TEABAG'd: my day at the party!

Okay I gotta say....A Lot more people for this than any other type of protest I have ever seen at the Capitol in Sacramento.



I rode light rail down and was very surprised to find a ton of people were also riding to the event. I asked them what they were doing and they told me protesting taxes, going to a Tea party. All wrapped in the American Flag.. I asked which ones and they all said "excessive" taxes. I asked them what they they thought about Light rail and transit in general being susidized by the gov't and they told me they paid their way on(?????).

We got the event and this herd of protestors headed to the Capitol. They waved flags and yelled USA. Lots of signs, few mispelled . Everyone was against taxes. I asked which taxes and nobody could pinpoint which programs they did not like. So I asked them about the military and if you want to cut waste that should be the first place they should cut. That did not really sit well. I asked them if they felt safe with the huge police presence and they were fine with that.

There seems to be some type of disconnect with these people. I asked three guys, two wearing a Aluet shirt and another wearing a pipefitters local jacket why they were there and tehy told me they don't like to pay taxes. I asked them what the Aluet company does and he told me they clean State Gov't buildings. The Aluet Co is the largest State janitorial firm on the West Coast they told me. "So you clean state buildings, but you don't like paying taxes?"...And really, a sheet of disbelief came over their faces.

I asked them if they were well paid with benes and they told me they were in fact very well paid with medical and retirement.


There were tons of "Obama is a socialist" or some such signs too. Seemed to be the prevelant theme of the event. When I would encounter someone with the sign I would ask them waht they felt about the military and they told me they like the military just fine, I asked them if they liked the police and tehy liked them just fine too. Same with the Fire department, the Zoo keeper etc,but they hate waste and such..

there was a lot of talk about the bailouts, stopping foreclosures etc. That was the main message. A bunch of radio jocks (and Sac is totally right wing on the radio) rattled on about how this was the revolution, Reagan references a plenty, and How barack Obama was going to lead us to socialism.

I kept a low profile and visited the capitol and took some photos in there. Arnie's got a new bear too but no photos of that.


As the crowd thinned out and I was about to do the same (no really they were still going strong I just couldn't handle it anymore)I hopped back on the rail. full of protestors. I asked why they had been protesting and they told me about the taxes and the tea bag event. I asked them what news they watched on TV and all said FOX.(At the event itself, the FOX truck had the primo place at the Capitol.) I asked them what taxes they wanted to cut and they all said "all of them". They are pissed about school boards, city gov't, county Gov't and Obama's Gov't.

I asked them if they thought the military was the place to begin cutting and some old man with an accent (german maybe?)got in my face. Told me how the military was the reason I was on the light rail train etc. I tried to explain to him that I was talking about cutting spending not dissing the military. But he did not get it and offered to "Get off the train" with him. I declined.

Kind of fun, kind of scary. I have to imagine I have the same feeling about these people as these people had about me when I protested.

The rest of the album....http://picasaweb.google.com/bennyboy420/TEABAGCapitolStRoseOfLima?authkey=Gv1sRgCLyXn7Gf9a6nswE#5325027002136806706


They were very loud too and fired up. Passionate as hell. Never seen that out of this type of person before.

Oh yeah The crowd was mostly over 50 but a surprising amount of younger people. And there were not many people of color. I saw two black men there and no asians or hispanic looking people.

almost as big as ....



Yeah ... I'm worried .... (not) ....

It's TOO big to fail. Morans. Thx for the update, btw. Well done.

But really I was very surprised to see very few misspellings. I expected Freeperville and got the Little red School house.

May you know Socialism.

That might make the tea-bagging difficult, no?

The tea parties give people an excuse to complain as part of a group on April 15. It seems that most haven't given it much thought other than that they dislike paying taxes. But you know FOX is going to spin it as an "overwhelming rejection" of President Obama's policies. Just watch.

And the all the years before that? Weren't taxes too high then also? Why this year? I wonder... Let me see... What's different this year from last year? Other than a new president who lowered their taxes, I got nuthin'.

There were 20-30 people there. (There are 450,000 people in Long Beach.) They didn't have a clue. They yelled at me because I had a sign pointing out that most services (streets, sidewalks,parks, libraries, etc.) were paid for with TAXES. They were mean and surly. I got the distinct impression that they were mad because Obama won. Virtually everybody left after one hour. Back to work, no doubt.

Reminded me of Monty Python's "Life Of Brian" where the monks were walking in a line, chanting, and hitting themselves in the head with bricks.

Well, to paraphrase a well-worn right wing mantra, "Get over it."

Obana's margin of victory in the '08 election was 2-1/2 times what Bush's was in 2004. Now THAT's a mandate!

The organizer of this "teabagging" party failed to get the necessary permit. She also pushed my wife and told us we couldn't be there. After I told her we could because there were two of us, (Under local law, you need 3 or more to have an "unlawful assembly") and after I told her I would summon the police if she kept harrassing us, she left us alone. And we left them alone.

Totally clueless, and I predict this "movement" will die out of its own accord. (Too much effort.) Either that or they will become radicalized and be shot by the Guard. Ignorance of what is is no excuse.

The organizer of this event was bitching online because she had no help and no money. Ain't that the Neoconservative way. Well, sister, get used to it unless you have a shitload of money. Reality bites, doesn't it?

As a home owner, I will continue to pay my property taxes as long as I use services paid for with taxes.
Pissed Off Liberal

Video screens, full on rock and roll PA and tons of people....

It doesn't get any better than that. :rofl:

On Old Sac...."I love playing a town named after an aging Yak's testicle"

I suspect they don't read much but do a lot of gossip networking.

At LEAST!

Clearly, deserving of the media focus and attention. Thankfully, the media know which protests are "real", and "important".

When 1.2 Million people show up on the mall for reproductive choice, OTOH, that's something to be ignored in favor of Estee Lauder's death and the elusive "NASCAR voter"



What? Nothing to see here, folks.

This, however:



GOOD GOD, MAN! IT'S A VERITABLE POPULIST UPRISING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

at least that's what FUX is saying...

some CA protesters being interviewed and all they were talking about were state specific problems and promises that Arnold failed to keep. The interviewer spoke to about 5 people and all of them talked about CA problems...I wasn't hearing about federal taxes, 'socialism' or President Obama.

These people just flat out don't like paying taxes. They were about State issues, local school district issues, and federal issues. But all of them did not like Obama or welfare or public funded art or education spending.

When I was a child, my mom worked at a hotel down the street of Sun Devil Stadium when we lived in Tempe, AZ. She has met many well known people, some she liked, some she didn't. Her favorite person she met is Walter Cronkite. However, Kevin Johnson the Suns point guard in the early 90's was drinking at Mill Avenue. Popular club scene. Instead of driving he choose to stay at the hotel my mom worked and my mom has since said he is the nicest person she ever met. When she heard he was the mayor she was really happy like the people there maybe won't know how lucky they are to have him.

On edit: Her least favorite is Dennis Miller and KISS as the people she met at the hotel.

I made a comment on my Facebook account about the sillyness of the "teabag" parties, and it turns out he went to the Sacramento one. He talked about how great it was, and how nice it was going to a "rally with normal people, their kids and grandkids". Why oh why did I ever agree to his 'friend request'? :eyes:

Good on you for venturing down there! :thumbsup: