Tea Partiers and the Angry Left

Townhall.com ^ | March 3, 2010 | Emmett Tyrell

[Kaslin]

WASHINGTON -- Whatever happened to the mainstream media's high regard for "anger" in politics? From roughly the midterm elections of 2006 through the presidential election of 2008, the "Angry Left" seemed to grow in stature with the media. Liberal pundits spoke of it with a hush of awe. By the election of the Prophet Obama, the Angry Left had acquired a hallowed public status similar to that of the "muckraker" or the "consumerist," though no consumerist whom I ever have known has been agreeable company. Would you want to sit down to tea with, say, Ralph Nader? Certainly Ralph never has been known for his hearty laugh or elegant manners.

Yes, I said "tea." The word has become something of a red flag among the bien-pensants. Tea brings to mind Tea Parties, which for the bien-pensants means angry political activists, not angry political activists of the noble variety but angry political activists of the alarming variety. That is to say, activists variously inveighed against as members of the "extreme right," the "far right," the Reagan administration. The Tea Partiers supposedly are crazed and provincial -- or, as a recent chronicler of the Tea Party movement, John Avlon, puts it, "wingnuts."

Well, gratefully we now are getting some solid information about the Tea Partiers; and, though they are angry, they are apparently not homicidal, as one member of the Angry Left proved to be recently. I am thinking of professor Amy Bishop, who blew her top at a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and, police say, shot six of her colleagues, killing three. Years earlier, she shot her brother to death in an outburst that she survived free of criminal charges, possibly because of her family's political influence in her Braintree, Mass., hometown.

Between that shooting and her recent run-in with the law in Huntsville, Bishop came under suspicion of mailing a pipe bomb to a Harvard University medical doctor and was convicted of assaulting a woman in an International House of Pancakes in Peabody, Mass. Reports the Boston Herald, "a family source" described Bishop as "a far-left political extremist who was 'obsessed' with President Obama to the point of being off-putting." For obvious reasons, the identity of this "family source" has not been revealed. The source could be accused of having Tea Party sympathies.

The information we now are getting on the Tea Partiers is reassuring, at least to me. It comes from Eric O'Keefe, the head of a Chicago-based organization devoted to free markets and limited government, the Sam Adams Alliance. O'Keefe has surveyed 49 Tea Party leaders in 38 states and found that what angers these Tea Partiers' harbor is mostly benign. "They want to make a difference," as good-government types are wont to say. Seventy percent of them told O'Keefe they hope to "have a positive impact on the country." According to O'Keefe, they are neither "political junkies nor crusty right-wing extremists." Nearly half never have been involved in politics before. What angers them is the reckless federal spending of the Democrats in 2009.

It is this combination of anger and concern over profligate federal spending that seems to have the media's bien-pensants cooling their ardor for anger in politics. They contemplate the Tea Party protests, and their minds fill with visions of homicidal maniacs protesting the Internal Revenue Service and flying private planes into government buildings. In fact, when Andrew Joseph Stack III, a homicidal maniac angered by the IRS, flew his plane into the IRS offices in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 18, New York Times columnist Frank Rich could not get the Tea Partiers off his mind. He said it would be "glib and inaccurate" to link the murderer to the Tea Party movement. Yet that is precisely what Rich did in his Feb. 28 column, despite having read Stack's Web site manifesto, which expresses sentiments nothing like the mild sentiments discovered by O'Keefe.

In his manifesto, Stack howls against "the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church," "the monsters of organized religion," "presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies," the "rich" and the "wealthy." Actually, when I read these sentiments, I thought of Gore Vidal and was reassured knowing that Gore is, for a certitude, too old to qualify for a pilot's license. How Rich could read these sentiments and think of the Tea Partiers is difficult to fathom, though I am not very well-versed in the workings of a deranged mind and Rich has been mildly deranged for years.

Any time he takes up the matter of politics in his column, Rich becomes unhinged, usually drawing a conclusion that is precisely the opposite of the one the evidence available indicates. Certainly that is what Rich has done regarding Stack's manifesto. With its thunderclaps against organized religion, the Catholic Church, our 43rd president and the rich, Stack's manifesto is hardly the work of a Tea Partier. It is the work of an indignado of the Angry Left. I can understand Rich's embarrassment, if embarrassment it be.

