Tax Day Tea Party in a Minnesota town near you!

The main stream media is having a hard time reporting on the grass-roots planning and massive "silent no more" revolution that is sweeping the nation.  CNN and the Washington Post have called the protests "anti-Obama rallies," and USA Today compared the protests in more then 500 cities across the nation to the far-left, liberal organization MoveOn.org.

Rachel Maddow of MSNBC has continued to poke fun and diminish the tea party movement while most of the main stream media outlets have largely ignored them.  Fox News has scheduled several hosts to broadcast live from the events being held in Sacramento, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Glenn Beck will be at the Alamo.

What is most disturbing about the media coverage (and the lack of it) is that they couldn't be further from the truth in reporting.  Even our friends at Fox are turning the tea parties into a circus for their own ratings.  The truth is, a nation-wide protest of this magnitude, with this much exposure, has never been done before.  The media doesn't really know how to handle it because it doesn't fit in their neat little box of what to do when a bunch of out-of-control, looting, rioting protesters reak havok on a community in the name of saving lab rats.  The Tax Day Tea Parties are different.  These protests stand for freedom, liberty, fiscal responsibility and the Constitution of the United States.  And the media don't know what to do.

To help disspell some of the myths you may hear from your typical news sources, here are some truths about the Tax Day Tea Parties.

• These events are designed to be peaceful, family-friendly events.
• The point is to be heard and taken seriously.
• The Tea Parties are NOT political.
• They are NOT republican.
• They are NOT anti-Obama.
• They ARE anti- government-spending-spree.
• They ARE NOT the end of the road, but rather the beginning to the peaceful, legal revolution to take our country back from those elected officials who are not doing their jobs, namely those who don't vote how their constiuents have elected them to vote.
• The "revolution" will come in the form of voting out corrupt, selfish, irresponsible Senators and Congressmen.

There are many invitations, Youtube videos and viral emails that have invaded the internet over the last several weeks encouraging citizens who are fed up with the wasteful spending in Washington to attend the tea party protests, send letters/emails to their representatives and ask local media to cover the events.  Here is one of the viral emails regarding Tea Parties in Minnesota.

Dear Tea Party Participant,

Tomorrow is the big day (4/15/09) and we are excited about our opportunity to help make your voices heard. With that in mind, there are a few important items that we would like to reinforce prior to the event.
 

Our main themes surround the following subjects; excessive taxes, redistribution of wealth, nationalization of private businesses, socialized medicine, excessive government regulation, loss of individual freedoms and national sovereignty.

We are not here to attack people, politicians or parties. We are here to attack and challenge policies.

We are not interested in partisan politics – this is grassroots coalition representing a large cross section of the political spectrum interested in achieving a common goal around the outlined subjects.

Be mindful of the fact that we have been alerted that there might be attempts to disrupt our event. Remember – We expect our participants to behave peacefully and respectfully with all those with whom we might disagree. The eyes of the state and the country are on us, let’s make our voices heard with dignity.

Also while we are encouraging you to bring signs, please make sure they are in good taste. Again focus the message on policies not people.

Please enjoy the event we look forward to seeing you there!

There have been recent reports of groups such as ACORN, the infamous organization that allegedly committed massive voter fraud last fall, have made plans to infiltrate the tea parties and protest the protests.  FoxNews first reported on the anti-Tea Party movement earlier this month but tea party organizers say they aren't worried.

The Tax Day Tea Parties are not in any way affilliated with a political party, nor do they rally behind a leader or specific organization.  In fact, the opposite is true.

From the Wall Street Journal:

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... 

What's most striking about the tea-party movement is that most of the organizers haven't ever organized, or even participated, in a protest rally before. General disgust has drawn a lot of people off the sidelines and into the political arena, and they are already planning for political action after today.

Cincinnati organizer Mike Wilson, a novice organizer who drew 5,000 people to a rally on March 15, is now planning to create a political action committee and a permanent political organization to press for lower taxes and reduced spending. Tucson tea party organizer Robert Mayer told me that his organization will focus on city council elections in the fall as its next priority. And there's lots of Internet chatter about ways of taking things further after today's protests.

In Minnesota, there are more than 16 cities with planned events with the St. Paul rally expecting a large crowd at the capitol building.

The schedule of events for the St. Paul Tax Day Tea Party can be found here.  The event begins at 5pm with music and speakers taking the stage at 6pm.

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I have been following and writing about the Tea Party movement since Rick Santelli of CNBC ranted on the floor of the Chicago exchange.  To see the video that started it all, click here.

If you have questions about the April 15th rally in St. Paul, please comment below with your question.  I will be checking comments and responding via email until 3pm.