I don't think he's stupid or mean spirited... to me he seems a passionate guy who does/says whatever occurs to him without much of a filter. Sometimes this leads to him to make a complete ass of himself and this is probably especially true when he's chugging on a bottle of booze like he was at the VMAs. I can't say I'm much of a fan of his rapping let alone his outbursts, but I do like some of the cuts/beats he's put together. I'd take whatever he says with a grain of salt because he's a crazy artist and those types get a wider birth with me... we can't all be accountants. Hopefully he does apologize to Miss Swift in person but I thought his public mea culpa was heartfelt as far as celeb public apologies go. STOMP
Gee, thanks for explaining it to me. Now it all makes sense. A bus driver who is charged with the safety of his young passengers has no obligation to intervene when some poor kid is getting the shit beat out of him because he might get hurt himself in the process. Now THAT is the responsible, adult thing to do: Look out for your own ass and to hell with the poor kid.
Well then they will have a year off to build their "rep". Perhaps that's where some of the posters here come from...
Is it just me or are the democrats using tactics like race baiting to squash speech critical of their bad ideas? There's the whole belittling the tea parties thing. There's Jimmy Carter saying anyone who's against these ideas is racist. (I hear and read this one a lot). There's Pelosi likening those who oppose the agenda are like the guy who shot Harvey Milk. Sheesh. It was old in the first place. And no, I don't think race relations are getting worse, except for mexicans.
It's just you. Belittling the tea parties isn't hard to do when their leader makes statements like he did in that video and when (granted, hopefully not a representative sample) people make statements like they did in the other video. In fact, I would go so far as to say I'd lose all respect for people who defend what the teabaggers leader said in that video. That was so over-the-top out-in-left-field aliens-abducted-him-and-probed-him I wasn't even positive he was serious. As for Pelosi, everyone on the right hated her to begin with, so what's the difference? I think she's simply spoken to the level and intensity of the rhetoric which several posters on here have even mentioned seems to be rising at an untenable pace. She's just relating it to an earlier historical experience. Whether she's right or wrong can be debated, but I certainly don't think it's as bad as her earlier comments.
Pelosi helped create the problem. Her hateful and divisive rhetoric has amped up the intensity of partisan divisions. Now she cries about it, and awkwardly tries to tie Harvey Milk, who was killed by a nutjob who ate too many Twinkies, to yet again demonize people who merely disagree with her political views. What a vile, hate-filled woman. I also disagree with the premise that there is a "leader" of any "Teabag" movement. I've never seen or heard of the guy in the video. I haven't gone to a rally, but I've been emailed invites from time to time. This guy's name wasn't on them; they were from people I know.
I have to agree with PapaG on this one. I don't know that there's any leader of the tea party movement. As far as I know, Dick Armey is mentioned more than anyone else.
"Williams, who is vice-chairman of Our Country Deserves Better, the group organizing the Tea Parties"... http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/15/tea-party-leader-racist-in-chief/ http://www.ourcountrydeservesbetter.com/about/boardandstaff.html Every other one of the media outlets I checked described him as one of the leaders of the Tea Party movement. That's from both sides of the media. He's also a talk show host and book author. So it's not like he walked in from the cornfields, though some of his statements may suggest otherwise.
You can disregard the typical conspiracy theory bullshit (and vitriol) in the article, but there actually is a FreedomWorks organization. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/the-corporate-lobbyists-b_b_186367.html A report by Lee Fang at Think Progress documents the involvement of corporate lobbyists FreedomWorks in organizing the teabaggers. FreedomWorks is run by ladies' man (and registered lobbyist) Dick Armey, and if they're not "organizing" the Tea parties, it's news to him. From a letter he wrote on March 10: FreedomWorks has been organizing many of these "tea parties" and we are listing the details on our website IamWithRick.com If you visit the website, you can rsvp for an event near you, and you can download guidelines to organizing a tea party in your home town if there isn't one being planned already. On the Freedomworks website, it says: "If you are not able to organize or attend a Taxpayer Tea Party, you can still help the cause by donating or buying a t-shirt. The "donation" for the Tea Parties page goes to -- you guessed it -- the FreedomWorks Foundation. The "thank you" letter is signed by Matt Kibbe, President & CEO, who cut his teeth working for Lee Atwater. He was behind the attempt to get Ralph Nader put on the ballot in Oregon in 2004, prompting a complaint to the FEC of illegal collusion with the GOP. FreedomWorks was launched a GOP version of MoveOn. "We believe that hard work beats daddy's money," said Dick Armey at the time. Armey seems to be a bit irony challenged -- Steve Forbes is on the FreedomWorks board. As Krugman notes, their money comes from the Koch, Scaife, Bradley, Olin and other reliable funders of right wing infrastructure including Exxon Mobil.
Yes, it does appear that Freedomworks is the organizer of the teabaggers, since they charged other organizations $10,000 for a speaking spot at the Sept 12th rally in DC. The clown in the video is a/the leader of one of those other organizations, "Our Country Deserves Better". barfo
As I already posted earlier (feel free to re-read) "...described him as one of the leaders" - so I already clarified. Then Denny addressed this point as well. Does this make you feel good to know that someone who may not be "the leader" but is closely associated with the event is saying these things? I find it unfortunate that rather than just say "Hey, what the guy said is wrong but he's not representative of the pack" that you choose to focus on the semantics of where his position lies in the event. I guess we know where you stand on this. The fact is he is a part of the event and he's put himself forward and made a really ridiculous statement.
Well as you already pointed out, it is not the main group organizing the Tea Party. He is a speaker, paid or not. But nonetheless...he's still an idiot. Non-profits don't just give out spots for money do they???
i just think that it's funny how whoever the most recent person to say something dumb(or that can be portrayed that way) is then suddenly proclaimed as the leader of the republican party by people on the left. first glenn beck, then this guy, then rush limbaugh(though this time he didn't even say anything dumb, just sarcastic).
