WSJ: "Tax Day Becomes Protest Day "

from WALL STREET JOURNAL

Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies -- dubbed "tea parties" -- to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org.

So who's behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize. For a number of years, techno-geeks have been organizing "flash crowds" -- groups of people, coordinated by text or cellphone, who converge on a particular location and then do something silly, like the pillow fights that popped up in 50 cities earlier this month. This is part of a general phenomenon dubbed "Smart Mobs" by Howard Rheingold, author of a book by the same title, in which modern communications and social-networking technologies allow quick coordination among large numbers of people who don't know each other.

In the old days, organizing large groups of people required, well, an organization: a political party, a labor union, a church or some other sort of structure. Now people can coordinate themselves.

We saw a bit of this in the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, with things like Howard Dean's use of Meetup, and Barack Obama's use of Facebook. But this was still social-networking in support of an existing organization or campaign. The tea-party protest movement is organizing itself, on its own behalf. Some existing organizations, like Newt Gingrich's American Solutions and FreedomWorks, have gotten involved. But they're involved as followers and facilitators, not leaders. The leaders are appearing on their own, and reaching out to others through blogs, Facebook, chat boards and alternative media.

The protests began with bloggers in Seattle, Wash., who organized a demonstration on Feb. 16. As word of this spread, rallies in Denver and Mesa, Ariz., were quickly organized for the next day. Then came CNBC talker Rick Santelli's Feb. 19 "rant heard round the world" in which he called for a "Chicago tea party" on July Fourth. The tea-party moniker stuck, but angry taxpayers weren't willing to wait until July. Soon, tea-party protests were appearing in one city after another, drawing at first hundreds, and then thousands, to marches in cities from Orlando to Kansas City to Cincinnati.

As word spread, people got interested in picking a common date for nationwide protests, and decided on today, Tax Day, as the date. As I write this, various Web sites tracking tea parties are predicting anywhere between 300 and 500 protests at cities around the world. A Google Map tracking planned events, maintained at the FreedomWorks.org Web site, shows the United States covered by red circles, with new events being added every day.

The movement grew so fast that some bloggers at the Playboy Web site -- apparently unaware that we've entered the 21st century -- suggested that some secret organization must be behind all of this. But, in fact, today's technology means you don't need an organization, secret or otherwise, to get organized. After considerable ridicule, the claim was withdrawn, but that hasn't stopped other media outlets from echoing it.

There's good news and bad news in this phenomenon for establishment politicians. The good news for Republicans is that, while the Republican Party flounders in its response to the Obama presidency and its programs, millions of Americans are getting organized on their own. The bad news is that those Americans, despite their opposition to President Obama's policies, aren't especially friendly to the GOP. When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele asked to speak at the Chicago tea party, his request was politely refused by the organizers: "With regards to stage time, we respectfully must inform Chairman Steele that RNC officials are welcome to participate in the rally itself, but we prefer to limit stage time to those who are not elected officials, both in Government as well as political parties. This is an opportunity for Americans to speak, and elected officials to listen, not the other way around."

Likewise, I spoke to an organizer for the Knoxville tea party who said that no "professional politicians" were going to be allowed to speak, and he made a big point of saying that the protest wasn't an anti-Obama protest, it was an anti-establishment protest. I've heard similar things from tea-party organizers in other cities, too. Though critics will probably try to write the tea parties off as partisan publicity stunts, they're really a post-partisan expression of outrage.

Of course, it won't be the same everywhere. There are no national rules, and organizers of each protest are doing things the way they want. And that's the good news and the bad news for Democrats. It's not a big Republican effort. It's a big popular effort. But a mass movement of ordinary people who don't feel that their voices are being heard doesn't bode well for the party that positioned itself as the organ of hope and change.

Will these flash crowds be a flash in the pan? It's possible that people who demonstrate today will find that experience cathartic enough -- or exhausting enough -- that that will be it. But it's more likely that the tea-party movement will have an impact on the 2010 and 2012 elections, and perhaps beyond.