[all the best]

If your country and your future is being destroyed, how could you not be a tad angry?

[ripley]

“Tea Partiers and The Angry Left”

Should read:

“Tea Partiers and The Adolescent, Psychotic Left”

IMHO

[Biggirl]

Goes to show that tea party people KNOW when to get angry when it is NEEDED and then after that, have some fun. :)

[Biggirl]

Well that is a good anger. The left have an-out-of-control anger.

[Biggirl]

The angry left have NOT GROWN UP.

[ETL]

MSNBC Host: We Ought to Rip Out Cheney’s Heart & Kick It Around (Audio)
Posted on February 26, 2010

ED SCHULTZ (01:59): I just want all of you to know that I get my entertainment through NewsBusters. (laughs, then in mincing voice)

How dare [we] Democrats make fun of Dick Cheney’s heart problems and turn it into a political football. (back to normal voice, to the extent possible) I can just hear some little weasel who’s writing that at NewsBusters. You’re my entertainment.

Bozell, Bozell and his bozo crew. You’re damn right, Dick Cheney’s heart’s a political football. We ought to rip it out and kick it around and stuff it back in him. I’m glad he didn’t tip over. He is the new poster child for health care in this country.

Hear the audio here.

http://www.stoptheaclu.com/2010/02/26/msnbc-host-we-ought-to-rip-out-cheney%E2%80%99s-heart-kick-it-around-audio/

[ETL]

Sandra Bernhard issues 'gang rape' warning to Sarah Palin

BY TRACY MILLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
September 19th 2008

Sandra Bernhard issued a blistering warning to Sarah Palin during a performance of her new one-woman show.

The Republican V.P. nom would be "gang-raped by my big black brothers" if she enters Manhattan, Bernhard said. Palin is said to be making a campaign stop in New York next week.

"[The gang rape comment] is part of a much larger, nuanced, and yes, provocative (that's what I do) piece from my show about racism, freedom, women's rights and the extreme views of Governor Sarah Palin, a woman who doesn't believe that other women should have the right to choose," Bernhard told the Daily News today.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/09/19/2008-09-19_sandra_bernhard_issues_gang_rape_warning-2.html

[ETL]

'I hope Rush’s kidneys fail'
--"comedian" Wanda Sykes

[ETL]

From NewsBusters.org, June 9, 2009...

Seven months after Election Day, and the attacks on Sarah Palin keep coming.

On Monday, CBS's David Letterman on the "Late Show" shamelessly went after the Alaska governor and her family during his opening monologue, as well as in his "Top Ten" list.

Top Ten Highlights Of Sarah Palin's Trip To New York

10. Visited New York landmarks she normally only sees from Alaska

9. Laughed at all the crazy-looking foreigners entering the U.N.

8. Made moose jerky on Rachael Ray

7. Keyed Tina Fey's car

6. After a wink and a nod, ended up with a kilo of crack

5. Made coat out of New York City rat pelts

4. Sat in for Kelly Ripa. Regis couldn't tell the difference.

3. Finally met one of those Jewish people Mel Gibson's always talking about

2. Bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her "slutty flight attendant" look

1. Especially enjoyed not appearing on Letterman

"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked-up by Alex Rodriguez."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/06/09/letterman-attacks-sarah-palins-slutty-flight-attendant-look
______________________________________________________

David Letterman's full 10-minute Late Show confession of his affairs with staff members here:
(his idiot audience laughed throughout)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVC3HohP8o4

[ETL]

Joe Stack (IRS plane crasher) ends his “manifesto” with this, a popular Karl Marx quote and a slap at Capitalism...

“The communist creed:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed:
From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.”

