The title almost sounds French so I must quickly apologize to any Tea Party patriots reading. I meant no disrespect. You guys certainly don’t surrender as easily as they do! A little history joke! (Too bad most Americans only remember them helping us out during our revolution… I think they sent crepes to Valley Forge, not sure.)
Fellow Americans! I am taking a moment out of my wretched liberal existence here in Hollywood to present a gift to the Tea Party. Yes, indeed, I have cancelled tonight’s orgy with Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand. I told John Cusack he would have to smoke his Mary Jane and eat his mushrooms alone in Joshua Tree park this weekend. I even ended my Skype session with Rosie O’Donnell in the middle of her using foul language!
I did this, countrymen, so I could bring you a very important video. A patriotic video that does what the media elites won’t do — Thanks the Tea Party for their patriotic work on the debt ceiling negotiations… Because someone has to!
If you are moved as I was, please pass this on to a Tea Party member you know. Then hug them tightly (keeping your pelvic area out of the danger zone).
* * * Help this go viral!
You can: stumble, digg, fark, tweet, facebook or boing it!
Or send to Huffpo, TPM, or any favorite blog! * * *
UPDATE
Loving the response. From press release:
Salon.com’s editor, Joan Walsh, retweeted the video Sunday and then returned a half hour later, writing, “Still laughing at @DC_Douglas Tea Party thank you. Ending Social Security will let seniors share their wisdom with the homeless!”
Online websites such as Daily Kos, Crooks & Liar’s Video Cafe, The Immoral Minority, Veracity Stew, and Political Irony began posting it as part of the larger national narrative that links the Tea Party’s intransigence during the debt ceiling negotiations to the credit downgrade.
Apparently this is not without some merit. In Standard & Poor’s statement, they wrote “[T]he downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned…”
Like to add: Thank you, Tea Party for causing destabilizing the financial markets all around the world leading heavy drops in stock exchanges everywhere and bringing us back to the verge of that good old financial crisis we just thought we left behind.
Maybe you should add an international thank you video. Hardly a nation that isn't 'glad' that the dollar has to take another devaluation…
Tea-Party finally managed to gain global impact.
Oh for crying out loud…..so I guess you didn't see the warning letter S&P sent out FOUR MONTHS AGO in APRIL saying a downgrade would happen if we didn't put forth a credible plan to reign in the deficit spending. The tea party wanted less spending, the Dems & establishment Republicans were fighting it. I think they're all guilty in this mess, but to single out the tea party is just dishonest, partisan tripe. The left is coming unhinged, seemingly unable to make a coherent case for its positions or to do anything but call people vile names while decrying the lack of civility in politics. Pathetic.
http://www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/articles/…
I'm with you, Cyndi, in that the global mess is way beyond a radical niche group.
However: "The left is coming unhinged, seemingly unable to make a coherent case for its positions or to do anything but call people vile names while decrying the lack of civility in politics. Pathetic. "
You kind of undermine any moderate high road you thought you were traversing.
I see your point, it's not the Tea-Party alone. It was long road (down) to get there. But yet, it times of economical weakness and crisis you might expect a little more from a party… No, scrap that last sentence of mine. European and german politicians are not better. Even the left wing or center either don't come up with solutions that work or lack the means and strength to put them into action.
However, the Tea-Party's policy of blocking only added to the trouble.
I noticed that you failed to mention the larger plan that the President offered that the Tea Party balked on and Boehner cut off negotiations.
The TEABAGGERS sounded crazy when they started out. They sound crazy now.
I can't wait to see the demise of the Republican politicians and the GOP freshman TEABAGGERS who caused the U.S.A. to be downgraded financially.
So unfair. My son was a 13 year old D&D player six years ago and was reading Chomsky, Zinn, Peter Hopkirk, Clausewitz, Suntzu, Paine, Orwell, and various interesting history, philosophy, military science, science, and science fiction that year. He had and has decent social skills too. Dude.
