The Tea Partiers are Weird, but this is a revolting question

[Azathoth]

Who the fuck are tea baggers. I would rather not google teabagging

[Coito ergo sum]

Seems like a fair question. Tea baggers are suspected of being racists.

From what I've seen, there is no evidence of Tea Partiers having any more of a racist complement than the general population. There have been self-serving allegations, but not much in the way of proof.

And, there is proof that opponents of the tea partiers have plotted to attend rallies, pose as tea partiers, and shout racist comments.

So the the congresspeople and their staffers were making it all up? When was the last time you heard someone call a congressman a 'nigger' or a 'faggot' at anti-war rally, or whatever us liberals demonstrate for?

If there was an isolated incident, I would not be surprised. Anytime you have groups of huge numbers of people, some will be assholes. However, there is not ONE - not ONE SINGLE video or audio showing that namecalling. And, there were cameras on at the time when the congresspeople claimed to have heard those words, and nothing shows up on the audio.

And instead there are supposed tea party 'opponents' infiltrated the tea partiers and posing as tea partiers?

Not instead - there "is." The website had that instruction about infiltration announced right out in the open. And, did you see the "egg throwing" incident video? Come on maiforpeace - I am more than willing to accept the possibility that someone yelled racist names - all I'm saying is there is no evidence - the video and audio DO NOT demonstraate that the allegations are true.

That's the kind of stunt that Republicans like Jame's O'Keefe would pull. We have that evidence.

I posted the flippin' evidence, maiforpeace. I quoted the group that was going to do it. VERBATIM!

So please Coito, I would very much like to see the evidence of these so called tea party infiltrators you speak of.

I posted it. I quoted them. LOOK!

Do you deny the reports I posted? Do you deny the "crash the tea party website?" The fucking guy was suspended from his teaching position for it!

And, to further illustrate the tactics, I posted the video - caught on video of the people throwing eggs, then the "liberals" lied about it, only for there to be video proof of the Harry Reid supporter with an egg in his hand.

Cripes..

L

[maiforpeace]

Who the fuck are tea baggers. I would rather not google teabagging

Members of this movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement

[Ian]

A friend of mine went to the first big rally last year in DC. In his report he proudly emphasized that there was hardly anyone making anything out of the fact that Obama was black.

My thoughts were, "Okaaaayy... good for the Tea Partiers... whereas I have to remind myself that he is a black man." When I look at him I see a President, a Democrat, a politician, a father/husband, etc. His race is pretty far down the list.

It's you guys that keep saying people are making something out him being black. What would be wrong with your friend clarifying for you that nobody, or hardly anyone, referring to his race?

Beg to differ. It wasn't the case in this instance. I would've preferred him to say that hardly anyone there said anything about Obama being a socialist. But he didn't say that. I woudn't have thought a thing about race if he didn't mention it being an issue, or a supposed non-issue.

[maiforpeace]

Seems like a fair question. Tea baggers are suspected of being racists.

From what I've seen, there is no evidence of Tea Partiers having any more of a racist complement than the general population. There have been self-serving allegations, but not much in the way of proof.

And, there is proof that opponents of the tea partiers have plotted to attend rallies, pose as tea partiers, and shout racist comments.

So the the congresspeople and their staffers were making it all up? When was the last time you heard someone call a congressman a 'nigger' or a 'faggot' at anti-war rally, or whatever us liberals demonstrate for?

If there was an isolated incident, I would not be surprised. Anytime you have groups of huge numbers of people, some will be assholes. However, there is not ONE - not ONE SINGLE video or audio showing that namecalling. And, there were cameras on at the time when the congresspeople claimed to have heard those words, and nothing shows up on the audio.

And instead there are supposed tea party 'opponents' infiltrated the tea partiers and posing as tea partiers?

Not instead - there "is." The website had that instruction about infiltration announced right out in the open. And, did you see the "egg throwing" incident video? Come on maiforpeace - I am more than willing to accept the possibility that someone yelled racist names - all I'm saying is there is no evidence - the video and audio DO NOT demonstraate that the allegations are true.

That's the kind of stunt that Republicans like Jame's O'Keefe would pull. We have that evidence.

I posted the flippin' evidence, maiforpeace. I quoted the group that was going to do it. VERBATIM!

So please Coito, I would very much like to see the evidence of these so called tea party infiltrators you speak of.

I posted it. I quoted them. LOOK!

Do you deny the reports I posted? Do you deny the "crash the tea party website?" The fucking guy was suspended from his teaching position for it!

And, to further illustrate the tactics, I posted the video - caught on video of the people throwing eggs, then the "liberals" lied about it, only for there to be video proof of the Harry Reid supporter with an egg in his hand.

Cripes..

L

Where did you post it? All you posted in this thread was this:

About being black among tea partiers

And this...

