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Anti-Obama sentiment brewing on internet as Tea party threatens boilover
theaustralian.com ^ | December 14, 2009 | Christina Lamb

Posted on 12/13/2009 6:32:22 AM PST by GonzoII

Anti-Obama sentiment brewing on internet as Tea party threatens boilover

WHEN Stacy Mott, a stay-at-home mother of three children, started writing a blog after the election of President Barack Obama last year, she had no involvement in politics and simply wanted to vent her frustration at financial bailouts, healthcare reform and legislation to combat climate change. The former marketing executive at Toys R Us quickly found she was not alone. One year on, her blog, Smart Girl Politics, is an organisation with 23,000 members and co-ordinators in almost every state.

"There are a huge amount of people out there who are angry at Obama and big government but feel the Republican Party is not representing them," said Rebecca Wales, who left the party's campaign team to become Smart Girl's communications director. "What we are seeing is an outpouring of conservative values."

In recent months, the US has witnessed an astonishing growth in similar right-wing grassroots organisations across the country, loosely grouped under the label Tea party.

Although it has no leader, no clear origins and a vague objective of "taking back America", it is emerging as a powerful force in next year's congressional elections. A poll last week found that if it were a party, the movement's candidates would be more popular than the Republicans. According to the Rasmussen survey, Democrats have 36 per cent of the vote, the Tea party 23 per cent and Republicans 18 per cent.

Yet the first mention of the movement came only in February, when a TV reporter named Rick Santelli launched a tirade against the government's bailout of mortgage companies. His report, which ended up on YouTube, called for a tea party in homage to the 1773 protest in which British tea was emptied into Boston harbour, helping to spark the American revolution. Others say the name stands for "Taxed Enough Already".

Whatever its origins, the Tea party first showed its teeth with a rally in Washington in September whose size and venom took everyone by surprise. Tens of thousands of angry protesters massed near Capitol Hill to denounce Obama's healthcare and spending plans, chanting, "Enough, enough". Then, last month, Tea party supporters showed the electoral damage they could wreak by backing their own right-wing candidate rather than the moderate Republican in a congressional election in New York state. The resulting split led to a Democrat victory.

Tea party activists now plan to back conservative candidates in next autumn's mid-term elections. They believe their grassroots support will enable them to raise millions of dollars, drawing on the Obama campaign's success in using the internet.

FreedomWorks, a Washington-based advocacy group that has helped to organise Tea party protests and claims 500,000 registered members, says it will start mobilising its support base this month.

"We're looking at the potential of raising small cheques from a vast number of donors, just as Obama did," said Matt Kibbe, the group's president. "I happen to think the Tea party movement could make even the Obama machine look obsolete."

Smart Girl Politics is also among the groups planning to move from selling coffee mugs, T-shirts and mouse mats to forming a political action committee to raise money for candidates.

"We're not trying to be against the Republicans or start a third party," said Wales. "We want to work with them in identifying conservative candidates."

Although Republicans try to play down the Tea party as disparate and divided, their leaders have been placed in a quandary - ditch establishment candidates for the Tea party's choice and lose independent votes, or risk splitting the vote in a repeat of New York.

The division is cheering Democrats at a time when Obama's poll ratings have fallen to 47 per cent, the lowest of any president in his first year of office.

Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said the conservative movement was "savaging" the Republicans.

The Tea party is now preparing for its first national convention in February. The headline speaker will be Sarah Palin, poster girl of the American Right, whose memoir is topping bestseller lists. Palin is not the only female firebrand embraced by the Tea party people. "We also like Liz Cheney (the daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney) and Michele Bachmann," said Wales.

Bachmann, 53, arrived in congress two years ago from Minnesota, and has captured headlines with her denunciations of multiculturalism, arguing that "not all cultures are equal", her opposition to same-sex marriage and her claims that many scientists reject the theory of evolution.

