When NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last Friday to plug his upcoming NBC Dateline special, Taking the Hill: Inside Congress, Williams made the absurd claim that he was a fair and balanced journalist without an agenda.
Video.
JIMMY FALLON: We don't get really too political on our show, but now and then we'll do a joke about Obama, or we'll do a joke about Sarah Palin. Keep it balanced. But, man, people go nuts on Twitter. They go, 'Hey, stop making fun of Palin. Why aren't you making fun of Obama?' And I go, 'We do make fun of Obama.'
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Just today, somebody tweeted me, 'Hey, Brian, does your back get tired carrying all that water for Obama?' (Speaking with a mocking tone, sounding dim-witted)
FALLON: Wow.
WILLIAMS: Dude. Really.
FALLON: First of all, I apologize for sending that tweet. I apologize. I was drunk. I didn't know what I was doing.
WILLIAMS: And it's always like, you know, 'Partyboy@Arkansas.' (Dim-witted voice again)
FALLON: That's crazy, yeah. But I mean, do you find it hard. Being, you know, Brian Williams you can't really have a side. You have to be... you can't pick a side.
WILLIAMS: Well, I try to play it down the middle like you do every night. I do it in news, you do it in comedy. We try not to take a side.
That exchange made me gag.
I think Jimmy Fallon does a great job of keeping his show balanced. It's not overly political. He doesn't push an agenda. It's a great respite from all that stuff. The focus is on fun, not mean-spirited political sniping.
Brian Williams, on the other hand, does not provide balanced coverage of the news. He most definitely has an agenda.
The fact that Williams mocked someone criticizing him the way he did is revealing. Williams didn't cite a tweet complaining about him carrying water for the Republicans. He didn't say it's always from 'Partyboy@Massachusetts.'
Of course, I didn't watch Taking the Hill, but Bozell's take is interesting.
Somehow, Williams never spent a second on his Obama special asking the President how he was going to handle the demands of “hardline liberals” – or any kind of liberal, for that matter. The only hardliners are conservatives who want to stop the spending madness. What this country desperately needs are more “hardline conservatives” to dismay network anchormen.
Williams undermined his own musical intro by questioning Boehner’s grip on power. “Mr. Speaker, is it fair to say you have a bit of a rebellion on your hands?” Sadly, Boehner tried to play along. “I've got a little rebellion on my hands every day. It comes with the territory.”
Williams pulled out the New York Times, not exactly where Republicans go to look good. “You don't look happy on the front page of the New York Times. It says ‘Boehner's Grip on His Caucus is Put to Test on Standoff.’ Feel like you're being tested?” Boehner agreed. The question is whether Boehner wants to pass that test by pleasing liberals like Brian Williams, or by pleasing conservatives.
Williams suggested the newest Tea Party Republicans in Congress weren’t real Republicans: “Your job is to run your party, but there is another party in there too. You have this Tea Party caucus that didn't come to Washington with the same values.”
This time, Boehner had a good answer. “It's not the Tea Party caucus. It would be more what I would describe as some hardline conservatives who want more. I don't blame them. I want more, too.”
And now we arrive at the point where Williams and NBC made colossal fools of themselves.
Williams wanted the political narrative to be painted by ultraliberal Sen. Charles Schumer. “Word has gotten around” that House Republicans held a meeting and showed a motivational movie clip from the Ben Affleck crime movie “The Town,” which Williams said “eventually involves hockey masks and baseball bats and tons of bullets.” Horrors!
After Schumer declared the Republicans were violent nuts, the NBC cameras turned to Republican whip Kevin McCarthy. Williams pushed him about this press-stopping scandal. McCarthy professed amazement that Schumer would be highlighting a movie clip from a meeting he didn’t attend.
He shouldn’t be amazed, and Brian Williams would never try to embarrass Democrats by accepting leaks about movie clips from internal party meetings. That partisan double standard defines the Old Media.
I wonder if Williams sincerely believes that he's fair and plays it down the middle.
Does he really fail to notice the way he exposes his bias?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Our constitutional system is designed so that you can't govern controlling half a branch of the government. It's simply not done. I think the president, if this is avoided, he doesn't gain, he doesn't lose. He didn't show any leadership here. It'll be neutral.
Boehner - I think if he gets 60 percent of his caucus, he'll be OK.
