Thursday, April 16, 2009

Politics over the hump...


I apologize for not posting on my usual Wednesday, but my entire day and evening was Tea Party related. My friend Vanny and I rode the bus into Houston to the downtown event. I got the photos off the Houston paper's site because although I took cell photos, I can't figure out for the life of me how to get them off of there. Technology really annoys me sometimes...

Anyway, that first photo is of the woman who was voluntarily making signs. She asked you if you had a phrase preference, otherwise she chose one. She made us a couple of double-sided ones. I chose "Country Before Party is The Only Change We Need" on one side and "Why Waste a Good Crisis? I'll tell ya why!" I wish we'd have gone ahead and brought our own signs, but we were afraid we wouldn't be able to bring them on the bus.

I chose the remaining photos because I think they give a good visual of the majority of the protesters. I crashed in front of 2 tv's when I got home, and for a few hours I watched CNN and MSNBC to see how they covered Tea Party Day. I knew Fox would repeat later on, but I also knew they were carrying all-day coverage.


I have to say that I was pretty shocked at how blase' CNN and MSNBC both covered it. I was also highly insulted at times by how both of their more ridiculous partisans (that Jack guy on CNN and Keith Olberman on MSNBC) kept minimizing it as a trumped up GOP-controlled gimmick and thereby dissing participants, like myself, as being either brainless or right-wing terrorists, thanks to Homeland Security choosing today to release a report on right-wing domestic terrorism threats.

If there was any doubt in my mind about how those two networks don't even try to report news that is unfavorable to Obama, then my mind is free of doubt now. Any reporter without an agenda had only to wade into these crowds all over the nation and he/she would clearly have seen only Mom and Pop, Middle Age, Middle Class, Middle of the Road Taxpayers. No terrorists. No Aryan Bro-hoods. No KKK. Gosh! Read those signs in the photos. They say it all.

Just some observational notes from my day... I was amazed at the number of people around me who had voted for Obama...(sort of, as one woman said it all came down to enee, meanee, minee, mo in the voting booth)...but had they known how he'd govern they never would have and that's why they were angry first and foremost. This is almost never talked about on tv, and I think it's why the CNNbc's have written it off as a stunt. I mean, Heaven forbid they'd have to send several reporters into the crowds and ask for honesty...they might get it and that would make Obama look bad, perhaps almost illegitimate if too many voiced buyer's remorse.

What I saw was, sure, the GOP latched onto the coattails of Tea Party, but they have never controlled it or even influenced it. That means that Fox was actually the only cable news to cover the event and give it the importance it deserved.

As to whether it will continue, who says it has to as strongly? I mean, we got our point across and we got one cable news network to do its job and cover it. We're beginning a long season for good weather and there will be another event like this. I'm guessing July 4th is looking the part more and more...

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