memeorandum: In Defense Of The Tax-Day Tea Parties (Marc Ambinder/The Atlantic Politics …)

2:00 AM ET, April 16, 2009

Top Items:

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

In Defense Of The Tax-Day Tea Parties — The of tea-party enthusiasm on the American right has provoked a fairly typical reaction from the organized American left. It's a fake. It involves tea bags and (a) Dick Armey. It's got the consistency of astroturf, not natural grass.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Business & …, Balloon Juice and TBogg

Media Matters / Media Matters for America:

CNN's Roesgen grills tea party protestor who calls Obama a “fascist,” says protest “highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox” — This whole FARCE is custom made for cable news, not the MSM of network TV. The MSM cant cover something 24/7 like CNN or FOX can.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, MyDD, skippy the bush kangaroo and Gawker

Jim Iovino / NBC Washington:

1 Million Tea Bags, But No Place to Dump — Permits end dumping before it starts — WASHINGTON — It was a great idea, really. Take a million tea bags and dump them in Lafayette Park to protest government spending. Hip, hip, hoo-ray! — But a funny thing happened en route to a visually pleasing Tax Day protest.

Discussion: The Washington Independent and D-Day

MSNBC:
Anti-tax ‘tea parties’ vent anger across U.S.

Discussion: Associated Press, Pam's House Blend, Washington Monthly and Neptunus Lex

Jane Hamsher / The Huffington Post:
A Teabagger Timeline: Koch, Coors, Newt, Dick Armey There From The Start

Discussion: PoliGazette, Politicker NY, Politics and Critical Thinking, NPR, Taibblog, Wizbang, Right Wing Nut House, The Sundries Shack, Frank Strategies and Crooks and Liars

The Huffington Post:
DC Tea Party Protest Shut Down By Secret Service, Package Thrown …

Discussion: Obama Foodorama, The Moderate Voice and Plunderbund

Ryan Powers / Think Progress:
Pelosi: Tea parties are part of an ‘astroturf’ …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TPMDC, Tax Day Tea Party, D-Day and Pam's House Blend

Liz Robbins / New York Times:
Tax Day Is Met With Tea Parties

Discussion: Room for Debate, Harry's Place, Jules Crittenden and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Left Behind? — Glenn Reynolds today pens an op-ed hailing the …

Discussion: Political Byline, PoliBlog, Spot-On, Fausta's Blog, The Rhetorican, The Field on the Narcosphere, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Next Right

David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
The Second Rule of Tea Parties Is You Don't Talk About Tea Parties

Discussion: Austin American-Statesman, Hot Air, Matthew Yglesias, ATTACKERMAN, Riehl World View, Gawker and Washington Monthly

David Weigel / The Washington Independent:

Scenes From the DC Tea Party: More Photos! — Here's a supplement to Aaron's great photo spread from this afternoon's rally. — Remember: Fox News reported on these rallies. It didn't promote them! — This was a popular theme, along with references to images of President Obama's bow to the King of Saudi Arabia.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Political Machine, Think Progress, Sister Toldjah, pandagon.net, Scared Monkeys, The Impolitic, Matthew Yglesias and The Daily Dish

Founding Bloggers:

BREAKING! Chicago Tax Day Tea Party Pictures! — UPDATE: Exclusive Video! Today, there was a brief and minor drama involving a CNN reporter and some Tea Partiers. We have posted our footage of what went down after CNN's camera's signed off. — Here are some shots from the tax day tea party in Chicago.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, Blue Crab Boulevard, Tax Day Tea Party and No More Mister Nice Blog

David / Crooks and Liars:
Fox anchor rants about fascism during tea party coverage

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Buck Naked Politics and AMERICAblog News

Michelle Malkin:
CNN beclowns itself

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Founding Bloggers, Pajamas Media and NewsBusters.org

Chris / TVNewser:
CNN Reporter at Chicago Tea Party: It's “Anti-CNN Since This is …

Discussion: Ace of Spades HQ, Hot Air, NO QUARTER, Michael Calderone's Blog, FishBowlDC, AmSpecBlog and Vanity Fair

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Obama Uber Alles Macht Frei

Discussion: Vanity Fair and Wonkette

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Gov. Perry Talks Secession for Texas at Tea Party: “Texas Can Leave Union If It Wants To” — All the insane talk coming from the Limbaugh National Convention is spreading into the fabric of the entire GOP. Listen to Texas Gov. Rick Perry say: … These republicans are talking treason in my mind.

