Hey, Who Knew?

[NanceGreggs]

Hey, Who Knew?

Who knew that “teabagging” would be such a phenomenal success?

Who knew that a few people would actually catch-on to what the term “teabagging” means before the Great Day happened?

Who knew that literally dozens of people would show up at individual rallies across the nation?

Who knew that “teabag event” attendees would be interviewed on-air by TV/radio personalities – and turn out to be a bunch of disgruntled people who don’t exactly know what they’re disgruntled about?

Who knew that the ignorant, ill-informed and downright stooopid would be so willing to demonstrate their ignorance, lack of information, and stooopidness for all the world to see?

Who knew that a “grassroots movement” backed by corporate sponsors and right-wing whack-jobs (a.k.a “think tanks”) would be declared “grassroots” – and with a straight fuckin’ face?

Who knew that attendees, when asked what they were actually protesting, would respond with a blank stare and, “Duh, I dunno”?

Who knew that a bunch of idiots would turn out (not exactly in droves) to protest Obama’s tax policies on the same day they just filed their returns under Bush’s tax policies – and not, uh, get the irony.

Who knew that the same people who remained silent while their fearless leader W (insert guffaw here) turned Clinton’s surplus into an astronomical deficit would suddenly find their voices?

Who knew that Fox-News would cream themselves over an event they’d helped perpetrate, even when it was obvious it had turned into (hey, who KNEW?) a non-event?

Who knew that the same people who could be roused into believing that Sarah Palin was the epitome of political acumen could be stirred-up again into believing that – well, into believing anything that didn’t make sense?

Who knew that millions of Americans who, having just filed their tax returns, would end their day not on a sour note, but settled in front of what passes for news on their TV, with a glass of merlot in-hand, laughing their collective asses off at the stupidity of it all.

Who knew? Well, admittedly, not me. I was convinced that a multitude of no-nothing idiots would rise up as never before, and take their rightful place in history, declaring in one teabag-choked voice that they were mad as hell (over what is another story) and weren’t going to take it (even though they don’t know what “it” is) anymore!

I was wrong.

I admit it.

And I won’t hold my breath waiting for the “organizers” of today’s “grassroots effort emanating directly from the American citizenry” to admit precisely how wrong they were in gathering together the Usual-Suspect-Sheep and parading them in public squares to be laughed at, one last time, on their way to the Fuckin’-Dumb-as-Ever slaughterhouse.

Nice try, desperate GOP round-‘em-up-and-get-‘em-in-front-of-a-camera folk – but your failure is almost as epic as the failure of a Republican just-put-me-in-front-of-a-camera-and-I’ll-WOW-‘em small-P (VERY small-P) pRESIDENT.

Almost.

But THAT was an act that will be hard to follow - hopefully for decades to come.

[saltpoint]

1. Thank you.

I'm glad I'm not out tea-bagging with the freepers and neocon nutbags and am instead grateful to be on-line this evening reading fine writing.

Recommended.

[AtomicKitten]

2. They continue to step in their own poo on national TV.

K&R and thanks! I needed to rinse my brain after that mess on my tee-vee today.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Perfectly said! Nothing to add but...

K&R!

Oh, and have a look at this video: It's exactly what you're talking about!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[NanceGreggs]

5. Thanks, CalPeg ...

... exactly what I was talking about!!!

[Blue_Roses]

4. who knew

that I would be sitting here after midnight still talking about the stupidity of this *cough* "event"...

who knew?

as always...I enjoyed this...who knew?

[ThomCat]

6. I wonder how many of the participants realize that they made

public fools of themselves. Do they realize that their tea-bagging events failed?

Perhaps they are so deluded that they somehow think they were a success. After all, I'm sure Faux Noise is saying they were a success, and they obviously believe whatever Faux Noise tells them.

[imdjh]

24. I'm going to veer from the obvious and natural response here

Yes, it's fun and easy to mock these people. However, they got off their asses and hit the streets which I am inclined at this moment to see as a good thing. If the herd is moving you can steer it. If these people are in the public square, you can reach them; when they are home they choose who to allow near and what voices to hear.

I am a bit concerned that protest is turning into a form of entertainment or a pastime. The weekly demonstrations in Northern California and Southern California have gotten to the point where most people think of them by their demographics rather than their causes. I've long suspected the "peace vigil" at the White House to be creative homelessness more than any real political action. There is a fine line between the public seeing your message and the public seeing a common nuisance.

[keepthemhonest]

32. We did pleny of protests on Bush

and co and none of them had coverage like These nimrods got.We did get up and out of the house but it was not televised.There were war rallies anti -bush rallies, anti-torcher rallies, anti S-election protests among others.

