Tea party, the nut jobs that keep on givin...

Memnoch

So I'm sure you've heard of a nice lady by the name of Christine O'Donnell. Rising star of the tea party, touted by many as the next Sarah Palin. Made headlines recently for defeating the GOP backed candidate in Delaware and now building momentum as she seeks to challenge the democratic contender for Joe Biden's seat.

Oh, and there's the small matter of her dabbling in witch craft a while back.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/18/tea-party-darling-odonnell-cancels-appearances-national-news-shows/

Relevant video clip for those too lazy to read the article...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nECxQUi_pr0&feature=player_embedded

I swear, you can't make this stuff up.

Nodin

...liberal media....with their tapin and rememberin.....

Black Swan

(CNN) -- A watchdog group says it plans to ask authorities in Delaware to investigate Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's finances.

At issue are more than $20,000 of spending in 2009 and 2010 that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims was illegal.

"It turns out Miss O'Donnell has treated her campaign funds like they are her very own personal piggy bank. She's used that money to pay for things like her rent, for gas, meals and even a bowling outing. And that's just flat-out illegal," said Melanie Sloan, the group's executive director.

CNN Video:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/18/odonnell.ethics/?hpt=T2

Overheal

sadly, thats a far stretch from the worse wastes of funds in recent political history.

Lirange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzHcqcXo_NA

I have no words.

chughes

I think if someone called Todd Hitchcock spoke to me on the subject of masturbation, I'd just have to laugh.

karma_

Isn't she the same idiot who told Eddie Izzard that she wouldn't lie to nazis to protect some Jews. Boggles the mind that anyone would actually vote for her.

Denerick

Am I the only one who is really really really turned on by her disgust of masturbation?

... Another deviancy to add to my growing list

As for that man who appeared in the video denouncing 'the act', I believe the famous phrase '99% of men masturbate. The other 1% are liars' springs to mind.

Memnoch

Fox news seem to have edited the article to remove references to her dabbling in witch craft. I wonder how the evil liberal media got access to Fox news admin and managed to manipulate the news once again?

Tres interesting.

Anonymous1987

Does anyone else think that it might go in Democrats favour that so many tea part favoured candidates seem to be unelectable when put to the general public?

Denerick

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

Does anyone else think that it might go in Democrats favour that so many tea part favoured candidates seem to be unelectable when put to the general public?

Depends on the place, Delaware is a largely moderate state so they will definately not be voting in this whackjob. In some cases the tea party have succeeded in guaranteeing some seats for otherwise finished candidate - such as Harry Reid in Nevada.

Zombrex

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

Does anyone else think that it might go in Democrats favour that so many tea part favoured candidates seem to be unelectable when put to the general public?

The Republicans certainly are judging by the TIME article I just read.

The conservative movement the Tea Party represents is going populist and extreme to a massive degree, spear headed by outsiders like Palin. It has become norm to rail against anyone who has operated in the Washington system including Republicans. They are going to end up putting forward people with little to no experience with ideas that are on the very extreme of the right wing (ie ones that either don't work or won't get elected).

While America is traditionally a conservative country they in general don't like extremes. The old guard of the Republican party seem very concerned about the unelectability of the people the tea party movement is positioning into these upcoming elections.

Links234

Mice with fully functioning human brains!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_4if1x1pH8

how can anyone take her seriously as a politician?

Gunmonkey

Oh WOW....now THAT is delusion. but she is onto me and my research....

*hides labratory full of mice playing chess and reading Dostoyevsky*

Black Swan

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

Does anyone else think that it might go in Democrats favour that so many tea part favoured candidates seem to be unelectable when put to the general public?

The Tea Party Republicans claim to be against the old guard of DC, and may help elect two or more Republican outsiders to Congress in November 2010 because of the low approval ratings for Congress. Although the Reform Party was in fact an official party (unlike the Tea Party faction of the GOP), they did elect outsider Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota. Ventura was not only a political outsider, but also a weird fringe candidate that lacked the qualifications for office, and later showed how incompetent such people can be. So don't underestimate the voter's ability to elect unqualified and weird fringe people like Ventura during the current climate of US politics.

nickcave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QvKOdiyFaw

Just how stupid do this new wave of christianist republicans think their own base are? Renee Ellmers is running for Congress in North Carolina.

