Thursday, July 15, 2010

TEA Party Test and COFFEE Party Win

Tea Party Test: Conservative Movement's Strength Unclear in Midterm Elections

National Candidates Backed by the Tea Party Movement Have Had Mixed Results

By HUMA KHAN

July 15, 2010—

As the race to November's midterm elections heats up, the Tea Party movement is stepping up its campaigns, pouring in money and manpower to unlikely candidates across the country.

But the movement's appeal, while growing, has yet to be tested fully, as evident in this week's runoff election in Alabama where Tea Party favorite Rick Barber lost to Martha Roby. Despite his grassroots campaign and controversial ads depicting the founding fathers, Barber lost the race for an Alabama congressional seat to a candidate favored by the Republican establishment.

The Tea Party remains fragmented, there's no one unified voice or group representing the movement, and it doesn't enjoy the status of an official party. While most of its members associate with theRepublican party, many of their beliefs are at odds with the GOP.

Yet Tea Party fervor has spread from coast to coast, with grassroots momentum reminiscent of President Obama's own boots-on-the-ground strategy that propelled him to victory in 2008.

Several high-profile candidates who have closely attached themselves to Tea Party ideology have gained national recognition, such as Kentucky's GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul, Nevada's Republican Senate challenger Sharron Angle, South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, and Utah Senate nominee Mike Lee.

The Tea Party's efforts were also vital in driving out Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, the three-term senator from Utah who lost his re-election bid.

At the same time, just as many Tea Party favorites have failed to secure key nominations -- California Senate hopeful Chuck DeVore lost to businesswoman Carly Fiorina; Doug Hoffman lost in the New York House special election despite Sarah Palin's backing; and Idaho Congressional candidate Vaughn Ward lost the Republican primary even though he nabbed Palin's endorsement.

Tea Party candidates such as Barber and Angle were embroiled in tense competitions within their own parties. And some Republicans have voiced concerns that the Tea Party-fueled momentum will only inadvertently hurt the GOP.

"With the Tea Party creating the mischief that it is in Colorado, we may not win that seat. My sources in Nevada say with Sharron Angle there's no way [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid loses in Nevada," Bennett said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. "At the moment there is not a cohesive Republican strategy of this is what we're going to do. And certainly among the Tea Partytypes there's clearly no strategy of this is what we're going to do."

But Tea Party supporters say the discord in the movement is its strength, not a weakness.

"It's designed to be fragmented. That's the difference between the Tea Party and the political elite," said Shelby Blakely, a spokeswoman for Tea Party Patriots, a national group that provides support to local Tea Party organizations.

The differences of opinion are "mathematically impossible to avoid and we actually don't want to," Blakely said. "We are working towards a common goal and when it comes down to the wire, we unite and we become a rather larger force of people who can donate millions of man hours and resources to the right candidates, to the right issue, the right legislation. We've proven that."

Harvard historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore said the Tea Party's mixed results in the primaries speak to the current disequilibrium in U.S. politics.

"I actually think it's not a political movement and I think it's important to recognize that," said Lepore, whose book, "The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History," will be released in October. "People subscribe to it essentially because of beliefs, not so much ideas but beliefs -- about the nature of the world and about the relationship between the past, the present and the future. ... In many ways it defies description."

Tea Party Tested in Primaries

Many candidates are exploiting the popular grassroots momentum of the Tea Party, but it's too early to tell how long that allegiance will remain.

In Massachusetts, the Tea Party helped Sen. Scott Brown win an upset victory over Democrat Martha Coakley for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. The Tea Party Express released an ad extolling the virtues of Brown, and the Our Country Deserves Better PAC poured money into his campaign. He was hailed by many as the first official Tea Party victory, even though Brown distanced himself from the movement.

But Brown's decision to side with the Democrats on Wall Street reform outraged Tea Party members, leading many to call him a traitor. The Greater Boston Tea Party said in a statement Brown "defied" his commitment to activists and his donors, and questioned whether the group will support him in 2012 for re-election.

"I think that we are going to make huge gains. I believe we will then continue to hold responsible those people who get elected using Tea Party help," Blakely said. "If these candidates want to continue to be elected they are going to have to adhere to the core values of the Tea Party, specifically constitutionally limited government and fiscal responsibility."

Americans' view toward the Tea Party is divided. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week, 30 percent said they are more likely to support a candidate who is associated with the Tea Party political movement, while 30 percent said they are less likely to do so.

Another ABC News/Washington Post poll released in May found that 27 percent of Americans supported the Tea Party but nearly as many oppose it.

