TEA Party - Taxed Enough Already Party

On December 16, 1773 a group of American colonists, in protest to the British government's Tea Act (a tax on tea), hijacked a British ship and dumped the cargo into Boston Harbor. This act of defiance sent a bold statement to the British government that colonist in America would no longer accept the burdens of excessive taxation from a distant land, without representation.

On February 19, 2009 CNBC reporter Rick Santelli boldly ranted from the floor of the Chicago Board of Exchange on pending "stimulus bill" the Obama Administration inevitably passed through Congress and signed in law. Santelli captured the thoughts on many Americans in his opposition to the content of the bill and accused the Administration of essentially preventing growth in the private sector and rewarding irresponsible behavior.

During Santelli's self described "rant" he proclaimed that he was organizing a Tea Party in July, in Chicago, to protest the policies set forth by the government that punish those who work hard and play by the rules. By doing so he sparked an new movement and Tea Party would once again become an outlet of protest for American taxpayers. And many Americans will not be waiting until July to display their objections to government policy.

April 15, 2009, otherwise known as Tax Day, Tea Party protests are set to take place in 300 cities across the United States. State organizations have also been formed in order to organize such a massive movement of people nationwide. I will be attending a Tea Party in Canton, Ohio on April 15th from 12pm-1pm.

From now until April 15th, Koss Country will be primarily focused on promoting Tax Day Tea Party activities, issues related to the Tea Party movement and insight on what this could mean for the conservative movement at large. I will also be following tomorrow's special election in New York's 20th Congressional District.

I will also be adding links to the sponsors of the Tax Day Tea Party events to ensure that the message is spread and full credit is given to those who are promoting these demonstrations.

When you want tea, you bring water to a boil. When you want genuine change, you do the same thing to the American public.

Right now, that public is boiling mad and, with April 15 around the corner, the most important thing brewing is tax protest. For every state in the nation, this tea's for you.

Lucky for us, our cups runneth over. The nationwide Tax Day Tea Party movement is building incredible steam with an event on the day most Americans dread -- April 15. It's an H&R Block party to take back our government from people who couldn't manage the budget of a Kwik-E-Mart.
The tea parties have only gotten passing mention on the major broadcast news shows. Papers like The New York Times and Washington Post would rather cover just about anything other than a conservative protest.
The movement was inspired by the anti-tax fervor that made CNBC's Rick Santelli a household name. Thankfully, Santelli let his anger get the best of him. His famous rant called for the president to have "people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages." A week later, on February 27, 30,000 people gathered at 50 tea parties from Green Bay to Philadelphia to celebrate a sentiment first made popular in Boston in 1773. Of course, as every schoolchild knows, back then patriots threw tea into the harbor rather than pay outrageous taxes.

Now, that Lipton's is pouring all over the Internet as videos of tax protests populate YouTube and other video sites.

More than 64,000 people have viewed Lloyd Marcus singing "American Tea Party" and proclaiming "freedom ain't free." One video from the earlier tea parties has close to a quarter million views as angry taxpayers realize national media and politicians ignore their protests. Journalists are as clueless as ever. But some politicians are getting the message as modern day patriots create security scares by sending tea bags to their politicians in Washington.

On April 15, the group hopes to dump more Tetley into the budget battle with at least 500 events - including one in every single congressional district. Their goal is to "stop this crazy spending," according to Michael Patrick Leahy, co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter. TCOT, as it is better known to Twitter users, is working with the Dontgo Movement, Smart Girl Politics and Newt Gingrich's American Solutions to make rising taxes and a tone deaf government the top national issues.

Their message to politicians is simple: "Vote for the wasteful spending bill and we will find someone from the crowd to run against you and we will beat you in 2010," said Leahy. He puts it more nicely than I would. The hardworking people of this country are tired of being robbed and two months in, Barack Obama looks more like Jesse James every day.

If you rely on the mainstream media, then much of what you've just read truly is news. The tea parties have only gotten passing mention on the major broadcast news shows. Papers like The New York Times and Washington Post would rather cover just about anything other than a conservative protest. Last week, The Times preferred to regale readers with the "significance of the tea ceremony in Japan" instead of telling them the significance of a tea protest in the United States.

The Washington Post has completely ignored tea party events in recent weeks, but it's there for meaningless demonstrations like "Genital Integrity Awareness Week." (Such is the state of modern media that they need a week to find that which the Lord gave them.) The paper's Style section delivered a protest story involving "about 50 people" opposed to male circumcision. The event was typical Post fodder, lacking only the "Free Mumia" idiots who usually abound in left-wing gatherings. I guess it's only natural that The Washington Post would rather cover 50 penis protesters than thousands in an actual tax demonstration. Given how much they cover Congress, they are uniquely familiar with the subject of the first protest and care little about the second.

Even CNBC, which helped make the "Chicago tea party" an idea that the White House had to address, has slinked away from the battle. Santelli cancelled his scheduled appearance with Jon Stewart and the network itself has made a major left turn by adding analyst Howard Dean and getting Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington to guest host on "Squawk Box." Almost overnight, Jim Cramer, CNBC's star attraction, went from comparing Obama to Lenin (in January) to saying he was "pro-shareholder" just two months later. Apparently somebody at GE wants CNBC to be more like MSNBC.

