Thursday, January 28, 2010

Is The TEA Turning Tepid?

It's not been a good week for the teabaggers.

First, one of their poster children, Andre Bauer, puts his foot into his tea cup, comparing poor people to stray animals, and how neither should be fed.

Then another one of their members, one that could be considered a leader since he has spoken at rallies, gets arrested for raping a seven year old girl and having an arsenal of explosives:

A former Marine with ties to Tea Parties and militias who talked openly about using his training “to become a domestic terrorist” has been charged in separate complaints with raping a child and possessing an unregistered grenade launcher. His arrest may signal that a wing of the Tea Parties is heading in a more militant direction.

Charles Allan Dyer, 29, of Marlow, Oklahoma was arrested on January 12 at his home by Stephens County Sheriff’s deputies on the rape charge. The arrest occurred after a 7-year-old girl told sexual-abuse experts about a January 2nd incident at Dyer's home.

While sheriff's deputies were at Dyer's home, they found several firearms and a Colt M-203, 40-millimeter grenade launcher, according to court documents. When they searched a national crime database, the deputies discovered that the grenade launcher was one of three stolen from a military base at Fort Irwin, California, in 2006. According to an affidavit, Dyer told law enforcement that he had received the grenade launcher "from his best friend who gave it to him while Dyer was stationed in California with the Marine Corps" (United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, Criminal Complaint, Case No. M-10-36-BA, January 14, 2010, pp. 2-3).

But now, as they are trying to rally their zombies members into a frenzy for a national Tea Party Convention, they suffer two grievous blows. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R - Tenn)decided not to go to the convention after all, afraid that their profiteering will turn out bad for her.

Even more painful is that Representative Michelle Bachmann (R - Batshitcrazyville) is also dropping out. If your having an event that is too far out there for even Bachmann to join in, you know you have serious problems.

Further showing that the tea has become watered down is the fact that the people of Oregon threw their own type of anti-TEA Party, stating that quality of life is more important than a few bucks more to the already wealthy:
Oregon voters bucked decades of anti-tax and anti-Salem sentiment Tuesday, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to prevent further erosion of public schools and other state services.

The tax measures passed easily, with late returns showing a 54 percent to 46 percent ratio. Measure 66 raises taxes on households with taxable income above $250,000, and Measure 67 sets higher minimum taxes on corporations and increases the tax rate on upper-level profits.

The results triggered waves of relief from educators and legislative leaders, who were facing an estimated $727 million shortfall in the current two-year budget if the measures failed.

[...]

Overall statewide turnout was expected to be around 60 percent of Oregon's 2 million voters.

Tuesday's strong support also validated a strategy by Democratic lawmakers to single out the rich and corporations for targeted tax increases.

Campaign ads by supporters highlighted banks and credit card companies and showed images of well-dressed people stepping off private jets. They also hammered on the $10 minimum tax that most corporations have paid since its inception in 1931.
Good for them! And Scott Walker, are you listening?

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