Teabagging: More, more, more!

I enjoyed reading about the roundup of yesterday's tea party convention festivities. Sort of the way I enjoy a jab in the eye with a sharp stick, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!

One of the speakers was Judge Roy Moore, and I wrote a little about him yesterday. When he signed on to speak at the convention, he remarked that "Our rights are being taken away and they never stop—whether it's our right to our guns, as outlined in the Second Amendment, or our right to religious expression as outlined in the First Amendment, or our property rights, as outlined in the Fifth (Amendment) or state sovereignty" in the Tenth Amendment.

Once again, we're delving into paranoiac behavior with a persecution complex. This seems to be the mantra of many of these folks. Obama is not going after your guns, people. No one is denying your right to religious expression, unless you do it as part of government business, something that Moore doesn't quite seem to comprehend. Religion has no business in government. As for state sovereignty, didn't we settle that for good about 150 years ago? Didn't we fight a war about that, or am I just imagining it? States still have rights, but they are also beholden to follow the law of the land in certain overarching issues including civil rights and equality for all. Last time I checked, we were still the United States, although Texas doesn't seem too happy about that lately.

In his speech yesterday, apparently Moore quoted scripture and Patrick Henry, much to the delight of the attendees. He said that America's "borders are open to criminals and terrorists who now roam among us." Again with the stuff about Canadian immigrants! Man, they must be badass to be generating such hatred and fear among the teabaggers. I'm really going to be on the lookout for these marauders.

About President Obama, Moore said he "has ignored our history and our heritage by denying we are a Christian nation. An appeal to the God of hosts is all that is left." Either that or "300 million people armed in the cause of liberty."

I have written about this before. For all this speechifying about how we are a Christian nation, and all their orgasmic love over the Constitution and our Founding Fathers, they are completely ignoring both by their continued clinging to the "Christian nation" meme. It is simply not so. And did he just advocate an armed insurrection? Isn't that considered treasonous?

By the way, Moore is running for Governor of Alabama in 2010, and has been endorsed by Chuck Norris, who pushes the levers in the voting booth with a roundhouse kick.

Another speaker was Joseph Farah, who is the editor of WorldNetDaily, a conservative website. (I think I've seen a few of their stories here and there.) He opened his speech with jokes about...President Obama's citizenship. That's right. The Birther movement is alive and well at the tea party convention.

To loud approval from the crowd, Farah said his dream is that if Obama seeks re-election in 2012, he won't be able to go to any city in America without seeing signs that ask, "Where's the birth certificate?" The fact that the rest of the media has declared the issue settled is proof, he said, that it's not.

To me, this speaks of the irrationality of this group more than anything else they do and say. The twisted logic of thinking that because the media says it's no longer an issue only "proves" that it still is...that's just beyond paranoia and frankly, it's pretty fucking stupid. It wasn't up to the media to "prove" anything, anyway. It was up to the hospital where he was born in Hawaii, by them producing his birth certificate, which they did. It was up to the judges who heard the continued suits filed by wild-eyed, batshit crazy Orly Taitz; the judges threw the suits out as having no merit, one of them even slapping her with a hefty fine for filing a frivolous lawsuit. If you're sticking with Orly Taitz and continue to believe that President Obama is not a U.S. citizen, you're just as batshit crazy as she is. Get some help. Seriously. Or maybe you're just a dumbass. That can be even harder to fix.

[As an aside, speaking of Hawaii...back when McCain picked Palin as his running mate, I was making fun of writing about her foreign policy experience, which consisted of Alaska sharing a border with Canada, and being able to look over and see Russia (As well as Putin rearing his head into U.S. airspace...hahaha...still a classic!). I said that since I've been to other countries, I thought I was qualified to be Vice-President, too, and since I eventually want to go to Hawaii one day, that would give me even more foreign policy experience. Someone actually thought I was serious, and believed that I thought Hawaii is a foreign country. heehee I still find that funny, and it says more to me about that person's obvious lack of any sort of irony or sarcasm detector. Or maybe it goes back to the dumbass factor.]

Some of the topics covered today included involving youth with the conservative movement. Apparently not too many young people showed up.