But a news blackout won't stop the tea parties. They are just getting started. The April 15 event is only round two of 10 planned rounds of butt-kicking activism. Round three, fittingly, is on July 4. On tax day, we get to remind Washington that we pay the bills for all of their pork-barrel spending. On Independence Day, we get to remind them that we can vote all them out just as easily as they were voted in.

SIGNS: Downloadable PDF ideas for signs

This is a basic guide for establishing, promoting and implementing your Tax Day Tea Party. If you see changes that need to be made, contact us and let us know what need to be edited.

Step 1: Avoid Duplicating Efforts - Check to see if someone else has already started planning a Tea Party in your city.

This is a problem we ran into for Chicago. A small group had been planning on meeting earlier in the morning and for a slightly different type of rally, but we didn't catch it before setting ours up. We're now hoping we can combine the two events on April 15th, so hopefully it will all work out.

Here at TaxDayTeaParty.com we have a page with a full list of known Tea Party events for April 15th. You can check that page to ensure there isn't already an event happening in your city/town.

You'll also want to search Facebook "Tax Day Tea Party" or "April 15 Tea Party", along with the name of your city/town, to see if an event has already been set up.

If nothing has been set up, then someone needs to get the ball rolling. And since you're reading this%u2026 it sounds like that someone might be you

Step 2: Coordinate - Send an email to amykremer@gmail.com letting her know you wish to set up a local Tea Party in your city.

Amy will work with you and help you get your Facebook Event page set up. You can do this on your own, of course, but it's easier for us to make sure we're not duplicating efforts if we're all collaborating with our actions.

Once your Facebook Event page is set up, you need to start working on the details of your Tea Party (What, when, where, what time, how, etc%u2026)

Step 3: Pick a Location - Now it's time to ponder on various locations. Ask yourself "Where is the best place to host a Tea Party? In front of the Federal Reserve Bank? In a park? Where will you get the most attention? Where have protests been held in the past? Where was the February Tea Party held?".

It's also important that you check with your city/town to see if a "Demonstration Permit" is required to protest at a public property (I know%u2026 what about free speech?). We got around this here in Chicago by staying on sidewalks and marching through town instead of being stationary in a park or plaza.

Once you've gone through all the options, checked out what you think is the best location and found it to be feasable and confirmed it has enough space to contain a big crowd, go ahead and put it in your Facebook event page.

Send out an announcement to your members letting them know and begin putting together an email list of everyone you know so you can inform them as well.

Step 4: Prepare Media Campaign - Open up a plain text document on your computer. Now go to EVERY newspaper, TV and radio website in your city/town and hunt for phone numbers, fax numbers and emails. Build a list of each, and plan to contact each outlet through all three methods. You'll likely need help with this if you're in a large city, so get with some of the people coming to your Tea Party to help out if need be.

Draft a press release announcing your planned Tea Party. We have press release templates you can use if you do not know how to write one (coming soon.)

Send your press release out (make sure you have PLENTY of contact information on it. You can put our Press Secretary, Julie Johnson, on the release if you're not comfortable speaking with the media)

When do I send the press release out?The day, specifically, can vary. But usually you'll want to send it on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. You'll also want to do at least three press releases total%u2026 one the day you announce your plans, one as the event draws closer, and the last one the day before the event

Michael Sabot is a Tea Party organizer who is helping build April 15 Tea Party events in Leesburg, Georgia.

This is the eleventh in our series of e-interviews with local Tax Day Tea Party organizers. (There are links to the previous ten interviews at the end of this post.)

Have you done anything like this before?
Not since I was in High School in the 60's.
Why does this matter to you?

I want congress to know that they and the Administration are AIG, (Arrogant, Incompetent, Greed)

I want my granddaughter to have a choice and a future.

I do not want children to be born owning the government a life time of wages for what they are spending now.

What are the main things you are doing to get the word out?

Web, and making contract with other groups and political parties (Flat Tax, Libertarians, etc.)

• Letter to the editors - all the local papers, I run a series different each week



• Flyers in local places of business promoting event



• Interviews given to local TV and Paper



• Taking out ad in local paper runs 4 weeks to day of event



• Getting up at county and city commission meetings, telling them what's going on and inviting them to show up. (press and TV can be there).

Any advice for other local organizers?
Stay focused, don't spread yourself to thin with other issues, make use of web for resources, involve others in the area for help, delegate and follow-up to make sure it's done.
Interviews with other organizers:

• Interview with Rick Radecki (California)


• Interview with Nathan Sather (California)


• Interview with Keli Carender (Washington)


• Interview with Matthew Givens (Alabama)


• Interview with Elaine Barnett (West Virginia)


• Interview with Melodye Aben (North Carolina)


• Interview with Christie Carden (Alabama)


• Interview with Laura Boatright (California).


• Interview with Pam Fowler (Connecticut).


• Interview with Felicia Cravens (Houston).