The arch-conservative Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board stays true to form, but has some interesting criticism for yesterday’s “Tea Party” protesters:
It was good of Republicans and self-professed “conservatives” at Wednesday’s TEA parties to protest massive federal spending. It was a righteous action with a righteous message.
Unfortunately, some of the rhetoric and vibe at various TEA parties made clear the fact conservatives remain discombobulated, devoid of a clear direction or a unified understanding of where this country should go to maximize freedom and minimize government…[t]hough the Colorado Springs party stuck mostly to fiscal matters, speakers, protesters with signs, and supportive radio talk show hosts at some events throughout the country sprinked the TEA the parties with messages about illegal immigrants, and advocacy of American domination and foreign intervention to spread “democracy.”
One Colorado radio host, broadcasting from the TEA Party at our state capitol, began the morning by inviting nearby Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter to join him on air. After the governor declined, the host insulted Ritter for not protecting him from illegal immigrants. Weren’t these protests about less government intervention in the course of human events, not more?
…Sean Hannity explained the TEA parties were about lower taxes and less spending, of course, but were also to promote “American Exceptionalism” (read: “American imperialism”?).
Anthony Gregory, writing for LewRockwell.com, said Hanity and his wannabes promote “the idea that the American national warfare state is just and good, even holy, and that we oppressed patriots will not countenance a president insufficiently enamored of American imperial glory. Presumably, as today’s conservatives see it, the American colonists dumping British tea were also upset that the British Crown was inadequately boastful of English Exceptionalism, cutting spending on the British Empire and coddling the enemies of England’s occupying armies.” Touché.
…Most of the Republicans and “conservatives” who protested Wednesday were well-meaning, patriotic citizens angry at Obama. Yet they never protested a Republican president who more than doubled our federal debt [Pols emphasis] and mired us in efforts to gift other countries with freedom and economic development. Too many of them want less government, while asking government to fence out Mexicans. They want less from government, but more American imperialism. Unless they change their vision, embracing a non-partisan and genuine love of freedom through limited government, Obama is their man.
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I think we are going to see concentrated “tea bag attacks” on national legislation. I expect that immigration and heath care reform will be specifically targeted…
Denver talk radio is battling a thousand in defeating bills in the state legislature which they have taken on….ie..inside.tuition for undocumented kids…and the Pinacle bail out…
We may finally get a Fairness Doctrine when local pr firms realize that they are losing money …..it is cheaper to plug in the boys in the radio to promote a cause than to pay a pr firm…millions and not be successful..
Where is Maria Garcia Berry, anyway????
It’s probably an ACORN trick!
The Post article about the national effort said “tens of thousands” turned out nationally. Does that mean we had a couple of hundred? After all that hype? Sounds pretty lame.
Anyone see swastika lad there?
was mike huttner’s “counter” press conference. Is he losing funding for his outrage machine, or what? Standing beside a cardboard cutout of Obama holding a broom? Wow. I miss the days when he sat in his basement in his underwear using photoshop to put McDonalds arches on the Roan Plateau.
Is the Soros/Stryker/Gill funding drying up, Mike?
But am glad you’re here posting! That was a good one.
For Pete’s sake, asking for logical consistency from the right!!! This is beyond the ideological pale.
As to being discombobulated, libs/lefties are guilty of the same. I remember the last anti-Iraq War rally I went to. I left early because it became a forum on every issue dear to my brethren. The war became a small part of the forum.
I saw similar in Dean for America meetings.
One of the brilliant tactics of the far right is to pretty much stay on topic. Now, the topic changes with time and new talking points memos, but at a given moment, they do well.
These are Republicans for crying out loud. You will never find logical consistency at a teabagger protest. The whole premise of the trash America event was predicated and sold on it being nonpartisan. It was a typical bait and switch con game. I guess when lies and deceit are what Americans have come to expect from Republicans, we shouldn’t act surprised.
that flag was a symbol of unity. The GOP is sewing discord.
Plus, the colonists had a legitimate gripe at the British because the Crown was levying taxes without any representative from America.
Just because you’re in the minority again doesn’t mean you’re not being represented.
New GOP slogan: “No taxation with representation”
The flag was more then unity and your sowing discord … did you miss thousands of people on the capitol west steps or seething masses elsewhere in the federal republic yesterday?
