Here We Go Again: More “Tax Protest” Signs

This weekend, “teabaggers” descended on Washington for another of their “anti-tax” rallies (remember, these rallies are about taxes – and maybe healthcare – but aren’t about racism or President Obama…). Unlike the tea parties of April, the media did a bit better job of covering just how crazy some of these people really are. But I still think that some of the worst was completely glossed over.

For example, The Indianapolis Star noted that:

Throngs of people waved U.S. flags and held signs reading, "Obamacare makes me sick" and "I'm not your ATM" as they marched to the Capitol.

Other signs -- reflecting the growing intensity of the health-care debate -- depicted Obama with the signature mustache of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Many made reference to Obama as a socialist or communist, and another imposed his face on that of the villainous Joker from "Batman."

However, none of the most vile posters were shown in The Indianapolis Star (or on the Star’s website). Instead, the picture that appeared in Sunday’s issue of The Indianapolis Star (and for some reason is not shown on the the Star’s website) showed one person holding a poster depicting President Obama as a Che Guevara-like figure and talking about socialism (or “socia lism”) and several people holding posters that say “Not a race issue, not a party issue, just an old American Freedom issue”:

(Sorry for the poor quality, but it is a scan of the photo in the print edition of the newspaper.)

On April 17, 2009, I posted some of the more disturbing images from the tax day tea parties. Based on what I did and, more importantly, did not see in the coverage of this weekend’s “tax” protests in Washington, I’ve decided to take the time to show more of the signs that probably didn’t get much coverage in the mainstream media, just as I did back in April. As with my April 17 post (and please take a look at the update to that post for a Ron Paul related anti-Semitic poster sponsoring one of those April tea parties), these photos have been found and copied from various sources around the web and are shown in no real particular order.

I thought this poster was a nice place to start. The admission that the protest isn’t about healthcare (or, apparently, taxes) at all, but instead is about “power” seemed to set a tone. Add to that the Holocaust reference and the lovely picture of President Obama with the bloody mouth of Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker (and I have to wonder whether the choice of the Joker, with the white face paint is sort of a reversal on the old black face racist portrayals…). By the way, compare this actual image with the way it is described in The Indianapolis Star: “imposed his face on that of the villainous Joker from ‘Batman.’” Somehow, that description doesn’t quite get across what the image really looks like, does it?

This poster quickly reminds us that the protest is purely about President Obama’s policies and not … oops. Sorry. What was I saying?

There are two interesting things to note about this poster. First, perhaps I’m misunderstanding, but it sure seems to me that these guys are advocating for a coup d'état or armed insurrection. How very patriotic. Second, and here’s where I start to get confused again, in those first posters I showed, we’re told to be wary of socialism (remember that during the campaign, even Sen. John McCain admitted that then-Sen. Obama was not a socialist…) Anyway, the protesters shown above, seem to think that he’s a Marxist. But then compare those sentiments with the following poster:

Things would be so much simpler if these folks could decide whether President Obama is a socialist, Marxist, communist, or fascist. They again, I suspect that not many of them could really define what any of those ideologies really encompass. And I’m sure that all of those opposed to socialist policies will be happy to forego Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and other social programs.

At least the creator of this poster had the creativity to include more than just President Obama as fascists. Is that President Bush in the top row?

I wonder if she could explain the difference between the philosophy on the right of her poster with that on the left. And then, presuming she could, I wonder if she could really explain how the “philosophy” in the middle equates to either of the others. But she does get points for creativity.

Yes, please. Change it back to an administration that starts wars under false pretenses, uses torture, illegally wiretaps US citizens, reveals the identities of covert agents, fails to find Osama bin Ladin, and … oh, never mind.

These guys look like they’re having a great time, don’t they. I just wish that the photo showed the whole of that Nancy Pelosi poster. It looks like it was probably pretty interesting, calling her “the most dreaded Nazi of them all!”

This is one of my favorite sets of posters. Can somebody please explain what, exactly, this person is protesting? For that matter, can someone just tell me what the posters say?

Um, didn’t President Obama say that he supported some tort reform? I wonder how many people advocating for tort reform have ever been the victim of medical malpractice? Lots of people seem to support tort reform until they are the plaintiff. The comparison of Stalin and Hitler to Obama allows me to ask the following question: Precisely how many people (in particular, innocent people, but I’ll keep the question broad) have died as a result of President Obama’s policies? In your answer include all deaths at concentration camps and gulags and in wars. Now compare that number to the number killed by Stalin and/or Hitler. Hmm, doesn’t seem quite comparable, does it?

Multiple posters here! First, I’m sure that use of the “Bro” in the poster on the left is purely by accident and isn’t racially motivated. As to the poster on the right, is that person talking about Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA, when they say that socialized health care doesn’t work? And finally, I’d really like to know how anything that President Obama has done – seriously – can be compared to Nazi Germany of 1939. The poster references Aktion T4, which was Hitler’s secret euthanasia program. But as has been consistently demonstrated over and over and over again, HR 3200 (which, by the way, was not authored by President Obama) does not create death panels! (And don’t forget that the provision giving rise to the fear of death panels was authored by a Republican and co-sponsored by the very same Republican who gave the Republican response to President Obama’s healthcare speech last week).

Here we go, back to the theme of comparing Hitler, Lenin (replacing Stalin, this time), and Obama. Again, I repeat the question that I’ve asked in several posts over the last month or so: What is it about President Obama that makes people think that he is actually evil? Come on, tell me one truly evil thing that he has done.

