From The Daily Show:

The House of Representatives finally passes health care reform after the exciting pre-game festivities.

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Congressman Anthony Weiner joins Lawrence O'Donnell on Countdown to discuss "whites of their eyes" Michele Bachmann and "You Lie!" Joe Wilson's latest stunts to stall the health care bill being passed.

From The Daily Show:

Fox News ignores the gay rights march in D.C., but finds an empty sidewalk after the New Jersey "Obama song" protest worthy of live coverage.

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From Washington Journal Sunday Sept. 20, 2009.

Kevin Baker, Harper’s Magazine & Stephen Moore, Wall Street Journal, discussed the Obama Presidency so far, and news of the week.

After hearing from a caller that accuses Harper's Kevin Baker of being insulting to the protesters by calling them "tea baggers" and astroturf and calling him "wimpy" to boot, Baker explains that he isn't the one that came up with that term. Baker says he'd be happy to go head to head with those protesting and attend some of the protests himself- as long as none of them bring their automatic weapons.

Moore then goes on to defend the protesters by blaming President Obama for polarizing the country. Baker says nothing justifies showing up with automatic weapons and with signs saying that the Tree of Liberty needs to be watered with blood and notes how polarizing that is.

Then Moore adds this.

Moore: I was out there. I didn't see anybody with... (crosstalk) I didn't see any... with all due respect; in all the events I've been to I've never seen anybody with a swastika. I've never seen anybody with a gun and these people are not anti-American.

Moderator: We've got to wrap it up there...

Baker: I've seen them repeatedly.

Hey Stephen, just because you didn't see it personally- which I don't believe for one minute about the swastikas- doesn't mean it's didn't happen. I don't know who Moore thinks he's kidding but I wish the time hadn't run out on the segment so Baker could have had a shot at rebutting him after making that ridiculous statement. There is not a chance in hell he doesn't know full well that people brought both.

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And the hits just keep on coming... GOP Rep Who Suggested D.C. Metro Hurt 9/12 Turnout Voted Against Metro Funding.

You may have heard that GOP Rep. Kevin Brady, staunch tea partier, is protesting that the taxpayer-funded D.C. Metro didn’t adequately prepare for the anti-government 9/12 rally. He’s even suggesting Metro’s failure to transport tea partiers may have hurt turnout.

A Democrat, however, points out to me that Brady voted against Federal funding for the very same Metro he’s blaming for offering the tea partiers substandard service.

Soon after the 9/12 march, Brady released a letter he sent to D.C. Metro griping that it had failed to transport tea partiers to the protest. Brady said they “were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capitol” failed to “provide a basic level of transit for them.”

Brady’s office complained about a train shortage. “METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March!” he tweeted. “People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers.”

But earlier this year, Brady voted against the stimulus package. It provided millions upon millions of dollars for all manner of improvements to … the D.C. Metro.

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David Shuster subbing for Keith Olbermann gives us a lovely dose of the hate mongering and openly racist protests that were Glenn Beck's 9-12 rally in Washington DC, and some clips of Republican politicians who thought fomenting this hatred by participating was a good idea.

Howard Fineman weighed in and said that there are a lot of Republicans who don't like what's going on because it's going to lose them independent voters that they need to win elections, but are afraid to say so in public. So much for any of them standing up for the courage of their convictions.

Shuster: Howard, the Republicans are not merely condoning the behavior of the fringe element of their party but embracing it. A message of intolerance helps the Republican Party how exactly?

Fineman: Well it doesn’t help them. And they’re not all embracing it but I’m sorry to say they’re afraid to say so on the record. I talked to numerous Republicans today. A lot of them are very upset that for example Joe Wilson, the Congressman from South Carolina, a lot of them don’t think someone like Glenn Beck is doing the Republican Party any good. The Republicans need not just their core voters to thrive in the 2010 elections, which they indeed may. They need independent voters in the middle and there’s a tug of war going on David between the desire of independents to support the Republicans over issues like the debt and the deficit and the way some of the Republicans are behaving that repels those very independents.

Shuster: Well speaking of Sen. DeMint told the crowd on Saturday and repeated today that the protesters were informed. Given what some of those signs had to say about the President, wouldn’t that be fomenting hatred, if not violence?

Fineman: Well, at the very least it’s looking the other way and they’re looking at the glass of tolerance half full when in many cases there isn’t even a glass David. But what the Republicans I talked to today said was this. These people are there because of big government. They’re there because of fears about the debt and the deficit. And I think to some extent that’s true. I’ve been to Tea Parties. I’ve been to town hall meetings. I can sense that.

But there’s something deeper and darker that’s also there and we may as well look straight at it. There are racial fears. There are religious fears. There are regional fears. There are ethnic fears. These are coming to the surface. Like depth charges our politics has now brought all this to the surface and that’s also what we saw out there on the Mall. There’s no question about it. And there are not enough Republicans who are willing to say that on the record.

Shuster: Glenn Beck’s stated goal of wanting to move this country back to where it was on 9-12-2001 when the country was united, how did that work out for him?

