Voice For Liberty

Tag: Wichita tea party

  • Tillman story may leave wrong impression of Wichita tea party

    The Wichita Eagle news story Democrat Tillman enters race for 4th District seat may give its readers an incorrect impression of the Wichita tea party protest held on tax day.

    In the story, the reporter quotes Robert Tillman as saying “Confederate flags (were) flown at the Republican tea party.”

    The first half of this statement is true, but hardly indicative of the sentiment of tea party protesters.

    I have about 360 photographs that I took at the tea party. Looking at them, I saw one confederate flag.

    I called Robert Tillman, the subject of the story and whose quote appears above, and asked him how many of these flags he saw. He said “at least two.”

    At least 2,000 people attended the Wichita tea party. So a rate of one confederate flag per 1,000 people, I’d venture to say, hardly supports the impression that readers may get from this story.

    By the way, an informal survey by a television reporter of 100 people at the tea party found 46 who identified themselves as Republicans. So the claim that it was a “Republican tea party” is not substantiated either.

  • Stephen Moore: Tea party like “sonic boom”

    Speaking at a recent event held by the Sam Adams Alliance, Wall Street Journal editorial board member and economist Stephen Moore told tea party protesters that “the message that you all delivered was heard like a sonic boom in Washington. We’ve never seen anything like it.”

    He said that the tea party protesters are angry about the outrageous bailouts and the unbelievable amount of debt the country is taking on.

    He told the audience that an article in the Wall Street Journal estimated that if we go forward with the Obama plan, it will cost the average American family $100,000 over its lifetime. So when a CNN reporter asked why the tea party protesters aren’t appreciative of a $400 rebate, what’s that compared to $100,000?

  • After the tea party

    The tea parties across the nation on tax day were a great start. Now is the time to start taking action.

    Groups like American Majority exist to help candidates and activists. In particular, American Majority offers quality training events that train the people we need to run for office, or to help run campaigns, or to be activists.

    Let’s not let the enthusiasm generated by the tea parties die. Read about American Majority’s plans by clicking on American Majority President sets the stage for After The Tea Party with Neil Cavuto. Watch video below.

  • Michelle Malkin on bloggers and tea party reaction

    Saturday in Northbrook, Illinois, about 300 people gathered to attend an awards ceremony presented by the Sam Adams Alliance.

    One of the presenters was Michelle Malkin, who has been at the forefront of blogging for a long time. She’s also been involved in the recent tea party movement.

    In her remarks (introducing my friend Chad Everson as winner of the best state blogger award), she talked about the differences between traditional news media and blogging.

    “I have watched as the dinosaur media strains and groans in the face of competition from citizen journalists and citizen bloggers,” she said.

    Often these citizens have outworked the legacy media. The professional media hasn’t welcomed citizen journalists– in fact they’ve been bitter.

    She mentioned Jonathan Klein, former executive vice president of CBS News, who said “You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances [at 60 Minutes] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.” This was at the time that Dan Rather of CBS was promoting a fraudulent story that was uncovered by bloggers.

    She mentioned Steve Lovelady, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, who described bloggers as “salivating morons who make up the lynch mob.”

    Malkin said that bloggers are often described as snarky and profane. “Anyone who has tuned into CNN and MSNBC over the last week and heard untold vulgar sexual innuendos about teabagging can tell you who has been the salivating lynch mob, and who has been vulgar and profane.”

  • The idiocy of Janeane Garofalo

    Were tea party protesters a bunch of racist rednecks who hate having a black man in the White House? I guess it depends on who you talk to.

