Free Republic

Anchorage fitness instructor Amy Brun doesn't want to see any more trillion-dollar federal bailouts. She doesn't want to pay higher taxes, and she doesn't want what she does pay to bankroll some corporate CEO's bonus. "For the first time in my life, I want to know what they're going to do with my money -- because there's a lot of it going out and not a lot of it coming in," Brun said. So on Wednesday, the 45-year-old went to her first-ever protest as part of a national Tax Day Tea Party in downtown Anchorage. More than 1,200 other tax...

How the tea parties could change American politics. 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...

Over the past day, “Tea Party” organizers and supporters have scolded and threatened this newspaper for refusing to cover Wednesday’s tax protest. One partisan website even resorted to adolescent name-calling. Just one problem: We expect to cover it. We always have. For the record, let me share my response to one of the e-mails we got: The demonstration has been on our coverage schedule for some time Admittedly, every day is a fresh day in the news business – and we rarely guarantee coverage: not of press conferences, not of sporting events, not of demonstrations (whatever the cause). It isn’t...

HANNITY: And, Governor, thanks for being here. You are coming under a lot of pressure for not taking all the stimulus money. How is it going politically? SANFORD: We're surviving it just fine. I think that there is this silent majority, if you want to call it that, that very much fits in with these tea parties that are sort of self-generating around the country, because a lot of people are genuinely frustrated and concerned about the stimulus and its size. And a lot of people are very concerned about the size of government and the way it continues to...

A reader just sent me a Force Protection Advisory issued by the Maryland National Guard dated April 9, two days after the DHS report. It warns that during the protests that Guardsmen and Guard facilities might become "targets of opportunity." There is a list of TEA party protest sites in Maryland included. WTF? Leftwing protesters might show up at National Guard offices, but rightwing protesters are almost universally pro-military. If any one from the National Guard shows up at the protest in uniform (which they aren't supposed to do, but hypothetically) I'm betting he'll have a lot of high-fives, back-slaps,...

CARLSBAD — Organizers of an event scheduled for Income Tax Filing Day, April 15, encountered opposition from an unexpected corner the administration of the Carlsbad campus of New Mexico State University when they tried to post fliers publicizing their TEA Party Day rally scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday on the lawn of the Eddy County Courthouse. snip

An iconic 18th century image meets 21st century technology this week as conservative activists plan nationwide "tea parties" protesting everything from the federal stimulus package to the banking bailouts. Organizers say Fresno's event, from 1 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Save Mart Center parking lot, may draw more than 1,000 people, and hundreds of similar rallies are expected across the country. Organizers say participants are angry and frustrated by tax increases and bailout plans that they say helped everyone except the average taxpayer. They hope their efforts will persuade Congress to reject further federal stimulus proposals. "The tangible goal...

This is a column about Republicans — and I’m not sure I should even be writing it. Today’s G.O.P. is, after all, very much a minority party. It retains some limited ability to obstruct the Democrats, but has no ability to make or even significantly shape policy. Beyond that, Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people. Better, perhaps, to focus on the real policy debates, which are all among Democrats. snip One way to get a good sense of the current state of the G.O.P., and also to see how...

A revolution is brewing in Marysville. Hundreds of taxpayers held their own "Boston Tea Party" at Washington Park. The Yuba County Republican Party organized the protest and voter information fair, but organizers say members of all parties can unite for a common cause. They're against tax increases as well as imposing new taxes such as the ones proposed in six propositions that will be on the ballot in a statewide special election on May 19th. "This event is for everyone because taxes are affecting everyone, not just republicans, democrats, independents," said Terry Rutherford. Local politicians were on hand for the...

TEMECULA: Anti-tax rally set for Wednesday Organizers are preparing for possibility of counter protest By AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer Saturday, April 11, 2009 TEMECULA ---- Guy in Grim Reaper costume. Check. A "Zombama" (a President Barack Obama tax zombie). Check. "Don't Tread On Me" flags. Check. Patriotic and anti-tax songs blaring from a boom box. Check. And that's just the top half of the checklist that Rick Reiss has written up for an anti-tax "tea party" rally scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Temecula's Duck Pond Park. Reiss, a member of the Murrieta-Temecula Republican Assembly, said late last week...

Several thousand people jammed into Allegheny Landing on the North Shore Saturday afternoon for an event dubbed as a "Tea Party" to protest what they believe is excessive government spending to bail out faltering corporations and the economic stimulus package. The keynote speaker was Alan Keyes, a conservative political activist and former diplomat under President Ronald Reagan. He told the cheering crowd that had gathered next to the Clemente Bridge that while some of the blame for the nation's economic woes "can be laid at the feet" of greedy Wall Street bankers and complicit politicians, they "should go home and...

