Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

"A national grassroots campaign" -- what a joke. This is pure astro-turf pushed out by right wing media.

The economy is in the tank and people are mad.

The same people that put our country into this mess are trying to hijack this populist rage and aim it at the people who are trying to get us out of this mess.

Sad.

Astro-Turf. Wow, that's original. Been watching a lot of MSNBC, haven't you?
People are tired of the spending and the growth of government. I guess you don't mind either. Enjoy socialism.

'"A national grassroots campaign" -- what a joke. This is pure astro-turf pushed out by right wing media.'

I am sure you fervently wish this were true. But just because that's the way the left operates doesn't make it so.

The economy *is* in the tank, and people *are* mad. These protests are aimed squarely at the people that got us into this mess, and through unsustainable debt and profligate, wasteful spending, are poised to take us into an even deeper mess.

Patrick are you serious???? It was the liberals like B. Frank who forced the banks to lend to unqualified persons. This was the cause of the banking crisis. Buddy get a clue. You are part of the problem in this state. One party rule with lemmings like you falling in line to support the dems. Sickening!

Astro-turf indeed.

Where were they when the war spending hit the trillions?

Retired librarians- aren't they part of the school departments- a real sweet job. Too bad
the economies in the dumps- it's overpaid people
that cry the loudest, do the least, and try to blame the democrats.

Perhaps we are so long removed from the origination of a free society that we have forgotten its price. Perhaps we have forgotten what freedom is: the absence of government coercion. Perhaps we have forgotten that truly beneficial policies almost always stand on their own merit, without the aid of massive government enforcement agencies. Perhaps we have begun to take liberty for granted, so we allow it to be chiseled away each year by just a few more taxes, just a few more regulations, just a few more unconstitutional spending programs, just a few more harmless potheads turned into untouchable felons, just a few more unwarranted surveillance operations, just a few more troops on our streets to suppress the political dissenters, just a few more unfounded arrests and detainment's, just a few more unnecessary casualties in the never-ending war for universal authority, just a few more computerized balloting systems, and just a little bit more government control.

After all, most of us feel we can still go about our business uninterrupted by these controls and live adequately, if not freely. I fear now that by the time we realize that this is no longer true, by the time our old friends and fellow citizens–educated, hard-working, freedom-loving people of integrity–are declared dangerous enemies of the state, it will be too late to change the authoritarian direction of our nation, and it will be easier for us to act nationalistic and tolerated, silent and unencumbered, compliant and alive, than to be honest and endangered, righteous and imprisoned, patriotic and dead. The false patriots will have won, successfully driving freedom out of the only safe harbor it has ever known. American freedom, having long treaded in tempestuous weather, is drowning in the vast seas of prosperity and contentment it produced. Its only lifeline is We The People.

Patrick - people aren't mad about the recession per say. We're upset because we have a government that spends, spends, spends and then hikes taxes. Us little guys (you know, the 50% who actually work and pay taxes) are getting screwed because of government waste and corruption. Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for the mess we're in and both Democrats and Republicans have said reform is needed. Well, reform starts here at home. We're asking our cities and towns as well as our state to cut the fat in the budgets. We can make RI an attractive place to live and do business in but first we need to lower taxes.

Just imagine how many people would have been there on a holiday. It's much easier for the Left to get a crowd since most of them on government handouts. These were real Americans, not professional "gimme gang" or "community organizers". Remember, government social programs are supposed to be life-lines NOT life-styles!!!!!!

I was there between 4:45 and 5:30. Although I estimate the crowd at no more than 1200 at any one time people were constantly coming and going. Although many held signs referencing specific grievances the overall theme was - "Too much government, too much tax".

The Boston Tea Party was an action by colonists against an occupying power. Their slogan was 'No Taxation Without Representation'.
We are paying taxes to the State of Rhode Island and the United States of America. We had a chance to vote in the last election and many people didn't bother. If the teabaggers want to stop paying taxes they had better make a list of all the services they want cut. If they want a say in how their tax money is spent they can walk into the State House and speak to their reps. They are not colonial subjects--the colonists didn't have the vote.
And sometimes your candidate doesn't win. That's democracy.

I cant understand why the liberal media is making this an anti-Obama pro-Republican event. All Americans should be just about fed up right now, regardless of political affiliation.

