Tea Party Members, Are You Serious? If So Sign The Pledge!
I do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:
I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights
I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.
I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls. Also, I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life.
I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:
- Social Security
- Medicare/Medicaid
- State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)
- Police, Fire, and Emergency Services
- US Postal Service
- Roads and Highways
- Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)
- The US Railway System
- Public Subways and Metro Systems
- Public Bus and Lightrail Systems
- Rest Areas on Highways
- Sidewalks
- All Government-Funded Local/State Projects
- Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)
- Public and State Universities and Colleges
- Public Primary and Secondary Schools
- Sesame Street
- Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children
- Public Museums
- Libraries
- Public Parks and Beaches
- State and National Parks
- Public Zoos
- Unemployment Insurance
- Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services
- Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them)
- Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)
- Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)
- Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD’s ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking
- Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies
- Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies
If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care
I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:
- Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History
- The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments
- The government-operated Statue of Liberty
- The Grand Canyon
- The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials
- The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery
- All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC
I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare.
I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.
I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.
I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.
Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.
Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.
SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF __________ IN THE YEAR ___.
_____________ _________________________
Signed Printed Name/Town and State
(Received in an email fwd, Xposted on HumidCity)
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You are official certifiable.
and we thank you for it!
classicgrrl
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA jesus f****ng christ, jump off a bridge
Come on teabaggers, sign up you f*cking hypocrites.
THANK YOU for this post! Hypocrisy is a vile thing, indeed.
@ Patrick Breslin / [email protected]
Your comment has been deleted- Abuse is not tolerated in our comment stream. Try it again without the profanity and I’ll let the comment through. Even if I did the Hitler references would not have done much for your side of the argument.
Hey look everyone, Patrick Breslin is a scumbag banker:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/patrick-breslin/6/972/191
Figures, doesn’t it?
Why can’t the CAVEmen articulate an intelligent argument without name calling?
OH, thats right none of their arguements are intelligent.
Bravo, good one Loki.
I guess I jyst kinda fell in that trap, except CAVEmen encapsualtes a whole group
Citizens Against Virtually Everything
Citizens Against Virtually Everything? I LOVE that! Mr. 5chw4r7z I think you have just birthed a new bit of CincyVoices standard terminology ™
For those feeling gyped by the removal of the profanity, or just looking for some more vibrant dialogue on the subject should check out the comments on the HumidCity.com crosspost of this piece. NSFW not at all, but informative and entertaining: http://humidcity.com/?p=3054
This is absurd on the face of it. I won’t even try to address this shrill diatribe point-by-point, but it falls apart. Are you a 3rd grader?
Terribly sorry you are unable to justify your position. Points on using name calling that I’ll allow into the comment stream though.
Alex, explain please.
Pick and choose.
The CAVEmen hate all the subsidized services in the country. Except their subsidized services. In 2002 between $127 billion and $374 billion a year was spent nationally to subsidize off-street parking, as much as the U.S. spent on Medicare or national defense that year.
Loki, While I understand your sentiment and that the world needs to have a heart, I am not sure that every overreaction deserves an equal and opposite overreaction. That’s all we tend to get these days.
We have a small group of people who start out with a thought that they are “Taxed Enough Already” and they probably are. Then the group grows in size and evenone has too much to drink at a meeting and the next thing you know they (the most visible ones at least) are killing babies in public just to make their points. Which of course makes them look like heartless bastards.
Then, people who have a different point of view, usually from some difference in upbringing or present socio-economic condition, form their little group. This group is simply looking for a bit of compasion for their cause, which they likely deserve. They get together, have too much to drink at a meeting one night and the next thing you know a few of them (the most visible) are shouting about how this other group is trying to take over the world and that THOSE people should be excluded from this new little club.
Look, the world is becoming a more and more crowded place every day. Rising populations are placing stresses on limited resources at levels that have never been seen before. Everyone wants their piece and those who already have a piece don’t want to share what they feel they worked hard for already. That said, there will be NO progress made until the emotion is wrung out of all viewpoints and we can have logical conversations among adults.
