Perhaps the greatest commercial ever:

Holy shit, that was amazing.

My new motto:

My two tea party stories:

1. On Thursday, I was going to Target and passed this huge elementary school by my house that had tons of American flags on the fence out front. I immediately thought "Those Tea Party fuckers have somehow infiltrated this school and are teaching those kids that this is some sort of "Day of Upheaval"

Then I found out it was because they were having a procession for this kid from my town that just got killed in Iraq and I felt like a massive dick. I will say though that the whole area has showed a lot of class for the kid and his family.

2. Anywho, I was also thinking that the people who are involved in the Tea Party thing are like those Bug Chasers I read about--people who get AIDS on purpose so they can feel like they "belong to something"

Cards v. Mets is in the top of the 18th, no score.

I think it is a sort of natural manifestation of a certain segment of society's always-just-under-the-surface anger and resentment issues.

And a lot of it, while misguided and a product of any Democratic administration, with an acute emphasis on having a Black President, is not entirely unfounded.

I guess what I am trying to say is that the anger amongst the electorate is understandable - 17.6 actual unemployment, a feeling that the game is rigged against the people who "work hard and do what's right," and both sides complicit in bailouts, Wall Street cronyism, and Meet the New Boss-Same as The Old Boss governance - gives rise to people's agita.

Add to that a 29 hour-a-day news cycle, Fox News/Glen Beck/Rush stoking the fire, and POTUS' What's Cooler Than Being Cool? ICE COLD leadership style - and you have a perfect storm for this kind of thing.

The funny thing is, we are probably lucky we HAVE the Tea Party folks, because if we didn't the people who feel just like them but would never deign to be associated with their ilk would be more vocal, and more intelligible in their arguments. You know, Dick Buckley v. The Birchers, Nixon v. Wallace, and a few more historic examples I am sure you and Harry and Rads can use to either concur, or pick my argument apart.

Well if it's historical context you want, the Anti War movement in the 60's, while being a pretty spectacular failure at actually stopping or even altering the course of the War, did at least convince a sitting president not to run for reelection which, on the whole, is pretty successful i guess. And make a bunch of shitheels feel important which is I guess the point here as well.

I guess maybe I'm trying to understand what it is these people want aside from the obvious anti-Dem/Barry stuff. I mean, should we expect more airplanes to be flown into IRS buildings? Abortion doctors and US Capital police gunned down in broad daylight? Federal buildings evaporated? Anthrax? What's the endgame here?

I think what they want is at least the feeling that someone is looking out for them? That we have a government that is not for the rich and lobbyists, but for people, etc...

To my larger point: everyone in America can read a balance sheet and see that budget deficits, debt and interest payments, and current levels of revenue are not sustainable.

Of course, we are also a nation of NIMBYs who want YOUR projects cut, and YOUR museums or state parks closed, not Theirs.

Which is why you see Republicans swearing they were against the Stimulus, but will have campaign events announcing they got money to save XX jobs.

It's a conundrum, but I think you dismiss the "movement" of Confederate Flag Waivers, unemployable loner gun nuts, and general Gaines Burger diners at your own peril. The anger is much deeper and much more broad based.

I don't dismiss people's anger, I dismiss that, because they have no actual argument, their only card to play is the character assassination and "legitimacy" angle. And showing up for protests with machine guns.

I understand these people are angry and that they reflect a decent chuck of the electorate...although I think it is arguable if pandering to them does more harm than good as they may be significant, they aren't a big enough chunk to really carry a candidate I do not believe, at least nationally. But, I think it is good to separate this anger from the unemployment and economic debate a bit. I'll assume you've seen the latest surveys where the tea partiers are actually better off economically than most. The narrative that has been spun about their being all blue collar types in economic peril isn't exactly accurate.

Because working people don't have time to protest shit. They have to work.

Yep.

Here's the take of a smarter guy than you and me combined:

In a speech today on the Oklahoma City bombing and its legacy, former President Bill Clinton said he sees echoes of that fevered time in today's politics.

"There is an enormous psychological disoreintation today and that is also the way it was in the early '90s," said Clinton, citing several examples, including "the idea that we ought to bring back Confederate month in Virginia without talking anything about slavery" and "the fact that you ought to be able to pack a six gun into Starbucks and order a Cowboy Latte."

"All of this is really about whether you feel oriented walking through the day -- how to feel secure in the face of insecurity, how to feel orderd in the face of chaos," he said.

Clinton cautioned public figures that their words "fall on the serious and the delirious alike. They fall on the connected and the unhinged alike."

"We have to pay special care both to have a raging debate, because we need to figure out what to do about this and to do it in a way that nurture the best in us -- not the worse," he said.

Clinton concluded that "this Tea Party Movement can be a healthy thing" if it, and other grassroots movements, are truly focused on fiscal discipline, and is "careful not to advocate violence or cross the line."

original ICP video is so much better.
SNL is turning into Mad TV apparently.

Pretty excited about this. 720 pages of SY art/articles/etc. Comes with 2x7" records. Got it off amazon for $30 cheaper than the band's online store, and with 2 gift cards from amazon, paid a whopping $8.55 for it.

some pretty sick photos from iceland's eyehjaaaaafoiejfslkdfj volcano here

Awesome

Git ya a t-shirt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI_1k_M8 ... h_response



Also, volcano lightning is super kewl.

Fuck you, volcano. I had shit to do in Haverhill.

One of those surveys from the University of Washington also notes:
Only 35 percent of those who strongly approve of the tea party agreed that blacks are hardworking, compared with 55 percent of those who strongly disapprove of the tea party. On whether blacks were intelligent, 45 percent of the tea-party supporters agreed, compared with 59 percent of the tea-party opponents. And on the issue of whether blacks were trustworthy, 41 percent of the tea-party supporters agreed, compared with 57 percent of the tea-party opponents.

Hey this is the University of Washington calling. Mind if we ask you a few questions?
"Sure."
Are you a racist?
"Yeah pretty much."
Alright thanks for your time!

Sly Stone, keep it crazy.
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/19 ... /?hpt=Sbin

Can they really? If they could, pay-day loans and Rent-A-Center wouldn't exist. Then throw in the amount of credit card debt from all these concerned citizens. Nevermind that there's a chunk of these tea partiers riding high on the Anti-Tax theme. This agrees with your NIMBY statement. Everybody wants it fixed, but nobody wants to chip in. Nor do they really care to find the money in the pockets of millionaires or even quarter-millionaires, cause that's so Anti-American. Plus, Barry's done a terrible job of showing people that their tax rates haven't gone up, too. That makes it impossible to fix other tax holes or try anything new to raise revenue.

The whole argument that "no one is representing our interests" is pretty weak. First off, no one is confusing the Tea Partiers with liberal democrats. If anyone has turned up a survey of how many of them voted for GWB in 2000 and 2004, I'd be interested to see it. My guess is the percentages are pretty high, which also means that they got their guy for 8 straight years. Secondly, I would like to see how these people view their elected members of Congress. If they approve, well hot damn! You have someone representing your interests.

The bigger issue is that far too many people only buy into democracy when their team wins. Barack Obama has only been president for 15 months. He's just now getting some of his legislation out there. Where were the Tea Parties during the Bush Administration? I know they like to point at the bailouts, but I think that's just a handy excuse.