The League of Conservation Voters released a poll last week asking, "Do you support or oppose the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requiring reductions in carbon emissions from sources like power plants, cars and factories in an effort to reduce global warming pollution?"
The crosstabs, obtained by Media Matters, are illuminating. Seventy-one percent of Americans supported EPA action. Even a majority of Republicans, 54 percent, were in support of these regulations. Two groups that did not show majority support were those who rely primarily on Fox for television news and information -- 49 percent of whom supported these regulations -- and Tea Party supporters -- 45 percent of whom supported the regulations. Among non-tea party members of the GOP? 70 percent were supportive.
This is no coincidence. Fox News' audience and the Tea Party are essentially one.
Roger Ailes's pronouncement to Howard Kurtz that Fox News was making "course correction" made headlines across the web yesterday. However, his efforts will be hampered by the audience he built. According to Kurtz, "privately, Fox executives say the entire network took a hard right turn after Obama's election, but, as the Tea Party's popularity fades, is edging back toward the mainstream."
This move will be nearly impossible as the core of the network's audience consider themselves members of the Tea Party. According the LCV poll, 59 percent of those who consider Fox News the television outlet where they receive most of their "information about current and political events" also consider themselves to be supporters of the Tea Party, compared with 10 percent for CNN, 13 percent for MSNBC, and 15 percent for network news (NBC, ABC, CBS). Similarly, 60 percent of Tea Party say that they get most of their news and information from Fox, compared to 6 percent for CNN, and 3 percent for MSNBC.
These results should come as no surprise. The network ran more than 100 commercials disguised as network promotions in the 10 days leading up to the first major round of Tea Party protests in April 2009. That was just the beginning. Fox personalities promoted the events on their shows, directed viewers to Tea Party websites, appeared at rallies, and -- in at least one instance -- helped fire up the crowd before a live Fox report.
And Fox has worked hard to solidify its Tea Party audience's opposition to climate regulations. A JuneMedia Mattersreport revealed that more the 80 percent guest appearances on Fox News and Fox Business to discuss the proposed EPA regulations were made by people who opposed them. In 2009, a top Fox executive directed the network's journalists to cast doubt on climate science.
As much as they try to run from it, Roger Ailes and Fox unleashed this monster. It will now be impossible to put back in its box.
The Oakland County “We Are the People Michigan” Community Action Team is sponsoring is standing up for the middle class by saying no to the Freedom to Work for less law – AKA the Freedom to Freeload Act- and they are asking for your help.
The so-called “North Oakland Independent Tea Party Patriots” are holding a “Freedom to Work Event” at the Fountains Golf and Banquet Center in Clarkston. Featured speakers include “freedom to work” for less advocates Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, and Rep. Mike Shirkey, R- Clarklake, and UAW turncoat Terry Bowman. Union members and supporters from across Oakland County are invited to send them a message that they can’t meet in labor’s backyard without hearing from the middle class.
The Fountains Golf and Banquet Center is at 6060 Maybee Rd. in Independence Township, between Sashabaw Rd. and Dixie Highway. The event starts at 5 p.m., but organizers are recommending that you get there at 4:45 p.m. However, if you get there late, they plan on picketing in front on the public sidewalk along Maybee Rd. until approx. 6:30 p.m. Signs will be available, but you are invited to being your own.
You can park on one of several side streets that run south off Maybee Road, across from the Fountains Golf and Banquet Center Do not park on residents’ grass or block access to driveways or mailboxes.
Motor City Liberal Comment: You gotta give conservatives credit for one thing, they know how to give their harmful policies nice names.
As Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) responded to a question about how he would help a 30-year-old man without health insurance who needs intensive treatment, the crowd cheered when moderator CNN debate moderator Wolf Blitzer asked if society should let him die. Watch:
Last week, ThinkProgress reported on high school sophomore Amy Myers, who challenged history-challenged Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to a public debate on the basic facts of the U.S. Constitution. “Rep. Bachmann, the frequent inability you have shown to accurately and factually present even the most basic information about the United States led me” to the challenge, she wrote in an open letter to the tea party doyenne. Unfortunately, it seems some Bachmann fans haven’t taken Myers’ challenge kindly and are now threatening the teenage girl with violence:
After it started getting media attention last weekend, commenters on tea party websites have threatened to publish her home address and some have threatened violence.
