Leser on the Tea Parties: 'These tax day tea parties are a sham and a fraud'
By John Amato Tuesday Apr 14, 2009 11:00am
Steve Leser, the Editor of OpEdNews, was on the Neil Cavuto show and made a few fairly accurate statements about the Tax Day Tea Parties that FOX News is taking an active interest in promoting -- and, some might say, financing and orchestrating.
FBN's Stuart Varney is the guest host and talks out of the side of his neck like a snake oil salesmen selling magic elixirs and potions. (Rush transcript. Add to it in the comment section)
Leser: These tax day tea parties are a sham and a fraud. They are being presented as this organic, grassroots movement...
Varney: Wait a minute. That's a very, very strong language to use. I read your piece . Is the 2 trillion dollar deficit this administration has rung up. Is that a sham and a fraud?. Are you dismissing this out of hand like it doesn't exist?
Leser: Absolutely. In terms of the deficit, we have an economic crisis going on that this administration inherited from the previous republican administration.
Varney: Wait, you're dismissing the these people as fraudulent --
Leser: I'm dismissing the fraud, the protest. That's absolutely correct ...
Leser: I'm insulting the way the movement is being portrayed. It is a sham. The way this movement is being portrayed is a sham and a fraud. It's not an organic grassroots movement like it's being portrayed. There's ten Republican think tanks, heavily funded by top Republican corporations and headed by people like Dick Armey and Steve Forbes. Those are the people who have created and organized this so-called grass-roots movement.
Varney: You're insulting people.
Varney:...her 401K has been cut in half, she is outraged and you're calling this a sham? You're saying that that lady is fraudulent?
Leser: Absolutely.
Varney: That's nonsense, sir. And that sir is an insult to a very fine woman who's merely being a political activist. Nothing wrong with that.
Leser: I never insulted her or any of the people who feel strongly about this, I'm saying the way this is being portrayed is a sham.
Varney: There are thousands of parties and you're saying is the nature of this fraud?
Leser: Well, if you look back at it. The Chicago tea party.com website was actually created or registered in August of 2008 that's long before Obama was president had a chance to enact any of his policies. This has actually been in the works for a very long time. It's being portrayed as something recent and spontaneous and it's anything but that.
I would ask them, where were they during the last 28 years, 20 of which when we had a Republican administration in office that ran up massive deficits.
Varney: It's only in the last two or three months, or six weeks that the extent of this problem has emerged. The extent of congressional spending the extent of the deficit, the impending huge tax increases that we face. It's only become apparent in the last six weeks, during which time we've had a Democrat Congress and a Democrat in the White House.
Leser: I can't let you get away with that one, Stuart... It's amazing to me that any Republican with a straight face would try and talk about fiscal responsibility. Republicans have absolutely no credibility on fiscal responsibility.
Varney: It's now my great duty to promote the tea parties, here we go....
At the end of the video, Varney quickly promotes the FOX coverage of the tea baggers. Yes, there was a punchline at the end of the sketch. What I find so insanely stupid on Varney's part is that he's using the argument that it's only been recently apparent that we've got this huge deficit. This guy should be run out of television. It's been reported for years that the Bush administraion ran up huge deficits and spent far greater than anyone before him.
People have lost half their pension money and maybe more or have been wiped out. That happened under George W. Bush and Ben Bernanke and not under President Obama -- and the collapse happened unquestionably because of their laissez-faire economics. Then they came on TV and said the entire global economy would melt down if action was not taken, but by that time, people already lost their pensions due to the stock market crash. The fact that it continued until Obama took office is meaningless -- the deficit spending now is directed at trying to kick start the engine Republicans trashes. And it still might get much worse.
It makes no sense as a defense of the teabaggers. If that is the main motivation for these tea parties, then Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove should be protesting Republican and conservative policies and politicians who gutted government agencies that were supposed to be there as watchdogs, and an ideology of deregulation that was championed by the Dick Armeys of the GOP.
