Senator Dick Lugar accurately notes that the Tea Party killed GOP chances of getting a majority in the senate and conservatives and Tea Partiers are mad about it or something. If youre annoyed at what he says here then explain how it isn’t 100% true. You guys could have taken the senate seats of the Harry Reid (Nevada) as well as Barack Obama (illinois) and Joe Biden (Delaware) but you effed it up with crazy candidates who weren’t ready for primetime and only got the illinois seat out of those 3. Think of the PR headlines you COULD have had but missed out on – not to mention the legislative control to get your agenda going – “GOP takes control of senate by ousting the Majority leader and taking the President and Vice Presidents vacated senate seats!”. You coulda been somebody, kid. but you screwed it up. Lugar is right to say what he said and I have no idea why anyone is complaining about it.
Tag: Tea Party
Garofalo still embarrassing me with childish accusations
I can’t help but like Janeane Garofalo even though she can’t help but make irresponsible and unsupported allegations of bigotry against people she disagree’s with. The day the Tea Party began, Janeane jumped on the talking point that its all about racism, which i’m totally down with if one can defend it but… she hasn’t.
I sympathize with her conflict of wanting to be loved by everyone but not shying away from what you believe in even though you know it will cause more people to possibly unjustifiably dislike you. I wish she wouldn’t whine about being “punished” over calling people racist for no good reason. Due to my desperate want to justify my irrational positive attitude toward her, I have been searching for an explanation of wtf she’s talking about. Especially since I dont care about the Tea Party, so if she has a good example of why it’s a racist movement then I’ll me all too happy to throw them under the bus and run back and forth all over them with ridicule. Except she appears to have nothing… On Real Time with Bill Maher (where she also agreed with me that Anthony Weiner should still run for Mayor – though I think he should wait an election cycle before his comeback), on Mark Marons podcast and here on Keith Olbermanns show: they’re racist cuz they’re racist and it’s obvious and she’s just calling it like it is and you’re a jerk if you say boo about it. ug… The only example I’ve ever heard her give was that there was a tea party sign that said something along the lines of “What you talkin bout Willis?” from Diff’rent Strokes. I had no idea that Diff’rent Strokes was a racist show and Garofalo did not explain why that one silly sign was actually an example of racial hatred that tarred the nationwide movement for smaller government.
In the clip below, I share a similar conflict to hers of wanting to be loved but am compelled to speak truth – except it’s that I want TO love [her] but am compelled to point out how colossally retarded what she’s saying is.
As her and Keith have a friendly discussion on exactly how evil the Tea Party is, she actually says that her answer to “what makes you think the Tea Party is racist?” is “what makes you think it isn’t?”…. let that sink in a little…
Before that she makes a legit point that there is racism all over the world, and there is no reason to think it would go away under a black President. but then… she just… this is too painful to go on. I feel like I’m beating up a really adorable 9 year old by picking apart just how unintelligent these comments are, so just watch the video courtesy of the Daily Caller and make your own conclusions on the rest while I go watch old 90s footage of her and cry.
Well, just ONE more comment, because it was at least posed as an actual question even though she meant its argumentative proof (which Olbermann snarkily agrees with): the Tea Party started under Bush in response to his big government spending and bailouts, so their first protest of the guy who was elected by saying he would do more of that is literally the most predictable thing you could have expected form them. C’mon dude. First tell the truth, THEN give your opinion. Protesting someone you disagree with isn’t de facto evidence that you’re a closet Klansmen.
PSA for Teabaggers Video
I saw this a year or two ago when it was originally released by whoever made it and speculated at the time that it might have been done by tea party people to make opposition to them look retarded (using something as low-maintenance as a beach as their chief example and then immediately going outside america for alleged illustration of “libertarianism”) but ive seen it used positively by a lot of people since then so i assume its intended to be real. which is… weird.
The description on youtube says “You should be forcibly moved to Somalia to live in your libertarian utopia.” um… why? Not exactly fair since the other side can’t say it back to the people who advocate bigger government since they can’t ask for them to be forcibly moved to a Communist utopia, as they’ve all crumbled and disappeared.
I like big government in a lot of areas and have never bought the libertarian line of people being “smart enough to make their own decisions” in every and all areas (hint: people are stupid and need guidance and rules) but it is stupidly insulting to imply that America’s government expansion is whats keeping us from being Somalia – or even that anything like Somalia is the logical conclusion of American libertarian policy. “Government isn’t the solution to our problems, it IS the problem and now you have cholera”… cuz.. libertarian.
