When they had the Boston Tea Party in 1773, tea bags weren't invented yet. They were invented in 1907.

Unicorn Nuts…On Your Face

Tea Partiers are hoping that if they mimic the energy of anti-war protests and the savvy of Obama’s new media operation, that at some point an actual movement will spawn. Getting together a bunch of pissed off middle-aged white people with no clue about how the tax system works in public areas will generate a coherent agenda designed to combat the stimulus; if it gets enough media coverage, they will DOMINATE THE AGENDA.

It’s like taping a horn to a horse and waiting for it to alight on a magic cloud of stardust and pixies.

Getting together a bunch of pissed off middle-aged white people with no clue about how the tax system works in public areas will generate a coherent agenda

That's exactly how California passed Proposition 13.

And just look at our public education system in California! That didn't have any unintended consequences, did it?

However I am in no position to grouch about Prop 13 given that it saves my ass when it comes to property taxes.

Yet Proposition 13 latched onto an issue, or maybe an entire mindset, that was on the rise. Level of taxes, size of government, and the like were Ronald Reagan's big campaign issues. And he became President just two years after Proposition 13 passed.

The tea partiers, on the other hand, are trying to create a movement on the same issue when the mindset is different. The mindset has moved on to worrying about jobs, health care, infrastructure, and the like. Maybe there's a way to address those concerns with a low-tax, small-government agenda. But the tea partiers don't seem to be able -- from what I've seen, don't want or don't even have an idea that they might want -- to do that.

If I'm making any sense here.

The only thing I like about "tea parties" is all the innuendo they spread across MSNBC. Keith and Rachel being twelve ftw! And who knew Shuster was funny?

Prop 13 just pisses me off.

Prop 13 just pisses me off.

It's insane troll logic is what it is.

yes -- and I hear defenses of it.

The big problem was that before prop 13, property taxes were crazy in this state -- they could jump 10% in a year. Of course my argument is that we didn't have to freezes things -- just make things reasonable.This holds no water with most people that vote for it.

Of course, thier grandkids are in private school....

That's the thing, Prop 13 was supposed to combat and unreasonable increase in property taxes, but it placed the cap at an absurdly low level. If my memory is correct it's a 1% cap on taxes. They can't be more than 1% of the value of the property. It was a 57% decrease in property taxes. Now I can see that they were getting out of control in the state, but it just decimated the state economy. It went way way too far.

I also have words about the fact that damned near anything in the state of California can be put to public referendum. Kristin can tell you, it's one of my rants. Right up there with the asshats in office in the 70's who didn't have the US switch to the metric system.