OMG you guys ...

Through forwards, I ended up with this e-mail today issued by the Tea Party (yes, THAT one) about their activities in Ohio. I would tell you what's funny about it - other than the reference to Fox News - but I'll put it AFTER I paste it here, to see if you can figure it out for yourselves first:

Democrat Rep. Zack Space insults activist with sexual reference, Zanesville small business owner slams Congressman's pejorative remarks

Zanesville - Congressman Zack Space may soon regret an offhand comment he made in a provocative statement on September 2nd concerning a local activist.

On Wednesday, Thornville resident David Daubenmire was on Fox News channel's "America's Newsroom" with Megyn Kelly. Daubenmire is a local football coach at Fairfield Christian Academy. He has been sleeping on the sidewalk outside Democrat Representative Zack Space's office in protest of the Congressman's refusal to hold a town hall meeting for his constituents in southeast Ohio.

In the interview with Daubenmire, Fox News' Megyn Kelly read the following statement which came from Rep. Zack Space's office http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=8980166&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/americasnewsroom/index.html

"Coach doesn't comprehend reality. The rain or fatigue must be getting to Mr. Daubenmire. There was a town hall meeting yesterday five blocks from where he is setting up camp featuring Secretary of Energy Tom Vilsack, Senator Brown and Congressman Space. It had been publicized for days by all offices. If it was "secretive," then more than 300 people found out the secret, including a number of Mr. Daubenmire's teabagger colleagues who were there and talked to the Congressman."

Local small business owner Darin Hill took offense to Space's remarks.

"The unmitigated gall of Mr. Space's comments is shameful," says Darin Hill, owner of Hillsway Ag and Turf in Gratiot, Ohio. "Those words are disrespectful, condescending, and more than that, they're dishonest. Mr. Space is completely misrepresenting the event. The meeting with Secretary Vilsack was not billed as a town hall. It was explicitly addressing the concerns of farmers and our district's agricultural industry. If Representative Space hosted a true town hall, a lot more than 300 people would have shown up."

Although Space's office claims that they announced the event beforehand, the event wasn't promoted as a town hall nor was it widely known that the Congressman would be in attendance at the event. But Mr. Hill is more concerned about the insult.

"I don't feel comfortable with my Congressman using sexually perverse terms like teabagging. He shouldn't be talking that way to constituents," continues Hill. "If Zack Space needs a history lesson on taxation without representation and the Boston Tea Party, I'd be happy to enlighten him. There's nothing perverse about an American citizen questioning his government."

Does anyone but me remember that THESE IDIOTS are the ones who independently decided to use the term "teabagging" themselves way back earlier this year, with no apparent knowledge of the slang connotations until it was all over the news? OMFG. I don't see where this Space fellow is using it out of context FROM THEIR ESTABLISHED USE OF IT BY THEIR OWN DAMN SELVES.

But, that's Crazy Far Right politics for you, exhibiting the two basic tenets of their existence: 1. If they ever do have the faintest glimmer of a good point to make, they obscure it behind Crazy Way-Out Shit that they deem more important (in fact, they simply know people will react viscerally to emotional buttons - then again, they don't have much substance to use); and 2. Never, NEVER will they take the blame for what they themselves have started that turns out the way they don't want it to (but happens as a direct result of THEM DOING IT THEMSELVES).

More Far Right batshit WTFery

Thanks to metalkatt for pointing this out to me from Yahoo! News:

Obama goes back to school
Thu Sep 3, 3:11 pm ET

On September 8, in what the Department of Education is touting as a "historic" speech, President Obama will be talking directly to students across the U.S., live on the White House website. But some parents and conservatives are blasting the president, calling the speech an excuse to brainwash American children.

Last month, in an interview with 11-year-old student reporter Damon Weaver, the president announced his big back-to-school plan:

"I'm going to be making a big speech to young people all across the country about the importance of education; about the importance of staying in school; how we want to improve our education system and why it’s so important for the country. So I hope everybody tunes in."