Small business people, mothers, kids, college students, working poor. Note that as a market signal … they aren’t seeing a lot of Hope and Change.
this morning that there were around 1500 or so just in Colorado Springs, protesting our Messiah and his congressional buddies wanting to put our grandkids in poverty……
I would love to see the national totals.
was about 100,000 nationwide. About the same number that came to see Obama in Denver during the campaign.
You know, Alaska could easily absorb 100, 000 new immigrants. I wonder if the Aleuts would mind?
and counting.
Not even all the Fox News pimping of this so-called mega-event made it much of anything. It was just plain embarrassing.
Kind of like a Joe the Plumber commercial.
These people that gathered yesterday, they were Dems, GOP, & Indies. Well they work. You know to provide shelter, food and pay taxes.
Well anyway, they gathered because they are concerned … you know … with how their daily investment in government (taxes) are being used.
p.s. many more feel the same way … you know … but they had jobs to be at … you know … so their families could have shelter, food and … you know pay taxes.
Not.
Fucking hippie douchebags getting paid by Rupert Murdoch for holding up swastikas. Love it or leave it, Nazi punks.
they took place during the lunch hour?
Different counts from different sources, but more than 100k. http://northshorejournal.org/t…
I have to wonder if any of those anti-war (ok, really anti-Bush, any old reason would have worked) demonstrations pulled these numbers at the beginning? I doubt it.
Tens of thousands at Bush’s first inauguration.
As for “any old reason,” actually a lot of us just didn’t like Bush in general. I don’t remember anyone being shy about that.
Of course, once the Iraq war advertising campaign started, the protests got much bigger.
But yeah, I’m sure you’ll get ten thousand at one of your little things eventually. Which is almost as much as a million.
Fucking hippie, get a job.
They just make up numbers anyway.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Ne…
That’s not counting we can believe in. Fucking Fox News hippie morons.
But I didn’t see you bragging about those crowds…
You hit the nail on the head. These are just a little knot of SORE LOSERS who start squeaking about “revolution” and “secession” just because they lost an election fair and square.
Assholes and hypocrites. Any PATRIOTIC, non-treasonous Republican should be ashamed to be lumped in with them.
is a fitting descriptor and symbol for teabagger deceit.
if they could have mentioned the Hitler comparisons and monkey signs don’t do conservatives a whole lot of credit, and are an embarrassment to their country.
I saw the headline of this thread and thought the post was going to be about the Dems budget strategy under the Dome. It’s fairly embarassing to watch the amateurs who are in charge try to balance a budget.
I feel sorry for poor Brandon Shaffer. Ritter made him float the Pinnacol trial balloon — just to yank the rug out from under him when people began to side with Penry (Post, Sentinel, Chieftain, etc.).
In the end, it’s nice to see Ritter blink and take Penry’s ideas as his own (just like he did on education reform). As Ritter starts talking about furloughs, across the board cuts, reducing admin costs of prisons, etc. — just remember who proposed those ideas first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
I have come up with a new acronym for the GOP. I’m thinking a more appropriate moniker might be the “POPP”, which stands for , “Pissed Off and Powerless Party”.
Whaddya think? Too wordy?
…with another “o” to make it more accurate.
Are you saying that Ritter might as well admit he and Penry have the same ideas for what Colorado needs?
Anyone reading the papers can pretty well see that Ritter has no ability to lead and he doesn’t have a good policy mind. He waits for legislators to float ideas (because all he can think about is windmills) and if they stick, great — he’ll ride in and take credit for them. If they don’t stick — he immediately distances himself from them and waits for someone else to come up with something else that might stick.
Ritter is no leader. The bad GOP brand in 2006 swept him in to office and he’s still trying to figure out how things work.
Ritter can take solace in that forthcoming Nobel Peace Prize around 2030. Only idiot former governors can get that.
Reagan doesn’t have one, so, I mean, the Nobel committee must be full of partisan shrills who hate democracy, peace and freedom.