Jordan Marks, executive director of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom, suggested that activists use Facebook, volunteer to speak at high schools ("bastions of liberalism") and simply do fun stuff that hooks high school and college-age kids. Marks described a bowling party he organized - "Knock Down the Pinheads of Communism." A strike equaled Mao, a spare, Pol Pot. Mishelle Perkins, a 44-year-old mother of five children, said she supplements her children's education with books by Tea Party authors, but right now it's hard to get them too interested.

No doubt. That bowling thing sounds pretty fun, though. "Woohoooo, I got a Pol Pot!" But wait...high schools are "bastions of liberalism?" I'd like to see their evidence on that. I suppose that colleges are some sort of Dantean level of liberal hell for them.

Another speaker today was Steve Milloy, a guy who believes that global warming is not connected to human behavior, and owner of the site junkscience.com. He referred to modern environmentalism as “totalitarianism,” criticized Lindsey Graham for working with John Kerry on climate change legislation, and called for "reverse immigration" for Gov. Schwarzenegger for his work on environmental efforts.

Milloy...questioned the sanity and morality of cap and trade supporters, whom he called "bad people."

"Bad people?" He's giving a lecture at a convention about a topic he's focused on for years and presumably feels passionate about, and the worst he can come up with is that they're "bad people?" Oh yeah, Steve? Well...I know you are, but what am I? Man, he really needs to work on his Rickles skills.

I tell you what, it's a good thing this convention isn't a long one and is drawing to a conclusion tonight. I don't know how much more of this I could take. I find myself immersed in their words, slack-jawed and glassy-eyed, wondering what Bizarro World I've wandered into. If I stayed there too long, you'd probably find me rocking back and forth, holding onto myself, a little runner of drool descending from my bottom lip. Being the trooper that I am, I'm going to see if there's a live stream on the web of...gulp...Sarah Palin's speech tonight. If I need to, I've got that bottle of tequila that I haven't cracked open yet. I'm thinking that it might be kind of fun, though, if I get myself in the right frame of mind. It looks like it's going to be live on CNN tonight, but I'm not sure if I can handle her on the big screen, so I might have to watch it online; it looks like this site is going to stream it.

Anyone brave enough—or liquored up enough—to join me?

Note: I hope that everyone who got socked by the storm is safe and warm. Don't go out there if you don't have to!

Teabagging: Day Two

Last evening, Tom Tancredo got things going with his kickoff speech. He had some very interesting things to say, things like calling the tea party movement "the most important political movement in the United States since the Civil War." What does that even mean? Is he advocating secession? He called the "cult of multiculturalism" as big a threat as our fiscal problems. He called Sarah Palin a "really, really pretty Margaret Thatcher." He called for implementing a "literacy test" for voters, a tactic that was used in the segregationist South in order to keep blacks from voting, saying that President Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country." He went on to say this:

People who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House—his name is Barack Hussein Obama.

Although cheers erupted at this, apparently, the room wasn't filled; I guess that's a good thing, since as few people as possible should hear such bigotry, misogyny, and narrow-minded idiocy as fell from his lips.

Here we've got an older, white, conservative male talking about how he hates multiculturalism. How he wants to go back to segregationist tactics designed to keep uneducated people (i.e., blacks) from voting. How people who couldn't spell or speak English are the ones who voted Obama into the White House.

Have you looked at any of the demographics, Uncle Tom? You are factually inaccurate. College graduates constituted a huge portion of Obama supporters. For anyone who supports Tancredo and others of his ilk, you might want to think long and hard about why you are doing so; unless you are also a white, conservative male, or a MILF, they are not your friend and they are not your advocate. Let’s go over that again. He wants to put segregationist tactics into place. Yes, teabaggers…this is what you are following. This is what you—YOU—are advocating if you are supporting them.

By the way, if we focused more on education, they way our President is trying to do, perhaps the illiteracy rates in our country would drop. There are plenty of people who can't read because they don't have access to safe schools and a good education. That doesn't mean that they can't listen to the news and learn about things that way. His condescending, patronizing tone is an affront to all of us—or it should be.

One of the speakers today was Judge Roy Moore. This was the guy who was removed from his position as the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court because he refused to remove the monument of the ten commandments he had erected at the state judicial building. Moore said the monument "reflects the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men" and "acknowledge[s] God’s overruling power over the affairs of men." He did not feel that this violated the separation of church and state, and when the deadline for removing the monument came and went, they yanked him from the Court.

