I haven't posted in a long, long, long time. But I have not abandoned my beliefs or forsaken the roles that I can play. Yesterday like many Americans I participated in my local TEA party. Bellow is an article from the local paper about it. I'd say its pretty fair but not overly so and it does try to associate it to some large organization when it wasn't at all.
"Janet. We came unarmed... this time."
Tamma DeHart dressed head to toe in a homemade pink pig suit complete with a pig snout and plastic sewn-on teats Wednesday to show her displeasure with government spending.
“It’s out of control,” said the Camarillo woman, who shimmied her hips in a gold-coin miniskirt and waved a sign reading “Spare the Pork.”
Hundreds of protesters, some dressed like Revolutionary War soldiers and most waving American flags or signs with anti-government slogans, gathered on tax-deadline day Wednesday for an antitax demonstration outside the County Government Center in Ventura.
Organizers estimated the crowd at more than 1,500. Other TEA — or Taxed Enough Already — events were held in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. They were among more than 2,000 nationwide modeled after the original Boston Tea Party.
Wednesday’s deadline for filing income tax returns offered Madonna Paradis, an out-of-work retail worker from Port Hueneme, a timely excuse to vent her frustrations.
“I’m mad as hell,” she said. “I’m here to protest government intervention in my life.”
Ruth Schneider, 76, a retired statistics professor from Santa Paula, spent her birthday protesting on the sidewalk off Victoria Avenue. Despite high winds, protesters lined the street for more than two hours, seemingly spurred on by a chorus of horns from passing motorists. At one point, a small plane arced overhead towing a sign reading “I’M TEA’D OFF.”
Schneider held a small flag in one hand and a tea bag in the other.
“The tea bag symbolizes that we are taxed enough already,” said Schneider, compelled to protest because she’s worried about how the nation’s mounting deficit will affect her 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. “It feels good to be a part of something,” she said. “I feel like I am doing something right.”
The protests were promoted by the American Family Association and FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., and led by former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas.
While the original tea party in 1773 involved American settlers angered over a new British tax on tea who dumped tea cargo in the Boston Harbor, the modern-day tea party has come to symbolize unhappiness with taxes and the way the government spends them.
Organizers said the movement developed through conservative blogs and online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and through exposure on Fox News.
While organizers insisted it was a nonpartisan effort, it was seized by many Republicans as a way for the party to reclaim its momentum.
Speakers in the courtyard outside the county courthouse included Jeff Gorell, a former prosecutor running for an Assembly seat next year. “I refuse to let my state go to hell in a handbasket,” Gorell, a Republican, said to cheers. “We’ve had enough of these taxes.”
Many criticized the $787 billion economic stimulus package Congress passed this year.
“Trillions are being wasted on the bailout,” said Kenny Molenhouse, an out-of-work manufacturer from Camarillo. “And they are not creating jobs.”
DeHart said her struggle to overcome near-foreclosure on her home motivated her to craft her elaborate pig costume. Years ago, her first husband left her, leaving her to cover payments on their house. She convinced the bank to restructure her mortgage and she had to take out a $100,000 personal loan, which she paid off. The bailouts are an affront to those who survived the hard way, she said.
“No one bailed me out,” said DeHart, whose current husband was one of the organizers of Wednesday’s event. “I have a 10-year-old. How can I teach him fiscal responsibility when everyone has their hand out?”
About 150 people turned out at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, said protester Aaron Taggert, 25. “It’s important to protest taxes because Congress doesn’t have the authority to raise the income taxes,” said Taggert, a Libertarian. A second event was scheduled later in Simi Valley.
Outside the Thousand Oaks post office, authorities estimated about 175 people protested. The Sheriff’s Department had a deputy at each event.
“Everyone was very well behaved. There were no incidents,” sheriff’s Capt. Patti Salas said.
Even children got involved, many holding makeshift signs complaining about the rising debt.
“We’re protesting unfair taxes, particularly the income tax,” Elyse Geer, 11, said from the sidewalk on Victoria Avenue in Ventura. Elyse joined her father Arnold Geer, a handyman from Santa Paula, who described himself as a Ron Paul supporter.
Elyse acknowledged she didn’t fully understand what the fuss was all about, but she was having a blast at her first protest. “I feel loved when all these people honk their horns,” she said, waving a sign at passing traffic. “I don’t feel alone.”