I'll give that a big Oh, Snap!

We have so many Tea Party readers and followers. To lose all zero of them due to our September cover would be devastating.

— EBONY (@EBONYMag) August 7, 2013

(h/t: Doktor Zoom)

Rhetorical Question of the Day

Hey, anybody remember when the nascent Teabag Revolution was focusing laserlike on economic issues, and excluding all that Culture War stuff?
    -- Doghouse Riley

Elizabeth Warren, via Rebecca Schoenkopf

Here Is Your Gif Of Elizabeth Warren Trying And Failing Not To Laugh At Scott Brown

(bigger here (also, context))

Wingnut ad of the day

Saw this on one of those biased librul websites:

Any guesses where it led?

(answer)

Line of the Day: 2011-11-29

Twitter bio line, actually:

When you go from Eisenhower to Nixon to Reagan to W. to Palin to Bachmann to Perry to Cain to Newt, it must be difficult to believe in evolution.
    -- Pete Nicely/@LOLGOP

Great avatar, too.

(h/t: Digby, RTing)

Line of the Day: 2011-11-17

This week, the House of Representatives took time out of its busy schedule of going home for vacation to remind us, once again, why it has the strong support of about as many people who believe Rick Perry should be the next president of the United States. It approved a bill requiring states with strict gun regulations to honor concealed weapon carry permits issued in states where the gun rules are slightly more lax than the restrictions on who can dispense ice cream cones from a truck.

“This bill is about freedom,” said Representative Chris Gibson, a Republican from upstate New York. In this Congress, it’s hard to find anything that isn’t. Cutting Social Security is about freedom. Killing funds for Planned Parenthood is about freedom. Once again, we are reminded that, as Janis Joplin used to sing, freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
    -- Gail Collins

Line of the Day: 2011-11-14

In re last Saturday night:

The sheer ignorance, callowness, narrowness of mind and shallowness of thought was greater than any debate I recall on this subject ever.
    -- Andrew Sullivan

Say what you will about him, when he's on, Andrew Sullivan can deliver a righteous rant with the best of them. Worth reading the whole thing.

For a shorter, equivalent take, see here (via). The latter link is worth clicking for the Blingee alone.

Good morning! It is time for your latest hit of Bachmannia!

Michele Bachmann Is Completely Unaware That China Is Communist

Actually, it's the last sentence that's the most troubling.

Welp, there goes the Christmas bundling deal

Looks like the next phase of soaking the True Believers has hit a wall, reports Jack, in the Comments under the post on altruism.

And they could have made such sweet coin together.

I'm not much of a fan of "THIS is what's wrong with our country" pronouncements

However ...

Only one side, in fact, seems to be trying — the Democrats — and it is being far too accommodating …

In case you aren't already tired of seeing what mindless anti-tax fanaticism vs political invertebrates really means, have a look at "Tales From the Congressional Supercommittee."

Ding Dong

Apparently, all of Michele Bachmann's paid New Hampshire campaign staffers have quit. Go Lexington! On Concord! (?)

While looking for news of that after seeing it mentioned on Twitter, I came across an even more delicious headline:

Michele Bachmann ignored by S.F. protesters

"It's hard to impress a movement that only knows what it is against."

Bill Keller's piece on what the teabaggers have done to the Republican Party, especially as it reflects in the comedy that is their 2012 presidential race, is worth a read.

The latter part is about Governor Goodhair, as that great and greatly missed Texan dubbed him. If you'd like more on that theme, I'd also recommend, following Keller, "We Read Rick Perry's 'Fed Up!' So You Don't Have To," from the Texas Tribune.

(h/t: KK, via email)

Well, hallelujah!

Of course, politicians of all stripes are not faring well among the public these days. But in data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” …

(source)

Sad that it had to be said, ...

... but good on Paul Krugman for saying it anyway.

Entre la cruz y la espada

Which is Spanish for What's a teabagger to do?

(alt. video link)

Más.

(h/t: Amy Sullivan and Wikipedia)

(alt. video link)

[Added] See also this post by Amy Sullivan, in which she busts The rePubOLITICO for falling for Dreamy McSerious's spin.