Despite the lack of direction and an unclarity on how the Tea Party will fare in November, the movement's advocates are confident their influence will only expand.

"I believe it is the preeminent formidable force," Blakely said.

Lepore said it's difficult to predict what the future holds for the movement, and it's difficult to tell right now whether their favorite candidates are electable, but the upcoming elections will be a major test of the Tea Party's appeal.

"I think it's a moment in time that involves a lot of passion and large numbers of people are accepting it," Lepore said. "Until we get through this moment of equilibrium, it will be a little bit hard to predict."

The next test of Tea Party's mettle is in Georgia, where on July 20, Palin-endorsed Karen Handel will face off against former Rep. Nathan Deal for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Combating Racist TEA Party with Patriotic COFFEE Party


Dear Global Patriotic Citizens and Friends of African Union and Greater Ethiopia Without Borders:

Re: Fighting Evil with Good!

The names change from time to time. The real issue is nothing but Evil against Good. The battle of the Universe for Millennia.

Greed the mother of all evil, comes with different colors and shapes in different generations and geographic and cyber domains.

The Greed to accumulate wealth against ecological and social interests have come forwarded in the new version of Neo-Capitalism that will break any natural and man made law of inter-dependence and we get late surprises when the rules of nature for survival are alerting us that the game is over.

This is the case of the Ecological Crisis and Economic as well as Energy Crisis that we face today. The signs and the indications were there all the time, but we chose to ignore them.

Now we are forming TEA and COFFEE Parties to displace the root cause of the problem, that is greed and ignorance of few that is going to sacrifice the future of 9 Billion people who have died and the living 7 Billion.

Just imagine, how we respond to crisis. Look for excuses and blame some thing not connected with the event.

So, the TEA party tries to connect the Genocide of Jews and Europe to a group of people who have been under Genocide for over 500 years,.

Just imagine who is running the Banks, Insurance Agencies, the Military and the BP and SHELL oil Companies? Is it African Americans or to be exact, is it Barack Obama, the Community Organizer?

Surely, this TEA Party deserves a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic and Time Sensitive COFFEE Party.

The time is now to act and do not wait any longer!

The following story is telling as to how the Criminals are organizing once more to put all of us for another 500 years of slavery!

We have tested power and empowerment and we will not let it go with a Divine Fight.

Let us communicate over Coffee at Starbucks and Community Centers and joint the Movement of Good over Evil.

Now is the time to act.

Dr BMJ





NAACP is right to call out racists within Tea Party movement

Since February, I have been sounding the alarm against the radical voices that have attached themselves to the Tea Party movement. That is, the racists and the birthers and the Tenth Amendment-types who show up at Tea Party rallies with their hyperbolic signs comparing President Obama to Hitler, Stalin and other dictators who subjugated their countries through mass murder. Not the majority of folks in the movement who have legitimate concerns about the direction and size of government and the explosion of debt undertaken to sustain it. They are tired of Washington not listening to them. Well, Washington and the nation are listening to them now -- and to the crazies among them.

It’s the racists who have compelled the NAACP to vote unanimously on a resolution calling on leaders in the Tea Party movement to disavow them. As E.J. Dionne brilliantly points out today, the venerable civil rights organization isn’t asking Tea Party leaders to do anything less than what conservatives have consistently called on liberals to do.

The NAACP is doing what conservatives have done for decades in demanding that liberals and progressives separate themselves from left-wing extremists who trashed America, burned flags and praised foreign dictators. The racists are the Tea Party's flag-burners. It's fair to ask the democratic left to condemn extremism. It's fair to ask the same of the democratic right. (Note the small "d.")

Here's a specific example: Remember in the 1990s when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was fanning racial animus, spewing anti-Semitism and spinning conspiracy theories about the government actively targeting black men for annihilation? African American lawmakers were called upon nationally and locally, particularly in New York, to denounce Farrakhan. It was unfair to ask elected officials to condemn his every crackpot utterance. But it was also a no-brainer for serious politicians to make clear that Farrakhan didn’t speak for them lest their work and priorities get derailed. Tea Party leaders who don’t want their real concerns crowded out by the radical elements around them must -- MUST -- do the same.