The winner is the Tea Party. They have changed the debate in the country. I think they ought to do what George Aiken advocated in the worst of days of the Vietnam war - declare victory and go home.
There'll be another fight a year from now. Obama is losing it. And I think that's where the big payoff will be. And that's when the country will decide what it wants to do about debt and also about the size of government.
According to an unnamed prominent Green Bay-area business leader, Republican Wisconsin State Senator Rob Cowles was "threatened" by Gov. Scott Walker's office.
Cowles was told that if he didn't vote for the Budget Repair Bill, the administration would run a Tea Party candidate against him.
He tosses out charges against the Governor's office without naming the accuser.
Bice provides quotes from the "prominent business leader" that literally puts words in Cowles' mouth.
Bice makes the case that although he doesn't name the "prominent business leader," he's not anonymous.
The Green Bay-area business leader, who has not given campaign money to Democrats or Republicans, contacted No Quarter last week and spoke on background, meaning the paper knows the individual's identity. But the leader asked not to be identified by name in the Journal Sentinel because doing so would hurt the person's business and industry relationships.
Poor baby!
Being identified would hurt the leader's business and industry relationships.
Then why contact Bice?
The leader probably was confident that Bice would run the story that puts Walker's office in a negative light without expecting the leader to go on the record.
The Journal Sentinel knows the leader's identity.
So what?
Let the public know who is making the accusations or don't run the story. This is just gossip.
State Senator Rob Cowles is firing back at a story in the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel which alleges Governor Walker threatened to put up a Tea Party candidate against him, if he didn’t vote for Walker’s bill to limit public union bargaining.
"There was never any effort by the governor's office to intimidate any of us," the Allouez Republican says. "There were some aspects of the process that some of us didn't like, but there was never any effort to threaten us with any primaries, the whole story is a fabrication."
The paper says Cowles made the remark when he called a prominent Green Bay area business leader to seek support in his recall election next month.
Columnist Dan Bice said the business leader asked to stay anonymous. But the person quoted Cowles as saying “I didn’t like this bill, either … I didn’t like being put in this position … but the governor’s office told us if we didn’t give them our support, they would run a Tea Party candidate against us.”
...Cowles says it's an effort by national unions to smear him to try and defeat him in the August 9th recall election. He maintains his long-time support for the budget repair bill.
"When the private sector has been bludgeoned by this difficult recession, the public sector has to be part of the solution," Cowles says. "That bill brought some fairness between the government sector and the private sector."
MSNBC pounded a message on Tuesday: Donald Trump is a racist. The Tea Party and Republicans are racist.
On Lawrence O'Donnell's The Last Word, PBS host Tavis Smiley declared that the 2012 presidential race would be the most racist in the nation's history, thanks to the Tea Party and Trump.
TAVIS SMILEY, PBS: I said over a year ago that this was going to be, this presidential race, Lawrence, was going to be the ugliest, the nastiest, the most divisive, and the most racist, the most racist, in the history of this republic. I did not know that that race to the bottom would begin so quickly. One can disagree with the Tea Party…
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, HOST: Why did you see this coming?
SMILEY: I saw it coming because it’s pretty clear given how the Tea Party has acted, given that Donald Trump is now playing to the worst in the Tea Party, that this would be possible. I don’t want to demonize or cast aspersions on the Tea Party broadly. I believe that there’s a certain angst that many people in that entity feel, and I share that angst about government. I don’t believe that it’s the solution to reduce government.
Government does have a role to play. We’ve got to figure out, we can figure out and debate what that role is, but there have been semantics they’ve engaged in that made it clear to me: showing up at rallies with guns, and the Secret Service, you know, working overtime to protect this president. More threats against his life than any president in the history of the nation, indeed, presidents combined.
So the evidence is pretty clear that they would do anything and say anything in order to make sure he does not get reelected.
When in doubt, whip out the race card.
MSNBC stuck with its "Trump is a racist" theme after O'Donnell's show ended.
The crazed Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC's Ed Show, said, "I think Donald Trump is a racist."
Here's the video and transcript, also from NewsBusters:
Transcript
ED SCHULTZ: You mean to tell me that [Trump’s] questioning the academic prowess of one of the smartest presidents we’ve ever had? Mr. Trump, when you start getting your advice from all of the special, special Republican advisers that we’ve seen step to the plate in the past instead of Jerome Corsi. Dude, you could do better than that.