The Sparrow

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

they did elect outsider Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota. Ventura was not only a political outsider, but also a weird fringe candidate that lacked the qualifications for office, and later showed how incompetent such people can be. So don't underestimate the voter's ability to elect unqualified and weird fringe people like Ventura during the current climate of US politics.

How can you possibly say this man wasn't qualified for office:



I saw the headline "O'Donnell admits to dabbling in witchcraft" and assumed it was Rosie O'Donnell!:p

First, I've heard of this woman... what a nutjob!:eek:

Black Swan

The Sparrow wrote: »

How can you possibly say this man wasn't qualified for office

Unqualified to govern, but certainly qualified to PARTY with his party! Ventura's election victory party lasted how long? Two days nonstop? :pac:

Nodin

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

. Ventura was not only a political outsider, but also a weird fringe candidate that lacked the qualifications for office, and later showed how incompetent such people can be. So don't underestimate the voter's ability to elect unqualified and weird fringe people like Ventura during the current climate of US politics.

In fairness, people were probably fooled by Mr Venturas brave role in the military, alongside Mr Schwarznegger.

Anyhoo - and this won't come as a suprise, I'd imagine....

After last week's viral video clip in which the Republican Senatorial nominee from Delaware spoke of having "dabbled into witchcraft," Bill Maher lobbed another blast from Christine O'Donnell's past on his show last night.


In a clip from the Oct. 15, 1998 episode of his old ABC series, "Politically Incorrect," O'Donnell is shown saying "Evolution is a myth."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20017637-503544.html

Memnoch

Well, the evolution stuff is practically mainstream with the American right at the moment so I doubt it will hurt her support with her base. The way the US is heading right now, I'm not even sure it will hurt her stance with independent voters.

Nodin

Bill Maher's slow drip of clips from Christine O'Donnell's past continued Friday, with another sampling of faith.

In a 1999 interview from Maher's of "Politically Incorrect," the Delaware Republican Senate candidate said that before she became a Christian she tried several religions, but skipped becoming a Hare Krishna because she didn't want to be vegetarian.

Sketch writers take note

O'Donnell: "I was dabbling into every other kind of religion before I became a Christian."

Maher: "You were a witch!"

O'Donnell: "I was! I was!"

Maher: "You were."

O'Donnell: "I was dabbling in witchcraft. I've dabbled in Buddhism. I wanted to become a Hare Krishna but I didn't want to become a vegetarian. And that is honestly the reason why - because I'm Italian, I love meatballs."

Maher: "Boy, are you spiritual."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/02/politics/main6920938.shtml?tag=strip

Its just a fountain that won't stop flowing.

p1akuw47h5r3it

This is a video with Karl Denniger, the founder of the Tea-Party.

In it he calls Palin a "joke".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1lrbNZlu40&feature=sub

Manic Moran

Ventura was not only a political outsider, but also a weird fringe candidate that lacked the qualifications for office, and later showed how incompetent such people can be.

Talking to people from that part of the country, they actually rather liked Governor Ventura. Kept his promises, apparently, which is always a good start for a politician. Plus, you have to approve of a governor who has the press passes say 'Official Jackal' on them! Where are you getting the incompetence bit from?

NTM

Byron85

Manic Moran wrote: »

Talking to people from that part of the country, they actually rather liked Governor Ventura. Kept his promises, apparently, which is always a good start for a politician. Plus, you have to approve of a governor who has the press passes say 'Official Jackal' on them! Where are you getting the incompetence bit from?

NTM

Indeed. Look at all the pretty decent stuff he did. I know, what a dick. :rolleyes:

As Minnesota Governor, Ventura succeeded in several initiatives. One of the most notable was the rebate on Sales tax. In each year of his administration, Minnesotans received a tax-free check in the late summer.[27] The state was running a budget surplus at the time, and Ventura believed that the money should be given back to the public. In political debates, he often admitted that he had not formed an opinion on certain policy questions. Ventura frequently described himself as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal."[28] He selected teacher Mae Schunk as his running mate.
Later, he came to support a unicameral (one-house) legislature, property tax reform, gay rights, and abortion rights. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, he affirmed his support of gay rights, including gay marriage and gays in the military, humorously stating he would've gladly served alongside homosexuals when he was in the Navy as they would've provided less competition for women.[29] While funding public school education generously, he opposed the teachers' union, and did not have a high regard for the public funding of higher education institutions. Additionally, Ventura supported the use of medicinal marijuana,[30] advocated a higher role for third parties in national politics, and favored the concept of instant-runoff voting.
Ventura was elected on a Reform party ticket, but he never received support from Ross Perot's Texas faction. When the Reform party was taken over by Pat Buchanan supporters before the presidential elections of 2000, Ventura left the party in February 2000, referring to it as 'hopelessly dysfunctional'. However, he maintained close ties to the Independence Party of Minnesota, which also broke from the Reform party around the same time.

