at coast-to-coast coffee shops as members came together to discuss the issues most important to them.

Billed by many as an answer to the conservative Tea Party movement, the Coffee Party was born on Facebook just six weeks ago. While the group has become an instant hit online -- it boasts more than 141,000 Facebook fans as of Saturday -- gauging the success of this weekend's coffee meetups was predicted to be an indicator of the group's strength.

Who knew beverages would generate such political involvement? I feel like I'm gonna burst from all these liquids. Give me a solid Progressive party any time.

Tawk amongst y'selves:

At Java Monkey in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, coordinator Stacey Hopkins said turnout far exceeded expectations, with around 60 people participating at the "very productive" meeting where health care reform was the overriding issue. [...]

Coffee Party founder Annabel Park, who worked as a volunteer for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia's 2006 campaign, says the group is not "aligned" with any party and calls the two-party system out of date.

If you link to the article, you'll see they have a few things in common with the Tea Tantrumers, except for that whole civility thing. It's all about a revolution.

If you thought there was a punch line coming, you were right:

So what does the Tea Party movement think of this new sensation?

"This Coffee Party looks like a weak attempt at satire or a manufactured response to a legitimate widespread grassroots movement," says Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for FreedomWorks, a nonprofit conservative organization that helps train volunteer activists and has provided much of the organizational heft behind the Tea Party movement.

"It's driven from the top down and it's not a grass-roots movement driven from the bottom up," Jim Hoft of the St. Louis Tea Party said.

I had no idea Tea Tantrumers had such a well-developed sense of humor.

Meet the Tea Party's Military Wing

By GottaLaff

Back in October 2009, I posted a Special Comment by 42bkdodgr about Pat Buchanan and the Oath Keepers:

The organization is made up of ex-Army paratroopers and police officers who repledge themselves to defend the Constitution, even if it means disobeying orders. Stewart Rhodes, the organization founder, says the reason for the type of membership, is “my focus is on the guys with the guns”.

Mother Jones picks up where 42bkdodgr left off:

[A] small group of fellow soldiers at the Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York are angry about the recent direction of the federal government. In the belief that it is already starting to turn on its citizens, they are preparing for the day the feds will find some pretext to declare martial law. Their conspiracy-minded rhetoric mirrors that of a recently established group called Oath Keepers. [...] [T]he group encourages active duty soldiers to stay anonymous—they identify themselves as Oath Keepers and subscribe to the group's tenets. But Pray and his pals take the rhetoric a step further: They are actively stockpiling weapons, running drills, and outlining a plan of action for the day "the shit hits the fan"—the day they will be forced to go AWOL to their "fortified bunker," and if it becomes necessary, to turn their guns against fellow soldiers. "I'm willing to fight to the death," Pray tells reporter Justine Sharrock in her new profile of Oath Keepers and its founder.

They also have a lengthy piece here called "Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason"...

Glenn Beck loves them. Tea Partiers court them. Congressmen listen to them. Meet the fast-growing "patriot" group that's recruiting soldiers to resist the Obama administration.

And they provide a slide show of who is connected to this lovely group. Here are the thumbnails, and each has accompanying text that is quite revelatory:

(click on image to enlarge)

Disturbing, to say the least.

H/t: Gr8RDH

Palin's Excellent Pre-Screened Q & A Adventure

By GottaLaff

Despite all that media attention, this is something I hadn't heard said aloud. If it was, in fact, broadcast on the Tee Vee Machine, it wasn't repeated as often as the ad nauseam, ad infintum promos for her Big Keynote Speech were:

Sarah Palin is expected to take the stage here tonight at 9, and speak for about 30 to 45 minutes. She will then take about 15 minutes of pre-screened, pre-selected questions.

Organizers say they aren’t sure if Palin has seen the questions in advance.

What can she possibly have in to say that will take that long? Then again, one lousy Speaky McWordSalad sentence should cover that entire time span.

And it is not at all surprising that LipSchmutz McBush3 will only take pre-screened questions. But uh-oh! If she uses a teleprompter or notes, there goes another Rushpublic talking point.

Gosh, I wonder if the Tea Tantrumers hired seat fillers for the occasion:

Tea Party Leader Launches Political Outfit + bonus Tea Bagger videos!

By GottaLaff

Mark Scoda is one enterprising, busy, corporation lovin' Tea Bagger:

A leading organizer of the National Tea Party Convention here announced the launch of the Memphis-based Ensuring Liberty Corporation, a political outfit that will include a political action committee to help fund candidates supported by Tea Party activists. [...]

Scoda said the group intends to target House and Senate races this November, in particular the Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, as well as House races in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. [...]

