Chuck,

Two suggestions:

1. In response to you summarily dismissing the benefit of tax cuts for businesses, please sign up for a basic Economics class at a local community college.

2. Take off your (obvious) partisan glasses for a moment, look around you, and pour a large glass of ice cold reality.

The broad generalizations in your article and the audacity of your reduction of these grass roots movements to simple "rants" - is irresponsible at best.

You should be ashamed.

A Patriot -- Take off your (obvious) partisan glasses for a moment . . .

It's the Teabaggers the ones wearing partisan glasses.

Republicans pols are scrambling to get a speaking part at these fake "grassroots" events, manufactured by Fox News and FreedomWorks.

way to hate people expressing disgust with government.

our country was founded on people speaking and acting against what they felt was unjust

i dont know why liberals are even getting upset about this.

Chuck you are an idiot

Chuck, A major issue for the Tea Parties are the Bailouts (and the subsidies for specific industries in the Stimulus bill and the 2010 budget). Aren't the bailouts using tax money to help large corporations at the expense of small companies who will have to pay back the debt and suffer through the inflation and stagnation caused by printing money for the bailouts? The Tea Parties are about the principle of government getting over involved in the private sector just as the Crown did with East India. Sam Adams and Paul Revere would be proud of the rallies that carry-on their tradition of opposing government interference with the free market. Jay

It is amazing to me how many apatriotic pinheads surface on this site thanks to the great reporting.

sung to the tune of Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof

teabaggers, teabaggers how ’bout a bash find me a cause that’ll bring in some cash

teabaggers, teabaggers I’ll set the scene, You bring the money, clean, crisp, and green

Never mind that Reagan outspent before you are my suckers, Glen Reynolds my whore

teabaggers, teabaggers on the right you all surf but now you are mine through my Astoturf

Night after night in the dark I’m alone but now with you fools an island I’ll own

ht cbl2 April 13th, 2009 at 12:14 pm @ firedoglake

What percent of our budget do you think goes to the politically well connected? What percent of the $12 Trillion in bailouts? Do you think Goldman-Sachs, Citibank, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and other mega-banks are not the very same concept as the "East India Company" of revolutionary times? Tea Party message a message that serves "the well connected and the well heeled", that's absurd.

It's average middle class Oregonians who will be protesting, not the well connected. The well connected in Portland are the Progressive elite. They certainly have no problems directing massive subsidies to the well connected: vis Pearl District millionaire developers getting tax brakes, Albina street still a ghetto.

I think the tea party analogy is much more accurate than your article suggests.

Carla:

Could you have possibly missed the point any further?

The original Boston Tea Party was the ultimate "F.U." to corporate interests and taxation without representation.

Bob T:

There ya go again. You failed to mention government. The East India Company couldn't get that advantage without government helping them. Odd that when a company or individual get privileges from government, people trash the former as if that company or individual could do that on his own, and crushing others' opportunities, and rarely question whether or not government should be stripped of powers granting such privileges. We're seeing that here with progressive Sam Adams and friends granting a corporate welfare deal for a millionaire and his millioniare father for a two-stadium deal, and the Blues are doing nothing (oh, there was a protest over the bridge, but....).

Are the progressives planning a protest against the stadium deal? I guess not. It's more important to have "the first openly gay mayor of a major city", with his picture on a T-shirt with Obama indicating, well, something.

Your out is that Paulson gets trashed as if he's stealing the money on his own. Progressive credentials remain intact, I guess.

Bob Tiernan Portland

Why dont you read a little from "Common Sense" and see if you can draw an inference between Fedayeen Obam and our current "Taxation without representation" and why Americans rebelled in the first place. You will find that American government has become what we fought against in 1776. Here read this Comrade

December 23, 1776 THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

Thomas Paine

Obama is the Sunshine soldier, and now the corporate puppet. He stands for all things and nothing at the same time: taxes, amnesty, military, taxes, entitlements, taxes, welfare, wealth redistribution, deficit spending, borrow and spend, corporate fascism, taxes, division, Marxism, socialsim, deficits, devalued currency, unfair trade etc. etc. etc.

He is the fellow all you Lennin style defeatist waited in Red square for!

When I point out that the “ball field”, a fully fenced enclosure, is alternatively a ball field, archery range, dog park, duck wallow and fish pond, a fully fenced in enclosure, I am in no way suggesting that the "teabaggers” may want fresh vegetables with their tea (though considering the weight of the tax burden they claim to bear it would be a neighborly, charitable, thing to do). Nope, not me.

Nor when I direct folks to that unique little place, that legacy holdover from the former indoctrination center cum third rate downtown "resort" whose beer sucks and the rest goes downhill from there, am I in any way suggesting that on a fine Bend three hundred day plus afternoon folks pour out en masse to demurely, as is our wont, stroll around the (fully fenced in enclosed) “park” in “counter-protest”; nope, nor would I ever suggest bearing signs countering their “patriotic” message, unlike the anti-health terrorists terrorizing the health clinic at the north end of Division Street: extremely graphic yet somehow vague depictions of… “teabagging”.

And really, when I supposit a common lack of cognitive reasoning abilities and an unwitting dependency on the Kool-Aid KKKocktail of Ambien, Prozac, Viagra and panty-shots on CNN/Faux TV, how could you possibly think I am suggesting that these creatures are, uhm, you know, maybe, like, uhmmm… not thinking clearly? Or at all? Not my business, man.

Never would I ever even think of calling for on a fine Bend three hundred day plus afternoon folks pour out en masse to demurely, as is our wont, stroll around the (fully fenced in enclosed) “park” in clown (and every republic president since Nixon) suits, honking horns, banging on bongos - a Procession of the Species dress rehearsal, if you will - bearing extremely graphic yet somehow vague depictions of “teabagging”, charitably offering fresh fruit and vegetables to those apparently so less fortunate than the rest of us and generally doing everything possible to support and draw attention to these bozos [respects to Bozo] and their message to the President.