This is what the Republican Party stands for, though: racism. I think Donald Trump is a racist.
MSNBC and its radical Leftist hosts and guests are a disgrace.
Don't they have a conscience or any concern about the consequences of their ugly, irresponsible rhetoric?
Apparently not.
The Republican Party does not stand for racism. The Tea Party isn't about racism. From what I've seen, Trump is not a racist.
Good grief.
The band of extreme Leftists at MSNBC really have done so much damage to the NBC News brand, but they keep plugging away, peddling their propaganda.
Thankfully, MSNBC languishes in the ratings cellar. Americans reject it. _________________
I don't watch David Letterman, because more often than not, he's not funny anymore.
Last night, I noticed the insufferable Bill Maher was Letterman's guest. I was curious about how the very liberal Letterman would interact with the ugly Maher. So, I decided to watch Maher's segment.
Maher's appearance was mercifully short and he basically spewed the same vile stuff he spews elsewhere. The segment was predictable, lacked energy, and, most importantly, wasn't remotely entertaining. Maher is getting lazy. He needs to come up with some new material. Even his Sarah Palin insults were rehashed trash. I had pretty much heard it all before.
However, one thing that surprised me about the segment was the decision by CBS to bleep (silence) Maher's use of the term "teabaggers" when he referred to members of the Tea Party.
When Bob Schieffer or his guests say "teabaggers" in the same context, it's aired. I guess the CBS news division has different standards than the entertainment division.
Brent Baker, NewsBusters, has some transcript highlights and video from Maher's Letterman guest stint:
Transcript
DAVID LETTERMAN: What about your Tea Party pals, what do you hear there?
BILL MAHER: Well, the Tea Party, you know, they are sad, unfortunate people because -- well, they are, because they are, you know, corporate America's useful idiots. (Applause) They are they -- I would have more respect for them if they knew a thing, if any fact could get in that tin foil helmet. If they would get out of their chat rooms and have their house tested for lead for just a minute. (Laughter)
LETTERMAN: Is this part of your friendship campaign, Bill? Is this-
MAHER: No, I don't have any respect, no, I don't have any respect for the tea-(baggers) [word silenced] and I do call them the tea-(baggers) [word silenced again] -- even though they hate it. I will stop calling them Tea-(baggers) [word silenced] when they stop calling it Obamacare, that's my deal. (Applause)
But here's the thing. Their whole campaign is based on money. It's all about we have too much debt, the deficit is too high. They are, after all, named after a tax revolt. But you know, there's these things called facts. Where did all this debt come from. Well, the facts will tell us it was mostly ran up under Bush. Two wars that we put on the credit card. (Applause) Prescription drug program that was unpaid for. Tax cuts for the richest one percent, that was unpaid for. Where were the Tea Party then? Crickets. But suddenly, when President Nosferatu took office -- suddenly debt became intolerable.
So there’s just something about him that they don't like. I can't put my finger on what it is. (audience laughter) But there's some way that he’s just not like them. I don't know what. He's skinny that must be it. He's skinny, they're fat and he's skinny.
Video.
This stuff is so stale.
It's Obama's race that fuels opposition to his policies. Sure, that's the reason for his low approval ratings. It's his skin color.
What a load!
It's unacceptable for Maher to state that the Tea Party, when it comes down to it, is a branch of the KKK.
Maher and Letterman ignore the fact that Tea Party activists are just as critical of Republicans for their reckless spending of our tax dollars. The November 2010 election clearly showed that voters cared about the government's fiscal irresponsibility and wanted change.
In the first 19 months of the Obama administration, the federal debt held by the public increased by $2.5260 trillion, which is more than the cumulative total of the national debt held by the public that was amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan.
When President Obama took office two years ago, the national debt stood at $10.626 trillion. It now stands at $14.071 trillion — a staggering increase of $3.445 trillion in just 735 days (about $5 billion a day).
To put that into perspective, when President George W. Bush took office, our national debt was $5.768 trillion. By the time Bush left office, it had nearly doubled, to $10.626 trillion. So Bush's record on deficit spending was not good at all: During his presidency, the national debt rose by an average of $607 billion a year. How does that compare to Obama? During Obama's presidency to date, the national debt has risen by an average of $1.723 trillion a year — or by a jaw-dropping $1.116 trillion more, per year, than it rose even under Bush.
