Think Progress notes that “Americans For Prosperity” is now paying people to publicize all tomorrow’s tea parties. Which makes me wonder: do you think some of the people who show up tomorrow will be getting paid to be there?
The purpose of all the tea-bagging is, of course, to make it look there is some groundswell of antipathy towards Obama’s policies coming from real Americans. And “Americans For Prosperity” and the like don’t care how they get the real Americans to show up. That stands in contrast to left-wing protesters, who are often unabashedly hippie and want everyone who protests with them to be there for the “right reasons” (based on my experience with protester friends).
One thing we know for sure: there will be lots of fighting over the number of people who show up at the tea parties. Some reporter in Pittsburgh or Cincinnati will estimate there were 30 tea-baggers downtown and Michelle Malkin will find a witness who says there were really 150. Grainy cell phone video will be examined and confused calculations will be made, possibly with the help of Google earth. If the city is within driving distance, we may even find out what kind of countertops the reporter has.
Update. My local tea-bagging site actually has that asinine “American Tea Party Anthem” video.
LV-426
I’m betting the turn out is going to be high. Lot’s of unemployed with not much to do and there might be girls there.
DougJ
I doubt it. Conservatives aren’t good at protesting.
Ohmmade
"4) Give It a Name| Convey the threat of government over-spending and/or excessive debt using 10 words or less. The single best idea-as voted on by visitors to this website-will receive $250 and be the basis for a new video."
I think the woman in that 9/12 video had the best one:
"Burn the books!"
omen
hope spoofers will be attending too. with signs that read billionaires need tax relief or workers deserve slaves wages and such.
Fencedude
Hmm…go to the Teabagging Party or finish my Power Distribution project…
Decisions decisions!
Left Coast Tom
What kind of coffee will they serve?
angulimala
Probably not many. Its probably more cost effective to advertise and turn out the nuts than to pay actors.
omen
@Ohmmade:
that’s a good one.
rick warren supported a crazy evangelist who ran around inciting people to burn condoms in the name of jesus.
LD50
Good nonelitist government coffee, like BOB likes.
Shibby
I’m definitely going to the one in Toledo once I get out of class. I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble I can get myself into.
Ned R.
all tomorrow’s tea parties
And where will Malkin go?
And what will she wear?
opium4themasses
@Ned R.: I… well… given all the giggling my first thought was..
kneepads.
I think I need help.
DougJ
A jihad scarf from who knows where.
LV-426
@Left Coast Tom:
Victory Coffee of course.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
Americans for Prosperity?
I am saddened that they left out Defense of Marriage from that hodgepodge of horsecrap.
"What do we want?"
"Citizen involvement in the regulatory process early on!"
"When do we want it?"
"NOW!"
I tell ya, I am seeing third party.
Ripley
And in related news,Texas goes rogue. Yeesh. I was born there. Glad I’m gone.
Gordorn, The Big Express Engine
I just finished my taxes and e-filed them. Since I am getting a refund, does that disqualify me from crashing the local tea party?
Calouste
Not unsurprisingly, John mentions "Americans for Prosperity", "real Americans" and "tea parties", and teh Google serves up an ad for FOX Business. right….
@ no 1:
You mean it will be a "tea" party? Did FOX tell the attendees to bring their own pot to the tea party?
Kanamit
These people are unbelievably stupid. What the hell do they think the "representation" in "No taxation with representation" means?
LD50
No, you’re supposed to be outraged by the taxes paid by people far wealthier than yourself.
SpotWeld
This is going to be Dover all over again.
At Dover, the right right Christians wanted to make public schools a venue for evangelizing. (Despite the constitutional problems with that.) The Wedge Document was war plan for this.
But such a goal could not be achieved overtly, so a covert means was developed via Intelligent Design. Sadly the school board members most devoted to the Wedge Document plan couldn’t kept it on plan.
They overtly slipped into creationist rhetoric and pretty much blew the lid off the whole ID fiasco in open court.
This is the same problem the teabaggers will have. Their most fervent supporters will not be able to prevent themselves from slipping into militant or just plan crazy sound bites (ala certain McCain Rallies, or the Macaca Moment).
Watch and listen, the nutbars will be out in force. And it won’t be pretty.
