The Tea Party Is.....

mac said:

He's got a long way to go to beat Carter.

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I think he's already done it.

Poor Jimmy, being the worst president was one thing he did well. Now he's met his match. He's still the worst former president though. There needs to come a point when they just go away before they die.

Today, I get first hand experience with the tea party. As I have mentioned in the past, I work for a State Representative in Lansing, Michigan as chief of staff. Yesterday we had between 5 - 10,000 union people gathering on the lawn protesting the Governor's budget proposals. It was the single largest crowd of the season and there have been many. Today, we get the tea party doing their thing. This morning as I walked from the parking lot on the capitol grounds to the office building, there was a very large bright pink pig at least the size of a large van, in front of the capitol buidling. On it were written some slogans including "Cut Pork", "Cut Benefits" and "Shared Sacrifice". The last is the PR mantra of the Governor to get across his budget cuts and tax increases.

I will file a report later on what happens here.

Hay, will you be talking to them? Hope so.

Barbbtx said:

Here's just a few of the dem nutters. I bet you're angry.

YouTube - 3-25-2010_Hank_Johnson_Guam_Tip_Over.wmv
Congressman John Conyers: "Why Read The Bill?" - Bing Videos
YouTube - Nancy Pelosi: Dumber than Soap
Pelosi: Unemployment Checks Fastest Way to Create Jobs - FoxNews.com
Newsvine - Joe Biden: We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt

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I'm not angry at all. Nor do I contend that there are not democrats who are nutters, or extreme. There are republicans who are as well. But the tea party is based on anger with no real coherent message. And they have produced pretty silly, far right, extreme right candidates. This is a mere fact. Not something to be angry about.

haymarket said:

Today, I get first hand experience with the tea party. As I have mentioned in the past, I work for a State Representative in Lansing, Michigan as chief of staff.

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uhm all three chief of staffs in lansig are listed as female.

Yesterday we had between 5 - 10,000 union people gathering on the lawn protesting the Governor's budget proposals. It was the single largest crowd of the season and there have been many. Today, we get the tea party doing their thing. This morning as I walked from the parking lot on the capitol grounds to the office building, there was a very large bright pink pig at least the size of a large van, in front of the capitol buidling. On it were written some slogans including "Cut Pork", "Cut Benefits" and "Shared Sacrifice". The last is the PR mantra of the Governor to get across his budget cuts and tax increases.

I will file a report later on what happens here.

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Wait, no racist signs? How odd... :roll:


BTW, it's Thursday, why aren't these union thugs at work? Are they being paid?

Barbbtx said:

Wanting to get back to a more limited government is not extreme, it is very sensible.
This is extreme and unfortunately she is not the only one in congress who is a closet socialist.[video]http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/maxine-waters-d-slip-of-the-tongue-reveals-true-intentions/e493f38cb5019afc08efe493f38cb5019afc08ef-527799551278?q=maxine+waters+socialism&FORM=VIRE3[/video]

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If you see socialist everywhere, you are extreme, if not a little paranoid as well. :coffeepap

Barbbtx said:

I think he's already done it.

Poor Jimmy, being the worst president was one thing he did well. Now he's met his match. He's still the worst former president though. There needs to come a point when they just go away before they die.

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what a sweet thing to say

haymarket said:

Today, I get first hand experience with the tea party. As I have mentioned in the past, I work for a State Representative in Lansing, Michigan as chief of staff. Yesterday we had between 5 - 10,000 union people gathering on the lawn protesting the Governor's budget proposals. It was the single largest crowd of the season and there have been many. Today, we get the tea party doing their thing. This morning as I walked from the parking lot on the capitol grounds to the office building, there was a very large bright pink pig at least the size of a large van, in front of the capitol buidling. On it were written some slogans including "Cut Pork", "Cut Benefits" and "Shared Sacrifice". The last is the PR mantra of the Governor to get across his budget cuts and tax increases.

I will file a report later on what happens here.

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Its a shame you cant file a first hand report on the actions of those union members in Wisconsin, huh?