Crash the Tea Party Website known as "Crash the Tea Party" -- encouraging people to pose as Tea Partiers and then "behave in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities . . . to damage the public's opinion of them." which is nothing but a site to sell t-shirts.

This...

Tea party activists are surprisingly mainstream when it comes to their grievances about politics. They fit right in with most American voters who tell pollsters the country has been headed in the wrong direction under both Presidents Bush and Obama...

And finally, a YouTube that never shows who threw the eggs.

That aside, I did look into it further and found what I think is the information you 'claim' to have provided on this thread.
(So, no need to get so exasperated )

Teacher Who Sought to 'Demolish' Tea Party Placed on Leave From School

This is not evidence that any 'infiltrators' actually infiltrated and did anything. Levin, the teacher you speak of is on paid administrative leave while they investigate whether he "crossed the line" when it came to free speech and political behavior as a teacher. Nor is there any evidence of others being involved or any plotting going on with others. Inciting people to do things on a website that doesn't even exist anymore and actually doing them are two different things.

On the other hand, James O'Keefe, and his three accomplices were actually caught by the FBI for interfering with the phones of a senator and have been convicted in a court of law.

41% of tea partiers are Democrats and Independents: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washing ... obama.html

Tea party activists are surprisingly mainstream when it comes to their grievances about politics. They fit right in with most American voters who tell pollsters the country has been headed in the wrong direction under both Presidents Bush and Obama...
....'

Huh?

Reflections on the Tea Party Movement: Voices of the Angry Privileged

Most people within the Tea Party movement view themselves as everyday ordinary Americans; the typical Tea Party supporter is middle aged, middle class, and white. This is also in many ways who they view as an ordinary American. According to a recent Gallup poll, people who identify as supporters of the Tea Party are mostly middle aged or older, mostly political conservative, and mostly white. The poll found that 70% identified themselves as conservative, compared to 40% of the general public, and 49% identified themselves as Republican, compared to 27% of the general public. Despite the rhetoric that they are ordinary working Americans, people within the Tea Party movement are more likely to have more education, higher income, and more affluent than the average American. A New York Times/CBS Poll found that among those who identify as Tea Party supporters are 56% earn at least $50,000 per year, compared to 44% of the general population. Also, at 70% of the Tea Party supporters had at least some college education, compared to 53% of the general population.

Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.
They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally. They are also more likely to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.”
And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

[Martok]

41% of tea partiers are Democrats and Independents: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washing ... obama.html

Tea party activists are surprisingly mainstream when it comes to their grievances about politics. They fit right in with most American voters who tell pollsters the country has been headed in the wrong direction under both Presidents Bush and Obama...
....'

41%?? LOL!!!!

Tea Party supporters are decidedly Republican and conservative in their leaningsAlso, compared with average Americans, supporters are slightly more likely to be male and less likely to be lower-income.

[normal]

lol. I had only heard the word tea party before today, and I knew of the Boston tea party back in the day.

I'll just say this: YOU DON'T PAY ENOUGH TAXES IN THE US

[Chinaski]

What hath twitter wrought??

[FBM]

Not sure how relevant it is, but Obama's only 1/2 black. In the past, if a person had any percentage of black or Native blood whatsoever, they couldn't be registered as Caucasian. I'm pretty sure that's why my family covered up the Choctaw part of our family tree.

[Martok]

lol. I had only heard the word tea party before today, and I knew of the Boston tea party back in the day.

The Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation. The tea baggers don't like who represents them and they want to ignore election results.

[maiforpeace]

Looks like all those infiltrator stories is just more fearmongering...

Tea Party Infiltrators: Mischief Not As Disruptive As Group Previously Feared

First Posted: 04-16-10 10:30 AM | Updated: 04-16-10 12:13 PM

The fears of Tea Party organizers that liberal crashers would "infiltrate" Tea Party events around the country on Thursday appear to have been overblown.

As Politico's Ken Vogel reported on Friday, "Activists and organizers interviewed by Politico said the mischief was nowhere near as widespread or disruptive as they feared earlier in the week."

In the aftermath of the Tax Day rallies, Tea Party advocates offered mixed reactions to the threat of liberal crashers ruining their rallies. FreedwomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon told Vogel that the hype "turned out to be really much ado about nothing."

Dave Weigel at the Washington Post relays a conversation that he and Vogel shared with conservative Andrew Breitbart on the matter of liberal crashers after the day had winded down:

After the rally, Sarlin, Ken Vogel and I chatted with Andrew Breitbart, who'd only just heard of the crashers and lumped them in with "the left's" strategy to discredit tea partyers as racists.

"They needed it so badly," said Breitbart, "they wanted it so badly, that when they didn't get it they doubled down on their idiocy. It's not unlike the ACORN situation. They kept doubling down on their idiocy."

