The crazies come out on Legislative Plaza
by Jeff Woods
- Jim DeMain
Organizers are claiming a crowd of more than 10,000, but we're guessing there were about 1,000 noisy white people at the Tax Day Tea Party at Legislative Plaza. We're not going to engage in a lot of mockery here because it's mean to make fun of crazy people.
They honked their horns and circled the Capitol and heard the usual spiels from local right-wing radio blowhards. They had a little fun shouting down a lonely protester who was immediately branded by speakers as an infiltrator from the evil ACORN. Following a prearranged strategy, the crowd chanted "USA! USA!" until the beleaguered protester went away.
Steve Gill gave his prescription for a better America. What we need, he said, is "the God-fearing America," "the baby-loving, man-and-woman-marrying America." Phil Valentine declared: "Here is my new slogan for 2010, folks. If you voted for a bailout, get the hell out."
So much for illuminating discourse.
Beneath the crowd inside the Plaza, a fired-up Rep. Brian Kelsey was demanding that the House Budget Subcommittee adopt his resolution calling on Tennessee to reject federal stimulus money to expand unemployment benefits. Kelsey thinks that money is "a ticking fiscal time bomb." He offered an amendment declaring opposition to "attempts to establish socialism as a form of government in America."
"We've got all these folks out here (and) it would just be helpful to send a message from the legislature to say we hear your concerns, we share your concerns. We sympathize with you," Kelsey said.
The subcommittee wasn't feeling all that sympathetic. At the suggestion of Republican leader Jason Mumpower, any vote was postponed for four weeks.
Around the country, the Republican establishment was queasy about joining the wackos in the Tea Party revolution. But not in Tennessee, where GOP leaders have no fussy qualms about hanging out with angry nutjobs.
Ron Ramsey, Zach Wamp and Marsha Blackburn, just to name three state GOP leaders, embraced the Tea Party protesters in press releases. Wamp saluted them, Ramsey applauded them, and Blackburn asked them for campaign cash.
"The liberals' favorite day is tax day, April 15," Blackburn wrote in an email before hitting up the teabaggers for contributions.
Haslam's pain is Ramsey's glee
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey responded with glee to the news that political rival Bill Haslam's Pilot Oil has settled price-gouging allegations with the state attorney general. The Knoxville mayor's company is accused of artificially driving up prices during Hurricane Ike.
"I won't bring that up ... yet," said a rather disingenuous Ramsey. "The fact that this is the third state that's happened in, I wasn't going to point that out."
Attorney General Bob Cooper is boasting about the settlements with 16 companies and individuals who own 27 gas stations in Middle and East Tennessee. "In these trying economic times, consumers need their hard-earned dollars to stretch as far as possible. I want to make sure that consumers are treated fairly—especially at the pump," he says.
But is this really anything to crow about? The settlements will result in a paltry $73,447 in potential restitution for consumers, assuming they can produce receipts for their gas purchases after Hurricane Ike.
Follow the money
* The average House race raised $43,000 and the average Senate race collected $180,000. Political parties gathered $6.6 million in contributions.
* Lawyers and lobbyists gave almost $1.5 million, a 74 percent jump from 2004. Over twice as much money was channeled through leadership PACs controlled by state politicians. The $1.1 million from health professionals and $900,000 from the real estate industry was double the amount from those industries in 2004.
* The most striking change is the amount raised by senators not up for election. They raised almost $1 million, six times the amount they raised in 2004.
* 196 House candidates collected $8,438,759 for an average of $43,055, and 39 Senate candidates collected $7,012,743 for an average of $179,814.
* Outside of party-related PACs, the top PAC contributor to legislative campaigns was Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey's RAAMPAC with $408,800, followed by former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh's Speaker's Fund at $395,500. (Ramsey also handed out another $218,180 from his separate Senate campaign account.)
* Top PAC donor not controlled by a politician was Federal Express with $378,500, followed by PACs representing Realtors, trial lawyers, doctors, the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, teachers and National Health Corp., the nursing home chain that's pushing the bill to cap lawsuit damages for abusing residents.
Comments (15)
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So because I don't want money that I earned to be re-distributed to someone that didn't, I'm a "crazy". If someone came into my house to take away my property, it's called robbery. If an elected official does it with the backing of a liberal mob, it's a bailout. You're a fool. Kelly
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Apparently liberals cant count either. Why on earth would you bald face lie about the number of people at the tea party. Liberalism is a mental illness, I am convinced, and apparently it affects your ability to count as well.
So Mr Woods Im a small business owner that is suffering right now, with noone to help me thru this tough time.. and you think Im the one thats crazy when I dont want to bail out someone else because they dont know how to run their own business? You have to be joking? Or still living at home with your parents..Either way your kinda funny
Hey Jeff Woods - Did you attend the Tea Party? I did and I can tell you that there were a lot more than 1,000 noisy white people... If you're going to cover a story - at least get your facts correct and tell the truth.
