Thursday, April 16, 2009

Palm Springs Teabagging



A small group of white, mostly elderly people stood in downtown Palm Springs in solidarity with other Fox News afficionados around the country to protest taxes and Obama and the financial bailout.



Princess Sparkle Pony is convinced that the entire affair is a brilliant Dada Art stunt (click here).



Beth Spotswood found herself confused by the use of the word "teabagging" and offers a few other suggestions for Republican campaigns at SF Appeal (click here).



I'm just curious where these people think the money comes from for their patriotic military adventures around the world. The mind boggles at their utter cluelessness.

7 comments:

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Pravda, I mean Fox News . . . when you come across people who believe it, it's like meeting those people who thought everything in the Weekly World News was actually true, right down to P'Lod the alien and Bat Boy. . . .

Immanuel Gilen said...

I'm not sure I follow the last paragraph...how do you know these people support the vast amounts of money spent on the military?

Civic Center said...

Dear Immanuel: The US flag headbands in the first and last photos should probably be your first clue.

Immanuel Gilen said...

I see where you're going with this, but it seems to me these "teabaggers" (the choice of name is laughably bizarre at best) are more of the libertarian, Ron Paul-style fiscally conservative variety (who are often opposed to military spending all the same)...but I can't speak for them, of course.

Civic Center said...

Dear Immanuel: I can't speak for them either, but my impression was that they were definitely more Republican Women of Coachella Valley than Ron Paul style Libertarians. Their wrapping themselves in the flag in every way possible was the visual tipoff.

Immanuel Gilen said...

Point taken...I'm going to trust you know the Coachella Valley way better than I do anyways ;-)

So are you also saying you don't casually wrap yourself in the stars and stripes on occasion? High treason!

Matthew Hubbard said...

Immanuel is right that the Ron Paul crowd had a hand in starting this, but it was taken over by other forces. Dick Armey's lobbying firm was an important part of the Washington, D.C. protest. (I will let other people have fun with the Dick Armey teabagging jokes. I've already heard more than I can stand.)

In Palm Springs, the crowd may have included several people making more than $250,000, which means the Obama tax plan is going to hit them, but in most of the pictures I saw from around the country, it looked like people getting by on a lot less than that. Hatred of Obama looked like the true unifying theme.