Way back on Tax Day, I attended a Tea Party event at Sunset Park in Las Vegas. When I posted about it at the time, I included snapshots I took with my point-and-shoot digital camera.
I also had a real camera with me, of course, and I'm now (gradually) developing my film, so it's time for more Tea Party fun.
Technical details for the photographers: the shots in this post were made on Portra 160nc, with a fixed 35mm f/2.0 lens on a Nikon F100. The F100 can pass for a high-end digital SLR if people don't look too closely, so I was often taken as a member of the press. Quick tip: acting like you belong goes a long way.
In what I assume was an attempt not to preach only to the choir, a number of teabaggers lined up at the side of the street to get the attention of passing motorists. Many of the signs were quite inexplicable, so a lot of motorists were probably left wondering what these people wanted. The sign in this shot, for example, is an advertisement for a website, not a political statement.
It was clear being among the teabaggers that, as one might guess, they aren't a smart bunch, so their message was unlikely to be clear in any event. Even if it were, the Tea Party platform is based on lies, outright fabrications of the kind Fox News likes to spread. They have nothing valid to say, but they're saying it loudly.
These folks worship Ronald Reagan. They don't know much about history, so they think Reagan was a shining example of everything they believe in, mostly simplistic assumptions based on sound bites like the famous “government is the problem” quote.
The myth of Reagan is more attractive than the truth of Reagan, and I suspect the teabaggers wouldn't really want to know the answer to the question “What would Reagan do?” He was a conservative, to be sure, but a teabagger he was not.
It's not clear which part of the “change” this woman would like to see changed back. Is it the lower taxes that suck? The stabilized economy? The largest infrastructure investment since the Interstate Highway Act? Winding down the war in Iraq? Having a black guy in the White House? She's not very specific.
As an aside, I've had people tell me that I ought not to be calling these people “teabaggers” any more, that even if the name was their idea in the first place, the joke is over now and it's just name-calling at this point. Those people obviously haven't seen this video and the comments on that page. Or these T-shirts.
This guy felt that the best way to get the attention of motorists was to go out in the middle of the busy city street. If you're familiar with Las Vegas, you know what kind of street this is: six lanes of 45mph Vegas traffic.
There were several “real” press photographers on site, all trying to get a shot of this guy, so I was proud to be the first to realize that getting the shot meant going out into the middle of the road with him. The others followed my example, only they probably got paid to do it, so I guess they get the last laugh.
The punchline in this idiotic cartoon: “Anytime you see ‘bailout’ you should expect to get creamed.”
I guess it's true – if by “creamed” you mean “paid back with interest.” Seriously, don't these people even realize you need to change the talking points when they're proven incorrect?
Here's someone who apparently wants to abolish the presidency completely. Or, you know, something. I'm not sure they really know what they want.
I've saved my favorite pictures from this event for my next post, coming soon. Until then, watch out for teabaggers, they're scary folks.
Mad dogs, Englishmen, and apparently Teabaggers go out in the midday sun, especially in Las Vegas. Don't have to worry about your brain getting fried when it isn't working properly anyway.
Microman USA apparently forgot that the bailouts were pushed by Bush and Paulson. Maybe it'll turn out to be the best thing they did while in office.
Maybe you should tell the Reagan worshippers that he was president of a union before he became governor of CA. That should mess them up a bit.
Maybe the anti-executive orders person is actually pro-monarchy.
Posted by: rone | 07 June 2010 at 04:41 AM