    It’s been reported widely for the past few days, so this is sort of old news. But Janeane Garofalo, who in some quarters is considered sage, offered this wisdom in an appearance on MSNBC television:

    JANEANE GAROFALO: Thank you. You know, there’s nothing more interesting than seeing a bunch of racists become confused and angry at a speech they’re not quite certain what he’s saying. It sounds right and then it doesn’t make sense. Which, let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. And there is no way around that. And you know, you can tell these type of right wingers anything and they’ll believe it, except the truth. You tell them the truth and they become — it’s like showing Frankenstein’s monster fire. They become confused, and angry and highly volatile. That guy, causing them feelings they don’t know, because their limbic brain, we’ve discussed this before, the limbic brain inside a right-winger or Republican or conservative or your average white power activist, the limbic brain is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable person, and it’s pushing against the frontal lobe. So their synapses are misfiring. Is Bernie Goldberg listening?

    Then a little bit later:

    GAROFALO: I don’t think you do, for most of them. This is a — it’s almost pathological or elevated to a philosophy or lifestyle. And again, this is about racism. It could be any issue, any port in the storm. These guys hate that a black guy is in the White House. But they immigrant bash, they pretend taxes and tea bags, and like I said, most of them probably couldn’t tell you thing one about taxation without representation, the Boston tea party, the British imperialism, whatever the history lesson has to be. But these people, all white for the most part, unless there’s some people with Stockholm syndrome there.

    For the record, at the Wichita tea party protest on tax day, I didn’t see any signs with racist thoughts, and I have about 360 photos I took that day.

    The fact that MSNBC relies on a person so obviously deranged as Garafalo is one more reason why this network is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Amazingly, MSNBC provides this video served right from their website. Is this something they’re proud to broadcast?

  • Wichita tea party on Kansas Week

    Bob Weeks talks about the Wichita tea party and related issues on the KPTS Television public affairs program Kansas Week on April 17, 2009.

  • Wichita tax day tea party a success

    Yesterday several thousand Wichitans and folks from all over Kansas met on a windswept field to register their discontent with Washington policies.

    The crowd heard from some great speakers, some of which you can see at the WichitaLiberty YouTube channel.

    Citizens had opinions, too. Common themes of frustration included too much spending, pork-barrel spending, and too much taxes.

    Critics of the tea parties wonder why people are protesting against taxes now, just as President Obama is cutting taxes for the middle class. I think that people realize the tax cut is just an illusion. As long as the government keeps spending and creating huge deficits, someone has to pay that bill later on.

    As pointed out in the Wall Street Journal article The 2% Illusion: Take everything they earn, and it still won’t be enough, taking all income from the nation’s most successful people won’t be enough to pay for Obama’s spending.

    Plus, I believe protesters are worried about all taxes and their effect on the economy, no matter who has to pay them. It’s more than just worrying about one’s own self.

    Critics also level charges of “astroturfing” at the tea parties. Astroturf, being fake grass, symbolizes what those on the left think happened: events driven from the top-down instead of the bottom up. Leftist think the tea party protesters are deluded and being used.

    I didn’t get that feeling from anyone. Protesters were there with a wide range of opinions. An informal poll by a television reporter reveled that less than half the attendees were Republicans. It’s true that Americans For Prosperity played a large role in organizing the event in Wichita. I’m glad for that, as organizing an event like this takes time and skill.

    The crowd was well behaved, but not shy in expressing their displeasure. Rumors that people might attend in order to disrupt or confuse the message didn’t materialize.

    When the event ended, someone remarked “This is amazing. People automatically picked up trash and took back their folding chairs.”

    More coverage is available at the Voice For Liberty in Wichita.

  • Video from Wichita tea party

    Some video from the Wichita tax day tea party:

    Cheryl Green: “More taxes are coming!”

    Tea party organizer Nancy Armstrong.

    Citizens speak.

    United States Senator Sam Brownback.

    Kansas senator Susan Wagle.

    Vicki Holland Tiahrt.

    Shari Weber speaks about AfterTheTeaParty.com.

    A look at the humanity and the wind.

  • Wichita tea party: citizens speak

    At the tax day tea party in Wichita, citizens showed their protest signs and talked about the message they want to send to Washington.