Amendments:
Amendment 39 – Senator Morse. Lowers the per diem rate for private prisons. PASSED
Amendment 1 – Senator Kopp. An omnibus package of amendments which makes small cuts to all departments. The goal here is to create a savings of about $300 million so that the Pinnacol deal would not be needed. FAILED
Section 1 Reduce Capitol Security by $840,000 and transfer that money to higher education. PASSED
Section 3 – Reduction of CCHE by 25% for a $709,000 transfer to higher ed from CCHE board. FAILED
Section 4 – Eliminate appropriation to Ag market division. Eliminate increase for academic and vocational instruction in DOC. Reduce recreation subprogram in DOC. Reduce program for treatment accountability in DOC. Eliminate parole wrap around in DOC. Eliminate appropriation to international trade office. Eliminate economic development appropriation. Transfer funding from bio sciences cash fund. Reduce legislative staff salaries by 5%. Reduce health life and dental. Reduce rate pay for court appointed council. Reduce appropriation to public defenders office. Personal services. Furlough state employees. These are all transfers to solve the higher education short fall. FAILED
Amendment 3 – Senator King. Use funds anticipated to be received from ARRA. Uses Governor’s discretionary stimulus dollars to fund higher education. FAILED
Section 4 – Senator Scheffel. Across the board 2.9% reduction across all Departments. FAILED
Amendment 4 – Senator Lundberg. Reduces appropriation for the international trade office. FAILED
Amendment 5 – Senator Shaffer. Refinances Pinnacol dollars to higher ed. PASSED
Amendment 7 – Senator Morse Changes footnote for tuition for the universities and colleges in the State, leaves it up to the boards and the market to decide what to do with tuition. FAILED
Amendment 8 – Senator Isgar. $56,000 cash fund authority from the Oil & Gas Conservation and Environmental Response Fund for the State’s participation in the Energy Council. PASSED
Oh wait- there is no R leadership evident.
Say what you want about Ritter (I have no idea how President Carter got into this – next we’ll be blaming President Clinton for the budget problems in CO.) Governor Owens had the temerity to speak up – and his own party disowned him for it. (See Refs A & C )
Perhaps the lesson learned is that Colorado voters don’t want Governors to legislate. And we already know you have to win to do anything.
If/when the legislature comes up with something that they can pass and get to his desk- then he needs to speak up. Until then- he’s got more useful things to do.
Hey, wait – every other time he spoke up you assaulted him for it. (Think all the way back to the 2008 ballot initiative season.) Maybe you just disagreed with the policy- but then it seems like you would have said something like- points to the gov for speaking up- but he’s just wrong.
Maybe PON makes sense.
If Penry had a majority in the Senate, your argument would carry water. He doesn’t, so the measure of success is articulating an alternative vision. He’s done that successfully.
The reason he doesn’t have a majority in the Senate is that his party has moved far from the mainstream.
And the reason why he hasn’t had more legislative successes is that his ideas are far from the mainstream.
KK–What vision?
No bullshit. Just what IS Penry’s vision?
http://www.coloradopols.com/di…
I appreciate the effort and I’d read your piece about Penry before. It shows he’s in the pocket of the oil and gas industry, supports education (helpful when his wife works at Mesa State, as does his sister) and thinks a rainy day fund is a good idea.
So do I. But what does Penry say when he’s asked why his party never did a thing about a savings account when it had the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature?
We know the answer to that: they picked tax cuts, the ever-ready GOP solution to all things economic. It would be interesting to see Penry’s answer.
He wishes the party had done that and voted for it.
Penry presents one face on the Front Range, another on the Western Slope. Over here, he’s all taxes-are-too high.
Wonder which one we’ll get whenever it is he runs for higher office.
to hear that a politician is stressing different issues with different groups.
Denver Post from January 27th, 2009:
Damn that pesky sequential order of events. It really sticks gum in the Rube Goldberg device that is the minority leader’s office.
for pointing out more Ritter proposals that he backed down from. You got anything that shows that he floats an idea and sticks with it? What a coward.
How surprising!
You claimed that Penry thought these ideas up. I proved that Ritter brought it up. You have zero credibility, and I still think you’re getting paid by Penry.
before you piss away the little credibility you possess (and which you have only with Penry supporters at this point) – either post something that show these were Penry’s ideas, or admit your mistake.
He can just admit he’s making everything up.
he’d be admitting that he is an outsider who doesn’t get the talking points.
So far, MM”s post suggest that’s not the rep he wants.
hey- we have an MM, a KK, at least three LL’s- are we sure that all the righty posts aren’t from one small group of cheeto stained bloggers just logging in with different names and the alphabetic alliteration is just to keep it straight?
“Still waiting.”
… that right wing protesters are just as apt to bring all their distracting pet issues to these rallies as lefties are.
with the purchase of another Mumia of equal or greater value!
Very thoughtful editorial that takes a clear look at the right.