Tuesday 2 November 2010

The Tea Party: Beginning to See the Light [update 2]

moe-tucker-explains-tea-party-affiliationNow this is cool. Maureen Tucker—known to friends as Mo, and more widely as the drummer from the Velvet Underground—is also a Tea Partier.  An angry Mo told her local TV station she is “furious about the way we’re being led toward socialism” and the “incredible waste of money” being spent, and followed it up telling a disbelieving Riverfront Times she is against

  • the government taking over the student loan program and car companies,
  • bailouts
  • the White House taking control of the census (what the hell is that all about?)
  • any First Lady telling us (I know, I know, “suggesting to us”) what to eat
  • the mayor of New York City declaring “no salt” (screw you, pal!)
  • the mayor/city commissioners of Anytown, U.S.A. declaring you can’t fly a flag, can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance and can’t sing the National Anthem
  • a President dismissing any and all who dare to disagree
  • the water being turned off in (central) California to save a one-inch fish — turning that huge area of farming land into another dustbowl — the insipid start of food supply control methinks!
  • the government deciding what kind of lightbulbs we can use (all you “think green” people, three objections to this b.s.: 1) Those bulbs give off the light of a candle; 2) They’re very expensive; 3)They have mercury in them – how the hell are we supposed to dispose of them?).

Maureen says.

_Quote  MT: My family was damn poor when I was growing up on Long Island. There were no food stamps, no Medicaid, no welfare. If you were poor, you were poor. You didn’t have a TV, you didn’t have five pairs of shoes, you didn’t have Levi’s, you didn’t have a phone; you ate Spam, hot dogs and spaghetti. .. 
    My anger stems from the unbelievable (criminal!) waste of money on pork and earmarks. It drives me nuts to see that X millions are being allocated to build a turtle tunnel, a donkey museum, a salamander crossing, etc, etc, etc. Billions spent every friggin’ year on totally unnecessary crap so that these Congressbums can tell their constituents that they “brought home the bacon” and get re-elected. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to pay for any Congress SOB’s vote buying, and sure as hell not in these very very worrisome times!
    RIVERFRONT TIMES: What specifically about the current administration do you disagree with?
    MT: I disagree with spending / borrowing / printing — damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!  I disagree with the “we won” attitude, which is the cowardly way of saying fuck you! I disagree with an administration that for twenty months blames Bush. If the President and his minions are so damn smart, why didn’t they know the severity of the situation? The president has actually said …. that they didn’t know!

(So, of course, have John Key and Billy Bob.)

Unsurprisingly, Tucker’s views went down like a bucket of cold sick with the trendies, leaving her.

_Quotestunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant. I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull!
    Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn’t think exactly as they do. You disagree and you’re immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist.

She’s nobody’s fool, and never was.

Here’s how the Velvet Underground sounded in their prime.

This was the Velvets’ looked on their reunion in Paris in 1990, with Moe on drums.

And here’s the song that was Moe’s party piece, recorded (badly) at a 1993 Velvets concert in Prague requested by then Czech President Vaclav Havel—a Velvets fan who told the world on the fall of the Soviet Empire that it was a Velvet Underground record that inspired the Czech Velvet Revolution.

[Hat tip Russell Brown, who seems to think Tea Partiers are against free trade. How odd. Still, that’s twice today he gets a mention here.]

13 comments:

Miguel said...

Russell Brown should stick to giving opinions on useless facebook/twitter because he seems to be an expert in that subject. Yes, I saw him being interviewed on TV3 last Sunday night about the history of social networkings.

Anonymous said...

Is Moe a canary in the coal mine of cool? She caused a minor quake in the cultural underground when she 'came out' ummm... speaking her mind.

Gawd, I don't read Brown but I read this piece and, well, I kinda feel sorry for him. He seems to have no fixed position from which to see what's really going on, and he sees crazies everywhere. Moe, a crazy? A John Bircher? Russell's straining to control the narrative here, and missing the revolution.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Greg Gutfeld said it good here:-

http://www.dailygut.com/index.php?i=4764

The Gantt Guy said...

Innit interesting, Red, how the Tea Party has gone from a bunch of religious nutters to something else in such a short time.

The Gantt Guy said...

Yep. I just wait for the soft right (Nat/Act/Libz) to start claiming similarities with the Tea Party to try and make some hay out of their success.

Christian Libz said...

I think that Redbaiter has a point. Sarah Palin is being ridiculed by most Libertarians (including this blog) and at the same time, jumping on the bandwagon here with the Tea Party in which Sarah Palin is leader. How pathetic is this attack on Palin from atheist Liberatrians.

Peter Cresswell said...

Sarah Paliu is no more the "leader" of the Tea Party movement than Russell is the leader of cool.

She'd like to be. But she ain't.

Peter Cresswell said...

Just for the record, if you'd like to read what I actually think the Tea Party movement, rather than listen to what whack jobs make up about what I think, all you have to do is click the "Tea Party" tag at the bottom of the post to read all related posts.

Good luck. :-)

Anonymous said...

Sarah Palin is no more the "leader" of the Tea Party movement

no - but she is going to be the next President!

American Extremist said...

Oh, holy crap, that Russell Brown article was hard to read. He couldn't go three words without betraying some horrifically boned-up assumptions, bad information, lack of research, and his opinion that any view aside from the status quo is ca-raaaaay-zee. That's what I got from it anyway. I got through about 5 of the comments before I had to close the tab in disgust.

The worst one I saw was from Mass, US. Not because it was any dumber (it was merely equally dumb), but because I'm an American and it hurts just a little bit harder to see one of my own countrymen display his rampant potted-meat-wit in public.

That dude (Russell) has no. fucking. clue what's going on over there. I know that, cuz I'm one of the 'extreme, crazy, racist, bigoted, extreme, neo-confederate, extreme, nazi, extremists (who, in addition to being extremists, hate puppies, who are distinctly non-extremist).

Also...

Dear god, Anonymous, please, please, please, please don't say that! It's such a very vile idea; the very thought makes me want to see if I can chew off my own face.

Canterbury Atheists said...

The Tea Party comprises two distinct bedfellows (a.) libertarians and free marketers (b.) right-wing red-necks. On say a subject like immigration the libertarian wing of the party would be at odds with the right-wingers. Someone like the god-fearing Sarah Palin is hardly a liberal after-all and would listen to good ol’ country and western. Can’t see what point you are making here? Just because the drummer from the Velvet Underground supports The Tea Party doesn’t make them cool, nor all free market crusaders. You would get the same feedback if you interviewed a Nazi survivalist from North Dakota.

American Extremist said...

Oh, and Christian Libz:

1) Arguably, the Tea Party movement started with Libertarians under Bush, before anyone had ever heard of Palin. Palin has jumped on the bandwagon, not the other way around. (Not that she doesn't have a right to. Good for her, in all sincerity.)

2) But Palin is in no way the leader of the Tea Party movement. A Cato survey just released found that the movement is 48% Libertarian, and 51% social conservative. This suggests that, at best, Palin, a social conservative, is an inspiration to 51% of the movement.

All of that is pretty much moot to this particular issue, however, since the Tea Party movement is, by nature and purposely, fragmented and leaderless. It's been a great way to keep opponents from isolating and targeting any leaders. :)

OECD rank 22 kiwi said...

The great news is that thanks to the Tea Party, Obama's power in Washington has been checked.

I agree with the Tea Party's sentiments about being Taxed Enough Already.

No surprise that recipients of the taxpayer dollar are less keen on the Tea Party message.