So now in addition to needing to be a white, conservative male or a white, conservative MILF, you must also ignore the Constitution (despite your strident call to follow it in other matters) and acknowledge that God rules the affairs of men, although that Constitution for which you profess such undying love explicitly says that that is not the case.

We're not a theocracy, folks. You know that, right?

There were several breakout sessions today (believe me, if I were there, I think I would have been finding a way to break out), with topics that included:

• "Why Christians must engage"
• "How to do Voter Registration Drives and Where to Find Conservative Votes"
• "Women in Politics" [They allow that? I thought we were supposed to keep our mouths shut and look pretty. Like a pretty version of Margaret Thatcher.]
• "5 Easy Fixes to the High Cost of Mass Immigration" [Tancredo's solution is immediate deportation of all of them.]
• "Defeating Liberalism via the Primary Process"
• and oddly enough, "Emergency Preparedness" [What sort of emergency? Heart attack? Bioterrorist attack? Nuclear bomb? Black man in the White House?...D'OH!]

They'll wind up tonight's festivities with a "tea party discussion" and another movie: "Generation Zero: The Inconceivable Truth."

Did I mention that there was no booze at these events? Gahhhh! I was telling a friend today that I would have liked to have seen them have this convention in Las Vegas. Vegas corrupts everyone. I'm picturing these matronly Midwestern women shooting craps, jiggling those die like…um, never mind…yelling, "C'mon baby, Mama needs a seven!" and staid, repressed Texas milquetoasts stuffing dollar bills into the G-string of a past-her-prime downtown pole dancer.

That would have been fun. But we wouldn't want a hangover to lessen our enjoyment of the 9 am lecture, "Correlations between the current Administration and Marxist Dictators of Latin America." Subtle. After that, a panel discussion, "Where the Tea Party Movement Goes from Here."

I recommend Vegas. I think they all need to cut loose a little bit.

And we’re off!

The very first Tea Party convention is underway! My evil twin Bob [Hi Bob! sip] suggested that I be the official correspondent of our little group here, and I think that's a fine idea. I'm afraid I can't attend in person (although wouldn't that be an interesting time...!), even though tickets are still available for Saturday night's banquet and speech by Sarah Palin, but I will try to glean a few tidbits from the news and from online and write a bit about those. Gee, I'm kind of excited! How about you?

First off, thanks to a new Anonymous for stating their case so compellingly and concisely by calling us all idiots. Way to stand up for your beliefs! Well, in an anonymous sort of way, anyway. But hey, be proud of your accomplishment in successfully not including your name! That was really good, and you know, a total stranger who doesn't leave their name and calls me and my friends idiots? That makes me wonder about my philosophy and my priorities, ponder if I've been wrong in feeling some of the things I do and believing in certain crazy ideas like health care for all. In fact, it just generally makes me want to rethink things....

Okay. I'm done. Next!

I noticed that after yesterday's entry, I had a couple of visits from the House of Representatives, so that was kind of cool! I also see that I upset one of Blackburn's minions. Thanks, bud, for listing some of the things that Blackburn has voted for and some that she has voted against. You know what? I don't care. You know why? Your gal was a co-sponsor of a bill introduced as a reaction to the Birther conspiracy, apparently buying into that idiocy; she called bicycle paths "frivolous and wasteful" (despite requesting millions in earmarks herself); and she maintained that the health care bill mandated death panels for the elderly. All completely ridiculous. You must be so proud.

I read yesterday that this convention was getting pretty big. I don't know if Nashville can accommodate all those teabaggers. (That's what they started calling themselves, by the way.) A horde of 600 angry teabaggers has descended upon that fine city! Run for the hills! Granted, this is billed as being for those who who are running local chapters, a way to work together to consolidate their movement. From what I've seen throughout the years, though, it's hard to consolidate if you don't have clear positions on things, or if you're clamoring without content and fomenting without form. It takes more than "I'm mad!" to make a movement to be reckoned with, and to all these leaders of chapters throughout the country, I say, "Lotsa luck with creating form from chaos."

