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The guy that lost a finger was not an activist and was a citizen who decided to stop. Not an activist, not a tea party organizer or participant of any of the organizations.

I’m not confused at all about your misinformation about how the phrase teabagger was originated. Its a liberal meme you have bought into. Ive been following the tea partys since Santerelli’s rant early this year. Teabagger wasn’t a widely used term until notably MSNBC and CNN began using it. I wonder why we cant agree that its childish to use that moniker a part of news coverage of citizen movement in the first place.

Fox News–I’m not the Potus am I? Government isn’t supposed to intercede into news coverage and attempt to shade coverage through government pressure. It damn sure isn’t supposed to restrict coverage because it doesn’t like the way its being covered, that’s the news media’s job–to cover the actions of government whether they want it covered or not. Government holds power over people’s lives, unless its a national security issue, no issue should be barred from coverage and the character of the coverage should be dictated by the actions of the administration–not the administration attempting to pressure news organizations to cover it a certain way.

Bush never dictated state budgets based upon a federal bill or demand they be changed to accommodate the fed. Obama did. Its a fundamental state right they be allowed to conduct business within their state and set their own budgets. The fed is not allowed to change that via federal funding. I know why that is : Bush didn’t trample states’ rights.

Which does not change the fact that Rick Perry invoked it merely because he doesn’t like the policies of the current president.

I repeat – Democrats and liberals didn’t like the policies of Bush. In fact. we hated many of Bush’s policies, and were seriously alarmed by them. And yet we didn’t invoke secession.

Why do you think that is?

wws: Texas is even guaranteed it by their agreement to enter the union as is Vermont.

Cite please. Texas is not guaranteed the right to secede. It WAS given the right, as part of its annexation deal, to divide itself up into four smaller states. Not at all the same thing.

wws: People bringing guns to Presidential speeches deserve to be arrested, if a person is carrying a gun legally at a rally of that sort, its bad judgment. The fact that you have 2 examples,

I offered three examples. Not two.

wws: Its a despicable tactic used to marginalize opposition by taking the most extreme examples and holding them out to be the norm. How about if I held that all environmentalists are vandals, Molotov tossing agitators bent on violence?

How many cases can you cite of environmentalists showing up openly carrying loaded weapons at public gatherings? And please name the environmentalist governor who invoked secession at an environmentalist protest.

Heck, I’ll make it easier for you by broadening the pool. Cite how many liberal or leftist demonstrators showed up openly carrying loaded guns at Bush speeches. Cite how many liberal or leftist governors invoked secession during the Bush years.

wws: Your convolutions on the origin of the phrase tea bagging are interesting. Tea party activists were going to dump tea bags to symbolize the Boston tea party, the left and a lot of media jumped on the phrase as a way to mock the events.

There’s nothing “convoluted” about pointing out that it was the tea partiers themselves who first referred to themselves as “tea baggers” out to “teabag” Washington DC.

Please explain what you find confusing about this.

wws: Read closer about the guy that lost a finger. Was he an activist at the event?

What difference does that make? He was still feted on Neil Cavuto and elsewhere as a Tea Party hero.

wws: Finally on Fox News. They don’t have to attempt to knock them off the air to be wrong. They just have to attempt to impede them or make noises about intimidation to influence their reporting to rise to the level of chilling free speech.

So you equate criticism with an attempt at censorship?

You’ve been criticizing my piece. Are you attempting to censor me?

Still waiting, by the way, for more info on the SEIU memo you mentioned.

People bringing guns to Presidential speeches deserve to be arrested, if a person is carrying a gun legally at a rally of that sort, its bad judgment. The fact that you have 2 examples, one of which was staged and the other of which led to an arrest when millions participated leads me to believe you are a big believer in conflation and branding—one person does it so they must ALL do it.

Its a despicable tactic used to marginalize opposition by taking the most extreme examples and holding them out to be the norm. How about if I held that all environmentalists are vandals, Molotov tossing agitators bent on violence? Id be wrong. But at least I know that’s wrong. You don’t seem to.

Your convolutions on the origin of the phrase tea bagging are interesting. Tea party activists were going to dump tea bags to symbolize the Boston tea party, the left and a lot of media jumped on the phrase as a way to mock the events.

Read closer about the guy that lost a finger. Was he an activist at the event?

Finally on Fox News. They don’t have to attempt to knock them off the air to be wrong. They just have to attempt to impede them or make noises about intimidation to influence their reporting to rise to the level of chilling free speech. Message : toe the line other networks or we will treat you like we do Fox—only it didn’t work. Government officials don’t get to decide what is and isnt a news network. Because the primary reason for freedom of the press is to investigate the government and provide insight for the public into how they use power.

Sure they can make that characterization. The just can’t act on it. And they did not. I have seen no evidence that the White House has attempted to knock Fox News off the air.

wws: They also attempted to block them from interview from a White House official.

Were you equally indignant about the Bush administration “freezing out” MSNBC?

wws: No, I’m talking about the SIEU memo that specifically mentioned “getting in their faces” and “be disruptive”.

Cite please. This sounds an awful lot like the Freedomworks Tea Party memo that got leaked to the press some months ago entitled “Rocking the Town Hall — Best Practices.”

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/08/memo-details-co-ordinated-anti-reform-harrassment-strategy.php?page=1

wws: As for the pinky incident? The supposed aggressor was a 65 year old. C’mon.

There’s nothing “supposed” about the fact that the man was the aggressor. He admitted as much, and accounts of what happened indicate that the man he punched was confronting the 65-year-old about his aggressive behavior towards another pro-healthcare demonstrator, a woman who’d been trying to pass him to get to other demonstrators. Sorry, but being 65 does not give you carte blanche to start punching people in the face because you don’t like what they’ve said.

wws: Use of the term tea bagging or tea baggers was not coined by the people at the events themselves, I’m not sure where you are drawing that from but its blatantly false.

I didn’t say they coined the actual term, which has been around for years. The Tea-Partiers themselves, however, were the ones who first referred to themselves as “teabaggers” who were “teabagging” Washington.

wws: Lets really examine why secession was talked about. The fed was attempting to dictate state budgets linked to federal aid packages after the budgets were drawn. The fed is not to link funds to purely intra state business, that’s a 10th over reach. States have little they can do besides make secession, refusal of funds, or a flat statement of refusal to toe the line the fed is placing.

Attempting to justify Rick Perry’s irresponsible invocation of secession does not change the fact that he and the right wing have invoked secession — something that liberals and the left did NOT do while Bush was merrily slicing and dicing the constitution.

wws: Explain to me, whats wrong with the purchase of guns? Its a guaranteed right.

Something is wrong when the election of a president results in people on the right running out and emptying gun store shelves, while at the same time talking about secession and violent uprising. This indicates something profoundly nasty about the violent nature of today’s right wing.

wws: I like the continued approach of loaded guns to health care events, there was ONE guy that was widely reported but that constitutes a huge conflation on your part.

No, it was not just “one” person who showed up armed at a public event. Aside from the guy in New Hampshire carrying the pistol on his leg (along with a sign about “watering the tree of liberty”) there were at least two guys carrying assault rifles who hung around outside the convention center in Arizona where President Obama was making a speech last August, and the guy – fresh out of jail from an assault conviction – who hung around with two loaded pistols outside the center where Obama was giving a speech in Minneapolis.