I’m curious to know how President Obama has changed? After all, he did campaign on the very idea of reforming healthcare. For my part, Hope persists.

One of these days, I’m going to have to post a bit about what total nutcases Ron Paul and his followers really are. Just a hint: They don’t like Israel very much.

What would any good tea party rally be without a “birther”. Hey, fella: The State of Hawaii says that his birth certificate is real. And besides, are you really stupid enough to quote WorldNetDaily as a source of anything? Oh, by the way: nice suit.

(Note that in the picture above, I blurred out the image of the aborted fetus.) Remember that this protest was about taxes (and, I suppose, the President’s healthcare reform proposals). Apparently, this protester didn’t quite get that message. How do we know that President Obama supports sodomy or the new world order (and what, exactly, is this “new world order” anyway?)? And don’t forget, the United States Supreme Court also supports sodomy (or at least says that states can’t criminalize it between consenting adults).

I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again: What has President Obama done to make someone think that he is the antichrist? Seriously.

Unlike the other posters that I’ve shown, the one that this girl is holding was professionally printed and was, apparently, being distributed at the rally. Nice sentiment, don’t you think? Oh, and how old is that girl? How great is it that her parents got her involved in a rally like this where she can hold up a poster with such a moving and heartfelt sentiment. Hopefully, she’ll be proud of this photo when she’s older and trying to purchase healthcare for herself and her family.

This has to be one of the scariest posters of the day. Unless I’m mistaken, this jerk is telling us that if he doesn’t get his way, next time he will use weapons. There’s nothing quite like advocating armed insurrection as a result of losing an election. Can you imagine what Republicans would have said if people walked around with signs like this after George W. Bush “beat” Al Gore in 2000?

Another person who doesn’t believe that there are no death panels. Plus, stop for a moment and look at that poster carefully. What kind of seething, visceral hate, does it take to walk around with that poster? That kind of hate scares me.

The guy who made this poster should at least gets creativity points for picking up other historical bad guys. I think he’s missing Pol Pot and the leaders of Rwanda, Serbia, and Darfur.

Note the “Your” President (in italics, no less). And note who is responsible for this poster: LaRouchePAC (I’m not going to bother with a link). For those who are unfamiliar, here’s the Wikipedia entry on its founder, Lyndon LaRouche. He’s a real charming sort of fellow and his followers … um … I think that poster and the others on this page probably sum them up pretty well.

Nicely designed Che Guevara-inspired poster. I wonder if she has any idea who Che was?

I guess that the hearse made me laugh more than anything else. Out of curiosity, I wonder how many people have died because: (a) they couldn’t afford insurance, (b) their insurer terminated their coverage when they got sick, or (c)  had their perfectly valid claim denied?

Some parents were angry that President Obama was going to “indoctrinate” their children by giving a speech to school kids. Oooh, President Obama, evil. But there’s apparently nothing wrong with having a kid walk around a tax protest with a sign like this. Do you think she understands what the sign means? Do you think her parents have explained the issues to her? Do you think it’s a good idea for a kid to be exposed to some of the signs and rhetoric on display at the rally (whether in the form of photos of aborted fetuses, claims that her President is like Hitler, or people advocating for armed insurrection)?

I wonder if granny would be worried about “death panels” if she’d take time to read the bill and stop listening to people who want to scare her or use her to make a political point. And as to her “no socialism” stance, I wonder how soon she’ll be giving back her Social Security and Medicare benefits. (And I wonder if the woman on the far left got her scooter free through Medicare or Medicaid…)

You just knew that there had to be a Terri Schiavo poster somewhere, given the whole healthcare debate. Now remember, Republicans want the government to stay out of end of life decisions. That must explain why Republicans tried to stop Schiavo’s husband from making those decisions for her. But what does any of that have to do with 9/11?

Just another example of someone who decided to broaden the scope from just being about President Obama.

Again, one has to ask, precisely what President Obama has done to make this idiot think that he’s in league with al-Qaeda.

“Impeach the Muslim Marxist”? Who would that be? Certainly not President Obama who is neither a Muslim nor a Marxist. And even if he were, on what grounds would we impeach him? According to Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, a President can be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” What precisely has President Obama done that qualifies under any of those provisions? Of course, given that  “Glenn Beck is [this idiot’s] hero” I guess we shouldn’t expect simple things like accuracy or logic.

Another protester who came “unarmed … this time”. Will this person come armed next time? And what will qualify as next time?

This woman scares me. She can’t find her gun? I hope it has a trigger lock so the person that finds it can’t use it. And she doesn’t know how to use an apostrophe. But I suspect that she’s all in favor of vouchers…

Other than the fact that both President Obama and Robert Mugabe are black and are the leaders of their respective countries, what other traits do they share? And if you answer “they stole from the white man”, consider yourself both a racist and an idiot.

And a final “bonus” picture that has been making the rounds among the “teabagging” crowd:

Finally, I thought that this report on CNN was a fitting piece to tie all of this together, especially the first half of the report where some of the teabaggers get to tell you what they really think in their own words.

I don’t know about you, but the sentiments expressed in these posters and by the people in the CNN report demonstrate both the insanity of the tea party movement (and its sponsors like Glenn Beck) as well as the fear that it should be engendering in the rest of us.