Gaming isn’t a social ghetto any more. We can crack the closet door, it’s safe.
No offense intended. It was a funny line. The inference was actually that D&D kids are intellectual wonks – armed with knowledge, but too young to convey it with grace. I think that might still be true.
The Tea Party didn't cause the downgrade. That group was and has been reacting to their belief that the current administration is expanding the role of government much more than Tea Party members are comfortable with. The ratings agencies are looking at the government's ability to pay it's obligations, and the government has been spending substantially more than it's taking in as it grows it's portion of the economy. And I'm not saying this has only been happening the last 3 years either. Both parties have been complicit in expanding government's reach into everyone's life, and neither party has had the backbone to say no to any pork or special interest that might help them get reelected. I know the knee-jerk reaction is to tax the "rich", but keep in mind that the top 2% of taxpayers ($250k up-my numbers may be off somewhat; Google top 2% taxpayers for exact figures) contribute almost 48 percent of the total tax revenue of the US. And many of those top 2% own small businesses that are taxed at individual rates, so if rates are raised on that group, many may find it uneconomic to continue their businesses unless they cut some costs (such as employees); large multi-national corporations grab the headlines, but are a relatively small portion of the economy. If you want to raise revenue, broaden the tax base so more people have some skin in the game, and do away with a large portion of the loop holes and special deals that lobbyists have put in the tax code. On a final note, I'll relay an anecdote: my mother is liberal in her beliefs (avid reader of Mother Earth News), but when she inherited a small amount of money and invested it, all of a sudden she got very concerned about capital gains rates. It's not the Tea Party per se, but a sizable portion of the citizenry that believes in a smaller government, and the representatives they elected. As for the dollar, don't get me started…
Whatever you do, don't let facts and actual information get in the way.
The top 1% of earners in the US possess almost 35% of all the wealth in the US, the next 19% own over 50%, leaving 15% for the remaining 80% of the population. The top 1% made 20% of all income, the top 10% made 45% of all income, which means that 80% of the population makes due with 55% of the income. Since there is a point where you're taxing lower income people only to turn around and return that money in services, it only makes sense for those with more ability to afford taxes to pay more taxes.
That's the way taxes have always been in this country, perhaps you should research historical tax rates before making statements as if today's tax policy was summoned out of thin air?
Wealth and income are two totally different things. The federal Government taxes income. 2 different people can both earn $500,000.00 and one spends all of his money on fast cars, pretty women and the rest he spends foolishly. The other guy buys what he needs for himself and his family for a number of years and saves or invests the majority of the money. One guy is living paycheck to paycheck and other is on the road to becoming wealthy. There is nothing wrong with people becoming wealthy. Why do liberals hate people who work harder and save? The 1st guy is kinda like our country has been living and it is time to change. The TEA Party is the only ones with balls to try to change the Government for the better.
Shoot yeah, Maximus! Liberals are the party of SPENDING MONEY ON PRETTY WOMEN!
(I have no clue what you're talking about. But keep repeating it. It'll catch on with dullards.)
Oh, and if you actually read S&P's report, it was the GOP and Tea Party that caused the downgrade.
It specifically refers to turning what has always been a routine process of raising the debt ceiling into high drama and a lack of revenue increases. Even the money men on Wall Street can tell that cuts alone not only won't fill the hole, but only add to the problem by causing economic contraction.
But that would require reading, and I guess that's just not patriotic.
How does that cool aid taste?
It really is sad how the Tea Party essentially held the entire world economy hostage to get what they want. And the Democrats tend to either give in or can’t get anything done due to constant obstruction. They need to learn that there are some people you can’t compromise with.
But I digress. It would be rude of me to use your blog to make a political rant. So I’d just like to say, thank you for the video DC.
Perhaps Wesker should try running for President?
Magnificent idea:
Free Uroboros for everyone!
And T-Virus for T-baggers…
Funny but oh so true! I LMAO Keep up the good works!