In fairness, however, Obama can't rightly be held accountable for the 2009 budget, which he didn't sign (although he did sign a $410 billion pork-laden omnibus spending bill for that year, which is nevertheless tallied in Bush's column). Rather, Obama's record to date should really be based on actual and projected spending in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 (plus the $265 billion portion of the economic "stimulus" package, which he initiated and signed, that was spent in 2009 (Table S-10), while Bush's should be based on 2002-09 (with the exception of that same $265 billion, which was in no way part of the 2009 budgetary process).
How do Bush and Obama compare on closer inspection? Just about like they do on an initial glance. According to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, during his eight fiscal years, Bush ran up a total of $3.283 trillion in deficit spending (p. 22). In his first two fiscal years, Obama will run up a total of $2.826 trillion in deficit spending ($1.294 trillion in 2010, an estimated $1.267 trillion in 2011 (p. 23), and the $265 billion in "stimulus" money that was spent in 2009). Thus, Bush ran up an average of $410 billion in deficit spending per year, while Obama is running up an average of $1.413 trillion in deficit spending per year — or $1.003 trillion a year more than Bush.
Bottom line: Maher is flat-out wrong about so much.
Donald Trump made his usual Monday appearance on FOX & Friends.
Trump talked about high gas prices. He talked about his voting record, specifically his failure to vote in primaries. And he addressed Robert De Niro's criticism of Trump for making an issue of Obama's birth certificate.
Video.
Transcript
STEVE DOOCY: Meanwhile here in New York City over the weekend, they've been having the Tribeca Film Festival. The guy who started it, Robert DeNiro, it sounded like he was, he did call you out.
He said, a couple of days ago, quote: 'I won't mention names, but certain people in the news in the last couple of weeks, just, what are they doing? It's crazy. They're making statements about people that they don't even back up.... Go get the facts before you start saying things about people.'
And apparently later he did reveal that he was, in part, talking about you. What do you say to Robert DeNiro?
GRETCHEN CARLSON: With the birther issue.
DOOCY: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, he's not the brightest bulb on the planet. I mean, I've been watching him over the years, and I like his acting; but, you know, in terms of, in terms of when I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we're not dealing with Albert Einstein. And, you know, he can say what he wants, but the fact is this guy has not revealed his birth certificate.
A lot of people agree with me. I'll tell you what, with all that I do, what I do best is China, jobs, OPEC, all of this. That's what I do best. That's gonna be my strength. It is my strength. I really understand it. I know the people. But with all of that, I think I get more positive... when I'm walking down the street, when I did, recently I did a Tea Party event, and we had a tremendous crowd. They loved this issue. There are so many people that really want him to provide his birth certificate.
I mean, now you have states going out and saying in order to run for office you have to be able to provide a birth certificate. There's a big lot of things going on with respect to the birth certificate. You know, why did he spend, why is he spending millions of dollars to fight this issue instead of just providing this birth certificate? There are so many different elements here. And I will say, it's a very frightening thing for this country.
BRIAN KILMEADE: Well, there's a couple of people that backed you up. OK, De Niro is not in your corner. That's a loss. But David Brooks of the New York Times said some nice things about you and Franklin Graham has indicated that he's leaning towards endorsing you for the Republican nomination.
On this day, Tea Party tax-day, Sarah Palin walked into the heart of this nation’s battle, stared down a gallery of Leftist union goons with poise and grace, and articulated our message as well as anyone ever could. Let’s hope this is just the beginning.
SARAH PALIN: Hello, Madison, Wisconsin! You look good. I feel like I’m at home. This is beautiful. Madison, I am proud to get to be with you today. Madison, these are the frontlines in the battle for the future of our country. This is where the line has been drawn in the sand. And I am proud to stand with you today in solidarity.
I am here today as a patriot, as a taxpayer, as a former union member, and as the wife of a union member. What I have to say today I say it to our good patriotic brothers and sisters who are in unions. I say this, too, proudly standing here as the daughter of a family full of school teachers. My parents, my grandparents, aunt, cousins, brother, sister – so many of these good folks are living on teachers’ pensions, having worked or are still working in education.
