Seattle on Monday. Denver on Tuesday. Mesa AZ on Wednesday. Overland Park, Kansas today. What a week, huh? We got the anti-stimulus, anti-entitlement protest ball rolling — and now the movement, spurred further by CNBC host Rick Santelli’s call for a “Chicago Tea Party,” is really taking off.
David Hogberg at Investor’s Business Daily has a nice piece out today spotlighting the growing taxpayer revolt the rest of the MSM won’t cover. He interviewed our registered commenters Liberty Belle Keli Carender, who spearheaded the Seattle anti-pork protest, and HuskerGirl Amanda Grosserode, who organized today’s anti-stimulus demonstration against Democrat Rep. Dennis Moore in Overland Park, KS.
I’m happy to report on several new protest events now on the docket.
My friend Michael Patrick Leahy of Top Conservatives on Twitter and his crew are spearheading “simultaneous local tea parties around the country, beginning in Chicago, and including Washington DC, Fayetteville NC, San Diego CA, Omaha Nebraska, and dozens of other locations” for next Friday.
Time: February 27, 2009 from 12pm to 1pm
Location: Chicago, Washington DC, other cities, Twitter
Go to OfficialChicagoTeaParty.com for all the info.
Co-sponsors of the events with #TCOT include #DONTGO, Smart Girl Politics, Americans for Tax Reform, Heartland Institute, and American Spectator Magazine. The tea parties will be “simultweeted” with the hashtag #teaparty. You can find me tweeting here.
There’s a Facebook page here for the DC Tea Party. I hear that PJTV will also be stepping up to the plate.
If you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, reader Mark Christopher Frimmel has come forward to put a Tea Party ‘09 event together. He put up an ad on Dallas Craigslist, has contacted local radio and TV, and wants you to be there. The protest will be held on the outside stage at The Cowtown Bar & Grill on Friday, Feb. 27, from 3pm to 7pm, located at 7108 Camp Bowie Blvd Fort Worth, TX. Music, food, and great fiscal conservative company guaranteed.
Are you in Georgia? Reader Patrick e-mails that he’s “getting a tax protest off the ground in Atlanta. I’d appreciate it if you’d pass on the word. The blog is http://atlantataxprotest.blogspot.com.” He needs your help. Calling Neal Boortz!
Here’s a snippet from Hogberg’s IBD piece to get your motors running:
As unemployment soars and anger over Wall Street bailouts mounts, public outrage will seek an outlet. Populism could go in many directions — and could easily ebb when the economy revives. But if it takes shape as an anti-spending movement, it could revive conservatives much as the 1970s tax protests did.
To be sure, the protest sizes so far are a far cry from the left’s anti-globalization and anti-war demonstrations of the past decade. But they appear to have grass-roots origins. The organizer of the Kansas protest, Amanda Grosserode, calls herself a home-schooling mom who is “fed up” with the spending in Washington. She has been a member of Fair Tax Kansas City since last fall.
“My husband and I were feeling frustrated that the stimulus had passed with very little debate and no one had read it,” she told IBD. “I said, ‘We need to do something.’ ” She began contacting family and friends, and eventually received attention via Fair Tax Kansas City and local talk radio.
Grosserode received considerably more publicity after e-mailing popular conservative commentator and blogger Michelle Malkin.
“I think the taxpayer revolt is the new counterculture,” said Malkin, who has been publicizing the protests on her blog. “People want to stand up and say, ‘Hey, I’m paying for that, I do not support that.’ “
Brendan Steinhauser has a terrific set of detailed tips on how to organize your own tea party protest.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it.
Don’t make excuses.
Don’t think you can pull one off because you’ve never done it before? Look at mom-bloggers Liberty Belle and HuskerGirl.
Yes, you can!
***
I’ve put together a playlist of tunes for Tea Party USA — and several parodies submitted by commenters and readers. Bailoutmania is apparently bringing out the songwriters in you, too.
My favorite Schoolhouse Rock Tea Party song, “No More Kings:”
And check out my second Schoolhouse Rock classic, rewritten by the fabulous Jim Treacher and Batton Lash: How a “stimulus” bill became law.
George of EU Rota reminds me of the perfect Spinal Tap song for the cult of entitlement, “Gimme Some Money:”
Royce Dunbar produced “The Subprime Mortgage Blues.”
Reader L.C. e-mails:
I made this up as I watch[ed] the ridiculous, sad, terrifying vote on the Stimulus Package! Thanks for your good work on covering it all!
Sing to “American Pie”
A long, long time ago…
we can still remember
How Ronald Regan made us smile.
And we knew if we had a chance
we could make those Democrats dance
And, surely we’d be happy for a while.But this February should makes us shiver
With every promise Nancy delivers.
Bad stimulus on the doorstep;
We shouldn’t take one more step.We will remember when we cried
As we read Harry’s big fat lies,
But something is foul deep inside
The day responsibility died.So bye-bye, to our kids piece of the pie.
Obama Drives us to the brink,
will leave us all high and dry.
Coburn and the boys were tryin’ all they could think
Singin’, “You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”Can we still trust in our gov,
We will need our faith in God above,
If we want to make them go.
Do we believe in principles,
Can we be saved from those liberals,
And can Mitch and John keep their troops in tow?Well, the Unions are in love with them
`cause they read the same liberal hymm.
They change all the rules.
Now we got those stimulus blues.We’ll end up lonely and without a buck
Just a Green job and a hybrid truck,
Right now, we are out of luck
The day responsibility died.We started singing,
“bye-bye, our kid’s piece of the pie.”
Obama drives us to the brink,
will leave us all be high and dry.
Coburn and the boys trying all they could think
singing “You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”
Now for two months we’ve been on our own
Ried, Nancy and Obama have clearly shown,
Their way is how it’s gonna be.
They’re jesters, jokes and drama queens,
Throwin’ cash around like they’re seventeen
Not listening to the voice of you and me,
And while they read a book of Marx,
We praise Friedman in the dark
The day responsiblity died.We were singing,
“bye-bye, our kids’ piece of the pie.”
Obama drives us to the brink,
will leave us high and dry.
Coburn and the boys were tryin’ all they could think
singin, ” You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”But we can not sign the blues
We will work for happy news,
Freedom is 21 months away.
We must go to the roof and shout “no more,”
Like we did 15 years before,
It is time to put an end to the Lib’s day.For today believers in responsibility screamed,
Conservatives cried, But we still will dream.
Loud words must be spoken;
“Our Liberal government is broken.”
And three men to whom we could turn:
Pawlenty, Jindal and Coburn,
From their leadership we can surely learn.Today, responsibility died.
‘Til then we will be singing:
“bye-bye, our kid’s piece of the pie.”
Obama drives us to the brink,
will leave us all be high and dry.
Coburn and the boys were trying all they could think
singing “You’re making our economy die.
you’ve taken our kid’s piece of the pie.”
From mm.com commenter Mark x, sung to the tune of Janis Joplin:
Oh Barry, wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So lord, wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?Oh Mr. President, wont you buy me a color tv ?
Dialing for dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Barry, wont you buy me a color tv ?Oh Messiah, wont you buy me a night on the town ?
Im counting on you, Messiah, please dont let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Messiah, wont you buy me a night on the town ?
Reader Barry e-mails:
I wrote this parody of “Dixie” to protest the socialistic programs hidden in the stimulus bill…
NIX-FREE VS. FIX-ME LAND
I wish I was in the land of bought ‘n’
Sold; times there were not so rotten.
Congress say, no delay, take away Nix-free land.
In Nix-free land that I was born in,
Clearly I was not forlorn in,
Made my way, saved my pay, had a say, Nix-free land.Chorus:
Now I wish I was in Nix-free like yesterday!
In Nix-free land I took my stand to live and vie in Nix-free.
Could pray or stray with wayward mouth un-P.C.
If they hold sway, they’ll stay my mouth from D.C.Obama’s massive bill was eager;
Billions cost but jobs were meager.
Cooked entree books flambe, took away Nix-free land.
Just try to get your arms around it;
Miles of paper haven’t yet bound it.
Ev’ry way, give-away, to create Fix-me land. (Chorus)Our bucks he takes and brings to scatter;
Makes you mad but it doesn’t matter.
Took away, won’t repay, it’s new day, Fix-me land.
Then slow it down and hatch your babble;
To Nix-free land we’ll rouse the rabble,
For the range of the change makes a strange Fix-me land. (Chorus)
And here’s Woody Guthrie’s remake of Tom Paxton’s “I am changing my name to Chrysler,” which he updated to “I am changing my name to Fannie Mae.”
Oh the price of gold is rising out of sight
And the dollar is in sorry shape tonight
What the dollar used to get us now won’t buy a head of lettuce
No the economic forecast isn’t right
But amidst the clouds I spot a shining ray
I can even glimpse a new and better way
And I’ve devised a plan of action worked it down to the last fraction
And I’m going into action here todayCHORUS:
I am changing my name to Fannie Mae
I am going down to Washington D.C.
I’ll be glad they got my back
‘Cause what they did for Freddie Mac
Will be perfectly acceptable to me
I am changing my name to Fannie Mae
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a trillion grand out
I’ll be standing with my hand out
I’ll get mineWhen my creditors are screaming for their dough
I’ll be proud to tell them all where they can go
They won’t have to scream and holler
They’ll be paid to the last dollar
Where the endless streams of money seem to flow
I’ll be glad to tell them all what they can do
It’s a matter of a simple form or two
It’s not just remuneration it’s a liberal education
Ain’t you kind of glad that I’m in debt to youChorus
Since the first amphibians crawled out of the slime (of the slime!)
We’ve been struggling in an unrelenting climb
We were hardly up and walking before money started talking
And it’s sad that failure is an awful crime
It’s been that way for a millennium or two
But now it seems that there’s a different point of view
If you’re a corporate titanic and your failure is gigantic
Down in Congress there’s a safety net for youChorus
Rock on.
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