I stopped calling them the teabaggers a while ago..after I saw all in the family re runs.I now call them the archie bunker party cause who else can run there mouths so long and not make one dammed bit of sence
Maybe if you stopped calling names and engaged in an honest, non-partisan debate you could persuade some people to change their minds. We're seeing good countries in Europe drop like flies because they took on too much debt (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal). We appear headed down that same road.
Now here is my question for you liberal/progressives — given that neither party has EVER done anything about taxes on the uber-wealthy….what makes you think they will now? They won't. "Higher taxes on the rich" simply means raising taxes on the middle & upper middle classes — the very people who are now carrying the highest tax burden as a percentage of their income.
We have plunderers at the top and about one-third of the people at the bottom who are now nothing more than government dependents and couldn't fend for themselves if they had to. One-quarter of the population (the baby boomers) are now headed into retirement and will be joining the ranks of SS & Medicare. What's the answer to this mess?
If we keep borrowing we'll ultimately end up with massive austerity and/or massive devaluation of our currency, which will decimate the poor that you purport to care so much about. What's your solution? I mean that sincerely, because all I hear is "tax the rich" — but IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Get used to it. The Dems had 2 years of holding the presidency & Congress and NEVER DID ANYTHING to raise taxes on the rich. The republicans WILL NEVER lower taxes, they'd get voted out of office by their base. So what is the progressive solution here???? I ask respectfully, I'd really like to hear a realistic solution. We could TOTALLY ELIMINATE our ENTIRE military and it would only reduce our deficit from $1.7 Trillion per year to $1.1 Trillion per year. I'd support that, but it doesn't come close to solving the problem. So, besides calling people 'baggers or the Archie Bunker party or terrorists or crazy, backwards, knuckle dragging neanderthals…..what's your solution?
I meant to say the republicans will never raise taxes, that was a typo.
Have a look at the Clinton years. Disregard the blowjob and just look at the balanced budget and surplus. Where were we headed?
Clinton raised the top marginal rates on WAGES! The top 1 percent DO NOT make their money via wages — that's only for the middle & upper middle classes. The uber-wealthy make the money on capital gains, tax-free bonds, real estate, commodities and overseas investments. They have lawyers and accounts to help them navigate the tax code and minimize their taxes. Clinton actually LOWERED rates on capital gains, a major source of revenue for the wealthy.
The economy was good under Clinton mainly because of the Internet boom, to suggest it was due to raising marginal tax rates seems far-fetched. Don't get me wrong — I'd take Clinton any day over Obama or Bush, but to suggest he raised taxes on the uber-wealthy is just factually untrue.
How in the world has this literally been tolerated? I mean I understand that you all have the right to have an opinion; but for God sake you also have the right to act on your conscience. ACT on what you believe is for the better of your country – so why just talk about it and let it all happen? Why isn't this ever stopped? If we can rise up against our oppressors in peaceful demonstrations enough to literally freeze our own countries – why won't you? How bad does it have to get? Granted the rich still spend more than us little people but that money doesn't go to you it just gets recycled back to them. Why is this still being tolerated in the 21rst century??? If you guys want 'equality' for all you better start now or it's never going to happen. You're all just going to be talking in loops – enough talking already. It never should have gotten this bad and it shouldnt have to get worse for you guys to fight back.
Yeah, thanks to all those elected by a majority of the 30% of the electorate that voted last time. You claim that as a mandate? Looks more like a dogdate to me. You teabuggers have essentially committed treason, and for what? So the rich get to keep their $$$? Tools. Here is your opposite: Instead of the perennial "Supply-side" economics, realize that there is also a "Demand-side" to the economy. That's the side that actually MAKES goods, not finances goods. Of course, only the financers are good people, according to the teabuggers and Republicants. So send all the jobs overseas. Hey, Shrub said it was the right way to do business and he was ALWAYS right, right?
Yes, this is just what I needed today.
Shout out to Berkeley.
Whoo hoo! Berkeley in house!