|
 |
4/21/2009
Burri: I think I hear the water boiling...
Enormous rallies, thousands upon thousands of people. Signs, both purchased and homemade. Marches. Speakers. Costumes, jokes, parodies. But mostly people. Lots and lots of people, exercising their rights of speech, of assembly, of petitioning their government.
And so what if they were sponsored by vast, billionaire-funded partisan organizations? So what if major media outlets promoted them under the guise of “reporting?” Those thousands upon thousands who came out, dressed up, brought the kids, painted signs, took time off and paid their own way did so because they believed.
Sure, critics called them all sorts of names, but the protests made a difference: Across the country, people saw others who shared their beliefs; who were willing to publicly state those beliefs; who demanded that their government pay attention.
Say what you will. We’ve seen a lot of successful anti-war protests over the past several years.
Oh, you thought I was talking about last week’s Tax Day Tea Parties? No: I was talking about post-9/11 anti-war rallies. But, since you brought it up:
The Tax Day Tea Parties. On April 15, over half a million people nationwide came, dressed up, brought the kids, painted signs, took time off and paid their own way…because they believe
. And the critics? The rallies were “promoted by Fox News.” They were coordinated by billionaire-funded organizations – there’s no grassroots action here. They’re rednecks, racists, ignorant reactionary fools too stupid to see how they’re being manipulated.
The liberal counter-protest here in Madison – a whole three people – said the Tea Partiers were all about tax cuts “for the rich.” The Democratic Party of Wisconsin said the Tea Parties were “bankrolled by special interest groups desperately fighting to protect the Bush tax cuts for multimillionaires and big corporations.”
More ridiculous, even: David Axelrod, a senior Obama advisor, is “bewildered.” “This president just cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people,” he said.
Look no further than immediate gain, you idiot rednecks. Look! A bright, shiny bit of money! That’ll distract those dumb crackers!
Funny: average people aren’t as stupid as you’d like them to be.
I’ll admit: Americans for Prosperity is a special interest group. Their interest is the taxpayers, now and into the future. Their interest is economic liberty. Their interest is seeing to it that those who earn – those who pay the taxes – have at least as loud a voice in the halls of government as those who take the taxes.
How many of the people who showed up were AFP members? How many of them work for an “interest group?” How many of them got paid by those "wealthy interest groups," "looking to protect their offshore tax havens?"
Very few. Very few, if any. None.
Nationwide, over a half million people came out and drank the tea.
That's something to make you sit up and take notice, and people are taking notice. According to Rasmussen Reports: “One-in-four adults (25%) say they personally know someone who attended a tea party protest.”
People are watching. Listening. They're seeing that no, they aren't the only ones who think this way. They’re not a small minority: they're part of a group. A great, big group, unafraid of saying: No more. Unconcerned about slander from the other side. Willing to stand up and say: you can't have any more of my money. No more of my children's money. No more of my grandchildren's.
That's the Tax Day Tea Parties. I think I hear the water boiling.
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
The heck with the Kool Aid, let's drink TEA!!
I went to a late one,in Friendship on Sunday, and at ours, there was no corporate sponsorship, and folks there were as concerned about their rights as they were about their property (income.)
I saw one report that said more than a million across the country. I believe that more accurate, as most of the media seriously underestimated the size of these rallies. And I believe participants are just the tip of a growing iceburg. As Obamanoics fails, as it surely will, and as his regime becomes ever more oppressive (ditto,) expect more recruits.
I am concerned that FOX, who undermined the candidacy of the ONLY presidential candidate who warned of the economic collapse, the ONLY one seriously dedicated to individual rights, is trying to manipulate these events. We should stress liberty more at future rallies.
Ken Van Doren (Tue Apr 21 08:49:27 2009)
Did anyone see the Founding Bloggers' video of the tea party in Chicago? First it showed CNN hand-picking more "radical" people then after the CNN segment, it showed people in the crowd complaining to the reporter on her biased reporting; it was great!
emily matthews (Tue Apr 21 10:39:17 2009)
"And I believe participants are just the tip of a growing iceburg." I could not attend due to obligations: personal and work. But I was with y'all in spirit.
(Wed Apr 22 08:47:35 2009)
|
|
Blog Archives
| 2010 |
  December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
• Solberg: Healing After an Abortion
• Basketball fans eyeing extension of Miller Park sales tax
• Nanny sex-ed bill goes to Doyle
• A first. Village limits pension contribution for employees
• Nanny State update: Toothbrushing mandated
• Obama pushes education inflation
• WI Investment Board votes to borrow to juice up returns
• So Republicans have brought nothing to the table?
• You have got to be kidding me
• Nygren: Governor Continues Terms of Failure in State of the State
• Sen. Fitzgerald: Governor down the wrong track at high speed
• Phosphorus is the new CO2. $Billions in Wisconsin
• More Obama giveaways
• A reprimand? Would you keep him on the job?
• Burri: Sarah Palin for Prez troubles me
• Quote of the Day – Obama after the pie-eating contest
• Populism, abused and trampled
• Fitzgerald: Senate Republicans Propose Real Job Creation Agenda
• Stripped down health insurance – it’s about time
• Ok GOP, scrap the Party of NO; time to lead
• No way Feingold is a Coakley. Is Wall a Brown?
• Burri: Conservatives off the chart for a RINO?
• Paltry quid pro quo?
• Doyle says ARRA has ‘created or retained’ 44,000 WI jobs
• Does most of the public fall for this stuff?
• When you get signatures, always get a couple extra
• Blame it on the outmoded computers
• Scott Brown victory does not scuttle health bill
• 8th Congressional Candidate Forum, Jan. 25
• Scott Walker Meet-and-greet, Monday, Jan. 18
• Aren’t consumers taxpayers too?
