MORE ON TODAY’S PITTSBURGH TEA PARTY PROTEST:

Several thousand people jammed into Allegheny Landing on the North Shore Saturday afternoon for an event dubbed as a “Tea Party” to protest what they believe is excessive government spending to bail out faltering corporations and the economic stimulus package.

Meanwhile, another “A New Way Forward” flop in St. Louis. “The crowd?… 13, maybe 14 people. It was a bust.” Meanwhile, compare the photos. Here’s the St. Louis Tea Party protest from February, which drew 1,200-1,500 people.

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And here’s today’s “A New Way Forward” bank protest in St. Louis:

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Hey, no mocking these people, who did show up. And protest, remember, is patriotic. But it does seem that the energy is on the anti-big-government side these days, doesn’t it? Note that this is how Obama’s pro-stimulus “house parties” worked out, too: “Few supporters are answering President Barack Obama’s call for nationwide house-party gatherings this weekend to build grass-roots support for his economic stimulus plan.”

Is Obama’s popularity a paper tiger? It certainly seems that he no longer inspires grassroots energy the way he did as a candidate. He can summon people with pitchforks — but the question is . . . will they come?

More contrast. Plus, much more on Tea Party protests in Pittsburgh and elsewhere, plus various ANWF events, in this post.

UPDATE: From the ANWF site: “Looking for protestors . . . “

ANOTHER UPDATE: Dan Riehl on Jane Hamsher: “If serious people on the Left weren’t concerned over the Tea Party movement, their new media apparatchiks wouldn’t be trying to dismiss, or marginalize it by falsely claiming it’s being sponsored by Fox News, or some dangerous Right Wing fringe. If there’s any culprit in a media sense here, it’s the mainstream media for failing to report a serious and growing grassroots American movement that is truly ground up and not beholden to one Party or some few special interest groups. . . . The Left can’t quite figure out the script for the Tea Party movement because there isn’t one beyond what is being written as it grows. But it is being written. And at this rate, a good number of politicians from both parties are going to have to start reading from it eventually because enough American voters are going to demand it.”

Plus, “pretend fear/outrage.” Hey, wait, I thought dissent was the highest form of patriotism! What happened to all that talk?

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: More on the Pittsburgh protest here:

“Hello, Boston!” Robert Baehr shouted from the podium before a crowd of about 1,500 gathered in the noon sunshine yesterday at Allegheny Landing, on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. . . .”This is not an anti-Obama rally, this is an anti-government rally,” he told his audience, many of whom had tea bags dangling from their baseball caps and purses.

Still, there were plenty of signs displaying antipathy to President Barack Obama.

“Feminist Nation Against Obama Nation Tax and Spend,” read one poster carried by Jeamour Matthews, 49, of North Braddock. The president’s economic policies “will take us into bankruptcy,” Ms. Matthews said, adding that she actually blames both Republicans and Democrats for the country’s financial woes.

“They’re both different wings on the same vulture,” she said.

Ouch. Plus, another Tea Party protest in Williamsburg, Virginia:

The posters said it all.

“I am not your ATM.” “No More Bailouts.” “Fair Tax Not Slave Tax.”

And that’s just what the protesters meant.

About 300 people attended the Colonial Area Tea Party at the College of William and Mary on Saturday to rally against taxation and government spending. . . . “We are protesting what we believe is irresponsible and awful …,” rally organizer Michael Young told the crowd. “If Democrats claim to love the poor, why are they taxing the poor?”

Williamsburg resident Bob Warren said government officials need to follow the Constitution to get things back on track.

“This is the silent majority taking to the streets,” he said. “If the politicians don’t understand the significance of the silent majority protest, they are going to find themselves on the streets working like the rest of us.”

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, who spoke during the rally, said his office received thousands of tea bag tags.

Stay tuned. And here’s a blog report from Pasadena, where hundreds showed up.