Tea bagging round-up

THOUGHTS ON TEABAGGING AND THE RIGHT WING

So yesterday a bunch of conservative nutbags, inspired by the Boston Tea Party, decided it would be a great idea to sack the streets of America for some aggressive teabagging to protest unfair taxation. How a more progressive tax code which shrinks the burden on the middle class could be considered unfair was not explained. But these conservatives (and leftover Ron Paul rejects) were ready to blow; their right to teabag would not be licked. They descended on the streets, and it certainly looked like they were having a ball. Not even the presence of the snickering media could taint their united front.

Below is some coverage of the days' events. I'll just add that since I mailed my taxes early I enjoyed no tea-bagging yesterday.

FOX"News", one of the rightwing corporate entities who organized these "grassroot events" unsurprisingly went with the liberal-media-makes-sex-jokes-out-of-serious-protests angle (you know a protest is serious when the organizers use the term "teabagging" and are assisted by that bastion of sincerity and formality Glen Beck)

However it seems more than a little disingenuous for the right to be calling the left out on the blue-meaning of "teabagging" when the tea party organizers weren't doing anything to stop it's use. As Joe Garofoli at the SFGate reports:

I asked Michael Meckler, the national protest coordinator why they used the phrase and he just kind of shrugged. Said it was still a loose operation and that people could call it whatever they wanted as long as they participated. Maybe it was loud around us, but I don't think he understood the question.

And then there's the video footage. Let's start with Rachel Maddow and Ana Marie Cox barely holding it together


Now let's turn to this little gem from Anderson Cooper



Of course these demonstrations aren't all fun and games, the people they bring out are FREAKIN SCARY. The protesters are making no sense at all! It's as if the right-wing went into ZOMBIE ATTACK MODE after Obama won. I mean we weren't exactly lucid on the left after Bush won, but we had legitimate issues we were fighting against (the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, torture, Gitmo, cronyism, etc etc etc). Just watch these two CNN clips below (courtesy of Americablog) and appreciate how non-sensical and circular the current opposition's arguments actually are.







And then there are the pictures, a number of them using children as props:

Boston:

Houston:

Charelston, WVA:

I'm sorry but I have to say it, it's just WRONG to expose young children to teabagging.

And please, libertarian/conservative/freeper/dittoheads, if you're going to be the loyal opposition for at least the next four years PLEASE actually oppose some REAL POLICY, not generalized populist outrage mixed with sour grapes.