What's most striking about the tea-party movement is that most of the organizers haven't ever organized, or even participated, in a protest rally before. General disgust has drawn a lot of people off the sidelines and into the political arena, and they are already planning for political action after today.

Cincinnati organizer Mike Wilson, a novice organizer who drew 5,000 people to a rally on March 15, is now planning to create a political action committee and a permanent political organization to press for lower taxes and reduced spending. Tucson tea party organizer Robert Mayer told me that his organization will focus on city council elections in the fall as its next priority. And there's lots of Internet chatter about ways of taking things further after today's protests.

This influx of new energy and new talent is likely to inject new life into small-government politics around the nation. The mainstream Republican Party still seems limp and disorganized. This grassroots effort may revitalize it. Or the tea-party movement may lead to a new third party that may replace the GOP, just as the GOP replaced the fractured and hapless Whigs.

Tea Party organizers laid no plan to educate newbie activists

Below is a column today on one of the most widely read conservative blogs in Indiana written by WXNT AM 1430 radio talk show host, Abdul Hakiim Shabazz. The blog is frequented by patriots and activists who are also seen about town at political events community meetings.

Do not rely on the mainstream media to educate you after the Indianapolis Tea Party. Please educate yourself by reading the citizen blogs of Indiana, getting out to meet people in person, and sorting out for yourself what you believe. Don't let the mainstream media corral you like chattel being led to slaughter.

What Do You Do When The Tea Party Ends?
by Abdul Hakiim Shabazz
You’ll be seeing and reading a lot about “tea parties” today across the country. Citizens who are mad about the stimulus package and everything else will show up and protest. Organizers says thousands of people will meet at the Capitol this afternoon, even though only about 660 have signed up on their website.

I expect these guys will get some pretty decent news coverage, but my question is what are these people going to do when the “tea party” ends? Are they going to form a political action committee or think tank and put out position papers? Are you going to raise money? Are you going to register voters? Are you going to recruit candidates? Are you going to pool your resources with other like-minded people and form your own political party?

Already I’m hearing about dissension in the “tea party” ranks and chatter about whether these things are really citizen-oriented or part of a bigger National Republican get out the vote effort. Regardless, of who’s behind it, the bigger question is what next?

If people are going to stay in this for the long haul and attempt to make some real change, then I’m all for it. Petitioning your government with your grievances is a good thing. But if all you’re going to do is make noise and go home, then I prefer you save yourself a step and stay home.

A Message to the Revolution: The Easiest Way to Destroy a Movement is to Become It

Original article published here.

I guess you could say that the media’s new catch phrase these days is Tea Party. A couple of years ago, this tradition was reborn by a nationwide grassroots movement of non-partisan freedom lovers, who are seeking a return to the Constitutional roots of this nation.

Arising first as the Ron Paul Revolution and now the Campaign For Liberty, this diverse and tech-savvy group of creative individuals reignited the idea of liberty in the political collective consciousness. Congressman Ron Paul has stated many times, "freedom is popular", so as our liberties continue to be curtailed, the resistance grows. Our instinctive reflex is to rebuke these incremental attacks on our un-a-lien-able rights. This human dynamic to rebel against tyranny is also well known by the elite controllers of the world today. The veritable peaceful, organic, spontaneous, synchronistic rebellion by the immensely informed sovereigns, united under one banner of freedom, has to be prevented at all costs by the establishment. A genuine social movement would enable a paradigm shift to occur, which would enhance the publics understanding of the true geopolitical construct that sustains the status quo. This will allow people to stop fixating on presidential appointments and start focusing on the control system itself, and the architects of the global agenda who manipulate both sides of the political spectrum.

