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April 15, 2009 6:50 PM

San Francisco Protests Tax Day With Tea Party

Posted by Declan McCullagh
(CBS/Declan McCullagh)


SAN FRANCISCO -- Agnes Bernstein, above, knows how well socialism works, or more precisely, doesn't work.

The eight-year resident of the San Francisco bay area grew up in Poland under socialist rule, and told a crowd of hundreds at a tax day rally here on Wednesday that she fears the United States is now heading in that direction.


View Photos
Photo Essay: Tax Day "Tea Parties" Across The Country. (AP)

"The government is growing too big," Bernstein said in an interview with CBS News after her speech. "And I grew up in socialism and I've seen it. And this is reminding me more and more of what Poland used to be. I was fortunate to see the transfer from socialism to a free market economy in Poland and i'm very sad to see that the opposite is happening here."

The San Francisco rally convened in front of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office in the federal building here, where speakers denounced Wall Street bailouts, the federal income tax, and members of Congress of both major parties they accused of being out of touch with the rest of the country.

(CBS/Declan McCullagh)
It was one of hundreds of similar "tea party" events that took place on April 15 -- tax day -- around the country. (Here's background on the tea party protests, a roundup from a few hours ago, and a photo gallery.)

The San Francisco rally was non-partisan: it attracted Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, and independents, many of whom appeared to be supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul's 2008 presidential bid.

Call them members of the nascent Leave Us Alone Party, or No More Bailouts Party. The front of one protester's sign said "Voting Republican = More Taxes & Debt." The other side said the same thing about Democrats.

(CBS/Declan McCullagh)



Tags:
taxes ,
bailouts ,
protests
Topics:
Tea Party Protests
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Add a Comment See all 18 Comments
by aptisme April 19, 2009 12:31 AM EDT
Simple solution for the pseudo-intellects craving for Canada, Sweden, Norway, or Denmark. Pack your bags and go!!!!
Reply to this comment
by Cyberoid August 26, 2009 1:20 AM EDT
I can't believe you said this, it is so so so retro. A dinosaur from the Cold War days!

...But you know what? I'm taking your advice. I'm taking some time off in Sweden where people, whatever their political persuasion, are civil and considerate, and know when not to give their neighbors unwanted device. So why don't you just shut up.
by ed_c_in_ok April 16, 2009 5:21 PM EDT
FOX is the heartbeat of the Republican noise machine.... If they have suspended comments on their site it speaks volumes toward the intolerance Americans are feeling and speaking out. It is a good sign that FOX is afraid of their patrons.... lol

They are getting desperate and looking for cover. They can run but they can't hide. They are guilty party in the conspiracy against America and the American people. It?s time to investigate and see who is behind their funding sources. Their slanted news coverage has assisted and abated white collar criminals to perpetrate a crime against humanity.

They are terrorist who have committed treason against America.
Reply to this comment
by ed_c_in_ok April 16, 2009 5:04 PM EDT
The republican right has no sense of shame.They will go to any lengths to deceive, manipulate & coerce the pawns within the party to create a scene to use for a sound bite on the six o'clock news.

Everything needs to remember is it was the republicans who put us into this economic mess. It is similar to what they did in the 80?s when they put the country into a recession/depression under Reagan to get Carter out of office.They preached inflation driving mortgage interest rates to 18% killing the real estate market.Then they ran to the court house steps & bought properties from victims for dimes on the dollar.Reagan sold people on less government while creating larger.He also promoted radical deregulation. Remember the savings and loan scandal that was a product of deregulation costing taxpayers billions?John McCain was right in the middle of it.

Finally Clinton began reversing the deficit spending & got the country in the black with a surplus of taxes revenue.

After stealing the election from Gore, Bush & the republican majority immediately reversed the continuation of a surplus by slashing taxes & abolishing capital gains taxes on real estate. The rich could finally dump billions in properties bought in the 80's for huge tax free profits.

