So I must admit to some morbid curiosity here - how's the corporate sponsored TOTALLY grassroots tea partying going in eastern Montana?

I'll wait until Ike can catch his breath and give us a blow-by-blow account - in the meantime, here's something from Matt Taibbi to chew on: http://trueslant.com/matt...mentality/

But actual rich people can't ever be the target. It's a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master's carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields. You know you're a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your sh?t. Whatever the master does, you're on board. When you get frisky, he sticks a big cross in the middle of your village, and you spend the rest of your life praying to it with big googly eyes. Or he puts out newspapers full of innuendo about this or that faraway group and you immediately salute and rush off to join the hate squad. A good peasant is loyal, simpleminded, and full of misdirected anger. And that's what we've got now, a lot of misdirected anger searching around for a non-target to mis-punish. can't be mad at AIG, can't be mad at Citi or Goldman Sachs. The real villains have to be the anti-AIG protesters! After all, those people earned those bonuses! If ever there was a textbook case of peasant thinking, it's struggling middle-class Americans burned up in defense of taxpayer-funded bonuses to millionaires.

Two men for teabagging?


I don't think my bestest chum Ike was going teabagging today...but I could be wrong.

where were these concerned citizens when Bush passed his mess last fall that involved a gazillion dollars...OH thats right, the money was aimed at the corporate bailout so it didn't count?????

[This message has been edited by howdy (4/15/2009)]

I find it quite interesting that these people want to subvert the will of the people, just a few short months after the majority of the electorate voted there ideas out of office. Protest is a good thing, but these morons should pick a battle they have a chance of winning. Here in Bozeman, the central idea of these nut jobs is to recall Max Baucus. They can have there little tea parties, and carry around all the fundamentally stupid signs they want, but when they actually try to throw a sitting senator out of office, one that the majority of Montanans elected, then I will show up at the next tea party with a pitchfork. Maybe they should wait until we have another election, like we had too! It's funny that dissent is now encouraged, but when good liberal democrats like myself did it, for the last 8 years, it was considered treasonous and un-patriotic.

That is some first rate sneering. You must be very jealous.

Envy eats me like a worm.

This one's pretty good as well:



[This message has been edited by Bridgier (4/15/2009)]

The real villains have to be the anti-AIG protesters! After all, those people earned those bonuses! If ever there was a textbook case of peasant thinking, it's struggling middle-class Americans burned up in defense of taxpayer-funded bonuses to millionaires.

I'd say a better example would be the protesters themselves, frothily protesting the millions, while celebrating the flushing of trillions.

Matt, you must not've heard. Dissent still isn't patriotic, unless making the Obama DHS watch list is the new patriotism.

Turns out it was only patriotic when you were doing it.

Rickenhawk, here's a quiz for you:

Which President set up the DHS bureaucracy?

You win a free teabag (not from me) if you get the answer right!

FBI, DHS. The letters really weren't the relevant part of the discussion.

Clinton did a similar thing with the FBI and the pro-life movement. But the main point is nobody's ever really practiced the preach on the old 'dissent is patriotic' wives tale.

Well, Rickenhawk, if you've got nothing to hide, you'll be OK. I mean, it was just fine when the gov't mined through everyone's e-mails and phone records under Bush. They were just keeping us safe!

You're probably a domestic terrorist or something, that's why you're so worried. You and Tim McVeigh probably go way back, I don't know.

Abject failure (and your hero), the 43rd President's administration NEVER targeted any left-wingers. Heavens, no!

Whoops. Nope

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...=printable

That was Clinton too.

You really help take all the partisan out of "nonpartisan"

Rickenhawk? Isn't Rick a VietNam Vet?

Only if he was conceived on shore leave.

First Krugman, now the ACLU - Rick's going to be making giant puppets and joining ACORN before you know it.

[This message has been edited by Bridgier (4/15/2009)]

T4TX:

I'm so sorry, I forgot! Rickenhawk is a proud veteran of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists, tinfoil hat division.

Look, Ricky, I can cut and paste too!


Bush's Total Information Program:
http://www.wired.com/poli...3/02/57568

[This message has been edited by Bob L. (4/15/2009)]

Rickenhawk is a proud veteran of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists, wingnut division

A distinction I obviously share with the current POTUS. Or as you know him, the pinup above the headboard.

Did W ever declare war on Privacy?

http://www.youtube.com/wa...MoTkIfw0vs

[This message has been edited by Rick Kuchynka (4/15/2009)]

You probably have a pilonidal cyst like the pinup above your bed, Rush Limbaugh.

Wow, you know more about Rush than almost anyone. Unrequited?

All starting to make sense. You trash Bush, but everytime we look, you're really touting Bush on steroids.

http://www.eff.org/deepli...-than-bush
In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's

It's an especially disappointing argument to hear from the Obama Administration. As a candidate, Senator Obama lamented that the Bush Administration "invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court." He was right then, and we're dismayed that he and his team seem to have forgotten.

