TEA Parties

[AlBrattOnline]

I am writing in reference to an article in the Tupelo Daily Journal Sunday, April 12,2009, titled “Protesters Plan Tea Party in Tupelo” by Dennis Seid.

According to Seid, “the gathering is part of a nationwide TEA (Taxed Enough Already) party protesting what supporters say is out-of-control government spending.”The party was organized by Grant Sowell and being held at Tupelo City Hall on April 15 th.

Sowell says “organizers list several beefs they have with Congress and President Obama , including ...spending and tax bills voted on ‘without even reading it,’...”

Continuing, Sowell discloses additional “beefs” organizers have been using. I call them talking points, and I noticed right away that I had read these talking points before from the website of Rev. Don and Tim Wildmon, who are the honchoes of the tax-exempt, Gay-Bashing, Homophobic Tupelo, Mississippi based American Family Association.

(Ah! It must be nice to be deeply involved in American politics and tax-exempt at the same time.)

In considering Sowell’s /Wildmon’s talking point: ‘spending and tax bills voted on without even reading it,” I would conclude that Obama’s Stimulus Bill would qualify as an emergency bill, which like Bush’s Patriot Act, required, what Republicans considered, a hasty passage. The complete Obama Stimulus Bill, according to several news sites, contains approximately 1,000 pages. Given the fact that almost the majority of Congressional Republican obstructionists were pre-determined to vote against Obama’s Stimulus, “reading before signing” would seem to be a moot point for Conservatives.

At any rate, there is a website still allowing citizens the opportunity to sign a petition demanding their Congressional Representatives read the bill: “Congress should change its rules to require that non-emergency legislation and conference reports be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before debate begins.”

Log on to: http://readthebill.org/?thanks and sign the petition.

I signed the petition earlier, so now I think I will settle back and have a cold glass of Tea, while I contemplate a fair and equitable tax deduction for the truly deserving, inclusive associations and individuals across America — highlighted by a Boston Tea Party style celebration called a TEA Party (Tax Exempt Already).