Whenever i ask anyone to explain the logic behind it, they just get angry that i pointed out how much sense it doesnt make and since I don’t really care about the Tea Party as an issue or movement, I let them drop it, but anyone reading is welcome to explain this to me… Public land that everyone can enjoy paid by the public is equal to private benefits for individuals paid by the public, how? i could imagine teabaggers making an equally silly video – say, where they claim the government wants to do so much for you that they plan to have union workers wipe your ass for you or something. That’d be an okay satire on the fact that unions prevent individuals from doing things themselves (like shoveling a snowy street) so the union workers can do it. but would anyone actually claim that that is a legit argument the say the anti-teabaggers are passing around this video as if it made logical sense?
UPDATE: American brainwash still makes my default position want to be with the union thugs out protesting across the country but…dude… the Tea Party people are complaining about being forced to pay more for other peoples benefits while the union people are whining about having to pay slightly more of their own benefits…
UPDATE: the video above was shared with me on facebook and I posted this blog of my reaction to it in response.
My response is that it only sounds kind of confused if you think anyone anywhere, including the most vocal of libertarians is advocating that this country be run without government. the blog is confusing because it rejects instead of accepts the strawman fallacy that literally anyone with any presence, power or influence has ever said anything like what the video or your 2nd of the 3 comments says. It only sounds kind of confused if you think anyone anywhere, including the most vocal of libertarians is advocating that this country be run without government. the blog is confusing because it rejects instead of accepts the strawman fallacy that literally anyone with any presence, power or influence has ever said anything like what the video or your 2nd of the 3 comments says.
So I don’t defend the things I bitch about because I’m not bitching about libertarianism or progressivism or conservatives or liberals – I’m anti-fallacy whichever side it’s present on. So even though I disagree with some libertarian philosophy, that doesn’t make me advocate unfair attacks on it. That’s always a bad idea. attack stuff you disagree with based on whatever you disagree with – not by doing the equivalent of calling it’s mother a whore (although, to be fair: Libertarianism’s mother probably was a whore. they DO idolize Ayn Rand after all…).
This Exists: Rush Limbaugh now selling bottled tea
I… don’t know how I should feel about this. My gut reaction is to deride this some how but.. other than finding it too expensive ($2 a bottle), it looks fine for what it is. Political personality seeks to cash in on current political movement he agrees with by selling product tie-in. Sounds legit. it’s just… so… dude… Tea party Tea? Rush Limbaugh Tea?… ug….
My next reaction is guilt that I was predisposed to hate on this seemingly legit product rollout. In fact, I’m such a jerk that after being unable to find any holes in this on my own, I actually went searching for criticism of this new venture to spark alive whatever part of my brain was failing on this. So far I’ve only found similar “wow…this is silly” surprise commentary and over-the-top cynicism that rests entirely on the old Marxist meme of everything that earns a profit by definition cheats the consumer and/or anything right wing is nothing but wicked corporate greed. Yawn…
The conservative movement is primarily a means by which the wealth of rabid right-wingers is redistributed to celebrities. Sometimes the money comes from billionaires, who know exactly what they’re buying when they fund advocacy groups and think tanks, but the whole scheme is basically powered by regular right-wing folks who are kept riled up and angry enough to keep sending checks to frauds and buying books full of alarming lies.
Limbaugh is donating a percentage of the profits to a military charity, but isn’t misleading with his sales pitch. If you watch the video of his announcement on the show, he has no shame about this being a for-profit venture which just happens to have a charity component as opposed to the other way around. Bill O’Reilly, on the other hand makes no money on his endless streams of merch, donating 100% of the profits to charity.
So as long as the buyer isn’t being duped and as long as the product is of average (or better, one hopes) quality, then there’s really nothing wrong with this and haters have no valid argument against it beyond “this is silly”, which it totally is, but whatever. You’re gonna tell me Lady Gaga merch isn’t silly?
Selling overpriced versions of every-day products with celebrity branding is a fine American tradition that serves both the enthusiast/fanatic consumer and the economy. It is the business model behind every single celebrity perfume (Michael Jordan, Kim Kardashian, 50 cent, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Simpson, Tiger Woods – just to name a few). Stores can’t keep Justin Bieber nail polish on the shelves (I know. I’ve checked), and that is pretty much the epitome of the “what product does our fan base use that we can sell them by putting this name on?” marketing strategy.
Limbaugh plays this with a straight face, lacking any ironic or self deprecating tells that he realizes this is silly, leading me to believe he doesn’t, which is partly what makes me confused on how I should be feeling about this.
In contrast, Bill O’Reilly has admitted that he finds almost all of his Factor Gear products to be utterly ridiculous and often laughs when giving his sales pitches of them. That’s the way to do it… be self aware, be shameless about pushing it, and donate the proceeds to charity. It’s one of the reasons I own a “The Rain Stops Here” O’Reilly Factor umbrella (among other fine items. not kidding).
Limbaugh is doing parts of that here, so whatever. I approve. I won’t be buying any, but I approve.
