Taxpayer dollars used to ridicule 'teabaggers'

National Public Radio is using taxpayer dollars to ridicule tea partiers, calling them "teabaggers" in a new video it posted online.

The spoof on the NPR website begins, "Learn to speak teabag. Finally, learning a new language doesn't have to be hard. You can be fluent in conversational teabag in just a few short minutes."

As WND reported, "Tea-bagging" is known in the homosexual subculture as a specific sexual practice. The New York Times reported that even President Obama purportedly used the slur in a November pep talk to Democrats in which he said, "Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care?"

As WND reported, CNN's Anderson Cooper also insulted the grass-roots tea parties by making the lewd joke about the protesters, as did MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews.

The following is the "teabag" spoof posted by NPR:

It depicts a befuddled cartoon character surrounded by "confusing words of other languages," including "expense caps," "health insurance reform" and "public option."

The confused character throws his hands into the air, stating, " I think the public option and the competition it would foster would … really … socialist, socialist!"

A narrator replies, "Good. Lesson 2: If you're having trouble understanding the words of others or being understood yourself, use teabags' stronger, more descriptive words."

"Nazi! Nazi! Nazi!" the cartoon character frantically shouts.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio; Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.; and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., are chastised for alleged ties to insurance and pharmaceutical companies. The video makes no mention of Democrats who have received campaign contributions from hospitals, insurers and other medical interest groups –such as Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. The Washington Post reported health-related companies gave Baucus' political committees nearly $1.5 million in 2007 and 2008, when he began holding hearings and preparing for the reform debate.

In fact, the health-care lobby reportedly gave nearly $170 million to federal lawmakers in 2007 and 2008, with 54 percent going to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The video explains, "Instead of saying 'huge insurance companies have come between me and my doctor' to describe the current reality, just say, 'I don't want Obammunist disembowel-atrons to come between me and my doctor' to describe a paranoid future."

The narrator suggests speaking "teabag" in every-day conversations. While the character orders a meal from a fast-food restaurant, he panics, screaming, "Nazi! Socialist! Baby killer!" and carries signs referencing Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

The spoof concludes, "Teabag – because other languages are just too hard."

Well-known political cartoonist Mark Fiore of San Francisco, Calif., created the video in November. He told the Washington Times, "To me, comments and allegations coming from various 'Tea Party' groups were ridiculously conspiratorial and ripe for satire.

"Though sensible arguments can obviously be made questioning various cost controls, reimbursements, premiums, etc., the Tea Baggers quickly leap to accusations of 'socialism' and 'Nazi,'" he wrote. "As a citizen, that infuriates me. As a cartoonist, that is the perfect recipe for political satire. In short, this cartoon is both my view and is a parody of what I feel are the shortcomings of the Tea Party mentality."

Fiore posted the following message on Twitter: "Teabaggers mad at me, and by extension, NPR. Send some commenting-love to the animation page."

NPR receives 11 percent of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is federally funded, and an additional 5 percent from local and state governments.

Gateway Pundit blogger Jim Hoft said he believes it was "outrageous" for NPR to use "taxpayer dollars to bash teabaggers."

"It is very upsetting to see NPR join with MSNBC and CNN in attacking the tea party protesters with vulgar sexual slurs," Hoft told the Times. "The hundreds of thousands of conservative Americans who attended the hundreds of tea party protests across the country in 2009 do not consider themselves 'teabag' protesters. This was a sexual smear created by leftists to degrade those who oppose the current government's massive expansion and out of control spending."

Concerned individuals may contact National Public Radio.