According to Tea Party icon and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, liberal attempts to infiltrate the conservative movement will ultimately fail "because any time something weird happens at a tea party gathering, they can say well say 'well, hey, there's the left for you.'"

Though the so-called "crashers" did not show up in force on Thursday, Tea Party groups had made preparations just in case -- and will likely do so at future events.

Conservative activist group Freedomworks posted this warning on its website in advance of the big day:

We know that infiltrators might be coming to our tea parties. But remember last April 15th; the idea that the tea parties would be infiltrated in the same way was all over the news. The results? Virtually no infiltration. We know they might be coming, and they know we know. And they know we are ready.

[epepke]

So the the congresspeople and their staffers were making it all up? When was the last time you heard someone call a congressman a 'nigger' or a 'faggot' at anti-war rally, or whatever us liberals demonstrate for?

It's an invention of the nigger faggot media.

[Martok]

The New York Times and CBS did a poll and it mirrors the one did by Gallup and USAToday.
The last paragraph is a real LOL moment.

Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.

They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally. They are also more likely to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.”

And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

The Tea Party movement burst onto the scene a year ago in protest of the economic stimulus package, and its supporters have vowed to purge the Republican Party of officials they consider not sufficiently conservative and to block the Democratic agenda on the economy, the environment and health care. But the demographics and attitudes of those in the movement have been known largely anecdotally. The Times/CBS poll offers a detailed look at the profile and attitudes of those supporters.

Their responses are like the general public’s in many ways. Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools. A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers. They actually are just as likely as Americans as a whole to have returned their census forms, though some conservative leaders have urged a boycott.

Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.

Asked what they are angry about, Tea Party supporters offered three main concerns: the recent health care overhaul, government spending and a feeling that their opinions are not represented in Washington.

“The only way they will stop the spending is to have a revolt on their hands,” Elwin Thrasher, a 66-year-old semiretired lawyer in Florida, said in an interview after the poll. “I’m sick and tired of them wasting money and doing what our founders never intended to be done with the federal government.”

They are far more pessimistic than Americans in general about the economy. More than 90 percent of Tea Party supporters think the country is headed in the wrong direction, compared with about 60 percent of the general public. About 6 in 10 say “America’s best years are behind us” when it comes to the availability of good jobs for American workers.

Nearly 9 in 10 disapprove of the job Mr. Obama is doing over all, and about the same percentage fault his handling of major issues: health care, the economy and the federal budget deficit. Ninety-two percent believe Mr. Obama is moving the country toward socialism, an opinion shared by more than half of the general public.

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted April 5 through April 12 with 1,580 adults. For the purposes of analysis, Tea Party supporters were oversampled, for a total of 881, and then weighted to their proper proportion in the poll. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults and for Tea Party supporters.

Of the 18 percent of Americans who identified themselves as supporters, 20 percent, or 4 percent of the general public, said they had given money or attended a Tea Party event, or both. These activists were more likely than supporters generally to describe themselves as very conservative and had more negative views about the economy and Mr. Obama. They were more angry with Washington and intense in their desires for a smaller federal government and deficit.

Tea Party supporters over all are more likely than the general public to say their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good. But 55 percent are concerned that someone in their household will be out of a job in the next year. And more than two-thirds say the recession has been difficult or caused hardship and major life changes. Like most Americans, they think the most pressing problems facing the country today are the economy and jobs.

But while most Americans blame the Bush administration or Wall Street for the current state of the American economy, the greatest number of Tea Party supporters blame Congress.

They do not want a third party and say they usually or almost always vote Republican. The percentage holding a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush, at 57 percent, almost exactly matches the percentage in the general public that holds an unfavorable view of him.

Dee Close, a 47-year-old homemaker in Memphis, said she was worried about a “drift” in the country. “Over the last three or four years, I’ve realized how immense that drift has been away from what made this country great,” Ms. Close said.

Yet while the Tea Party supporters are more conservative than Republicans on some social issues, they do not want to focus on those issues: about 8 in 10 say that they are more concerned with economic issues, as is the general public.

When talking about the Tea Party movement, the largest number of respondents said that the movement’s goal should be reducing the size of government, more than cutting the budget deficit or lowering taxes.

And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.

But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”

Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.

Others could not explain the contradiction.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Marjorie Connelly, Dalia Sussman and Marina Stefan contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/po ... rty&st=cse

[maiforpeace]

Martok, you'll enjoy this article then too.

With No Jobs, Plenty of Time for Tea Party

[NineOneFour]

Seems like a fair question. Tea baggers are suspected of being racists.

From what I've seen, there is no evidence of Tea Partiers having any more of a racist complement than the general population. There have been self-serving allegations, but not much in the way of proof.

And, there is proof that opponents of the tea partiers have plotted to attend rallies, pose as tea partiers, and shout racist comments.

You need to get out more.

Being uninformed is not some kind of alternative lifestyle choice.