The republicans have historically gained public support through similar stunts as this Tea Party. They created media campaigns where the ignorant on simple concepts like, the people know better how to spend their money than the government & they should have massive tax relief.Since no one enjoys paying taxes it was a home run but the relief amounted to little compared to the tax advantages given corporations & the wealthy.They created this mirage to get huge tax relief through for the upper crust by neutralizing the dissenting democratic minority from attracting any media coverage that might speak to the consequences, i.e. what we are now facing, being created for the American tax payer.

I would bet Cheney convinced Bush to take advantage of 911 & press the nation into war where republicans could spend trillions in the name of fighting terrorism.Once that was accomplished they could spend like gang busters under the radar because budgets under military contracts & defense spending does not have to be fully disclosed to the Congressional body.Republicans created trillions of dollars of deficit spending on military contracts much of it going straight into the pockets of their buddy's.Halliburton netted $10 billion on the war last year.

If Obama is a truly wise politician as soon as he gets the economy turned back around he will be sure that American people clearly understand that George W Bush & the republican majority created more big government with more debt & more deficit spending than all Presidents before him combined.They were able to circumvent media radar by borrowing trillions abroad rather than printing money.
Today China owns over 60% of the $12 trillion of US government debt created in the past eight years. Bush is still wasting our money as no one can even begin to estimate what it will ultimately cost to prevent an economic collapse.

It offends me to hear republican talking heads still chanting the same old tested & failed tax cut & deregulation rhetoric that created the present disaster. The radical changes within those two areas under Bush must be disclosed & explained.

If they can have a Tea Party then I say it's time for an old time tar & feathering. I can think of a few right wing radicals like Nute, Tokyo Rush & their O'Reilly who have all played a significant part in perpetrating a crime against humanity by using communist Nazi tactics to manipulate the masses.

Surely there is enough evidence by now of a conspiracy. All of the half truths, lies & character assassination should be enough for an investigation into who is behind it all. Inquiring minds want to know who has been funding the republican brain washing machine. Who would pay Tokyo Rush, who?s only product is hate, propaganda & rhetoric, to manipulate the masses into believing the radical republican ideology? $30 million & an additional $100 million signing bonus?

President Obama instead of just saying "I inherited this mess" it's time to begin telling Americans some hard figures & facts about where the republican majority committed malfeasance in office & orchestrated the worse economic disaster in the history of the world. A brief overview of the decisions with supporting mathematical evidence explaining precisely where they erred could shut down the republican rhetoric & while providing the democrats a righteous wave of public support.
Reply to this comment
by carlacalifor April 16, 2009 3:25 PM EDT
'But then how do you explain places like socialist Denmark, Norway, Sweden and even Canada'
* * *
Canada got rid of the marxist Trudeau and is reversing the damage he caused- they are now being run by the Conservative Party of Reform.
Those who reside in Denmark, Norway and Sweden don't know any different unless they visit the US- what is considered 'middle class' has a standard of living that is 30% less than the american middle class. Oh and Sweden is in the process of lowering their taxes so more people will get off the dole and go back to work.
Reply to this comment
by carlacalifor April 16, 2009 3:14 PM EDT
Interesting they write several hundred people attended when in fact there were several thousand.
Nice minimizing ABC.......
Reply to this comment
by amacd2-2009 April 16, 2009 11:09 AM EDT
I?ve gone through every post of every blog or media comments page that I can find on the issue of this phony ?tea party? revolt, and aside from my own comments, I find no reference to EMPIRE --- which just happens to be what the first real ?tea party? in Boston and the whole friggin American Revolution was against. But, nooooo, these corporate pawn patriots don?t even know that ----- they are only somewhat stupid BUT totally manipulated.

Yes, much like the Kansans who Thomas Frank famously wrote about in "What's the Matter with Kansas", these 'tea party' rubes are being deceived by Gingrich, Armey, Norquist, Murdoch, and an army of right-wing-nut billionaires behind the curtain to vote (and now protest) against their own indivisible and democratically protected political-economic self-interests, and to actually agitate to allow that nice, hidden, proto-fascist, ruling-elite, corporate Empire the 'freedom' to screw them blue.

