Taxpayer Tea Parties Mark Taxes Due Day; More Than 5,000 Jam Capitol Area To Protest
UPDATE: A crowd estimated earlier by Capitol police at more than 2,000 and later at more than 5,000 by officers of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol jammed today's anti-tax rally on the south steps of the Capitol. The State Capitol will be the scene at noon today of one of hundreds of "Taxpayer Tea Parties" held across the country and two dozen or so in Oklahoma to protest taxes and government spending, especially the bailout bill.
Rallies in the state include three in Tulsa and those in Duncan, Durant, Lawton, Miami, Muskogee, Norman, Poteau and Tahlequah.
The Wall Street Journal reports how the rallies have been organized: "Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies -- dubbed "tea parties" -- to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org.
"So who's behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize. For a number of years, techno-geeks have been organizing 'flash crowds' -- groups of people, coordinated by text or cellphone, who converge on a particular location and then do something silly, like the pillow fights that popped up in 50 cities earlier this month.
"This is part of a general phenomenon dubbed 'Smart Mobs' by Howard Rheingold, author of a book by the same title, in which modern communications and social-networking technologies allow quick coordination among large numbers of people who don't know each other." Photo courtesy www.markshannon.com.
Rallies in the state include three in Tulsa and those in Duncan, Durant, Lawton, Miami, Muskogee, Norman, Poteau and Tahlequah.
The Wall Street Journal reports how the rallies have been organized: "Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies -- dubbed "tea parties" -- to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org.
"So who's behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize. For a number of years, techno-geeks have been organizing 'flash crowds' -- groups of people, coordinated by text or cellphone, who converge on a particular location and then do something silly, like the pillow fights that popped up in 50 cities earlier this month.
"This is part of a general phenomenon dubbed 'Smart Mobs' by Howard Rheingold, author of a book by the same title, in which modern communications and social-networking technologies allow quick coordination among large numbers of people who don't know each other." Photo courtesy www.markshannon.com.
Labels: Taxpayer Tea Parties
posted by Mike McCarville @ 8:02 AM
