Oh dear. I'm waiting for the comments on this one.

*insert Michael Jackson eating popcorn in "Thriller" music video a la ONTD here*

The signs are very clever.

Heh. The one I like isn't featured here, but it reads like this:
Government IS a systemic risk.

"homemade signs at the tea bagging party (that's right, I said tea bagging)"

That's really just crude. You should be embarassed.

you know who should be embarrassed? the people who made their kids hold signs saying "Obamanomics: Monkey See, Monkey Tax" with a picture of a monkey.

Yes, they should also be embarassed. But it's important to remember one sign is not representative of the whole protest.

Well, Tres, you're certainly trying very hard to be offensive on Day 1.
What's wrong, is Sugar overcrowded and you're trying to weed out all the people with any sense of decency?

Congrats on being uncouth and base. Wow your mom must be sooooo proud.

I try to stay neutral on all issues involving Sugar as an organization, and areas where I have no clue (which is a lot of Sugar ).
here, I have to make an exception and agree with lainetm. The term "teabagging" has no place here on this forum. Sugar staff should be setting the standard of what is appropriate, and what is just crude and rude.

I would have expected, and still would expect that if I used that term and referenced in regard to another here, male or female on a forum like this. I would be thrown out of sugar, and banned for life.

hitler? really? some of these protesters are proving little more than how ignorant they are.

The political face of the sugar network is permitted to make crude, sexual innuendos about peaceful protestors?

If I were a sponsor, I wouldn't want to be associated with that.

I'm sure what we're seeing is the worst of the worst - the people who wanted to get on TV. I'm going to hope that a lot of the people who were there can differentiate between Obama and Hitler.

The sad thing is that when people make such comparisons it only serves to dimish the horrors of Hitler, which is a disservice to all those who died at his hands.

I can only assume we'll be getting an apology within the next day or two.

Being that he and the congress are repeating a lot of hitler's (socialist) moves and policies it works. Read up on it to know if history is repeating itself in some way.

I think people need to take a step back here and understand that Trés is only reporting the facts, she's not making "crude, sexual innuendos about peaceful protesters?" As a nod to the Boston Tea Party, that is what they are actually calling some of these events.

Here in California, and I quote,
"The California Tea Party encourages all California taxpayers to tea bag and send a tea bag to their legislators and the Governor to protest taxes to "fix" the California's spending problem!"

read the comment again it is sexual with the "yes i said it" and a link to sex in the city discussing it

"I can only assume we'll be getting an apology within the next day or two."

Actually, from the bit of history I've been trying to catch up on, Obama's policies involving government ownership and/or control of private businesses is more Mussolini's style...but close enough.

Where was the outrage at the anti Bush demonstrators, and some of their offencive chants and signs, swastika, calling him and members of his administration fascists, comparing some of them to Hitler?

By the way, I was so ignorant I did not even know the term, until I saw it on the news a week or so ago.

Princess: The context of the quote in your comment 15 is entirely different.
Maybe this will be informative.

"David Shuster, an MSNBC fill-in for Keith Olbermann, refers to tea-party activists as “teabaggers” – a term that refers to the practice of a man inserting “his scrotum into another person's mouth in the fashion of a teabag,” according to the Urban Dictionary. Classy."

From thenextright.com

Oh my word, you people are much too uptight about the teabagging comment.

Grandpa: You were not ignorant; just not disgusting.

What the heck does teabag or teabagging mean? Or do I want/need to know?

I witnessed the "protests" in Chicago and I have to say they were ridiculous. Not only did the signs represent an incoherent argument (half anti-Obama, half anti-Bush/Federal Reserve/IRS) but people actually pulled their children out of school to protest! Why on earth people think its acceptable to have their school-aged children holding signs protesting economic policies that they don't understand is beyond me! Keep your children in school! Its disgusting.

Wow... comparing Obama to Hilter and Mussolini? Really? Last time I checked Obama was not slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent people. And socialism is a far cry from fascism. This is why people think Americans are uneducated. Perhaps you should try reading a little bit of political and historical theory.

I must admit the signs showed here are part of the worst ones that can be written. I watched on tv, and when on CNN and they did discuss the tea party quickly, I saw the worse ones too (not all), while when I went to turn on Fox, I saw their opinion show hosts at the event so I get to watch longer and saw that not all the signs are like that.

Maybe Tres chose the worse ones to put on here to stimulate convo? Hmmm. Or arguments more like it.

Wow, these protests are clearly evident of how America has fallen intellectually. Yeah, blame Obama. He was around for the past eight years.

I get this weird feeling that this post is completely biased...
I agree that comparing Obama to Hitler is... ignorant, first of all, and undermining the real argument, however...these signs do not accurately represent the majority of the protesters. I think the political part of Sugar needs to step back from personal opinion and present both sides equally.

It's completely offensive to compare Obama to Hitler, just like it was completely offensive to compare Bush to Hitler for the last eight years. Both are completely wrong, but neither attempts are indicative of the nature of the movements they appeared in, the Tea Parties or the anti-war protests.

But speaking of offensive, Tressugar should be ashamed of herself. "Teabagging" indeed.

tigerlyllie21, are you sure you have a clear understanding of the difference.
This is from Luso: Socialism vs. Facism

"To know what socialism and fascism are, let us begin by examining some historical examples of each. Fascist states have included Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Tojo's Japan, Franco's Spain, Pinochet's Chile, and possibly Peron's Argentina. If we were to focus on each of these concretes, we would observe numerous differences. For instance, Hitler's Fascism was racist. Mussolini's was not. Mussolini's fascism involved belligerent nationalism. Franco's did not. What unites each of these concretes into a group of similars can be seen in a common definition of fascism: "A governmental system with strong centralized power, permitting no opposition or criticism, controlling all affairs of the nation (industrial, commercial, etc.)" (American College Dictionary, New York: Random House, 1957).

