Tax Day party count nearing 2,000 U.S. cities

(Compiler's note: Must read. Looks to me like our politicians are going to get introduced to their "board of directors" -- we the people. The next "big event" will be to vote out those now in office. I for one have had enough. Yes, I'm ready for change. How about you?)

By Chelsea Schilling
Mainstream media may run, but they can't hide from protest tidal wave

While WND has been tracking 400 individual tea parties across the nation, the American Family Association has announced its count is nearing 1,600 – for Tax Day alone.

The AFA, planned to coordinate 1,000 Taxed Enough Already, or TEA, parties to be held at 12 p.m. on April 15 in front of city halls across the nation.

But the group is pleasantly surprised as is stands to double that goal before Tax Day is here.

"Our goal was to have a TEA party in 1,500 cities. We are nearly 100 cities above our goal and still growing," said Donald E. Wildmon, AFA chairman.

The AFA sponsored TEA parties are in addition to hundreds of parties planned by other groups. Taxpayers are also organizing tea parties for Independence Day and various Saturdays so people with conflicting work schedules may attend.

Meanwhile, a Google Maps list shows several locations of citizen tea parties – so many that the United States is nearly hidden behind a sea of blue markers.

Wildmon said the protests are essential because the government's reckless spending is burdening America with insurmountable debt.

"The runaway spending by President Obama and Congress will have a definite negative effect on our families," he said. "We are leaving a debt of trillions of dollars to be paid by our grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

The organization launched a Tea Party Day website so volunteer organizers may register their protests with AFA. The website also provides a list of other protests across the nation that are not organized by AFA.

Tell Congress to stop spending America into the ground! Sign the WND petition demanding lawmakers stop the bailouts, stimulus bills and march toward socialism and national destruction.

Michael DePrimo, special counsel to AFA President Tim Wildmon, told WND that AFA has been inundated with e-mails from citizens who want to attend or organize tea parties in their own cities.

"We're trying to get people to attend these and we're also encouraging others if there is no tea party in their community to start their own," he said. "All we're trying to do is really generate activity to try to try to get people to attend these rallies to really send a message to Washington."

The group encourages tea party attendees to bring a cell phone and call the president, 202-456-1414, and Congress, 202-224-3121, while attending the rallies.

While many mainstream media outlets have provided little to no coverage of the nation's numerous tea parties so far, DePrimo said the growing movement is proof that Americans no longer need them to launch a widespread revolution.

"I think the media does whatever the media choose to do," he said. "We're all aware that the media have a liberal bias. I suppose if it's big enough, they will report on it. If they think it really may spur some change in Washington that the media elites don't want, they may ignore the story altogether."

De Primo continued, "The good news is that with the Internet, Facebook, texting and with all the ways we can communicate today, we don't necessarily need the mainstream media anymore. The message can get out without them."

WND has also launched its own tea party forum so citizens may exchange ideas, information and announcements about the "revolution." After reviewing various website protest listings and e-mails from many readers, WND found 400 tea parties scheduled for upcoming months and compiled one of the most complete lists on the Internet. Here are some scheduled tea parties:

click here to find the tea parties in you state