We just witnessed the liberal, anti-war, anti-Patriot Act movement, co-opted by the slick packaging of hope and change, coupled with Obama’s cult of personality. Another predictive programming operation has now been implemented in order to imprint a false neo-conservative overlay over the growing liberty movement. This will trigger a negative auto-response by those unaware of the neuro-linguistic keywords used by the media to falsely label the movement, thus preventing the next crucial growth period from happening. The liberal newspapers and blogs are playing the part by going after their predetermined enemy, but now categorizing the Tea Party movement as a pathetic swipe against Obama by the right. I do agree in some sense that the failed and discredited republicans are basing these events around attacking Obama, while ignoring issues such as the private Federal Reserve system. The problem is that the Orwellian newspeak media has left out the fact that the Ron Paul Tea Parties started under the Bush administration, and were not focused on attacking Bush, but instead were exposing the unconstitutionality of the Fed, IRS, NAU, Patriot Act, NAFTA, wars for empire and the list goes on. Our enemy is not a politician, political party or pundit, it’s the corporate governmental mechanisms of control that expand no matter who is in office.

Using history as our guide, we know that the only way for a tyrannical government to prevent an emergent revolution is to co-opt it by managing who is given the media attention, and how the movement evolves and dissolves. This is a covert operation, a false flag in a sense, using the Ron Paul meme as the camouflage for the foxes underneath. A short time ago, the spirit of the RPR was riding the wave of liberty in the political ocean and was all but ignored or ridiculed. Congressman Paul was the only candidate providing the gust of political fresh air, moving away the fog, allowing us to see the mammoth iceberg named, Federal Reserve System, approaching our vessel. Some pundits from the defunct and discredited false left-right paradigm called his supporters domestic terrorists, for questioning the unconstitutional private apparatuses of the government that have a stranglehold on the American people. Now, these same million dollar media spin-doctors, are having Ron Paul on their shows weekly to speak about the Fed and the 12.8 trillion looting that has occurred over the last year.

The partisan press cycle has picked up on these recent Tea Party events since they are organized by the establishment right as opposition to the left, leaving out the non-partisan Constitutional issues at the forefront of the Ron Paul Tea Parties. The groups organizing the Tea Party takeover are asking for tens of thousands of donations to cover the costs of limiting your free speech. The San Antonio Tea Party, which will feature the front man for Tea Party takeover Glen Beck, states what type of signs are acceptable. This blatant hijacking of the patriot, truth and liberty movement, should be further confirmation that the majority of Americans are waking up and shaking off the two-party propaganda tool that is used to divide and conquer. New counter measures had to be taken by the ruling oligarchy to prevent any further movement outside their control system. The current financial crisis has lifted the veil just enough for some light to pass through, so they need to apply a new layer of filters to conceal the truth behind the veil.

Several bills have been introduced by Congressman Ron Paul that would audit the Fed and abolish the private non-federal bank and return the monetary system back to the people through the Constitution. It’s also imperative that in the midst of this controlled demolition of our financial system, that we factually point out those who are responsible, and call for the arrest and punish for their crimes.

The usurpers are now corralling this new group of truth seekers that we can reach, planting truthseeds, that will unlock their minds from the false reality pushers of the New World Order. We have the documentaries, books, declassified documents, think-tank policy reports, verifiable government documents to show the past, present and future goals of the New World Order. So now is the time to take action, get involved again and begin reaching out to these new minds before they get duped into the false revolution being perpetuated by the mainstream media.

Countless activists in the movement are impeding this infiltration by using the digital printing press, and burning videos that show the creation of the Fed, IRS, and the New World Order agenda for a global currency, enforced by global government run by private international bankers. We now have a chance to breakaway from the staged political system and grow the movement by reaching the newcomers to events such as the Tea Party, End The Fed and July 4th events that are occurring over the course of the year.

INFO WARS: The tea party movement will be reduced to an absurd and partisan politics circus sideshow of the kind the corporate media loves!

Read this article to give you more insight about the national tea parties. And please, while you are reading don't discredit the hard well-meaning work of those involved. But know the mainstream media (MSM) wants to keep the left and right fighting and they are using the tea parties to do just that. Even I, as a hardworking activist, was banned today from the tea party planners meet up group! It's all such a shame. People need to put their egos aside and work together fighting where their energies are best used...on a LOCAL level!

From InfoWars.com
It’s not enough the disinfo operative Glenn Beck and the neocons posing as Republicans led by Fox News are attempting to undermine grassroots efforts to undermine and render politically correct — for milquetoast Republicans — the grassroots tea party movement. Now the sinister organization ACORN, funded to the hilt by the globalist George Soros and the one-world foundations, has piled on.

