Althouse: At the Patriots-Not-Idiots Café...

April 15, 2010

At the Patriots-Not-Idiots Café...

... you can decide what's what.

(Enlarge photo.)

35 comments:

JAL said...: So is she pointing at the exploding asteroid?; 4/15/10, 10:17 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @JAL I was thinking that too.; 4/15/10, 10:20 PM
Trooper York said...: Holy crap. Barbara Bush was there!; 4/15/10, 10:28 PM
Irene said...: I truly appreciate all the photos you posted today.

(@JAL: When I first saw your comment, I read "expoding steroids"!); 4/15/10, 10:29 PM
Trooper York said...: I am proud to admit that I am both a Patriot and an Idiot.; 4/15/10, 10:33 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/15/10, 10:34 PM
Opus One Media said...: clearly idiots.; 4/15/10, 10:34 PM
Trooper York said...: That's right. Me and Babe Parilli.; 4/15/10, 10:35 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/15/10, 10:35 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/15/10, 10:35 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/15/10, 10:37 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: I'm voting for "idiots". In fact, I think I'll vote for "idiots" a few times.

It's easy to prove that they're idiots: no politician is going to listen to someone just because they have a sign saying, "listen to us".

There are various ways that the idiots could get their point across but, because they're idiots they can't do any of them.

The best way they could get their point across is having smart people ask politicians tough questions on video but - once again - they're idiots. I've been pushing that plan for over three years and not only have I gotten almost zero help with it, I've even gotten some pushback from some of the idiots.

I'm going to vote for "idiots" again.; 4/15/10, 11:22 PM
Wince said...: "Whether we like it or not..."

people who show up to afternoon demonstrations are now the vanguard of our remaining freedom.; 4/15/10, 11:27 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: I've got other things to do, but let me give another example.

If you're supposedly opposing the far-left, it would be a good idea not to give oxygen to far-left concepts. A clear example of the partiers doing the opposite is how they respond to charges of racism: bean-counting and the related stressing of how "diverse" they are. Instead of adopting a color-blind policy, they act like mini versions of the far-left. (Not to mention that continually repeating smears tends to drive those smears home and makes others wonder whether the smears have basis in fact.); 4/15/10, 11:28 PM
themightypuck said...: Awesome b/w photos. Love the look. As for the Tea Party I'm not really sure what they want. It is a lot easier to sell a focused message than generalized discontent.; 4/15/10, 11:57 PM
JAL said...: Irene - that too.; 4/16/10, 12:03 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/16/10, 12:07 AM
Fen said...: LoneWacko: The best way they could get their point across is -

Yes, we know you are SO concerned about them getting their point across. Thats why so much of your energy is spent maligning them instead of the policies they oppose.

Go away Soros-funded Sock-Puppet. You are transparent.; 4/16/10, 12:57 AM
Dustin said...: LOL at lonewhacko.

There's no way Soros is funding that crap, is there? I know he funds Brad Friedman and Media Matters, who are pretty damn lame too, but Althouse commenters? Probably not, but I guess it's a crazy world.

Lone whacko claims the Tea Party doesn't ask tough questions of politicians on video, which is just plain amazing given the hundreds of examples of the Tea Party folks doing that really well. I guess he's just whoring his link to sell a couple of ads.

Once again, the left pretends the Tea Party is some tightly controlled astroturf like SEIU protests or Organizing for America.

I am the Tea Party, and I have very little control over whether other people in the Tea Party point out that we aren't racist and are diverse, rather than refusing to dignify the racism smears.

Still, they won that argument handily, and I don't think it's that big a deal.

Happy Tax Day

http://taxgator.ytmnd.com/; 4/16/10, 1:06 AM
Dustin said...: Um, Celebritiz just blatantly stole all of Althouse's photography and posted it on its advertisement page.

LAME and typical of the anti Tea Party nutjobs. Why would you be so scared of these people? They are not that scary and are not asking for anything that crazy. For the most part, they are very reasonable.

Putting Tea Party in scare quotes is just damn cowardly. Just man up and call us Teabaggers, you jackass. We realize you hate us.; 4/16/10, 1:10 AM
Revenant said...: There's no way Soros is funding that crap, is there?

Nah, Lonewacko isn't a Soros puppet. He's more like the Fred Phelps of immigration.; 4/16/10, 1:30 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Lem reporting from NY - I was asked to go to another tea party in NYC after my own in NJ.