[FailureToCommunicate]

47. But those protests were so 'vaguely reminiscent of the 60's' Maybe we should've

gotten Fox on board first like this bunch of wackos...

(Thanks, Nance, for good thoughts)

[ladym55]

41. Don't worry!!

Local news here in Ohio and my buddies at NBC were pushing that these events were BIG successes!! (HUGH!!111!)

To me, it was SO sad to see poor, frightened, out-of-work, uneducated white people shouting things they didn't understand to fight for tax cuts for the very rich who helped get them in deep doo-doo from the get-go.

[ginnyinWI]

7. at least we found out where the stupid went.

And now we know that there actually is that 18% or whatever who are still absolutely clueless. Just reading a few of their signs proves it.

They are about as divorced from reality as you can get. And why? Because they listen to an alternate reality constructed for them by the rw media, both tv and radio. Some of those media types are so twisted up in their minds (Rush) that they couldn't think straight anymore if they tried. He's so used to habitually spinning stories for his congregants that he can't do anything else. A college dropout who believes he's smart, tells his sheep that he is, and then actually believes it when they parrot it back to him. Kind of hilarious when you think about it.

[stevenleser]

8. Can't say it enough, I loves my Nance!!!!

[NanceGreggs]

9. And after seeing you take on Fox this week ...

... and stand your ground with style and class, I LOVES me my stevenleser.

[Wetzelbill]

11. dude, you're the man

Nice job on Fox!

[stevenleser]

25. Wetzellbill and Nance, thanks so much

for the nice comments!! It does feel good to have marched into enemy territory and gotten in my digs.

[Wetzelbill]

10. A little timeout from Obama worshipping I see

You are sick, NanceGreggs, and I am on to your game. K&R.

on edit:

LOUD NOISES

[NanceGreggs]

12. I just can't seem to help myself ...

... it's the LOUD NOISES at fault, of that I am certain.

[Wetzelbill]

13. We all hear them from time to time

[racetoinfinity]

14. There were SOME good signs held up that I saw on tv..

I saw signs there "End the Fed" and "Repeal NAFTA" - and protests about the huge bailouts of the zombie banking/investment behemoths. These are ideas progressives promote - if conservatives were holding these signs, these are areas of overlap, actually.

Re: the tax protests - most of these dumb people are being used by some billionaire far right scions, because 95% of people's income taxes are going down soon under Obama.

[tomreedtoon]

15. Ms. Gregg, don't you remember how Repubicans work?

They won't admit to failure. They will call this a resounding success! They will drag out the "Mission Accomplished" banner and have Dick Cheney say, "Major operations against the Islamic Dictator Who Stole The White House are completed."

The only thing that ever stops Republicans is sexual scandal. Which is why we need 24/7/365 observation and photography of everyone at Faux News, to catch them with their...teabags down.

(You know, this is a beautiful Hayduke operation against such demonstrations. If you have a car with dark windows, have someone drive you next to a Moran demonstration. Sit in the back seat, roll down the window a little bit and stick a big 35mm telephoto lens out the window, "photographing" the demonstrators. When they get curious and start approaching, pull in the lens and have the driver take off real fast! That should throw the fear of Black Helicopters into 'em.)

[No More Bushbots]

28. * cough * Senator Larry Craig *cough*

A little trolling for gay bathroom sex doesn't seem to have stopped him.

[tavalon]

16. Wow, you managed that post without once mentioning testicles.

mouths or ball a into maw b.

We had so much fun with teabagging, I mean publicly laughing about it. What I do in the privacy of my bedroom is between me and the men in my life with an occasional sideways disapproving glance from my clearly prude dog.

[ejbr]

18. Dogs teabag themselves!

[DFW]

17. It was such a momentous event, can you believe what the German press had to say about it?

Whatever you might have guessed, unless it's nothing at all, it's wrong.
It was about as newsworthy as a pigeon pooping in Central Park.

Whereas the original Boston Tea party was the forerunner to the "shot heard 'round the world,"
this Fox-financed dud was the "snot seen where it's hurled."

[Richd506]

19. You always say it how it is NanceGreggs

[The Wizard]

20. Just a thought

Who knew that “teabag event” attendees would be interviewed on-air by TV/radio personalities – and turn out to be a bunch of disgruntled people who don’t exactly know what they’re disgruntled about?

What would they be doing if they were "gruntled?"

Methinks spending trillions killing people with military weapons for no good reason makes them happy.
It is fun watching the opposing thoughts collide in their poisoned brains.
My guess is they're big fans of eating lead paint chips.
But hey, that's just me.

[RalphieD]

21. Faux News sucks

They cannot even organize a "grassroots" event.