I checked out the website today, and aside from seeing that there were still tickets available for the banquet and keynote speaker Saturday night, I got to read about the schedule. Even as I write, they are enjoying a meet & greet (with hors d'oeuvres!), to be followed by the kickoff speaker, Tom Tancredo. This is the guy that thinks that all illegal aliens should be immediately deported, and said, "They're coming here to kill you, and you, and me, and my grandchildren." I think that's really a rotten thing to say about Canadians, who seem like a gentle, loving people to me, but I suppose he's entitled to his opinion. I think someone should ask him why he hates Canadians and thinks they're out to kill him and his grandkids. I'm curious, and maybe we need to assess the extent of the Canadian threat. I mean, if we've got murderous Canadians sneaking across our border, shouldn't we address that issue?

But wait! The evening is young! Tonight's entertainment will be provided by Lisa Mei (I had to look her up...she describes herself as a right wing extremist, is retired Air Force, and is a "Conservative singer/songwriter available for performances at your next rally, summit, tea party, march, convention, etc.") and...the one, the only...Mr. Ray Stevens. That's right, the man who brought you "The Streak" will be playing to those teabaggin' crazies tonight! Party on, Ray! Party on, teabaggers! I would certainly hope that they aren't driven into a frenzy by the song and decide to...you know...do that. That would be bad. [clapping hands to head...Get out, mental images!]

The streaking orgy will be followed by a prayer session for the convention and for our nation, and then there will be a showing of a movie called "Tea Party--the Documentary." (Does anyone know if that made the list of Oscar nominees for best picture?)

And this is just the first night! Goodness gracious, what delights are in store for us Friday and Saturday? Stay tuned.

The day the circus came to town

Fasten your seatbelts, batten your hatches, and hide the whiskey, Nashville...the Tea Party convention is paying a visit to your city! You lucky devils!

Maybe that's a poor choice of words.

Yes, the first somewhat-organized Tea Party convention is taking place in Nashville today through Saturday. I'm sure most of you have read about the problems they've been having. It seems that there is a lot of infighting among the various groups, there is paranoia about a takeover by the "mainstream" RNC, there are questions about who will profit from this, there is irritation at the price of admission ($549...a little out of reach for your average Joe the Plumber kind of douchebag, and why didn't they just round it up to $550?), and there were enough concerns from the Ethics Committee that Representatives Michelle Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn pulled out. A frustrated Tea Party convention had no comment. I never tire of that joke!

Oddly enough, despite being known for her extreme quittitude, Governor Sarah Palin is sticking with them. Yeah, she screwed Alaska over by quitting a year and a half before her term was up so that she could cash in, but by golly, she's sticking with those fine patriots at the Tea Party convention! What loyalty! What fortitude! What complete and utter bobbleheaded cluelessness!

Ahh, you know, I guess I can't really fault her. She's getting $100,000+ for her speaking fee, although she says she won't profit from it, and instead will funnel it back into other fellow patriots' campaigns...or her PAC, whichever comes first. Hey, people, there are plenty of copies of Going Rouge Rogue left that SarahPAC needs to snatch up. Those things don't come free, you know!

I can't say that I'm surprised at the lack of cohesion that we're seeing with this convention. The whole thing strikes me as angry people who aren't quite sure what they're angry about. (Not all...I've read stuff from some who lay out quite clearly what they're angry about. Some of the information is probably legitimate, but the majority I've seen is simply not true or highly misinterpreted and misrepresented.) Whenever I see these teabaggers interviewed, most can't quite seem to articulate what exactly it is that has them so pissed off. They talk about their Constitutional freedoms being violated (yet they thought the Patriot Act was just fine and dandy), they talk about their guns being taken away (despite the fact that President Obama recently got an F from the Brady Commission when it comes to his efforts at gun control), and they talk about how they "want their country back." I'm not sure from whom...the government? The godless commies? The people who look...different? The people who worship different? The people who don't worship at all and believe that religion has no place whatsoever in our political landscape? The Canadians streaming across our border? (Okay, I just made up that last one. That's not really happening. Maybe we should ask ourselves why.)

Who knows? I just know that I'm looking forward to some fun with this convention. I'm sure there will be plenty of amazing and amusing revelations. I'm sorry that Bachmann won't be there...that's always some great theater there. Theater of the absurd.

Speaking of absurd, I've recently mentioned Jackie Walorski (the renowned fashion maven—lookin’ good, Jackie!), who is running against my Congressman Joe Donnelly in the 2010 election. I've made no bones about the fact that I find the woman repugnant. (She wanted to shut down all Planned Parenthood clinics in the state of Indiana because of ethics violations at one clinic. The woman is a menace to my state.) Well, my friend Dan (this would be Milwaukee Dan #1, who I met in college) had joined her Facebook page in order to read and comment on her stuff and on the posts from her followers. He found out today that he had been "defriended" from the page, because of his dissenting voice.