Conservatives may not be good at protesting, but they are experts at being @ssholes.
gizmo
I thought tea bags were for limp-wristed, pale-skinned British people with snotty accents. I can’t believe the manly Republicans would go anywhere near such a thing.
bago
Teabsggers take a stance! Spread em and untie!
Cain
@Ripley:
I guess we’ll soon know what a Christian caliphate will look like as they impose Old Testament law. I’ll give it 3 years and we’ll have illegal immigration coming in real quick.
If Texas goes everybody along the coast will probably go too. It’ll be awesome cuz we’ll probably blockade the entire gulf of mexico. hahaha
cain
Lesley
I’m betting the turn out is going to be high. Lot’s of unemployed with not much to do and there might be girls
there.
Boy you really have to be desperate to be attracted to the shrieking harpies in the conservatard movement.
Rick Massimo
@Gordorn, The Big Express Engine: Just finished mine. Down from last year. Boy, am I outraged!
Bubblegum Tate
My prediction on teabagging participation reportage from wingnuts:
One of the teabagathons will have pretty good turnout. Certainly nothing that compares to anti-war protests, but let’s be quite generous and say it draws 1500-2000 people. The rest of them, not so much–but there will be a lot of them because a dozen bitter old cranks holding unintentionally hilarious signs and screaming at passing traffic will count as a "tea party." So, the official wingnut narrative will be, "There were a hundred teabagfests yesterday with as many as 2000 attendees! It’s a grassroots uprising!"
Faisal
It’s hard to take them seriously when they dress up the video with a song by a band from Australia (universal health care, 45% top marginal income tax rate), formed by two brothers from the UK (universal health care, 40% top marginal income tax rate).
Next up: anti card-check protests with special musical guest, Test Dept.
Faisal
And tea? Really? Who has time in the morning to contemplate whether to garnish their beverage with a dairy product or with a citrus extract? Last I checked, we’re still a nation of coffee drinkers.
Person of Choler
"Maybe they’ll learn to sing in tune after the revolution".
Komarovsky, in "Doctor Zhivago"
punster
What’s even more fun, the two right-wing lobbyist organizations backing the entire astroturf protest are funded by the Koch family (also featuring a co-founder of the notorious John Birch Society!).
So we can say with perfect accuracy, every single lunatic teabagger out there tomorrow is a Koch’s sucker.
Michael G
This Youtube-recommended "related" video is awesome in oh-so-many ways.
I’m not sure if I enjoy it because it’s a pointless video *of a URL*, if it’s because the frame-rate is about 3fps, if it’s because the kerning on the double slash is so terrible, if it’s because of the inspiring background music, or if it’s because the title is "Tax Day Tea Party – Your Invited!"
BDeevDad
Tea Baggers are also pissing off Veterans.
Pro-military as long as they’re killing someone.
Tom in Texas
@Michael G:
Triple distilled awesome: the author of said video is not only a student at a state funded college, but he has a paid internship at NPR. So yeah, this dude who is being educated with taxpayer money, who is paid with taxpayer money, is protesting taxation.
The awesomeness knows no bounds.
(btw the linked vid describes Michigan considering the same legislation that Perry passed in Texas today. Oddly no one is assuming a Christian Caliphate in Michigan or discussing a blockade of the Great Lakes)
A Mom Anon
In Atlanta,it’s going to be hard to get accurate head counts because there’s a sporting event downtown. There’s also a free event for low income people trying to refinance to avoid foreclosure. I wonder how many cities have other stuff going on that could be used to manipulate numbers? Not that the teabag organizers/sponsers are known for honesty in the first place….
someguy
Modern life is Potemkin. Even Preznit giv turkee sometimes.
kommrade reproductive vigor
My predictions:
1. White supremacists and other vermin come out to play.
2. At least one event is marked by an all-in fist fight.
3. At least one reporter or other bystander will be mistaken for a rouge ACORN commiefascist infiltrator.
4. Michelle Malkin &c will spend weeks whining to anyone who cares (= no+1) that the vermin, brawlers & reporters were all ACORN moles.
5. We’re going to consume half our body weight in popcorn.
@bago: Watch out for their SQUAT teams.
Notorious P.A.T.
Good golly, I like this site’s new advertising. Anyone know the name of the girl in the VirtualGirl ad? So much better than logging on and seeing Glenn Reynolds.