The mother of five, who has fostered 23 other children and recently described herself as "a loveable little fuzz ball", is cheered at rallies when she calls the Obama administration a "gangster government".

Bachmann is a member of the "birthers", who question whether Obama was born in the US, and the "deathers", who claim that government cost-cutting under the President's healthcare plan would prevent older Americans from receiving vital treatment.

For Palin and Bachmann, the path to power does not lie in moving up the party leadership ladder, but in ignoring it.

They draw their support from media appearances rather than legislative work.

Banners at rallies suggest an ugly racial aspect to some of this support. "Death to Obama" appears on some placards, along with pictures of the President with a Hitler moustache.

"It's an anger beyond anything I've ever seen," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a professor of politics at the University of Southern California. "It's fascinating to watch, and frightening."

The Sunday Times



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 111th; angrycitizens; angrymob; backlash; bho44; bhofascism; bhotyranny; blogosphere; democrats; fourth100days; obama; palin; pelosi; rapeofliberty; reid; teaparty; teapartyrebellion
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To: Starboard

“Tens of thousands of angry protesters massed near Capitol Hill to denounce Obama’s healthcare and spending plans”

“WRONG again. It was HUNDREDS of thousands.”

The actual number was 1,782,760. Please see:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19743935/The-Real-Number-of-Protesters-Zac-Moilanen


21 posted on 12/13/2009 7:16:53 AM PST by libstripper
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To: GonzoII
There is No "leader" people are rising up all on their own and that scares the hell out of the one worlders.

People all over America wanting their god given rights to freedom.

22 posted on 12/13/2009 7:18:24 AM PST by Kakaze (Exterminate Islamofacism and apologize for nothing.....except not doing it sooner!)
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To: GonzoII
Rosary Online
23 posted on 12/13/2009 7:23:06 AM PST by mlizzy ("Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person" --Mother Teresa.)
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To: savedbygrace

I believe others have said some LaRouche followers are the ones with such posters.

No I have not seen such signs and I’ve watched the 912 videos from many who attended along with the photos from other TeaParty events.

But we can expect the leftists to infiltrate the Teaparty movement - or try to - in order to bring negative images to the American public - the world public - about them.

So what?

WE VOTE!


24 posted on 12/13/2009 7:28:09 AM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt (Ronald Reagan: If we ever forget that we're one nation under God,then we'll be a nation gone under.")
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To: GonzoII
Banners at rallies suggest an ugly racial aspect to some of this support. "Death to Obama" appears on some placards, along with pictures of the President with a Hitler moustache.

I am throwing the BS flag on that. Rumors of "Death to Obama" signs are greatly exaggerated, and how is a Hitler moustache racist?

25 posted on 12/13/2009 7:38:49 AM PST by MileHi ( "It's coming down to patriots vs the politicians." - ovrtaxt)
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To: libstripper

I was there. All I know is that you could have filled a lot of large stadiums with that crowd. Let’s hope the 4/15 TP event is even larger.


26 posted on 12/13/2009 7:56:34 AM PST by Starboard
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To: savedbygrace

I did see some of those negative signs at the three tea parties I have attended but—it was like one or two yahoos only. The most controversial I ever saw in any number were “Impeach Obama”. There was anger but nothing to indicate that the people were ready for revolt or threatening violence of any sort. In fact most were polite to anti-tea party people who lashed out with insults and comments. In fact it was peaceful and well thought out rather than harsh or advocating violence.


27 posted on 12/13/2009 8:10:40 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: mad_as_he$$

Are you from Saudi Arabia?


28 posted on 12/13/2009 8:20:40 AM PST by Cuchulain ("...never treat with the enemy; never surrender to his mercy, but fight to the finish.")
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To: GonzoII
http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/
29 posted on 12/13/2009 8:43:21 AM PST by lowbridge ("We may be wrong, but the point is, we believe in what we're doing." - Joe Biden)
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To: GonzoII
"Banners at rallies suggest an ugly racial aspect to some of this support. "Death to Obama" appears on some placards, along with pictures of the President with a Hitler moustache. "It's an anger beyond anything I've ever seen," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a professor of politics at the University of Southern California. "It's fascinating to watch, and frightening."