Nope, not me. Too busy. Not my business. Not that kind of guy.

Never happen.

Carla, Torrid et al,

Face it. Chuck built a straw man: Tea party activist are there to support tax breaks for corporations. Then tore it down using flawed logic by forgetting that the East India Company was the ultimate corporate special interst just like all of the companies involved in the bailouts that the Tea parties are against.

The article was like alot of Chuck's writings based in poor logic and misunderstanding of facts and economics.

Oh, I was just as uset by GW's deficits but his at least took 8 years to build. The current bailouts, stimulus plan, and 2010 proposed budget will match his dismal record in a single year.

Jay --

I have no doubt that some among the TeaBaggers are correctly against the bank bailouts. The problem is that that specific issue gets drowned in the overall anti-tax, anti-government, anti-Obama, etc., messages.

Plus, with FoxNews and the Republican Party leading this effort (do you deny that?), how credible is it that the organizers are against the bank bailouts?

If you want an honest-to-goodness anti-bank-bailout movement, check this out.

Dang! I thought that i'd put in this hyperlink in my post above: www.anewwayforward.org

Taxation without representation=government taxing citizens who have no representation in the government.

The generations that will have to pay taxes to cover the debts our government continues to run up aren't being represented by anyone.

Dave, That "problem" is only your blue rendition.And a worn out one as well.

"The problem is that that specific issue gets drowned in the overall anti-tax, anti-government, anti-Obama, etc., messages."

That's how blues always cast all conservative objections.

Then you throw in the "FoxNews and the Republican Party leading this effort" bromide and the broken record plays.

I know many people involved in local tea parties. Neither Fox or the GOP is leading their efforts. If you want honest deficit reduction why aren't blues outraged over the massive explosion of debt by Obama? Answer? It's funding a massive lefty wish list.

Richard --

First, in your comment, you don't deny that the Tea Parties are anti-tax, anti-government and anti-Obama. Is there any part of that that is wrong? Please enlighten me.

Second, a bunch of Republicans are lining up to speak at these events and Fox is giving wall-to-wall coverage. True or not?

Finally, the exisiting deficit is the product of 8 yrs. of Republican rule. Clinton left a surplus that Bush & Co. turned into a deficit. That's yet another reason why the Tea Parties are so disingenuous.

(I'm sure you won't agree with me on this, but I'll just note for the record that the deficits are a serious problem, but the time to deal with them is once economic growth begins. We need spending now to get the economy going again.)

Cute Dave, First, No the Tea Parties are JUST "anti" Again that's the blue version. Sort of like Randy Leonard always asking why conservatives hate kids. Whatever it is you like to cast as simply anti-ism is wrong on it's face and allows you to avoid the context and specicifity of the objections or positions.
I doubt any attempting to enlighten you would be understood.

So a bunch of Republicans are lining up to speak, that means these are party run events? Fox is covering them and that means they too are running them. CNN and many others are also covering them.

Finally, the deficit over the past 8 yrs. was insulting enough. Your guy now pushes the accelarator and all you can do is look backwards?

How does the deficit make the Tea Parties disingenuous when Obama and the Blue congress are going crazy? sure you won't agree with me on this, but I'll just note

Your idea of spending to get the economy going is a blind viewpoint.

Brodhead, if you're going to write stupid ignorant garbage and blather about Obama Fedayeen and so on, at least figure out how to spell, punctuate, and conjugate your verbs.

Chuck says: ...levels of spending and taxes in Oregon have not been going up

I don't know about taxes, but according to the Legislative Fiscal Office and the US Census Bureau, Oregon state government spending has grown 40 percent from $34 billion to $48 billion over the past four budget cycles.

Exactly how much of a spending increase is required before you recognize it as a spending increase, Chuck?

During that same period Oregon's population grew ~3% and median family income ~12 percent from $39,798 to $44,682. I know for sure my income didn't grow by 40%!

Bob T:

There ya go again. You failed to mention government.

Carla:

Taxation without representation=government taxing citizens who have no representation in the government.

Bob T:

You mentioned "corporate interests", and as Mr. Sheketoff wrote, The real Boston Tea Party was a protest not against taxation but against a tax cut for a multinational corporation of the day.

That corporation didn't cut its own taxes. Government did that. So, what do you do about that? Take the Paulson stadium rip-off. You could hear some people say that, gee, what we need is a law that prohibits corporate welfare for sports, and that'll solve it. But that means that the politicians who are too willing to hand this out are expected to pass the ban! In the end, the government is the culprit. You don't solve anything when you leave government with the same powers. Trashing the Paulsons is one thing (and I have no respect for them -- neither one is a Hank Reardon, that's for sure), but Sam, Randy, and Dan are the people who did the dirty deed.

You can talk all you want about the "corporations", but unless you deal with the powers of government that allow them to pick winners and losers and dole out privileges, you don't accomplish anything. The problem for progressives is that they are so wedded to the powers to "manage the economy" that it doesn't get done.

Bob Tiernan Portland

Torrid Joe:

bob t, quit lying about the stadium deal. You've been corrected mutliple times.

Bob T:

I've seen no accurate corrections. Where is the lie?

This was a garbage deal, courtesy of the progressives. It's just another example of "managing the economy" and fits right in there with the idea of "making it work" for the people, by being located in the right place, and spurring this and spurring that, and being in Portland instead of some undeserving place that would have been chosen had "greed" been the primary guidance.

What Ever.

Bob Tiernan Portland

...with laughter.