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I wished Leser had reacted better when Varney asked him how he would handle the budget deficit. He could have played Varney like a harp if he wanted.
and now they are exposed as frauds.
April 13: MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses with Countdown guest host David Shuster whether the conservative tea parties will be a waste of time or achieve their purpose to express the conservatives' outrage over taxes.
Really? Since most people's taxes are going down, that is a false concept (they are going up for the rich, most of which these teabaggers are not). If you get a chance, go to one. Watch how many birthers are there. How many signs will you see that Obama is a Muslim? There isn't even a good theme for this because the tax thing is an outrageous joke.
From Benen (link above):
they're just dicks
Homeland Security Report Warns Of Rising Right-Wing Extremism
Kos has a post up about who is behind this shit and why. These people and their teabags are truly being "tea bagged"
evisceration of the Teabaggers.
Could they not fit him on the split screen?
his head is entirely too large.
It would then appear that he's talking out of only one side of his mouth.
The more people who get the word out the better. At least some people will be hearing it. I'm rather shocked faux news let this happen even.
Most people won't be fooled though I think -- the whole thing stinks like yesterday's diapers.
*
Leser was outstanding and laid it all out there. It is a sham and even though some of the tea baggers may have been led to think it's all about President Obama's spending, I think the whole thing is set up by Fox to get people out who are pissed that we have a black President who is supported here in America and liked around the world. In other words the opposite in every way of the last president.
I think this is a cover for strategic planning, and to identify who they have on their side.
recruiting those who would take that "extra" step.
In America (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmq2vKc0Z1M).
is radical enough to do suicide attacks.
That is an altogether different mindset, that these hicks are not capable of.
If you read the transcript with "Jim Varney" on on side.
The key line in the exchange is this:
"I would ask them, where were they during the last 28 years, 20 of which when we had a Republican administration in office that ran up massive deficits."
I saw this show yesterday and just before they brought on Leser, they talked to a lady who claimed to be a democrate and said she would join the tea party because she had lost half of her 401k. Varney asked her if any other dems she knew were going to a tea party. She answered, just my family, but I don't know anyone else. Funny that none of friends would be going along.
funny how many of the countries citizenry will not be attending who are currently unemployed, lost their homes, lost their savings, and lost their retirements. I bet a family member is Joe the Plumber.
Every time I see clips of Fox it helps me realize how a certain fringe minority could still be so deluded. "Democrats have a good track record balancing the budget" Leser says, correctly. Rather than actually address the fact that well, yes, the last President who balanced a budget was Clinton, who made it a priority and accomplished it, the host just goes off into rolling his eyes about what an absurd idea this could possibly be, because, well, everyone KNOWS that Fox Talking Points BibleTM says that Democrats are "big spenders".
Do they actually interview people this way all day, letting them get one sentence in and then interrupting to give right wing speeches?
Leser handled it admirably but it's a nightmare, what a waste of breath.
YEP!
I'm convinced that FOX news has made the Morton Downey jr method of conducting interviews their standard approach- if you'll recall, Downey shouted people down...FOX does the exact same thing
"Democrat Congress" Nice one. Way to be fair and balanced you tool. I like the concern he has that Leser is "insulting people." How about the numerous times his network has called President Obama communist, fascist, etc? Where's the concern for that. Where was the concern when people with legitimate questions about the Iraq War were called unpatriotic? FU Varney. And the Fox you rode in on.
What a complete fraud Varney is. I could barely stop laughing (at him).
Why does someone like Varney ever need a guest? I'm sure he could pontificate from Wonderland from now until the end of time.
In some ways it is a shame that McCain didn't win (this is strictly hypothetic, since a McCain victory would have been a huge disaster). The Republicans would still be disavowing any responsibility for anything that has gone wrong, guys like Varney would be blaming everything on two years of Democratic congressional control, and the country would simply get flushed down the toilet.
doesn't any of the right wing have an independant thought? Could it be propaganda? Oooh yeah!
