Tagged ‘Tea Party’
“Pity the Billionaire” – new from Tom Frank
Thomas Frank’s new book, “Pity the Billionaire” is now on sale. The book dovetails perfectly with “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” to update how the conservative right has surged back to power after the 2008 economic crisis.
Tom begins his book tour, with the following schedule. Check Tom’s web site for venue and other details.
Wednesday, January [...]
Kansas Tea Party convention CANCELLED
In the wake of the Iowa Republican Straw Poll, we’ve learned that “Freedomfest 2011,” the Tea Party Straw Poll planned for Kansas City, Kansas in October 2011 has been cancelled.
The organizers cited financial difficulties, and an alarming lack of interest from those who should have been the backbone of the event – Tea Party groups [...]
Kansas to host 2011 National Tea Party Convention
In October, Kansas City, KS will host “Freedom Fest 2011,” a National Tea Party Nominating Convention, which organizers are billing as “a Tea Party Woodstock.” But without all the “hippies, drugs and trash.”
The Kansas Health Institute reports on the announcment, held in Topeka:
The activists were greeted by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and State Rep. [...]
Thomas Frank: One cheer for the Tea Party
In his regular “Easy Chair” column for Harper’s, Thomas Frank says liberals should appreciate at least one thing about the Tea Party movement:
It has been three years now since the statistical beginning of the recession, and the tide of unemployment is still near full flood. Business investors have taken shelter on higher ground. The housing [...]
Hitchens on “White washing” the Tea Party
Christopher Hitchens: “Does anybody believe that unemployment would have gone down if the hated bailout had not occurred and GM had been permitted to go bankrupt? Why not avoid the question altogether and mutter about a secret plan to proclaim a socialist (or Nazi, or Jew-controlled: take your pick) dictatorship?”
The Tax that started the Tea Party?
We stumbled across an item that Chris Douglas posted in FrumForum, that, while a couple months old, is more provocative than anything we’ve read since the election:
After Rick Santelli, a CNBC reporter, called on the floor of the Chicago commodities exchange for folks to converge in Chicago for a Tea Party, a spontaneous series of demonstrations [...]
Democrats win?
William Saleten of Slate proposes that Democrats and their leaders used their legislative power wisely during 2009-10, even if it cost them seats in the House.
Politicians have tried and failed for decades to enact universal health care. This time, they succeeded. In 2008, Democrats won the presidency and both houses of Congress, and by the [...]
What do you think of the election results?
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Could eccentric Tea-Party-backed candidates distract from their backers’ agenda?
In Sunday’s New York Times, Frank Rich suggests that focusing on the eccentricities of some of the insurgent Republican candidates — dabbling in witchcraft, expressing suppport for Scientology — only serves to distract voters from the wealthy interests that they would serve if elected. His prime example is the controversial Christine O’Donnell of Delaware:
While O’Donnell’s résumé has proved [...]
Tea Partiers crash the party
Fall has officially begun, and the Tea Party has proven it’s here to stay, winning big victories in last week’s primaries.
That is, if we can decide exactly what the Tea Party is, points out the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn. Is it a decentralized, grass-roots organization, comparable to liberal and leftist groups like Moveon.org or even [...]
Billionaire Koch Brothers: “out to destroy progressivism”
Do you suspect that the Tea Party movement isn’t quite the spontaneous, grass-roots popular uprising its followers would have you believe? Then this is the read for you:
This week’s issue of the New Yorker has a comprehensive expose on the secretive right-wing political activism of the billionaire Koch brothers, whose Wichita-based energy company has made [...]