Tea-baggers protest DC Mass Transit

[Samuel]

Yeah, I have not been on for ages. I don't know if it carries over to the Metro though as the culture there may be different in the US.

It's not "the ultimate faux pas," at least not in DC, but it isn't especially common, either.

Is this talking in the men's restroom level unacceptable?

[General Zod]

Yeah, I have not been on for ages. I don't know if it carries over to the Metro though as the culture there may be different in the US.

It's not "the ultimate faux pas," at least not in DC, but it isn't especially common, either.

Is this talking in the men's restroom level unacceptable?

It's not quite as bad; though I imagine it depends on your city. But for the most part not talking to people on the train you don't know is one of the largely unspoken rules. Virtually everyone ignores the "no eating on public transit" rule though, even if it's up on all vehicles here. What I find hilarious is there's a "no gambling" logo in addition to everything else posted that you're not supposed to do.

[Vendetta]

I would not be suprised if some of these people pick and mix what they wish to cry socialism over. I mean to some public transport may be a lifeline to them and therefore forgotten while they remember the evil dirty public healthcare.

I'd be surprised if they do the pick and mix themselves.

Remember, these people are stupid, Fox News gives them their opinions on a plate, with the important parts in Big Letters.

[Teebs]

It's not quite as bad; though I imagine it depends on your city. But for the most part not talking to people on the train you don't know is one of the largely unspoken rules. Virtually everyone ignores the "no eating on public transit" rule though, even if it's up on all vehicles here. What I find hilarious is there's a "no gambling" logo in addition to everything else posted that you're not supposed to do.

I don't think there is a strong 'no talking to strangers' rule on intercity trains in the UK. Commuter trains sure, but not the long distance ones. On the other hand, I reckon the London Underground's no talking rule is just as strong as the no talking at the urinals one.

[Vendetta]

I don't think there is a strong 'no talking to strangers' rule on intercity trains in the UK. Commuter trains sure, but not the long distance ones. On the other hand, I reckon the London Underground's no talking rule is just as strong as the no talking at the urinals one.

To be fair, the underground is loud and rattly, and it's hard enough to communicate with people you do know.

[Garibaldi]

Virtually everyone ignores the "no eating on public transit" rule though, even if it's up on all vehicles here.

Are you from D.C.? I've seen them bring the hammer down on people for eating on the Metro. My experience has been that people practically fear the consequences.

[General Zod]

Virtually everyone ignores the "no eating on public transit" rule though, even if it's up on all vehicles here.

Are you from D.C.? I've seen them bring the hammer down on people for eating on the Metro. My experience has been that people practically fear the consequences.

I was referring to Denver's transit. As is I've never seen anyone even make an attempt at enforcing it.

[Tanasinn]

Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs.

See, under ObamaCare, this wouldn't BE a problem because these people would be dead.

I thought nothing could be more annoying than a troofer, but these teabaggers take the cake.

[Big Orange]

Hang on a tick; isn't "teabagging" a lewed term for rubbing your junk into somebody else's face?

[Serafina]

Hang on a tick; isn't "teabagging" a lewed term for rubbing your junk into somebody else's face?

Huh - thats intriguing.
I looked it up, and apparently, it HAS that meaning.
But i think its a british thing - the protests must be even more hillarious for you brits, then.

[Samuel]

Hang on a tick; isn't "teabagging" a lewed term for rubbing your junk into somebody else's face?

Yes. We all were laughing about it when the name was announced... cultural differences or a leave of absence prevent you from figuring that out?

Huh - thats intriguing.
I looked it up, and apparently, it HAS that meaning.
But i think its a british thing - the protests must be even more hillarious for you brits, then.

I know the meaning is that in the US, but since the protestors tended to be... out of touch they didn't realize that. Some of the newscasters on the other hand...

[phred]

It's been pointed out plenty of times. But apparently they either don't care, or are stuck with it and just try not to think about it too much.

[Bluewolf]

Given that most will of not of heard of the meaning of the word, I doubt they even know which makes it somewhat more amusing in my mind.

[CmdrWilkens]

Yeah, I have not been on for ages. I don't know if it carries over to the Metro though as the culture there may be different in the US.

It's not "the ultimate faux pas," at least not in DC, but it isn't especially common, either.

Following up a bit on this. For the most part Metro operates on the "keep it to yourself" rule though there tend to be more than a few occasions where it is common for folks to interact but those are usually limited to special events. When you travel at the end of a Caps, Wizards, or Nats game its generally not frowned upon to talk about the game so long as the conversation doesn't carry past halfway down the train. Certainly there are disruptive assholes but everyone will glare at folks who carry on conversations with outdoor voices.

[Tanasinn]

I was of the impression that "teabagging" was in the vernacular of all American males in their teens or older.

I love the moniker for that reason - it perfectly describes what they do.

[Losonti Tokash]

Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs.

Holy shit. If they're so concerned about that, couldn't they have, you know, made space for the elderly and taken the cabs themselves?

[Raw Shark]

Virtually everyone ignores the "no eating on public transit" rule though, even if it's up on all vehicles here.

