Fuck yeah, I sank Obama. I SANK OBAMA AND THE MEDIA AGREES!

[Cain]

Everyone says it was standard Neocon boilerplate nonsense, with a sprinkle of religious fundamentalism.

Tancredo has always been on the wingnut fringe of the GOP as well.

Rumckle, I did think that the presence of Palin and many Movement advocates would eventually kill the Tea Party, but my suspicion was that it would happen closer to election time, to avoid splitting the vote for President.  I didn't expect anything to happen this quickly.

As far as I can see, the Tea Partiers have three possible futures to choose from:

- They chuck Palin et al, the GOP and Dems keep discrediting themselves, they become a real third party
- The GOP keep infiltrating and co-opting its membership, causing massive internal fights and eventual dissolution into splinter groups (current favourite)
- They remain a political movement, distance themselves from the Republicans, and act as a spanner in the political system.

If I could sign up to any major tea party forum, I'd be giving them advice on the third, but my limey ass is not welcome, apparently.

[Elder Iptuous]

Cain,
why can't you go on their forums via proxy? how are they preventing you from joining?

also, what do you think about John Robbs view on the TeaParty folks as presented in his recent post?

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

The tea party group is potentially useful in that it can potentially really throw a wrench into anything on the right wing end. Truthers might be more useful were they not already considered a bit nutty by all the 'legitimate' party lines, since the truthers consist of people from both the left and the right -- pretty much anyone who doesn't buy the bush party line on 9/11 falls under that very wide and bullethole-ridden umbrella.

[Cain]

Cain,
why can't you go on their forums via proxy? how are they preventing you from joining?

also, what do you think about John Robbs view on the TeaParty folks as presented in his recent post?

Well, I tried with the Ning.com social networking site they have, and they rejected me.  I mean, I suppose I could create another account and proxy in or something, but with everything else Im doing it just seems like too much effort.

I think he overestimates the grassroot aspect of the movement, since it is at least in part funded by the likes of FreedomWorks and the rest, it would be better to consider it a hybrid between that and a more established structure that Movement members like Palin, Bachmann, Tancredo et al are trying to pull off.

That said, he is dead on about the potential for political systems disruption and open source political warfare.  Given both GOP and Dem blogs read from the same tired, stale script, any open source innovations will easily overwhelm them, at least on an information/propaganda/local issues level.

[Earthbound Spirit]

If the internet really had any effect on elections then Ron Paul would be president right now.

QFT