One Cup or Two?

Dear Friend and Reader:

A movement is afoot.В A nationwideВ tax protest has been building, started late February by CNBC’s financial correspondent Rick Santelli and now promotedВ by Fox News, called “Tax Day Tea Party”, where participants, most of them beneficiaries of eight years of Bush tax cuts,В protest the Obama Stimulus Package byВ sending bags of tea to flood the floors of Congress.

This form of protest has been nicknamed “Tea-Bagging Parties” andВ tax day,В April 15th has been deemed a National Day of Tea-Bagging, where protesters gather with signs and tea bags supposedly in reference to the original American tax revolt,В the Boston Tea Party. However, there is a minor problem. Not in the concept, but theВ brand.

I guess this gives a whole newВ twist on “My Country ’tis of Thee” andВ its refrain land of the Pilgrim’s pride.В Now I’ve never been one to object to the application of letting freedom ring, andВ having the bombs bursting in air in this instance may be more preferable for some, but not all. I guess it would depend on how patriotic we feel at the climactic moment.

But do they have to do this across the country? Can’t it be a state’s right to choose whether to tea-bag or not? In a matter of months,В there could beВ a statewideВ initiative campaign erupting in my state, qualifying who can tea-bag, where and with whom. With Pluto in Capricorn, we may end up mandating licensed tea-bagging. Damn government.В The endless court battles. One referendum after the next. The endless court appeals. The lines around San Francisco City Hall. The horror!

But this is America. The right to free speech and peaceable assembly is ours byВ constitution and everyone should have their say, even ifВ the movementВ referencesВ the nickname to a left-of-vanilla sexual act.

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