Anti-stimulus tea party protest at Jeff City — news roundup No. 2!
Protesters gather to watch Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and others speak
JEFFERSON CITY — The national tea party protests made it to the steps of the Missouri Capitol today.
The protests, which target “reckless spending” in the federal government, are planned by national organizations such as Americans for Prosperity, which helped organize this rally.
A similar protest will be held in St. Louis tomorrow at 11 a.m. near the Arch.
Crowd members received Lipton tea bags, and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and Carl Bearden of Americans for Prosperity encouraged them to send the bags to the federal government.
While the event was touted as bipartisan, no Democratic politicians were in sight, and state Sen. Carl Vogel, R-Jefferson City, read a statement from Rep. Roy Blunt that criticized Democrat Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, his potential Senatorial opponent.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, touted his bill that required stimulus money to be put in a separate fund.
Nodler said he wants to make sure Missouri spends the stimulus money wisely, because, “Lord only knows how many generations of Americans will be taxed to pay for the spending that’s going on today.”
Here is what others are writing about these tea parties:
- New York Times columnist Paul Krugman: Tea parties forever
- Chicago Tribune: Tea parties: Tea bags embody taxpayer rebellion — an interesting bit about how the bags are mistaken for hazardous materia
- Pittsburgh Morning Sun: ‘Tea Party’ location irks veterans
- Fox News: Tea Party Protests Create Online Sales Boom
- The Jawa Report: National Guard on Alert for Violence from TEA Party Protesters?
- Huffington Post, Jane Hamsher: The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties
- The Platform (The Post-Dispatch editoral page blog): Another tea party in St. Louis
- The Source on the Kansas City tea party
- YouTube: The D.C. protest from the eyes of the protesters
- And tea parties aren’t a new idea. In 1994, future House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., spoke on the House floor about a different tea party protest
Please feel free to leave other relevant links in the comments.
Anyone else find it funny that Peter Kinder was found “tea-bagging” today?
Look at the picture closely.
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/files/2009/04/teaparty.jpg
According to the new director of Homeland Security and the Obama administration, the people you see there just might be terrorists. I think they look like my mom and dad.
That picture looks like a bunch of terrorists to me. Now if they were burning the flags and stomping on a Bush mannequin, we could call them patriots.
The notice for the Jeff City event included an ask for little kids to come dressed up like “indians.” I really hope somebody pulled the organizers aside and got them to think better of that.
“While the event was touted as bipartisan, no Democrats were in sight”
Hey I know of several carloads of dems that drove up there. I guess they didnt make it.
(Sorry. I only meant politicians. The post has been clarified. Thanks for the catch! –RM)
Ah yes, Carl Bearden, an icon of bipartisanship.
That was classy of Roy Blunt to send that statement from his home in Maryland, Washington D.C. or from the Congressional junket he’s on in South America with his second family. At taxpayer’s expense!
Hopefully some of this vitriol was directed at ol ‘roy for his blatant disregard of taxpayers in his former state of Missouri!
That ordinary Americans, the people most oppressed and exploited by corporate capitalism, would support and participate in their own oppression always amazes me. Stand up. Be independent. Question everything you have been taught in church, at home, and in school. Be skeptical of power. Why do corporations like the American Way? Why do they like you to march in line, follow the flag blindly, and demand obedience to the organs of capital accumulation?
I heard “freedom is not free” as part of the organizing statement for these tea parties, but then the whole point seems to be we don’t want to pay the taxes it takes to cover the cost of protecting our freedom, so I guess really the protesters do want freedom for free.
awww… the poor republicans don’t like what obama is doing to our country.
i had to take 8 years of bush, so i’m not the least bit sympathetic to any of you only 3 months into obama’s presidency.