“Some believe ACORN, which has been under scrutiny for accusations of voter fraud, is preparing to crash some of the tea parties. But ACORN says it is only helping to organize dozens of rallies on the same day in support of President Obama’s first budget,” reports Fox News.

ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring pretends he lives in a vacuum where there is no corporate media. “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…. The idea that ACORN is out to disrupt these meet-ups of fringe activists is yet another conservative fantasy.”

On April 7, however, Jeff Poor, writing for the Business & Media Institute, mentioned Fox’s Neil Cavuto’s report on the plan to disrupt tea parties around the country. “Cavuto reported that the Tax Day tea party protests on April 15 will be ‘infiltrated’ by their political opponents and led by left-wing activist organizations. He specifically named Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN),” Poor wrote.

Arianna Huffington has set up a website for so-called citizen journalists to infiltrate the protests, according to Poor. Huffington is also connected to the one-worlder Soros through his Democrat “Shadow Party,” according to the neocon duo of David Horowitz and Richard Poe (Horowitz and Poe are not necessarily opposed to big money networks and political operatives, so long as the networks are comprised of neocons and big war machine government Republicans).

“The Huffington Post wants to have citizen journalists at as many of these events as possible,” writes Arthur Delaney for Huffpo.

It is reported followers of the wannabe CIA employee and Democrat operative Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and his Daily Kos crew will also “report” on (disrupt) tea parties around the country. Zuniga posted the following on his website on April 7 in yet another underhanded attempt to link the Fox News faux conservatives (neocons) to the murder of three cops in Pittsburgh:

Dear Conservatives,

If having hilarious tea bagging parties keeps you guys from shooting people up, then I heartily endorse them.

Hugs and kisses,

kos

It is unfortunate the tea party movement was hijacked by neocon Republicans and now serves as a punching bag instead of an anti-tax tea bag for the foundation liberals and the globalist minions of Soros. Fox News, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich and the statist, one-worlder Republicans — who have no problem with government and the bankster debt expanding forever, so long as neocons are running the show — have effectively disarmed a movement originally created by the Libertarian Party of Illinois in 2008.

“Never mind that the original point of the Tea Parties, so far as I can tell, was completely libertarian in nature and was to be as much a protest of the Republicans as it was of the Democrats,” writes Mark Thompson. “Movement conservatives saw an opportunity to co-opt it — and they did.”

Thompson explains how Republicans have loaded up the tea party movement with their pet causes — “gay marriage, affirmative action programs in government hiring policies, and just about everything else that movement conservatives oppose even more vehemently now that they’ve been beaten — badly — in consecutive national elections.”

In fact, the Fox News and the Republican leadership have subverted the tea party movement because it represents an effective grassroots way to organize against the corporatist and bankster plan to increase the size of government and load-up on the federal debt.

Of course, the globalist bankers in control of both the Democrat and Republican parties are not about to let that happen.

On April 15, as demonstrations kick off around the country with Republicans in control and steering the show — and the ACORN, Kos, and Huffpo Democrats in opposition — the tea party movement will be reduced to an absurd and partisan politics circus sideshow of the kind the corporate media loves.

Indianapolis Tea Party Organizer (Laura Behney) bans activist's free speech

My name is Melyssa and I am the publisher and owner of this blog. I'm the tax activist behind Hoosiers For Fair Taxation and led the tea parties throughout Indiana in 2007. I won a Sammy from the Sam Adams Alliance in 2007 for my activist work by bringing about positive change in my local government. I'm also a Fair Tax volunteer and got my start with those good folks.

I am writing to spread sunshine on something disturbing that was done to me today by the organizer of the Indianapolis Tea Party. If you are going to the Tea Party in Indianapolis, this concerns you. Many of you may think I should shove this incident away in a closet, but I cannot for sunshine is the best disinfectant.

