Well, it certainly was an interesting Tax Day. The Sarah Palin/Rick Perry crowd hit the streets in Austin with messages that clearly represented public frustration with huge US debt and wasteful spending that has caused job losses, business closures, home foreclosures and lots of serious anxiety. Hey - I'm glad that people are using their First Amendment rights, but for heaven's sake -- where were these folks when the Bush Administration was throwing their resources into the black hole of unnecessary war and occupation? What gobbles up most of our tax dollars? Military spending -- the biggest elephant in the room not discussed at the tea party!
One sign featured in a photo of the tea party that was printed in the Austin American-Statesman read, ""I'll keep my money and guns; you can keep the change." Hanging so tightly onto your guns has consequences, folks. Guns will not feed you, and they won't pay the rent. In fact, spending your money on guns will deprive you of rent and food. Tanks, mortar rounds, predator drones and cluster bombs will bleed you dry, increasing the motivation for retaliatory attacks and eroding overall security, not improving it. As Quaker founder, George Fox, reportedly replied to William Penn when Penn asked if he would have to give up his weapon, "Wear thy sword as long as thou canst."
You know, I'm also thinking that some of Texas Governor Rick Perry's sentiments echo pretty closely those of the hardline Islamic fundamentalists he likely regards as enemies. Perry is quoted in an Austin American-Statesman story saying, "I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens and its interference with the affairs of our state." (Is he talking wire-tapping?)
In another article in the same issue, an Afghan cleric named Mohammed Hussein Jafaari is quoted saying, "We Afghans don't want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling us what to do."
Why would Governor Perry suggest that Texas should function as its own independent nation and at the same time champion the corporate and military occupations of sovereign nations abroad? Good grief!
Above are a few photos of some of us tea party-poopers who had a demo at the downtown post office on Tax Day evening, where we annually make our case that the largest budget item of the federal tax pie is the real culprit in our tea-tering economy. Freeing those resources to fund what humans need to live would be freedom that really meant something.
One sign featured in a photo of the tea party that was printed in the Austin American-Statesman read, ""I'll keep my money and guns; you can keep the change." Hanging so tightly onto your guns has consequences, folks. Guns will not feed you, and they won't pay the rent. In fact, spending your money on guns will deprive you of rent and food. Tanks, mortar rounds, predator drones and cluster bombs will bleed you dry, increasing the motivation for retaliatory attacks and eroding overall security, not improving it. As Quaker founder, George Fox, reportedly replied to William Penn when Penn asked if he would have to give up his weapon, "Wear thy sword as long as thou canst."
You know, I'm also thinking that some of Texas Governor Rick Perry's sentiments echo pretty closely those of the hardline Islamic fundamentalists he likely regards as enemies. Perry is quoted in an Austin American-Statesman story saying, "I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens and its interference with the affairs of our state." (Is he talking wire-tapping?)
In another article in the same issue, an Afghan cleric named Mohammed Hussein Jafaari is quoted saying, "We Afghans don't want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling us what to do."
Why would Governor Perry suggest that Texas should function as its own independent nation and at the same time champion the corporate and military occupations of sovereign nations abroad? Good grief!
Above are a few photos of some of us tea party-poopers who had a demo at the downtown post office on Tax Day evening, where we annually make our case that the largest budget item of the federal tax pie is the real culprit in our tea-tering economy. Freeing those resources to fund what humans need to live would be freedom that really meant something.
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