Fineman: Well, he can pretend to cry all he wants on the stage and call himself a televangelist. He’s not into uniting the country from everything I’ve seen. He’s making a boatload of money dividing the country. When you say with no real evidence whatsoever that the President of the United States hates white people, you aren’t behaving in the spirit of 9-12. You’re behaving in a spirit that we thought we gotten rid of in the end of the Civil War and at the end of the second Civil Rights movement. So, you know, he can cry crocodile tears all he wants. That doesn’t seem to be what he’s actually doing.

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Marsha Blackburn who never had a problem with George Bush's wars and spending at the Tea Bag 9/12 protest in Washington D.C. saying the protesters want some fiscal responsibility. That's rich. And they want their "country back". From who exactly Marsha? Their elected representatives, or from the black man they think was born in Kenya?

Gotta' love Fox for staying classy with the "Don't Barney Frank Me" sign they were showing while they were interviewing her.

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Rachel Maddow visited the set of the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and talked about her bout with the swine flu, the tea baggers and going to a shooting range on her first date with her partner Susan Mikula.

Later Rachel showed Jimmy and announcer Steve Higgins how to make a White Lady coctail.

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From The Colbert Report:

If pundits want to save America, they have to do what's wrong to prove they're right.

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After claiming that former Majority Leader Dick Armey's FreedomWorks is a grass roots organization, their President Max Pappas encourages a CCC caller to sign up for their organization, and tells another caller that there is no way for them to tamp down on the behavior of these tea baggers showing up to protest at these town hall meetings.

From Think Progress:

FreedomWorks, an industry-backed right-wing group led by former GOP congressman Dick Armey, has been heavily engaged in organizing conservatives to ambush Democratic members of Congress supporting health care reform at town halls across the country during the August recess. Its “astroturf” campaign is designed to present the appearance of wide-spread public discontent with health care reform, but the reality is that the town halls have become forums for disruption, extremism and even violence.

[.....]

Another caller who claimed to be from the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) — a group that claims the U.S. is a European country and was founded by a “longtime white-power activist” — praised Pappas. “I want to salute you, you’re a true patriot,” he told Pappas, who later urged the CCC member to join FreedomWorks. “[I]f the caller wants to join FreedomWorks, it’s free. You can sign up on our website and we’ll keep you up to dated on what’s going on on Capitol Hill,” he said.

Transcript and h/t to Think Progress for a good part of it.

CALLER: Hey Max I want to salute you, you’re a true patriot. I belong to a small group out here called Council of Conservative Citizens and once you get out of the major cities and you get out into the Midwest you realize that the average American just wants to go to work, work hard, be patriotic, pay his bills and hope that the government stays out of his way. What’s happened over the last six, eight months isn’t just a progression of the Democratic Party.

This Mr. Obama is way past Democrat/Republican, it’s a socialist view that the government can take care of everybody, and you’re seeing average folks all across America just finally getting fed up and saying “This is enough. What can I do?”. And when we have our little meetings and when we went down to the tea parties, I guess I’m one of those mob people. It’s comical. Ah, we just want to say “No”, we’re Americans and you know, the old expression is that I might not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend your right to say it.

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From Greta Van Sustern's show Thursday night after the mess at Russ Carnahan's town hall meeting. Dana Loesch claims she's just an ordinary person showing up at these town halls to speak her mind and no one told her or any of the rest of them to show up. Just one problem with that. She's one of the ones telling others to show up, actively promoting these protests on her web site, on her Twitter page, and she works for 97.1 FM Talk in St. Louis, Mo., which has a big flashing banner across the front of its web site right now on how to get more info on town hall meetings.

And no one has ever said that the majority of the people showing up at these protests are not really genuinely angry Americans. We've just pointed out who the ones are whipping them into a frenzy with misinformation, like you, your radio station, Fox News, right wing blogs, and your Tea Bagger organization.

VAN SUSTEREN: The mob. Is that true? Joining us live is Dana Loesch. She's a radio host and works with the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition. Dana went to a health care town hall held by Senator Claire McCaskill's office.

Good evening, Dana. You're part of the angry mob, apparently. Your reaction to being called that?

DANA LOESCH, RADIO HOST 97.1 FM TALK: I want to know who this "they" is. Who is this they, Republicans? Because I'm not a Republican and not every single person associated with the tea party movement is a Republican, just like everyone who went out to protest Bush was a Democrat or anything else. It's -- it's just -- you know, and I'm tired of all these accusation that are just being leveled at us, like, oh, well, we're paid GOP hacks. Honestly, if I were in this for the money, I would have gone and worked with ACORN because, I mean, even though they paid their people late, still, at least they paid their people.

But these are just -- you know, these are moms, these are dads, grandparents, senior citizens, kids, college kids. All of these people are coming out just to voice their concerns. And it kind of makes me sad that we live in an era where the president of the United States and his political party would try to sort of, like, wash off people by saying that their valid concerns are just echoes of an angry mob. It doesn't maybe make any sense and it's really sad.