By Jonathan Capehart | July 15, 2010; 8:23 AM ET
Categories: Capehart | Tags: Jonathan Capehart
Save & Share: Send E-mail Facebook Twitter Digg Yahoo Buzz Del.icio.us StumbleUpon Technorati Google Buzz Previous: The guile of Sen. Jon Kyl

Comments

I've been reading a lot of the material being written about this, and honestly, I'm left scratching my head. The vast majority of these articles don't point out a single substantiated instance of racism in the tea party movement. This article at least linked to another post referencing some public opinion poll data. I would suggest the author look into similar polling done on Bush in 2006/2007. Calling the president a socialist because he favors an enlarged government, and the takeover of a few key sectors of the economy (financial services, cap and trade, single payer healthcare, etc) is a far cry from the truly frightening threats that were made against the life of GWB. The left needs to stop using ad-hom attacks and start making policy arguments. Americans are not persuaded by the assertion that a vast majority of the country are racist bigots. Either that, or y'all need to substantiate one of your claims. This is a massive movement, so it shouldn't be difficult to find one bad apple, but as near as I can tell the left hasn't done its research to do that.

Posted by: rybo123 | July 15, 2010 9:20 AM | Report abuse

Blah - "racism", per capita, is more pervasive within the brown community. The majority of the white community doesn't dare utter a racist word. Time for the NAACP and other african american organizations to get their own house in order. btw - the comparison to Farrakhan is a huge stretch, since he is/was the leader of his organization. The leaders of the Tea Party movement stand up every day to denounce racism. Name one tea party leader that has used the term "black devils"

Posted by: Stevenj974 | July 15, 2010 9:21 AM | Report abuse

Mr Capehart, IF you are right that the naacp is calling out The Tea Party Activists on Racism then whatever ARE you going to do when the Republicans win back the house in November 2010 and Boot obama out in 2012?? Maybe Whine Louder???

Racism is a "losers limp", An Excuse, and besides not everyone who hates COMMUNISM is a racist!

Posted by: crackshot1 | July 15, 2010 9:21 AM | Report abuse

".... comparing President Obama to Hitler, Stalin and other dictators" does not necessarily mean someone is a racist. It is obvious the point being made here is that they think Obama is a "Socialist."

What does this have to do with race?

Can the NAACP please provide real evidence of racism?

Posted by: DAS2 | July 15, 2010 9:24 AM | Report abuse

Typical liberal BS and journalism at it's worst. The only racism I see is this journalist and the NAACP. Notice neither condemn the Black Panther tyrades. Plus they cannot produce evidence of the signs they say exists. But then again. I quess if someone is against policy and not the person that's racism. Like they say, you can't fix stupid....

Posted by: sonnyphillips | July 15, 2010 9:26 AM | Report abuse

I do not have a problem with anyone complaining about racists. I have a problem when it is used as a political tool to smear opponents, as this was done to smear the entire tea party movement.

It is racially divisive to play the race card OVER AND OVER. Think about it, when was the last time you even thought about a problem between races? When Obama got elected? or when false claims were made against activists days prior to the UNWANTED healthcare vote? Someone offered $100,000 to anyone that could show proof of racial slurs and spitting, AND NO-ONE HAS CLAIMED THE MONEY. No-one recorded it? No-one had a cell phone camera or video clip of it? The liberal media didnt get it on tape? COME ON. we know it didnt happen!

I believe in the sanctity of life that babies should have rights, that life begins at conception. You call me a "birther"? and put me in the same catagory as racists? What?

You are as divisive as the NAACP! You should work for them!

Posted by: JBfromFL | July 15, 2010 9:29 AM | Report abuse

The rest of America is right to call out the black racists in the NAACP and to call Capehart out on his continuous victimhood racist rants.

Posted by: wjc1va | July 15, 2010 9:32 AM | Report abuse

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lennia.


NAACP is right to call out racists within Tea Party movement

Since February, I have been sounding the alarm against the radical voices that have attached themselves to the Tea Party movement. That is, the racists and the birthers and the Tenth Amendment-types who show up at Tea Party rallies with their hyperbolic signs comparing President Obama to Hitler, Stalin and other dictators who subjugated their countries through mass murder. Not the majority of folks in the movement who have legitimate concerns about the direction and size of government and the explosion of debt undertaken to sustain it. They are tired of Washington not listening to them. Well, Washington and the nation are listening to them now -- and to the crazies among them.

It’s the racists who have compelled the NAACP to vote unanimously on a resolution calling on leaders in the Tea Party movement to disavow them. As E.J. Dionne brilliantly points out today, the venerable civil rights organization isn’t asking Tea Party leaders to do anything less than what conservatives have consistently called on liberals to do.

The NAACP is doing what conservatives have done for decades in demanding that liberals and progressives separate themselves from left-wing extremists who trashed America, burned flags and praised foreign dictators. The racists are the Tea Party's flag-burners. It's fair to ask the democratic left to condemn extremism. It's fair to ask the same of the democratic right. (Note the small "d.")

