PASADENA TEA PARTY BREWING TAX REVOLT

Wayne Lusvardi
Saturday April 11 at 12:30 pm the Pasadena Republican Club, in consort with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association, sponsored a rousing anti-tax rally on the steps of the citadel of heavy taxation in Pasadena - Pasadena's City Hall which was once used for the TV series "Mission Impossible" - see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasadena_City_Hall   

I didn't see one Pasadena public official present at the rally. As of 7 pm tonight no local online major media coverage of the event has been posted - a possible testament of how superfluous the mainline media has become. The entire rally was organized through the Internet and Twitter and no major local newspaper to my knowledge gave it any attention in advance. It will be interesting to see if the local media even covers the event on Sunday's editions. It appeared that Los Angeles TV stations had cameras rolling at the rally. For FACEBOOK announcement of the rally see here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60882586575

I was present at the 2003 Pasadena Brookside Park kick-off rally to recall then-California Governor Gray Davis sponsored by the Libertarian Party with prominent Republicans in attendance. That much smaller rally was the spark plug that started the recall effort across California. The anti-tax rally at City Hall Saturday dwarfed that 2003 recall rally both in numbers and in anger.  A few hundred were in attendance and they came armed with signs, flags, banners, T-shirts, media personalities, new attractive anti-tax candidates, and a civil but angry mood.

At issue are California Propositions 1A and 1B put on the ballot by the California legislature to plug the growing state budget deficit. Of greater importance is the huge Federal budget deficit planned to be run up by the U.S. Congress as part of the Stimulus and Bailout Bills which reportedly will run up more debt than in all the past history of the U.S.

Pasadena's TEA Party is part of a national effort called TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY - see here for link: http://www.teapartyday.com/

Veteran screen actor and author Basil Hoffman was first to speak as Master of Ceremonies of the rally. He began with a moment of silence for Captain Richard Phillips, captain of the U.S. ship Maersk Alabama, who has been taken hostage off Somalia by pirates. Hoffman gave a rousing introduction to the rally citing the themes of the Boston Tea Party of 1773. 

John Ziegler, a former KFI Radio show host, was the next speaker and he spoke about the former 2003 recall of ex-Governor Gray Davis and the recent betrayal by current Governor Schwarzenegger in caving in to the Democratic legislature to Props 1A and 1B. Ziegler especially targeted Republican legislators who recently voted for the state budget compromise which resulted in the Propositions being put on the ballot.

Next, Teresa Hernandez, who is running to replace Hilda Solis in the 32nd Congressional District (El Monte area), is a very attractive and appealing candidate. She spoke for the most part without prepared remarks and moved the crowd. She is an Hispanic, a small business owner, and runs a non-profit to support children's music education. She publicly signed a pledge to cut taxes if elected. No matter your political party affiliation, watch this candidate. She speaks for Hispanic entrepreneurs, small businesses, women, and all those interested in taxes. Check out Teresa here: http://www.teresahernandez.com/  

I couldn't stay to hear the remaining speakers, Brian Fuller and Alvaro Day, both running for the State Assembly. A march through Old Town in 1776 American Revolutionary War regalia was planned after the rally.

The event was plugged as non-partisan and one of the early speakers mentioned that they had formed no Political Action Committee as yet. So thus far this was a grass roots effort, although there was heavy presence and support from Republican party members. Some of the signs in the audience said "Democrats For No More Taxes," but I did not have time to confirm they were Democrats.

Probably the most indicative thing to me was when I was leaving. I joked to some of the police officers watching from across the street that "you have to watch those unruly Republicans." One officer spoke back and said "hey, we're all for them!"  Maybe it's not a "Mission Impossible" after all. 

Comments

[Ellis]

KTLA did a brief story on the rally in their 6 and 10 pm broadcasts - but nothing on the parade down Colorado. They included a few seconds of footage, all in close-focus to downplay the size of the crowd, but I guess we have to be happy the Lefties aired any story at all.

Something else I heard that was a little disturbing is that Acorn and the New Black Panthers are planning to videotape all of these tea party protests to catalog undesirables. Paranoia maybe, but does anyone know who those two guys were who had the camera set up dead-center on the curb? It may be mistaken assumption on my part, but they had no visible news organization insignia and their attitude seemed to be something I've gotten very familiar with over decades of in-your-face interaction with leftists: a sustained sneer.
'Anyone know who those two guys were, and why none of what should be their prime footage has shown up anywhere on the 'Net?