I've hated him ever since this silly exchange with Disney head Bob Iger:
http://www.benmautner.com/widerangle/2004/08/...
Varney can rot.
dinosaur from our imagination.
stay tune to this station!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...about the woman's 401K being half its previous value. WTF does that have to do with federal spending? Well, how about the fact that Obama's spending is intended in part to bring the value of her 401K back from the precipice.
These god damn people are just abject morons.
of what in the propaganda industry Ellul (1962) called "Internal Agit-Prop."
Agit-Prop, Via Wiki...
related?
the devil is in the details. the right wing/corporate elites want this distraction/movement. wallStreet is taking a lot of heat. president obama reemphasized that today. wallStreet does NOT want the BLAME. they want to use this crisis to their advantage where they can. this movement will keep the village idiots cued up for the healthCare battle("socialized medicine")/free choice act. this demographic is so hot to be involved yet they don't look at themselves or their so-called leaders. wallStreet wants to dilute the blame and get consumers......consuming. they don't want people to understand TAX havens and the damage it's done
on our infrastructure. OBAMA is letting the BUSH tax cuts for the wealthy expire. the only TAX i'm aware of currently, is the TAX on tobacco which has cost all of us in related healthCare cost directly/indirectly.
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/vampire/...
Fox news is such bullshit...
There were about 100 orders of magnitude more people at ONE antiwar protest BEFORE the Iraq war then there are at ALL of these Tea parties..
How much real and true coverage was there, regarding the numbers and message of all those "anti-americans"
Douchebags...
They constantly BUTCHER the English language, then act like words are importaint...
not to exagerate. 100 orders of magnitude is one whole hell of a lot of folks!
The Reslugs are making embarassing, uneducated, ignorant stupid asses out of themselves again. Hilarious listening to the rantings of the Faux Noise Robotic Reslugs, always with their daily scripted, talking point lies.
Nothing that went before Obama's inauguration counts. According to this wingnut. Why does Fox even bother bringing in these people. This is a classic example of not wanting to hear the question answered, made all the more ironic by ending it with "let me promote the tea parties!"
the fact that FOX viewers are watching FOX for the NEWS...really is all that needs to be understood.
... was when Varney was going on and on about how the full extent of the economic crisis has come to light only in the last 8 weeks. See, that means it only happened in the last 8 weeks, right? And that makes this whole mess Obama's fault!
Oh, and doesn't Varney strike you as someone who ought to be doing Vegematic commercials at 3AM on your local Fox affiliate?
I think there may be an opening for the position of Shamwow! hawker.
I'd like to see Varney prostrate on a Total Gym, late night gagomercial, and Norris could hawk the Shamwows.
If it wasn't for C&L (thanks C&L?????), I wouldn't even know about this tea party thing. I don't have cable and I don't watch network news. I haven't seen anything about this in my local fishwrap and certainly nobody I know is talking about it. That's a bit of perspective, I guess.
Same here. This wingnut event should get about as much attention as the legitimate protests against the Iraq war got. None. I pretty much tune out all corporate media at this point, even Olbermann and Maddow.
I just cleaned up on Lipton stock.
...just like O'Reilly, Beck, Malkin, Hannity and Limbaugh. Their only interest is self-interest. If any of them could make more money by spouting ultra-leftist propaganda, they would do it in a heartbeat.
they all work for Fox, except crush slimeballs.
this tea bagger movement relates to rick santelli's nonSENSE also. trying to make sure there's plenty of blame on people that bought homes with sub prime/liar loans. LOOK wallStreet wanted/knew people would take those loans many thought they could refinance. obama is doing what needs to be done he doesn't like it but both parties agree we had to stop the bleeding. this is partly republican party trying establish identity,using people like the evangelicals for voice and taking heat off wallStreet. the so-called free market/capitalism went too far. it shows AGAIN why regulation by government is needed. it will EAT it's own. NOW they're using people to BLAME others for what they have done.