Make the world a better place, not a more segregated one. I know its hard, I know I’ve failed myself, but I know we can do it if we try.
- John
John, thank you for the detailed and well thought out response! That is exactly the sort of conversation I want to see grow out of CV!
That said, I do not see this post as an over-reaction. It spells out a lot of the logical flaws in that group’s arguments. Much of the left go off similarly half-cocked, it’s a natural human reaction to ignore evidence that does not fit one’s views. It is a constant strain for me to keep looking and listening to the extremists in an effort to keep a balance.
I get emotional myself at times, but then I’m fairly unique in CIncy. I’ve stood in the streets of my home city watching federally hired mercenaries (Blackwater) brandish automatic weapons at senior citizens. I’ve been a refugee in my own country. In short I am a native New Orleanian and hail from an area that was hung out to dry by the GOP at the Federal level and the Dems on the local level. I would be lying if I said this did not color my viewpoints. Google “Danziger Bridge” if you want some more good examples.
I built this site for the community, and I want it to be a resource to all for the betterment of CIncy in general. Part of that is calling ‘em as I see ‘em. Working for unity is important, but not at the expense of sweeping things under the rug.
Thanks for the input, I hope we see more of you in the comment stream!
The internet was funded by the government. Add that to the list of socialist services.
John, you give me hope for this country…the above blog post does not. I’m so sick of these us vs. them, childish, partisan games.
Can we just try all the republicrats and democans for treason and hang them so the rest of us can move on already?
Obviously I’m joking, but in a very real sense it doesn’t seem that either side has the best interests of America at heart anymore…they just want to “win” whatever the cost.
There’s no more respect for the fact that by combining different ideologies and concepts we just might, barely come up with something better than either side can accomplish on their own. Crazy talk I know.
Loki, Thanks for this, post. I feel a bit better about where your coming from now. My reaction to your post was much the same as John’s.
I have to point out, though, that subsidies and government programs are not necessarily inherently socialist. For example, the museum is not a redistribution of wealth, neither are the roads. These things are freely available to all on a purely co-equal basis.
As I understand it, socialism is more strictly defined as a reduction in service or benefit to one to provide a commensurate (hopefully) increase in benefit or service to others…of course, I might have that completely wrong, been a long time since I took social studies:-)
Maybe I’ll hie myself off to wikipedia and make sure I’m remembering correctly.
I don’t think this is going too far at all. I’m really sick and tired of hearing these teabaggers (and the right in general) complaining about how they have too much government in their lives, but they have absolutely no appreciation for what government actually does to make their lives better (or at least function on a somewhat normal basis). When they say that, what they’re really saying it “I don’t want to pay taxes, and I don’t want the government telling me what to do, but I want them to provide me all the benefits I’m used to.” (i.e. no government mandated health reform, but keep your hands off my Medicare) If they’re serious about getting government out of their lives, I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to put their money where their mouth is.
Clearly you do not comprehend sarcasim, are you a third grader? If you describe this as a “shrill diatribe”, how do you describe the arguments of the Tea Party, which by comparison make even this sarcasm look like a rational argument?
The whole premise of the party reminds me of when I was approached in the grocery store by an Amwaynite. His attempt to recruit started with, “Do you want a chance to make extra money?” The teabagger’s ask, “Are you satisfied with your government?” Well no come to think of it I’m not. As a matter of fact I’m not really happy about my waist line, or my car insurance premiums, or the fact that my neighbor shoots a fifty caliber rifle off his porch either. They remind me of the hour plus conversations I have with my senior parents and how they talk about the whole planet going to hell in a hand basket yet make no effort, even on the smallest scale, to change.
If you want a revolution you need to change the way people think about revolutions.
Like most political ideas it’s the same cereal in a different box–”NEW AND IMPROVED TASTE!”