JL
@A Mom Anon: The local news affiliates have been promoting the event also.
amocz
Just so we progressives will not feel left out of all the fun, here’s an idea for how we can get into the spirit of the (tea)party, along with the wingnuts:
We show up (en masse if possible, individually if not) at our local Tea Party event, in the following uniform:
dark suit and tie, for men; conservative business attire, for ladies
dark wraparound shades
dummy earpiece, with wire running back into collar
a cellphone capable of taking photos, and into which to mime short, quick remarks while observing the festivities
And then we just…hang out, meanwhile avoiding any attempts to engage us in conversations, with a brusque, Not now, no time for this bullshit demeanor.
I feel that this would add immensely to the festive atmoshere at these events, and increase the enjoyment of all parties thereto.
–AManOfConstantZorro
kommrade reproductive vigor
I like it. A lot. Except I don’t think my jacket will fit over a Kevlar vest even if I had time to pick one up …
Ah fuck it, you only live once. Should I shave my head or would that attract skins?
dr. luba
@Tom in Texas: As a proud Michigander, I take umbrage at your comparison of our great blue state to the red hell that is Texas. Any wingnut can propose some damn fool piece of legislation, and every legislature seems to have at least one such idiot.
But Texas actually passed it.
Johnny Pez
More sign ideas:
Teabag a liberal today
Teabagging in defense of liberty is no vice
Ask not whether your country can teabag you
Breathe through your nose
Read my hips, no new taxes
MikeJ
Seriously considering going here in the land of Boeing with, "Stop Government Waste: Kill the F-22"
kay
I listened to them on FOX last night, and I’m less generous now that I was prior to listening to them.
They’re mad their 401k has lost value. They’re mad they don’t have a job. They have decided to attribute these events to "spending".
But, anyone who can read a newspaper knew Bush and the GOP Congress were mad for spending by 2002.
They didn’t protest in 2002 because they were doing fine. They didn’t protest in 2004 because they were doing fine.
They only abandoned Bush, if you look at polls, when gas went to 4 dollars a gallon. Not Katrina, not Iraq, not "spending", but gas at 4 bucks a gallon.
This isn’t about their kids or grandkids. It’s about them. They’re mad that the party’s over, and they got stuck with the tab. They enjoyed the hell out of that party, though.
thrashbluegrass
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Seeing as Stormfront’s been atwitter for a while, discussing literature to hand out, signage to produce, arguments to make, etc. (watch out for "Borders, Language, Culture" to show up, which was suggested as being "Not openly white nationalist, but implicit."), I’ve been muttering the same for a while.
We’re going to see white nationalists show up and embarrass the merely stupid.
Dennis-SGMM
These are obviously complex people. On the one hand, it’s okay for the government to tell us whom we cannot marry, to eavesdrop on all of our communications without a warrant, and to investigate us while threatening us with a federal indictment if we fight the investigation. On the other hand, a 3% marginal tax increase that doesn’t affect 95% of us is worthy of takin’ it to the streets.
Maybe complex isn’t the right adjective. How about "stupid"?
I predict that there will be Palin 2012 signs waved about by the hearty teabaggers.
kay
@Dennis-SGMM:
I don’t know why anyone would put their entire savings in the stock market and then appear on FOX to rant and rage because it lost value.
I don’t know anything about the stock market, but I did start with the assumption that it went up and down. I did know that much.
I think they should ponder whether they have the temperament to fool around in the stock market. I don’t think uncontrolled rage is the right response for maverick "risk takers", when faced with a loss.
anonevent
@Johnny Pez:
FTW. That on a sign would be absolutely hilarious, and just imagine the confused looks until you explain it. And then imagine how fast the party would break up after that.
El Cid
Clearly the rest of America will look upon this smattering of anti-Obama protests and will conclude that America must now as always be governed by its most right wing white Southern and Western conservatives. Anything else is un-American and Islamo-fascist.
someguy
@ kommrade reproductive vigor
It’s already been noted that the conservatives were coming out. Why do you feel the need to repeat that?
Montysano
@kay:
Well done.
I’ll swing by the Rocket City, USA teabag event and file a report later.
Dennis-SGMM
@kay:
Being angry because you lost your money is, at least understandable. Being angry at the new administration because the old administration allowed and even encouraged the deals that caused you to lose your money is just plain stupid.
