The Tea Party Express Rolls On

As some may know, the Tea Party Movement is taking a cross country trip from California and will end up in Washington D.C. on September 12th. I hope to catch up with the folks in Joliet, Il. on September 7th. Meanwhile, Fox News is the only mainstream media source to give the express any publicity.



Still, the Express is getting all sorts of publicity from alternative media sources and you can expect tens of thousands to show up in D.C. on the twelfth. Again, I would call that show of force the final death blow in the heart of health care reform but that's already dead so it's merely beating a dead bill by then.

Meanwhile, two new videos of town halls are making a splash, "going viral" if you will. Here's one of a protester being arrested for speaking out of turn at a town hall.



Here's a very revealing video of Congresswoman Diana Watson of California heaping praise on Hugo Chavez, Che Guevara, and Fidel Castro at another town hall






It is also important to note that Barney Frank came out with his support for H.R. 1207, the bill to audit the Fed, after a grilling at another town hall event.



It's hard to quantify the political effect that all these protests had. Howard Dean admitted that tort reform won't happen due to political pressure, Sheila Jackson Lee took a phone call during an event, Nancy Pelosi accused them of astro turfing and extremism, Harry Reid called them "evil mongers", and at thousands of events citizen activists spoke out against the bill. All of this happened as a result of the constant barrage of questions and noise at a plethora of town hall events. As such, we saw politicians reveal a side of themselves they never would have without the pressure of constant confrontations with citizens. The tea parties have arrived.