It’s interesting that once the Democrats start to make some ground, all of a sudden, the cry is–”all politicians are bad, I’m sick of the partisanship, kick ‘em all out.” You didn’t hear that during the Bush coup of 2000-2008.
The petition is brilliant and I’m spreading it everywhere.
loveloveLOVE this!!!!
thanks loki
This is soooo freakish. I SWEAR I was talking to my hubby the other day on our long drive back to Texas from Chicago…and I said, damned near verbatim, exactly what you’ve put here. If you want the government out of your life, then be prepared to give up social security, medicare / medicaid, the military, etc. You want health care? Pay for it out of pocket. You want the government to stop taking your money? Fine…then, grandma doesn’t get her social security check…and you can make room for her and all her stuff in your house and take care of her yourself…and pay all her medical bills, etc out of your own pocket. Etc and So Forth…
Do you know about Godwin’s Law? One of the mythic corollaries is that the first one to call someone else a Nazi or make a comparison to Hitler loses the argument.
I have a tendency to call them: Zombies.
All Zombies ever think about, talk about, express their entire existence over is one thing and one thing only…(of course, it may be the same thing as the Tea Party and CAVEmen, but still…). They are stuck like a broken record (dating myself here…) and cannot move forward to the next song on the album because they can’t get past the skip.
“Also, I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life” unless it has to do with abortion, of course.
I am sure everyone thinks this is cute… but we all know that is at best intellectuality unhonesty and at best written by an ignorant, bigoted, anti-conservative person. I truly believe that we need to quit depending on the government to care for us… yes, it has a role in life but it does not need to regulate every aspect.
So, for all of you who enjoy using profanity and uneducated arguments… I am sorry that I cannot even understand your line of thinking. Please make this a discourse that in intellectually sound and interesting, not one build on base humor, profanity, and ignorance..
oh… by the way, I would love not to pay social security… instead I could invest the income and get better than the 1.5% the government offers.
That’s funny Matthew, I guess the long American tradition of satirizig the more extreme element of your opponenets counts for naught in your scheme of things. Sad, you’re missing out.
As to profanity the only comment that did not self censor was from your side of the aisle. Hitler references, derogatory terms for female genitalia, and accusations of being “Maoist” all wrapped up in a nice little bundle of hate. (And from a banker no less).
All in all your stance continues what I have noticed from conservative politics in modern America, vitriol and ad hominem argumentation in lieu of presenting actual facts and documentation for their side.
Please come back and share your documented refutation of the above and of the Tea Party stance that it is extrapolated from. I mean that. Rational dialogue is encouraged here! Look at our sister site in NOLA, it is half progressives and half libertarians. Puffing up and showing off your vocabulary when you have nothing of substance to communicate other than high dudgeon.
^That’s great, Matthew, because most everybody else’s 401ks & IRAs are valiantly struggling to get back to where they were 3-4 years ago. Too bad Republican privatization of SS didn’t take off.
Loki, I do appreciate your satire. And it’s difficult to avoid hyperbole when discussion political ideas. My belief is that most of these things in your list could either be privatized or pushed back down to local/state gov’t. But a lot of that discussion goes to a historical perspective. in the 1700′s, it made sense for the USPS to be a public institution. In the 2000′s, it should be privatized. As a libertarian, I prefer solutions to be private if possible. I believe free market capitalism will get us to better solutions quicker than gov’t bureaucracy.
To your point, I yearn for a place to have thoughtful, meaningful discussion about these things without mindlessly echoing the rhetoric of politicians on both sides of the aisle. In the end, politicians have only self preservation in mind, and facts often get in the way of that goal.
I’m sick of hearing about “both sides of the aisle.” It’s one side of the aisle that’s had hateful, racist rhetoric. And not just recently. The Bush years shut most of America completely out of the political process. So get used to it Matthew and Scott. We, the people, want our money used for the people and for the things that create a better quality of life for all of us. The era of “me first” is over. The strongest, most immoral, smarmiest, greediest doesn’t get to win anymore. We don’t want privatization. That’s what’s gotten us in this shape. We don’t want to let business police themselves. WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT. And we want a strong hand on business to stop them from ruining lives, the environment and the future of the U.S. and the world. Instead of trying to dismiss this pledge as satire. Look at it seriously. All true. Not misleading though I can think of a half dozen additions and probably so could many others. Just imagine for starters, setting up your own personal lab to test your water–well first, lay the pipes to run it to your house from the river, and your food, etc. You could not do without government provided services and I don’t want to.