A pension is a promise that must be kept. Now, your Governor Scott Walker understands this. He understands that states must be solvent in order to keep their promises. And that’s what he’s trying to do. He’s not trying to hurt union members. Hey, folks, he’s trying to save your jobs and your pensions! But unfortunately some of your union bosses don’t understand this, and they don’t care if union members have to be laid off. No, they want to protect their own power, and if that means forcing a governor to lay off union workers, then so be it; they’ve proven that that is fine with them. But that’s not real solidarity! Real solidarity means coming together for the common good. This Tea Party movement is real solidarity!
Well, I am in Madison today because this is where real courage and real integrity can be found. Courage is your governor and your legislators standing strong in the face of death threats and thug tactics. Courage is you all standing strong with them! You saw the forces aligned against fiscal reform. You saw the obstruction and the destruction. You saw these violent rent-a-mobs trash your capital and vandalize businesses.
Madison, you held your ground. Your governor did the right thing. And you won. Your beautiful state won. And you know what – people still have their jobs because of it! That’s courage. And that’s integrity. And that’s something that’s sorely missing in the Beltway today.
Because let me tell you what isn’t courageous: It’s politicians promising the American voters that, as we drown in $14.5 trillion debt, that they’re going to cut $100 billion out of this year’s budget. But then they cave on that and they reduce it down to $61 billion after they get elected. Then they get in there and they strike a deal and decide, nah, they will reduce that down to $38 billion. And then after some politics-as-usual and accounting gimmicks, we find out it’s not $38 billion in cuts. You know that $38 billion – we don’t have it; we’re borrowing it. We borrow from foreign countries to give to foreign countries, and that’s insanity. We find out it’s not even $38 billion; it’s less than $1 billion in real cuts. Folks, that $352 million in real cuts – that’s no more than the federal government is going to spend in the time it takes us to hold this rally today! That is not courage; that’s capitulation!
Now, there’s a lesson here for the Beltway politicos, something they need to understand; the lesson comes from here in Madison. So, our lesson is to the GOP establishment first. And yeah, I’ll take on the GOP establishment. What more can they say about us, you know?
So, to the GOP establishment: if you stand on the platform, if you stand by your pledges, we will stand with you. We will fight with you, GOP. We have your back. Together we will win because America will win!
We didn’t elect you just to re-arrange the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. We didn’t elect you to just stand back and watch Obama re-distribute those deck chairs. What we need is for you to stand up, GOP, and fight. Maybe I should ask some of the Badger women’s hockey team—those champions—maybe I should ask them if we should be suggesting to GOP leaders they need to learn how to fight like a girl!
And speaking of President Obama, I think we ought to pay tribute to him today at this Tax Day Tea Party because really he’s the inspiration for why we’re here today.
That’s right. The Tea Party Movement wouldn’t exist without Barack Obama.
You see, Candidate Obama didn’t have a record while he was in office; but President Obama certainly has a record, and that’s why we’re here. And hey, media, it’s not inciting violence and it’s not hateful rhetoric to call someone out on their record, so that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do it to be clear. That’s right: we’re here, we’re clear, get used to it!
Candidate Obama promised to be fiscally responsible. He promised to cut the deficit; but President Obama tripled it!
Candidate Obama promised that fiscal responsibility; but President Obama flushed a trillion dollars down the drain on a useless “stimulus” package and then he bragged about the jobs he “created” in congressional districts that don’t even exist! That’s right; on this, White House, you lie. The only thing that trillion-dollar travesty stimulated was a debt-crisis and a Tea Party!
Now, the left’s irresponsible and radical policies awakened a sleeping America so that we understood finally what it was that we were about to lose. We were about to lose the blessings of liberty and prosperity. They caused the working men and women of this country to get up off their sofas, to come down from the deer stand, get out of the duck blind, and hit the streets, come to the town halls, and finally to the ballot box. And Tea Party Americans won an electoral victory of historic proportions last November. We the people, we rose up and we decisively rejected the left’s big government agenda. We don’t want it. We can’t afford it. And we are unwilling to pay for it.
But what was the president’s reaction to this mandate for fiscal sanity?
Less than 90 days after the election, in his State of the Union address, President Obama told us, nah, the era of big government is here to stay, and we’re going to pay for it whether we want to or not. Instead of reducing spending, they’re going to “Win The Future” by “investing” more of your hard-earned money in some cockamamie harebrained ideas like more solar shingles, more really fast trains – some things that venture capitalists will tell you are non-starters. We’re flat broke, but he thinks these solar shingles and really fast trains will magically save us. So now he’s shouting “all aboard” his bullet train to bankruptcy. "Win The Future"? W.T.F. is about right.