I can't, for the life of me, figure out how they perceive racism in the first statement...and have to wonder out loud; What is Sherry Bebitch Jeffe afraid of? Loss of power and prestige? Grant money?

Perhaps she's aware we're ready to try and hang some folks...on the steps of every statehouse in America.

30 posted on 12/13/2009 10:48:36 AM PST by Mariner
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To: Cuchulain
No. If you cannot draw the line back to women getting the vote and the Treasury being raided you do not know history.
31 posted on 12/13/2009 12:23:35 PM PST by mad_as_he$$ (usff.com)
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To: GonzoII

The government is laughing at the tea party protesters. Why should they fear peaceful protests when they already wield absolute power over every facet of our lives?


32 posted on 12/13/2009 12:43:49 PM PST by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: savedbygrace

I have seen them both at a Town Hall meeting here in Massachusetts, and at the March on Washington in September.

They are the Larouche people, who are leftists. The Media flocks to them when they see them, and paint all opposition of any kind in that light.

A the town hall meeting I went to, me and another fellow who I didn’t know were trying to encourage the cameras to come over and talk to us, but they weren’t interested. We overheard them talking as we stood behind them, and it wasn’t surprising to deduce from their conversations where they stood politically.


33 posted on 12/13/2009 12:46:58 PM PST by rlmorel (We are traveling "The Road to Serfdom".)
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To: Soothesayer

Finally...someone that gets it


34 posted on 12/13/2009 1:08:20 PM PST by AtlasThugged316 (Who is Edmund Ruffin?)
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To: savedbygrace
Writer apparently made it up, like Pelosi did.
35 posted on 12/13/2009 1:21:25 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: mad_as_he$$

19th Amendment and establishment of the Federal Reserve started us down the slippery slope...on a side note; I didn’t realize the Founding Fathers were from Saudi Arabia. You learn something new every day. :-)


36 posted on 12/13/2009 1:22:00 PM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: narses; Condor51

A gracious reply.

I appreciate and respect that.


37 posted on 12/13/2009 1:38:15 PM PST by Running On Empty ( The three sorriest words: "It's too late")
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To: MileHi
I am throwing the BS flag on that. Rumors of "Death to Obama" signs are greatly exaggerated,

Right -- the media wouldn't have ignored that!

38 posted on 12/13/2009 1:43:36 PM PST by maryz
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To: GonzoII

The Australian, huh? What exactly do they know about what goes on here? This is birdcage liner, not fit for print. I guess lib stupidity isn’t just an American thing.


39 posted on 12/13/2009 1:44:32 PM PST by darkangel82 (I don't have a superiority complex, I'm just better than you.)
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To: GonzoII

Well, on a more thorough reading of this piece, I noticed that AT LEAST, even though this is an Aussie site, it correctly mentioned THE ONE MAN who more than anyone , got the ball rolling, and that was Rick Santelli, on Feb. 19 of this year, during a broadcast on CNBC, whose offices I’ve been to, and are in my neighborhood.
Hell, even my TeaParty/Rally for America friends have not come up with anything specific when I called for a QUIZ AND A PUBLICITY IDEA as the title of a thread on our website in Rockland County NY. I asked the pointed question as to who, in their opinion, was responsible for starting the Tea Party movemnt....it WAS Rick Santelli. Rick immediately retreated into the background, but EVERYONE recognizes it was his spontaneous on-air ‘rant’ that kick-started the whole movement.Millions were waiting for something to get it going, and there it was, just four weeks after the inauguration of Oblahblah.


40 posted on 12/13/2009 2:44:33 PM PST by supremedoctrine ("The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away."--Tom Waits)
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