Thursday February 4, 2010 You Might Be a Redneck....a different take We have enjoyed the redneck jokes for years. It's time to take a reflective look at the core beliefs of a culture that values home, family, country and God. If I had to stand before a dozen terrorists who threaten my life, I'd choose a half dozen or so rednecks to back me up. Tire irons, squirrel guns and grit -- that's what rednecks are made of. I hope I am one of those. If you feel the same, pass this on to your redneck friends. Ya'll know who you are. You might be a redneck if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, 'One nation, under God.' You might be a redneck if: You've never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places. You might be a redneck if: You still say ' Christmas' instead of 'Winter Festival.' You might be a redneck if: You bow your head when someone prays.. You might be a redneck if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem. You might be a redneck if: You treat our armed forces veterans with great respect, and always have. You might be a redneck if: You've never burned an American flag, nor intend to. You might be a redneck if: You know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening. You might be a redneck if: You respect your elders and raised your kids to do the same. You might be a redneck if: You'd give your last dollar to a friend. If you got this email from me, it is because I believe that you, like me, have just enough Red Neck in you to have the same beliefs as those talked about in this email. Keep the fire burning, redneck friend. IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM. IN GOD WE TRUST harlinc@frontier.com comment - return to main page Sunday January 24, 2010 IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY. IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT. IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED. IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN. IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED. IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT. IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET: A JOB - A DRIVERS LICENSE - SOCIAL SECURITY CARD - WELFARE - FOOD STAMPS - CREDIT CARDS - SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE - FREE EDUCATION - FREE HEALTH CARE - A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON - BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE - THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY’S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH RESPECT - AND, IN MANY INSTANCES, YOU CAN VOTE gtrpicker2 comment - return to main page Monday January 18, 2010 It's a shame more people will never see the very good information you have here. After reading a few lines of your rude and obnoxious remarks, most will simply close out the window or move on to another webpage. Maybe you should consider toning down your rhetoric. I guarantee you would have a better chance of getting this information out to the masses. Just my opinion. C. Maynard Chattanooga, TN Where I come from, when a person lies he/she is a liar - when a person steals he/she is a thief. Why is it necessary to candy-coat the truth? The only people who can take offense to how I say what I say are the people to whom it is applicable to and who really cares if a liar or thief has their tender little feelings hurt? I know I sure don't. If they don't want people to talk mean to or about them, I would suggest not lying or not stealing. When that happens I will not have to speak to or about these degenerate scumbags in the manner I do. comment - return to main page RE: You know you are a teabagger if: I realize the seriousness of what you are writing about but I could not help but LMAO as i read it. LOVE IT! You hit it spot on with that one. How can people be so ignorant and worse - how can they possibly defend there actions when they are so obviously wrong? I don't know how many people you have on your website but I hope it is alot because I think if more people actually saw the issues as they really are instead of just parroting the words of others who plainly have their own best interests at heart we would all be alot better off. B. Clyde Nashville, TN comment - return to main page Wednesday January 13, 2010 Until recently I had not put any stock into news reports attacking the tea party movement. Only after I saw how much was out there did I start looking into these reports for myself and now I am pretty pissed that I have been used to line the pockets of political wanna-be's who have used the movement for their own personal gain and that the movement has been sold out to well placed and entrenched national political players and their PACs and lobby groups. I have cancelled my membership with the Tea Party Nation and will no longer allow them to lie and steal from me. I will do what I can to let my friends who are completely unaware of how they are being ripped off. Thank you very much for providing this information and I will be steering as many people as I can to this site. dma@gmail.com One of the hardest things to do here is convince the people that have swallowed this bitter cup of tea they have been bamboozled and hoodwinked. Initially I was supportive of the tea party but quickly realized it was being co-oped by greedy, self-interested, self-promoting lairs and thieves. Now, it is my personal mission to expose these low-life degenerate scumbags for the frauds they truly are. I am glad your eyes are open and hope you can help spread the word to honest, hard-working people that the tea party is only out to fleese them and has no intention whatsoever of being the advocate for the people they claim to be. comment - return to main page Friday December 18, 2009 what happened with your rally in nashville this coming january? haven't seen anything about it here since you changed your site. jmgibbons@hotmail.com That idea died of lack of support. I received just one response (see December 3rd below) from the 38 invitations I sent to tea party groups across the state. I was under the mistaken impression they would, at least, help promote the event and hoped they would have used their existing networks to simply spread the word of the rally. I did not ask them to obligate their organizations to do anything but consider providing a presence at the rally or possibly organizing simultaneous gatherings in their areas. None of them were