Last month, Californian lawyer and influential Tea Party leader Mark Meckler was arrested for trying to board a plane at LaGuardia Airport with a handgun and ammunition. This week, Meckler pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct (reduced from felony criminal possession of a concealed weapon), but he wasn't too happy about it. He made his displeasure known in a long entry on his website, in which he railed against "NYC’s unconstitutional or tyrannical behavior:" "Until you have felt the handcuffs on your wrists, and until you have heard that cell door close behind you, it is impossible to understand what it means to actually lose your liberty." more ›

Queens Congressman Gary Ackerman is demanding that Florida Republican and Tea Party Patriot Rep. Allen West apologize for comparing the Democratic Party to Nazis. “This is exactly the type of rhetoric that turns people off to Washington and getting involved in politics,” Ackerman tells the Daily News. “I call on Republicans and Democrats alike to join me in demanding an apology." Aw, c'mon. What did West say that was so offensive? "If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine." Fighting "propaganda" with anti-semitic propaganda: do we have a new GOP presidential frontrunner on our hands? more ›

Pro tip: You need to be licensed by the State of New York if you're in possession of a handgun. Just another way the guv'ment CONTROLS real patriots like Mark Meckler, a lawyer from California who is an influential Tea Party leader. Meckler has a gun permit in California, but unfortunately for him, LaGuardia Airport is in Queens, New York. And so when he went up to the Delta Airlines ticketing agent yesterday and tried to check his semi-automatic handgun and ammunition, that raised a red flag. See, this is why the federal government should just take over gun licensing and make gun owners buy a nationwide permit! more ›

So that story that the secretive Tea Party-backing Koch Brothers were so anxious to kill? There was a good reason for that. The Bloomberg Markets article is now here and has lots of the juicy bits that you figured had to be there if the Koch's were going after it before it went live. Bribes, unethical business practices, and millions in petrochemical equipment sales to Iran, anyone? more ›

While the country fervently wrings its Chris Christie t-shirts anticipating the announcement of the New Jersey governor's 2012 run, let's take a moment to meet the noble white billionaires who would make the dream possible. more ›

You know how the economy is still in a recession and too many people are unemployed and people hate taxing the wealthy? Well, chew on this: New York City's richest man, David Koch, the industrialist and the shadowy Tea Party patron, is worth $25 billion, up from $21.5 billion last year, according to new data from Forbes. Mayor Bloomberg clocks in as the Big Apple's second rich guy—he was only worth $18 billion last year, but now Forbes estimates his wealth at $20 billion. That's more money for million-dollar couches and six-figure lighting fixtures! more ›

A study conducted by esteemed UK medical journal The Lancet has revealed that if the United States continues on its current country-fried path, roughly half of American men and women will be obese, and the UK isn't faring any better. more ›

Christine O'Donnell, a former Republican Senate candidate flying under the Tea Party flag, was in town yesterday to promote her new book, Troublemaker, amongst the media cognoscenti in NYC. She had an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, but Morgan excitedly Tweeted before his show aired, "Ms O'Donnell wasn't happy about me quizzing her re views on withcraft [sic] and sex. But really flipped at gay marriage Qs. Ripped mike and fled." more ›

After the Senate passed the debt-ceiling legislation earlier today, President Obama signed it into law, thus averting the possibility of a global meltdown precipitated by 435 politicians in Washington, D.C. Hooray! Surely the markets are up. What? Oh well, at least the President can put this whole experience behind him and focus on his on mortality during his 50th birthday extravaganza/fundraiser on Wednesday. more ›

As part of a nationwide protest today, resentful taxpayers will gather in Bryant Park (corner of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue) at 12:30 p.m. to call attention to corporations who get sweetheart tax breaks from the government. Organized in part by Move On, the demonstration—not to be confused with the conservative "tea party" rallies—will demand that "big bank tax dodgers" like Bank of America, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs "pay their fair share of taxes. At the end of the event, local residents will deliver Bank of America with a tax bill." These are trying times for Bank of America, which has also had to spend money to fend off a 1,784 billion, trillion dollar lawsuit. more ›

House Speaker John Boehner emerged from a closed-door budget meeting with President Obama yesterday and announced that no deal had been reached, increasingly the likelihood of a government shutdown. House Republicans say they are open to approving another one-week stop-gap budget extension, but Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, also told the Times, "The White House has increased the likelihood of a shut down." The impasse comes as the House Budget Committee chairman, Republican Paul Ryan, released the proposed Republican budget, which cuddly conservative columnist David Brooks hails as "courageous" and "serious." So you know it must be really messed up. more ›

The 2012 presidential race has barely begun but three things already seem clear: Donald Trump will likely make a fool of himself, Barack Obama will likely be atop the Democratic ticket and someone with the surname Paul will likely be making a bid for the GOP nomination. See if Ron Paul won't run again, his son Rand very likely will. Or, to put it in the hedge-filled language of politics: "The only decision I've made is I won't run against my dad," the junior senator from Kentucky said yesterday. more ›

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party have received a lot of criticism in the wake of last weekend's tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, prompting Palin to defend herself in a video yesterday, using the antiquated claim of "blood libel." Now, Tucson Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries has gone one step further, calling the Tea Party victims of the shooting, and arguing that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is partially responsible for having a lack of security. Regarding Palin's controversial gun-target map, he told the Guardian UK: "It's political gamesmanship. The real case is that she [Giffords] had no security whatsoever at this event. So if she lived under a constant fear of being targeted, if she lived under this constant fear of this rhetoric and hatred that was seething, why would she attend an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever?" more ›