InTheTrees

I really hope this november will be the end for the "tea party".

Its beginning to look like it might be. Its hard to sustain that lack of any coherent message beyond the first few enthusiastic years.

Black Swan

InTheTrees wrote: »

I really hope this november will be the end for the "tea party".

Its beginning to look like it might be. Its hard to sustain that lack of any coherent message beyond the first few enthusiastic years.

Sarah Palin has become one of their leaders and has been incoherent since the 2008. She continues, so shall they (until the Republicans get a majority, then the Tea Party will mysteriously disappear).

themrhubarbs

Do you know the history of the term 'Tea Party'?

It was named after the 'Boston Tea Party'.

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and other political protests often refer to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

An anti-British movement. And Boston has a high proportion of Irish Americans. A local sporting team there is called the Boston Celtics. And it has a leprechaun with a shillelagh as its' mascot.

Black Swan

themrhubarbs wrote: »

Do you know the history of the term 'Tea Party'?

It was named after the 'Boston Tea Party'.

Other than name being similar, there is very little relationship between the Boston Tea Party and the present day (Republican) Tea Party, that endorses only Republican registered candidates for the US Congress (with the exception of one token Democrat) for the upcoming 2 November 2010 elections. In essence, the Tea Party of today is a faction of the Republican party that is fighting for control of the GOP.

Denerick

nickcave wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QvKOdiyFaw

Just how stupid do this new wave of christianist republicans think their own base are? Renee Ellmers is running for Congress in North Carolina.

The reason anti Americanism is such a potent force in this world is because Americans are willing to indulge this cretin with political credibility. She is an out and out bigot, an evil harpee who deserves no standing in a righteous body politic.

Bobby42

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYUvDjLPcwY
crowd's reaction is hilarious!

Gunmonkey

Saw that, loved the responses I have seen where they go "Oh, well it doesnt ACTUALLY say the state and church are seperate in the 1st Ammendment in so many words, so she was right and everyone else wrong".

Still doesnt explain how she only knows 1 of the 3 ammendments her party is pushing to abolish in the senate....a postion she is going for and would be arguing for.

Overheal

Bobby42 wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYUvDjLPcwY
crowd's reaction is hilarious!

Oh that poor girl did not do her homework. What I find worse that she thought that "Seperation of Church and State" was not in the Constitution (which it's not, in so many words) was how she got really humble at the end there when her opponent quoted directly from the Amendment, and reacted as if she had not read it recently.

As for her original belief, it's one held by many religious conservatives, correct or incorrect. She's merely a public example of that. My last boss for example holds roughly the same belief, particularly in regards to the First, local school districts, and Intelligent Design teaching. So I guess it didn't shock me that someone would think like this. Nor am I that shocked that she would get to that point still thinking that. But what it does show is that, as the poster above me alludes to, she is being far too presumptuous to run for the public office while she's ignorant of the law as it regards the First Amendment.

Bobby42

if someone wants to run on supporting schools being aloud to teach creationism, that's fine, but she has associated with the tea party, who state that their main priority is to protect the constitution.

InTheTrees

themrhubarbs wrote: »

Do you know the history of the term 'Tea Party'?

It was named after the 'Boston Tea Party'.

Well originally the name "Tea Party" refers to a mid afternoon gathering accompanied by tea and biscuits right?

The Boston harbour protest was more an Anti-Tax protest (in this case tax on tea) than anti-british ("no taxation without representation") which is why the palin crew took it as a name.

Because americans dont have tea time or a meal called Tea (they hardly even drink it), they dont understand how ridiculous the name sounds.

I imagine a childs birthday party evey time i hear it.

Manic Moran

What, no love for the Alvin Greens of the Democratic Party?

Here's the thing about the Tea Party candidates. Yes, some of them are worthy of being mocked. But people are focusing so heavily on this that they're blindly ignoring the fact that it is still quite a strong movement. To drive the point home, the Democrat's Senate Majority Leader is under serious risk of losing his seat to a Tea Partier (The challenger, Angle, has a small lead but it's within the margins of error). Talk radio and the Web may be going viral over verbal gaffs by O'Donnell or whoever, but the Democratic Party are taking no chances with Harry Reid and are putting a hell of a lot of effort (and money) into trying to ensure he stays in his seat. No race in Congress is as high-profile as Reid's, and if it's a Tea Party supported candidate that beats him, are they really that whacko?

