Conservatives all across America held "tea party's yesterday to protest our government's newest wave of runaway spending. All told, there were an estimated 60 different protest held in various locations.
Here's a roundup of some of the fun... (If you have more info, use the contact form [3] here and forward our way)
* Eric Odom reports on the Chicago Tea party [4]. Photos here [5].
* The SC Upstate Young Republicans held a Tea Party in Greenville, SC [6] with an estimated 2,000 in attendance. Pictures on Flickr here [7].
* Over 1,500 showed up at the St. Louis Tea Party [8]. (folllow link for report and photos)
* Update and photos from the Oklahoma Tea Party [9] at Wizbang.
* Video and info from the Nashville Tea Party [10] here.
* Video from the DC Tea Party
* Iowans have a tea party without tea [11], (environmental hazzard says the govt.)
My favorite photos so far? This one, pointing out the fac that there was virtually NO deliberation whatsoever over one of the most massive spending bills in the history of mankind.
And this one, which pretty much says it all... (representing a new generation of fiscal conservatives, I would say)
* The LA Times [12] looks at how new tech is making events like this more possible.
One of the neatest things I've noticed is the some of our country's Revolutionary period flags have been appropriated (rightly so) to the anti-tax, ant-big government movement.
And of course, here's the video of the rant by CNBC's Rick Santelli that helped kick things off after the mortgage bailout was announced:
* On a related note, Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged [13]" is enjoying newfound popularity [14]...and may be made into a movie soon.
* The Christian Science Monitor [15] gives its take. Interesting quote:
...But the largely grassroots show of force hints at a sharpening thorn for Democrats and a potential powder keg that could threaten to blow ahead of the 2010 congressional elections.
“It’s worth remembering that the rise of the New Right and the Christian Right, one after the other, were both spurred by tax issues, the whole idea of paying for things they don’t believe in,” says sociologist Eugenia Deerman at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston who studies conservative social movements. ...
Given the dramatic circumstances of the Boston Tea Party, tax revolts are actually quite unusual in the US.
“The most interesting thing about the American people is that we are generally compliant in paying taxes, and tax revolts that seem surprising here are fairly common in a country like France where those farmers, if they get upset, they simply don’t pay,” says Mary Segers, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. “Americans are a strange people with respect to taxes, so this revolt is very interesting for that reason alone.”
The Founding Fathers would be proud.
Other blog takes:
* Michelle Malkin notes that "fiscal accountability is the new counter-culture [16]"
* More coverage over at the TCOT Report [17]
* Red State [18] takes a look at using the web to organize tea parties