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to the nation's principals, inviting schools to watch the speech and included suggested classroom activities. But Jim Greer, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, came out swinging against the planned speech. An excerpt from his statement:

"The address scheduled for September 8, 2009, does not allow for healthy debate on the President's agenda, but rather obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with our President's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates."

NBC spoke with Katie Gordon, a spokeswoman for the Florida Republican Party, who said the party's "beef" is with the accompanying lesson plans. The guide for pre-K through grade 6 suggests questions students think about during the speech, such as "What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do?"

The plan for grades 7-12 includes a "guided discussion," with suggested topics: "What resonated with you from President Obama's speech? What is President Obama inspiring you to do?"

The Cato Institute, a public-policy research foundation, issued a press release entitled "Hey Obama, Leave Those Kids Alone," criticizing the "troubling buzzwords" in the lesson plans:

"It's one thing for a president to encourage all kids to work hard and stay in school – that's a reasonable use of the bully pulpit. It's another thing entirely, however, to have the U.S. Department of Education send detailed instructions to public schools nationwide on how to glorify the president and the presidency, and push them to drive social change."

Across the blogosphere, comments covered the spectrum, from critical to supportive, and from one student, a little anger:

"I sent my children to school to be educated NOT indoctrinated." — justamom

"The fact that people want to keep their kids from hearing the President of the United States encourage them to do well in school shows a true level of ignorance." — Firefey

"As an [sic] 9th grade student, I'd like to say that 1. I'm not sure why everyone is so scared that we'll all be brainwashed by the President ... 2. My school is one that is not allowing us to watch the speech, and quite frankly, I'm pissed." — Willbw

Both Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan both gave speeches aimed specifically at students that were nationally televised. In 1989, Bush delivered a televised anti-drug speech, and Reagan's 1986 commencement speech and Q&A session was "beamed over public television into 171 school districts," according to the L.A. Times.

It's worth noting that schools are, encouraged, not required, to air the speech. The Houston Chronicle reports that one Dallas school district is leaving the decision to individual teachers. Susan Dacus, spokeswoman for the Wylie school district, says parents who don't want their children to see it can opt out.

In an ironic twist, one Missouri school won't be airing the speech because of a lack of funding. Michelle Baumstark, spokeswoman for Columbia public schools, told the Columbia Daily Tribune, "We don’t have the funding or the equipment to support that type of broadcasting.”

— Lili Ladaga

What do you want to bet the Far Right are going to point to that poor Missouri school as being the new administration's fault? After all, the man has JUST SPENT SEVEN MONTHS TEARING DOWN PILES OF PROGRESS made by the geniuses the previous eight years. Because spending trillions of dollars you don't have to fight a war that is not going to result in a penny of profit for average Americans definitely leads to more school funding.

I remember having to watch the President in school. Nobody - well, other than the students forced to watch - bitched before the black guy got in.

More in the annals (anals) of the cruel and stupid

A good summary of the appalling behavior of those opposed to health care and insurance reform at recent Congressional town hall meetings. It's an opinionated piece with an obvious slant - but the fact is, if they did nothing but set out the facts of what's been captured on video, that's bad enough.

(Two personal notes: You can bet if that had been me talking about my mother dead of cancer or my mother in that wheelchair while I was in the room, the mean and the stupid wouldn't have had the last word. Sugar in the gas tank, baby.)

"What the fuck is happening in this country? Seriously, I don't understand." - A question from a friend of mine on guns carried openly to go see the President by yahoos with a Sam Houston complex; shouting down sick people in public forums; the rich openly ridiculing the poor; and basically telling someone who just might be telling the truth about their dead mother (and if she's not? LOTS of people can step forward with real stories of loved ones who died of lack of health care because of having no money) to go get fucked in the ear.

IMO, bad behavior comes from the top down. When people see that their leaders can stomp into somebody else's house, kick over their toys, burn their drapes, break their furniture, and rough up or even kill the occupants - and justify it all with bald-faced lies - well, do you expect the masses to not follow suit themselves?

(It's occurring more and more to me that I could basically just turn this LJ into News of the Cruel & Stupid. Heaven knows there's MORE than enough material, even without my editorial comments.)