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The one basic way in which our rights are siphoned from us is through taxation. Taxation is a 
necessary evil, but necessity gives way to tyranny when people have to work four months just to pay their local, state and federal governments. According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day for Idaho - the date Idahoans can stop working for the government and start working for ourselves - is today, April 12. This gives Idaho the 18th-highest tax burden in the country. This year, thankfully, reporters will have something new on which to focus, and I hope they pay close attention. Thousands of Americans take part in nationwide Tea Parties. As many as 2,000 could be involved in rallies slated for Boise. I’m told other tea parties are planned from Coeur d’Alene to Twin Falls to Pocatello. In fact, there are grass-roots tea party organizers operating in 18 Idaho cities/Wayne Hoffman, Idaho Statesman. More here.
Question: Are you inspired this year to take part in any of the “tea parties” planned in 18 Idaho cities and around the nation to protest the congressional spending called for in the stimulus package and the 2009-10 budget?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Holly on April 13 at 12:17 p.m.
Protest all you want. People do it all the time, and nothing gets done. The people in charge are making too much money the way things are going now. They don't care if 2,000 or 20,000 show up to protest.
Legislation creates change, not bitching and moaning into thin air. Elect some new representatives if you want policies to change.
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sue on April 13 at 1:06 p.m.
Do you mean faux news' fake teabag protests? It's strictly a put-on, but some folks are getting duped. I wonder if Hoffman is a duper or a dupee?
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Aliasjax on April 13 at 1:15 p.m.
I agree with Sis that it appears to be politically motivated and not a principled stand. Obama is spending more than Bush who spent more than Clinton who spent more than Bush 41 and so on…and tax burdens as a percentage of income have not been significantly different under any of them.
Why is it that the small government conservatives only protest high taxes and federal spending when Ds are in office?
I agree with Holly, too, symbolic gestures will have a very short news cycle and will soon be forgotten and ineffective.
All that said, I wish 200,000,000 people would show up to these things and all decide to stop feeding the beast. Stop supporting the two party system, stop paying income taxes of all kinds and force real change through real civil disobedience.
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Sisyphus on April 13 at 1:18 p.m.
Thanks for your thoughts Ajax. You helped me hone some thoughts for a post. Now if I can find the time.
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DFO on April 13 at 1:27 p.m.
Sisyphus; your 12:08 p.m. comment was deleted as entirely inappropriate re: Wayne Hoffman. Save the sexual double entendre for other blogs.
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moscow_minidoka on April 13 at 1:29 p.m.
Couldn't you have just deleted the offending sentence? Or I suppose Sis could re-post it without the inappropriate (but hilarious) double entendre? The rest of the post was very, very good.
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HonestGeorge on April 13 at 1:34 p.m.
We should be holding 'Tea Parties' alright - but not for the reasons listed. If Idaho has the 18th highest tax burden of any state then we should be looking to clean out the tax sponges in Boise first - but I believe that the Tea Party agenda is aimed at Obama and not any real concern about our tax burden.
Another good reason for an Idaho-directed Tea Party would be that although we are a 'Right-to-Work' state - a condition that was supposed to be an attractant for business - we are seeing more and more businesses such as Costco and Walmart locate across the river from Lewiston into Clarkston, even though Washington has a much higher minimum wage and no Right to Work law. The deal maker must be the lack of a Washington grocery tax - and not the Idaho union-busting Right to Work Act or the lower minimum wage. IACI and their Idaho Legislature subsidiary need an Economics 101 refresher.
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Joker on April 13 at 1:38 p.m.
So the Republicans need a pep rally. I guess this can be it. Nobody said a word when George Bush was burning through the treasury like a Somali pirate.
Wayne, I suggest you use your energies for something more productive, like figuring out what the Republican brand is today. Here's a hint: Bill Sali and Sarah Palin aren't it.
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Joker on April 13 at 1:41 p.m.
Moscow,
Sis isn't funny. That post had to go. It was offensive.
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Sisyphus on April 13 at 1:59 p.m.
Ohfercryinoutloud. “Entirely?” There was nothing overtly suggestive about it other than Wayne supported the group's activities. Even still, they invited the ridicule you can find all over the tubes. Why punish me for their ignorance in selecting a platform for their publicity stunt? Talk about political correctness out of control.
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Joker on April 13 at 2:06 p.m.
Sis,
Are you serious? Go to google, type in what you wrote, and go to the urban dictionary. Then ask yourself if it's offensive.