interested in having any part of it. Since this was not something they could plaster the tea party name all over and claim as their own, they wanted nothing to do with it. Tea party organizers are too busy fighting their little turf wars over which group is recognized as the official tea party and who sits at the head of that table. Secondly, these people did not want to show support for a demonstration with real objectives that could be measured by timely, realistic and tangible results. The tea party is not interested in participating in anything more than flag waving and fist shaking. Why would organizations who claim to be the new champion of the people, be so unanimously opposed to supporting such an event? The answer to that is as it always is in such matters -- follow the money. Millions of dollars of donor contributions are on the line and the tea party is more concerned with who gets their share of that pie than they are with bearing the standard of rising public dissent. Tea party organizers are not concerned with helping the people fight a government that has openly declared the people's will irrelevent and their rights subjective. They are more concerned with their legal suits against each other over who owns the tea party brand. Tea Party Nation (actually Tea Party Nation, Inc.) would rather invest it's efforts and resources (i.e. your contributions) into setting up tea party "representatives" with a cozy weekend at the Opryland Hotel for their February convention in Nashville that includes a $560 per person luncheon to hear Sarah Palin speak. The people that power the movement behind the tea party are comprised of political inclinations that span the entire political spectrum. Because of this, tea party organizers will not jeopardize potential contributions or possible commercial partnerships by taking specific stands on specific issues. They would rather promote politically neutral symbolic messages in an attempt to maintain as much popularity with their supporters (contributors) as possible. Tea party organizers are only concerned with the tea party and the money they can make from it. They are only concerned with which group out of thousands will be recognized as the official tea party organization. Litigations have already begun with charges of financial misconduct and illegal use of donor contributions. Lawsuits are already flying over who owns intellectual rights to the tea party. How long before Tea Party Nation, Inc. decides to enforce it's trademark because it is losing too much money from "unauthorized" tea party groups collecting donations? The next time you make your donations to these groups, ask yourself how much of that donation will go into these petty lawsuits. Ask yourself how much of your donation will be used to send a tea party "representative" to Nashville to spend a weekend at the Opryland Hotel for a tea party convention. How much of your money will be used so this representative can have lunch with Sarah Palin? Keep your money and give up this notion there is a group out there that is seriously going to speak for you. You don't need them for that - you can do it yourself for free. comment - return to main page Thursday December 10, 2009 First off, I like the facelift you've given the site. Now... I can't believe we fell for these charlatins line of bull! They took advantage of our fear and concerns just to make a buck and a name for themselves. Me and 6 of my friends and neighbors rented two passenger vans and caravaned to D.C. for the 9/12 rally. 14 of us also attended the Pink Slip rally in Nashville. We did not do this to support any individual or individuals associated with organizing the Tea Party but were there to support and show unity with THE PEOPLE and the concerns we all shared. I will be deleting my accounts on these Tea Party websites and will ask my friends and neighbors to read what you have here about the people fighting over who owns or who thought up the Tea Party. I have a very strong feeling the Tea Party will be losing many more supporters (and money, that will hurt them the most) after they read that. I am so mad I could spit grits that these selfish individuals are using supporters donations to pay for their petty lawsuits suing each other! We do not appreciate being lied to and used for somebody's personal gain!!! J. R. Soddy Daisy, TN comment - return to main page Friday December 4, 2009 RE: Roane County Tea Party HA! I hope you are not holding your breath waiting for that guy to contact you. I am surprised this comes as a surprise to you. I have been following this little sand-box struggle since this past summer over who is "in charge" of the various Tennessee chapters of the Tea Party associations with little amusement. I thought we actually had a chance to make read headway with this movement but have since figured out so long as self serving egomaniacs are "in charge" of anything, nothing is going to change. Here's hoping you can stir up some REAL action but I am afraid my friend you are pissing into the wind. T. Burke Murfreesboro, TN comment - return to main page Thursday December 3, 2009 What follows is an exchange between myself and the Roane County Tea Party and their reponse to the invitation sent to them asking for their support for the rally we are working on for January the 9th. > I think our goals would be better achieved by going in and talking with our state > legislatures: (1) tort reform, (2) state sovereignty, etc. The tenative goals stated are more realistically achievable in the short term. These are things that can be done in the next legislative session (all save the constitutional convention) and can serve to show people that they can effect real, immediate change. This will bring more people off the sidelines and into the game. Tort reform is a red herring as it relates to the current situation and can begin the second the people stop playing litigation lottery by initiating frivolous lawsuits and awarding obscene monetary awards in those suits. Lawyers do not sue lawyers, people sue each other and the jury has always had the power to determine who gets what when a suit is won. Why are we still asking the government to correct a problem we can correct ourselves? Are you of the mind the people need to be regulated by the government into acting responsibly? 