I've submitted my videos to PJTV and it could not have resulted any better if I had dreamed it.

The unrehearsed charm of the tea partiers won me over as soon as I got there.

When I got there around 2:30 pm a local CBS News van was there interviewing the organizers. I saw the news woman interviewing this kid and I naturally got suspicious and started approaching - OMG This kid - whom I later find out is just a sophomore in a catholic HS is answering her questions in a manner that belies my understanding of what a kid is never mind a HS Sophomore.

He spoke and I recorded the whole thing. I hope they play it.

I ended up making a grand total of 15 video clips including a man giving a speech in 1776 garb. He was the best.. Theo would be proud.

I'm in NY right now so I cant stay long. I don't think is in good form to be in somebody house using their computer while they are asking what would like to have ;); 4/16/10, 1:50 AM
LoafingOaf said...: Jesus this blog is obsessed with the Tea Parties. Well, I was listening to some Cleveland talk radio today - a local talk show host sympathetic to the Tea Parties. He and his callers felt that the Tea Parties have become a joke because people come out to these rallies and the speakers are all just politicians. The callers were frustrated because they thought the people should be heard, not a bunch of Republican politicians.

Anyway, I noticed that Althouse was still going on (on Bloggingheads) about how there was no hate speech at the D.C. Tea Party. She once again did not even mention the Barney Frank incident. I guess because she can't credibly deny that it occurred.

.; 4/16/10, 2:13 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I might be wrong but those people in Althouse photo look a lot like the folks I was with in Hakensack. (as we know white folks look ali.. fu trolls)

Aside from the kid, (i'm having trouble describing properly) a doctor with a jamaka spoke, again, you could tell this guy had never picked up a microphone to speak in public. I thought he was going to get into the minutia of health care to tell us how bad it was.. No, instead he told us briefly and succinctly waht compelled him to be there speaking out.
He read a little from the preamble. As his hand shook, clearly not because of his maturity, my hart moved along. I took most of video.

btw - the organizers didn't have t shirts to sell, no mugs, nothing was for sale. Towards the end the organizer said something about everything coming out of his (and a few people he acknowledged back pocket) but other that that there was no... (I know how people ask for money in subtle ways - my father is a retired pentecostal minister). there was none of that.

I signed up with them told them about PJTV. they promised to send me video so I could forward it to PJTV.; 4/16/10, 2:43 AM
Dustin said...: "Jesus this blog is obsessed with the Tea Parties. Well, I was listening to some Cleveland talk radio today - a local talk show host sympathetic to the Tea Parties. He and his callers felt that the Tea Parties have become a joke because people come out to these rallies and the speakers are all just politicians. The callers were frustrated because they thought the people should be heard, not a bunch of Republican politicians. "

Well, it was April 15th yesterday... kinda the big thing that happened was the Tea Party stuff. There were a lot of stories about how the GOP was criticized heavily and GOP politicians were not invited, but I guess you were avoiding being informed because you don't like the news that makes your partisanship uncomfortable.

If you lighten up, you'll find out that it's not just people screaming at Frank... it's democrats and independents and republicans who are irritated with all the political parties. You can join us and even help define us, so long as you care about sustainable, limited spending, with taxation that doesn't cripple our economy, such as the VAT promises to do.

you like a balanced budget? I know a lot of democrats who do. If you're one, you don't need to be annoyed with tons of Tea Party news. Because you can be Tea Party News. You can be a real winner, like Ralph Machio; 4/16/10, 2:56 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I would be, not lying but maybe a little disingenuous if I didn't tell you something about the organizer that introduced all the speakers, among them two soviet union emigres that had a line about us, americans, experimenting with waht was supposed to be their future.. the one one they had enough sense to reject. it got big applause.

The organizer kept bringing up God and staying with it in waht I can honestly describe as a palpably awkward way.. the way where people applaud out of niceness? half harted (I grew up in church remember? I could sense people want their politics solo)

He did it about three time in btwg intros like an Oscar MC that would not be asked back, all equally awkward.. Still this is the nature of the tea party movement - its not a polished narrowly defined marketing thing.

People were not afraid to speak as if in a stream of contentiousness. Jumping from one thing to another as if the time they has to get it all in was running out on them. It occurred to me that just speaking was a blessing in it self.

Aside form the anti-abortion placards there were no signs mentioning God.. that I saw.

BTW - I been put up for the night in a room with a computer with internet connection.. sweet.; 4/16/10, 3:18 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The tea party in nyc had cheese and whine in a Chelsey hi rise.

