FreedomWorks President on Tea Party Successes from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

The Tea Party claimed some major victories during in yesterday's mid-term elections: Marco Rubio won the Senate seat in Florida, and Nikki Haley the governorship in South Carolina. Rand Paul took a decisive victory in the Kentucky Senate race. But the Tea Party had losses, as well, both in Nevada, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulling out a narrow win against oppponent Sharron Angle, and Delaware, where Republican Christine O'Donnell lost her Senate bid against Democrat Chris Coons. So what do the wins and losses add up to for Tea Party members across the country? Matt Kibbe is the President of FreedomWorks and author of the book, "Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto."

Check out the full show here, as well as the podcast's webpage's other content. See this post as well. See also: Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America

The Thursday, October 21, 2010 Charlie Rose Conversation with Dana Milbank

CHARLIE ROSE: Dana Milbank is here. He is a veteran political
reporter and columnist for "The Washington Post." He is also the author of
a new book on Glenn Beck called "Tears of a Clown -- Glenn Beck and the Tea
Bagging of America."

Over the past few years Beck, a well-known cable television host, has
become a leader in the modern conservative movement. In August he hosted
the restoring honor rally in Washington D.C. which attracted hundreds of
thousands of attendees. I’m pleased to have Dana Milbank back on this
program. Welcome.

Dana Milbank believes that Beck is dangerous. See the full interview here. See also: Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes that Run Our Government, Smashmouth: Two Years in the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush, O is For Obama: An Irreverent A-to-Z Guide to Washington and Beltway Politics

Is the Tea Party Movement Like a Pyramid Scheme? from The Huffington Post by The Huffington Post News Editors

There's a book Mark Meckler likes to recommend to reporters and others seeking insight into the tea party juggernaut. Called The Starfish and the Spider, it explores the "unstoppable power" of decentralized and leaderless organizations. "We're like the starfish," Meckler, a national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, said earlier this year. "There is no head, there is no leader of the organization. There are thousands of starfish out there and they are self-replicating in that way." It's certainly an inspiring metaphor. If one tentacle is chopped off, the starfish grows a new one, making it a model of resilience. Yet there's another type of organization that's resilient, decentralized, and reminiscent of the Tea Party Patriots, a national umbrella organization that claims to represent 15 million activists and 2800 local affiliates. You can find it in companies like Amway, Herbalife, and others that rely on what's known as multilevel marketing (MLM), a business model some consider to be nothing but a pyramid scheme.

Don't forget Al-Qaeda. Read the full HuffPo blurb here.

Repub Chair Forwards Racist Joke from Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs by NoGov4Me

David Bartholemew, the head of the Virginia Beach Republican Party, has resigned after forwarding this racist joke in email: "I went down this morning to sign up my Dog for welfare. At first the lady said, 'Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare.' So I explained to her that my Dog is black, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is. So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify.. My Dog gets his first check Friday."

Just in case you weren't completely clear as to what the Tea Party, the (U.S.) Republican Party, and The Drudge Report were really all about, make sure to sift through those comments carefully.

"Give Us" A Break

As manifestos go, this one's no less idealistic and naive than any other manifesto out there, no less passionate as well.

It was also during this time I remember post-World War II refugees from scoialist Eastern Europe fleeing to the prairie. It struck me that people would leave their homeland and everything they knew to go someplace for freedom. I did not see anyone fleeing the United States to go in search of collectivism.

I guess seeing is believing, there. Great way to come up with your universals. I've never seen a black hole, or even the moon, up close and personal. So I guess those things don't exist either. I do see the ground, and I can tell that it's flat, though. Again, as far as I can see.

I believe we are at a turning point in our nation's history, as the pendulum has swung far to the left. Trillion-dollar deficits, government control of health care, federal ownership of banks [...]

