Tea Party April 15th, 2008

So already there is controversy surrounding the grassroots effort to protest the tax system (and government spending system) in the United States this year. Of course as a lot of people already know that actually pay attention this was not by any means the first "Tea Party" in recent years, but it was the first to actually get some media attention, mostly thanks to Fox News. Of course this meant that they themselves were taking credit for it after the fact even though they had nothing to do with the planning or execution of the events.

Let's actually look at some of the people that have been given credit for the Tea Parties around the country.

Dick Armey : Probably not a real credit, just CNBC making yet another teabagging reference

Newt Gingrich: Had nothing to do with it but probably saw a chance to take some credit

The Republicans: Had nothing to do with it since just about every tea party had signs indicating that "Republicans suck too"

Fox News: They did give a little publicity to it before it happened, but that's about the extent of their credit goes

Ron Paul: Although not directly planning all of this, he did have the idea and started the main force driving the planning - The Campaign for Liberty

Right Wing Extremists: I wanted to throw this in because the Department of Homeland Security in their infinite wisdom labelled everyone that opposed the size of government as people to keep a close eye on... right in there with the KKK, militias, and any other groups that criticized government as a whole. Nothing new.

So what was really behind all this? People. People sick of paying taxes that are too high and getting nothing in return for it other than government spending spiraling higher and higher every year. CNNs coverage of the event consisted of a single interview of a person on the street in Chicago that was questioned by the reporter, after saying that Obama claimed to be like Lincoln, as to why he was protesting taxes since he was eligible for a $400 credit for his two year old son that was with him. She didn't even let him finish talking about why he was there before the barrage of unrelated questions came... like Illinois getting $50 billion from the stimulus and wasn't that awesome? How could someone possibly protest when their state was getting money from that government?

Anyway, for those that weren't aware, here are some quick notes of truth about the Tea Parties

- Planners of the event were not affiliated with either major party
- No news organization or corporation or lobby had any part in planning when, where, and how any of the events would take place
- I knew about the event coming up for at least the last 6 months, if not a year. The date was already planned, details got worked out later.
- The closest thing to anyone actually affiliated with any official organization taking part would be Campaign for Liberty, and End The Fed
- The protest was focused mainly on HR 1207, trying to increase transparency in the federal reserve.
- Other people were there in part against the tax rates increasing (proactively), the current level of taxes being too high, the tax system being corrupt, and a lack of representation about how our taxes are actually spent. For those that actually responded and called in, the bailouts were opposed 99-1, and yet passed easily in congress.

And overall it was a major success... counts at each event from what I have heard ranged from 2,000 to 10,000 at each location... and those locations were far more numerous than just what was covered on CNN or Fox.