Former 2008 vice presidential candidate and possible/probable 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin is headed to the Garden State this weekend. According to the Asbury Park Press, she's "expected to make a stop here Halloween night with the Tea Party Express, according to Americans For Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group in Washington. Palin will be traveling with the Tea Party Express as it travels through New Jersey on its fourth nationwide tour. A stop in front of the township Town Hall on Washington Street is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday." more ›

The lamestream media says that next month an angry, motivated army of tea baggers will vote in a right-wing regime that will make the Bush II crowd seem like a bunch of sane and cuddly Care Bears. But someone may want to remind these disgruntled patriots that they can't just walk into the polling site and vote—the big bad guv'ment requires everyone to register. And according to the New York State Board of Elections, the surging rage you see on the tee-vee hasn't translated into a surge in registration. more ›

Robert Burck, better known as the Naked Cowboy, has officially announced he'll be running for President in 2012. At a press conference yesterday, the normally scantily clad Burck showed up donning a suit and short hair—at his side was his on-again, off-again lady friend. more ›

A tipster pointed us to the "Mock the Dummy" video below, which depicts Rand Paul, Carl Paladino and others explaining how to form your own Tea Party, what issues to stress, etc ("It's my Tea Party, and I'll cry if I want to"). Paladino is depicted with a Yankees hat, and a tuft of purple-ish chest hair (we think it's chest hair), and he tells the other puppets what the people really want: "They're looking for fucking cajones. Not some prince hiding behind Daddy's coattails." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg didn't mince words on Friday when he discussed the Tea Party during a radio appearance, saying it was "not a political movement," and devoid of substance. But at least one prominent NY politician not named Carl Paladino disagrees with him: Gov. Paterson, who said some favorable words about the Tea Party over the weekend. more ›

Before Dickergate blew everything up this week, Paladino was getting criticism for the company he kept, namely top adviser, driver and Tea Party true-believer Rus Thompson. Er, make that John L. Thompson. Hmm, or maybe it's John Lloyd Thompson-Alden. Wait, no, it's probably John R. Thompson. more ›

In the midst of all this Paladino love-childing, Post-hating, withdrawn-allegating, Cuomo-childrenating hodgepodge of a gubernatorial race, we've all lost track of what and who really matters. And that would be Mayor Bloomberg, and his opinions about stuff and things. So what is the Mayor pontificating on this week? That silly old Tea Party, and its lack of substance: "That's what the Tea Party is. It's funny, it's not a political movement. They don't, they're not pro-choice or pro-life. They're not pro-gun or anti-gun. They're not pro-gay-rights or anti-gay-rights. They're not with any of the social issues." more ›

There are two people who seem to be guiding forces behind Carl Paladino's gubernatorial campaign—one is Michael Caputo, Paladino's ruthless, attack dog-like campaign manager, who failed to pay nearly $53,000 in federal taxes over the last few years. And the other is Rus Thompson, a Tea Party true-believer with a complicated past and a tether to Paladino's future. more ›

Following up on Eliot Spitzer's comments last week about his aloofness in the gubernatorial race thus far, the NY Times criticizes Andrew Cuomo in an editorial this weekend for his above-it-all attitude: "Indeed, Mr. Cuomo is barely campaigning. He rarely grants on-the-record interviews...goes for days without a campaign event and leaves it to surrogates and commercials to criticize his opponent. The voters have noticed." more ›

Delaware Senate Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell spent a lot of time in the 1990s as a guest on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. Last night, he released a new clip—this one from October 15, 1998— where she says, "Evolution is a myth." To which Maher responded, "Evolution is a myth?!? Have you ever looked at a monkey!" But O'Donnell said, "Well then, why they — why aren’t monkeys still evolving into humans?" Yes, where is Dr. Zaius when we really need him? more ›

Michael Bloomberg may have a few more years as the mayor of New York, but his reign as the richest New Yorker (according to Forbes) is over: The new Big Apple fat cat is David Koch, the oilman and Tea Party backer, who you may be more familiar with after this New Yorker profile (besides oil refineries, "Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products"). more ›

The Daily News reports the shocking news that mad-as-hell Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino's wife is "a registered Democrat." Which means she "couldn't cast a ballot during her husband's monster win over Republican rival Rick Lazio last week." Paladino's campaign manager Michael Caputo said that the tough-talking Buffalo millionaire was a "conservative Democrat" until 2005, adding that the couple "usually cancel[s] each other out" at the polls. Caputo was also crowing the Quinnipiac poll that showed Paladino trailing Cuomo by just 6 points—"With this kind of poll, we believe Carl can compete financially with Andrew Cuomo"—but a Marist poll to be released soon may show Cuomo with a far more comfortable lead. more ›

Watch out, America—Mayor Bloomberg is suddenly super chatty. Yesterday, the NY Times published an article about his presence in various political races across the country—it was his "first extensive interview with a newspaper in several years"—and today the NY Post has a feature on his shoes (okay, two pairs of work shoes that he apparently loves so much that he's been wearing them for the past 10 years). This smells a lot like groundwork for 2012! more ›

On Friday night, comedian Bill Maher released a clip showing everyone's favorite Tea Party candidate/doppelganger for Elaine Benes on a 1999 episode of his show, Politically Incorrect. Christine O'Donnell, surprise victor in the Delaware Republican Senate party, was then known as a Christian activist and appeared frequently on Maher's show. In this clip, O'Donnell confessed/bragged, "I dabbled into witchcraft — I never joined a coven. But I did, I did. … I dabbled into witchcraft. I hung around people who were doing these things. I’m not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do." more ›