Don't let them near my drumset! Or I'll roundhouse their asses!
Chuck Norris? ;)
Will Ferrellp>
If anyone out there thinks that most people, even educated people, understand the loan programs well enough to rip off the government, they are mistaken. Most of the fraud that was perpetrated came from the mortgage brokers, bankers, loan packagers and above. If poor people had the smarts to come up with the fraud that caused all of this worldwide chaos, well....they sure wouldn't be poor people. This all took some real savvy from folks who do this every day....not a bunch of lay people who buy a home every 10 to 20 years.
comes from health care providers with advanced degrees.
it's almost always an inside job, innit...
and these "savvy" (sic) folks will no doubt find a way to do it again!
this is a great example of reichwing debate strategy...
Leser: These tax day tea parties are a sham and a fraud
varney: Is the 2 trillion dollar deficit this administration has rung up. Is that a sham and a fraud?. Are you dismissing this out of hand like it doesn't exist?
a herring!! a red herring that is...
nice job leser. masterful job
Propter hoc ergo post hoc?
in hoc icthus vinces
Regardless of whose fault it is, people are getting fed up: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/20...
the question is not whether people are upset or not. millions are, and have been for awhile now. the question is who is trying to take advantage of the anger and frustration and for what nefarious ends.
and this faux-populist movement is the lowest of the low: those that benefited from the economic structure the way it has been for decades are now trying to channel the anger that it created for their own benefit.
Exactly. Faux-populist is a great term.
many states/municipalites are raising money needed to run government by cuts but also fees. many of these local governments are NOT receiving revenue from property TAXES due to foreclosed properties
homeowners/commercial properties. also public services are getting hammered by the escalating unemployment numbers. people are getting layed off because of lack of credit and less consumption. wages have been stagnant. property values have fallen drastically. it's a viscous cycle. it's much more than TAXES. don't forget the growth of illegal TAX havens. that's TAX revenue not received. hey no one likes TAXes. those NAVY seals that made the rescue everyone talks about aren't for free. i still say wallStreet has a
lot do with this crisis(primary player). blame may NOT matter to some but it does help provide direction on remedy.
Heeeeey varn,
Whatchoo doin' hidin' behind old lady skirts?
for either eventuality.
http://images.lowes.com/product/049206/049206...
you've got to feel sorry for FOX, one minute they are on the front lines of the story, pushing the ideology, cheerleading the Bushies, celebrating in the deaths of the innocent - the next minute they find themselves on the fringe. Amazing what happens when the thoughtful and educated take back the country. Sorry FOX, you had your day in the sun, and what do you have to show for it?
They're lizards?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6NjS6jFz2U
wow that sux
but new struts would fix it.
Mostly, I'd say this guy is insulting Fox News, which richly deserves the insult. I hope they are also insulting Dick Armey, a tool of the first magnitute, and Steve Forbes, who is in the Daddy Business and probably has never worked a day in his life at a real job. So all these frauds have gone out and gotten a bunch of silly know-nothing poor folks to do their dirty work for them. All this proves to me is that we need to seriously upgrade the educational system in this country. At least, let's get the undereducated to learn to count backward more than 80 days so that they can gauge when their "tax" problems began.
they need beating...no, buggy-whipping, or tarring-and-feathering, if the truth were known, among them Varney himself...
He is not even mentioning the billions of dollars taken out of the system to prop up the market so it would crash after bush left office
from fux?
So this Tea Party is EXACTLY the same as the last couple of years of the Democratic Party running candidates pretending they are progressive liberals, and posters all over the internet pretending to be liberal and progressive as well, until after the election. Then the true colours have been shown for what it's worth. Most progressives and liberals online have been nothing more than Democratic Party loyalists pretending to be some grassroots campaign. Thus, having a Dem on Faux or any other media calling this Tea Party campaign a sham and a fraud, is the ultimate in hypocrisy to say the least!!!
start with the DLC, work your way to the DSCC and finish with the DCCC.
