Bringing Teh Crazy To A Whole New (Local) Level

I might be giving the Tea Baggers a little more credit than they deserve, but I think they actually learned something from this past election. After winning only 32% of the elections, mostly in smaller jurisdictional races, as opposed to statewide Senate races, they've decided to think smaller. How small? They now are turning their attention towards local school board elections. This is not surprising from a group that considers President Obama an elitist for having, you know, an education, but the scary part is that their intent is cutting spending where it already has bee cut too much: education.
We can only hope they'll rein in pointless spending, like in Texas, where old text books are being replaced with ones that espouse a conservative point of view at a cost of $1.9 billion. Because while one can put a price on education, indoctrination is a different story.
Another part of the plan is the continued union busting, because apparently uniting together is good for some Americans, when workers do it, suddenly it's socialism.
So while Lockheed Martin, or KBR,orHalliburton can take advantage of the self-perpetuating war on "terror", it's those damned elitist teachers who are demanding a living wage that are ruining this country.

Tea Baggers, Terrorists and the Mob Mentality

Glenn Greenwald ran a post about how readily people accept what they are told, especially by our leaders. Essentially, the government claims that it can now kill anyone, even Americans overseas, by deeming them terrorists with out any due process. That whole "constitution" thing went out with the Patriot Act. And that people who may have opposed it's usage by the previous administration have no problem with President Obama making similar declarations. Much the same way the charges of socialist and communist are leveled at an obvious corporatist like our president by those on the right because they feel uncomfortable being led by someone with a darker skin tone, despite any empirical evidence.
On the right, the same thing is happening to the Tea Party movement. What began as a Libertarian anti tax movement in Chicago in 2008 has mushroomed and metamorphosed into a another arm of the Republican Party, being told to embrace the policies of that party or risk losing support from the movement itself. And while some (read the comments) may resist, the mob mentality will eventually grab hold and the GOP knows it can count on the support of those who while not ideologically aligned with Sarah Palin, will feel she is a better choice than another term of President Obama. For obvious and previously stated reasons.
It's the same mentality that has changed a championship game between the AFL and the NFL (now both the NFC and AFC arms of the NFL) 45 years ago into what is quickly becoming the national holiday. In these times of green thinking, how many of these plastic party supplies will end up rotting in a landfill? While some people will watch to root on their favorite team, more people will watch the Super Bowl for the ads than the game, which in a time of DVRs, is quite a trick on the part of advertisers. And a sign of sickness infecting the mob mentality, turning most of a nation into drunken drooling zombies, turning their memories into advertisements, their minds into pliable mush for the coming corporate state.

And They Wonder Why No One Trusts Their Judgement

Outside a small circle of Americans, Fox News, and far right whack jobs, no one really takes the Tea Party Movement seriously. And, honestly, how can you? Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachmann, and Sarah Palin, their de facto leaders have proven themselves to be a couple sandwiches short of a picnic. They claim to be Christian while displaying utter contempt for their fellow human who does not believe as they do.
And the name these conservatives chose for themselves? Well, now that they know it's other definition, Teabaggers don't like the label they have been given. By themselves. No body gave it to them, they chose it for themselves, and now, they don't like to be called it.
I can understand them not using the Urban Dictionary, after all, these people are suburbanites. And urban connotes something more akin to President Obama than they care to be at any given time. How out of the loop did they have to had been to not know what popular usage of the phrase meant? I'm sure they think that a hot karl has something to do with Karl Rove.
Conservatives like to play the victim when they're not in charge. But in this case, they're victims of nothing but their own ignorance.

Teabagger Smackdown

I'll admit I was a little bit confused about last weekend's Tea Party (Teabaggers) Protest in Washington DC last weekend. Just what are they protesting? Government spending? Where were they when the Bush administration was spending more money than any previous administration combined? Health Car Reform? Do they like the possibility of being denied by their carrier for pre-existing conditions? Do they care so little for fellow Americans that they'd like to have them die because they are unable to afford health care? Or is is taxes? Did they not notice while in DC that everything around them, every symbol of our country's (former) greatness was built and maintained using tax payer's money? Or is it because they didn't mind all this stuff when we had a white president?
It was last night, while the kids were watching WWE Smackdown (for the sole purpose of mocking it) that it hit me: Teabaggers are the political equivalent of wrestling fans. Ignorant people being cynically manipulated and exploited for their stupidity. They both carry signs that stretch the boundaries of their ability to write legibly and spell correctly. They both are angry when their "guy" loses a fight/election. These people are not the bottom of the gene pool, they're whatever is left after the gene pool has been drained and plowed over to make a subdivision of McMansions.
Like the wrestling fans who insist that it's all real and nothing is sripted, Teabaggers are blind to the obvious as well. As Bill Moyers points out:

"Something these marchers who came to Washington at Armey's urging could hardly be expected to know. For most of his adult life, their leader has benefited from just the kind of government tax-supported health care he's fighting to keep them from having too."

Only Vince McMahon can be more cynically exploitative.