Hats off to the earnest protestors who braved the cold rain to voice their dissent, however misplaced.

But the point is Americans For Prosperity and the Maryland Republicans for insulted our intelligence by claiming the local tea parties were spontaneous grass roots events, when in fact they were the well paid professionals who sponsored, planned, organized, and supervised the whole operation.

One Republican politician after another followed the script on WBAL radio yesterday by denying the party's role, when in fact Americans For Progress hired Ehrlich campaign operative David Schwartz to produce the Maryland tea parties, and the organizer of the Lafayette Square tea party in the District, Andrew Langer, is a GOP central committee member from Queen Anne's County.

Even everybody's favorite Annapolis area mechanic was a paid Republican campaign worker in 2006, a veteran activist, and a collegian of AFP affiliate and Republian activist Rick Loffer, signer of the original AFP tea party letter.

- Steve Lebowitz

PS - The courtesy you mention is common to many deliberative bodies, but by tradition it only applies within the bar of the chamber.

According to this ELECTED official,

""The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs," Schakowsky said in a statement.

"It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt," she added. "Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year. Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”"

Madam Schakowsky, it is YOU as an elected representative who are "despicable" and "shameful" for not listening to your constituents. THAT madam was the reason for the protests, NOT Fox news.

She cannot even tell the TRUTH. She should RESIGN her office.

"Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year."

I think the Tea Parties were going to be successful without the intervention of the Republican Party, but that the Republican Party was searching for something to say that they were successful at doing. I would look at the fact that 10 people showed up for the kick-off of the AFP in Maryland, yet there were 1000s across the state doing the Tea Parties.

I think that Rush and Bill O'Reilly and AFP all just wanted to look popular to what is essentially "their crowd".

However, the more often that conservatives stand together, the less their ideas seem rediculous. That's the trouble the Party has been having, and there is an attempt by the left to squelch any type of organization on the part of the right for fear it will tak eoff.

I am looking forward to reading the story of why David Schwartz is referred to as "Sign Boy".

Justafacts aka Steve Lebowitz

First
Your two names are weird; are you Justafacts or Steve Lebowitz? Please decide.

Second
Tea Party Rally
I watched and listened and read and asked questions and surmised this;

The majority of the people who attended the "Taxed enough already" rally's were young people.

These young people were brought up to help the helpless. They get that.
What they don't get is why their generation should go in debt to help the clueless.

They Get It.
We should do everything in our power to help them in their new found journey.

P.S.
You know I love you regardless of your obstinate twin personality.

www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/back-story/2009/apr/17/liberal-actress-says-tea-parties-were-racist/

According to this racist bigot "actress" they were all like herself.

""Let's be very honest about what this is about. This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House," she said on MSNBC's "The Countdown" with Keith Olbermann Thursday evening. "This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. There is no way around that.""

AndyGreenWatcher
Sorry to burst your bubble but O'Reilly doesn't need to look popular to what is essentially "their crowd".

His cable ratings tell the true story.

Facts are stubborn things.

And I must add he (O'Reilly) has NEVER bashed Obama like the left Bashed Bush, and I'm not a Bush lover.

The rest of the story.

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,980,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,239,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,947,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,740,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,401,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,185,000
COMEDY DAILY SHOW 1,777,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,499,000
COMEDY COLBERT 1,446,000
CNN GRACE 1,336,000
CNN KING 1,292,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,149,000
CNN COOPER 1,021,000

Even after I watched the Fox News I have only a vague understanding what these tea baggers want. Probably because they don't know it themselves. They don't like to pay taxes. Duh! Who does? They don't want to overburden the country with debt. Good. But what to do to overcome our deficiencies in education, energy and infrastructure? How do we make our country competitive? Do the protesters realize that many industrialized countries which out-compete us have higher taxes than we do? Or do they seriously suggest we compete with China and India over lower wages and fewer environmental restrictions, a hopeless race to the bottom, for sure. No, to me its clear: to fix our mess we all have to pay. Either through taxes or through inflation. I'd rather pay my taxes and hope that under Obama we succeed in restructuring the country for the future. Maybe, I, my children and my grandchildren can even enjoy a better infrastructure, better services and a cleaner environment in the future. For this we should gladly consume a little less.

I think this is just another in a long list of feigned outrage events intended to block whatever the Democrats are doing. If these "protesters" were genuinely concerned about the size of the deficit, where were they during the last 8 years when a budgetary surplus was being turned into a huge deficit by starting an unnecessary war, lining the pockets of the country's richest 2%, and spending on ineffective, ideologically based programs like Abstinence training?

The only difference now is who is doing the spending. Personally, I'm relieved to finally see some spending on things like infrastructure, education and alternative fuels.

This is just another ploy by the Republicans to appear relevant and provide something to run against in 2 years. If they can stonewall any progress made by the Democrats, they can campaign on how the Democrats were unable to get anything done. Sadly, too many people will actually buy it.

TonyN said "I'm relieved to finally see some spending on things like alternative fuels."

Please enlighten us as to how much spending in the latest round is going to alternative fuels.

Look at every comment.. can you read between the lines. Liberal democrats who when they want to protest it always has meaning but when someone else does its right-wing this Fox that. It all comes down to what this state has become. A bunch of Zombies following the Dixons and O'Malleys right off the cliff. Go ahead and listen to O'Malley who really helped us with the BGE thing when he knew he couldn't but the Zombies believed him and raising our taxes in the middle of a recession,. Great job. Now you have Dixon who claims she had no idea cashing those gift cards was wrong. Question- did they have her name on them, NO. How about giving herself and her friends a raise while laying off city workers. This is why people are protesting. People in goverment who provest to look out for our interests and never seem to do. Keep voting for these clowns Maryland and ask yourself why my children are failing in school or why my child ends up in jail because he has no other choice.