Are you from D.C.? I've seen them bring the hammer down on people for eating on the Metro. My experience has been that people practically fear the consequences.

I was referring to Denver's transit. As is I've never seen anyone even make an attempt at enforcing it.

I've seldom seen anyone even make an attempt at enforcing payment on the Light Rail here, so it doesn't come as a surprise that they're lax on everything else.

I was of the impression that "teabagging" was in the vernacular of all American males in their teens or older.

I love the moniker for that reason - it perfectly describes what they do.

Yes, they know exactly what it means and claim ownership of it, if the professionally printed pro-Tea Party t-shirt I saw back in April that depicted a red, white, and blue teabag arranged in the shape of a cock and balls being lowered onto Obama's face is any indication.

[CmdrWilkens]

Virtually everyone ignores the "no eating on public transit" rule though, even if it's up on all vehicles here.

Are you from D.C.? I've seen them bring the hammer down on people for eating on the Metro. My experience has been that people practically fear the consequences.

I was referring to Denver's transit. As is I've never seen anyone even make an attempt at enforcing it.

DC is a bit different. Partially because the transit officers get the whole "you are protecting the Capitol" lecture and partially because they can it can be ruthless. I mean as in 10 year old kids being told to spit their gum out into their hands and grandmothers pulled off trains for opening chips bad. Metro Police don't mess around and they've arrested kids for having stereos playing too loud.

[Glocksman]

I would not be suprised if some of these people pick and mix what they wish to cry socialism over. I mean to some public transport may be a lifeline to them and therefore forgotten while they remember the evil dirty public healthcare.

I'd be surprised if they do the pick and mix themselves.

Remember, these people are stupid, Fox News gives them their opinions on a plate, with the important parts in Big Letters.

Some are stupid, but a lot more of them are simply selfish in that while they have their Social Security and Medicare*, they don't want to pay the costs to extend healthcare to younger people.

Or more charitably they're afraid of losing what they have.



*Most of the local teabagger rank and file I've seen appear to be either retired or close to retirement age.

[Simon_Jester]

It's not quite as bad; though I imagine it depends on your city. But for the most part not talking to people on the train you don't know is one of the largely unspoken rules. Virtually everyone ignores the "no eating on public transit" rule though, even if it's up on all vehicles here. What I find hilarious is there's a "no gambling" logo in addition to everything else posted that you're not supposed to do.

I don't think there is a strong 'no talking to strangers' rule on intercity trains in the UK. Commuter trains sure, but not the long distance ones. On the other hand, I reckon the London Underground's no talking rule is just as strong as the no talking at the urinals one.

There certainly isn't on long distance trains in the US, though we don't have many of those. Of course, in the US "long distance" means "I'm going to be on this train all day;" some people would forget how to talk if they didn't socialize with other passengers.

It's been pointed out plenty of times. But apparently they either don't care, or are stuck with it and just try not to think about it too much.

Remember, this is a country that took a British song mocking what ignorant rubes we are and turned it into an unofficial national anthem.

[RRoan]

Remember, this is a country that took a British song mocking what ignorant rubes we are and turned it into an unofficial national anthem.

Which song is that, out of curiosity?

[Count Chocula]

I grew up in Arlington, VA and still remember when the Metro system opened for business. It was as big an event for the D.C. area as the Bicentennial fireworks in 1976 (which I saw from the lawn at the Washington Monument, and which were awesome). Funny how you can remember things that happened when you were eight.

In my junior high and early teen years, the Metro was my connection to get to church, childrens' theater, the Air & Space Museum, the Hirshhorn, later to work, etc. Aside from the Crystal City station being a thirty-minute, 2-some mile walk from my home, it was the ideal way to get into the city (except for Georgetown, which meant getting off at Rosslyn station and hoofing it across the Key Bridge and then up the Exorcist-movie-priest-falling-down steps).

The Metro cars are the cleanest cars I've ridden in the US, and I've been on MARTA, NYC transit (natch), PATH, BART, the Toronto Subway, and the El in Chicago. NOBODY ate or drank on the Metro, and when I grew up in Arlington, nobody tagged or defaced the cars. Metro stations had security cameras in 1976. Any damage was just normal wear from lots o' people in the same cars. It's a good rail system, and like New York's subway, it's a good alternative way to get a lot of people into and out of a city that was designed for 18th century traffic and population patterns.

To the September 12 demonstrators' complaints: in my opinion, they're half right. The Metro system moves on average about 800,000 people per week day, according to Wikipedia. As Aerius noted, subway systems usually operate at reduced capacity on weekends. Metrorail runs 814 cars during rush hour (again from Wiki), and on Inaguration Day operated at rush hour levels from 4 AM to 9 PM (from the http://www.wmata.com Web site). If they had anticipated the crowd, they could have operated on a normal rush hour schedule that Saturday and done a much better job getting folks where they wanted to go. And made a buttload of money in the process! The human traffic jams at the subway stations tell me that (a) the WMATA traffic management folks didn't pay attention to the predicted numbers of incoming people for the protest, and (b) there were an assload more than 70,000 people who showed up for the demonstration, as that capacity could be easily handled with a normal weekend lineup of cars. Taking on "tens of thousands of people" is no big deal. The error points to bad planning, but blame, if any, could equally go to WMATA and to the organizers, if they failed to advise the transit authority of the number of people they expected to show.

