99% of those in attendance have no idea who is actually behind these "spontaneous" protests.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/04/15

nearest I can understand is:
1. It is an excuse for mostly right-of-center to vent whatever frustrations they feel about the recent elections and the troubled economic times but dress it up under the nebulous guise of taxes/deficit spending.
2. It was heavily pre-promoted by the national Fox channel, which hardly makes it spontaneous.
3. In general it is organized by GOP operatives.
4. Ron Paul people are pissed at the co-opting
5. Rick Perry (Gov-TX) in address the tea-baggers is talking all manner of bullshit about TX possibly seceding due to the federal government's heavy hand (never mind the emergency disaster relief being sought by TX)
6. They don't like being called tea-baggers.
7. The DNT editorial a day or two back was promoting tea-bagging, who knew a Fargo based paper had the finger on the pulse of Duluth so well.. oh wait.

Baci, wouldn't that just be a license for outrageous hedonism?  Where do I sign up?

In all seriousness, I applaud those who went down to speak their minds.  I don't understand how anyone can fail to be concerned about the rate that the government is spending money.

Littering, especially in the Lake, makes me irrationally angry and want to fight!

Some group wanted to dump 10^6 tea bags in DC and was disallowed for a lack of a proper permit.  That made me smile a bit.

Argh!  Look at all that litter.  I mean, did anyone see them throw the cardboard box into the harbor?  The empty, floating one with "TEA" scratched into its side?  I'm all for protests and understand the symbolism, but - shit - keep your trash out of my lake, son.

Pretty much the people with the racist signs at these rallies are the only ones being called racist. (Somebody should update the FOX News talking heads on this fact so they can tell you all to drop this tired argument.)

Now that it's over, we should potato sack the teabaggers.

I was just responding to what spy1 said:  "Frankly, I got the feeling there, as someone with a similar biracial background as Obama, that the government was OK until someone who doesn't look like them got to the helm."  It isn't some "tired argument" that I got from Fox News, I can think for myself thank you.  I just wanted to point out that some people don't agree with the way the government is going and are automatically labeled a racist.  I find that unfair, I can disagree with you and not hate entire race.

For all the DNT's embarrassing cheerleading, the photo on the front page today was somewhat hilarious.

edgeways, it seems wrong to me that people are getting lumped together and being called racist just because they are  participating in an event to express their frustration in the way government is being run because it just so happens to have a certain amount of people also participating that are in fact racist.  That could be said of many groups.  And I guess I'm also frustrated that if I mention that I don't agree with what is happening in the government people just assume it is because I'm a racist or because they have a notion that all people who disagree have some kind of hidden agenda.  

Also (sorry if this is nitpicking) can it be shown that Obama being elected is the causation of the increase in gun sales?  There very well could be an alternative explanation that we are missing out on because it is assumed the election of Obama is the cause of the increase.

Lindsey, I thank you. Your voice of reason is mightily welcome.

 The rest of you are boring me to death. God your left-right paradigm is unruly. Can't you fell its tactile dissatisfaction. It's attempts to jump clean from your fool grip? No? No.

The idea repeated above, that this merely a cynical "vast right-wing conspiracy" while furthermore OBVIATING the possibility people could actually be dissatisfied with the financial ministrations of the Obama administration, is FUCKING BANANAS. 

I wish I had time to rebut many of the above inanities, but don't fret, I hope to return this evening. In the meantime, I leave you in the capable hands of Lindsey. 

I hope I've been well behaved enough to avoid being censored, but really I never can tell.

Yay! for diverse, nuanced opinions.

Yay! for well reasoned arguments

Yay! for linky-links

Go, Blue Teamsters!  Fight!  Win!

Go, Red Teamsters!  Fight!  Win!

At the end of this game of capture the flag we'll roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories around the campfire.  Yay!

I missed teabagging down at the harbor?!?  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teabagging&defid=1608058

burl, et al, I think the lot of us are pretty effin sick of this whole mess...

but i think the idea with the whole teabagging party thing is a blatant attempt at placing the responsibility of the financial mess squarely on the shoulders of the current occupant of the white house, regardless of the fact that he's only been on the job for less than 5 months...or else why weren't they tossing their lipton when BushCo was funding Wall Street carte blanche, bailing out AIG the first two times, Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Lehmann Bros, CitiBank, etc...

indeed, the very idea of what actually amounted to a pack of pissed of idiots getting together to protest the president and the government after hearing for eight long years that such behavior is treasonous and unpatriotic is laughable.

also laughable is the notion that this is somehow a "movement."

a hundred thousand pissed off idiots spread across a couple dozen cities tossing tea bags into whatever body of water they happen to live close to is hardly a movement.

