Tax Day Tea Party: Second Annual

This week has been . . . one of those weeks.
Nevertheless, in the midst of sadness and worry, as well as busy preparations,
the Ragamuffin House crew went out to the Albuquerque Tax Day Tea Party 2.0 yesterday.
Unfortunately, yours truly forgot to charge the camera, and all the pictures were from the first part of the event. Then the battery ran out!

Despite concerns, it was another peaceful, happy event for the Tea Party participants, as we lined up along Menaul, both sides, all the way from San Pedro to Wyoming Avenues.

We were at least 9000 strong.

NEARLY WORDLESS SPECIAL: TEA PARTY EDITION

The Rasta-Jew and I volunteered to drive our truck along Montgomery, where the Tea Party was held last year. There was a misdirection campaign--possibly by OFA--and so we wanted to counter it. But ATP had done a good publicity job and the only people across from the IRS were the progressive singing grandmothers.




After we did about five rounds up and down Montgomery, we headed back to Menaul to join the Tea Party.
Here the Rasta-Jew unfurls the First Navy Jack.
Later, he enjoyed jogging up and down the street, flag flying in the breeze.





Three of the NMPA ladies display their signs as they move toward the street to join the Tea Party. Each sign fits their personality--one with no sign, just the flag, Coleen with her flowered patriotic shirt and "Save the Republic" and Connie, reminding our non-representing representatives what's coming in November.




Shot from across the street, this is on the corner of Wyoming and Menaul at the peak of the Tea Party. I wonder if, as the evening wore on, some of them took tea and ice-cream breaks!

People were happy to be out and enjoy the like-minded company, but there was an edge to their signs that indicate that they understand that the Pols are not listening.

Over and over, I saw signs that said things like: Heinrich, Udall, Bingaman--Remember, remember the 2nd of November.

That's election day.






There were also a lot of people and signs out in anticipation of the National 2nd Amendment Rights protest on April 19.

Here, Milt exercises both his First and Second Amendment Rights.

In New Mexico, open carry is honored and practiced.







Dave, the fearless leader of NMPA, here holds his typical sign: short and to the point.

On the other side he had written:
"This is our line in the Sand" next to a picture of the Constitution of the United States.

He was wearing his favorite Patriot Shirt--and I must say, it looks good on him.

During the Tea Party, I walked the whole thing--from Pennsylvania to Wyoming on the north side of Menaul, then back down to San Pedro on the south side, and then back up the north side to Pennsylvania.

I saw a lot of great signs. Many said things like:

"I want to vote for a black president, but not a red one."

"Spread your own damn wealth around!"

"BO: You are not entitled to my wealth!"

And this old car, decorated for the occasion.

A good time was had by most--but most of the Tea Partiers realized that this was keep up the momentum--they know the Pols are not listening.

Meanwhile, Back at the Roundhouse . . .

NEARLY WORDLESS SPECIAL

It was inspiring to know that more than a million taxpayers marched on Washington yesterday, asking "Can you hear us now?"

About 500 of us who did not go the Washington for various reasons, marched on the Roundhouse--the New Mexico State Capitol--yesterday as a local action. This Tea Party was sponsored by the Santa Fe Tea Party.

We were able to get in touch with Patriots from around the state, and five of us passed out literature for upcoming events from New Mexico Patriot Alliance.

Bruce carried the First Navy Jack.
A message to the State of New Mexico, where political corruption and payola is a way of life.
Don't Tread on ME!

People came from all over the State. This van carried the Las Cruces Tea Party group.

We also ran into the High Plains Patriots from Clovis, Boot Heel Patriots from Deming, and the Four Corners Patriots. Most of these groups caravaned and had their vehicles painted with slogans such as "Defend the Constitution!" and "Enough is Enough!"

Signs, signs, everywhere signs.

Mostly homemade. One in the back reads "There's no astroturfing here!"

I saw another that said, "I am not being paid to be here!"

Some marchers arrive, and exchange hellos and greetings with the Capitol Police.

At every Tea Party, we all make a point to thank the police, from the podium as well as personally. Here, the II American Revolution group members have a friendly exchange.

We drove up with our friend, Charlie "O", who is holding my sign. I gave him custody of it while I was passing out literature for LPNM.

When he signed the petition to the State Legislature, Charlie wrote: "Pork is not kosher. NM Jews for Responsible Government."

I guess we have a new group. We'll have to get the website name reserved! :)






Listening to the speeches. After the opening ceremonies, the first speech was from a young St. John's College Student, who was clearly an Objectivist.

