Squanto McButterpants: I love how you say you’ve stopped believing in the existence of the left/right dichotomy, and then spend the rest of your post proving that false.

Look at Nazi and Communism, both extremes and both with similar ends! Of course Nazism could be considered left because of socialism…maybe a two different form of left ?

Squanto McButterpants: The obvious truth is that you didn’t cover these protests because you don’t want people to know that right wing protesters are just as crazy as left wing protesters.

Squanto (does sound like Charles though) I went to that CBS site and it said the participants in the Tea Party were Democrats, Republicans and Independents…does not sound like a right wing revolution to me. Sounds to me like a citizens protest because they are concerned. Zombie is right…it is covered elsewhere. Zombie is expert in covering what other news media ignore and are not covering. Like the San Francisco’s leather scene that is openly out on the street. This year the local SF paper did cover that event but of course did not expose what Zombie reported. I would not blame Zombie about not covering this year…going once would be enough !!!

#69 Squanto McButterpants
From your own FAQ:

Q: I can’t decipher your politics. Are you left-wing? Right-wing? Conservative? Liberal? Or what? I’m confused.
A: I’m confused too. I’ve stopped believing in the existence of the “left/right dichotomy.” And every existing political label has been rendered meaningless by endless framing, reframing, and counter-reframing by competing political factions. There is no name or category that summarizes my wide-ranging opinions — opinions which, furthermore, are continuously evolving. The zombietime images speak for themselves, and my personal outlook should be irrelevant in any case.

I stand by that FAQ. Every word of it remains true. And nothing in it compels me to attend every imaginable protest on every imaginable topic from every point of view. I go to events which are convenient for me to attend and which I think will be funny. A bunch of people standing around in Revolutionary War-era outfits protesting again lower taxes is about as boring as I can imagine — especially since I have no idea how to find out about such things ahead of time.

I have in fact gone to some conservative-organized events. Events in which I disagreed with the conservative viewpoint. A good example is my “Walk for Life” report:
http://www.zombietime.com/walk_for_life/
And even though I personally am “pro-choice,” and in theory am on the side of the counter-protesters, I was absolutely appalled by the behavior, attitude, chants and signs exhibited by the pro-choice side, whereas the pro-life side at this event were rather dignified and silent. So, I reported on exactly what happened, not on what I wanted to happen. The reality was that the pro-choicers were abusive, extremist, outrageous, insulting, menacing and altogether a big turn-off. So even though I was theoretically politically aligned with the pro-choice counter-protesters, their behavior turned me off and repulsed me, frankly. And I had no choice but to report on what I saw.

Maybe if I was in Kansas the tables would be turned and the roles would be reversed. I don’t know. I’m not in Kansas. I’m here. But in my experience, whenever right-wing and left-wing protesters come into close contact, the left-wingers have almost always come off looking much worse. (Another good example of this is the Berkeley Marines Protest of Feb 12, 2008: http://www.zombietime.com/berkeley_marines_2-12-2008/ , at which the lefties were totally irrational and creepy and violent compared to the right-wing/sane military supporters.)

I have a strong feeling that if I managed to track down a small tea party protest somewhere in the Bay Area, it would be exceedingly tame and barely worth covering — if the reports you linked to above are any indication. Maybe in other areas the Tea Parties are full of whack-jobs — and if someone else in those areas covers those events, more power to them. I’m hardly the only citizen journalist in the country. But as for the Bay Area, I get the feeling that it’s not crazytown central for the conservatives. Sorry if that doesn’t satiate your narrative’s needs.

And back to the FAQ: I am indeed someone whose beliefs are not encapsulated by existing labels. On “social issues” I’m mostly laissez-faire and/or “liberal” or whatever you want to call it; on economic and foreign policy, I’m mostly conservative/hawkish. As a result, I am strongly opposed to Obama’s economic proposals and agenda as well as his wrongheaded foreign policy, and feel no qualms about opposing him for that reason. And a Tea Party in which people protest against taxes and against the nationalization of the economy — I have no problem agreeing with that thesis either.

The truth is: Street protesting and making a public fool out of yourself is generally a leftist tradition in America; Since the ’60s the “silent majority” of conservatives have generally stayed at home and consequently failed to embarrass themselves throwing Molotov cocktails on the street. Every now and then there’s a small eruption of conservative protests, but they are few and far between, and generally far less colorful or interesting than left-wing protests.

zombie has a different focus: exposing the irrationality at the edges (and sometimes much closer to the very heart) of the Left. It’s kind of more important to look critically at Holdren’s beliefs than at some nutty sign held by a TEA Partier: the latter is a citizen spouting off, and the former is a Presidential advisor in a position to affect the lives of every American.

Here’s a clue for you: you can find thousands of blogs that show you the crazies on the Right. Where do you find actual coverage of the crazies on the Left? Only here. Complaining to zombie about bias should be about 9,999th on your to-do list after getting all of the legacy media outlets to cover Lefty moonbats honestly… that is, if honesty has anything to do with your personal agenda.

