Capitol Grill

At this point, Chase Whiteside is a national treasure.

(Via Cesca)

Dearth of a Nation

Chase Whiteside is back -- and at this point he should be wearing a cape or something. For those who haven't been following along, Whiteside is the whip-smart young journalist who's now twice exposed the tea baggers and Palinites (who, let's face it, are largely one and the same group) as the painfully uninformed yet astonishingly self-certain dipshits they pretty much are. He's done it through nothing more impressive than simply pointing a camera at them, asking a couple of very respectful and measured questions, then letting them hang themselves with their own ignorance.

It's always entertaining as hell to watch -- so it goes without saying that Whiteside's trip to the April 15th "Tax Day Tea Party" in D.C. is worth taking ten minutes out of your day to watch.

Different Stoke

Chase Whiteside is the whip-smart young filmmaker who, back in November of last year, exposed Sarah Palin fans as the largely ignorant dingbats they are; he did it simply by pointing a camera at them and asking intelligent, measured questions about policy -- questions they couldn't for the life of them come up with an answer to.

Now he's back, this time at the recent Tea Bagger convention in Nashville, and the results are just as entertaining. Keep in mind, Whiteside isn't some snarky liberal asshole who subtly mocks the far right with leading questions, followed by a wink and a nod to the choir; despite what you assume is his left-leaning slant, he maintains a shockingly cordial and objective tone with the subjects of his interviews -- subjects who generally hang themselves without any help at all from the person behind the mic.



My first thought after viewing this was that my suspicions about the true nature of the Tea Bagger movement were once again confirmed. There's an often overt subtext to the loudly vocalized opinions of the people buying hook, line and sinker into this phenomenon -- one Cesca outlines perfectly.

Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!: Teabagger Fantasies Barely Mask the Truth/2.14.10