West Rutland resident Jon Wallace is moving ahead with plans for Wednesday's Tax Day Tea Party in Main Street Park, despite being denied a special event permit by the Board of Aldermen this week. When it comes down to it, he said, he's been told he doesn't really need the permit. And he doesn't see how the aldermen think they could deny protestors' First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly anyway, he said. "My gut feeling was that 'thou doth protest too much,'" Wallace said of the board's decision to deny the permit. Wallace was not at Monday night's...

2009 Taxpayer Tea Party proudly brought to you by the FreedomWorks Foundation... Taxed to death and living in Southwest Riverside County, CA? Join us on Wednseday, April 15, 2009 at 11:00 am at the Temecula Duck Pond on the corner of Rancho California and Ynez Road in Temecula. We will be ridding ourselves of some crates of Obama Messianic Tea and fighting off the evil ravenous Zombama, the tax eating zombie. This Temecula Tea Party is valiantly supported by the local Republican clubs TMVRWF and MTRA. See you all there patriots!

How do organizers of one of the largest grassroots efforts turn down the head of one of America’s two major political parties? Easy. He represents everything that’s wrong with the Republican Party right now and over the past decade. I’m not talking about the fact that Steele personally is an embarassment, though I believe he is, I’m talking about the fact that the Chair of the Republican Party has a job, and that job is to get Republicans elected, regardless of their positions, voting records, or ideologies. His loyalty is to the party, not to principles in the platform. While...

While the organizers of the Washington, D.C. anti-spending “Tea Party” have given a speaking slot to Alan Keyes, that other failed African-American Republican Senate candidate from Maryland, Michael Steele, has been dissed by the crew behind the Chicago Tea Party. Eric Odom, the event’s organizer, has posted the email he wrote to the Republican National Chairman’s staff after Steele asked to be a speaker. I very much appreciate the fact that Chairman Steele is now finally starting to reach out to the true grassroots side of the free-market movement in America. Unfortunately, it appears that he has only just decided...

Brave, defiant American citizens arming themselves and gathering to stop oppressors, slave drivers, tyrants, despots, punks of every stripe. Doesn't really matter who these oppressors are: we stop them all. Redcoats forcing taxation without representation or coming to take away our guns, Mexican armies or rioting gangs burning down the neighborhood. Bring it. We don't really care about the origin of evil, but we know it when we see it, and free men know in our hearts and souls that it must be halted by whatever means necessary. The Jews failed to take up arms in their own defense in...

The Republic of Texas movement is coming to protest in Burleson next week. So are "Citizen Patriots" who want to "take the fight" and promise "a coming storm." So are Ron Paul supporters and John Birch Society activists obsessed with the Illuminati conspiracy, the Trilateral Commission and anything that smacks of a global economy. They’re coming for their own little Tea Party. From its beginnings as an anti-tax protest for people who don’t understand how much of our North Texas economy depends on federal spending, the April 15 event has evolved into a festival for the fringe. Not all Tea...

Two men were arrested Tuesday night and charged with disruption of official meetings during the Wilmington City Council hearing on the proposed annexation of the Monkey Junction section of New Hanover County. The charge is a Class 2 misdemeanor and the two were to see a magistrate Tuesday night, police said. Several hundred people showed up for the annexation hearing inside council chambers. Most protesters didn't make it inside for the hearing. Inside chambers there was a considerable police presence, including undercover officers.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Taking inspiration from a landmark 1970s tax revolt, a determined group of activists say the moment is right for another voter uprising in California, where recession-battered residents have been hit with the highest income and sales tax rates in the nation. And like Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that transformed the state's political landscape and ignited tax-reform movements nationwide, they see the next backlash coming not from either major political party, but from the people. If the anti-tax crusaders can galvanize voter discontent, they hope to roll back the latest tax hikes, impose permanent, iron-clad...

Not glowering sky nor mud nor threat of hailstones sufficed to deter about 300 souls from massing on the sodden village green in Northport, N.Y., that afternoon. They were a band of like minds bent on dire provocations seldom witnessed in the harborside hamlet on Long Island Sound. It was a day for brandishing signs, shouting imprecations and donning silly clothing: tricorn hats and breeches, bonnets and petticoats. A few carried pitchforks, the better to jab the message home. We good farm folk are fed up and will be silent no more. Their enemy: a tyrannical government heedless of the...