NTM

InTheTrees

Manic Moran wrote: »

Here's the thing about the Tea Party candidates. Yes, some of them are worthy of being mocked. But people are focusing so heavily on this that they're blindly ignoring the fact that it is still quite a strong movement.

The problem is that its hard to treat it with any respect at all even given its size.

I really believe its a product of the uninformed electorate fed by an ineffective media and will fade away after a few more defeats.

Hopefully!

Denerick

Sharon Angle is running against the most unpopular democratic senator since... well ever. It is a testament to the utter imbecility of the tea party that they would choose a complete loon to run against a very winable seat.

kev9100

Denerick wrote: »

Sharon Angle is running against the most unpopular democratic senator since... well ever. It is a testament to the utter imbecility of the tea party that they would choose a complete loon to run against a very winable seat.

Bingo. If the GOP had chosen a run of the mill conservative, Reid would be finished. It really is a miracle that he has a chance to win.

Memnoch

Manic Moran wrote: »

What, no love for the Alvin Greens of the Democratic Party?

Here's the thing about the Tea Party candidates. Yes, some of them are worthy of being mocked. But people are focusing so heavily on this that they're blindly ignoring the fact that it is still quite a strong movement. To drive the point home, the Democrat's Senate Majority Leader is under serious risk of losing his seat to a Tea Partier (The challenger, Angle, has a small lead but it's within the margins of error). Talk radio and the Web may be going viral over verbal gaffs by O'Donnell or whoever, but the Democratic Party are taking no chances with Harry Reid and are putting a hell of a lot of effort (and money) into trying to ensure he stays in his seat. No race in Congress is as high-profile as Reid's, and if it's a Tea Party supported candidate that beats him, are they really that whacko?

NTM

No matter how many people "believe" in Intelligent design, it's still not scientific fact, and the theory of evolution still remains the best scientific explanation we have to explain the development of life on this planet.

Rabble Rabble

Bobby42 wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYUvDjLPcwY
crowd's reaction is hilarious!

Christine O' Donnell is a nut, but....

Crowd's reaction is wrong. The US constitution did not separate Church and State by intent, but merely dis-establishes the Church. All that means is that the President can not be the head of a US Church. The Empire had an established Church, but a majority of Americans were the descendants of people fleeing the Established English Church. Still Established, by the way, but not something that energises English secularists too much.

The supreme court read, in later years, that the dis-establishment meant full on secularisation. Which would have been news to the founders who hired, and still have, two Chaplains for Congress and the Senate paid for out of Federal tax funds. Mostly Protestant. But not always- Anglican. Both houses of Congress open every day with a prayer.

The founders only meant that Congress should not Establish a Church, but said nothing about whether individual States could - and Connecticut had an established Church until the mid 1800's. The founders would certainly have the seen the later Supreme court reading of the first clause as being massively in violation of the second clause - the right to freely practice religion. If they didn't impose the anti-Establishment clause on States, and the Senate and Congress can hire Priests, then why cannot a small mormon town use it's locally tax funded dollars on a Temple which is also a town hall, or a school.

This is how it was - little house on the Prairie comes to mind - the Church was a School. I think the Supreme court reading of the Dis-Establishment clause is one of the reasons for the increase in religious hostility in the US.

( The other reason is that the people who emigrated were religious nuts anyway)

Overheal

Memnoch wrote: »

No matter how many people "believe" in Intelligent design, it's still not scientific fact, and the theory of evolution still remains the best scientific explanation we have to explain the development of life on this planet.

Thats irrelevant to the issue being raised I think.

Memnoch

Overheal wrote: »

Thats irrelevant to the issue being raised I think.

MM's point was:

and if it's a Tea Party supported candidate that beats him, are they really that whacko?

Just because lots of people believe something, eg ID (which is an analogy I picked specifically because that would probably be in line with what the vast majority of the tea party faithful would believe), doesn't mean there is any greater credence to it as an issue of scientific fact.

Numbers do not equal truth, and even if tea party candidates manage to win seats it doesn't make them any less crazy, only more dangerous, i.e. with actual power.