The 16-year-old from Cherry Hill says several commenters have called her a “whore.” Her father, Wayne, says he’s concerned for his daughter’s safety.
The Cherry Hill Courier Press reports that others “threatened violence, including rape” and that “several commenters threatened to publish the Myers’ home address.” Amy’s school has reportedly also received “threatening mail.” The newspaper had planned to do a video interview with the girl, who is running for a student government position, but “a somewhat panicked-sounding Wayne Myers phoned to cancel, citing the alleged threats.” “They’re targeting me just because I’m challenging Bachmann,” Amy said. A Facebook group called “Ask Rep. Michele Bachmann to Debate Amy Myers” already has over 7,000 supporters.
Motor City Liberal Comment: This proves the average male tea party member has a dick about the size of a ant's body, because a 16 year old girl wants to debate the dumbest member of the United States House of Representatives you want to issue that girl threats of rape and death. Really aren't you the same pieces of shit that were threatening CBS with boycotts because David Letterman for making jokes about Willow Palin? But threatening a 16 year old girl with rape and death is ok because she has the nerve to ask that retard Michele Bachmann to a debate is ok in your books.
How about this you chicken shits in the tea party pick on someone your own size? Meaning I don't mind meeting Mr.and Mrs. tea bag American in Detroit, I'll be the big angry black dude with the hockey stick and baseball bat.
Comedian Bill Maher took issue with the Tea party's identification with America's "Founding Fathers' at the end of the season premiere of his cable show Friday night.
“I think it's pretty clear that the Founding Fathers would have hated your guts, and what’s more, you would have hated them," he said, seemingly speaking directly to the followers of the right-wing astroturf group.
He continued, "They were everything you despise. They studied science, read Plato, hung out in Paris, and thought the Bible was mostly bullshit."
But Maher made some revisions of his own. In bashing FoxNews pundit Glenn Beck's fixation for dressing like Thomas Paine, the comedian described the 18th-century revolutionary as an atheist when he was in fact a self-described deist
Maher also mixed it up with the Founders whom he said aren't like the "Teabaggers."
"One is a group of exclusively white men who live in a bygone century, have bad teeth and think of blacks as three-fifths a person, and the other are the Founding Fathers," he said.
To Maher, another key difference between the Tea party and the Founders is one of class which carries with it sophistication.
"The Founders disagreed amongst themselves about [slavery] and most issues, but the one thing they never argued about was that political power must stay in the hands of the smartest people and out of the dumbest loudmouth slowing down the checkout line at Home Depot," he said.
Maher's attack comes after the top financier of so-called Tea party movement, American oil tycoon David Koch, recently admitted that he believed his followers are like him.
"There are some extremists there, but the rank and file are just normal people like us," Koch of Koch Industries told ThinkProgress in a recent interview.
Maher went on to criticize former Republican vice president nominee Sarah Palin for her attack last year on lawyers and President Barack Obama. He mentioned a handful of Founders who were lawyers.
"They were not the common man of their day," the comedian quipped.
He continued, "Ben Franklin studied scientific phenomenon like lightning and the Aurora Borealis, and were he alive today he could probably explain to Bill O'Reilly why the tides go in and out."
O'Reilly, a conservative pundit for FoxNews, in an argument with an atheist activist recently claimed that the cause of the oceanic tides remains a mystery to humans.
"I'll tell you why [religion is] not a scam," O'Reilly said. "In my opinion -- alright? Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that. You can't explain why the tide goes in."
Maher concluded, "And Thomas Jefferson was an astronomer and physicist that founded the University of Virginia, played the violin and spoke six languages or as Palin would say, 'All of them.'"
This video is from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, broadcast Jan 14, 2011, via Mediaite.
Given that these protesters take their name from the Boston Tea Party, which was organized around protesting an unfair tax benefit given to a massive British corporation, and that British oil giant BP’s oil disaster could end up costing taxpayers billions of dollars, you’d think that Tea Partiers would be demanding that the government hold BP accountable and make the corporation pay the full costs for its bad behavior, so that taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill.
