An open message to the teabaggers

Some people just can't let go, and so I'm not going to even read further personal attacks in Comments from stubborn folks who won't listen and who make amazingly illogical and unfounded assumptions. Those comments don't deserve my time or attention, frankly.

However, others are reading and telling me what's being said, so I'm going to say all of this One. Last. Time.

First, I went to the Pensacola Tea Party last Wednesday with the sole intention of observing, taking some pictures and videos (with my crappy camera), and posting those things on my blog. That's it. I certainly had no idea before the event that there was going to be an "open mic" there; only once I saw the "open mic" did I even entertain the notion of saying something. Nothing was planned in advance other than going and watching. I did not bring along a cameraman.

Even when I'd more or less decided that I wanted to say something, I wasn't going to have any record of it until a friend of mine, who'd arrived on his own with another friend, volunteered to film it. And I said, "Sure, why not?," thinking it would be fun to post to my blog. Period. I don't know how it spread beyond this blog, and I don't think it particularly matters. I reported on what I did, what I saw, and what I heard, and that's all there is to it.

As for my opinion, I did and do think the Tea Parties are ridiculous (in light of the tax cut that nearly everyone attending will be receiving); hypocritical (why weren't these happening during the Bush years?); highly partisan (sponsored and promoted by Fox News, locally organized by the Republican Club); and motivated largely, if not completely, by hatred of President Obama. I didn't originally say that the attendees there looked like asses, but if the shoe fits ...

And I've been quite vehemently called a "troll" by someone who wasn't there, who seems to believe that freedom of speech applies only when it's your speech, and who doesn't really seem to get the meaning of the term. While reasonable minds may differ on the definition, I rather like this one from the Urban Dictionary:

One who purposely and deliberately (that purpose usually being self-amusement) starts an argument in a manner which attacks others on a forum without in any way listening to the arguments proposed by his or her peers. He will spark of such an argument via the use of ad hominem attacks (i.e. 'you're nothing but a fanboy' is a popular phrase) with no substance or relevance to back them up as well as straw man arguments, which he uses to simply avoid addressing the essence of the issue.

Well, let's make a little checklist:

• Started an argument without listening to other arguments -- nope
• Engaged in ad hominem attacks -- no, unless you count the ones against me
• No substance or relevance -- no way; I had plenty of both, in the form of facts
• Straw man arguments to avoid the essence of the issue -- uh uh; I have done quite the opposite

Look: I don't have anything personally against any commenters or anyone who attended the Tea Parties. But at least have the decency to admit that, yeah, maybe you should have been doing these rallies for the last several years instead of just after President Obama took office; and figure out how to argue on the facts (as you see them) rather than resort to personal attacks. Attacking me personally only makes you look like you can't argue on the facts.

Besides, the tea parties are so last week ...

UPDATE (11:25 pm 4/22/09): Oh, almost forgot -- here are some of those facts to which I referred (click each image for larger version):


No, wingnuts, in this case, up is not down and down is not up:


Here's one from last year's presidential campaign that should help put things into perspective for even the simplest of minds:


That unfamiliar pain you're feeling right now, teabaggers? It's called "the truth." Yes, I know it hurts.

(Special thanks to (O)CT(O)PUS of The Swash Zone and the Deranged Leftwing Baker for supplying these terrific images.)