Socialist states have included the USSR(1), Communist China, socialist Sweden, socialist England, Cuba, North Korea, and a handful of lesser regimes in Eastern Europe, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Once again, there is a prima facie difficulty in determining what factor these various states held in common. After all, some socialist regimes (like Sweden's and England's) were elected democratically. Others, like the USSR's and the PRC's, were the result of popular violent revolutions. Still others were the product of either military coup (Cuba, Ethiopia, Vietnam) or foreign invasion (the Eastern Bloc). The trait common to all of these is provided, once again by the definition of socialism: "a theory or system of social organization which advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means or production, capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole" (American College Dictionary).

So, it would appear if you had a continuum that only allowed you to place the current Administration policies and practices somewhere between Socialism and Fascism, you would have to put that point closer to facism then socialism.

Here is the link if you want to read the entire paper:http://www.lawrence.edu/sorg/OBJECTIVISM/socfasc.html

http://www.lawrence.edu/sorg/OBJECTIVISM/socfasc.html

I agree with the poster who said that some offensive posters do not necessarily capture the spirit of the event--there were hundreds of these protests and this is only a very small, obviously biased sample.

And since it's such a big thing, I think the teabagging comment was probably a little unnecessary, but I also think a lot of the reaction to it was because people are still upset over the very existence of TresSugar.

Pinkprincess: See my comment #20.

Those who are criticizing these protests clearly do not understand them.
Which is understandable, because I doubt the HuffPoo covered it accurately.

I'm not so much upset at Tres, because Citizen had already become unhospitable, at best. I'm offended at the tone of the post.

Well said amelioratelj! However I will say there are a lot of things biased here. I like sugar, but generally what's posted, leans in favor for liberal agendas. Which is typical of all media, and hollywood for that matter.

Huffpoo!

Grandpa

Sorry yes I am reading a bit backwards everybody.

Personally, I don't think these are the "worst of the worst" in any sense. There was plenty of footage that swept across the entire protest, and I saw some pretty horrendous things - calling for Obama's death [which the news actually DID NOT focus on, I just saw it in passing] and signs describing anyone not at the protest as "unAmerican" and "terrorists". And then here in Texas there was that whole secession nonsense. @_@

I'm not criticizing the protests - people have free speech in this country, protest peacefully all you want. That doesn't mean I have to agree or think it makes any sense. Talking to people at the protests [that I saw on TV] and others I personally know who supported them but couldn't go, most didn't understand what they're protesting [there was a lot of "I hate Obama" without any particular reasons cited], or even what exactly they're insinuating/saying with some of their posters.

"Where was the outrage at the anti Bush demonstrators, and some of their offencive chants and signs, swastika, calling him and members of his administration fascists, comparing some of them to Hitler? "

I promise you I posted similar outrage when people used to compare Bush to Hitler. It's disgusting on both sides. People only resort to that sort of thing when they have nothing better to say.

I think a key part to fascism is in here: "permitting no opposition or criticism" and I certainly don't see that happening at all.

I'm not a fan of big government. I don't want universal health care or more taxes. But, these people who come out there with those signs - they're doing the cause a disservice. Who wants to be associated with that? Not me.

I'm sorry but comparing Obama to Hitler based on economic policies? Jesus, some people are so ignorant it makes me want to beat my face off of a wall.

Not to mention the whole communism and fascism bits. All I can think of is "Oh yes, and Bushes policies on war, the economy, and damn near everything else weren't remotely Hitler-ish at all, were they? Oh no, not at all. No, no."

*head desk* Some people make me sick. Like the ones who have their KIDS at this pathetic parade of misinformed idiots throwing around ridiculous scare tactics because they're pissed off about higher taxes. ARGH.

"Being that he and the congress are repeating a lot of hitler's (socialist) moves and policies it works. Read up on it to know if history is repeating itself in some way."

I'm not going to get into the specifics of their governmental policies right now, and it's not because I need to go read history books, it's because the similarity of their politics isn't relevant.

When you make a comparison like that you are insinuating far more than that their political ideals are similar.

It's like comparing a random born-again Christian to Jeffrey Dahmer and saying "Oh, well they're both Christian!"

Anyone with decency wouldn't do it.

The "tea parties" were peaceful, as long as folks demonstrate peacefully, and are not disruptive, they should be allowed to demonstrate, no matter what they have to say. whether it is the KK, or those who marched in support of that guy who killed three officers in California. That is what the 1st amendment is all about.

Grandpa I'm not sure if you're responding to me or not. I absolutely am in support of peaceful protests, even if I disagree with what they say.

But, one can be in support of protesting in general and still think that some of the participants are being inappropriate.

That's not to suggest that those protestors be silenced.

heck no, you don't have to agree, nor could you, or should you every time someone protests peaceably. What we have to do is assure they have the right to peacefully protest.

I'm not in favor of what the people were protesting, but calling it a "teabagging affair" is pretty inappropriate.

^um... they called it that first? seriously? I have twitter feeds asking people to "teabag the White House/ teabag Obama". so it's too bad that someone didn't realize the implications, but geez, there are a lot of teabags involved in the movement so I don't see how it's that rude.

I'm new to the Sugar family...if this is what Tres will be about count me out....

Quite frankly I find the teabagging comment to be totally hilarious and appropriate in this context. Please people take a chill pill and relax a bit. This is an adult forum and I think we can talk about these things like adults. As for the protesters, I just watch them like I watch my two year old. Amused. This country needs to get fixed and I think this administration can take us in the right direction. If people don't want to pay taxes then move to some island and start your own government.

How is appropriate in context?