Scott I’m afraid I’m with Carol on this one. I watched firsthand what unbridled free market produces, it is one reason my home city of New Orleans is still shattered almost five years after Katrina. Haliburton got the no-bid contracts and made themselves so unpopular with the citizenry that they stopped wearing clothes with the logo for awhile. In the meantime vial funds needed to put lives back together went up in a cloud of corporate profits.
I’m a capitalist, I own my own business. I also have faith that unmoderated free markets like you suggest simply breed abuse. Look at Wall Street for gods sake. A little regulation there and we might not be suffering through this “not a depression.”
Bush and Company had eight years, Now it is someone else’s turn.
Social Security and Medicare were ‘sold’ to the country as INSURANCE programs. Trust funds were set up to collect insurance premiums (FICA and Medicare payroll deductions).
Politicians took the cash from trust funds and replaced cash with IOUs (Treasury bonds)’; the cash has been spent (no trust: no funds). Social Security will be bankrupt in 2037; Medicare in 2017.
For most people — age 50 and older –the payments into these INSURANCE programs are several 10s of thousands of dollars. To see your premium payments and those made by your employer on your behalf check the middle of page 3 of Your Social Security Statement sent to your home by snail mail around your birthday.
If I can get my premiums back (hopefully including interest), I would gladly give up my INSURANCE in both of these programs.
I hope this note makes it past the censors at ‘thought police’ central.
Thought police central? Honestly, that’s a bit rabid don’t you think? I’ve deleted one comment because it was frothing with profanity (which I don’t really mind so much) and abuse ( which I do).
What does the readrship think? Thought police at CincyVoices or not, you tell me.
Well, to be fair, I never suggested _unmoderated_ free markets. Of course there needs to be regulation to ensure fairness and protection of individual rights. Are there “big business” abuses of power? Of course. But gov’t takeover isn’t the answer, either. I don’t think anyone here would suggest gov’t bureaucracy is free of corruption, would they?
As to Carol’s accusation of “hateful, racist rhetoric”… I’m sure that exists on the right. But I have a hard time accepting that no one on the left has been hateful or racist. I’d suggest such extreme opinions are more of the lunatic fringe (Hannity vs Oberman) than the average guy in the middle whose trying to pick between govt corruption vs free market abuses.
I have to disagree with you, Carol. I heard it all the time. Heck, I SAID it all the time, then and now. We’ve had a non-stop stream of partisanship for longer than I can remember. I think it’s been going on so long that people believe that’s normal and only think we’re not being partisan when “their side” is in power.
Loki,
For what it’s worth, as someone who is definitely neither a Republican nor a Democrat, your post and Matthew’s read about the same to me. For example, as you point out he makes an ad hominem argument…but so do you when you discount everyone on the right simply because some of them are racist.
To be honest his post also doesn’t seem any more vitriolic than your post.
Carol, I do not want my money to be taken from be by force to be used for someone else’s needs/wants. This does not in way mean that I am selfish…this is the common miss-perception that is a great example of how the left is just as hateful as the right. I simply want to decide for myself who I’ll help and how I’ll help them. I’ve earned the money through my own hard work, I think I’ve earned the right to decide how it gets used.
And as to your we the people comment, I’m pretty sure I’m one of the people, too. In fact, I’m one of the people who voted for Barack because I felt he was a far more honorable man than anyone the right had been putting forward.
I also think you’re being pretty hateful to Scott and Matthew simply because the disagree with you.