Discussion: The Reaction, Hot Air, DownWithTyranny!, PoliticalBase.com Blog and JammieWearingFool

Wayne Slater / Associated Press:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry gets crowd boiling at Austin ‘tea party’ — wslater@dallasnews.com — AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry told an anti-tax “tea party” Wednesday the federal government is “rampaging through the halls of Congress” with big-spending programs and only states' rights can stop it.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Think Progress and Comments from Left Field

Texas Politics:

Perry says Texas can leave the union if it wants to — Note to commenters: The comments do not post automatically. I have to read them and post them. Since it is dinner time here, I may be away from the computer for a bit. — Speaking with reporters after a tea party rally in Austin today …

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Donklephant

Kelley Shannon / Associated Press:
Perry fires up anti-tax crowd

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Texas Blue, RedState and Matthew Yglesias

New York Times:

N.S.A.'s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress — WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, according to government officials.

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts, Think Progress, Ben Smith's Blog, Hullabaloo, D-Day, Emptywheel, ATTACKERMAN and Taylor Marsh

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Limbaugh defends the teenage pirates of Somalia while a US Cargo ship evaded another pirate attack — Without comment: … (h/t Mark Nicholas) — Last night there was a report that another attack had happened on a US Cargo ship:

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Newshoggers.com

RushLimbaugh.com:

President Obama Ordered the Killing of Three Black Muslim Kids — BEGIN TRANSCRIPT — RUSH: You know what we have learned about the Somali pirates, the merchant marine organizers that were wiped out at the order of Barack Obama, you know what we learned about them? They were teenagers.

Jimmy Vielkind / Politicker NY:

NY-20 Judge: Most Objections Invalid — ALBANY—Judge James Brands just ruled that most of the over 1,200 contested absentee ballots in the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in Congress were objected to improperly based on discrepancies in their applications. This means many more ballots will be counted.

Discussion: TPMDC

Casey Seiler / Capitol Confidential:
At last: final numbers from Saratoga County

Discussion: the albany project, Daily Kos, Hotline On Call and Swing State Project

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Murphy Leads By 168 Votes, As Absentees Come In Strong

Discussion: PoliticalBase.com Blog and Scorecard's Blog

Department of Homeland Security:

Statement by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the Threat of Right-Wing Extremism — The primary mission of this department is to prevent terrorist attacks on our nation. The document on right-wing extremism sent last week by this department's Office …

Discussion: The Swamp, Little Green Footballs, QandO, Liberal Values, Right Wing News, PoliGazette and The Liberty Papers

Audrey Hudson / Washington Times:
Napolitano stands by ‘extremism’ report

Discussion: Liberty Street, Weekly Standard and The Strata-Sphere

Joe Klein / Swampland:

World's Stupidest Argument — Bush flunkies trying to argue that Obama is more polarizing than Bush was. Given the fact that Obama had to take dramatic action, at home and abroad, to start lifting the country from the mess Bush made almost everywhere—and also begin to turn the country away …

Discussion: Liberal Values

Peter Wehner / Commentary: Yes, but . . . Obama Is Still the Most Polarizing

William Yardley / New York Times:

For Gov. Palin, a Rough Return to the Day Job — JUNEAU, Alaska — Before Tina Fey and “Drill, baby, drill,” there was mud season here in the Alaskan capital. This soggy, socked-in spring has been no exception, but it sure has been different in other ways.

Alaska_Politics / Anchorage Daily News:
Dems won't vote on Palin's three names for Senate seat (Updated)

Discussion: The Mudflats and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:

Minn. Senate flashpoint: the judges — Norm Coleman's campaign hasn't yet filed its expected appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, but partisans are already gearing up for what could be the next flashpoint in the Coleman-Al Franken Senate contest — the backgrounds of Minnesota's high court justices.

Discussion: mnpACT!

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Top Business Lobbyists Vow To Raise Big Bucks For Coleman Appeal

Discussion: D-Day, TPMDC and Firedoglake

Alissa R / Us Weekly:

Sarah Palin's Dad Wishes Levi Johnston Would “Buy Some Diapers” — In the new issue of Us Weekly (on newsstands today) Sarah Palin's father slams Levi Johnston — the 19-year-old father of Bristol Palin's baby — for recently badmouthing the Palin family in the press.

Discussion: Political Machine and The Swamp

Washington Whispers:
Is the GOP Waving Bye-Bye to Sarah Palin?

Discussion: PoliGazette, Liberal Values and Salon

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Hillary took in $5.6M in 1st quarter — In the first three months of the year, Hillary Clinton paid off $3.7 million in bills left over from her failed presidential campaign, according to a report her campaign filed Wednesday afternoon with the Federal Election Commission.

Discussion: The Note and Blue Crab Boulevard

Patrick / Now! Hampshire:

Taxpayers Storm ‘Luxury Lavatory’ at State House — “About seventy women and forty men” visited the Senate President and Speaker of the House's new taxpayer-funded “luxury lavatory” at the State House to relieve themselves all at once today, sources tell NowHampshire.com.

Discussion: Don Surber