Today, I was banned by Laura Behney who heads the Defenders of Liberty. She is the organizer the Indianapolis Tea Party to take place tomorrow. Laura, who self-proclaims to be a defender of freedom and liberty, silenced my freedom of speech right in her own back yard yet wants to hold the government accountable to protect your liberties. Sadly, she failed to protect my 1st Amendment freedom. And she has the right to do so, because the group she runs is technically private. That doesn't make it right. And it certainly is not principled in freedom.

Here is background on what took place.

I've been delighted, yet also concerned deep down about why there is so much mainstream media coverage focused on the national tea parties. Mainstream media (MSM) is corporate controlled and that's why I'm concerned. It is corporatism that bankrupted America. (Yes, we ARE bankrupt.)

When I first got wind of the tea party in Indianapolis, I was very excited to help. It was all coming together at the time we were planning the Revolt At The State House event focused on local and state issues in Indiana.

It is my belief from all my experience, that it is too late to save our federal government. We have no control there to enact change there. We won't win against that machine. The rest of the world has power to enact change through pressure on America and the people who control our government.

However, we DO still have power to change our local government and our local election results. We CAN realistically make Indiana government accountable, obey the Constitution, and do what it should.

Yet most people at the tea party tomorrow won't be able to tell you the name of their city councilperson, let alone their state legislator or state senator. Don't believe me? Conduct your own poll. Many won't even be able to tell you where the city county building is located just four blocks away, because they have never been there or know what takes place there.

On the email list of the John Birch Society, today I published an opinion stating my belief that the MSM and Republican Party are herding well meaning Americans to these Tea Parties in order to distract them from the real place where they have true power to change their government. That place is local and state government.

I stated that the elites controlling our federal government are literally laughing at the peasants in the streets who they are bilking for trillions of our future wealth. These elites are also very relieved that so few people are paying attention to their state and local government. That part is most delightful to them. Their worst nightmare is 50 states with clean accountable governments controlled by The People standing up to the Federal Government.

These elites fear our citizens taking lawful control over our local cities and states.

I suggested that the MSM is leading well-meaning sheep (novice activists waking up) straight into the slaughter by distracting them from the only part of government they can control...that part which is in their own back yards.

For this opinion, I was banned.

The tea parties are not grass roots. It is a national movement within the Republican Party to herd people into the party so their players can have control once more. This is the same party that had their butts handed to them in November after letting George Bush and for a while a Republican controlled House run amok for 8 years. Now they all of a sudden found God? I don't think so.

Meanwhile, there are many very good people inside the Republican party trying to change it from the inside. They are the Republican Liberty activists.

True grass roots has a bottom up management style. The tea parties are top down management and the proof is right in front of your eyes. It's seen in the national conference calls to coordinate the events, it is seen in the reluctance of the organizers to use the grass roots activists already plentiful and successful in Indiana, and in their amazing power to generate MSM out of no where and literally overnight.

Grassroots doesn't get that kind of action accomplished overnight.

Desperate to rally the same kind of grass roots support that Obama enjoys, Republicans (many well meaning freedom fighters) upped the freedom movement with their friends at FoxNews and social networking. The Behney's volunteered to head up the "grass roots" in Indianapolis. And they honestly believe that this is all grass roots. And they are working very hard and I'll never take that from them. They are giving 150%.

A few weeks ago, I gave over the keys to this blog to the Behney's when the national tea party web got hacked. I also published their email and directed a few thousand people their way. (This blog got more than 400 unique readers today alone.) I wanted to help. I don't think it is a bad thing that so many people are getting together to demand freedom.

I also believe that there are good well-meaning people that are waking up to what is happening in America and are finally ready to learn and do something. I also know most will go back to American Idol next week, and rely on their emails (harvested from this activism) to tell them how to vote so they don't have to do the hard work of watching over government for themselves. And you can bet the people at the top of this movement are counting on that.

If we are to lead our government to a better place, we need to be staunch practitioners of the very principles we espouse ourselves. And that starts with protecting our 1st Amendment freedom to free speech and free press.

First Hijacking of The Indiana Tea Party

click image to enlarge

Indiana's First Tea Party: July 28, 2007

The Tea Indiana Party's First Hijacking: April 15, 2009