Yet the Tea Partiers haven’t descended on BP’s headquarters or marched on Capitol Hill demanding, for example, that the government lift the $75 million oil spill liability cap on BP so that the damages it pays aren’t severely limited. On the contrary, they’ve attacked President Obama for securing a $20 billion escrow fund from BP to recompense victims of its oil spill and cozied up to politicians who’ve sided with BP. As the Associated Press noted last week, “Tea Party candidates [have stood] by BP to rail against President Obama.” Here are just a few examples of Tea Party organizers and Tea Party-endorsed politicians siding with the foreign oil giant against American taxpayers:
– Republican Study Committee chair Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who headlined a Tax Day tea party in the nation’s capitol this year, derided the escrow fund as “Chicago-style shakedown politics.” [6/16/10]
– Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who has proudly boasted of supporting the “Tea Party movement and the people getting involved,” echoed Price’s language as he apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayword for the White House’s “shakedown” it performed while trying to hold his company accountable. [6/17/10]
– Conservative talk show host and chairman of the Tea Party Express Mark Williams compared Obama’s efforts to secure the escrow fund to those of “mobsters,” and added that where he comes “from, they call it extortion.” [6/21/10]
– The “tea party favorite” in the Oklahoma GOP gubenatorial primary, state senator Randy Brogdon, said that BP’s oil disaster was “a perfect example of why government should never be involved in the private sector,” while blasting efforts to properly regulate the foreign oil giant so that it couldn’t cause more devastation in the future. [6/21/10]
Without tough government action to make sure that BP pays for the own costs of its own disaster and doesn’t drop the tab on taxpayers — as leading right-wing figures like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue and House minority leader John Boehner (OH) havesuggested — it is likely that the oil company will get off easy, much like Exxon did following its own oil disaster two decades ago.
If Tea Partiers truly want to defend taxpayers from facing undue burdens, it may be time for them to don their signs and demand that BP pay for the entire cost of its own disaster by lifting the oil spill liability cap and ask that the government end billions of dollars in special tax breaks for Big Oil (just as the original tea partiers wanted to end the tax advantages of the British East India Trading Company).
M.C.L Comment: Two reasons why the tea baggers aren't at the doors of BP's headquarters one their corporate masters aren't leading them there and two BP doesn't have a black guy in charge.
By Think Progress
In a radio interview with Bill Manders on Jan. 25, Sharron Angle — the GOP candidate and Tea Party darling challenging Harry Reid for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat — came out firmly against abortion. She even took the extreme position that women should not have control over their reproductive rights in cases of rape or incest, because it would interfere with God’s “plan” for them:
MANDERS: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?
ANGLE: Not in my book.
MANDERS: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?
ANGLE: You know, I’m a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.
Listen here:
Last week, Manders — who is a conservative radio host — told his listeners that in order to beat Reid, Angle has to “slide to the left a little bit, to the middle, so to speak. Not stay way over to the right.” “[T]here are things about Sharron that are annoying to the voters,” he added. Recently, former Republican congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich, the first woman from Nevada to hold federal office, said she may not even vote for Angle. “She’s very rigid and I have a little bit of trouble understanding her positions,” Vucanovich said. “So I’m not out there waving the flag. She’s a very difficult person.”
The far right has embraced Angle’s anti-choice position. She has said that while it won’t be “the most prominent issue in Nevada’s Senate race,” she “will show voters the difference between Reid and me on abortion: He flip-flops on the issues.” She added that more people are identifying as “pro-life” because the issue “has been framed in a more positive way.”
Supporters of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) are reportedly thrilled about the prospect of him running against former state legislator Sharron Angle, since they see her as a weak Tea Party candidate with a history of extremist views that will make it easy to focus the campaign on her record.
The strategy, according to Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent, will be to "use her own words to paint her as, well, a complete whackjob."
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has already picked up on the emerging anti-Angle narrative. "Conventional wisdom was that Sue Lowden's come-from-ahead defeat to Tea Partier Sharron Angle would hurt Senator Harry Reid," he noted on Wednesday. "Turns out Ms. Lowden was the sensible one."
"Ms. Angle's resume is startling -- or, if you prefer, cartoon-like," Olbermann continued. "She told Liberty Watch magazine that she's opposed to legalizing alcohol. (Las Vegas!) Eleven years ago, she proposed a bill requiring doctors to tell women that research suggested abortions might increase their risk of breast cancer, even though, you know, it doesn't."
