Tea Party

Banned

The oldest continuous Independence Day parade in America, despite having a history of famous (and some infamous) speeches and activities occurring during the event, has decided that a group using one of the most endearing Revolutionary period’s actions as its symbol will not be welcome to participate next year.

First, some background. DailyAdvance.com writes of the Bristol, RI Fourth of July parade:

In July 1785, the citizens of this waterfront town assembled to heap praise on their newly minted nation and to thank God for helping them survive a fierce assault by the British during the Revolutionary War.

In July 1892, lawyer Orrin Bosworth preached that the townsfolk should be accepting of the immigrants arriving en masse: "America has no cause to fear the lover of freedom, be he American or foreign born."

And in July 1963, judge Arthur Carrellas roared to the citizenry about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to ban Bible readings in public schools.

Prayer, speeches and other such "patriotic exercises" have marked the Fourth of July in Bristol every year since 1785 — allowing the town to lay claim to the nation’s oldest Independence Day celebration.

Over the years, the speeches — given by judges, senators, war veterans and others — have run the gamut from typical exhortations of patriotism to muscle-flexing against Communist countries to criticism of court decisions.

The patriotic exercises and annual parade that follows are institutions in Bristol, where pride in country is manifest in the red-white-and-blue center stripe that runs through the main artery of the town and in the American flags and banners that hang outside restored colonial homes.

Fast forward to the present… According to an email from one of the organizers of the Tea Party movement in Rhode Island, they have been banned from participating in the parade in future years because some members of the group (gasp!) were distributing copies of the Constitution!

As we informed you this week, the RI Tea Party float in the Bristol Fourth of July Parade was a HUGE success, with people in the crowd showing overwhelming support and enthusiasm for our cause. Although we expected a positive reception, the response of the parade watchers was beyond our wildest imaginations. We were proud to represent the freedom loving people of Rhode Island to celebrate our country’s Independence! 

Read more

Most polite "unhinged mob" ever?

Earlier this week New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley characterized the people that attended Tea Parties here in the Granite State and across the country as an “unhinged mob” that “didn’t even know what they were protesting.”   Further, he opined that they appeared to “have lost their minds.” 

Perhaps if Mr. Buckley had spent time actually attending one of the several taking place statewide at different times, or if he got some of his news from someplace other than WMUR or the Concord Monitor, he would have known that the truth was in fact completely opposite from what he claimed—That those in attendance are in fact among the most informed folks around. You know the type, because it’s many of you, my dear readers. And me. Regular people too grounded in reality to get lost in the razzle-dazzle and hoopla that is the Obama Administration as glosses over the spread of poisonous, anti-American ethics and ideas up and down the political food chain. People like you and me that have stopped for a moment and pondered some of the consequences of what we are presently doing. We know you can’t borrow your way out of debt or blindly spend your way into prosperity. Indeed, most of the Tea Party participants are well aware that we are taxed enough already and that there can be a better way.

But of course, Chairman Buckley and his comrades know all this. That’s why they are so fearful of the Tea Party movement growing beyond its respectable numbers demonstrated on April 15th, tax day.  You see, in America, at all levels of government, the power always has– and still does– lie with the people when we exercise our right to vote. We ultimately choose who will govern and wield delegated powers. Sadly, with apathy spread far and wide, too many people, for whatever reasons, choose to opt out. This allows for the political class to more easily work and manipulate the process, often times ending with special interests carrying the day with agendas that run contrary to the beliefs and wishes of most people.

And so it is today here in New Hampshire where, rather than actually grabbing the proverbial bull by the horns and trying to deal with the present economic realities in a frugal, intelligent way, the Democratic majority, with the help of a few of the “usual suspect” Republicans, spends its time restructuring our state’s laws in accordance with the wishes of the very powerful gay network. As the state teeters towards a broad based sales or income tax, our “leaders” down in Concord are making Granite State bathrooms a potential safe refuge for perverts and deviants. While reports indicate our Live Free or Die state checks in with a higher percentage of seat belt usage than our cousins in the Bay State featuring a system of government-mandates and fines, our overlords have decided to sell any free choice in the matter for a few million dollars of federal monies borrowed from the communist Chinese.

This is not what people had hoped for when they voted for change in the last election. Buckley and the Democrats know this. And they know that the people at the Tea Parties know this. What they don’t want is any MORE people coming to realize that what has been happening is very wrong, and could actually destroy everything we cherish. Unfortunately for them, while they might be able to propagandize to a certain degree, thanks in no small part to a compliant mainstream news media, there is only so much they can do to hide the growing amounts of money they are taxing away from peoples’ paychecks. More and more, people are realizing that they are, to use the acronym “TEA”— Taxed Enough Already. 

And that, in a nutshell is what the Tea Party movement is all about:

Read more