In shocking news, Republicans caught playing dirty tricks

Have you been paying attention to the special election to be held Tue 24 May for the House seat in NY-26? (This is the seat that opened up after second-term Republican Chris "the Craigslist Congressman" Lee resigned this past February.) As you may know, this election has become of national interest due to its status as a referendum of sorts on the GOP's near-unanimous support for the Ryan plan to destroy Medicare, and the consequent panic by senior Republicans from Boehner to Rove as their erstwhile safe seat now appears to be winnable by the Democrat, Kathy Hochul.

There's a longish article in the NYT about this race, which fans of inside baseball might enjoy. Here's a particularly delicious nugget:

And like Republican leaders in Washington, Ms. Corwin has found it difficult to grapple with the Tea Party movement, as she tries to fend off the aggressive candidacy of Jack Davis, who is running on the Tea Party line after failing to win the Republican nomination.

Concerned that Mr. Davis was draining support from Ms. Corwin, Republicans produced a wave of attacks on him, including circulating a much-publicized video that party operatives said showed Mr. Davis assaulting a young Republican volunteer who was tracking him with a camera.

But the attacks backfired after it was disclosed that the volunteer was Ms. Corwin’s chief of staff, a development that led the Davis camp to claim that Mr. Davis had been set up. Ms. Corwin was then barraged with questions from local reporters about her role in the episode.

Another interesting wrinkle: both Marco Rubio and Allen West have recorded phone messages urging support for the Republican candidate, not the Tea Party candidate. You'll recall that both Rubio and West were favorites of the teabaggers way back in 2010. I wonder if there will be any backlash for either of them.

P.S. Don't forget to visit JaneCorwin.org!

(x-posted)

Grownups Teabaggers in Charge!

If the federal government shuts down at midnight on Friday — which seems likely unless negotiations take a sudden turn toward rationality — it will not be because of disagreements over spending. It will be because Republicans are refusing to budge on these ideological demands:

• No federal financing for Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions. Instead, state administration of federal family planning funds, which means that Republican governors and legislatures will not spend them.

• No local financing for abortion services in the District of Columbia.

• No foreign aid to countries that might use the money for abortion or family planning. And no aid to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family-planning services.

• No regulation of greenhouse gases by the Environmental Protection Agency.

• No funds for health care reform or the new consumer protection bureau established in the wake of the financial collapse.

Abortion. Environmental protection. Health care. Nothing to do with jobs or the economy; instead, all the hoary greatest hits of the Republican Party, only this time it has the power to wreak national havoc: furloughing 800,000 federal workers, suspending paychecks for soldiers and punishing millions of Americans who will have to wait for tax refunds, Social Security applications, small-business loans, and even most city services in Washington. The damage to a brittle economy will be substantial.

Democrats have already gone much too far in giving in to the House demands for spending cuts. The $33 billion that they have agreed to cut will pull an enormous amount of money from the economy at exactly the wrong time, and will damage dozens of vital programs.

But it turns out that all those excessive cuts they volunteered were worth far less to the Republicans than the policy riders that are the real holdup to a deal. After President Obama appeared on television late Wednesday night to urge the two sides to keep talking, negotiators say, the issue of the spending cuts barely even came up. All the talk was about the abortion demands and the other issues.

The rest.

More here.

(x-posted)

How bad has it gotten?

When the Gray Lady puts it this bluntly in a news piece …

By its mix of deep cuts in taxes and domestic spending, and its shrinkage of the American safety net, the plan sets the conservative parameter of the debate over the nation’s budget priorities further to the right than at any time since the modern federal government began taking shape nearly eight decades ago.

… that is really saying something. Wingnut howling about Teh Librul Media notwithstanding.

All I can say is Josh Marshall is right and I hope Paul Krugman is wrong.

[Added] See also Steve Benen.

NYT Fail

The article about the latest teabagger rally in Washington, by Jennifer Steinhauer, currently near the top of the NYT's homepage, is a perfect example of how successfully the RWNM has intimidated the MSM. Not only is lots of space given to wingnut members of Congress like Pence and Bachmann without any context to illuminate how ridiculous their supposed goals are, there is no mention of the size of the "crowd."

According to FoxNews of all places, it measured in the dozens.

Also omitted from the article: any mention of the resurgent Birtherism among the Republican Party's base.

"The only decision I've made is I won't run against my dad."

Thus spake Rand Paul ...

... at an appearance in key primary state South Carolina on Monday.

Paul said that he would also visit Iowa and New Hampshire, because "I want the Tea Party to have an influence over who the nominee is in 2012."

Because they wouldn't have any influence otherwise?

(x-posted)