We're Gonna Party Like It's 1992.

I loves me some parody...

Gawker Covers The News So The MSM Doesn't Have To!

Why is it that a site like Gawker can come up with a piece that explains more about the inner workings and methodology of teabaggers via snark and an errant e-mail than actual news organizations can?

Like this:

"Tea Party Patriots" National Coordinator Jenny Beth Martin got a friendly little "media request" from CNBC: could you crazies maybe go crazy up a town hall somewhere? Sure, a 'Bagger says: how bout the guy who got the swastika?

Martin emailed the Tea Party listserve explaining that CNBC needed "lots of energy and lots of anger." She asked: "where are the big events this week and where can TPP best be represented on the news?"

Patriot and Teabagger Pat Wayman responded with a great suggestion: let's throw a riot at a health fair sponsored by Rep. David Scott (D-GA), the Congressman who got a swastika painted on his office sign last night!

Martin explained to TPM Muckraker that the Teabaggers would not be protesting that particular health fair, but the bit about CNBC specifically asking Tea Baggers to display "lot of anger" for their cameras was not disputed.

Gawker's securing and posting of the 'bagger e-mail shows us the symbiosis between that fake "grass-roots movement" and certain cable outlets, as well as exposes the manufactured "reality TV" aspect behind their schtick. It's also a nifty little piece of journalism--smart-ass or not.

Let's hope Gawker can get their hands on those promotional planning missives that surely exist between the teabagger hierarchy and FOX News--Your Complete Source of Tea Party Outrage; We Teabag So You Don't Have To!©

I Don't Care If I Never Get Back.

     JackRabbit Café's Twin Cities Man in the Street--The Best-Looking Man In Show Business Today--sent HQ a heads-up on an item he saw in The Minnesota Independent.

     It concerned the minor league St. Paul Saints baseball team, well-known in Minnesota and elsewhere for their topically clever marketing campaigns. That's the two-faced Coleman/Franken bobblehead above, outfitted as Sesame Street's "The Count," and hilariously playing off that state's still-unresolved U.S. Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken. 2,500 of the dolls will be given away at the May 23 game against the Sioux Falls Canaries.   

     I went to a Saints game a few years back and had a helluva good time--cheap tickets, great local beer and tons of food on lots of smoky grills all around the outside of the cozy ballpark. I could've hopped a freight train just beyond the fence, too.  

     If I had two hours to show space aliens the American Experience, I'd bring 'em to a minor league baseball game. I'll bet they'd never phone home again.  

     But, really: will any ballpark promo ever top the Bobblefoot, which was the Saints ode to dumbass Minneapolis airport stall boy and former Idaho Senator Larry Craig? 

     It even had a tapping foot.

     Hook-ups sold separately.

Babe Ruth Is Smiling Somewhere.

     From the AP:

     The staff dietitian at a doctors group says a minor-league baseball team in Grand Rapids, Mich., should warn fans that a 4,800-calorie burger it plans to sell is bad for them.

     Susan Levin of the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine sent a letter to the West Michigan Whitecaps on Tuesday. She wants the enormous burger to be labeled a "dietary disaster" that increases the risk of cancer and heart disease.

     The 4-pound, $20 burger features five beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips -- all on an 8-inch bun.

     Whitecaps spokesman Mickey Graham says the team hasn't considered labeling the burger, which he says is a gimmick being promoted as a very unhealthy menu item.

     I take it that "Zero Trans Fat Salad Days" never really caught on.