Don't like deficits much? Want the country to have more cash? Authoritarian China's got trillions in greenbacks. Was that the freedom that you were thinking of? They've got the largest cash reserves in the world, so they're doing something right, there. They're definitely on their way to becoming the largest "coordinated" economy in the world, and skeptics have been saying "no way" for the past 25 years.

The Tea Party is such a farce, and the fact that the "movement's" so popular right now, really does speak to one truth in this book. The country is at a turning point. It's going down the tubes, and that's just the way it is. It's nothing to get sentimental about. A few billion years, the sun'll go out. What then?

Nothing lasts forever.

* * *

More good quotes:

1. But I believe Americans are genetically opposed to big government. 
2. The Republican leadership was always having to apologize to the Democrats for us.
3. The Contract with America [...] outlined our platform of limited government. 
4. That is great advice for liberals, whose base is looking for special favors and handouts. 

You know what this means, right? Implicitly, this guy's saying that the Tea Party is a Republican Movement, and if that's true, this has been the most creative reengineering of hope into fear, since, well, since Hitler engineered his ideas up about Jewish folks. Remember, "genetically" he said. "Us" he says, when he speaks of Republicans. Remember that the next time you think of the Tea Party as a movement and party that's separate from the Republican Party.

Is There A Single Tea Party Platform? from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

Ever since April 15th, when Tea Party groups emerged around the country, the public has been hearing a lot about what—and at whom—Tea Party anger is directed. But as America heads into the midterms with dozens of candidates endorsed by local Tea Party groups on the ballot, it's time to take a look at what the Tea Party wants. In other words, without a national party structure or official spokespeople, what is the best way to identify common planks of a Tea Party platform? Matt Kibbe joins the show to discuss that question. He’s the president of conservative political group FreedomWorks, and the author of a book called "Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto."

Listen to the podcast here. Download the podcast, mp3 file here.

Op-Ed Columnist: Third Party Rising from The New York Times by By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

A friend in the U.S. military sent me an e-mail last week with a quote from the historian Lewis Mumford’s book, “The Condition of Man,” about the development of civilization. Mumford was describing Rome’s decline: “Everyone aimed at security: no one accepted responsibility. What was plainly lacking, long before the barbarian invasions had done their work, long before economic dislocations became serious, was an inner go. Rome’s life was now an imitation of life: a mere holding on. Security was the watchword — as if life knew any other stability than through constant change, or any form of security except through a constant willingness to take risks.”

Of course we need a third party, FRIEDMAN; it's been brewing for a while; we'd just better hope it isn't the Baggers, 'cause they're downright nutty. See also: Tea Party

Journalist and author Kate Zernike from Bob Edwards Weekend by Sirius XM Radio

Over the past year, the Tea Party has increased in both size and visibility, making it the wildcard in next month's mid term elections. Tea Party candidates have beaten establishment Republicans in a number of recent primaries, but how will those candidates do in November? KATE ZERNIKE is a New York Times reporter who has been covering the Tea Party and has written the first definitive account of what she says is a vastly misunderstood movement. Her book is titled "Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America."

Download the partial podcast of the Bob Edwards Weekend show here. We just finished reading a copy, and apparently, this whole movement's roots can be traced back to Keli Carender, "a half-Mexican math teacher with a nose piercing who enjoys doing improv theater on weekends." It's a matter of perfect timing, because then, "the rant happens." Read the NPR piece about it here, or download the All Things Considered podcast.

Beck: I'm Not The Leader Of The Tea Party (VIDEO) from Huffington Post, The - Blog by The Huffington Post News Editors

On Friday's "O'Reilly Factor," Glenn Beck argued with Bill O'Reilly over whether he was the "leader" of the Tea Party movement. In O'Reilly's upcoming book, Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama, he says the Tea Party is "led by Fox News commentator and radio talk show host Glenn Beck." Beck took exception to that characterization, telling O'Reilly, "I'm not leading [the Tea Party]."

"Pinheads" is in that title. For that alone, we're looking it up. We're citing HuffPo BTW. See also: The Overton Window, Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government, Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine