Unlike the last one I went to, the weather was great. I asked around, and I estimate there was probably 200 to 300 people at the event by the time I left. This is pretty amazing because most of the people were residents of Maui. Many of them were complaining about their local representatives.
I have heard today's events reported as "tea parties that were started by conservative bloggers, talk show personalities, and republicans." This isn't true. These tea parties are grass roots movements. The one I attended today was organized by a self proclaimed Democrat. In an email to me, he stated that he has supported a number of liberal groups over the years, but he felt the spending in Washington has really gotten out of hand.
As I am on vacation, I thought most of this post would be some of my favorite pictures from today's event in Maui. This first one made me laugh the most:
Considering this weeks revelation of what the Deparment of Homeland Security thinks of out spoken conservatives, I thought this one was pretty good too:
This sign also appeared at another Tea Party in Lahaina earlier in the day:
One participant was kind enough to let me borrow his sign so I could get a photo of me at the demonstration for my readers:
10 comments:
I have been annoyed by the statements in articles or columns (just to watch out for the nit-picky) I have been reading that are trying to make this a thing against democrats or a republican thing. It is not. Yes there are some crazy right wing people that show up to the rallies. Maybe it just seems like a right wing thing because a majority of the people that show up vote republican. I feel that most of the people are showing up are doing so in support of spending wisely.
As a side thought, I read an article/column on the fox news site in which a spokesperson from ACORN said "This is the first we've heard of these so-called 'tea parties.' And, frankly, a bunch of small get-togethers by fringe conservative activists dedicated to simply saying 'no' is of little interest to us." These "tea parties" taking places all over the country are an Association of Community Organizations for Reform that people want to take place Now. Sounds like these tea parties should be something right up their ally.
One more thought on the tea party, every morning I check 3 news websites, cnn.com, foxnews.com and the local papers website. On Thursday, foxnews.com had an article/column on the tea party on the front page. CNN had nothing on the front page. You had to go to the politics page and look at the bottom of the list at the bottom of the page. (fair and unbiased my ass) As for the local paper which leans a whole lot more the way of CNN than Fox News on the political spectrium did have a story on it. It was awful and they really down played the size of the gathering as well as well as making it sound like a right wing crazy gathering. Additionally, they had 28 pictures of the event. Of those 28, 5 were pictures of guys hanging lights for the stage or setting up the stage, and a hand full of the right wing ultra crazy signs. Again real fair in the presentation of news.
Yeah, it is interesting to note that Fox had a huge search in ratings on Wednesday. They are already beating CNN and MSNBC and they grab more on the teaparty day.
I think a lot of the media and elected officials are missing just how upset people are with all of this crazy spending.
I think they are missing the fact that this is a spending thing not just a tax thing.
Hmm. Andy and Pack are complaining about how media are distorting the tea parties--making it seem like they're about things other than taxing and spending.
Among Andy's four pictures alone we see:
-Revolutionary battle flag
-Enthusiasm for deadly weapons
-Christian bible verse
-Denial of global warming
Don't you hate the way the liberal media focus on all the non-tax and non-spending issues?
They distort everything.
Oh my goodness! Anon you are right. These right wing extremists have revolutionary flags!!! They have signs that dare to include bible verse! They must be monsters and should be locked up immediately. There were kids at these rallies with signs too! I am sure you would support locking them up as well. God forbid one of them have a sign that mentioned their views on something.
I am not complaining about the media covering those signs. I am upset that the media still seems to thing the tea parties were organized by the GOP or by conservative talk show hosts. They weren't. These are grass root movements. The tea party in Maui was organized by a self proclaimed Democrat.
And really? You're worried about signs with Bible verses on them?
anonymous does make a good point. The four pictures you put up there are not really about spending complaints.
Although I would not consider Andy's blog site to be a liberal media site. There is a huge difference from Andy talking about the tea party and then saying that he would "post...some of his favorite pictures" and people using those same pictures to "report" about the tea parties like some media outlets have done.
Dude I dig the Bible.
My point is that these tea parties are clearly not simply about taxing and spending. Your own pictures demonstrate that people are talkin' 'bout a revolution, bringing guns to the party, denying scientifically demonstrated reality, and advertising Jesus. Fine. Just don't get torqued when we point out the stream-of-consciousness.
I'm not critiquing the free speech. I'm just pointing out that it ain't exactly "focused" speech. It looks like the same deluded right wing arguments that call Obama a foreign-born fundamentalist Muslim who *also* wants to institute a neo-pagan earth-worshipping national religion AND is both a socialist and a dupe of the biggest capitalist corporations on the planet, all while being both an iron-fisted fascist tyrant and simultaneously the world's biggest wimp who can't be tough on people. He's screwing up science by finally paying attention to... scientists. He's too socialist and too capitalist, too Muslim and too pagan, too tyrannical and too wimpy, too smart and too dumb.
Sure, I get it: it's all about taxing and spending. Right.
And, my God, man. If I ever support locking anybody up for their constitutionally protected free speech, I'll let you know. Hell will have frozen over. But until then, give up that stupidly repeated accusation. If you can't understand what I'm talking about, you can read about what I support here, which includes a description of my support of the Fox network's free speech.
Of course, in the pictures I do see the words "tax" and "bank" show up more than once.
For the guy with the sign about his ass and global warming, here's one example of what he's talking about.
At least we're clear about which side everybody's on.
It's pretty stunning: comparing some grinning jack-ass sign in Hawaii and the destruction of an entire culture.
Anon, perhaps I owe you a knew global warming post. You have followed me long enough to know I don't believe in man-made global warming. There is even debate as to whether or not the trend of our climate is getting warmer or colder. This isn't the proper thread to examine those arguments, but I will get one up in the near future for us to debate this again.
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