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank even suggested on Thursday that Angle's victory "would explain the uncharacteristic smile on Reid's face as he opened Wednesday morning's Senate session. Instead of his usual stemwinder denouncing the obstructionist minority, he engaged his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a celebration of the national pastime."
According to the Post's Dave Weigel, however, Angle backers like Club for Growth spokesman Mike Connolly, are describing their reaction to the wave of attacks on their candidate as "one big yawn."
"We know Sharron Angle pretty well," Connolly told Weigel. "A lot of folks around here have worked with her. We've endorsed her in the past. This tactic is neither new nor surprising."
Even if the tactic doesn't surprise Angle's backers, though, it could still prove damaging when played out before a national audience.
"She endorsed a plan for a prison drug treatment program that would be like sweat lodges, saunas with massage," Olbermann noted. "It would cost $15,000 per prisoner. It was developed in part by the Church of Scientology. ... Two weeks ago -- after BP! -- she said she favors more deregulation of the oil industry. Oh, and Ms. Angle also voted against fluoridizing the water, because she thinks the fluoride might be poison."
Connolly acknowledged to Weigel that he hadn't previously known of Angle's opposition to fluoridation but insisted that "this is what their campaign is going to be -- digging around in things she's said and taking them out of context. And the polls haven't moved for Harry Reid. He's been a dead man walking, politically, for months."
Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express and other Republicans also described the attacks on Angle as "stale stuff" and suggested that Angle should have no problems as long as she can avoid future gaffes.
It's true that Angle's support for the sauna idea might fairly be described as old news, since it goes back to 2003, but her Scientology connections recently came under renewed scrutiny when the Las Vegas Sunreported that Angle's website had "scrubbed" any mention of her having worked with actresses Kelly Preston and Jenna Elfman to promote legislation prohibiting schools from requiring students to take psychiatric drugs, such as anti-depressants. Both women are prominent Scientologists, and opposition to psychiatric drugs is a Scientological position.
This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast June 9, 2010.
By Zaid Jilani
While the right-wing tea party movement touts its rhetorical “aversion to big government,” a new Bloomberg national survey finds that many tea partiers are clamoring for more aggressive government action. The poll finds that large numbers of them want the federal government to act to create jobs and rein in Wall Street by restricting excessive executive bonuses:
At the same time, 70 percent of those who sympathize with the Tea Party, which organized protests this week against President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, want a federal government that fosters job creation.
They also look to the government to rein in Wall Street, with almost half saying the government should do something about executive bonuses. Supporters are also conflicted over whether private-enterprise elements should be introduced into government programs like Social Security and Medicare.
“The ideas that find nearly universal agreement among Tea Party supporters are rather vague,” says J. Ann Selzer, the pollster who created the survey. “You would think any idea that involves more government action would be anathema, and that is just not the case.”
The poll also finds widespread disagreement about what comprises a “socialist” program run by the government. Only 10 percent of tea party backers agreed that the Veterans Administration, the country’s “only true island of socialized medicine” where the government directly runs hospitals and services for veterans, is socialist. Meanwhile, 47 percent of responders thought that Social Security and Medicare, both of which are government programs, should stay public programs and not be privatized
Media Matters Research
Amid reports that several Democrats in Congress have been the targets of death threats, racial and anti-gay epithets, and have had their offices vandalized for their votes on health care reform, several Fox News personalities have been quick to first condemn the threats but then immediately make excuses for the threats. Others have appeared to dismiss the seriousness of the threats.