I was very interested in what she had to say. Unfortunately, she was rudely interrupted by a heckler when she said, "I am not my brother's keeper."

The heckler, a middle-aged man, seemed angry to the point of tears as he was escorted out of the crowd by a Tea Party volunteer. He tried to talk to several of us, but another gentleman calmy but firmly told him, "I see your passion, but we want to hear the speech. The young lady has the floor."

It was a lovely day, not too warm, and the afternoon rains held off so that people could sit under the trees, listening to the speeches and enjoying one another's company.

In addition to the Objectivist, we heard from an orthopedic surgeon's concerns about Obama-Care, as well as a Lea County Engineer discussing the perils of Cap 'n' Tax.

Marine and Iraq war veteran Adam Kokesh is a candidate for the NM 3rd Congressional District seat for the United States House of Representatives.

He is also a fiery speaker, but he did not speak yesterday because the Tea Party chose to have citizens who are not currently politicians, officeholders or candidates.

Here Adam and his dog Balleu (sp??) pose for my camera.

Adam is a true patriot, and Ragamuffin House supports his campaign, even though we reside in NM's 1st Congressional District.

Yesterday was an excellent day.

Driving home, though, I realized that I am getting a cold or the flu. Unfortunately, I will be missing a friend's B-day party and a Kokesh volunteer meeting today. But I've got to keep my feet up, and sip Ragamuffin House Chicken Soup (TM) and hot lemonade and try to kick this thing.

9/11 & 9/12: Standing Up in New Mexico

This weekend is an important one for patriots.
Here in New Mexico, Ragamuffin house will be joining in two days during which we will stand up.

Tomorrow is Patriots Day, the day upon which Patriots will gather to REMEMBER the terribly attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.

A day upon which we began to wake up. The day upon which the unraveling mood began to change forever.

For Ragamuffin House, this is a day of REMEMBERANCE. And we will be lighting our Shabbat Candles at Haynes Park in Rio Rancho, where the Albuquerque Tea Party will be putting on a Candlelight Vigil as a memorial to those who fell and those who helped. The Vigil is at 7:30 on 9/11.

Picture Credit: New York Post, 2007.

On Saturday, 9/12, we will be joining with Tea Party groups and 9/12ers across the state in Santa Fe, as we March on the Capitol.

This will be the fourth such Tea Party Rally that we have attended. In the picture to the right you see the Chem Geek Princess at the first Tea Party.

For this Rally, I am planning a new sign. It will have a picture of Barack Obama and say "L'Etat es Vous? NO! Where is the Fourth Estate?" On the back it will say, Where are Woodward and Bernstein when we need them?

It is time we called the press on their inaction. Why 30 years ago they would have been all over some of the scandles we have been treated to in Washington in the past few years.

Americans, it is time to stand up!

Don't underestimate us, O ye who claim to represent us!

May the memories of the fallen on 9/11 spur us to action.
May G-d save the Republic of the United States.

Fiery Libertarian Speech in Ohio

I am working on another installment on libertarian ethics, but it is not ready for prime-time just yet. Today I was working on some other things as well having to do with the Continental Congress, and also with the Constitution Class that I am organizing. It is a good, introductory course about the background concepts underlying the Constitution as well as the a good look at the Constitution itself.

Then there was some UNM business I had to transact, and tonight the Boychick has a Patrol Leader Meeting (very important) for his BSA troop.

But you are in luck, a master libertarian thinker and speaker gave a fiery speech at the Ohio Tea Party on 1 August. I bring you Judge Andrew Napolitano, courtesy of You Tube. Enjoy!

R3volution: Taxation, Property Rights, and Tea Parties

". . . we cannot be happy without being Free, that we

cannot be Free without being secure in our Property,

that we cannot be secure in our Property if without

our consent others may as if by right take it away."

--Abigail Adams, 1774

There are those whom I have heard disparage the American Revolution as being solely about "taxation and money" rather than about "freedom." When I hear this, I always want to ask such people what their definition of freedom is, though I don't always have the opportunity.

I suspect that such a person would answer that freedom is the ability to act without compulsion, to choose one's behavior. Indeed, freedom is the ability to speak, to write, to act without fear of interference from authority or government. If this is the case, then taxation--the act of taking a citizen's property by force in the name of some collective good--is at the heart of the argument for liberty, as Abigail Adams understood when she undertook to write to the English historian Catherine Macauley in 1774 about the just cause of Liberty for America, saying:

". . . Suffice it to say that we are invaded with fleets and Armies, our commerce not only obstructed, but totally ruined, the courts of Justice shut, many driven out from the Metropolis (Boston. EHL), . . . all the Horrours of a civil war threatening us on the one hand, and the chains of Slavery ready forged for us on the other."