And when Wisconsin’s own Paul Ryan presented a plan for fiscal reform, what was Obama’s response? He demonized the voices of responsibility with class warfare and with fearmongering. And I say personally to our president: Hey, parent to parent, Barack Obama, for shame for you to suggest that the heart of the commonsense conservative movement would do anything to harm our esteemed elders, to harm our children with Down syndrome, to harm those most in need. No, see, in our book, you prioritize appropriately and those who need the help will get the help. The only way we do that is to be wise and prudent and to budget according to the right priorities.
Now, our president isn’t leading, he’s punting on this debt crisis. The only future Barack Obama is trying to win is his own re-election! He’s willing to mortgage your children’s future to ensure his own. And that is not the audacity of hope. That’s cynicism!
Piling more debt onto our children and grandchildren is not courage. No, that’s cowardice!
But did you notice when he gave that polarizing speech last week there was a little gem in the speech. Maybe you missed it. But he spoke about the social contract and the “social compact.” Well, Mr. President, the most basic tenet in that social compact is adhering to the consent of the governed. That would be “We the People. President Obama, you do not have our consent. You didn’t have it in November. And you certainly don’t have it now. You willfully ignored the will of the American people.
You ignored it when you rammed through Obamacare.
You ignored it when you drove up the debt to $14.5 trillion.
You ignored it when you misrepresented your deficit spending.
You ignored it when you proposed massive tax increases on the middle class and our job creators.
You ignored is when you went to bat for government-funded abortions and yet you threw our brave men and women in uniform under the bus, Mr. Commander in Chief.
You ignored it when you got us into a third war for fuzzy and inconsistent reasons, a third war that we cannot afford.
You ignore it when you apologize for America while you bow and kowtow to our enemies, and you snub our allies like Israel.
And you ignore when you manipulate the U.S. oil supply. You cut off oil development here and then you hypocritically praise foreign countries for their drilling.
And when hardworking families are hit with $4 and $5 a gallon gas and your skyrocketing energy and food prices as you set out to fundamentally transform America, you ignore our concerns and you tell us we just better get used to it.
Well, Mr. President, we’re not going to get used to it. Not now. Not ever. You ignored us in 2010. But you cannot ignore us in 2012.
Mr. President, you and your cohorts threw all the hatred and all the violence you could at these good folks in Madison, Wisconsin. But you lost here.
And Madison, you defended the 2010 electoral mandate. You are heroes, you are patriots, and when the history of this Tea Party Movement is written, what you accomplished here will not be forgotten.
Your historic stand brought down the curtain on the last election. And the 2012 election begins here.
We will take the courage and the integrity that you showed all of America. We will take it and we will win back our country!
God has shed His grace on thee, America. We will not squander what we have.
We will fight for America! And it starts here in Madison, Wisconsin!
It starts here! It starts now! What better place than the state that hosts the Super Bowl champs, to call out the liberal left and let them know: Mr. President, game on!
Andrew Breitbart was in Madison today at the Tax Day rally.
While introducing Sarah Palin, he delivers blistering comments, taking on union thug and remarkably frequent visitor to the White House, Richard Trumka.
The TV cameras showing the speech caught little of this phalanx of thugs that we had to walk through. Middle fingers flew and the trendy talking point insult of “Koch Suckers!” was everywhere. Sarah Palin was called names that made me wonder if Bill Maher was writing for this mob. Apparently, women-hating sexual mockery is acceptable if directed at the right, even if that woman’s children are present.
The Wisconsin Tea Party supporters made it all worthwhile. These are men and women who have braved a battle and come through victorious not by bullying but by being part of the silent majority willing to support tough-minded, adult decision making. The message from speaker after speaker was that Wisconsin’s example of not being intimidated by the bankrupt tactics of the left is something that all Americans need to hear.
Of course, don’t expect that message to come from the mainstream media, whose sentiments are more with the union driven threat machine than the taxpayers.
As I took to the stage, the shouting from those trying to disrupt the Tea Party intensified. Inarticulate shouting becomes their last weapon as their policies crumble. I thought of the hypocritical calls for civility amidst the dishonestly cynical opportunism of blaming Sarah Palin who shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. I thought of the smug entitlement of government workers demanding to keep their gold and benefits packages while the nation tightens its belt. I thought of the business owners and politicians being bullied in an official capacity by the unions and then actually threatened by zealots who took the union policies to their only logical conclusion.