Sad as that is, it's the Department Of Justice's second argument that is the most pernicious. The DOJ claims that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying - that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes.

This is a radical assertion that is utterly unprecedented. No one - not the White House, not the Justice Department, not any member of Congress, and not the Bush Administration - has ever interpreted the law this way.

[This message has been edited by Rick Kuchynka (4/15/2009)]

Nope - just did a little Googling, little buddy!

Lots of folks know that your hero Rush avoided the War b/c of a cyst on his arse.

http://www.snopes.com/mil...mbaugh.asp

Some of us don't listen to or do research on Rush.

This whole tea-party idea is an incredible waste of time and energy. There is only one way to deal with the tax situation in this country. You either have to go make a lot more money or a lot less. Waiting on Washington to do anything leads only to disappointment. The time would be better spent trying to make an extra buck and become so filthy rich that the taxes you pay are pittance. At a minimum, one should make enough to hire a good account to shelter ones assets.

This whole tea-party idea is an incredible waste of time and energy. There is only one way to deal with the tax situation in this country. You either have to go make a lot more money or a lot less.

--------

Or, you could just change the number of exemptions on your W-4!

Tell me why it would be good if I made a lot less money.

After taking all of the legal deductions, my effective Federal tax rate in 2008 was around 18% of my adjusted gross income (AGI).

So you're telling me that I should try and make $50,000 less this year so my tax rate could go down. Hmmmm - doesn't make too much sense, does it?

[This message has been edited by Bob L. (4/16/2009)]

Tell me why it would be good if I made a lot less money.

Because that's how you roll when you're "Going Galt"

Is there a Carnivore black box attaced to every ISP in the continental United States?

Is the Total information Awareness program actually in effect?

Who filed the Jewel vs. NSA lawsuit?

Is Rush Limbaugh the de facto head of one of the major parties in the United States?

Isn't this thread about Tea Parties?

ARE ANY OF US IN TOUCH WITH REALITY?

Hmm... perhaps Derf is on to something.

A philosophy we can all enjoy: Palpito Ergo Sum

(Yes, I'm sure the latin isn't correct. But it's close enough)

"So you're telling me that I should try and make $50,000 less this year so my tax rate could go down. Hmmmm - doesn't make too much sense, does it"

Context, Bob, Context

Which is why I concluded my post that becoming filthy rich is the better option. There are days however when a cabin out in the pine hills sounds pretty appealing to me.

Bridgier--

"I suspect it, therefore it is?"

Well, Ricardo, you can go play Unabomber anytime you want to.

I think I'll just continue on as is...

Maybe...

Palpare Ego Ergo Sum

That's latinglish, by the way

We could ask joey or urijah to translate it.

Or it could mean "We are stroking our own egos?"

I chose that rather than the alternative-- "I am stroking my own ego." which could have been interpreted as slamming me.

Wait a minute . . .

I was going for "I touch myself, therefore I am" - but my latin skills are rudimentary at best..

"Who filed the Jewel vs. NSA lawsuit?"

They tried to take her small hands, but she's going to court claiming they are her own.

Your foolish games are tearing me apart, Buck.

Another thread I really shouldn't be involved in.

Is there a Carnivore black box attaced to every ISP in the continental United States?

Given the way it works, that probably wouldn't be necessary. But Carnivore was only the tip of the iceberg. Clinton/Gore wanted the (SSL) keys to the kingdom as well. The internet would be an infinitely different place. Ironically, one of the many you can thank for the way it is is one of your favorite Nazis, John Ashcroft.

Is the Total information Awareness program actually in effect?

Probably yes and no. Not on the scale they'd dreamed of. But I'm sure more goes on than anyone fully knows. Important to look back to point 1 though. At least today you can 'lock your door' so to speak. Had the Clinton admin's wishes been combined with the Bush admin's, virtually every piece of data would've been within easy reach. Ironically there's another bill before Congress that would again grant Obama sweeping powers over the internet. We need to quit playing this game.

Who filed the Jewel vs. NSA lawsuit?

Actually, the EFF. The same people who now say Obama's position is worse than Bush's.

Is Rush Limbaugh the de facto head of one of the major parties in the United States?

No.

Isn't this thread about Tea Parties?

Has any thread on mc.com ever stuck to one topic?

ARE ANY OF US IN TOUCH WITH REALITY?

Judging from the time we all spend here, probably no.

Pretty close, Rick. Really close.

But I'm going to have to disagree with you on several fronts on the Carnivore question only. The simple answer is "No." Whatever the original intentions were of the Clinton/Gore camp, the reality is the balance of powers actuually worked to protect individual liberties. Besides, the Clinton Administration just thought they should have control of the internet because Al Gore thought he invented it.

I also have never used the "N" word (that's Nazi) to describe anyone outside of radio and television commentators. Besides, what did you call FDR?

Ironically there's another bill before Congress that would again grant Obama sweeping powers over the internet. We need to quit playing this game

Gets a big "I agree."

[This message has been edited by Derf Bergman (4/17/2009)]