OCW Vancouver/Victoria Update

The few remaining hardcore activists in Vancouver and Victoria continue to discredit whatever legitimate grievances initial supporters of the copycat OCW movement in Canada may have purported to represent at the outset of the protests several weeks ago.

Last night, strident protesters shouted down a mayoralty debate in a church, eventually threatening possible riots, while back at the “occupied” grounds of the Vancouver Art Gallery, two firefighters were hospitalized after suffering “bite wounds” after attempting to extinguish an illegal blaze in an oil barrel.

Even some initial organizers of the demonstrations are now disgusted by what they feel has rapidly become little more than “a circus”…

Meanwhile, over in Victoria, a city worker was doused with a bucket of urine while attempting to remove a protester that had ridiculously ensconced himself (along with his tent and bicycle) in the limbs of a tree, vowing to remain there for months to come, flinging poo and eggs at the authorities…

Admirable restraint and tolerance has been shown by the city so far, but enough is enough. Time to get these degenerate losers and violent nutcases out of the park by whatever means necessary.

Political Discourse in America

OCW protesters confront what they imagine to be a wealthy and insensitive “conservative” woman outside a swanky Washington hotel.

I know “liberals” aren’t supposed to pay any attention to these sorts of awkward encounters documented on film, nor are they expected to acknowledge any of the cringe-inducing and reprehensibly contemptible opinions of some the more infuriated OCW supporters given the intent of the filmmakers is usually to discredit and maliciously undermine the movement and many of its quite legitimate grievances…

By the same token, however, it would be wilfully dishonest to ignore them or pretend they’re just freak aberrations.

These angry, discontented protesters claim to be the 99% – and in terms of income they most certainly are – but in many other respects, they don’t represent vast majority of hard-working people that are trying to keep their heads above water and struggling to make ends meet.

Personally, I don’t ever remember a time when life wasn’t “all fucked up” as the highly incensed 24-year old guy screams with outrage in this video. So what exactly is his point?

Calling Stephen Harper…

Hinson Calabrese, a witty 25 year-old from Cape Breton Island, has embarked on a fun-filled project rich with comedy potential to call the Prime Minister of Canada on the phone “everyday”…

In his fourth such call, Hinson attempts to thank the PM in person for the super idea of proroguing and elaborates on various ways in which he’s implementing the concept in his own life.

You can show Hinson some love by checking out his blog and/or subscribing to his YouTube channel.

Kissing in Cowtown

Gays and Evangelicals face off at the Fort Worth, Texas stockyards.

Priceless quote from gay cowboy Matt Pope: “There’s no need for overdoing it. You shouldn’t have to force it down somebody’s throat.” Indeed.

Teabagging in London

In a troubled climate of deep economic recession, I suppose it was only a matter of time before some version of the “mad as hell” anti-government “teabag” movement inevitably found it’s way over the border.

A non-profit, free-market civic watchdog group pleasantly called the Forest City Institute is sponsoring a “London S.O.S. (Stop Over-Spending) Rally” at the beginning of next month to “let London’s city council and bureaucrats know it is time to end London’s decade of darkness.”

A key speaker at the event will be the hateful right-wing tosspot and inflammatory bigot Kathy Shaidle. No word yet on who’s supplying the box for her to stand on.

This story should be interesting to watch unfold, if for no other reason than to perhaps see if this is maybe a precursor to other such protests from frustrated ratepayers across the country who may well quite justifiably feel their civic taxes are being improperly spent by their marginally elected officials.

Concentrated Stupidity

Extreme right-wingers (aka so-called “conservatives”) are understandably quite defensively agitated whenever it’s dismissively asserted by Hippie-Liberal-Nazi-Communist Obama supporters that the raging teabaggers and other protesters in last weekend’s expression of diffuse outrage are little more than a lunatic fringe group of ignorant, mentally deranged crackpots, so perhaps it would be instructive to simply allow these folks to speak for themselves…

In the interest of fairness, here’s Reason TV’s take on the protest:

While “big government spending” is definitely a controversial issue, I think Reason TV really seriously missed the ball here by deliberately skewing their presentation heavily in favour of the libertarian aspect of the protest rather than more objectively covering the gamut of fearful, inarticulate, uninformed outrage presently being directed by “teabaggers” and their ilk at Washington.

h/t: A big thanks to Ian in the comments who pointed out this marvelously “stupid” video from New Left Media.

The Million Moron March

An estimated 1-2 million angry white people gathered in Washington today to protest… stuff.

Update: Missed it by that much, as Maxwell Smart used to say. ABC was falsely credited with estimating the size of the 9/12 Tea Party in Washington as 1 million to 1.5 million by Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks. Michelle Malkin then cavalierly rounded this number up to 2 million. ABC News had actually gauged the crowd at between 60-70,000. Not to suggest that these Teabaggers routinely engage in wild exaggerations or grotesque untruths…

Mark Kleiman has an especially funny take on the attendance controversy, also drawing a similar conclusion — “they’re no more careful, and therefore no more to be believed, when it comes to statements about, for example, the content of health care reform.”

Code Pinky

Neil Cavuto predictably spins the story of the vicious liberal monster who bit off a heroic old man’s finger.

Unfortunately, eyewitness reports differ significantly from Mr. Rice’s account:

Next on the anti-reformer’s harassment list was a pro-reformer who appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s, was stocky, and several inches shorter than the 65-year-old. Though Kuns isn’t sure how the pro-reformer ended up on the anti side of the street, she saw the two men face to face, exchanging words.

Then the anti-reformer in the orange shirt “punches him straight up in the face, right between the eyes.” The smaller pro-reformer’s glasses and hat flew off, and he fell into the street.

“I don’t know who started it wordwise,” Kuns said, “but I can tell you for sure that the guy who threw the first punch was the anti guy. And can he punch hard! He knocked this guy down into the street.”

The pro-reformer got up. The anti-reformer tried to block him from standing on the curb. A short scuffle ensued, and it was unclear to Kuns who was doing what to whom. The anti-reformers surrounding the fighting men stayed back. When the fight ended, the pro-reformer crossed the street and announced to the MoveOn rally that he’d bitten the man’s finger off.

And here’s an interesting tidbit:

The AP has since reported that a hospital spokeswoman said the anti-reformer lost half his finger, though doctors reattached it and sent him home last night. “She says he had Medicare,” the story states.

Okay, don’t hold back with the puns…

Randall Terry Gets Punted

From TPMV, footage of the disruption staged by anti-abortion crusader and batshit crazy lunatic Randall Terry at a town hall meeting in Reston, Virginia and his subsequent ejection.

Here’s another view of Terry on his way out of the building:

Update: The demented sickness of “pro-life” fanatics…

Teabag Takeover?

RedState Founder Erick Erickson at the RightOnline 2009 National Convention calling on teabag activists to stage a “coup” and seize control of the Republican Party from the bottom up.

Good luck with that.