Fox News condemns, then dismisses threats
Doocy: "So why are people angry? Maybe because they didn't want this bill?" Teasing a segment about the threats against Democrats, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy said: "Meanwhile, some House Democrats getting extra security after a series of death threats and even a little vandalism over their health care votes. So why are people angry? Well, maybe because they didn't want this bill?" [Fox & Friends, 3/25/10]
Kilmeade: "Are Democrats using" threats of violence "to their advantage to marginalize Republican opposition?" On the same episode of Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade said: "Here's the question, though: Is this a Democratic tactic to take some of the people on the fringe who are clearly out of line, doing things that show violence and threats because they feel as though the vote did not go their way. And are Democrats using that to their advantage to marginalize Republican opposition?" Kilmeade continued: "For example, Tim Kaine just put out an email -- he's a great guest of ours and is always insightful for us -- put out an email saying, look at what's happening out here in America amongst the other party. We're going to need your help, send $5. So, wait a second. How outraged are you if you're looking to raise money off the outrage?" [Fox & Friends, 3/25/10]
Carlson agrees it's "disappointing" that Democrats are making threats so public and says "they should just stop discussing it all together." After Doocy said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) "thinks the Democrat lawmakers are feeding the public's frenzy over the threats by discussing them so openly in the media," Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson said: "It's such a political thing, though, guys. I think it would be happening on the other side of the fence, too, that maybe the other political party would try to take advantage of a situation, and that's disappointing. I think it's disappointing -- they should just stop discussing it all together. Just agree on the fact that it's disappointing behavior, no matter who's doing it." Later, after Kilmeade said, "You hurt your own cause when you have racial epithets or have homophobic phrases," Carlson said, "It ruins it for everybody, just like the kid who acts up at the birthday party." [Fox & Friends, 3/25/10]
Fox & Friends airs viewer emails comparing threats against Democrats to American Revolution, William Ayers. After Carlson said, "The most important thing is what you think about all of this, because you are the ones that are going to go to the polls eventually," Fox & Friends aired several emails from viewers that condemned the threats but immediately appeared to defend the actions. One email claimed that Democrats are using the threats "to gain sympathy. Like Rahm Emanuel said, 'you never waste a crisis.'" Another read: "[W]hat did they expect when they basically stole from the...American people. What do they think 1776 was about & wasn't there some violence back then?" A third email said: "I don't like violence & it is wrong. Having said that, why should Democrats be surprised? Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground bombed the Pentagon & now he is a 'respected' speaker of the left. Why should Democrats expect anything different?" [Fox & Friends, 3/25/10] Excerpts from the emails:
threatmail1 ff_threatmail2
ff_threatmail3 ff_threatmail4
ff_threatmail5 ff_threatmail6
ff_threatmail7
Beck: Obama is "poking and prodding" people to commit violence. ... "They need you to be violent. They are begging for it." On his March 24 Fox News show, Glenn Beck referenced the "crazy tea baggers in the streets" and said, "Why would a government continue to poke you and poke you and poke you and poke you? Why would they say these things? Why have these people said these things about good Americans?" Beck later said: "This might be the most dangerous monologue I've ever done, because I am telling you now -- they need you to be violent. They are begging for it. You're being set-up. Do not give them what they want." [Glenn Beck, 3/24/10]
Hannity: "So do you think that this is just an effort to smear conservatives?" During his March 24 Fox News show, Sean Hannity said that Democrats "are trying to make a big deal over the weekend and this is denied by a lot of people. I have not seen the videotape that confirms this yet. If anyone has it, send it to me. I want to see it, of racial slurs, anti-gay slurs being made at the Tea Party movement. Do we have any evidence that corroborates this at all?" Later, he asked: "So do you think that this is just an effort to smear conservatives? Is this a concerted effort to say, you know what? They are all a bunch of racists; they're all a bunch of homophobes?" [Hannity, 3/24/10]
Cupp: Democrats "want us to feel sorry for them that they've gotten a couple of ... angry voicemails." On Hannity, commentator S.E. Cupp said, "You know, Democrats who did this -- who sort of rammed this down our throats regardless of the fact that it actually won't save us any money, it's going to bankrupt us and the American people didn't want it -- want us to feel sorry for them that they've gotten a couple of angry, you know, voicemails. They should read my e-mail. You know, what did they expect? No one condones threats. No one condones the violence, but I'm glad people are angry. I hope they stay angry." Earlier in the show, Cupp had promoted Andrew Breitbart's decision to "combat the Congressional Black Caucus' allegations" by promising to donate $10,000 to the "Black [sic] Negro College Fund" if someone can prove the "n word" was yelled at the congressmen. [Hannity, 3/24/10]
Fox Nation: "Are Threats Really Elevated, or Are Dems Playing Politics?" The Fox Nation displayed a picture of several Democratic congressmen with the headline, "Are Threats Really Elevated, or Are Dems Playing Politics?" The headline linked to a NewsBusters post that claimed there are "no specific examples of alleged threats of violence cited" and that the media and politicians are "trying to construct a meme of conservative violence as we run up to the 2010 elections." From the Fox Nation:
fn_threats1
Fox Nation: "Was Tea Party Story a Racial Rant or a Set Up?" The Fox Nation posted an image of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) purportedly holding up a cell phone camera, along with the headline, "Was Tea Party Story a Racial Rant or a Set Up?" The Fox Nation linked to Gateway Pundit, which alleged that the accusation of racial epithets toward Democrats was "a lie" because "[t]here were several cameras filming the democratic representatives as they walked to the Rayburn Office Building. And, the representatives had at least two cameras filming the entire event. (It was almost as if they were expecting something to happen?)" From The Fox Nation:
fn_threats2
Charles Krauthammer: "I'm sure a lot of this is trumped up. ... You are always going to have a kook and a nut here and there." On the March 24 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer said of the threats, "I'm sure a lot of this is trumped up the way of the unruliness of some of the crowd on the day of the voting in the House was trumped up. You are always going to have a kook and a nut here and there. It's being used by supporters of ObamaCare to tar opponents with, you know, threats, violence, being un-American in general. I think it ought to be denounced, as the Republicans have. It should be. But it's not reflective of those who oppose the bill."
Stephen Hayes: "This happens all the time," "counterproductive" for GOP to condemn them again. Discussing GOP leaders' condemning the threats on Special Report, Weekly Standard columnist Stephen Hayes said: "They shouldn't continue to do it. They did it. They did it once, and they should never do it again. That's the end. He said we don't approve of this. That's it. If you continue to beat it up, it continues to be a story and it's counterproductive." Later, Hayes said, "This happens all the time, and I could refer to you my own voicemail sometimes after appearances on other programs and other networks where the vitriol level was every bit as harsh as what I heard in Bart Stupak's voicemail." [Special Report, 3/24/10]
M.C.L Comment: Like I said in post stories, when Bush was president Fox News tried to make it a federal offense to be critical of the president now on Fox News you got junior right wing whores like S.E. Cupp trying to minimized death threats to elected officials , I bet if I made nasty hateful voicemail to Republican Mike Rodgers,Thad the Vulture or Stay Puff Miller S.E. Cupp and her partner in right wing hypocrisy Sean Hannity would be signing a different tune.Fox News is the source of this violence and they're trying their hardest to deflect being part of the story and they're using the old conservative tactic of blaming the victims and our media is either lazy or scared media to point this out. Let's say the media is too lazy and new proof all a staffer or intern has to do is watch an half hour of Fox News and see where is this "outrage" is coming from.People in the corporate media has to take a stand if something happens to President Obama or elected officials it's on them as well because they know where this hate is coming from it comes from Fox News, right wing talk radio, the RNC, conservative blogs and elected and formerly elected Republican officials.
By David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Suggests civil rights protesters in early days said equally 'unfortunate and unnecessary' things
Democrats are sometimes accused of being elitists who look down on honest working folk, but former White House senior adviser Karl Rove appears to harbor a certain condescension of his own towards "unsophisticated" Tea Partiers.
MSBC's Savannah Guthrie questioned Rove on Wednesday about the "unfortunate language used this weekend at some of the rallies that one of the Tea Party founders apologized for."
"To the extent that the Tea Party is equated with the Republican Party, is that a concern for you?" she asked.
"This Tea Party movement is largely novices, relatively politically unsophisticated people, and as a result sometimes their rhetoric is raw and angry," Rove replied. "That's the downside.
The upside," he continued, "is that a large number of people who have heretofore been spectators have been motivated by a deep concern about our country to get involved in politics."
Rove went on to excuse the violent rhetoric of the Tea Partiers by suggesting that "if you look back at the beginning of other similar movements, whether it's the anti-war movement or the civil rights movement or the pro-life movement, there are angry things said that I suspect in retrospect a lot of people realize are unfortunate and unnecessary."
Rove did not offer any examples, however, and he appears to be misinformed about the atmosphere that existed in the early days of the civil rights movement.