I obviously didn’t see the post you did delete so I don’t really know where you’re setting the bar, however, whatever you decide please try not to let your personal ideals alter your enforcement. For me, some of Carol’s comments seem to verge on the abusive and vitriolic. Just my $0.02.
Censorship is not something I support. It takes a LOT for a comment to get removed. For example here is a sentence fragment from the beginning of the comment that was deleted: “You anti-American, commie loving, Maoist p*ssies who wouldn’t dare step up in a fight” (I put the * into the quote).
It pretty much needs to get to that level before I will remove a comment from the conversation. If we each only listen to voices that agree with our views we do not advance intellectually. The phrase echo chamber comes to mind.
Hope that clarifies things.
It does and woof, definitely understandable why you deleted it. Shameful behavior. I also don’t support censorship but since we’re trying to have a conversation here, there is a need to keep things focused, polite and respectful.
As to only listening to our own side I could not agree with you more! I have always felt that the way to help limit the blindness that our ideologies always seem to create is by enlisting as many different perspectives as you can. You find a solution that can negotiate all those blind spots and I’ll bet you’ve got something pretty darn useful.
And thank you for making this forum available for us. It is really nice to find somewhere where we can hopefully increase each other’s understanding and, hopefully, compassion.
There was no profanity; it’s a lie.
Concerned Citizen, would your name be Breslin by any chance? Because unless you were he original poster you would have no idea. The fact that you evidently do and choose to lie about it speaks ill of your ethics.
If not then I advise clarifying your position for the readership.
Oh BTW, the next phase of this discussion is a Guest Post from Amy In Ohio located here:
http://cincyvoices.com/2010/03/24/tend-your-garden-gop/
I disagree there is an equivalence there.
Yes, when “your party” is out of power you get frustrated at the actions the other party does because it affects you. However, the degree & threats being paraded around or shouted out are on a new scale.
50 people holding signs 200 feet away from the President demanding an end to the War is much different than throwing bricks through representative’s houses b/c they voted for a bill you don’t like, calling them racial slurs, or shooting out their office windows.
These are NOT on teh same level & should not be dismissed as such.
The article targetted members/supporters of the Tea Party, not Conservatives on the whole. You, however, took it as an affront to all Conservatives. On top of that, you state you aren’t a Democrat or Republican, claiming you do no self-identify with either party.
So, are you a Conservative? Do you have Conservative leanings? Do you agree with many points of the Tea Party? Are you drawing a relationship or kinship between the Republicans in general & the Conservatives at large & the statements in this article about the Tea Party?
Still no reply, and after such promtness in replying to other comments. I guess it must be you who is lying. NExt set of fallacies?
I can’t call ‘em Zombies. I’d never enjoy another Geroge Romero film if I did.
You claim the “Dems did it too” is nothing but Conservative revisionist history. It’s an attempt for Conservatives to justify their ridiculously hateful & threatening approach by drawing a false equivalence BANKING on the hope most ppl have a as limited a grasp on recent history that you do.
But don’t take my word on it…
I challenge you to bring up specific examples of Liberal entities that are openly supported, coddled, &/or noticibly go undenounced by the Democratic party that happend while the Repubs were in power AFTER the Civil Rights movement.
____________________________
The qualifications again are:
1) The must be an organization (not just some spontaneous riotous group).
2) The Democrats, by & in large, did not chastize, distance, or otherwise denounce their activities
3) They must have committed violence, threatened violence, or used intimidation tactics.
In comparison the Tea Party has leaders who use language suggesting violence (Palin: “We don’t retreat, we reload”). They have committed acts of violence (bricks & bullets through Congressmen’s homes & offices). They are a recognizable organization. And the Repub party not only remains silent but often drops words of support or encouragement to the Tea Party & their ilk (the Birthers). Tea Party people have brought assault weapons to meetings where the president was at.
Those who claimed 9/11 was a conspiracy were denounced by the Dems. Those who rallied against the start of the wars held posters & signs 200-500 ft away in peaceful but angry protests.
Where’s the equivalency? Show it to me.