Here's a specific example: Remember in the 1990s when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was fanning racial animus, spewing anti-Semitism and spinning conspiracy theories about the government actively targeting black men for annihilation? African American lawmakers were called upon nationally and locally, particularly in New York, to denounce Farrakhan. It was unfair to ask elected officials to condemn his every crackpot utterance. But it was also a no-brainer for serious politicians to make clear that Farrakhan didn’t speak for them lest their work and priorities get derailed. Tea Party leaders who don’t want their real concerns crowded out by the radical elements around them must -- MUST -- do the same.

By Jonathan Capehart | July 15, 2010; 8:23 AM ET
Categories: Capehart | Tags: Jonathan Capehart
Save & Share: Send E-mail Facebook Twitter Digg Yahoo Buzz Del.icio.us StumbleUpon Technorati Google Buzz Previous: The guile of Sen. Jon Kyl

Comments

I've been reading a lot of the material being written about this, and honestly, I'm left scratching my head. The vast majority of these articles don't point out a single substantiated instance of racism in the tea party movement. This article at least linked to another post referencing some public opinion poll data. I would suggest the author look into similar polling done on Bush in 2006/2007. Calling the president a socialist because he favors an enlarged government, and the takeover of a few key sectors of the economy (financial services, cap and trade, single payer healthcare, etc) is a far cry from the truly frightening threats that were made against the life of GWB. The left needs to stop using ad-hom attacks and start making policy arguments. Americans are not persuaded by the assertion that a vast majority of the country are racist bigots. Either that, or y'all need to substantiate one of your claims. This is a massive movement, so it shouldn't be difficult to find one bad apple, but as near as I can tell the left hasn't done its research to do that.

Posted by: rybo123 | July 15, 2010 9:20 AM | Report abuse

Blah - "racism", per capita, is more pervasive within the brown community. The majority of the white community doesn't dare utter a racist word. Time for the NAACP and other african american organizations to get their own house in order. btw - the comparison to Farrakhan is a huge stretch, since he is/was the leader of his organization. The leaders of the Tea Party movement stand up every day to denounce racism. Name one tea party leader that has used the term "black devils"

Posted by: Stevenj974 | July 15, 2010 9:21 AM | Report abuse

Mr Capehart, IF you are right that the naacp is calling out The Tea Party Activists on Racism then whatever ARE you going to do when the Republicans win back the house in November 2010 and Boot obama out in 2012?? Maybe Whine Louder???

Racism is a "losers limp", An Excuse, and besides not everyone who hates COMMUNISM is a racist!

Posted by: crackshot1 | July 15, 2010 9:21 AM | Report abuse

".... comparing President Obama to Hitler, Stalin and other dictators" does not necessarily mean someone is a racist. It is obvious the point being made here is that they think Obama is a "Socialist."

What does this have to do with race?

Can the NAACP please provide real evidence of racism?

Posted by: DAS2 | July 15, 2010 9:24 AM | Report abuse

Typical liberal BS and journalism at it's worst. The only racism I see is this journalist and the NAACP. Notice neither condemn the Black Panther tyrades. Plus they cannot produce evidence of the signs they say exists. But then again. I quess if someone is against policy and not the person that's racism. Like they say, you can't fix stupid....

Posted by: sonnyphillips | July 15, 2010 9:26 AM | Report abuse

I do not have a problem with anyone complaining about racists. I have a problem when it is used as a political tool to smear opponents, as this was done to smear the entire tea party movement.

It is racially divisive to play the race card OVER AND OVER. Think about it, when was the last time you even thought about a problem between races? When Obama got elected? or when false claims were made against activists days prior to the UNWANTED healthcare vote? Someone offered $100,000 to anyone that could show proof of racial slurs and spitting, AND NO-ONE HAS CLAIMED THE MONEY. No-one recorded it? No-one had a cell phone camera or video clip of it? The liberal media didnt get it on tape? COME ON. we know it didnt happen!

I believe in the sanctity of life that babies should have rights, that life begins at conception. You call me a "birther"? and put me in the same catagory as racists? What?

You are as divisive as the NAACP! You should work for them!

Posted by: JBfromFL | July 15, 2010 9:29 AM | Report abuse

The rest of America is right to call out the black racists in the NAACP and to call Capehart out on his continuous victimhood racist rants.

Posted by: wjc1va | July 15, 2010 9:32 AM | Report abuse

Post a Comment

We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.

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Friday, July 9, 2010

US and Russian Planes at Vienna Swapping Spies in July 2010

On Tarmac in Vienna, U.S. and Russia Swap Prisoners

Dieter Nagl/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

An American Vision Airlines jet believed to be carrying the Russian agents parked near a Russian plane at a Vienna airport on Friday.

