Another American Tea Party

Is there a New American Tea Party coming to a city near you?

After Press Secretary Gibbs shot down CNBC'S Rick Santelli's rant from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading floor last Thursday, the rant flew round the world hitting major news outlets over this past weekend.

If you missed it on SquawkBox, here you go:



It seems that Santelli's rant has struck a nerve with certain politicians, and surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) hit home with many taxpayers here at home. Tea Party websites have been springing up all over the place, and from the expected (and the most unexpected) sources.

TCOP (Top Conservatives on Twitter) are coordinating simultaneous nationwide rallies and demonstrations for this Friday at noon ET in Chicago, Washington D.C., Fayetteville, N.C., Pittsburgh, Penn., San Diego, Calif., Fort Worth, Texas, Tulsa, Okla., Oklahoma City, Orlando, Fla., Omaha, Neb., Atlanta, Ga., and elsewhere in Missouri. More cities are joining in every day. [link to source]

I like the way the Orlando Tea Party website summed up the bailout protest being held in their area on March 21, 2009:

This will be a peaceful rally to unite our voices and express the love that we have for our great nation and the principles it was founded on. We want to make our politicians hear loud and clear that we are tired of the bailouts, the wasteful Washington spending and the push towards the socialization of this country! We want less government! We want to decide where our hard earned money goes instead of the elitist politicians in Washington taking it and using it to buy votes, doling it out to special interest groups and pork barrel projects! We want our constitutional rights preserved and protected, not trampled on! [link]

For a swelling list of cities, activities and more you can check out the TCOT Report through this link.

The Other Side of the Fence -- The Grass is Always Greener?
Just what are they smoking over there?

If you missed the Gibbs response to Santelli's rant, you can see it on YouTube through this link.

I found it amusing to watch Gibbs hold up the few sheets of paper (about 4 or 5 pages?) and wave it around as if it was to suggest the Bill/Plan was so simple. It probably is less convoluted than the 1,073-page Stimulack Bill for $789.5 billion (which some analysts have now calculated it actually adds up to more than $3.27 Trillion when all is said and done).

I guess it's a "save-the-trees" thing for bailouts now, because the draft for this foreclosure/housing/or-whatever-u-call-it (worth a mere $275 billion they say -- really?) bailout is actually available in pdf form, too... unlike the Big Bomb Obama signed and tossed at us taxpayers last week.

After watching the above Gibbs response clip, you might be curious... "Well, what is this plan that looks no bigger than about 4 or 5 pages?"

As Gibbs said, you can download it online from the White House website:
- link to Q & A
- link to "examples" sheet

Oh -- that's not the Bill you say?

Yeah... I couldn't find it either.

But the Q&A says it will be there around March 4... after it's signed.

Maybe a draft version is available (or will be after I post this). If you find it, feel free to post a link to it here in the comments.

So, I'm settling back, getting ready to watch Obama's first address to Congress and wondering;
- how many times will he say the word crisis?
- how many times will he say he/they won?
- how many times will he use the word necessary and/or need?
- and will he yet again say that the majority of the American public voted for all of this?

I've taken NLP courses. He's pretty good at it. I'm really curious to see how much of it he applies to his speech tonight.

Part of me feels sorry for him. Really.

Part of me is just plain disappointed in him.

Will he pound another nail in our financial economy -- the cross we all bear now -- or will he attempt to raise some spirits tonight?

I wonder...