The Tea Party "Movement": Pure Astroturf

As in phony grass roots. Josh Marshall has the goods:

Jon Henke of the website The Next Right defended the tea parties from the charge, writing that "[w]hat FreedomWorks and various other organizations are doing is not "astroturf" any more than the anti-war protests of some years back were astroturf because ANSWER and Moveon.org helped organize people around those events."

There are, of course, differences between MoveON and FreedomWorks. But his post nonetheless raises a couple interesting questions, such as: Who first proposed holding tea party events? When did major conservative organizations get involved? And how much support have they gained along the way?

The answer to the first question is "FreedomWorks." The answer to the second question is "right from the start." And the answer to the last question is "less than you'd expect, given the months of hype."

I'm going to be blunt. The so-called Tea Party movement is about two things:

1. Protecting the wealth and power of the wealthy and powerful.

2. Allowing unhinged right wing fruitcakes to vent their hatred toward a FREELY AND FAIRLY ELECTED African-American Democrat. I mean, how DARE he govern!

Most of the conservatives participating in all this are childish hypocrites who are throwing a tantrum because THEY LOST THE FREAKING ELECTION. They seem to think it's their right to get their way even when they lose. What's pathetic is that they're being cynically manipulated by rich right-wingers who don't want their top tax rate raised to 39.5%--all the way from 35%. The vast majority of the Teabaggers are getting a TAX CUT from the wicked and oppressive Obama and the evil, illegitimate Democratic Congress. What a group of idiots and losers.

Enemies of oppression? When Bush---

suspended habeas corpus rights

instituted torture

sent suspects to known torturing nations in "special renditions"

violated the Fourth Amendment's search and seizure provisions

implied that anyone who dared to criticize him was a traitor and a terrorist supporter,

THEY SAID NOTHING. In fact, THEY CHEERED.

And now, with a Democratic president in office for less than three months, these "patriots" (what a joke!) are threatening violence and even secession. Now the mask (or is it hood?) has been stripped off of the radical right. And the truth is brutally clear:

They are the real threat to America.

Addendum: To be fair, some of the Tea Party protestors are going to be there out of concern for the huge deficits and massive spending. Well, I'm worried about them, too. But whereas I was warning about it constantly, they were voting for Bush. Where were these people for eight years? Mars? And just how do they propose to deal with the disaster left to us by CATASTROPHIC CONSERVATIVE ECONOMIC POLICIES?