Boston Tea Party? Not so much... -By Tom Hayes

-Let’s skip past questions of who benefited from Bush-era tax cuts, and move right on to the guts of the question: are taxes unfair, and is a tea-bag an apt modern rallying symbol?

People having trouble making ends meet have reason to wish bank and credit-card fees were less onerous, and we naturally resent the inevitable burden of any tax they think is unfair. Money is tight for most of us, but we don't want to become the next Somalia, either - we value government services as much as - if not more than - our founding fathers did when they included phrases such as, "insure domestic Tranquility," and, "provide for the common defense," in the preamble to the U.S. Constitition. Today we just want the burden to be fair.

And that tea-party tie-in? That was a reach. We might've bought it if the whole movement really was spontaneous - but with 8 months of planning, to settle on "tea bagging" is frankly embarrassing. The media coverage reminded me more of Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter than it did of colonials risking their lives and livelihoods to thumb their noses at distant despots (they sure didn't want anybody recording their presence for posterity.)

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Tea Parties in the works since August 2008

Stephen Leser of OpEd News (OEN) provides revealing information regarding the "Tea Party" domain:

You can repeat the research easily yourself. It's just a matter of looking up registration information. Check it out:
http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx?Domain=CHICAGOTEAPARTY.COM

Please note the date of creation, August 3, 2008.

Things that make you go "Hmmmm..."

Some are trying to portray these protests as "spontaneous, grass roots" protests that are a natural "organic" response to Obama's economic policies (including those that are extensions of the GOP/Bush bank bailouts.) Leser points out the date the idea was conceived "not only predates the implementation of Obama's policies and his Presidency, it predates Obama being officially named the Democratic Nominee for President."

Now a lot of us wish taxes were lower, and suspect the rich already milk the system to pay lower tax rates despite what the rhetoric implies, but the facts support the assertion that this movement is anything but "spontaneous."

That's not exactly spontaneous, grass-roots sort of organizing.

"Who is Zachary Christenson, the owner of the domain? In turns out he is a right wing radio talk show host in the Chicago area with ties to several major Republican think tanks, and the Koch company, a Chicago area based conglomerate which heavily funds several Republican think tanks. These same Republican think tanks, like Freedomworks, the Cato Institute and Americans for Progress, just happen to be the primary groups behind the "Organic, Grass Roots" Tea Party protests. If you read the leadership of these think tanks, they are all led by heavy hitters in the RNC like Dick Armey and Steve Forbes...."

Imagine the solutions we could be creating if the GOP was willing to work together with the new administration. Instead, these "spontaneous, organic" Tea Party Protests, and the curiously naive "tea-bagging" rallying cry were planned over a period of months. They are evidently orchestrated, bought, and paid for by GOP operatives with the full knowledge of the RNC. It's no surprise the conservative media outlets are in full support; it makes for fine infotainment.

"...protest too much, methinks."

Are the people insisting it's the government that's promoting bad behavior doing anything they can to keep people from noticing the they arearrogantly promoting bad behavior? That's positively Rovian.

If you want to know the truth, my friends, follow the money.

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