This lady was a charm as charm gets and very knowledgeable about the importance of judicial appointments State and Federal.

I wanted to tell them about this blog to sort of establish bonafides (I always get hung up on that kind of thing) so I thought I mention Insta (since hes supposed to be the blog honcho)

None of the tea people I spoke to have heard of Glen's Instapundit. Nor PJTV. Nor the Corner, nor Powerline.. they do know Drudge and Rush and Beck and practically all of FOX.

I dont like Beck, but I didnt want to be rude.; 4/16/10, 3:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Bill Clinton accuses Tea Party Patriots of being "little Eichmans."

Wait ... no, sorry. What he actually said was "little Tim McVeighs."; 4/16/10, 6:20 AM
Unknown said...: New "Hussein" Ham said...

Bill Clinton accuses Tea Party Patriots of being "little Eichmans."

Wait ... no, sorry. What he actually said was "little Tim McVeighs."

That's our Willie. Trot this out the next time somebody says they miss him; The Politics of Personal Destruction was his, The Hildabeast's, and Carville's variant of Alinsky.

I could go on, but the photo of Ann, cruel neutrality notwithstanding, going all ooky-pooky with the Yorkie put me in a good mood and I'm still there.; 4/16/10, 6:39 AM
KCFleming said...: “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The Constitution allows only the means which are ‘necessary,’ not those which are merely ‘convenient,’ for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one, for there is not one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience in some instance or other, to some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one power, as before observed" - Thomas Jefferson, 1791

“[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
–James Madison, Speech, House of Representatives

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined . . . to be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce." - James Madison, Federalist 45

“[W]ith respect to the two words “general welfare,” I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”
–James Madison

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions." - James Madison, 1792; 4/16/10, 6:45 AM
KCFleming said...: That is, all congressional powers are enumerated. The existence of these enumerations demonstrates that Congress does not have full and general legislative power to act however it desires.

If the intent of the Constitution was to give Congress powers so broad that it could do anything it wished to do, why specify the powers? Why enumerate any powers at all, if the General Welfare clause merely and always trumps them?

We need a new Constitutional convention.; 4/16/10, 6:52 AM
MadisonMan said...: That is my favorite building in Madison, on the left side of the picture.; 4/16/10, 8:21 AM
froggyprager said...: The worst thing you all missed in this photo is the truck that was driving around downtown Madison during the tea party with a huge graphic photo of an aborted fetus. It was very upsetting and not something I want to see.

I understand that there is free speech but I wonder how graphic of an image can one show publicly. I don't think I could drive around with a graphic pornographic image on my truck or a photo of some one's head being cut off. Of course the pro-life crowd would say, we are trying to show what really happens, we have every right to show this, you want to hide the truth, if it is so bad to look at it should not be legal, blah blah blah. Even if it was a real photo and I was against abortion, do you want your tea party kids to see this as they walk around? There were tons of kids on field trip at the capitol yesterday in addition to the tea party thing.

It is not right and not appropriate and I wonder whether it is or not it is legal. There are some limitations on free speech and this seems to cross the line. I think having a mobile billboard probably makes it harder for any government to do anything about it. Maybe I should rent a truck and put hard core porn photos on it and see what happens as I drive around?; 4/16/10, 8:41 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "The worst thing you all missed in this photo is the truck that was driving around downtown Madison during the tea party with a huge graphic photo of an aborted fetus."

Here's a recropping of the photo, recolorized to show what Froggyprager is talking about.; 4/16/10, 5:59 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: The comments about me above are a great example of why I oppose the partiers. One of those reasons is because all the ones I've run into online are borderline fascists, like many libertarians and others. Instead of even trying to formulate a response to what I write, all they can do is smear, tell lies, and engage in ad homs.

These are the types of people that Althouse is choosing to support, rather than pointing out what she knows: they're anti-American idiots who can't think for the life of them.

As for the comments above, I'm not paid to post here, and I'll be taking legal action against those who claim otherwise.

As for "Slow Joe", perhaps he'd care to link some of those videos; his idea of real questions are probably in fact bad questions that help politicians rather than hold them accountable. Althouse - a lawyer and someone who's trained in these things - isn't helping her charges understand the difference.

As for Revenant's comment, it's easy for it to say things like that, but it can't present any examples or even a grown-up argument.; 4/16/10, 9:41 PM