Goebbels would turn over in his grave and shout, "Mein Fuhrer, we never had such pliable idiots, nor such a beautifully disguised two-party 'Vichy' charade right in our own Fatherland, --- we only had that crude and thinly veiled phony one-party 'Vichy' facade in France --- but with these wonderful, new propaganda tools you would still be ruling a global Third Reich."

The good news folks, is that FOX has now started NOT ALLOWING COMMENTS on their own web site about this self-created PR disaster now ?blowing back? on FOX itself!

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
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by shastamagic April 16, 2009 12:18 AM EDT
I like what you have to say....do you live in San Francisco?
Reply to this comment
by shastamagic April 16, 2009 12:16 AM EDT
I am so happy to see other liberal minded people who are against the idea of a larger, more controlling government. Sometimes I feel alone, but today in Sacramento, I saw a lot of other liberal looking people. I was called a liberal when I was against Bush's administration, and now I am called a "right-wing extremist" because I am against Obama's administration. It frightens me how much power the cult of personality has over people.
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by brian48123 April 15, 2009 11:54 PM EDT
Element120,
You've given the definition of CAPITALISM such a broad meaning that you've rendered the word meaningless. Thanks for destroying a good thing. Even if a state doesn't own an industry outright, sufficient regulation, like our 80,000 page federal tax code designed to pick winners and losers, renders the state in control of the economy. That IS NOT CAPITALISM. Surely you don't believe the original founders planned on a federal government that created THAT!

Alan Mac, part of the motivation for the Tea-Parties is the feeling of disenfranchisement of people from the government. What voter feels that he/she influences a $2+ Trillion government? What free people is governed by such a power? I don't know anyone that quickly says YES to those questions.
Reply to this comment
by element120 April 15, 2009 11:01 PM EDT
Apples and oranges. The subjective term "socialism" is bandied about here like a frisbee. Denmark, Norway, Sweden or Canada are CAPITALIST market economies, their elaborate social policies notwithstanding. Branding them "socialist" is a rhetorial device, usually brought about by a comparison to USA or the UK. People's Republic of Poland was a liberal COMMUNIST country, "liberal" meaning a step above Stalinist. To rid yourself of subjective bias, consider SAAB, Volvo, Scania or Tuborg. Prior to the 90s, private ownership on such a scale could only exist in a capitalist system. All large entities in communist Poland were state-owned (read: bloated, backward and inefficient). Back then, communism simply did not allow private ownership beyond the scale of a locksmith workshop or a street vending stand. Nowadays, bizarre communist/capitalist hybrids like China are another matter.

Nationalized health care notwithstanding, Scandinavia and Canada have been allied to Western political/economic structures, which allowed free exchange of people, technology and ideas. Their economies benefited immensely from that. No such exchange was possible with an Eastern Bloc country, Poland or otherwise.

The comparisons are further ill-conceived on account of geography and history. Poland, given its unfortunate location between imperial/totalitarian Germany/Russia, was deprived of independence for 125 years and took the brunt of suffering during WWII. I don't recall 90% of Copenhagen, Oslo or Ottawa being razed to the ground in 1945. I do recall, OTOH, the Swedish steel industry profiting handsomely from Hitler's war.
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by valh1 April 15, 2009 10:20 PM EDT
Alan MacDonald of Sanford, Maine, you are the problem with this country. You are the useful idiot because you are willing to go along to get along. Talk about stupidity. You are the poster child.
Reply to this comment
by amacd2-2009 April 15, 2009 9:00 PM EDT
The original 'tea party' in Boston was against the British EMPIRE --- specifically the British royal chartered East India CORPORATION which monopolized the price of tea and screwed the American colonists, as CORPORATE ELITES always do.

The beginnings of American self-government stood up to the elite power of the crown and these royal CORPORATIONS.