Now, I've known Dan (AKA Guido!) for going on 30 years, and I can guarantee you that he was not antagonistic—that’s just not his style. In fact, he wrote, "And for the record, my comments were almost always civil and respectful and usually cast as questions. How harsh could I be while asking a question? I do think some of the regulars at her site considered my comments often to be a buzz kill on their Ra-Ra love fest." I know that he was merely asking legitimate questions, raising concerns, and offering a differing opinion, and I'm sure he backed most of them up with facts. He's a journalist, after all.

I find this very telling. I believe that there is no reasonable discourse to be had with teabaggers. They don't want to listen. They're just pissed off. They believe they're Taxed Enough Already (And cleverly incorporated that acronym into their name...get it? TEA party. Oh, that is good!), and don't want one red cent of their money going towards anyone else's health care, or programs for underprivileged kids, or for food stamps that will help put food on the table for people who have lost their jobs. They see taxation as "spreading the wealth around," which they then equate with socialism. Open your eyes, people. The roads you drive on, the library from which you borrow your books, your Social Security, your Medicare, your military, the aid you get from Washington when your town is hit by a devastating tornado, the funds you get when you've lost your job and can't find another one...these are all government programs that keep our country running. We all pay taxes as part of the greater good. Are there problems and abuses? Of course. There will always be those who find a way to scam the system. That doesn't mean that we should discontinue them. We can look for inefficiencies and try to limit them, but as citizens, we pay taxes in order to keep our country operating.

But I find it interesting that the teabaggers will gladly accept all of these government programs and more, only to draw the line at "others" getting a piece of the action. When the teabaggers get it, they've earned it; when we try to help others who are less fortunate, they see it as "entitlement." They will be the first to complain about all the money that we're spending on social programs or foreign aid. I highly recommend you take a look at this fascinating graphic from the New York Times concerning the proposed budget, which shows what we spend our money on. It might surprise you.

I have more to say (imagine that!), but it's getting late and this is long enough. I get very discouraged at times, I really do. This seems like a good time to repost this video.

Thank you²

I am woefully behind on reading personal blogs, and I'm definitely not commenting as much, as I'm sure some of you have noticed. I'm still reading you, but I kind of save it up and read a bunch in one swell foop, so you're probably not seeing me daily. I seem to be adding more and more political and news blogs to my feed, and I suppose my writing reflects that. I'm just a skosh consumed, but I try not to let it be in a bad way. I'm just very highly engaged with the political process in our country, trying to stay involved and on top of things. Or so I tell myself. I try not to get to the point where I blow a gasket (or as I once heard someone say, "blow a casket").

However, I heard from two of my blogger friends that they had given me this award. First was Howard of Soundtrack to my Day, who is amazingly knowledgeable about music. He often reminds me of bands I haven't thought of for years, as well as bringing new artists to our attention. Thank you, Howard! Next was Alaina at Mrs. Miss Alaineus Alemanac née Miss Alaineus Alemanac, who recently got happily hitched! She said that because of what I write here, she's become more interested in politics, and that makes me happy! One of the things that makes me cringe is hearing someone say, "Politics? Oh, I don't care anything about that. That's boring!" What?! That is simply not acceptable! So Alaina, one of the things you like about my blog has taken me away somewhat from personal blog-reading...it's a double-edged sword, isn't it? Cuts like a knife, baby...cuts like a knife.

Anyway, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it very much.

Now, the rules state that you're supposed to write a few things that others may not know about you. I have received one of these awards in the past and I believe I wrote about several things at that time; I had a hard time doing it then, because in 3+ years, I've told you quite a few things about myself, but also because some things a gal just has to keep to herself! You're also supposed to nominate others for this award. I maintain that anyone who writes a blog deserves a Kreativ Blogger award (I love the European feel to the name, don't you? Makes me feel so...continental.), because it is not an easy thing to do consistently, so if you do so, please feel free to snatch this award for your bad bloggin' self!

Oh, and the countdown to Super Bowl XLIV has begun. One week. I promise to not get too crazy here about it. I'll save that for Crackbook. :D GO COLTS!