Tea Party Tells #OccupyWallStreet: We’re Patriots, You’re a Mob

◼ Tea party activists have gone on the offensive against anti-Wall Street demonstrators just a day before the New York protest threatens to come to a head. - Newsmax

In the run-up to Friday’s possible confrontation, conservatives are increasingly trying to point out the differences between the tea party and what columnist Ann Coulter called the “flea party” because its supporters are “wingless, bloodsucking, and parasitic.”

Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer said she is “offended” that the media portrays the two groups as mirror images of each other.

“I see no similarities,” she said in a fundraising letter. “The OWS crowd have had thousands of arrests, have harassed citizens trying to go to work and do their jobs, have had confrontations with law enforcement and destroyed public property.

“They are a disorganized unruly mob of shiftless protesters that has been reinforced by union and organized labor thugs,” she added.

“Their goal has been to cause as much disruption as possible and force anarchy.

“In contrast, there have been thousands of peaceful and respectful tea party rallies across the USA over the past three years,” she said. “The Tea Party Express alone has hosted over 301 and there has not been one arrest or incident of violence. We say a prayer, recite the pledge of allegiance and sing the national anthem before each rally.”

Brendan Steinhauser of the grass-roots conservative organization FreedomWorks told Newsmax the difference between the two groups is clear. He pointed out that, when the tea party movement blossomed in 2009, “No one was assaulted, no one trashed the place, no one relieved themselves on cop cars because we respect private property rights and we respect public property rights.

“In the entire history of the tea party movement, I’m not aware of over a handful of arrests. And these guys have easily had a thousand or more.

Van Jones’ Tea Party Envy

◼ Front Page Magazine: Of all that the Tea Party has accomplished, perhaps the movement’s most unlikely achievement to date is the admiration it has inspired on the activist Left. Disillusioned with President Obama and the rapid dissipation of a long-term left-wing dominance that Obama’s victory was supposed to usher in, left-wing activists and commentators have come to look upon the Tea Party as a model to revive their faded political fortunes.

Speaking for many on the Left, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen recently acknowledged, “I suffer from Tea Party envy.” Similarly, the disgruntled twenty-somethings taking part in the Occupy Wall Street campaign have styled their protests as a left-wing and anti-capitalist version of the Tea Party. The latest left-wing admirer of the Tea Party is none other than Van Jones, the disgraced former Obama administration official who was ousted from his post as green jobs czar following revelations of his radical past, which included signing a 9/11 “Truther” petition. Time off from professional politics has afforded Van Jones an opportunity to reflect, and like many on the Left he has concluded that in order to regain their relevance, progressives must take a page from the Tea Party’s playbook. Read The Rest at the link.

Every Single One: The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Compliance Section

◼ For several weeks, PJMedia has been publishing a series of articles on the ideological and partisan histories of attorney hires into the career civil service ranks of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in the Obama administration. The articles have demonstrated the political and ideological litmus test being employed by those entrusted with hiring in the Division. - J. Christian Adams/Pajamas Media

Every single new attorney hired has a history thick with left-wing activism.