Question: What do these phony CORPORATE FUNDED 'tea parties' today have to say about using the popular power of a self-governing democracy of the people against CORPORATE/Elite/EMPIRE power?

Answer: nothing!!!

They say nothing about fighting against EMPIRE, because they don't even know that they are being screwed by a CORPORATE EMPIRE.

They say nothing about self-governing democracy, because they know nothing about democracy.

Because these dopes today in 'tea parties' are stupidly revolting against self-government and FOR THEIR CORPORATE OVERLORDS.

Talk about working against your own self-interest and democracy?

These slack-jawed idiots are agitating FOR the CORPORATIONS that are enslaving them and pauperizing their children, and they don't even have the brains to see that self-government is in their own self-interest.

Talk about "What's the Matter with Kansas" being so stupid that they vote against their own economic self-interests? These guys are even stupider. They go out and protest to protect the CORPORATIONS that are screwing them blue.

They are truly 'useful idiots for corporations'.

They give new meaning to Jay Gould's pledge that he would "hire half the working class to kill the other half".

But they are doing it for nothing --- to prove how stupid they are!!

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Reply to this comment
by kansas1946 April 15, 2009 8:56 PM EDT
Socialism had nothing to do with the failure of Poland. It was the oppresive, brutal, corrupt, and controling government with no civil liberties guaranteed by a constitution that was the problem with Poland and it is democracy that will allow Poland to prosper, not just capitalism. No one likes taxes but corruption is what has brought us to this point, corruption and greed.
Reply to this comment
by sockeye35 April 15, 2009 8:52 PM EDT
Socialism works in Norway because the total population of the country is only about 5 million and they have 100 percent literacy. Yes 100 percent! Hard to believe so lets say for the sake of argument 99.9 percent. Furthermore the country is probably the most self reliant in the entire world. It could shut off its borders and live well. For us, who are addicted to importing oil, labor, toys, cars, etc., ...well, I just hope (Regensburger) that you are not suggesting we try to implement Norwegian policy in the U.S. because unless you want to start becoming a self reliant nation which would entail producting oil, lots of it, and manufacturing things, ie. busting unions, builiding walls on the border, etc., well we better just stick to the consumerist policies we have now.
Reply to this comment
by taryder April 15, 2009 8:31 PM EDT
It is about time people went to the streets and protested.! This government is NO DIFFERENT than the government of the past 8 years under GWB. Obama and his campaign words were ALL just to string you along
We are fighting threee wars for BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. We are BAILING OUT ALL the wealthy people, and more and more REGULAR PEOPLE are homeless, living on the streets, loosing their jobs, and getting poorer and poorer. Obama has left in government 100s of Bush people, and is it surprising that the wars continue, the words and propaganda continues, etc.
Our president tells us there is a GLIMMER OF HOPE....I say HOGWASH....it is ALL THE SAME baloney we heard for 8 years........This president ALSO wants us to SPEND, SPEND, SPEND.....buy that car, refinance that house, buy WHATEVER!, just BUY!!!!, and the CEOs and managers of ALL these companies, just get richer and richer. Obama is no more in tune with the regular guy than the man in the moon........2.5 million in wages for 2008 should tell EVERYONE something.......ALL of his closest in the government are ALSO wealthy........Emanuel, TOP hedgefund guy making millions upon millions.......Summers meets with Carlyle group....THESE are some of the richest people in the world, including Bush, Sr. Them already KNOWING about those bonuses should have told EVERYONE something!!
GLIMMER OF HOPE is HOGWASH, more of the same.
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by iam4honesty April 15, 2009 8:22 PM EDT
I'd like to tea-bag her.
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by Regensburger April 15, 2009 8:04 PM EDT
No, socialism didn't work so well in Poland. But then how do you explain places like socialist Denmark, Norway, Sweden and even Canada, where validated surveys show that the citizens are happier and have a higher quality of life than those in the United States? Could it be that the real problem with Poland is something besides its ideology?
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