10th amendment arguments are a waste of time at this point becuase they are simply symbolic in nature. These are non-binding resolutions and do not carry the force of law. They are intended only as statements from state legislatures to the fed and nothing more. I think instead of throwing sovereignty around just to yank patriotic strings in an attempt to gain suppport, we should pursue real avenues of recourse such as nullification. That, however, is a long protracted battle for another day. > What do we hope to gain with another state rally? Tea Party Nation had a rally a few > weeks back and only 1000+ people showed up. I don't know about you but I hope to gain everything. Just because the Tea Party Nation could not bring in more participants than it did, all rallies from this point on should be considered by their failure? The reason more people did not (and will not) show up to demonstrations like that is because they have not and will not accomplish anything so long as their stated purpose is purely symbolic in nature. > There are 7 million people in TN, when only 1000 show up to a state wide rally it > does nothing but tell our legislators that we are not a credible. Only 2.6 million Tennesseeans voted in the November 2008 general election. There are 4.7 million citizens in the this state eligible to register to vote and at this point these are the only people we need concern ourselves with. How is a single rally in Nashville a "state wide" rally? When 1000 individuals show up in a single demonstration, you are right, credibility is low. If you cannot see the advantage of having 1000 voters show up in a dozen different locations at the same time, I am certain there is nothing I can say to convince you it is a good idea. > I will give you the name of our chairman and you could talk with him about addressing > our group but I don't see anything to be gained from another rally in Nashville. He > may feel differently. I must say I find your attitude towards not only this effort but the effort of the people in general, to be very disappointing. If an event pushes the issues you stated above, you're all for it. If not, you want nothing to do with it, even if it better serves the will of the general voting public. I am curious as to just how that best serves the people your organization claims to represent. You have completely missed the point of all this. This event is not intended to try and change anything at a federal level. I personally think Washington D.C. and every single politician serving there is beyond redemption and that the best way to change things there is to initiate change at the state level. I hope you will reconsider your position on this and decide to be a part of something that strives for real and timely results instead of wasting time and resources tilting at windmills impervious to meaningless and symbolic gestures. I just received their reply to my reply: From: roaneteaparty@gmail.com To: smack@smackontheweb.org Subject: Re: nashville rally jan 9 - repl Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 21:04:16 -0500 byte me The initial invitation to the Roane County Tea Party was sent at the first of this week. I have yet to hear from the 'chairman' (oh how they do love their little titles) of that organization. To be continued.... comment - return to main page FINALLY somebody gets it! All the rallies in the world won't mean a thing if regular people cannot afford to make it to them. I don't have the money or can afford to take time off of work to travel across the state to these so called "peoples" rallies. The idea of more local rallies held at the same time seems to make much more sense to me. Just let me know where one will be held in my area and you can count me in. Thanks! C. Hand Pikeville, TN You are very welcome and keep checking back for updates. Since this was announced only days ago, it is going to take a little time to start getting responses from people who can organize the local events. One reason for having multiple, simultaneous rallies across the state is, the attendance of singular rallies can easily be dismissed as being attended by a non-consequential percentage of of the total number of lawful voters in the state. More locations mean more people. The more people you have protesting, the harder it is to push the "fringe" argument. Rick comment - return to main page Tuesday December 1, 2009 What is your problem with the Tea Party Movement? All I see here is nonstop bashing of a movement that is trying to make positive changes to our current corrupt and inept government. We are at a point in this country's history where our rights are being stolen from us, or property and income are taken by force of law for redistribution, the Constitution is being dismantled law by law and everyday our government pushes us closer to socialism. The people need an advocate in their name to help them take back what our government has stolen from us and the Tea Party Movement is our last, best hope of doing so. People like you seem to only want to fracture this coalition and help the socialist minded government achieve it's ultimate goal of enslaving each and every one of us. Why not put the effort that you have put into this "so called" grassroots website into efforts that actually help the people? D.T. McMinnville, TN First, I wish you could have at least pointed out specifically the bashing you refer to and second, I cannot find a single line anywhere on this site where I refer to it as a grass-roots initiative. Too many people stuck on labels - makes them unable (or unwilling) to see the message (sigh...). Call it a personality flaw or whatever but it is not in me to candy-coat my opinions - that just leaves too much room for misinterpretation. I simply call things the way I see them. When I see posts on wannabe 'official' tea party websites lament how unfortunate it is the free flow of information cannot be controlled by these self- annointed authorities, I am going to call it out for exactly what it is. Good grief man, where does this kind of thinking come from? I thought the goal of this tea party thing was the dissemination of information so the people could form their OWN opinions and act accordingly. Not have somebody tell them what they should know and how they should think. I've read all the arguments for the need of this control and not a single person can convince me it is not anything more than an attempt to gleen some kind of percieved legitamacy for the sole purpose of stroking egos. The very last thing the people need is another