VanceMack said:

Its a shame you cant file a first hand report on the actions of those union members in Wisconsin, huh?

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what are "5-10k" union workerd doing there on a thursday morning? another fake sick day?



It's funny how he parrots the AFCLIO's numbers when the only picture I can find is this highly cropped one:

Barbbtx said:

Hay, will you be talking to them? Hope so.

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Yes Barb, we will walk among the crowd and talk to as many people as possible. We always introduce ourselves and look for constituents and this will be no different.

ReverendHellh0und said:

what are "5-10k" union workerd doing there on a thursday morning? another fake sick day?



It's funny how he parrots the AFCLIO's numbers when the only picture I can find is this highly cropped one:

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Golly gee whiz but the Rev sure is a sharpie. He has blown the cover off this whole scandal exposed the fact that we only had 73 folks come out and we shoved them altogether for the photo.

In case you want a different opinion other than the Rev, here is Michigans largest daily

Thousands protest in Lansing against governor's policies | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

they said there were more than 5 thousand in attendance with another listing it as more than 7,000.

One different thing about this rally was that it started late morning and lasted until well after 6 PM. Most rallies here are a few hours and by 2 PM everyone has gone home. Because of that, they had two shifts of people who came in - some leaving for a 3PM job start and others arriving after a 3 PM job ending shift. As a result, there were between 4,500 and 5,000 people on site at any given time but the numbers of actual participants was much higher than that.

haymarket said:

Golly gee whiz but the Rev sure is a sharpie. He has blown the cover off this whole scandal exposed the fact that we only had 73 folks come out and we shoved them altogether for the photo.

In case you want a different opinion other than the Rev, here is Michigans largest daily

Thousands protest in Lansing against governor's policies | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

they said there were more than 5 thousand in attendance with another listing it as more than 7,000.

One different thing about this rally was that it started late morning and lasted until well after 6 PM. Most rallies here are a few hours and by 2 PM everyone has gone home. Because of that, they had two shifts of people who came in - some leaving for a 3PM job start and others arriving after a 3 PM job ending shift. As a result, there were between 4,500 and 5,000 people on site at any given time but the numbers of actual participants was much higher than that.

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Again, why aren't they at work?

haymarket said:

Yes Barb, we will walk among the crowd and talk to as many people as possible. We always introduce ourselves and look for constituents and this will be no different.

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Somehow I will doub't you will be talking to any in the tea party. :roll:

ReverendHellh0und said:

Again, why aren't they at work?

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They all called out sick with the "throw a tantrum to protect my outlandish taxpayer funded benefits" parasite.

ReverendHellh0und said:

Again, why aren't they at work?

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You did not read the explaination about the two work shifts and how the crowd changed to accomodate the work schedules? see post 711.

For somebody that pretends to hate BIG BROTHER GOVERNMENT sticking its nose in the lives of people, you certainly have no trouble sticking your nose into the activities of others.

Somehow I will doub't you will be talking to any in the tea party

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Its a free country and you can doubt anything you want to doubt. When the tea party had their first big series of rallies in April of 2009, I greatly enjoyed going to two of them near my home and talking to people to get the mood of the crowd. It was very informative. As a 33 year teacher of Government and American History, this sort of stuff draws me like a moth to a flame.

haymarket said:

You did not read the explaination about the two work shifts and how the crowd changed to accomodate the work schedules? see post 711.

For somebody that pretends to hate BIG BROTHER GOVERNMENT sticking its nose in the lives of people, you certainly have no trouble sticking your nose into the activities of others.

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This is a discussion board. I am not the government. Keep up.

Its a free country and you can doubt anything you want to doubt. When the tea party had their first big series of rallies in April of 2009, I greatly enjoyed going to two of them near my home and talking to people to get the mood of the crowd. It was very informative. As a 33 year teacher of Government and American History, this sort of stuff draws me like a moth to a flame.