Are you an absolute moron? It is not crazy to love your country, and not want to see it turn Socialist. It says something when the Soviet Union leaders warn us not to go down this path. The tea partys were and are about opposing big Gov. spending not about taxes. They were to oppose turning our Gov. into a Socialist Gov., not about "being a bunch of crazies".
It is absolutely shocking to see what passes for a "reporter" at the Nashville Scene. Disgusting!!! Whether you agree or disagree with the event, to resort to name calling and downright verbal attacks upon the participants is far from professional. Shame upon your organization for printing such filth. It is bad enough that someone calling himself a reporter wrote such trash, but to think that there is an editor....?
I'm frankly surprised at the outrage over the article. What else did you really expect? This always has been and always will be the way of the liberal left. Instead of defending their stand; they attack conservatism. They attack the very principles that make this country free and make it possible for them to write such trash. So, as with all liberal rags, there's nothing surprising (or truthful) in the article.
This is the last time I ever read the Nashville Scene. Want to see ignorance at its absolute best? Read the article above. If this were a newspaper reliant on sales to survive, they would surely be out of business by now. In addition to not being of a journalistic nature, grammatically the article was poor. More like the blog of a teenage boy than a legimate article.
So you call this professional journalism? Objective reporting? Hardly. Call a group of people excersing their right of free speech and freedom of assembly to express views that you may not personally agree with give you no right to label them "crazies." When similar groups gathered over the last few years to protest the war in Iraq, or the policies of the Bush Administration they were hailed as the enlightened liberal thinkers of the day. But let a group of mostly conservative people gather to express some dissatisfaction with the great Obama and your so called paper labels them "crazy." Oh, and if you would have bothered to check with the State Capitol Police, they estimated the crowd at a little over 9800. But, since when did you bother to print the facts. The constant liberal spin you people put on everything is disgusting.
Well, at least I can take solace in the fact that this was printed in a piss-ant little nothing of a rag that they have to GIVE AWAY to get any readership at all. Not exactly the bastion of truth and honesty in media now, is it? Jeff Woods, take my advice, get a REAL job and stop with the habitual lying, it is a terrible character flaw. Of course, you obviously have no character so what do you care?
Jeff, I did not even bother reading the rest of your "story" when I noticed two points in the first paragraph were out right lies. First, it is well documented that the attendance was over 10,000 people. There were 1,000 people at Legislative 30 minutes before the event even started. Next, the comment that the ones in attendance were nothing but "angry white people". If you were even there, you would have seen a diverse crowd of different ethnic backgrounds. There were also a variety of age groups represented. Please at least try and be an non-biased journalist. These two statements in your column are not even remotely associated with reality that you should print a correction in the Nashville Scenes next printing. Thanks, Josh Williams http://americandad.blogivists.com
Apparently ethics, and an insistence on factual reporting, is no longer taught in journalism schools, at least not as it was when I attended. We were taught to assiduously refrain from injecting our political or personal views into a story we were reporting on. Of course, with the media coverage of the recent election being what it was, why is anyone surprised? I bet you could put a tachometer on Edward R. Murrow's grave. Somewhere, Joseph Goebbels is smiling. The next copy of the Nashville Obscene I come across will find its way where it belongs.
Well now, it seems that jeff woods has showed us what he truly is, a biased narrowminded ass! Liberals are great at forcing their agenda down everyones throats, but heaven forbid that anyone else should have an opionion! You are very brave at calling people names, teabaggers? your use of a word that is known as a sexually oriented repulsive act, to describe us is offensive. I take offense at being called this, in the good old days when you called people names you had to stand behind your words in order to be a man, can you? I take talk like that personal, if I ever see you in public, you can have the oppurtunity to call me a teabagger to my face, and then will take it from there, im curious to see if you can man up! yours truly from a real man.
Don't get upset folks. He's a paid Chimp for the state run media mouthing the "party" line. He doesn't know any better. I feel sorry for him.
According to Comrade Woods, all you angry white people are crazy to support traditional values and responsible government. Honking your horns and waving your placards, that's just silly. The implication is that if you think the sacred union of perverts is a ridiculous sham, you are being unreasonable, illogical, and backwards. If you oppose the transfer of your hard-earned money to people who don't work, Comrade Woods is sure you're mentally deranged. How can you be against lazy people buying junk food with your money? Doesn't make sense! I'm not sure what being white has to do with it... oh, we're supposed to be ashamed of ourselves. We're white, we think we're better than everybody. Shame, shame, all you goys who dare speak out!