I attended the event. This was not an "astro-turf" event - it was truelly grassroots - I have no affiliation with any "right wing" organization. I am just a small business owner that pays my taxes, pays my mortgages, donates to charity, and is fed-up. Absolutely fed-up. And despite the projo's mispresentation that it was merely to protest "the federal government's spending plan to help weather a global economic recession", it was to protest not just that but the proposed budget, that according to the Congressional Budget Office, will add 9.3TRILLION to the national debt in the coming years. And this spending is not just on one-time items, but on massive UNFUNDED social programs that once deployed, can never be un-done.

In addition, we were protesting the tax-payer and jobs chasing tax policies of Rhode Island.

THAT is what we were protesting.

Obama has been in office for ten weeks and this is what we get from the Republicans? Yikes. Nobody is safe as these wackos walk among us. I think its wonderful. It just drives more and more people away from the GOP. This is all they have to offer. Essentially it's the poor protesting a tax hike on the rich. Keep it up, morans!

Rhode Islanders keep getting dumber.
It used to be a manufacturing state. The same people bringing teabagging are liable for industrial dislocation. They do not care one whit about a RI wage earner. The folks on the grass today are dupes. Read "Perfectly Legal" David Kay Johnson about the US tax code before making infantile protests about who pays.

Paddy's ignorance of today's events is exceeded only by his transparent attempt to blame conservatives for the current economic crisis. I didn't realize Rubin, Barney Frank, Dodd, Reed, and Clinton were "trying to hijack this populist rage". Don't take our word for it - that ultra-right wing rag, Time magazine, reinforced this.

But the more salient point is that Larry Summers, Peter Orszag, Rohner, et al wrote quite convincingly WAY back in 2008 that throwing federal dollars at an economic downturn doesn't solve the problem. If it did, the Soviet Union would be today's economic juggernaut.

Actually, Paddy's right. I received my check from the National Review earlier this month - it's the only reason I attended. Their business model must be truly amazing - never thought they'd be able to pay all of us off, all across the country.

The truth hurts, Paddy-boy. And the pendulum is swinging back.

Now now, we all know labels are for jars.

Both parties are to blame for the mess. The present Administration and Congress are pulling us in deeper and deeper. Two wrongs don't make a right, and we are stealing our children's money.

I stopped by after work, close to the end of the rally when the crowd was thinning out and it was getting cold, and if I had to guess, I'd say there were at least a thousand or more people still there. It was peaceful. I think our politicians had better start listening. I didn't see it as sad at all! I've never been to anything like it before...

I agree with what Patrick posted...

These articles just show that most people are idiots. US taxes under Obama are still lower than they ever were under Regan and if you look at taxes in other countries, the US tax rate is quite low. (So is the price of gas and the cost of food.)

And, the 3% tax raise in taxes on money earned OVER $250K is not so much - $30 if I earn $1000 more than that original $250K (that original amt is taxes per regulation.)

People crab about these bailouts (started by W, btw) but they'd be crabbing alot more if nothing was done and the economy collapsed completely. They would be screaming at their government for not doing anything. So, let's have tax cuts and forget about economies and social infrastructure - who needs it anyway?!

Someone needs to educate these people.

Patrick thinks the tea party is a joke. It really is simply an expression of the frustration the average taxpayer has with governments at all levels. Governments that refuse to rein in spending and taxes. RI's tea party was much bigger than Massachusett's because RI state and local spending is more uncontrolable than MA's. Are Rhode Islanders crazy or right wing extremists if they are sick and tied of state and local governments that refuse to balance their budgets, that take their orders from union bosses, and that put their own self-interest ahead of the public's interest? I don't think so. Eventually, even pathetic Rhode Islanders will reach the breaking point and rebel against tax and spend politicians at every level.

Wow. Guess I touched some nerves there.

I'm not saying people can't or shouldn't get upset over a high tax burden and over spending. I don’t like paying high taxes either.

I just think it's disingenuous to imply that this was a grass roots movement:

Key speakers at the event were DJ's from corporate owned talk radio stations, who have used their 50,000+ watts of broadcast power to promote the event on a daily basis. (Along with other RI DJ's that were not there as speakers...)

That's not grassroots. That's corporate sponsorship.