>>>Q: I can’t decipher your politics. Are you left-wing? Right-wing? Conservative? Liberal? Or what? I’m confused.
A: I’m confused too. I’ve stopped believing in the existence of the “left/right dichotomy.” And every existing political label has been rendered meaningless by endless framing, reframing, and counter-reframing by competing political factions. There is no name or category that summarizes my wide-ranging opinions — opinions which, furthermore, are continuously evolving. The zombietime images speak for themselves, and my personal outlook should be irrelevant in any case.<<<

#64 Squanto McButterpants
So you block my post for more than a day to try to think of an excuse, and this is all you can come up with?

I did not “block your post” — WordPress automatically blocks all comments with more than 2 links in them, as a way of screening out spam comments (of which I would get a lot if not for this feature). The WordPress software is supposed to send me a notification email every time a likely spam comment is blocked, but there has always been a glitch and for some reason I never get those emails. So, since I first installed zomblog, I’ve always been non-notified that I have any comments “in moderation.” I only occasionally remember to go check. Yesterday I checked for the first time in over a week, and among the dozens of Russian dating service ads and Viagra spam was your comment — which I kindly approved, even though it was an insulting comment telling me what to do.

I flat out don’t believe you when you say you were unaware of this. These events were covered extensively on right wing blogs, including some very well-known ones that you have referenced in the past. Even if you don’t read these blogs, you could find this stuff with 1 minute of Google searching.

I don’t care whether or not you believe me. It is the truth. Firstly I was unaware that there were any tea party protests in San Francisco. And having seen the reports about them, they look quite mild and boring and not worth covering anyway, so I’m glad I didn’t waste my time going to them.

Secondly, look carefully at zomblog to see exactly how many protest events I’ve been to in the last YEAR: http://www.zombietime.com/. You’ll see that in the last year I have been to just THREE protests. Three. And do you know how many left-wing protests and events I have skipped and/or ignored in that time? Hundreds. There’s stuff happening practically every single day around here. So, over the course of a year I skip hundreds of left-wing events and the opportunity to embarrass leftist hundreds of times, while skipping perhaps just two smaller right-wing protests — and suddenly that shows my bias and my preference for seeking out left-wing protests?

The obvious truth is that you didn’t cover these protests because you don’t want people to know that right wing protesters are just as crazy as left wing protesters.

The actual truth is that I have pretty much simply stopped going to protests altogether due to work and family commitments, as evidenced by the fact that I have done just three large protest reports in over a year.

I also notice your tone has completely changed now that I showed everyone these protests exist. Before you said you’d consider covering these protests if only they existed (see post 55 in this thread). Now you say “I don’t take orders for protest reports.”

My tone has not changed. I never, ever take “orders” for reports. In fact, it’s the exact opposite: if someone suggests I go to an event, then I can’t go to it, because I never show up where I am expected. Over the history of zombietime, I have skipped many events I otherwise wanted to cover because people “invited” me to attend it. If someone’s looking for zombie at an event — that’s an event I can’t cover.

But most importantly, you keep insisting on some bizarre theory of yours that I somewhere, somehow declared that this was an even-handed site and that I announced my intention to seek out and mock conservatives just as much as I mock liberals. I never made such an announcement, nor such a claim. So your ridiculous attempts at a “gotcha!” moment (which are false anyway) just fall flat. Look at the history of my posts. Exactly how many times in the past six years have I gone out of my way to seek out some conservatives and hold them up for mockery? Very, very few — almost never. The only instances I can think of are the times I mocked Ron Paul supporters and then a few of the pro-Marines supporters at a Berkeley protest. Other than that, zombietime has been focused on mocking left-wingers since the day I founded the site. Get used to it. Don’t like my focus? No one’s forcing you to read my reports.

As for your accusation that my coverage reveals some kind of nefarious hidden “agenda” on zombietime that I’m trying to hide: Tell me, how many posts have I made attacking Obama in one way or another? Dozens upon dozens. And how many posts have I made mocking McCain (or, before him, Bush)? None. Ever. Is that a “hidden” agenda, or an up-front agenda?

Nothing is more annoying to a blog owner than people telling them what to cover on their blog. How about this: You go spend the next sixth months harassing and attacking liberal and left-wing bloggers. When you’re done, come back here and show me the evidence of you fulfilling my commandment about what you do with your life, and then I’ll try to dig up a conservative protest and go cover it.

Alternately, I’ll stop telling you what to you if you stop telling me what to do.

I agree with the Tea Party idea…but, let’s face it these guys are total squares. Mom, sis, apple pie stuff.

No morbidly obese women flaunting their sagging breats, no burning American flags, no calls to “eat the rich”, no inflated scrotums.

I like these guys…but, they’re hella boring.