2 million marching in the capital mall to protest the Iraq war...that's a movement. a few hundred thousand protesting bush's visit to any given city in europe...that's a movement.

my only hope is that now these crackers will get a sense of what effect public protest has on the political climate in this country...which is not much. what i do find amusing is the thought of these clowns standing with their silly little signs on Lake and Superior taking in as much physical and verbal abuse as they've meted out upon the antiwar folk that often stand in their place.

Try this graphical depiction of the current economic crisis:

http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2009/04/graphic-depiction-of-economic-crisis.html

Does it make more sense now why these people might be ticked off regardless of which bratty, snot nosed president started it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MdIU3Gw5l8

In the first 5 years of the Bush administration, when Republicans also controlled congress, government spending rose by 45%

Under Obama's changes to the tax code, only 1.9% of small businesses ( those filing in the upper two tax brackets) will face higher taxes. 98.1% OF SMALL BUSINESSES WILL NOT HAVE THEIR TAXES RAISED.

Bush's Wall St bailout was an act of class warfare against Main St., and, sadly, Obama is continuing it, but all these warnings about creeping socialism are really stupid. Socialism! We should be so lucky. Some have compared this moment to Germany between the wars, when economically devastated people looked for a savior in the form of a strong man. 

Aprox. 2/3 of U.S. corporations pay NO taxes. The burden has been slowly shifted to individuals, who are struggling, and Republicans, who have been thoroughly disgraced, think this is one last thing they can exploit. It's the one hot button they can push again and again. If our tax system was truly  progressive, and we weren't supporting a military budget as large as the rest of the world's combined, they wouldn't even have that dead horse to beat. 

"You can judge the soul of a nation by how well it treats its banks."- The Onion

Tea Party footage, with Russ Stewart leading the charge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm8E0e2l9mI

The sales tax on restaurants and bars to pay for the DECC's new hockey arena was approved by 61 percent of voters, so elected officials can't really be blamed for that one.

Not that a protest couldn't be organized to bitch about the will of voters, but it's easier to draw a crowd by being vague and saying "stop spending my money you stupid politicians."

I second Dave Sorenson's rec to view the U-Tube footage of the Duluth Tea Party. Fascinating, the kinds of people who showed up. A lot of older folks, more men than women, a lot of white people (OK, I know it's Duluth). Not only did Russ Stewart's presence raise their median IQ, he also lowered their median age.

Criticizing people for being old and white doesn't really strike at much of a point, if you ask me.

baci says "欢迎沃尔玛，我可以帮你吗？"

I've been to a Walmart in China.  The greeter was quite proud that he could greet me in English. And he knew exactly which aisle the tabasco sauce was in.  I like globalism.  It means I can get cheese from Switzerland, chocolate from Belgium, and vodka from Russia right here in provincial, bassackwards Duluth.  And it means I can get Cajun spices when I'm in China.

As far as "neocons" stealing your future and lining their pockets, they are politicians, THAT IS THEIR JOB.  Your boy Barry is just continuing a long tradition.  Do you have buyers remorse yet?  Are you paying attention?

A lot of people are upset that this protest got co-opted by Republicans.  This isn't the first time the elephant has stuck its trunk under the tent flap.  It happens.  Just look at the anti-war protests.  I can't stand going anymore because the message gets diluted with calls for "social justice" which sounds good but means something entirely else.  I want peace but without having to listen to all the hippies.  Or smell the patchouli.

Spy1,

As far as solutions, if you find yourself in a hole, the best course of action is usually to stop digging.  If I find I have no money in my checking account, I don't go out and buy a new flatscreen TV with my children's piggy bank and I certainly don't buy one for my rich friends.

omg, ajp... I semi-agree? hell hath frozen and it's the beginning of spring.

My hunch is  
this will not be repaid.  At least not primarily via taxes, more likely through dollar devaluation (inflation). Which is a far more regressive way of paying up.  Progressives: take note! 

Consider the gas price increases last summer. If the govt had tried a 2 dollar/gallon gasoline tax, voters would have gone ape. There was still general grumbling, but not all at politicians. That is why I think inflation will be the reckoning tool of choice. (warning: I am NOT a trained economist! just some fool on the internet.) 

I don't think these tea parties were terribly effective.  However, they might be at staking out some political ground. GOP aiming for a populist swing back to the right. No such thing as a durable majority in a democracy of malcontents. It's hot and it's cold.  And cranky people don't always make good decisions. As Mr. Sorenson noted, the 
Weimar Republic example. 

Here's to hoping things get better soon, and doing what we can to help it along.