The Salt Lake Tea Party

Glenn Becks 912-ers rallied en masse nationwide. I attended the Salt Lake City tea party, and took these pictures under a barrage of snow and rain. I intended to hand out anti-income tax fliers that I made using Ron Paul quotes, but I chickened out.

These pictures show you the six groups represented at the event.

Group 1: The Awesomes. They were few in number.

This was my favorite sign, because it attacked both parties, and word-played "Don't taze me bro."

This plays off of a Prince song, and about the only fact most Americans know about U.S. history, that the number 1776 is somehow involved.

Yep, debt is bad.
I am outraged . . . at your terrible spelling. Apostrophe e, dude.
The Devil was there. There he is, with his funny hat, talking that guy with black hair, the black mustache, black goatee, and black ankle-length robe into signing away his soul.

Group 2: The Crazies. Also few in number.

These guys come to general conference every year. I should have pointed out to them that Satan was walking around with a clipboard.

I'll include the Ron Paulians in this group. I belong to this one.

I want to do this to my car.

Heck yes. I made flyers encouraging people to not pay their taxes. It was made entirely of Ron Paul quotes. But I chickened out and didn't give them to anyone.

Group 3: The exploited children.

There were a lot of people holding signs with similar slogans about robbed children. And check out the three tykes next to her holding signs. There were tons of kids here, but I felt weird taking pictures of kids I didn't know. It made me worry people would think I was a pedo.

Which is why I took this picture at such a weird angle. Her sign says Obama is stealing her future, which leads me to the next group . . .

Group 4: The anti-Obamans. By far the most numerous.

I saw one sign that targeted Dems in general. But most of them were aimed directly at the president.

I think she made this sign for me, because I'm pretty sure I was the only one there who had voted for Obama.

Yep, Obama hires people who make honest mistakes. And if you make a career out of lying and dirty tricks, you can be Bush's right-hand man, and then become a pundit for Fox (I'm referring to Karl Rove).

Where was this poster when our president was actually named George, a third-generation politician who inherited the throne from his daddy, and systematically took away our rights? Oh, but he was a Republican, so all is forgiven.

A Glenn Beck socialism/fascism/communism/can't-get-my-ideologies-straight-ism/ite.

I don't know what this guy is protesting. Did he forget to vote? Did he forget to check wikipedia for the definition of socialism before making that sign? Unfortunately, I assume the answers are no and yes, respectively.

Here's another guy who thinks it's funny to make fun of people who stutter.

And I guess I think it's funny to make fun of people who can't spell. But misspell Obama? This guy must have driven his time-machine from the sixties to this rally. I seriously think someone paid homeless people to hold signs.

Group 5: The money people. These people have two main arguments.

1. They like money.

2. Poor people suck.

Group 6: The Jokesters.

Look at his smile, priceless.

This guy wasn't at Salt Lake, but his joke wins.

Let's pretend for a minute that this wasn't just an anti-Obama rally sponsored by Fox news. Let's pretend that it actually was a grass-roots uprising of people who truly want tax reform. There is something that will spoil their chances of accomplishing anything.

I'll give you a hint. It starts with a 'p'.

Politicians.

Jason Chaffetz, Mark Shurtleff, and Rob Bishop stepped up to bask their egos in the limelight. All of this anti-tax, anti-Obama sentiment has been hijacked and directed to further the political careers of these three politicians, and the Republican party in general. If it truly were grassroots, it would have been open mic. But the main event was controlled by those who want more than anything to maintain the status quo in Utah.

These politicians were invited by the organizer of this tea party, which further cements my theory that these events are not about citizens against taxes, but about Republicans against Democrats.
This movement is grassroots in the same way that Obama's campaign was grassroots. In other words, what had begun as a movement of discontent citizens for change, will be manipulated as a tool to elect a certain party. Obama's campaign machine turned grassroots movements into votes for Democrats. This counter-movement will be used by the Republican campaign machine to turn this anger and discontent into votes for Republicans.

And nothing will change.

I was glad that Ron Paul had some supporters who did not chicken out in spreading the word that there is an honest politician, who has a plan for lowering taxes that will actually work. If anyone wants one of the fliers that I made, I have about twenty of them sitting on the bookshelf.