‘Tea-d’ Off Protesters Rally Against Government Spending

» John Q on 09.14.09 @ 01:43 AM

Americans need to wake up and vote people out of office who don’t have the same views as the general public. It boggles my mind that people like Diane Fienstein, Barbara Boxer, and Louis Capps represent us. That have none of my interests in mind. I want less government and less taxes.

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» Ron Dexter on 09.14.09 @ 05:43 AM

How to write an attack letter to the editor

First call your target names. Think up a cute degrading one.

Question their legitimacy, intelligence, loyalty, nationality, morality and/or patriotism.

Degrade your target with guilt by association to well established demons; Hitler, Saddam, leftists, liberals, terrorists, union bosses, illegal, etc. 

Insinuate anti-Americanism, deviousness, greed, laziness, stupidity, naiveté

Find well known quotes to apply to your target; “birds of a feather”.

Quote experts and feel free to cherry pick or distort what they said. 

Use authority. Create statistics to prove your point.

End with a grand slam at “all of those __________” that are destroying our society, nation, freedom, morals etc.

And certainly don’t ever read or listen to the other side.  They might confuse you.

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» Nobody said that Dummies on 09.14.09 @ 09:21 AM

“Of course we don’t need a police force, firefighters, public roads, public schools, a military, a court system, a border patrol, a coast guard, etc.”

Thank you for outlining a MINIMAL government and the ONLY role of government, Ron. Nobody has suggested eliminating government entirely Ron and Local, so your points are… pointless. The things you mention are exactly where the lines need to be drawn. We don’t need the government to babysit us, only to protect us. Public safety and infrastructure and that’s all. If the government had not robbed us of our Social Security “investment”, if taxes and spending were not so high that we could have saved for our elder years, perhaps we would not need Medicaire and Medicaid, because we could afford our own insurance.

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» AN50 on 09.14.09 @ 09:51 AM

Oh I love this, if you don’t want higher taxes then you obviously don’t appreciate the service government provides! Ronny and Local, I’m going to make sure that every business you deal with understands that you will never, ever question the price you pay private service providers because you want the best. What a ridiculous summation from the local liberals, A) never question how government spends your money and b) bag on name callers while calling people names.

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» RHS on 09.14.09 @ 10:35 AM

I would be more comfortable with the purported “non-partisan” nature of this crowd if they protested some excesses of government in its “law and order” mode.  Such as Federal and state agency spying on citizens, extended and excessive incarceration, loss of due process, presence of US military in more than 180 nations around the world, imposition of US business economic policies on other nations.  As it is it seems that the agenda of these groups is hand in glove with the NRA, Chamber of Commerce, Insurance Industry and its lobbyists and the fundamentalist religious movement that thinks that conflagration in the world will hasten the 2d coming.  Just coincidence or does the kind of freedom it is fighting for just for their pet causes?

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» Rick Closson on 09.14.09 @ 11:41 AM

To John Q, who wrote: “Americans need to wake up and vote people out of office who don’t have the same views as the general public.” We already do that. It’s a common tactic for a vocal minority—in this case the tea-baggers—to claim majority status and wonder why government isn’t more responsive to their views. To all the John Qs out there: Wake up yourselves! You’re NOT the majority, we are. We voted for Dianne Feinstein [spell your Senator’s name correctly], Barbara Boxer and Lois Capps [ditto your Representative’s name]. Yes, they DO have our interests in mind. WE are the majority. Get over it.

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» Gary on 09.14.09 @ 12:27 PM

The article reports pretty much what I experienced at the event. The last paragraph was a bit too short. The Patrick Henry actor recreated the 1775 speech that Henry gave to a group of Virginia’s leaders. It was an impressive presentation that I estimate to be 5 minutes long. The last sentence, which is the summary of the speech, is the Liberty or Death line.

I was a bit stunned to hear a discussion of Hope in the core of the speech. It was as though Henry had taken a Time Machine trip to 2008. At one point, referring to the deteriorating relationship with the Crown, he said “In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.”

Are his words applicable to today? I hope not, but fear that they are.

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» SBres on 09.14.09 @ 12:42 PM

Yawn for the movement with a nonsense name and a nonsense message.

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» AN50 on 09.15.09 @ 07:41 AM

Local, when your grandmother finds out what you think of her she’ll tell your mommy and boy will you get a beating. Gramps ain’t to thrilled you called him a tea bagger either. What a maroon! When you selfish, self absorbed liberal elitist get through insulting the regular folks I hope you’re ready for the backlash.

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» tegrat on 09.15.09 @ 03:41 PM

The rally in DC drew at most 60-75 thousand people, not hundreds of thousands.  It is encouraging to hear, if true, that the party in LA was not an “angry mob”.  It is unfortunate, but understandable, that the bulk of the protest seems to center around policies that actually serve the protesters best interests.  Our most successful social programs, Medicare and Social Security, owe their success to social contracts that seem to be anathema to these protesters (although don’t you dare take them away from them!).  The degree to which these programs suffer can be directly traced to the privatization of Medicare (Medicare Advantage plans and the whole Part D fiasco) and the penchant of congressional conservatives to do whatever they can to destroy social security (can you imagine what would have happened if it had been “privatized” like they wanted during Bush’s presidency?).  I fully support their right to protest and encourage it, and look forward to the day when we can engage in constructive conversations about our shared goals.

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» Steve D on 09.17.09 @ 10:15 PM

Tegrat - You crack me up dude.  You called Social Security and Medicare successful.  One is set to collapse in 2017 and the other in 2040.  According to the GAO between 2030 and 2040 the federal government’s commitment to these entitlement programs will exceed all govt. revenue.  That means no money for anything else.  This is from the Gao not Fox News.  Wake up and smell reality.  This country has 56 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities.  That’s 430,000 per family.  You’ll have to raise taxes on every man and women in America to fund you “successful programs”.  Is it to much to ask to have a govt. that operates with fiscal responsibility and within the confines of a real budget.  I guess if we can’t pay the Chinese the trillions we owe them then maybe we can give them California as collateral…oh nevermind..Ca is worthless.

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