-Joe Stack (1956-2010)
____________________________________

['See text of the note' (manifesto) (CNN PDF file)]

[ETL]

"A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children - the youngest a third-grade boy - was a far-left political extremist who was "obsessed" with President Obama to the point of being off-putting."--Boston Herald, February 15, 2010

'Oddball' portrait of Amy Bishop emerges:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100215oddball_protrait_emerges_suspects_family_pals_offer_clues/srvc=home&position=0
___________________________________________________

"The woman accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville was a suspect in a 1993 attempted mail bombing, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

The report broke the day after it was learned that Bishop fatally shot her brother in Braintree in 1986.

More than fifteen years ago, Bishop worked with Sylvia Fluckiger at Children's Hospital in Boston.

"I thought she was an odd-ball. Maybe socially a little awkward," Fluckiger said.  "I felt she was a little bit sloppy working in the lab. But we were not friends. She came to do her experiments in our lab. I had my stuff to be done. We didn't hang out."

In 1993, Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were reportedly questioned about a mail bomb that was sent to the Newton home of Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Paul Rosenberg.

Colleagues at Children's Hospital were suspicious at the time, because Bishop was apparently angry at Dr. Rosenberg, although no one knew why.

http://www.necn.com/02/14/10/Amy-Bishop-at-time-of-1993-mail-bomb-inv/landing.html?blockID=180453&feedID=4215

[sauropod]

It’s a joy to read something this well written.

R Emmett, you rock!

[yoe]

The Tea Party movement is being painted as filled with "horrid & angry people" - we are not horrid but man we are indeed angry! Listening to one more hard sell by the community organizer yesterday, telling us "...the American people should have what congress has for health insurance...." That won some applause but quickly vanished into the murky waters of more mendacious Health Care promises which has little to do with Health and everything to do with power grabs...now that makes us angry.

'Ol Charlie Rangle has stepped aside, not down, but aside apparently still in the background like Van Jones and of course the Honorary Tax Cheat, Timmy Geithner along with a dozen other unsavory people Obama loves to have around him - Yes, many Americans are fed up and mighty angry with the Marxist in the White House. Obama wants to hear our voices, however, only those on the left will ever be heard. Now that really makes red blooded Americans madder 'n heck!

[yoe]

far-left political extremist who was "obsessed" with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.

Another Cindy Sheehan?

[MrB]

They steal our property, in which we’ve invested our lives,

and use it to empower and enrich themselves,
infringe on our freedom,
corrupt our society,
and indoctrinate our children against our values.

Sure, we should just “take it”.

[MrB]

Here’s THE example of when anger is needed:

John 2:15

[MrB]

Does anyone else smell poop?

Seriously, did someone poop in here?

Come on guys, who pooped?

[FrankR]

"The Tea Party movement is being painted as filled with "horrid & angry people..."

Those doing the "painting" are just another version of those attention-starved people who think they have to spray paint their name on every railroad boxcar in America.

Celebrity obsessed America just doesn't get it that everyone can't be a celebrity, some of us just have to be everyday people, content to live in the greatest country in the world and have a healthy and happy family...as much as possible with this pResident anyway.

NOTE TO THE LIBERALS: You've just about worked very "shame on you" angle there is to use, from "racist" to "homophobe". You've used those and other angles so often they're like obama's speeches...nobody listens anymore.

If you think that your putting the Tea Party Movement into one of your "hate" categories is going to somehow slow it down, or send us home with our tails tucked in shame, boy, are you in for a surprise.

Yep! You're damn right we're angry, and we're going to stay that way, and even moreso as long as this anti-American buttwipe continues to try and take America apart.

Destroying America from within is no different than invading armies coming in, or bombs being dropped...they are still invading our home land, and the Constitution guarantees us the right to fight back.

But, I'll tell you the REAL ANGER that motivates us...it's the ANGER our children, and grandchildren are going to have at us when we sit on our butts and allow their futures to be sold down the river by prince oogah boogah.

This mess the boy president has made might not be fixed in our lifetimes, but we need to do something to salvage the future for our children.

[Le Chien Rouge]

Living in Austin, Texas, I have met quite a few angry lefties, who ironically, have become even more furious even though their ‘savior’ is in the white house.

The local lefty newspaper STILL spends most of it’s time bashing tea party members and blames all of the nations problems on ‘you know who’ residing in Crawford.