I would be the last person to want to infringe upon anyone's civic right to indulge in a little teabagging on a spring afternoon...
I'll echo what Allronix said--I'm totally okay with having my taxes go to support infrastructure and social programs. I like civilization. If you want to know where these people were when deficit spending came from the last administration, the organizers--the folks behind it all--were enjoying the benefits. These tea parties were an astroturf thing--all funded and promo'd by some pretty big corporate bigwigs and promoted via Fox News, so even if the folk that were actually out there protesting had legit gripes, they'll be drowned out by the focus that the corporate organizers want to be publicized. If you are out there with a legit gripe (and I know many of the non-crazies are) then you should be aware you're hitching your wagon to a company mule, who'll drive you where the company wants you to go.
Your protest sounds a lot different from the one down here. Down here it was all about bitter, crazy people pissed off that their people weren't in power anymore. They weren't mad about paying taxes--they're paying less of them starting with the rollout from April 1, IIRC--and when the local news reporter tried to ask 'em what they were mad about, she had to run away before they attacked her.
Which is the underlying problem with the teabag protest--the people taking to the streets aren't pushing the same message the people on the news are. Grassroots movement has to start from the bottom and then go up, not the other way around. Then by the time it attracts media attention, there's a clear message to be pulled out of the actual behaviors and actions of the movement, independent of the leech collections who glom onto any such movement in the hopes of piggybacking their messages onto the main one. This was a top-down thing, and it's not strong enough or old enough to support the leeches who are diluting and diverting a message that's unclear to begin with.
Me, I'd rather dump a trillion bucks into the economy than into a sand pit in the middle east where half of it will be looted before it even hits the ground. Preferably funneling the money into the industry that makes wooden spoons and pizza paddles, then lining up the banksters for one huge spanking machine.
If you really want to make a difference and/or register your displeasure, pull your assets from the bad banks and put it into your local or regional banks and credit unions. Local banks and credit unions have historically been--and continued to be--much more conservative with their risks (ie safer!). Plus, it stimulates the economy locally--the more money local banks have, the more they can afford to lend to small businesses, the more local small businesses that can stay afloat, the more employed people there are, the more local goods are in the region, the cheaper the local goods are, the happier your friends and neighbors will be, et cetera et cetera.
PS - if you haven't already found this, the Bonddad blog (http://bonddad.blogspot.com/) is a really touchable source for a lot of financial explanation in plain speech. And he does really cool graphs too. He's got graphs and analysis for *everything* though, so if you're at all into it, you'll get sucked in.
no subject
I'll echo what Allronix said--I'm totally okay with having my taxes go to support infrastructure and social programs. I like civilization. If you want to know where these people were when deficit spending came from the last administration, the organizers--the folks behind it all--were enjoying the benefits. These tea parties were an astroturf thing--all funded and promo'd by some pretty big corporate bigwigs and promoted via Fox News, so even if the folk that were actually out there protesting had legit gripes, they'll be drowned out by the focus that the corporate organizers want to be publicized. If you are out there with a legit gripe (and I know many of the non-crazies are) then you should be aware you're hitching your wagon to a company mule, who'll drive you where the company wants you to go.
Your protest sounds a lot different from the one down here. Down here it was all about bitter, crazy people pissed off that their people weren't in power anymore. They weren't mad about paying taxes--they're paying less of them starting with the rollout from April 1, IIRC--and when the local news reporter tried to ask 'em what they were mad about, she had to run away before they attacked her.
Which is the underlying problem with the teabag protest--the people taking to the streets aren't pushing the same message the people on the news are. Grassroots movement has to start from the bottom and then go up, not the other way around. Then by the time it attracts media attention, there's a clear message to be pulled out of the actual behaviors and actions of the movement, independent of the leech collections who glom onto any such movement in the hopes of piggybacking their messages onto the main one. This was a top-down thing, and it's not strong enough or old enough to support the leeches who are diluting and diverting a message that's unclear to begin with.
Me, I'd rather dump a trillion bucks into the economy than into a sand pit in the middle east where half of it will be looted before it even hits the ground. Preferably funneling the money into the industry that makes wooden spoons and pizza paddles, then lining up the banksters for one huge spanking machine.
If you really want to make a difference and/or register your displeasure, pull your assets from the bad banks and put it into your local or regional banks and credit unions. Local banks and credit unions have historically been--and continued to be--much more conservative with their risks (ie safer!). Plus, it stimulates the economy locally--the more money local banks have, the more they can afford to lend to small businesses, the more local small businesses that can stay afloat, the more employed people there are, the more local goods are in the region, the cheaper the local goods are, the happier your friends and neighbors will be, et cetera et cetera.
PS - if you haven't already found this, the Bonddad blog (http://bonddad.blogspot.com/) is a really touchable source for a lot of financial explanation in plain speech. And he does really cool graphs too. He's got graphs and analysis for *everything* though, so if you're at all into it, you'll get sucked in.