I’m proud of what I said. I told the sanctimonious shouters promoting class warfare to go to hell.
There may be those on the left who really want civil discourse. It’s possible there are some who realize that our national debt is, in fact, out of control. There’s a chance that sane debate is the actual goal of a number of self-proclaimed liberal activists.
But I didn’t see any of those people in Madison on Saturday morning. I’m not going to pretend that I did. It was a mob, whipped up by the divider-in-chief and his cronies who live off of union dues and taxpayer funded handouts. And in case any of you in the back row missed it, I repeat – go to hell.
Breitbart is not apologizing for responding to the thugs and their tactics by saying, "go to hell."
War is hell. And as so many union bosses and other assorted Leftists, like Michael Moore, have said, "This is war." Obama and his agitators are waging class warfare.
If the union members and Leftists want to go there, that's their choice.
The Milwaukee Journal has a short, inadequate report on the happenings in Madison at the Tax Day Rally.
It is cold and windy in Madison, but still mostly dry - making it easier for thousands of people to attend a tea party rally and a smaller counter demonstration outside of the state capitol.
The Wisconsin Capitol Police estimated that about 6,500 people were outside on the Capitol grounds and vicinity at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. There is no way to accurately determine how many people were attending any specific event, they said.
As of 12:30 p.m. there were no law enforcement incidents or arrests on the Capitol grounds and vicinity, police reported.
Darryl Krejci of Lake Mills, a former police union president, wore a green "Scott Walker my hero" T-shirt. He said he backs Walker for taking a tough stand with the state's fiscal problems.
"Something needed to be done," he said.
Cheryl MacMiller of Madison wore a sign saying "Union thug with lipstick." She said she supports public employees because "Gov. Walker is just trying to make a name for himself on the backs of workers."
The behavior of the Leftists at the counter rally was not fully reported.
Given the Journal Sentinel's Leftist agenda, I can understand why.
According to reports on Twitter, the counter protesters chanted and booed during the National Anthem.
Christian Schneider: Crowd chants SHAME and RECALL WALKER during the National Anthem.
Chelsea Gruenwald: Booing during the national anthem - wisc libs at their best
Video.
Showing such a lack of respect for the National Anthem is a disgrace. It certainly doesn't put the Leftists in a good light.
[L]abor supporters still smarting from the passage of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's polarizing bill eliminating most public employees' collective bargaining rights have been drowning out Palin's supporters, shouting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Scott Walker's got to go."
Tomorrow, former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin will speak at a Tea Party rally in Madison, Wisconsin. Unless you’ve been asleep for the past few months, you know that right now Madison is Ground Zero in the ongoing political battle to take our country back from corrupt public unions and the Democratic politicians corrupted by them. This battle represents the very heart of what the Tea Party is about, where the national spotlight should be, and yet I don’t see a long line of political types heading to my home state to take advantage of that spotlight.
Palin’s going, though, and so is the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund. And this is exactly where we should be going, and not just because this is where the heart of the fight for our country currently is, but also to make very clear to pro-union types that we will not be intimidated by their thuggishness.
Yesterday, upon hearing of Palin’s decision,, I immediately tweeted something to the effect of, “If there’s violence, Palin will get the blame from the MSM. She had it coming for showing up.” That wasn’t a joke, either. Fact 1: We’ve already seen a campaign of violence in Wisconsin at the hands of pro-union types. Fact 2: We’ve already seen the corrupt MSM blame Palin for Tucson.
Sarah Palin To Be Pelted With Cheese Curds In Wisconsin Saturday
The Koch Brothers think it’s hilarious when their dumb puppets have to go face huge, angry crowds of political opponents. Remember the movie Trading Places? It’s the same idea: Incredibly rich old white creeps just torture their own lackeys whenever it gets dull oppressing the faceless poor and destroying the Earth to make Dixie Cups and Brawny paper douche towels. So the Koch Brothers are bringing Sarah Palin to Madison, right there at the State Capitol, for an “Americans For Prosperity” rally. Haha the union people and college kids are going to pelt her with a million pounds of Wisconsin’s famous Fried Cheese Turds. Or curds, whatever. Curdle Rain. Poor snowbilly grifter! …
It’s a shame this country has turned into such an evil socialist toilet that midwesterners would stoop so low as to stoop down and get a handful of cheese curds and hurl them at Sarah Palin, the Koch Brothers’ latest human prank on Wisconsin.