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I don't believe you, given you thinking anyone to the right of is an extremist, and the constant vitriol you spew towards anyone who disagrees with you, I highly doubt that you talk to the tea party at all and if you did it would be a contemptuous affair. :shrug:



Also I love how you complain about my criticism, and in the next paragraph call it a free country.... Cake and eating it, and all that you know? :lol:

digsbe said:

They all called out sick with the "throw a tantrum to protect my outlandish taxpayer funded benefits" parasite.

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Haymarkets claiming "two shifts", do you buy that? :lamo

ReverendHellh0und said:

This is a discussion board. I am not the government. Keep up.






I don't believe you, given you thinking anyone to the right of is an extremist, and the constant vitriol you spew towards anyone who disagrees with you, I highly doubt that you talk to the tea party at all and if you did it would be a contemptious affair. :shrug:

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I could not care less what you believe. You have made it very clear that you see me as THE ENEMY.

haymarket said:

I could not care less what you believe. You have made it very clear that you see me as THE ENEMY.

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I don't view you as an enemy at all. Nor a threat, nor of consequence. :shrug:

ReverendHellh0und said:

Haymarkets claiming "two shifts", do you buy that? :lamo

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I am not "selling". Read the news accounts and you will see the hours perfectly agree with the information I provided. But who cares what you think anyways? Not me.

btw - our sixth floor office window looks out over the front lawn of the capitol. Right now, it looks like a crowd of several hundred to perhaps 1,000 has gathered for a noon rally. I will be going over in a few minutes.

ReverendHellh0und said:

I don't view you as an enemy at all. Nor a threat, nor of consequence. :shrug:

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that must be the reason why you never respond to any of my posts.

haymarket said:

that must be the reason why you never respond to any of my posts.

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that's a lie, you adress me.

haymarket said:

I think the rev is right on the idea that it is a combination of different things including a strain of libertarianism.

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I responded to this. :shrug:

Here is the tea party report from Lansing, Michigan.

The crowd seems to be about 1/3 the size of the union crowd yesterday. If there were 7,500 people here yesterday, take 1/3 of that. If you use 5,000 as the figure yesterday, take a third of that. It will be interesting to see how the news reports estimate it. But they occupied about 1/3 of the real estate that the crowd did yesterday.

Average person was middle aged. Almost all white although there were some African Americans throughout the crowd - I would estimate about less than 20 to 30 of the total crowd. They started on time and sang The Star Spangled Banner and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. That opening mirrored the opening of the union rally yesterday who did the same thing. Some local country singer sang a few songs - the one that went over the biggest was the Toby Keith song about the red, white and blue with line about shoving a boot up your ass. Sorry - but I do not follow comtemporary music and do not know the title of that one. Several people spoke including the states Attorney General and Secretary of State. Dick Morris was in town and he gve the big speech which centered around not letting the State help build a new bridge to Canada and fiscal restraint.

I took lots of pictures with my phone. When I get home I will see if my wife can help me upload these things as I was the last person in the world to get a cell phone this last January and hate the damn thing and know precious little about it. But I hope they come out alright.

I talked to many very nice people who were more than happy to allow me to take their photo when I asked them. In fact, not one person turned down my request. Lots of American flags and the "don't tread on me flags". Lots of home made signs, a few rather clever that I photographed.

Many signs were anti-Obama but I would not call hardly any of them overtly racist - or even mildly racist. There was one I shot and I will allow you here to make up your own mind about the Obama caricature.

The main issue people seemed concerned about was TAXES and how their taxes are spent.

One big difference between this crowd and others like yesterday and over past weeks was the lack of any other capitol activity. Normally a larger group splits off and takes over the capitol building filling both galleries but today the galleries were empty and the tea party people did not go in the actual capitol building. Also, when there are these large protests, our office building offices get deluged with people and that did not happen either. You would not even know others were here. Maybe they will come to visit when the rally ends. if so I will post an update.

Its still going on and I am going back across the street for more.

So no racist signs.... Are you now changing your tone with your wild accusations of racism in the Tea Party?


How about the union guys, did you count the number of blacks? Why did you leave that out? why is the racial makeup of the tea party important but not that of the union?


See this is the problem I have with accusations of racism in the tea party, here you have two groups and only one group is checked for its racial make up. I find that disturbing.