political organization more interested in putting it's efforts and resources into the maintenance and perpetuation of the organization than it is in the people it claims to serve. It's just that simple. What does it really matter who holds what position within the tea party? How does it serve the people to say, of multiple sources of identical information, only one should be considered "official"? With a very few execptions, most of those clammering for status and position within the tea party are simply opportunistic bandwagon riders who seek to further their own ambitions and are trying to use the tea party 'brand' to achieve personal goals. These people have completely misunderstood the entire tea party concept. It's not about any organization or group - it is about the people. It is completely inconsequential what you call the movement or who holds what position within it, just call the people and if your message is true and sincere, they will come. Rick comment - return to main page Monday November 30, 2009 So tell me how exactly the tea party is supposed to be the new "party of the people" when it is going to cost a person $560 dollars just for the privilege to hear Sarah Palin speak? I don't know any people who have that kind of money to spend just to listen to somebody talk to them. The tea party needs to realize the last thing "the people" need is another money grubbing party that pretends to serve the people when the truth is they are only serving themselves. J. Franklin Jasper, TN I can understand your irritation with this and have heard the same thing from a good number of people. Thing is, this event is not so much for the general public as it is an organizational meeting for the loose confederation of tea party groups across the country. The "official" tea party nation website states "The convention is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements' multiple organizations principle goals.". What they are really trying to do is form a national tea party caucus and are asking the various tea party groups to "pool their funds in order to send a representative of their group to this unique opportunity for exchanging knowledge and information in order to fully exercise the unity and power of the Tea Party Movement.". So it's not that they expect you to pay $560 to hear Palin speak, they just want you to pitch in to send a tea party "representative" to the event so they can pay $560 to hear Sarah Palin speak. Either way, it does seem a bit pricy coming from organizations and speakers that claim to represent the "common folk", when the "common folk" is having a hard enough time just feeding their families, let alone finance somebody's trip to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville to attend a glorified ego strokefest. Rick comment - return to main page Tuesday November 17, 2009 I can't begin to describe how monumentally lame you and your site is. nobody will ever come here more than once. want to do something productive for the cause? drown yourself immediately! after you take this junk off the net rebyell347@gmail.com Keep those cards and letters coming people :) comment - return to main page Friday November 13, 2009 I would like to thank the person or persons responsible for this website. This is the only website I have found that I can find factual information that pertains to Tennessee voters and particularly the voting district I live in without having to wade through page after page of somebody telling me their opinion of what THEY THINK is important for me to know and in the process try to pass it off as some kind of "official" news or information. This site just gives me the facts and allows ME to decide what to do with it. This website does not make me register as some kind of member just to look around and then not give me a way for me to cancel that registration when I find out the website is quite honestly a waste of my time. There's just something not quite right about that, that I can't put into words but I know comes across as downright shady to me. Another thing I like about this site is the lack of panhandling that you find on nearly all these other so-called grassroots sites. I barely have the money to support my family and to be constantly badgered for "contributions" is very annoying and seems very disreputable considering how some of these sites look to be run. I have no idea how much it costs to put a website online or how much personal time the people that run them have to invest in it. I do know that anyone that puts whatever the cost in time and money into a website like this should be thanked and even more so when they don't expect or beg to be compensated for their efforts. I wish I had the time to listen to your web show but I am at work when your show is on but please keep up the good work here and you can count on my continued support. K. Resse Sewanee, TN Hello K. Resse, my name is Rick Haburne and I am singularly responsible for this website. :) Rather me thank you for your comments and support (though they are most appreciated), I would instead applaud you for joining the growing ranks of citizens who have grown tired of self-appointed "authorities" of information who think they know better than you what is necessary for you to know and have taken it upon yourself to seek out the means to make your own informed decisions. I will never require any kind of membership or registration for access to this site. The reason other sites do this is simply a matter of numbers and egos. The more "members" they are able to claim, the more credible or "authoritative" they can imagine themselves to be. I will never solicit donations, contributions or any other kind of financial assistance from visitors to this site as I find such entreaties tasteless and suspect. I think self-motivated, enthusiastic and sincere people like yourself can do far more for the message this site seeks to convey than can any dollar amount. Congratulations on surviving the shrinking ranks of the employed! The Smack on the Web broadcast is a collaborative effort between myself and Derrick Waggoner of The Community Organizer. This is something neither of us have done before, so we are having to learn how to do this as we go along. We are currently fine-tuning (trying to figure out) the process of recording the live shows so you may listen to them at your convenience. civilis diffidentia est pium! comment - return to main page