Just Me
@Tom in Texas: I teach at a state college, and in my experience, most students don’t fully grasp the concept that the gubment is paying for most of their ride. They just think their tuition (the part they actually pay) is too high.
El Cid
I personally know a nice man who’s typically a screeching right winger, but ever since he’s been able to keep his house under the new Obama mortgage plan, he’s kinda tamped down the anti-Obama’ite nonsense.
It’s not the spending — it’s that ordinary people don’t often see the benefits of our acting together under our government.
The rightards are really, really going to lose it if Obama and the Dem’s do several more things to directly improve the life conditions of ordinary Americans — such as any decent health care reform.
NonyNony
@Dennis-SGMM:
Only if the government is telling other people who they cannot marry. Gay right-wingers tend to be pro-gay-marriage even if they toe the line in every other way.
Only if the government is eavesdropping on other, dangerous people. Like Quakers. And Librarians. If they want to eavesdrop on, say, right-wing militia members or people who hang out regularly at Stormfront, the wingers get mad. As Michelle Malkin and others so graciously proved to us yesterday with the freak out over the DHS report on domestic terrorists.
Hey, that 3% marginal tax increase will affect Rush Limbaugh, and that’s enough. If it’s bad for Rush, it’s bad for the GOP. Or so I’ve been told by wingnuts.
It gets really easy to understand wingnut psychology when you keep a few factors in mind:
*) Everything, no matter how petty, boils down to "us vs. THEM". And THEM is always scary and in all caps.
*) They have no empathy for anyone not like themselves AT ALL. They can’t even really imagine what it’s like to be someone else or to have grown up under different circumstances
*) If you can fool them into thinking you’re "like them" you can get them to go along with all kinds of crazy-assed nonsense.
Limbaugh and W are/were masters of that last point. Dial yourself down to make sure they think of you as "regular folks" and they’ll completely ignore the fact that you’re a multi-millionaire. Which means when you talk about taxes, they’ll just project their own selves into whatever you’re talking about because of point two. And if you make sure that it sounds like someone outside of the tribe (one of THEM) is getting something for nothing, you can exploit the hell out of point one to rally them to do stupid shit like wave teabags around their heads in a protest of … something. Probably that Obama is one of THEM and that’s not fair.
Us vs. THEM with no empathy and a side of stupid. That’s a typical right wingnut.
patrick
if they’re teabagging, their mouths will be full, and they won’t be able to shriek…
Ed Drone
I think a sign saying, "Some of the People All of the Time" would be a hit, because the right-whingers would assume you meant the government was trying to fool "the people," without understanding that you meant them.
Ed
Faisal
Those of you who are still commenting are fighting a lost battle — punster already won this thread.
Andy
> possibly with the help of Google earth.
For the umpteenth time, Google Earth is not real-time.
jim
Fuckin’ rent-a-mobs … I wonder if there’ll be anyone yelling "get a job" at them?
*
Last year it was free McCain tote-bags for prolific online trolls, now it’s "Americans For Prosperity" passing out checks for Teabagging pimps – plus la change, plus c’est la meme chose. PROTIP: if you have to pay people to spread your message, it probably isn’t worth spreading in the first place.
*
Some of these "grassroots" events are rumored to include the use of a JUMBOTRON – which I guess will make the protests look really really BIG … yeah, that 50-foot wall of TeeVee screens just screams "People Power" to me.
*
Potemkin Astroturf = one hell of a band name.
Mike in NC
The important stuff, of course.
dr. luba
@NonyNony: "Hey, that 3% marginal tax increase will affect Rush Limbaugh, and that’s enough."
Has Rush left NYC yet? I know he threatened it, over tax increases. And I know Jon Stewart gave him directions and offered him the use of his EZ pass.
Seriously, when will all these free market right wingers finally decamp for that laissez faire paradise, Somali– no taxes, no regulations, no gun laws, and the government drowned in a bathtub. Must be heaven…..
J. A. Baker
Actually, if some reporter were to say that there were a paltry number of teabaggers (say, 15), Stalkin’ Malkin will be like, "Nuh UHHH! I counted myself and there were 150,000,000 in D. C. alone!"
And then her commenters would call for the reporter’s head.