Tea Party - DON'T CALL IT A MOVEMENT

[kpete]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102303848.html

"a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process."

Seventy percent of the grass-roots groups said they have not participated in any political campaigning this year. As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind any particular national leader, have little money on hand, and remain ambivalent about their goals and the political process in general. <...>

The findings suggest that the breadth of the tea party may be inflated. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots, for example, says it has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups, but The Post was unable to identify anywhere near that many, despite help from the organization and independent research.

In all, The Post identified more than 1,400 possible groups and was able to verify and reach 647 of them. Each answered a lengthy questionnaire about their beliefs, members and goals. The Post tried calling the others as many as six times.

more:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_10/026281.php

My compliments to the artist, Mark Bryan
Love the teapots and the sheep Mark.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=480319&mesg_id=480319

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

1. I'll call it a movement

A bowel movement.

Great art!

[rrneck]

2. How 'bout bowel movement? nt

[Maccagirl]

9. An apt analogy-but bowel movements at least have a useful

and even healthy purpose. Teabaggers are just a harmful waste of space.

[tularetom]

3. Well, in the sense that a bowel movement is a movement

The end product is the same.

[lonestarnot]

4. Just a shit.

[EFerrari]

5. This is going to leave a mark.

lol

[seabeyond]

6. actually, i dont even call them a party, but teabaggers.... nt

[Spazito]

7. It's Dick Armey's bowel movement...

stinking up the place.

[Skidmore]

8. It is a party. They call themselves a party.

They are the Republican Party in Halloween costume. If they continue to say they are not affiliated with the Rs, then we'll take them at their word. If they've gone on the ballot with candidates clearly identified as belonging to the "Tea Party" then they shouldn't be allowed to duck their own self-identification.

[loudsue]

10. More inflated bullshit from the corporate media .... trying to stir things up

I hope they keep it up. It's the best thing that could have happened to the Democrats this election cycle.

[texastoast]

11. Oh, that's a great painting

Just excellent.

[elleng]

12. 'Rage and a cable news network... not much of a substitute'

for 'genuine political movements...with coherent vision.'

Quite right.

[HopeHoops]

13. It is SO a movement.

:hurts: :hurts: :hurts: :hurts: :hurts: :hurts:

[ProudDad]

14. Isn't it the corporate-funded Empire's bowel movement? (n/t)

[OlympicBrian]

15. Tea Partiers are also AGAINST the Founding Fathers principles

The Tea-Partiers are for less regulation. In addition, they are backed by corporate elite, including the Koch brothers. They are also pro- US Chamber of Commerce (Glenn Beck recently had a fundraiser for the Chamber). This means they stand for more offshoring, consistent with a main policy goal of the Chamber...

This is all AGAINST what the Founding Fathers stood for:

"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country."

- Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816.

"Shall we make our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of these; experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort."

- Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Austin, 1816.

"The selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain."

- Thomas Jefferson to Larkin Smith, 1809.

There is a major conflict here--the TPs claim they want to return to the values held by the Founding Fathers!

[intaglio]

16. Personally I award the Tea Party a 1

on the Bristol Stool Chart