a pretty weak tea

it's been almost laughable to watch pundits and politicians from the right take to the airwaves over the last few days to say the word "grassroots" as many times as they could in describing the tea parties held on tax day. many of the protests, anything but grassroots, were actually funded by right-wing organizations run by folks like dick armey and newt gingrich, and promoted endlessly on fox news.

i'm all about protests. especially if you have something clear cut to protest against, or for. but the vast majority of the people protesting on april 15th actually received a tax cut this year. some said they were protesting government spending during an economic crisis (something the vast majority of economists agree government needs to do right now.) some were protesting the immigration issue, but offer no suggestion or solution to the problem. deficits and debt? absolutely, go for it. but where were these people when george w. bush took a huge surplus and frittered it away?

where were these people when the 4000th american soldier was killed in a meaningless war? and more importantly, how many will protest now that we have indisputable, substantive proof that the government many of them supported under g.w.b. committed what amounts to war crimes of torture? but let's carry a sign comparing barack obama to adolph hitler, or continue ranting on the fantasy that obama was born in kenya. that makes sense. if you wanna have an anti-obama party, have at it. we already had the pro-obama party. it was called election day.

when you've got a clear, debatable argument as a party or group, bring it on. when you have nothing – no plan, no alternative, no ideas – then have a tea party with sean hannity or glen beck or greta van susteren. and when it's all over, let's hope you got it out of your system. but you brought nothing to the table.

except some pretty weak tea.