I also think part of the butthurt complaints about the Metro service reflect the experience of people from other states who don't take buses or subways, are from areas without bus or subway service, and are unaccustomed to being in large crowds of people all trying to get to the same place. Representative Kevin Brady, the Congresscritter cited in the OP complaining and representin' his southeast peeps, is from Texas: a state that has no subway systems for obviously hugely real-estatey new-city-ey big-highway reasons. The one complaining source cited in the WSJ blog should'a (as they say in Texas) kept his yap shut, since he had no perspective or experience to form a valid basis for his complaint. Aside from his constituents' whining.

As for the whole "teabagging" meme: the original impetus for the Tea Party protests came from a conservative concern (correct IMO from past Democrat administrations) that with a Democrat in the White House and Democrats having a majority in Congress taxes would go up. The "Tea Party" nom de guerre for the tax protests this year was and is an obvious reference to the pre-Revolutionary Boston Harbor dumping of East India tea into the water by "Indians" to protest a tax. It went sideways when the "send a tea bag to Congress" e-mail, unattributed and repudiated by http://www.newamericanteaparty.com, started circulating and some people followed its advice:

So, here's the plan. On April 1, 2009, all Americans are asked to send a TEABAG to Washington , D.C. You do not have to enclose a note or any other information unless you so desire. Just a TEABAG. Many cities are organizing protests. If you simply search, "New American Tea Party", several sites will come up. If you aren't the 'protester' type, simply make your one voice heard with a TEABAG. Your one voice will become a roar when joined with millions of others that feel the same way. Yes, something needs to be done but the lack of confidence as shown by the steady decline in the stock market speaks volumes.

From there, it was easy for snarky 'journalists' at ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN to turn TEABAG into the present participle verb "teabagging," thus mocking tax protesters indirectly as adherents of an offbeat, and visually comical, sexual practice. In other words, it was a media-invented distortion to mock the opposing side. Oddly enough, the American media is supposedly even-handed in its coverage. I guess just reporting news isn't interesting. Ya gotta have a spin.

[Kuja]

From there, it was easy for snarky 'journalists' at ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN to turn TEABAG into the present participle verb "teabagging," thus mocking tax protesters indirectly as adherents of an offbeat, and visually comical, sexual practice. In other words, it was a media-invented distortion to mock the opposing side. Oddly enough, the American media is supposedly even-handed in its coverage. I guess just reporting news isn't interesting. Ya gotta have a spin.

Jesus you're a fucking idiot. Media-invented? The term has existed for years, I remember it from high school for fuck's sake. It's purely the fault of the teabag fuckheads for picking such a dumb goddamned name in the first place. If they didn't think people were going to start making the connection, they had their heads buried in the fucking sand. Which seems appropriate given their subsequent behavior.

PS, I like the way you put the word jounalists in quotes and then proceed to list every major news network except Fox. I guess ya gotta have a spin, huh?

[Thanas]

Remember, this is a country that took a British song mocking what ignorant rubes we are and turned it into an unofficial national anthem.

Which song is that, out of curiosity?

Yankee Doodle. Just listen to the lyrics.

Oh, and Chocula: Fox itself refears to them as teabaggers.

[Count Chocula]

Jesus you're a fucking idiot. Media-invented? The term has existed for years, I remember it from high school for fuck's sake. It's purely the fault of the teabag fuckheads for picking such a dumb goddamned name in the first place. If they didn't think people were going to start making the connection, they had their heads buried in the fucking sand. Which seems appropriate given their subsequent behavior.

PS, I like the way you put the word jounalists in quotes and then proceed to list every major news network except Fox. I guess ya gotta have a spin, huh?

Lemme guess you're a party-party UA alum/student. Did you even take the time to parse my sentences before jumping to the conclusion that I said the media invented the WORD? Go back and read it again. I'll wait.

.

.

.

Here's the breakdown for you, in short declarative statemtents:
1. Tax protesters resurrect the "tea party" slogan;
2. Anonymous Internet poster urges people to send a TEABAG to Congress;
3. The media outlets I mentioned (no not Fox, which did not run with the word) turn TEABAG into teabagger in their commentary on the tax protest/anti-bailout/anti-stimulus movement;
4. You conclude that I'm an idiot and that "Tea Party" = teabaggers, an application of contemporary slang to an historical reference;
5. You therefore display your ignorance of reading comprehension of what I assume is your native tongue.

Go spin.


@ Thanas: I went six pages in on the Google keywords "teabagger fox" and did not find one Fox news reference. The closest I found was this Fox news radio opinion piece by Alan Colmes, an avowed liberal. Fox's reporting, from what I can see, did not use that term.