He said the PAC will seek out small donors and will accept corporate donations—which may not sit well with some of the movement’s activists. He also offered a bold prediction: “I think we can raise $10 million this year.” Ensuring Liberty will also partner with California-based Win by Cell, which helps candidates and movements organize and raise money from supports through their cell phones.

He claims he's not into that whole third party thing, and wants to work with the GOP. That would be the same GOP that's so enamored with big, fat, wealthy, enormous, now-officially-people corporations. Hence, the expected infusion of cash to the tune of $10,000,000.

Ten million? Really? Those are some high expectations.

He sure couldn't get that from a few thousand costumed Tea Tantruming grassrooters:



"We will all give Sarah Palin a kiss." He also wants to "rejoice, encourage the dissolution of this tyrannical government and kick them all in the butt in 2010. What say ye?"

Ye say, "You betcha."



"It ain't no tea cup," said the wise Tea Bagger of his new megaphone.



"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Well at least, "You can't blame Bush any more."

Oh yes, yes we can.

Who the Tea Baggers really are

By GottaLaff

(via)

Nothing says "patriotic" and "diverse" like the Tea Bagger Party... at least that's what they keep telling us.

Reports from the Big Convention tell a different story.

Via Think Progress:

And outside the convention hall, entrepreneurs sold souvenirs: sterling silver tea bag necklaces ($89.99), bags of “Freedom Coffee” ($9) and T-shirts emblazoned with a bald eagle ($20).

The convention’s first day lacked the orchestrated staging of most modern political events. The convention host delivered a meandering welcome speech without notes, saying he misplaced them. Former congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) offered a fiery defense of Judeo-Christian faith and traditional American values, but there was no prayer or Pledge of Allegiance to open the convention — nor was there an American flag in the convention hall. (Skoda blamed the oversight on the hotel staff.)

Yep, them Tea Tantrumers are real Amurkins.

Via The Grio, seems the Big Tent Party-o'-Tea isn't all that Big and Tenty:



H/t: Zaxxon23

VIDEO- Chuck Todd: ‘Tea Party gets a big benefit’ from Fox promos

By GottaLaff



The ClusterFox Party-- at least it seems as if it's morphing into an actual political party-- is giving a big fat boost to its spin-off , theTea Party:

Indeed, as ThinkProgress has pointed out, Fox News has repeatedly rallied their viewers to support the Tea Parties. Before the April 15, 2009 Tea Parties, Fox dedicated 23 separate segments to the tea parties between April 6 and April 13 and ran at least 73 in-show and commercial promotions for the parties. After the 9/12 rally in Washington, Fox took out a full-page newspaper ad attacking its competitors for not covering the Tea Party like they did.

Let's start the Maddow Party. That would really tick 'em off.

Florida GOP Rep. Miller is throwing a SOTU tea party

By GottaLaff

This fits the Rushpublics to a tea:

(click on image to enlarge)

The State of the Union as seen by the GOP: Just another "You lie!" opportunity.

H/t: Dave Weigel

Pay(lin) to Play

By GottaLaff

In this economy, Barbie McLipSchmutz expects to rake in nearly $350 a head to endure her verbal runoff? Who knew unemployed Facebook bloggers could get away with charging more than the price of an iPhone? At $.00000349, she still wouldn't be giving them their money's worth.

Yes, EveryAmerican U.S.A. has to cough up that much cash for a glimpse of Stupidity Walking. Nice. Way to be inclusive, Barbie:

It will cost you $349 to hear Sarah Palin give the keynote address at the National Tea Party Convention in February.

I guess this is the new face of American wealth:

For $549 you too can see Palin at Nashville tea party!

By GottaLaff

Barbie McLipSchmutz will be the keynote speaker at a Nashville tea party. Perfect. Now all she has to do is actually show up. And then learn to speak. And then not quit in the middle. And then...

Palin will be in Nashville for the tea party convention held Feb. 4 to 6 at Gaylord Opryland.

Tickets are $549 each.

H/t: 1kecko

Tea party leader to run for Senate

By GottaLaff

Get out your tin foil teabags and astroturf!

Tom Cox, president of the Arkansas Tea Party organization, will announce his candidacy for the Senate on Monday at a gathering of the Arkansas Tea Party group in downtown Little Rock.

Cox, who plans to run in the Republican primary, is the first leader of the grassroots anti-tax movement to run for federal office. He is seeking the Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

The local businessman, who has not previously run for elected office, became involved in the Tea Party movement after watching CNBC host Rick Santelli’s February rant against the federal stimulus.

Good ol' Rick Santelli. What an inspiration.