The 1950s and early 60s were marked by a pervasive climate of lynchings and racial violence, in which fourteen-year-old Emmett Till could be brutally murdered for not following his mother's advice to "mind his manners" with white people and even white volunteers like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, might be kidnapped and killed (dramatized in the 1988 film Mississippi Burning). As a result, the early civil rights leaders and protesters were known for their politeness and adherence to non-violence in both their words and actions.
Even while being beaten and clubbed by police and irate drug store employees, civil rights protesters had to remain non-violent and compliant, since the alternative could have resulted in lengthy jail sentences, permanent injuries, or death.
This video is from MSNBC's The Daily Rundown, broadcast March 24, 2010.
By Ben Armbruster
Tea party activists are set to gather next month at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN with the goal of “bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation.” However, infighting among tea party activist and leaders has already cast a shadow on the inaugural teabagger gala. Much of the controversy surrounds convention “brainchild” Judson Phillips, a Tennessee lawyer who controls the for-profit corporation Tea Party Nation, because of his intention to make money off of the event:
“I’m not a socialist. I don’t begrudge people trying to make money, but that’s not what the tea party is about,” said Antonio Hinton of the Knoxville Tea Party. “That convention has nothing to do with the tea party movement, as far as I’m concerned.”
“I think it is a great con of people making money off the passions of others,” RedState’s Erick Erickson told the Washington Independent recently. A Nashville-based tea party activist called Phillips’ Tea Party Nation “dishonest” and that it is “hijacking the tea party movement.” And Politico reported last week that three major sponsors have withdrawn support because of “the convention’s unusual finances.” Other groups followed suit:
American Majority, a leading training outfit for tea party organizers, canceled two planned sessions at the convention and withdrew its sponsorship after learning about the convention’s for-profit structure and the criticisms of Phillips.
“Who is this guy? What are his motivations? And what gives him the credibility to try to step in and insert himself as a leader of the movement?” Ned Ryun, president of American Majority, said he started wondering of Phillips.
Besides the issue of Phillips “money making venture,” other tea party activist have balked at the convention’s cost and the fact that Tea Party Nation is paying Sarah Palin $100,000 to attend — a fee that Phillips would not confirm or deny in a recent radio interview. “When I’ve talked to our members, they’ve said this is entirely too expensive,” said Jenny Beth Martin, the national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots. It “smells scammy,” Erickson said, adding, “A $500+ per person fee to a for-profit organization run by people most people have never heard of is neither populist nor accessible for many tea party activists.”
At the same time, Politico adds that some tea party activists are considering staging protests outside the National Tea Party Convention. “It would really look bad for tea parties to be out there protesting the tea party,” said former Tea Party Nation member Anthony Shreeve.
Update On Friday, Fox News' Bret Baier reported on the tea party activist infighting over the national convention.
Update The New York Times reports that the National Precinct Alliance announced yesterday that it will no longer participate in the convention. National director Philip Glass said he was concerned that the Tea Party Nation was "profiteering" and exploiting the tea party movement.
State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who won the special election to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate yesterday, celebrated his win at the Boston Park Plaza last night. ThinkProgress attended the event and observed a variant of the original revolutionary war flag, which depicts a roman numeral II within the original thirteen stars, widely distributed throughout Brown party. Jeff McQueen, who designed the flag and sells it through his own business “USRevolution2,” explained that the flags means, “REVOLUTION . . . ROUND 2! I also thought the ‘II’ could have two meanings: ‘Second’ American Revolution and ‘Second’ Amendment.” McQueen, a tea party organizer, has repeatedly used tea party websites to call for a revolution. In one of his posts, he explains that the country would be better served by splitting states between Democratic and Republican:
We are now as divided as America was in the 1860s. When two people find they can no longer communicate, while living under the same roof, they often split apart and go there seperate ways. So what if . . . we took the United States and just split it in half . . . 24 states become The United States of the Democrats and 24 states become The United States of the Republicans (including Ron Paul supporters and Libertarians etc . . .). California and New York can be split in half and go the the side they choose.
Watch Brown supporters wave second revolution war flags at his victory party:
ThinkProgress also observed the same flags waved at Brown rallies in Boston, Worcester, and Hyannis.