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DFO on April 13 at 2:09 p.m.
Sisyphus; any time you don't like the way I run things here, you are welcome to stay away. 2 others immediately jumped on your double entendre. So it isn't just me. Or political correctness. You have slammed Hoffman before on this blog. Your comments about him are welcome only as long as they don't attack him personally or insult him.
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toadman on April 13 at 2:12 p.m.
“Save the sexual double entendre for other blogs.”
Damn. There goes my post about on of the only “Tea” related party's I'd be interested in…
;-)
Still, if anyone's hosting a “Long Island Iced Tea Party,” count me in!
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Cabbage Boy on April 13 at 2:13 p.m.
Cue “door slam” pearls, tears, purses, et al.
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Sisyphus on April 13 at 2:37 p.m.
Sure Dave. So because others used it purposefully I get punished. A pretty subjective standard you have there. I do seem to recall that it also has a double component. I'll try and crawl into your mind next time I reference a term that might have a two meanings. Bad Sisyphus.
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DFO on April 13 at 2:56 p.m.
That's 2, Sisyphus.
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idawa on April 13 at 5:41 p.m.
No, the tea parties seem to be no more than partisan posturing - form without substance. I'm somewhat surprised by the hyperbole coming from the right fearing gun control and taxes on the average Joe, both of which have not happened under Obama, nor has their been any movement in congress toward such. They are quaking at boogeyman. Were the Dem's really this bad about Bush, seeing evil in every word and breath? Secondly, I think our forefathers would be a little ashamed. They protested actual oppression - this political stunt is simply a weak form of parody.
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hmoffsuite on April 13 at 5:54 p.m.
Idawa. The government is beginning to take control. That is what our forefathers didn't want. Everywhere you look, the government is getting more involved in our affairs and businesses. You all know what government control is called, and its not good.
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idawa on April 13 at 8:08 p.m.
yeah, but hmo, our forefathers did not rebel against a perception of tyranny or some equivocal notion of what was the proper role of government. They rebelled against ACTUAL tyranny and oppression. The Boston Tea party wasn't a symbolic gesture merely to demonstrate an opposition the Tea Act taxes, it was stand against the lack of representation of the colonies in how they were governed and how they were being exploited by the crown.
Today's political climate isn't anything like our revolution and it is a disgrace to our forefathers and what they fought for the imply as much with this silly gesture. The simple fact is that we we, as a people, voted! The fact that more people voted for more governmental intervention in certain aspects of our lives, and the fact that you voted against it and lost - doesn't mean the subsequent government is tyrannical.
If the government ever suspends elections or stops the press from publishing or starts jailing people indiscriminately I'll join you in the protests. Until then, that fact that a man campaigned on a progressive government platform and, by golly, won, means that an expansion of government is the will of the people - of course, I guess if you can't win in a reasoned democracy then your only recourse is to insight some form of hysteria, which seems to be the only working tactic for the GOP at the moment. Perhaps they should start working on some actual ideas …
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Arpie on April 13 at 8:43 p.m.
I agree with Idawa HMO, or as John Stewart said the other night, “It's not tyrany. It's an election. Your guy lost. It's supposed to taste like a s*** taco.”
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cantyoureadthesigns on April 13 at 9:51 p.m.
Very well said, idawa.
In other news, Larry (tea room) Craig has decided to join in, whole headedly, with the burgeoning tea bag party Ron PAUL REVOLUTION!
Grab your pitchforks and torches!
C 4 L !!!
“If the Tea Party movement is being lost to the far right we will have lost a real opportunity to challenge the liberals. Key statment:
If this is any indication of who’s trying to run the show, count me out. It’s hard enough being a conservative without this kind of baggage.
…
“I knew that the migration of the center right away from the far right would distill the conservatives down to their most fringe and most ‘pure’. But I had no idea how fringe the ‘true conservatives’ were - until now.
Charles Johnson at (top-tier conservative website) LGF posted the following video showing how far right lunatics have taken over the Tea Party movement - and in the process destroyed any hope of a ground swell arising from the grass roots to oppose the liberals in DC.
…”
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.p…
Just keep shooting yourselves in the foot, it's quite comical, like the tea bagging parties. As James Dobson said today “We've lost the culture war”. That's right, you did. Because your “culture” is not in keeping with the God-given freedoms the Founding Fathers enumerated us, nor modern informed policy.
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Arch_Druid on April 14 at 8:45 a.m.
No, I am not inspired to join any tea parties, because they are ridiculous.
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