• Dumb move by mark williams In response to the NAACP’s chiding of the Tea Party, Tea Party Express leader Mark WIlliams wrote a blog post in the guise of a slave pretending to thank Abraham Lincoln for slavery. He called it satire. It was universally criticized, even by his own side.
• Smart move by mark williams Realizing that the post was really dumb and hurt the Modern Tea Party movement as a whole, Williams resigned from the Tea Party Express. He says he’ll still remain part of the movement, but not hog the spotlight as its most well-known member. It’s for the best. source

• one Jesse Jackson calls the attention on the criticism a distraction from numerous bigger issues.
• two Al Sharpton says that the NAACP has allowed the Modern Tea Party to have center stage.
• three NAACP president Ben Jealous says it was a tiny part of everything he said. A tiny part! source

• NO in fact, they totally trashed their “tolerance for bigotry” source

• I’m busy today so notify me asap when NAACP renders verdict: are liberty-loving, equality-respecting patriots racist? Bated breath, waiting …
• Sarah Palin • Tweeting about the anticipated move by the NAACP to denounce the Modern Tea Party Movement* for “explicitly racist behavior.” Not often we say this, but … Palin’s right. Yo, NAACP, what happened to setting the example instead of playing angry reactionary? You guys are a pretty effective weapon in the war on racism, but if you’re using it to play politics, it will not work out for you. It seems as pathetic as boycotting a greeting card that sounds like something it obviously isn’t. source

* – After a little soul-searching and some feedback from fellow readers, we’ve chosen to revert back to referring to the Tea Party Movement as such, leaving “bizarro hippies” as a part of our past and adding the word “Modern” in front of “Tea Party,” which should get around the problem that the name creates – that it disregards and usurps the memory of the original Boston Tea Party. Let’s admit it. It was intended as a lighthearted joke but some readers didn’t take it that way.