"...into the cold, cold night"* America Unhinged

* The White Stripes-- I can't get enough of them these days.

The big news today is the New York Times/ CBS poll taken April 5-12 of 1,580 adults and 881 self-identified tea bag people. I wonder if anyone did this for the early Nazi party rank-and-file. It would be interesting.

BACKGROUND

81% are White, 1% are Black and who knows about the rest.
18% of Americans identifiy with the teabaggers
75% of them are older than 45.
29% are older than 65.
59% are men; and 41% are women.
36% are from the South ,25% from the West,22% from the Midwest; only 18% from the Northeast, cradle of the American revolution.
63% get the majority of their news from FOX compared to 23% of America.
24% get their news from the internet and teaparty memos.
37% are college graduates ( compared to 23% of America.)
56% earn more than 50K per year.
54% are Repubicans
41% are Independents .
5% are Democrats ( compared to 31% nationwide.)
75% say they are conservative
39% say they are very conservative.
60% say they almost always vote Republican.
40% say the United States needs a Third Party; 52% disagree.
58% keep a gun in their home.
38% attend weekly church services.
61% say they are protestants.
22% say they are Catholics.
39% claim they are evangelicals.

84% believe they reflect the views of most Americans. Only 25% of Americans believe this and 36% emphatically say they do not.

They polled activist teabaggers and supporters separately. 20% of teabaggers are activist. The definition is someone who attends their rallies and/or donates money to them. 4% of Americans would be activists.

96% of activists disapprove of Barack Obama.
77% of activists approve of Glenn Beck.
32% of activists believe that violent actions against the government can be justified. 24% of their supports agree.
50% of activists believe Sarah Palin would be an effective President.
50% of activists disapprove of the Republican party.
72% of activists are angry at Washington.
62% of activists say the economy will get worse.
55% of activists say that the amount of income tax they pay this year is unfair.


On Teabaggers as a whole:
On why they don't like Obama:
19% just don't like him.
11% believe he's taking the country to socialism.
10% dislike him for healthcare reform.
9% dislike him because he's dishonest.

77% believe Obama is too liberal (31% of Americans in general)
56% believe Obama favors the poor. (27% of Americans do.)
64% said Obama raised taxes.( 34% of Americans believe the same--99% got tax breaks.)
24% said Obama understands their problems. (58% of Americans agree.)
20% said Obama shares values of most Americans. (majority of Americans beieve this.)
24% said violence is justified against the government. (16% of Americans believe this.)
34% say that Obama was not born in this country. (20% of Americans believe this.)
29% say that don't know.

Teabaggers are most angry about:
16%--Healthcare reform Bill.
14%-Government doesn't represent the people.
11%-Government spending
8%- unemployment and the economy.

50% say the goal of the teabaggers is to reduce the size of the government.
7% say to run candidates.

57% have a high opinion of George W. Bush.
35% have a high opinion of John McCain.
28% have a high opinion of Ron Paul--this I found the most interesting.

52% believe too much is made of the problems of black people; compared to 23% of non-tea party white people.)
16% say that white people have more opportunities than blacks; 31% of white Americans say this.
25% believe Obama favors blacks; only 7% of non-teaparty white Americans believe this.

Following this up, The National Science Foundation covered up the answers of two questions in a questionaire meant to determine America's scientific literacy--evolution and the Big Bang. The evolution answer has leaked out--only 36% of Americans believe in evolution; only 12% of Americans believe that the evolutionary process is not assisted by God.

The America Family Association--a fundamentalist front group-- has called for the arrest and trial of all Muslims in America who do not convert to Christianity on the grounds of treason.

The Tea Party factions are going to court for rights to the name. It seems the Tea Party Express was created by a Republican consulting firm, who engineered the removal of Gov. Gray from California. The firm wanted to be hidden from view because they are not "of the movement." They received $1.6 million from corporations and donors for this effort. The C in conservative stands for Cash. This is different from the Dick Armey Koch funded tea party movement.

The Oath Keepers--active police and military personnel who have taken an oath not to seize Americans if the government declared martial law (they were formed after Obama was elected and not during George W when martial law was contemplated) have pulled out of the Fort Hunt Open Carry rally here in Virginia. They claim some of the proposed speakers have made inflammatory statements and have set the stage for a confrontational rally. Maybe they'll shoot each other.

Fox News is suggesting that the symbol for the Nuclear Security Summit was based on the Islamic crescent moon and star. It was a graphic based on a hydrogen atom. But you get the message.

Our distinguished Governor is going to attend a rally this week with Rev. Roy Engle and his Call for Conscience group. Rev. Roy worked the proposition 8 racket claiming that gays were a bigger threat than Al Qaeda because if gay marriage were approved "sexual insanity would be unleashed."

John McCain in his latest incarnation really does want to bomb Iran. This would only create a terrorist superhighway to the border of Israel, push Russia-China-Iran into an alliance of energy and economic powers and bog us down for eternity in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon says that Iran might be able to enrich enough uranium by the end of the year for ---1 nuclear weapon; and it would take them 5 years to master the technology to create a real nuclear weapon.

Senator Dodd embarrassed Mitch McConnell and the Republicans by reading the talking point memo by Frank Luntz on the financial reform bill. Luntz was famous for producing the talking points for the last two times Republicans tried to kill healthcare reform. The problem with the Republican talking points is that they are complete lies--not spin--but outright lies.