Then bring back Howard Dean.
make you look like a raving lunatic!
so all the time we spent protesting Bush, according to you Oh great Canadian one, is the same as these teabagging assholes?
Are you for real?
I often wonder the same thing. His hate for all things American is pretty amazing and intensely tiresome. Not that I want to bag on Canada, but what's so great about Canada?
C.C., seriously, you need a hobby. We all get that you got the serious hate-hard on for the U.S. It makes you look very one-dimensional and I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and guess you're not that shallow.
Seriously, I was adamantly opposed to Reagan, Bush I and his idiot son, I have not given money to the Democratic party in years because of its issues, I give directly to candidates. Please do not paint everyone with your broad brush, you look infantile and small-minded.
The people who show up at this bs should be forced to teabag Richard Simmons for no less than five minutes, period! I can't think of anyone worse to be forced to teabag yet..
the Disaster the Bush Cabal got us into?
some suggested not giving them any additional attention. While I disagreed then, I must join them now. This blog post may single handedly triple the number of people who viewed FOX Business News Uncle Varney over his regular audience.
Man. You cannot go up against these nutjobs half cocks. that guy did a terrible job.
1. You must demand that they let you speak.
2. You must have great commmand of the facts and challenge them on their own made up facts..
ex. 1. Economy tanked last year. to quote mccain economy cratered. job losses have been steady for at least 1yr.
ex. 2. Ask him if he disagrees that the economy crashed under Bush...
and ask him if he believes that a 3% tax hike for the top 5% qualifies as massive tax increase while everyone else gets a cut...
It seems like you've gotten the rust off that spear and it's a lot sharper too.
Leser was correct in his positions, but was abysmal in standing up to this right wing goon-he came off as very nervous and passive.
Right wingers cannot debate, so they shout down and interrupt liberals..When presented with facts, right wingers lie, and unleash the insults..
The right continues to be apologists for Bush , and blames all debt wrought by Bush on Pres obama
So when FOX news talking heads interview someone who is a right wing Republican, they let them speak, don't interupt, and ask softball questions.
But when FOX interviews someone on the left, they
*Constantly interrupt
*Shout the interviewee down
*cut people off
*sneer, snicker and make faces...
*lie
I hope journalism schools cite FOX news interviews as how NOT to conduct a professional interviews
Look at the William Buckley vs Noam Chomksy interview/debate from 1969, which is on Youtube- Buckley was dead wrong in his assertions, but didn't shout Chomsky down..How times have changed.
Imagine Billo debating Noam Chomsky on US foriegn policy issues..
to Chris Mathews for a little balance.
They only call the Democratic party the Democrat_ party...what is that all about?
not rocket-science here.
it's a calculated insult, and all the slack-jawed, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, drooling Fucktards giggle uncontrollably when they hear it...
Scenario.. bus crashes into van, killing all those onboard. Driver somehow manages to survive, found to have fallen asleep at the wheel.
Along comes the crew to clean up the mess.
According to Fox news, the cleanup crew is responsible for the crash, the deaths, and the horrible carnage, yet the driver walks away completely innocent.
Like that idiotic twit Wall, yesterday, they merely bark talking points, shifting from one to another when contradicted.
the brain-dead Moonie: Hall? Too lazy to look it up. Michelle Malkin with more melanin?
Righto Tom. It pains me greatly the rightwingers always seem better prepared.
Liberals need to start taking them on with more abandon and learning their tactics.
1. they always switch the subject. In this case... it was "your attacking the poor lady who lost her 401K"
counter point should have been. She lost her 401K because of Bushes policy the dow had dropped below 7500 when Obama took over and most of the banks had crashed. GM was already begging for money.. if the dumb old lady had any smarts she would be down in crawford picketing Bush's mansion for her 401K...
