READER AARON LAY WRITES:
I was reading Instapundit and noticed that you hadn’t mentioned the Charlotte Tea Party Protest. There was very little advertisement and several hundred people still showed up. This is particularly noteworthy because Charlotte is the second biggest financial center in the US and this town is the recipient of a lot of TARP funds – $40 Billion to Bank of America alone.
Another Charlotte protest is scheduled for April 15th and will likely bring out a much larger crowd.
There are so many of these protests going on that I can’t keep track of ’em all. If you attend one, please send pics. If you see news accounts, please send links.
Meanwhile, here’s another news report from this weekend’s Santa Barbara tea party. And here’s a report from Montana’s Flathead Tea Party:
The grassroots organizer for the first “tea party” tax protest in Montana says that the event’s success indicates the concern in Montana about taxes and spending in Washington, DC.
Between 500 and 1,000 people rallied on Saturday at Depot Park in Kalispell as part of the Flathead Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party is the inspiration for the modern day demonstration and event organizers tell us the rally was a non-partisan and peaceful. . . . A spokesman for Montana Senator Jon Tester said that “Jon is very concerned about government spending. He was the only Senate Democrat to vote against both bailouts, and just this week voted to cut the federal deficit in half”.
We need more Democrats like that. Maybe these protests will help to encourage them.
UPDATE: A warning: Get ready for the anti-Tea Party sabotage and smear campaign. Surely no one would resort to that sort of dirty pool.
And here’s a report from the Naples, Florida tea party protest this weekend:
About 400 people from all over Collier County gathered Sunday evening to put government officials on notice: they are frustrated with government bailouts, excessive national debt and perceived efforts to socialize services and businesses under the federal government.
“It all boils down to individual liberty,” said Marjorie Zimmerman, 73, an organizer of Sunday’s event.
The brainchild of Zimmerman and her neighbor, Doris Feinberg, Sunday’s “New American Tea Party” was a meeting of many and very different minds. Some people gathered to express outrage over the election of President Barack Obama, others were outraged over the use of government funds to prop up defaulted mortgages and still others were outraged by the government’s seemingly tacit approval of millions of dollars in bonuses given to AIG employees after the company accepted government money.
Read the whole thing.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I’m shocked, shocked, to be informed that Tester is being, um, parsimonious with the truth. A U.S. Senator! At least reader Mike Latina writes: “I can’t believe you fell for his rhetoric on spending. He was one of the ones that voted FOR the Obama budget this week in the Senate. You know, the $3.6 Trillion. The halving the deficit claim is straight from Obama himself. We certainly DO NOT need more senators like Tester…”
Well, hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue — but if he voted for that budget, his fiscal credibility is pretty well shot. Hope the Montanans will point that out on April 15th.
FINALLY: Another report of a Tea Party protest in Quincy. “People carried flags, homemade signs like “T.E.A. — Taxed Enough Already” — tea bags and pent-up frustration with government to Clat Adams Park on Saturday afternoon to join their voices together. . . . Quincyans Steve McQueen and Terri Cary organized the Tax Day Tea Party to protest wasteful spending of U.S. tax dollars. They hope a proclamation signed during the party will spread the word along with plans under way to take the rally to the state capitol.”