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April 15, 2009

Tea-bagging in Forest Grove w/pics!

After a phone tip from Carla that there was going to be a Tea-Bagging event out here in Forest Grove I grabbed my camera and headed down to see what I could see. I've got color commentary and pics after the fold.

The small group was mostly older folks.

But there were a few kids too. Don't look like they're having fun, do they?

It was interesting to see the diversity of messages on the signs. This guy was clearly worried about the "New World Order." Funny, I haven't heard much about that particular fear since the last time there was a Democrat in the White House. Coincidence? I doubt it.

I can only assume this guy on the far left thought this was a witty play on words... It's hard to read but it says, "Stop Obama End Abomination"

Ditto for this guy.

Yeah, 'cause poor folk tend to horde their money and spent a lot of it vacationing outside of the country...

Interestingly, a bit later as I was taking pictures on a street corner a car stopped at the red light and the driver rolled down his window and asked the Tea-Baggers urging him to honk his horn, "where were you guys when Bush was running up the debt? Where were you when Reagan was?"

The assembled Tea-Baggers were utterly dumb-struck. As in, they didn't make even a peep. Silence! Then the light turned green and the guy drove off. As he did I overheard the guy he'd been directing his questions to complain to another fellow that he didn't even know what his sign said. He said he'd just been handed a sign and he'd headed for the sidewalk to join in the sign waving. At which point he was peering over the top of the sign he was holding to see what it actually said!

It was heartwarming to see the dedication sans comprehension or even curiosity. These were foot soldiers and like good foot soldiers they weren't there to ask questions but to do as they were directed.

Personally, I'd have wanted to know what the sign said BEFORE I agreed to wave it at traffic.

Furture? I wonder if this kid is home-schooled?

I saw the Forest Grove News Times Publisher-Editor John Schrag and Photo Editor Chase Allgood there. That would be Chase with the camera and John is just to his right with folded arms and holding the time-honored tools of his trade - a notepad and pen.

I spoke to Chase briefly a little bit later and he remembered me from the article which the News Times did on me a year ago. I asked him when they were going to publish their piece on the Tea-Baggers and he said to ask John, which I never got around to doing. But I see that it's up already: Tax protesters stage 'tea party' in Forest Grove.

It's a little hard to read the sign in the middle but it says, "Don't spread the wealth, spread my work ethic." The woman in front of him is holding a mass-produced sign saying the same basic thing.

Apparently the message here is that people are being laid off because they don't work hard enough rather than... oh, I dunno... the CREDIT CRUNCH and RECESSION forcing businesses to cut back their work forces.

Nice to know that the Tea-Baggers believe that it's your own damn fault, huh.




There's a story that goes with these next two but first the pics...

You can sorta make out in the first pic part of what was written on the back side of this sign these two women were holding. It appeared to be a cheat sheet for what to say if they get questioned by the media or challenged by a Democrat. (or do you suppose they'd see that as redundant?) The point being that they could hold the sign so that the message on the front is facing the media/Democrat and the person holding the sign could reference the cheat sheet on the back to help them stay on-message.

What really caught my interest was the last line at the bottom where it says that whomever is answering the questions is a Democrat.

I happened to take most of these pics while leaning against a telephone pole directly behind them. Once I realized what was on the backside of the sign I made multiple attempts to capture what it said but these were the best I could do without giving away what I was trying to document. I suppose someone with digital editing software could lift the entire thing from the second pic with a bit of work.

The backstory here is priceless! The two older women holding the sign, along with an older gentleman who may have been married to one of them, would cross the crosswalk every time there was a red light... holding the sign so that oncoming traffic could see it and of course they were doing their damndest to draw attention to the sign as they walked.

So, after a while the one woman comments to the other one that "we should sing our song." And they cross a couple more times while I'm absorbed in trying to get good pictures. Then as they came back across I heard what they were singing: This Land is Your Land by that famous bleeding-heart liberal Woody Guthrie. Well, as later pics will demonstrate, these were all died-in-the-wool conservatives and so I waited until they finished crossing and had situated themselves back on the sidewalk as the light changed and traffic drove by once again. Then I leaned over and said, "you do know that song was written by a staunch progressive, right?" ROFL - I wish I had snapped a picture of their faces. They were APPALLED!! The one woman complained under her breath that she'd been teaching that song to kids for 20 years! I don't think informing her that she had just contracted Leprosy would have been received as worse news. I just chuckled and went back to taking pictures.

I was both struck by and fascinated by how many of the signs had little or nothing to do with taxes.

This guy's only beef is apparently cap & trade systems...

Maybe someone can explain this one to me because, frankly, taken at face value it is incredibly cold-hearted. Although it's face value reading would be consistent with the "greed is good" philosophy ubiquitous among conservatives.

Apparently taxes aren't the problem, progressives are. 'Cause everyone knows that the only true patriots are conservatives. At least according to conservatives...

Naturally there were multiple Nazi references...

This one was nearly impossible to read in person. It's actually a bit easier as a photograph but still is barely legible. It says, "the only sign I can afford after (swastika) taxes!!!!"

Of course if he only had the work ethic of the previously photographed demonstrators then he'd have been able to afford a nicer sign, right?

This one speaks for itself.

'Cause, y'know... Hitler's Brown Shirts were widely known for trying to register the disenfranchised to vote.

Last but not least... the anti-socialist signs. Which, if I'd been able to get anyone to take a bet on it I would be independently wealthy right now 'cause these were exactly what I expected to see and they fully met my expectation.

I've mentioned before that I used to be a conservative Republican, right? Yeah, I know how they think...

This one is a bit hard to read. It says, "Europe is NO Model! Socialism = Poverty for All"

Isn't it sweet to see his mom there next to him as he is indoctrinated into how to demagogue? And WE are the ones without "family values"???

So that was my adventure this afternoon. I spent one hour and left.

Posted by Kevin at April 15, 2009 07:06 PM