Nolte concludes:
If there’s violence in Madison tomorrow — and I pray to God there isn’t – will the MSM’s response be Wonkette-ish? Tucson-ish? Or you reap-what-you-sow-ish?
If you’re hoping for a righteous response, you haven’t been paying attention.
Why is it apparently acceptable for the Left to 'joke' about violence?
Nolte points out that the founder of Wonkette is Ana Marie Cox. She's currently the Washington correspondent for GQ.
Cox is a hateful woman.
On White House Press Secretary Tony Snow:
"Snow, despite being fairly smarmy, is not actually one of the individuals currently f---ing everything up that we’d happily say cancer is too good for, so we wish him a speedy and full recovery."
Truly disgusting.
The Left/liberal media have no shame.
I, like Nolte, pray no one is harmed at the rally in Madison tomorrow.
I don't think there will be physical violence, but I know there will be violence.
Violence isn't just hurling cheese curds at someone. Words and images can be violent as well.
I'm certain the counter rally being staged by the Left will be violent.
Sarah Palin is coming to town. She's set to attend a tea party rally at the capitol on Saturday. But a counter-rally is also in the works.
The former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate is the keynote speaker at the Americans for Prosperity annual tax day rally. And love her or hate her, Sarah Palin is sure to draw a big crowd on Saturday.
“Obviously governor Palin is a large draw. She gets crowds everywhere she goes and people want to hear her speak,” said Matt Seaholm, the state director for Americans for Prosperity.
It should be another busy weekend in downtown Madison.
“Our folks are still fired up,” said Seaholm.
Sarah Palin will address fellow conservatives from the capitol steps on Saturday.
“Wisconsin is really the center of the political battles right now and she wanted to come show her support for what we're doing,” he added.
Seaholm helped organize the tea party rally and says their message is simple.
“We're the taxpayers, we're the bosses. Smaller government, lower taxes, and getting Wisconsin and American back on the path towards fiscal sanity and job growth.”
The tea party rally starts at noon and at the same time, a counter rally will be held on the other side of the capitol.
“Yeah, sure, we welcome Sarah Palin to come to town, but the majority of Americans don't take Sarah Palin seriously,” said Tag Evers, who is organizing the counter rally.
“We are expecting a turnout in the thousands. Sarah Palin is a polarizing person,” said Patrick Depula, also organizing the counter rally.
Evers and Depula say Palin's visit is a joke.
“Live from Madison, Wisconsin, it's Saturday night live!” said Depula.
If Sarah Palin isn't taken seriously, then why is her appearance drawing so much attention?
Why is it news?
If they consider Palin irrelevant, then I assume there will be no mention of her presence in Madison.
That, of course, isn't happening.
If Palin is such a joke, why are Evers and Depula taking her seriously?
Why are supposedly "thousands" showing up to protest?
Are they staging their counter rally to protest "smaller government, lower taxes, and getting Wisconsin and American back on the path towards fiscal sanity and job growth"?
Are they really against those goals?
Is the counter rally meant to be an event supporting bigger government, higher taxes, fiscal insanity, and job loss?
It seems to me that the counter rally is the joke.
Description: Vicki McKenna, James T. Harris, and Wall Street Journal’s John Fund, will be in Madison this Saturday for AFP’s Tax Day Rally! Please join us Saturday, April 16th at 12 PM at the State Capitol (East wing of Capitol and King Street) as we rally for limited government, lower taxes, and economic freedom for our great state.
The liberals are planning to drown us out, claiming that it is “their house.” Let’s show them that it’s the taxpayers-NOT the tax spenders who actually pay the bills to keep the Capitol running.
We are also providing bus transportation from various locations around Wisconsin. For more information and to sign up click here.
If you plan on driving to Madison, we will have remote parking with shuttles at the MATC parking lot at 1702 Hoffman St. For directions and to learn more, click here.
This is a chance to celebrate our recent victories and to rededicate ourselves to the work that remains to turn our state and country around. I hope that you can make it.
Loretta Sanchez is a Democrat member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Appearing on a nationally syndicated radio program, the Stephanie Miller Show, Sanchez mocks her Tea Party colleagues in the House, speaking with a "redneck, Southern accent."
