You Know Who You Are
By Mitch Berg
You are a blogger, writing for a blog that is, let’s just say, “hyperspecialized” on one local politician.
In some of your more many flights of fancy, you call yourself a “citizen journalist”. I will, in fact, call you “journalist”; first, you have to call me “Admiral”.
But I digress.
You asked me a question last week on your “blog”; if the Tea Parties are as independent as I said they were in a stand-up interview with am anonymous blogger who was roaming the Capitol grounds with a camera during the Tea Party, “who pays for the porta-potties?”
I’m sure you chuckled a high-pitched, strangled, adenoidal cackle as you hit “Post” on that one.
But since you fancy yourself a “journalist”, I thought I’d ask you, why not do what “journalists” do? Do what I used to do back when I was a “reporter”; do the actual work, and call around and find out who paid for the porta-potties, so as to tell once and for all if there’s a vast, right-wing conspiracy behind the Tea Parties, or if it is (like pretty much everything that’s ever been in your “blog”) a rumor and an assumption and a nudge and wink and strangled cackle?
Oh, yeah – I talked with Toni Backdahl, one of the people from “Moving MN Forward”, the grass roots group that organized the MN Tea Party. She writes:
– Walgreens stuff for event: 10.64
– Adobe font for T-shirts: 58.72
– domain names .org, .inf, .net: 50
– building tops for barrels: 34.08
– office max: 33.62
– archivers paper: 17.06
– banners: 220.97
– Blick art: 24.58
– metal for stand: 123.56
– insurance: 463.81
– t-shirts Monitors: 567
– Office supply: 122.59
– 2-way radios: 330
Total costs: 2056.63
donations: 1630
left to cover: -426
The above is [one of the local organizer]’s account for her portion of the event. Online T-Shirt sales figure is not included here, but our portion is minimal and most likely will not cover the deficit. Also they sold some t-shirts at the event but haven’t received any info on that either.
[Another local organizer] received a few donations from friends of his to cover the cost of printing (15,000 flyers and 10,000 post cards)
Port-a-potties were $497.00 (one friend gave him $500 for it)
I had about $200.00 worth of expenses (cell phone, hosting, printing and misc) that I donated without reimbursement
[Another local organizer] had about $100.00 worth of expenses in cell phone charges she donated without reimbursement. Angela had expenses for the credential materials she donated without reimbursement.
We all brought garbage bags and water (which got mixed into the water from [Minnesotans for Limited Government])
Sounds like Rush Limbaugh and “Faux” News (hahaha, that never gets old -no, really) teamed up!
But at any rate – see? It’s fairly simple. Question answered.
Now you can respond to this one of two ways: do some digging and find actual evidence that there’s some larger, more sinister group funding these Tea Parties, or giggle your strangled little giggle and snark “Suuuuuure, that’s all“, and scamper back to your little cave.
I’m guessing you’ll go with “B”.
Now, since we’re all playing “journalist”, I have a question for all of you: Is the entire staff your Bachman-Derangement-Syndrome motivated blog a result of attempted lobotomies gone terribly wrong, or did your parents feed you peeled lead paint chips as babies?
See? That’s journalism!
Playing little doop-di-doop games with Photoshop? Not so much.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:06 am
If you want to call it a “tell,” Terry, you’re certainly free to. Of course that would imply that Angryclown is trying to hide something (YOU’RE A HUGE, SLOW-WITTED DOUCHEBAG!)
The truth is, Terry, the first time Angryclown saw Niagara Falls, he had a sharp intake of breath and meditated on the majesty of nature. When Angrclown drove the Pacific Coast Highway, he said “wow.”
Similarly, Terry, from time to time Angryclown is simply overwhelmed by the sheer, unadulterated douchebaggery of you capering right-wing monkeys. And Angryclown would be doing a great disservice to the demon or space robot or syphilitic hooker who created you not to step back from time to time and just marvel at his/her/its work. Truly, Terry, you are a douchebag.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:19 am
So angryclown doubles down on ‘douchebag’.
*sings* You’ve gotten, under his skin …
May 6th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Angryclown considers you the Grand Canyon of douchebags, Troy.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Yeah, I think you’re cool too, angryclown. 🙂
May 6th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Was that your “A” material, Clown?
May 6th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Stock market is up but jobs continue to slide and we are seeing double-digit unemployment for the first time in nearly 30 years. Jobless recovery is not a recovery.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:09 am
All recoveries are jobless at the beginning; layoffs and unemployment are trailing indicators of both recession and recovery.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:16 am
That being said, Presidents generally have *at best* very little directly to do with economic health, albeit their policies can screw it up but good.
Clinton had very little to do with the ’90’s boom, although the peace dividend (thanks, Reagan!) and the fact that he got out of the way (or was dragged out by the class of ’94) helped a lot.
Bush’s tax cuts helped the recovery from ’02-’07 immensely – by getting government even further out of the way – but otherwise Bush’s policies had little direct effect. We’re still figuring out the indirect effects of his term; the Bush SEC and the machinations of the Dodd/Frank crew didn’t help.
Mac was right; the underlying economy is healthy; Obama would do best to get out of the way and claim credit for what would happen anyway, were the economy left to its own devices.
But he’s not that smart, and the Dems in Congress are worse.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Geez, Mitch, supporting me on two points! Where’s the fun in that?
May 6th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
That’s much better.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Nice meltdown, AssClown!!!
May 6th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Steve Sailor http://www.isteve.com/ says that virtually all of US economic growth, 2000-2008, was in financial instruments and their derivitives, like real estate prices. At the time, I suppose, the financial wizards could have claimed that they were creating wealth by doing a better job of calculating and managing risk. Don’t seem like that worked out real well.
This puts me in the strange position of agreeing with Obama that America’s economy has to based on more than the trade of financial contracts.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Actually, I agree too, as far as it goes; “Growth” in nothing but paper money (not even paper, really) is useful, but needs to be balanced with growth in more tangible goods and services.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
The growth that was fueled by financial firms selling one another securities at inflated prices scam has led to problems far, far worse in smaller countries than in the US. Iceland and Ireland are deeper in the doo-doo than the US. We have options to fight recession/depression that they do not.
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 am
Well Mitch one thing that is a guarantee, we all come out because we believe in saving our country.
We do it for free.
We do not seek stipends, dinner, gift cards, or cash!
That is one thing we have over the Liberal Fools! They will need money for their supporters…
Fundamentally: We get money from our supporters and they give money to theirs!
Perhaps that is why Coleman received from dough from the Dummycrooks!
October 19th, 2011 at 6:17 am
[…] about the task of changing Minnesota and the US, and paid their own bills – which, naturally, launched a round of conspiracy theories as to who paid for the materials and porta-potties and so […]