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Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 9:29 am
by johnson1010
Fox News attempts to prop up the rediculous Tea Bag movement which it has been flailing at the media for the last few months.

Awesome credibility backfire in the link below.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201003260027

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:54 am
by geo
johnson1010 wrote:Fox News attempts to prop up the rediculous Tea Bag movement which it has been flailing at the media for the last few months.

Awesome credibility backfire in the link below.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201003260027
With people like Victoria Jackson behind their "cause" I can only say, good luck! She calls Obama a communist and then says Glenn Beck has taught her well, but I had to stop listening because her voice is like a thousand shards of glass being blown directly into my ear canal.

I loved one of the reader's comments, that Doocy looks like a dog trying to understand algebra.

I dare say, much of this anti-Omaba backlash is barely repressed racism. I think a large percentage of our country just can't deal with having a black man as president, so they accuse him of all manner of things—Muslim, Socialist, Communist, etc.

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:37 pm
by johnson1010
I think a lot of this goes back to politics being a team sport.

It doesnt matter what they are doing with health care. If the republicans didnt do it, then tea baggers will NOT support it. It's all about "My team isnt winning" and that is the end of it. People arent thinking about good policy, they are thinking about us vs them.

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 4:58 pm
by wilde
Tee hee. "Tea baggers."


If only they knew....

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 5:04 pm
by Chris OConnor
Isn't the tea bag party an effort to address over taxation? Don't you think we have a real problem in the US with over taxation? When less than 50% of the people in this country pay any income tax at all it is amazing that this same group of people is allowed the power to influence how much the paying half pays.

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 9:38 pm
by Robert Tulip
Chris OConnor wrote:Isn't the tea bag party an effort to address over taxation? Don't you think we have a real problem in the US with over taxation? When less than 50% of the people in this country pay any income tax at all it is amazing that this same group of people is allowed the power to influence how much the paying half pays.
Now I don't think Obama is a communist, and I haven't heard him repeat Stalin's call for the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, but I do have the impression that much modern politics has forgotten the basis of the debate between socialism and capitalism.
As I recall, the slogan for the Boston Tea Party in the American War of Independence was 'no taxation without representation'. Chris is pointing out that there is now a real issue regarding 'representation without taxation', that people who do not pay tax have equal voting power as people who do pay tax, and this suggests a possible risk to the economy, that decisions can be made by a majority regardless of the capacity to pay for them. There is a famous quote about this issue:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:23 pm
by etudiant
Quote:A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.

I like your quote Robert.

I don’t think there is a problem with over-taxation in the US. The real problem is the utter distain many of those on the right wing, such as the current “tea bag” nutters, have for government, and by extension, the rights of one’s community. Although forever shouting about government expenditures, it has in fact been Republican administrations that have outspent everyone in recent years. Reagan spent like a drunken sailor, initiating the current tradition of large annual deficits. The Bush Jr administration outdid all comers, spending massively while at the same time slashing taxes for the wealthy. After all the spending frenzies the neo-cons then sit back and say: “See, I told you so. The public sector just can’t manage its finances. Let’s privatize everything.” Meaning: lets hand out some juicy contracts to some of our backers.

The myth is avidly promoted by the moneyed class that most or all resources that go to government are wasted, so best to cut taxes as much as possible. This is in the interest of the very wealthy, because most public programs benefit the middle class or the poor much more than they do the well off. If you can afford to pay $30,000 for a medical procedure, then there is not much point in supporting taxes for Medicare, at least not according to the values of the tea bag crowd. If you are in the middle class or less fortunate, there is every point, because paying into a broadly based insurance scheme is the only way said procedure is going to be paid for.

Unfortunately the uber-rich have hijacked much of the political debate over many of these issues, and also sadly gained influence over the intellectually apathetic, a sizeable portion of the electorate today.

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 8:22 am
by johnson1010
The original Boston Tea Party has gotten credit for being much more than it ever actually was.

It was a half-baked act of petty vandalism which percipitated public outrage.

They didnt go into that intending to make a stand for America. They didnt go in as patriots, striking back at an oppressive regime. They tried to pawn off their vandalism by dressing up as native americans.

it wasn't a principled stand against oppression. It was drunk and disorderly conduct.

This is another moment in time which has been washed over by our historians to look like just another heroic moment in american history, when it was a far cry from it.

The modern tea-baggers are a fabrication of Fox "News". Hanity, Beck and other odious talking heads roused their devotee's from their fear-laden couches and lay-z-boys to go out and rabble it up as best they could. They were given inordinate amounts of coverage and talking points from Fox "News" staff.