[theblasmo]

22. Figures?

Have there been any legitimate totals given for the rallies? I figure there'd be a few that drew a few thousand -- the one at the OK Capitol apparently did -- but that most would be...underwhelming.

The misspelled signs always make me happy.

I actually feel sorry for those people who had legitimate beefs against taxes and wound up having their event co-opted by a bunch of people who could honestly care less about them.

[nolabear]

31. Nate Knows

www.fivethirtyeight.com

[theblasmo]

34. Thanks! n/t

[BlancheSplanchnik]

23. small P ?? But, but... that's not what THEY told me......

you mean they weren't even honest about that????


ok, I apologize and will pay for all eye bleaching costs incurred.

Sorry.

[imdjh]

26. You've probably studied it more in depth than I have

I was actually surprised at how many people and events there were. I was also amused by some of the stupidity or ignorance in evidence, but I thought it was interesting to see a variety of issues on the pickets and various other graphics. Creativity wasn't a strong point, but there was some effort evident in the crowd. All in all I wouldn't say that it was completely pointless. Ariana Huffington was on TV last night and part of her input was that we need to have at least two viable parties in this country, the contest between them is vital to the design. If the Republican arrogance and downright childishness during the Bush majority was annoying, the only way that we could engage in the same behavior and feel that it is somehow different would be if we could delude ourselves into believing that only we have the insight and answers to all the world's problems and that the other half of the country has nothing to contribute save their labor and taxes.

[Spazito]

27. Those who gathered yesterday were the same people who voted for bush twice...

and voted for McCain/Palin. They are the same people who spoke out only to praise the bush cabal in everything they did and are angry the bush way of doing things was not continued because McCain lost. I would say they do NOT have the insight or the answers to the world's problems because they were complicit in creating them.

[Mad_Dem_X]

29. Love you, Nance!

I tried to recommend your post, but for some reason it wouldn't let me. Anyway, terrific as always!

[nolabear]

30. Nate Silver, God of All Things Numerical

has the stat at 111,899 countrywide, which, as he points out, sounds like a lot until you realize it's not much more than typically attend a U. Michigan football game.

[Alcibiades]

42. Thank you!

I've been looking for a number. Cavuto spent much time belittling the Million Man March for "only" having 500k. The teabaggers only got 112,000, and that's nationwide, not in D.C.

I was heartened to see this was a page 3 story in USA Today today.

[keepthemhonest]

33. Nice summary NT

[zeemike]

35. Perhaps we should encourage them to have a tea bag 2

Like on the 4th of July and perhaps they will declare their independence from the US and we can have the INS arrest and deport them to someplace nice like Haiti or Somolia...I think they would fit in well there don't you?

[AlbertCat]

36. Epic Fail

Here's a little Gif animation that sums up the whole shebang for me:

[EJSTES2005]

37. Nothing left

but a few " dead-enders ". Maybe thats why the "Bush Commissioned " DHS report hit such a sore spot. Dead-enders have been know to be more dangerous then expected.....

I am willing to bet all that I own that less then 1% of these "sheeple" know that tax rates were way higher during 6 of the 8 years Ray-Gun was running the show then anything remotely close to what is being discussed now. Even after almost a decade of costly wars that were left off the books for future generations to pay for.

Until 1986 the top rate was 50%.

After the cut in 86' GHWB raised them after his infamous "Read my lips " speech. Obv epic FAIL

If going from 36% to 39% for the top 5% is socialism I wonder what they would call this war time tax policy :

"incomes of only $500 faced a bottom tax rate of 23 percent, while taxpayers with incomes over $1 million faced a top rate of 94 percent. These tax changes increased federal receipts from $8.7 billion in 1941 to $45.2 billion in 1945."

http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/taxes/ustax....


I'm willing to bet most working people at the time called it their duty.

"What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility ... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."

Adlai Stevenson 8/27/1952

[tonycinla]

38. Who Knew?

Who knew that Obama would be such a "white bread" leader.?

[NanceGreggs]

39. Who knew you'd be such an obvious dick ...

... so early into your DU participation?

[Joey Liberal]

40. Thanks for the great article! nt

[MrDave]

43. The teabaggers made for some good people-watchin'

Aside from the fact that it was painful to watch at times, the whole thing has elevated my mood for the last few days. You know, the American people coming together to fight evil!



Hey first post!!!

Hi!!!

[NanceGreggs]

46. Hey, first post!

And on my thread!!!

Welcome aboard, MrDave!

[helderheid]

44. DITTO!!!! :P

[George II]

45. Another GRAND SLAM by NanceGreggs!!! Thanks.