It pains me.. but liberals assume that the truth is on their side, so they will win the argument.. .but gospel of matthew says...
be gentle as doves, but wise as serpents when you go into the world....
Time to see some bite and some venom from the defenders of the truth.
"We cannot descend to their level."
Which is codswallop, of course.
Speak softly but know how to swing that big stick when there's a decent target...
Is swallop another name for hush puppies?
She would have found an empty ranch, probably for sale.
I wish more people on the left had Phil Donahue's ability to stand up to the right, and not even blink in the face of their attacks.
Billo has his ass handed to him when he tried to blast Phil Donahue..
Lesser was nowhere near as powerfull as Donahue in challenging the right wing..
(last night on MSNBC for KO) There's so much teabagging, they'll need a Dick Armey!
Jane Hamsher:
The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties
That Varney guy is so loathsome. I dare say he may be a larger douche than Cavuto...no...wait...not possible.
This guy is a fighter, not like most of the pundits on the Left. They get their ass wiped by righties, and just take it.
When Varney said "...her 401K has been cut in half, she is outraged and you're calling this a sham? You're saying that that lady is fraudulent..."
Is he saying this woman's 401K plummeted by 50% since January 20th of this year?
That's a bald-faced lie.
But he wants the brain vegetables that watch Fox News to get that out of what he's saying.
Of course, the fact that they're watching Fox presumes that they will.
These stupid people are being insulted, alright. But not by the critics of this tea party.
You know how they think... When it comes to killing brown people, it's okay for a nation to go into deficit spending, and push even more debt onto the backs of those yet born.
When it comes to making the world one giant global marketplace, devoid of all tariffs, that's something we can rightfully ask the yet-born to pay for.
And when it comes to letting the elites keep more of their pay, that's also something that we can ask the yet-born to pay for. As we hear them say so often, we poor get our jobs from the rich...as if the rich receive nothing in return.
What's sad is that the typical right-winger can be persuaded by this sort of rhetoric. They love the us vs. them tribal mindset. They won't care to know that the Bush administration's fiscal policies are what got us into this economic mess. They'll just blame Obama for the money he HAS TO SPEND in order to get us out of it.
And if Obama had not spent the money, they would have been all over him for not doing anything.
Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
You can have a million man march AGAINST war and it won't be on Fox news. You can have riots tear down wall street and it won't be on Fox news.
If the teabag 'protests' are on Fox news, it's certainly propaganda by the rich against us... The poor.
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I'm sure this Leser guy is well-meaning and all, but JESUS Christ... this shill of a journalist starts spouting off with his faux outrage and complete distortions, and nothing gets thrown back in his face outside of tepid boilerplate.
These fucking shills and phonies need to have their shit rejected into the upper deck of the arena, and that needs to happen with full-throated outrage.
If they cut your mic off, if they blow up and kick you off the set, good, let them... but jesus h. christ, at least get some body blows in before that happens.
when my taxes go down
wasteland.. I am with you. Liberals needs to go on these nutjob shows with an army of facts and heavy cajones and not back down or let themselves be shouted down...
Stuart Varney seem more polite that the likes of Hannity and the rest of the crowd but just as nasty. According to him, the deficit is all Obama's fault, like all of a sudden and without provocation Obama decided to trillions of dollars kust for the hell of it. What a joke! Unfortunately a lot of Fox viewers are so dim that they buy this rubbish.
from GOP M Steele e-mail yesterday
PS Let Obama and the liberal Democrats know enough is enough. Send them a virtual tea bag this Tax Day to protest the liberal agenda to raise your taxes and those of every American. And please take this opportunity to make a secure online contribution of $25, $50, $100, $500 or $1,000 to the RNC to support and elect Republicans who believe in the principles of lower taxes, limited government and personal responsibility. Thank you.
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