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:14 am
by Meme Wars
My initial concern over the "Tea Party" movement is the effect it was having on meaningful Health Care reform. The "Tea Baggers" just wanted to extend the force of the "party of NO!" I can only vouch for the quality of people in my life that identify themselves as "Tea Party" sympathizers. My experience is they know little of the issues they spout off about, highly emotional, have no answers to current problems, and have been baffooned by the very rich who took down our country to believe that the real enemy is the working poor and middle class against the (nonexistent or small group) "non" working middle class or poor that they feel are trying to get a free ride through their taxes. I see no outrage by this group against the wealthy that took down our country and bought out congress for exclusive representation.

I was surprised by a title of newsclip that claimed the Tea Party members were more educated and slightly wealthier than the average blow. I did not get around to reading article so cannot comment. That has not been my personal experience.

Any comments?

Monty

Re: Let’s all place our well-appointed ridicule of Tea Baggers here.

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 11:23 am
by Chris OConnor
etudiant wrote:I don’t think there is a problem with over-taxation in the US.
Something tells me you don't know much about the tax system in the United States. When a person receives a bonus check for $20,000 (for doing an outstanding job at work) and the government takes $8,000 off the top there is a problem. This is what happens in the United States. The government takes 40% of that person's "reward" for hard work. Doesn't this serve as a disincentive to work hard?

Where does the $8,000 that has been taken away get spent? In the United States we currently have a "first-time home buyer tax credit" implemented. This program was implemented by the Democratic Party, the party that believes in redistributing wealth. It expires soon. But literally millions of first-time home buyers have received and will be receiving for FREE an $8,000 tax credit.

A person that busts their ass and earns a $20,000 bonus at work is now taking that $20,000 pile of cash, removing $8,000 of it, and handing it to someone else who has not earned a penny of it. If this seems fair to you then I'm not even sure where to go with the conversation.

Like Robert Tulip said in his quote this "democracy" is slowly turning into a tyranny by the majority. The majority vote into office those politicians that will essentially steal from the earners and redistribute to the non-earners. This is the epitome of evil and the recipe for failure and disaster.

About half of the people in this country don't contribute a penny towards income taxes, yet they have the right to vote and influence what our nation does with the taxes taken from the producers. This is disgusting and wrong and the only people that support it are in that lower 50% - they are benefiting from this "redistribution" of wealth. They care not for what is fair. They want the free money and vote to make it happen.

I want to live in a society where people are charitable because their heart tells them to give. I want to live in a nation that rewards hard work and punishes bad decisions and laziness. There needs to be safety nets to extend a helping hand to those that are down, but we have moved so far left, thanks to Obama and other liberals, that the left, which produces far less than the right, is controlling how much the right has to pay and how the money that is collected is spent.

Taking from the producers and giving to those that produce less is analogous to the following....

Imagine what would happen over an extended period of time if Cheetah's no longer had to hunt for their own food. All they had to do was walk up to a lever and put their paw on it and a slab of meat would mysteriously drop from the sky. They would have instant food, a full tummy, an no real incentive to run after that gazelle fleeing at top speed.

What would happen to the strength, power, endurance, ingenuity and creativeness of the Cheetah? Common sense, and an elementary science education, tells us that evolution is thrifty, and no organism develops or maintains attributes (that take energy to develop or maintain) if not needed to survive.

We prop up the weak and lazy in the United States. Don't chime in here about how I lack sympathy or a heart because I grew up in poverty, foster homes and orphanages. I think I've seen my fair share of pain and suffering. The bottom line is, whether people have the intellectual honesty to admit it, we must reward the best, fastest, strongest, smartest, most creative...or we will lose those people and what they contribute to society.

It is disgusting that the government takes 40% of someone's bonus check leaving a 60% net. Out of that 60% net that same hard worker, who is probably a real estate owner, as opposed to a renter, will now contribute more in the way of property taxes. And then when they are left with a meager 50% of what they earned they will then spend 7% more on income sales taxes.

How could you possible think we don't have a problem with over taxation in the United States. The only way you could think that is if you aren't aware of what we really pay, or you come from a leftist mentality and you think what we get to keep out of our paychecks is not what we earned, but what the kind and caring US government "gave" to us.

Several months ago I left the Republican Party, but only because of their attempt to infuse religion into every aspect of government and life. Overall, I think the Republicans are the business people, the producers of wealth, the entrepreneurs, and the people that made the United States a great and powerful nation. I'm socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. I've yet to meet a Democrat that seems to understand capitalism and taxation. They advocate liberalism because they will benefit from a redistribution of wealth.

I have not met many Republicans that seem to understand the liberal arts and sciences. Both parties have their strengths and weaknesses. That's why I left and became independent. Both parties say some really ignorant stuff. Democrats will destroy the US eventually by removing the incentive to excel. Republicans will destroy the US eventually by not respecting the sciences.

Then again Obama is doing a fine job, contrary to what we have grown to expect from a liberal, and destroying the US advantage in space exploration.

I'm exhausted by the rampant ignorance of far left and far right people. I think its time to shut up and learn from each other.