VIENNA — In a seeming flashback to the cold war, Russian and American officials traded prisoners in the bright sunlight on the tarmac of Vienna’s international airport on Friday, bringing to a quick end an episode that had threatened to disrupt relations between the two countries.

Associated Press

Igor V. Sutyagin, a former arms control researcher, in a Moscow courtroom in 2004. He denies being guilty of espionage.

Planes carrying 10 convicted Russian sleeper agents and 4 men accused by Moscow of spying for the West swooped into the Austrian capital, once a hub of clandestine East-West maneuvering, and the men and women were transferred, according to an American official. The planes soon took off again, presumably heading back to Russia and the United States in a coda fitting of an espionage novel.

The first sign that the exchange — one of the biggest in over two decades — was under way came as an American Vision Airlines jet carrying the Russian agents deported from the United States touched down and taxied to park only a matter of yards from the Russian plane from Moscow’s Emergencies Ministry. For a while the only sound of movement was an unidentified emissary shuttling between the airplanes.

Then, more than an hour later, with little fanfare and no formal announcement from either side, the Russian-flagged plane took off into clear blue skies, closely followed by the American airplane.

The swap was among the biggest since the Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky — who asNatan Sharansky became a political figure in Israel — was released along with eight imprisoned spies in a classic cold war exchange in 1986. But that exchange took place in a wintry Berlin across the snow-dusted Glienicke Bridge in Berlin at a time when the Iron Curtain cut Europe into rival ideological camps and this city provided one of few avowedly neutral havens.

The swift conclusion to the case just 12 days after the arrest of the Russian agents evoked memories of that time, but it also underscored the new-era relationship between Washington and Moscow. President Obama has made the “reset” of Russian-American relations a top foreign policy priority, and the quiet collaboration over the spy scandal indicates that the Kremlin likewise values the warmer ties.

Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, told the PBS program “NewsHour” that the president was fully briefed on the decision and that the case showed that the United States was still watchful even as relations improved. The 10 sleeper agents had pleaded guilty to conspiracy before a federal judge in Manhattan after revealing their true identities. All 10 were sentenced to time served and ordered deported.

A lawyer for one of four prisoners freed by the Russian government called it “a historic moment” and said she believed her client, a former Russian intelligence agent named Aleksandr Zaporozhsky, would be reunited with members of his family, who live in the United States.

Within hours of the New York court hearing, the Kremlin announced that PresidentDmitri A. Medvedev had signed pardons for the four men Russia considered spies after each of them signed statements admitting guilt.

The Kremlin identified them as Igor V. Sutyagin, an arms control researcher held for 11 years; Sergei Skripal, a colonel in Russia’s military intelligence service sentenced in 2006 to 13 years for spying for Britain; Mr. Zaporozhsky, a former agent with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service who has served 7 years of an 18-year sentence; and Gennadi Vasilenko, a former K.G.B. major who was arrested in 1998 for contacts with a C.I.A.officer but eventually released only to be arrested again in 2005 and later convicted on illegal weapons charges.

Yelena P. Lebedeva-Romanova, a lawyer for Mr. Skripal, 59, said she was very pleased that he had received an amnesty, in part because he suffers from diabetes and she worried about the effects of prison camp life on his health.

Mr. Zaporozhsky’s lawyer, Maria A. Veselova, said attorney-client privilege prevented her from revealing details of the negotiations that led to his release, but said she had long detected signs that he might be freed.

“For the last couple of years I was absolutely sure it was going to happen,” said Ms. Veselova, who represented him in the 2003 espionage trial where he was sentenced to 18 years. “It has to do with the relations between the two countries, and with political games going on at the top. It is always connected with these chess games.”

But for the second day, Mr. Sutyagin’s family, who live in the scientific community of Obninsk about 60 miles outside Moscow, were relying on media reports to track his whereabouts.

“I will only believe it when my son calls me,” said his mother, Svetlana Y. Sutyagina, a chemical engineer who spent most of the day working. “We are waiting and waiting for his call. That’s all we can do, is wait.”

She said they had no idea where he will live after his release, or even where his final destination is on Friday. She said she didn’t know whether his wife or daughters would ultimately join him there.

“We will only know his plans when we hear his voice,” she said. “Then we can think about what’s next. Now we have only one thought — when will he call. Nothing else matters.”

Nicholas Kulish reported from Vienna, Peter Baker from Washington, and Ellen Barry from Moscow. Reporting was contributed by Benjamin Weiser from New York, Alan Cowell from Paris, Scott Shane and Charlie Savage from Washington, and Colin Moynihan from New York.