Teabagging in New Milford CT, Smell The Fear: A Brief Photo Journal

Went to the local Teabag event today, 10 AM to Noon. The gathering maxed out around 90 folks and what struck me, what seemed to be the commonality; they were all afraid of something.

They were a mix of fairly normal looking folk; a few freeperish looking, a few older Connecticut blue-bloods, some ex-marines, a few white supremicist-looking people, a ballet teacher, some yuppies with babes in arm, even a few emo types wandered by.

But the range of their fears knew no bounds.

Some obviously feared losing their rifles, this woman latter also spoke of the terrible things being taught and not taught in schools; specifically the Constitution is not being taught and history class consists of everything America has done wrong.

And of course there is the fear of majority rule.




This sign is a bit harder to puzzle out, I guess investing in clean energy and physical infrastructure is destroying her children's future.



One man spoke specifically about the children's future and was sorely afraid. A bit later a group of young children dressed in their Sunday best lined up in front of the speakers to demonstrate that concern.





I did find myself wondering where all these supporters of the Constitution were during the last eight years while it was being trashed.




More crowd shots; an interesting confab.




Somehow "Government Waste" doesn't quite seem to fit with the other eight issues listed here, kind of a filler I guess. He does sum up the majority of the speaker's fears though; lots of talk about immigrants, card check, cap and trade, terrorists, etc.




This gentleman seemed to be the organizer and I was under the impression that the organizing was done through the New Milford RTC, at least the email contact on this tea party website used an email address that was @nmrepublicans.com and the FaceBook link on the same page went to the New Milford Town Republicans FaceBook page which features the New Milford Republican Town Committee seal upon it.




Perhaps this uniquely worn bumper sticker encapsulates many of the fears of the more radical elements that were present.




All in all it was an interesting hour and a half. Other interesting speeches referred to Monsanto attempting to take over world agriculture which was somehow attributed to Democrats, Obama doing way too much negotiating with "pirates", Obama trying to cancel health coverage for Vets, Obama planning a census that will count every two "minorities" as three, and well you get the drift, a lot of real tinfoil-hatted kookery.

The fear though .......... its scaring me.

DHS, Right Wing Extremists, It's TeaBag Day!

At the White House presser today Gibbs was asked about the Teabaggers, "Is the President aware that these are going on and do you have any reaction to this?

Gibbs replied, "I don't know if the President is aware of the events. I think the President will use tomorrow as a day to have an event here at the White House to signal the important steps in the economic recovery and reinvestment plan that cut taxes for 95 percent of working families in America, just as the President proposed doing; cuts in taxes and tax credits for the creation of clean energy jobs." But maybe, just maybe, DHS was really answering the question.

Well, I may try to get out and take a few snaps of the local Teabagggers tomorrow but in the meantime there is this from, of all places, Faux News.

"The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement agencies that recent news is helping 'right-wing extremist groups' recruit new members and could lead to violence, and warns about the possible recruitment and radicalization of returning veterans.

The report, issued last week, is part of an ongoing review of extremists on both ends of the political spectrum.

The latest assessment by DHS' Office of Intelligence and Analysis found no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but right-wing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on fears about the recession and the election of the first African American president. The office called them 'unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment.'"