Abigail Adams profoundly states the relationship between liberty and property in the opening quote above, from a letter she wrote to the American scholar Mercy Otis Warren in the same year.

There are also those who disparage the modern revolutionary Tea Party movement, saying that it is "only about taxation" or more frequently of late, stating that the 4th of July Tea Parties are "not about taxation", but that they are "about liberty." To them I would answer, as I did last night at the Bernalillo Libertarian Caucus, that the Tea Parties are about unjust and confiscatory taxation, which makes them profoundly "about liberty." A person who can make no choices about the disposition of his property, and who is forced to work to support a government for nigh unto half a year under threat of prison, has no liberty to lose. Further, if a government official wishes to "spread the wealth around" as Obama said, taking by force wealth from individuals who created it in order to "redistribute" it to those whom he deems more deserving of it, then he is enslaving some individuals to those "more deserving" others. As Lord Acton put it: "A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first element of freedom." (Quoted without full citation in The Freeman online).

There are also those who say that the original Boston Tea Party was well and good, because it was taxation without representation that the Sons of Liberty objected to, whereas the taxation that the present Tea Parties object to is taxation imposed by the consent of the governed. However, I do not believe that citizens are being represented by our nonrepresenting representatives. Mine, at least, (and I suspect that the lot of them) are in hock to their parties, their party national platforms, and the special interests that finance their extremely extravagant elections.

We the People get barely a second thought, except at so-called "townhall meetings" like the one that Senator Udall (D, NM) held at Albuquerque the other day, at which any questions and comments in opposition to the Dems national platform were immediately shut down. The Engineering Geek attended and called it 'Udall's Town-joke'. This was in the same vein as with President Obama's elaborately staged and scripted Town Hall meeting on the "credit card crisis" at Rio Rancho High School in May. The nonrepresenting "representatives" must be putting on a show for each other at these staged events, because they certainly did not fool many of the people there.

Thus I was gratified to open the Albuquerque Journal today and read what Christopher E. Spade of Cuba, NM wrote in a Letter to the Editor entitled Tea Parties Renew Our Fight for Independence:

" . . . We are again being taxed without representation.

"When members of Congress vote for legislation without first reading that legislation . . . we are not represented.

"When members of Congress move to stifle exploration and development of domestic energy sources . . . in spite of the fact that a majority of Americans favor domestic energy development, we are not represented!

"When members of Congress vote for bailouts for failed, badly run companies . . .and thus put the taxpayers at risk, we are not represented!

"When members of Congress consider new regulatory power over what may be broadcast over open radio stations . . . in clear violation of free speech guarantees . . . we are not represented!

". . . When members of Congress vote for confiscatory tax rates on the entrepeneurs who create the jobs and wealth of this country . . . we are not represented!

"There is another revolution on the horizon. Only this time, it will be at the ballot box."

(The Albuquerque Journal, Friday, July 3, 2009, Section A, p.11).

Thank you, Mr. Spade for saying it far more eloquently than I could!

We are not being represented.

Go to your local July 4th Tea Party tomorrow.

The Albuquerque Tea Party will hold an Independence Day rally on July 4, 2009 from 4-6 PM on Alameda St NE, right near the Balloon Fiesta park.
ABQ Tea Party RallyJuly 4, 2009 4-6 PM, 4509 Alameda NEAlbuquerque, NM
Come as you are - patriotic!

The theme for this Indepedence Day Rally is "The Spirit of '76!"

It is time for us to take to the streets and let our nonrepresenting representatives know that we see through their sham democracy.

We want the Republic back, and the political power to rest where it rightly belongs, within each of us, at liberty to live our lives without interference from the government.

For if we do not, then soon we will be in the same straits as the people of Boston, circa 1774, with "our commerce obstructed" and the people "reduced to want" and "made dependent", as Abigail Adams observed in her letter to Lady Macauley.

We begin the R3volution in our streets this July 4th, and continue it at the ballot box come November 2010.

Ready for Tomorrow!

I went with the big signs and lots of red, white and blue!

The Engineering Geek went for smaller signs. He may be wiser as we will be holding them up for approximately three hours!

The Boychick is the only one of the three of us who got his picture making signs on the Albuquerque Tea Party website. (He's in one of pictures sitting at the head of the table wearing a white jacket. In another, you see his face as he is standing). He did not bring any signs home, he is going to pick one up there. Or he will wave the flag.

Now, as we put the signs on the pickets, we are rocking out to the Tea Party Song by Lloyd Marcus. Enjoy!