Now We Can't Even Protest Taxes

Geraldo Rivera covering the April 15 Tea Party

"Stay safe there, Geraldo."


Tomorrow, April 15, is not only the day taxes are due, it is a day that will be marked all over the US by angry tax-payers, who are tired of seeing their taxes raised in hard times by a government-be it federal-state or local that never tires of wasting our money. Tomorrow, thousands of people are expected to turn out at "tea parties" all over the nation to show their displeasure.

Given today's revelation about the Dept. of Homeland Security report on the "threat from rightwingers', I suppose dozens of agents will be assigned to infiltrate the demonstrations, take photos, write down license numbers, identify the ringleaders and make sure all the names get into the DHS computer system. Maybe the National Guard will be called out to maintain order.

The media on the left is also taking note with a critical eye. Last night on MSNBC's "Countdown", liberal commentator David Shuster, sitting in for liberal commentator Keith Olbermann, was interviewing liberal commentator Lawrence O'Donnell (that's all they have on MSNBC) on the subject. O'Donnell opined that the whole thing was ill-advised, no leader wanted to be identified with it, and anger was misdirected since tax increases came about when Bush was president-not Obama.

Mr O'Donnell conveniently left out California, which just got hit with the biggest state tax increase in US history even though we were already the most heavily-taxed state in the country. Who was responsible for that? A Democrat-run state legislature, aided by Republican-in-name only Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a handful of Republican sell-outs (who are now on their way to being recalled by the voters).

Mr O'Donnell, we are angry at both parties. We are angry at the Democrats because your party should be renamed the Tax and Spend Party. We are angry at Republicans because they have not done what they promised they would do-fight new taxes and fight unnecessary government spending. We are angry at the entire government-federal, state and local for what they are doing to us so they can get more money to spend on their pet projects for their pet constituent groups.

And what do the likes of Lawrence O'Donnell and David Shuster say?

"How dare they?"

In reality, it's only once in a blue moon that normal, everyday folks are stirred up enough to protest because we normally appreciate our country and are happy to live here. It's almost always the far-left crazies who turn out to protest this or that because they essentially believe America is a really bad place. But when people like tax-payers say, "enough is enough", by the reaction on the left, you would think the Republic was on the brink of collapse. The last time I remember such a reaction was the 2000 election fiasco in Florida when a group of white Republican guys in suits in Miami tried to prevent a handful of Democrat vote counters from taking the ballots into a closed room to count. From the mainstream news accounts, you would have thought blood was flowing in the streets of Miami. Absurd.

So it will be interesting to see how the media covers (if they cover it at all) these events. Will the protesters be described as a handful of kooks or dangerous rightwingers intent on toppling the Republic? Or will they ask the question "the whole world wants to know"....

How dare they?