• MORE taxes on investment income - dreadful and wrong
• Join the blaze orange army and say ‘Enough is Enough’
• The future of government-run health care
• Tax on banks is a really bad idea
• Roth, Savard on the stump, grassroots style
• Savard speaking in Appleton, 8 PM, Wed., Jan. 13.
• Rahmlow: Savard, Bies frontrunners for State Senate
• Burri: Failing Political Correctness 101
• School contracts and Race to the Top
• Senator Feingold worrisome and big red flags
• Psephological?
• This is really important. Contact Rep. Kagen. Now. Please.
• This is exactly what we need from Governor Doyle
• This guy is my hero
• Why am I not surprised?
• Talk health reform with Feingold (Th), Petri (today)
• Give the Mayor power over MPS - if he can break contracts
• Burri: Yup, Dems really are going to bypass a conference
• The $2.7 billion Wisconsin deficit no one told you about
• Walker launches county accountability website
• Rahmlow: Why is Van Hollen dodging the Nebraska deal?
|
| 2009 |
December
|
November
|
October
• The Lawton-Bader files
• Yup, it’s the TAX LEVY, not the tax RATE
• Ellis: costly automobile insurance laws must be rolled back
• If not Barrett, who?
• The subsidy game
• Burri: Bailouts, Banks, Health Care, and the Mob
• Attend Appleton Schools budget meeting tonight
• A public option WON’T increase costs? That’s delusional!
• Appleton Schools budget meeting Monday
• Wisconsin should be screaming for accountability
• Burri: If anything, we need more obstructionism around here
• WI on the leading edge - in the wrong direction
• Rep. Montgomery: Utility Customers Join State’s Crime-Fighting Efforts
• Public Conservation and Recreation Lands Total 16.5% of State
• In the crow's nest of the Titanic, shouting 'Iceberg!'
• Is Rep. Nelson a political hack?
• Health care: The road ahead will be brutal
• Kagen's pandering again
• Birthers - good stuff for you
• How much do we bend over backward for seniors?
• The trouble with health care is paying for it
• Two-parent families: The Gold Standard
• Burri: Kids... the joys and blessings
• Very, very worried about health care
• Rep. Huebsch: Wisconsin is proof government health care isn’t the answer
• School district contracts push up tax levy
• What? Obama, the Peace Prize?
• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
• Appleton School District tax levy up way too much
• CBO report is out - and the bill isn't even written yet?
• So, how much do YOU budget for health care?
• Burri: Copenhagen trip was amateurish
• “Sotomayor, you have blood on your hands...”
• Cap and Trade. Always follow the money
• Rep. Kagen gets (almost) free health services
• I actually agree with Rep. Kagen
• Future Wisconsin Conference for Conservatives, October 10, Wauwatosa
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
|
| 2008 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
• Democrats are becoming supply siders??
• Further debunking Hillary myths
• WEAC has created an unsustainable monopoly
• From Mark Gundrum: One of the greatest honors an American can experience
• 'Operation Chaos' working?
• Joe Martin the best candidate in Appleton's 8th
• State programs to cut? - Volume II
• Oh the naivete of youth
• Not just disingenuous - flat wrong
• Steve - you will be missed
• Make cuts only AFTER you're elected....
• Getting serious: What programs can we cut?
• Rep. Steve Kagen joining me on Jerry Bader Show today
• Rep. Van Roy: Dental Care Pilot Program
• Has Dave Obey turned the corner on earmarks?
• Speaker Huebsch: Governor turns down Federal Aid?
• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
• As taxpayers, how do we know if it's a Chevy or a Lexus?
• This is trash talk - about a veteran
• Frank Lasee: Take time to get the Compact right
• 'The Gableman Ad' - is it racist?
• Roth thankful, Kagen shaking money tree
• Gov. Doyle's office not enamored with Freedom of Information
• Governor Doyle will never do it
• Leadership on smoking ban? Not Hanna
• Rep. Van Roy speaks out about smear ads
• You're threatening me about potholes?
• Losing the Hastert seat is NOT a trend and NOT curtians for the GOP
• First suggestion for 'slashing' programs
• Big money-saver for municipalities
• More one time fixes. Nuts.
• Any chances???
• I'm doing the Jerry Bader Show, today, the 11th
• Representative Frank Lasee: Final Waltz of the Season
• Guest Blog: It's not the county's business to be in the nursing home business
• Yup, Hillary won Texas and Ohio
• Gableman/Butler race featured - and it isn't pretty
• Lies from Planned Parenthood and NARAL
• He who sacrifices liberty.....
• Duh.
• The Troha sentencing, Doyle and that $200K
• Guns, passion and "originality"
• How hard is it anyway, to shut down a government program?
• Voting is a PRIVILEGE. And so are property taxes....
• Guest Blog: Governor Doyle, cancel your Ireland trip
|
February
|
January
|
| 2007 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
• Lots of ideas. No money.
• The Cigarette Tax - "Poor Policy Instrument?"
• School budget Lite?
• Frankenstein - not in the library, but in the legislature
• A librarian, a legislator, a president
• $1.25/pack - NO, NO, NO, and NO
• Kagen and Reagan in the same breath?
• Menasha: behind the 8-ball, but not biting the dust
• Any way you slice it, Wisconsin government wants (further) in on health care
• The World is Flat...what about health care?
• The PAC - too precious to fail. Day 3
• News follow-ups: Appleton West, Kagen at the White House
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail - Day 2
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail
• New Transit Tax coming your way
• Rep. Petri has his finger in the dike - I guess
• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
• Health care, health care, health care, health care
• Water rate increase was no slam dunk
• Education for all is just a bad dream
• New Year's resolutions from a parade snob
|
| 2006 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
| 2000 |
May
|
|
