Brrr! Twas a cold evening in Prescott to hold a rally. Or a protest. 41 degrees F. But the crowd assembled nonetheless. Basically to let it be known that not everybody is happy with the goings-on in Washington. The great bail-out is not popular with plenty of citizens, especially on April 15, income tax day. Nor are many of the other programs being considered at the Capitol and/or the White House.
Me? Ever the outsider, I'm not inclined to join in a crowd of any sort. Interestingly, however, many of the people who've taken part today's great tea party across the country are also not people given to taking part in public protest. As a matter of strategy, said my dinner companion this evening, the protest is quite premature; wait for cap-and-trade is his suggestion. But it strikes me that the fact that the timing is not strategic lends great credence to the spontaneous nature of the movement (if movement it is). I am reminded of the heartfelt new blog initiated by LindaG (Speaking Out in Freedom); she felt that she had to speak out. BTW, she has a lot more pictures from the event.
This lady's homemade sign states that we can't "spend...spend...spend our way to prosperity".
I didn't stay for the official program; too dang cold! If I had, I might have had a better picture of who might be trying to step out in front of the crowd to "lead" them. I'm curious -- when I consulted The Google about the Prescott tea party, several sites were listed, suggesting a broad base.
I hope the protest grows -- our Congress is going "Whee!" just like the winner of the Irish sweepstakes. How many hundreds of pages in that appropriations bill that nobody read? Who knows just what fun items it might contain. But then I myself find it difficult to trust a government that finds it necessary to protect children from the lead that might be in the ink in books printed before 1986. (And that, dear readers is why I don't write a political blog -- I tend to splutter if given half a chance!)Science Links: How's that for a change of subject? Let's start with one of my favorite picture sites, NASA's Earth Observatory, which featured a local picture recently -- an April dust storm over the Painted Desert. Have you ever heard of snow rollers? Here's a look at a fascinating phenomenon. And you aware that we're having a very quiet sun these days? The sunspots seem to be in hiding. But don't worry; our new overlords will take care of us.
Where were all these people when the last administration put us in the situation we are now in?
ReplyDeleteThe TEA (Taxed Enough Already) parties are a great idea! Thank you for covering your local party! CNN was implying that these events were organized by fringe anti-government groups. Unbelievable!
ReplyDelete@Jarart: I believe the problems began before the previous administration... it goes back decades... just Google Fannie Mae and Barnie Frank.
ReplyDeleteSorry, GJ, to use your blog's comments section. Today's problems were simmering a couple of administrations ago, and the collective memory seems to have forgotten that.
Anon.
Challenge: how to make a short comment on this subject realizing this is not a political blog?
ReplyDelete*smile*
Count me among the folks that believe it is actually patriotic to pay taxes and that we receive MUCH of value by doing so. Room for improvement? Lots of room for improved transparency, efficiency, and delivered results.
Advocate of balanced pay-as-we go budgets? Yes. We should pay for our decisions, not pass the cost on to our kids. If its a good decision we should be more than willing to pay the price. If we have a problem with the price, oops, wrong decision. [This would mean paying much higher taxes right now to fund decisions that were made on our generation's watch (e.g. Iraq War, Financial Bailouts)].
Thanks for sharing the interesting links! Those snow roller pictures are amazing and the "overloads" video was cool.
ReplyDeleteGranny J..perhaps, you should write a political blog!
ReplyDeleteI think it would be rather interesting, and there are plenty of differing views out there, so there would never be a dull moment!
Warren, I think you have a great point. Interesting post...I do enjoy hearing the different viewpoints.
ReplyDeletejarart -- I never voted for W's foolish war, but that does not mean I think that O is above criticism as the media seem to believe.
ReplyDeletefroggy -- the bias of the MSM is quite palpable these days.
anon av -- thank you for mentioning my favorite congressional hypocrite. Considering that banks were pushed into granting loans to unqualified would-be homeowners by the critters who inhabit our Congress, i wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't happen all over again.
If any reader hasn't seen the video of Barney smiling at Franklin Raines as he says there's nothing to investigate about Fannie Mae... well, what can I say....
warren -- I will certainly grant that this particular post was quite political. And it is surely the moral thing to do to pay the taxes necessary to keep out of debt. Unfortunately, doing that would likely bring not only the roof down, but most of the world!
jan -- there are far too many political blogs out there already; I don't think that i have that much which is new to say -- besides, I splutter, which does not make me feel good about myself. So there.
kim -- maybe I can back up & say that I think the reason the tea party idea took off is that a lot of people -- a great many -- feel that they are not being heard by their elected and their unelected rulers.