I'm sure Cox is squeaky clean, what with being a relative unknown and having to compete for votes and all. Ogod, hahaha! I couldn't even type that with a straight face. Wow. Breathe. Okay, moving on... ::clearing throat:: ...

... because who in their right mind would enter a Senate race with any kind of controversy hovering over him? Key words: Right mind:

Cox, the owner of Aloha Pontoon Boats, also has a past controversy he will likely have to explain to voters.

Federal authorities raided his North Little Rock boat manufacturing plant last summer, arresting thirteen suspected illegal immigrants.

Oops. Stee-rike One!

Asked about the incident on Monday, Cox spokesman Wilson Kanaday said the immigrants showed Cox their apparently fake work papers and the business owner believed he would be violating the law by looking deeper into their backgrounds.

He thought he'd violate the law by trying to... follow the law? Really? Stee-rike Two!

I'm going to take a wild guess here, and say that Stee-rike Three will occur the minute he opens his mouth on the Tee Vee Machine. Anyone care to wager a few food stamps?

Tele-Tea Party

By GottaLaff

Would a Tele-Tea Party be anything like a TeleTubby? If so, Tinky Winky may have some 'splainin' to do:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) will hold another "tea party protest" on Thursday night, the Dallas Morning News reports. However, this one will be a teleconference.

"The Republican Governors Association said it is expecting 30,000 people to dial in. Perry and Sanford will each speak and then organizers will open up the tele-town hall for an hour-long Q&A session. The governor's group plans to use Thursday night's sequel to gather phone numbers and email addresses that will be a useful tool for future political races."

See how clever they are? This way, they won't have to worry about permits.

VIDEO: Hannity shows Fox's Griff Jenkins Ambushing Janeane Garofalo

By GottaLaff



I got a Tweet from Sam Seder, who turned me on to this video via the Young Turks site.

Back story here.

The Full Ginsburg definition of "tea party"

By GottaLaff

Drum roll:

Tea Party • \TEE-PAR-tee\ • noun

a) a “spontaneous” “grass-roots” event to protest against a lot of things, and for some other junk, maybe.

b) a slang term utilized in a situation where there is a conspicuous lack of minorities.

ie. “Huh. So it looks like this dodgeball league’s a real Tea Party.”

Allow me to add an entry of my own:

Tea Tantrum • \TEE-tan-trum\ • noun

a) something the dodgeball moms throw on a regular basis in order to show off their handcrafted hats and signs.

b) an event at which Fixed Noise hosts promote/appear/practice deception while claiming to be news reporters

ie. "There are 5,000 25,000 millions of Tea Tantrums that sprang up in taxpayer-funded parks, sponsored by no right wingers whatsoever, so that we could try to legitimize it a populist uprising by July 4."

VIDEO: Fox News: Tea Baggers caused stock market bounce

By GottaLaff

Thanks to Oliver Willis's Tweet, you get to witness more Fox atrocities:



Do these people have any grasp of reality?

H/t

VIDEO-- Countdown: This week in teabagging

By GottaLaff

Tea Tantrum mockery heaven:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tea Tantrums Backfire: Independents Turned Off, Some GOPers Worried

By GottaLaff

Gee, it seems them wacky, zany Tea Tantumers, those patriotic paragons of secession and racism, are embarrassing their own party. Some people never learn. Oh well:

While the anti-tax sentiment of the protests may have been sincere, the images pulled from the events have often been offensive, embarrassing, or politically problematic.

It is a development that has tripped up the GOP before. The rallies outside McCain-Palin events included some of the same bile that was seen at the tea parties: charges of fascism, terrorism and other malicious criticisms leveled at Barack Obama. And it did the Republican ticket little good in its efforts to bring moderate voters to the cause. [...]

"My own sense that is I don't see anything going on that is good for Republicans," said Doug Bailey, a longtime Republican consultant who helped co-found the centrist reform movement Unity08. "I just don't get it. [...] [A] large segment, in terms of numbers, doesn't amount to a couple hundred people demonstrating in Washington or wherever. That's a non-event ... Nobody likes taxes. So, of course, I'm sympathetic myself. I might throw a tea bag myself. But the fact is, that it is particularly ineffective for the Republican Party when it is Rush Limbaugh and the likes stirring it up. That just doesn't speak to the middle."

Of course, because the series of nationwide tea parties were geared towards a specific day (Tax Day), the political ramifications of the events seem naturally limited. "Those tea parties will be long forgotten by, oh, say tomorrow," said Stu Rothenberg, of the Rothenberg Political Report. "Do you really think that next November, when people go to the polls, the April 15 tea parties will be on their minds?"

That said, plans are in place for a next wave of protests in July. More significantly, as the GOP continues to stake their future on a wave of populist anger at the government and economy (witness: Texas Gov. Rick Perry talking about secession), the likelihood only increases that the most vocal and offensive elements of that anger will come to personify the party.

Then by all means, keep doing what you're doing. Offending Americans is the best way to alienate them, hence, the fastest route to losing more elections. So please, be our guests: offend away.

More fun here.

VIDEO: Tea Party Paranoia in Cleveland

By GottaLaff

How would one describe the Fox Tea Tantrumers in this video? Paranoid, ignorant, paranoid, clueless, paranoid, non-taxpaying, paranoid, bigoted, inarticulate, paranoid sheeple:

Despite Biased Poll, 40% Of FOX Business Readers Not In Favor Of Tea Parties

Wow, seems like some sane people do watch Fox. Via Newshounds from yesterday-

A look at FOXBusiness.com just now shows that despite a biased poll in which the top two out of four questions are positive about the tea parties, 40% of respondents - presumably a pro-FOX and as pro-tea party a crowd as you could find - are not in favor.

VIDEO-- Epic fail: Fox News-sponsored "tea parties" fizzle

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Video added, title reflects.

This comes from the Canadian Vancouver Sun web site. Once again, the Rushpublic Tea Pitiers have embarrassed themselves in front of the whole wide world:

A reportedly corporate-financed grassroots" anti-tax movement, paid for, planned and promoted by right wing think tanks, corporate lobbyists and Fox News Channel, has failed to bring about the "popular uprising" against the Obama administration its creators had hoped for.

The day of "tea parties" pushed by Republican operatives and partisan advocacy groups such as FreedomWorks, that sought to protest the Obama government's tax and stimulus policies by encouraging people to 'wave tea bags' brought about only a few hundred "tea-baggers" in most parts of the U.S., despite relentless promotion by Fox News TV hosts. [...]

[T]he turn-out was far from what was hoped for, with most rallies looking decidedly ont he small side, especially compared to the 2006 immigrants rights rallies or the 2004 pro-choice march on Washington, both of which attracted millions.

Did they just say that rallies by communist, fascist, socialist liberal progressives were way more successful than the highly-Fox-promoted Rushpublic Tea Tantrums? Did they? Huh? Did they? Oh, say it again, say it again!

4,000 people are reported to have shown up in Cincinnati, Ohio, while Chicago drew an estimated 5,000 protesters and Des Moines, Iowa drew 3,000. Farmingville, New York, drew 50 hardy souls.

Thank you.

According to reports, organizers of the D.C. event were told by National Park Service officials that the "million tea bags" they had hauled in on the back of a pickup would have to be taken away, rather than be dumped as planned. They reportedly complied with the request after realizing they didn't have the correct protest permit. [Laffy Note: I posted about that here, with glee]

But if there's one thing we can say about the Rushpublics, it's that they are a group that consists of highly disciplined individuals who rarely slip up. Oh, please, I couldn't even type that with a straight face:

A 68-year-old woman at the Sunbury Pennsylvania protest had to be rescued by police from the Susquehanna River when she inadvertently fell in while trying to dump tea bags in it.

Okay, okay, but at least there were no famous broadcaster gaffes, you know, like an open mic mishap or something. Now, that would have been really humiliating, especially in light of the low turnout and such:

In yet another tea-bag day controversy, Fox anchor Neil Cavuto was captured on an open mic discussing the crowd numbers with an on-location producer, estimating the turnout at 5,000 people, but minutes later Cavuto told viewers that "They were expecting 5,000 here, it's got to be easily double, if not triple that."

H/t: LieparDestin

VIDEO: Tea Partiers joke about waterboarding President Obama

By GottaLaff



Those "grassrooty" types at their pathetic Tea Pities don't seem to realize how unfunny (read: racist), unsafe, and unAmerican they are, or maybe they do:

Tea party organizers and participants have repeatedly insisted that their nationwide protests today are completely non-partisan and not meant to be anti-Obama. However, there didn’t seem to be any anti-Republican or anti-Bush signs at the protests. Instead, not only were there signs/clothing protest Obama’s policies, but some had violent or racist rhetoric.

Ironically, the AP reports that Greg Budell — a talk radio host in Montgomery, AL — said that the tea parties could “have the same impact that Montgomerian Rosa Parks had when she refused to move to the back of a city bus during segregation.”

I've already posted Oliver's photo. Now Dave Weigel from the Washington Independent reveals another sign reading, “homey don’t play dat“:

Democracy in action... if you're a white Rushpublic.