VAN SUSTEREN: Are you part of any group, or did you go to this meeting, this town hall meeting yourself? I mean, are you part of any club, or were you -- like, did someone just summons you, like, some organization, I mean, or did you just show up?

LOESCH: I just showed up. I don't have a satin jacket. I don't have a laminated club card, I just showed up like everyone else. And I went to Congressman Russ Carnahan's health care town hall forum just this evening and just, you know, with a bunch of other people. We just showed up. No one told us to show up. No one told us what questions to ask or even to ask any questions at all.

They just -- they have concerns about this health care legislation. And are our elected officials so out of touch with their own districts that they don't even recognize the people in their districts and they can't understand why they would have any kind of questions?

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Ah yes, the Glenn Beck citizen patriots! They turned out in force last night to disrupt yet another town hall meeting on health care reform. I wonder when the union members start showing up? (Read Bill Mann's Four Creative Ways to Deal with Right-Wing Rent-a-Mobs. Great ideas!)

From the St. Pete Times, one account:

TAMPA – Bitter divisions over reforming America's health care system exploded Thursday night in Tampa amid cat calls, jeering and shoving at a town hall meeting.

"Tyranny! Tyranny! Tyranny!" dozens of people shouted as U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor struggled to talk about health insurance reforms under consideration in Washington, D.C.

"There is more consensus than there is disagreement when you get right down to it," Castor offered, immediately drowned out by groans and boos.

She pressed on, mostly unheard among the screams from the audience of more than 200.

"Tell the truth! Tell the truth!"

"Read the bill!"

"Forty-million illegals! Forty million illegals!"

The spectacle at the Children's Board in Ybor City sounded more like a wrestling cage match than a panel discussion on national policy, and it was just the latest example of a health care meeting disrupted by livid protesters. Similar scenes are likely to be repeated across the country as lawmakers head back to their home districts for the summer recess.

Thursday's forum/near riot was sponsored by state Rep. Betty Reed, D-Tampa, and the Service Employees International Union, who apparently had hoped to hold something of a pep rally for President Obama's health care reform proposal.

Instead, hundreds of vocal critics turned out, many of them saying they had been spurred on through the Tampa 912 activist group promoted by conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck. Others had received e-mails from the Hillsborough Republican party that urged people to speak out against the plan and offered talking points to challenge supporters.

An overflow crowd of critics was left waiting outside the building – and in some cases pounding on the meeting room doors – while health care reform activists complained that Democrats and union members were guided into the room for prime seats.

"They can't even run a meeting, and they want to run health care?," scoffed Kevin Grant, a Tampa printing business owner, standing near someone wielding a "Shame on you America. You sold your soul to the Devil" sign.

From the Tampa Tribune:

The problems began when a crowd of around 500, many of them recruited to attend by interest groups both for and against the proposal, sought to enter the meeting room. The room, in the offices of the Hillsborough County Children's Board on East Palm Avenue, has a capacity of only about 250.

Several hundred people, mostly opponents, wound up outside or packing a hallway leading into the meeting room. Some scuffled with members of the sponsoring groups who manned the doorway.

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On This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Michelle Malkin tries to claim that the tea party movement is grass roots, and that it's 1993 all over again with health care reform.

Malkin: It's going to be a monumental month on the ground, and we've seen this percolating since February, and I've been covering the tea party movement, these counter-insurgencies on tax payer rights groups, and I think that this administration and the Democrats have vastly underestimated just how grass roots this movement is. And I think it's been, I think it's been comforting to think that it comes from the top...

Stephanopoulos: And it's a grass roots movement organized around what? What is the issue?

Malkin: Around larger government, reckless spending, and not only the redistribution of wealth, but now the redistribution of health. And I think that the White House has failed to counter the basic notion that people's health care "rights" or entitlements are going to be redistributed by social engineers. And we've seen these "town halls gone wild", that's the phrase now and I think as these law makers go back they're going to face the heat. These You Tube videos are viral, and to me it's actually very reminiscent of Hillary-Care fifteen years ago today. You probably remember this. When Hillary went to Seattle to sell the health care plan it was really a turning point when she was booed, directly, and I'm, I lived and reported in Seattle for three years. That was an extraordinary event. And we're going to see a replay of that.

The other guests go on to explain why these times have very little in common with 1993 when Hillary Clinton was trying to push health care reform.

Think Progress has the break down on how absurd Malkin's remarks are trying to claim that the tea bag movement is even remotely a grass roots one. Media Matters has some rebuttal on her new book: Malkin distorts Michelle Obama biography to attack her and her father as corrupt.

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Rachel Maddow responds to Lou Dobbs calling her a "tea-bagging queen" on his radio show. Obviously the irony of calling a lesbian a tea-bagger, or a queen for that matter has flown right over Dobbs' head.

Hint to Lou Dobbs. If you want to make slurs against gay people, it would make you look less ridiculous if you at least figured out which sex calls themselves "queens" and which one is more likely to engage in "tea-bagging".

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Countdown's Worst Persons for July 6th, 2009 with winner The Duval County Republican Party for organizing their racist tea bag party protest. Runners up John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh.