It couldn’t have been a prettier day in Santa Ana’s Plaza of Flags today, as well over 1,000 people gathered, appropriately close to the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse, which you see in the background, to protest the actions of the very un-Reaganesque Barack Obama. Here’s a photo scrapbook of the event, which featured no broken bank windows and no confrontation with police.

Best sign of the day:

And a very powerful runner-up:

Best use of the word Obama:

Current events prize:

Citizen Incredible Daughter #1:

Strict Constitutionalist Prize:

Those were the days!

Here are some shots to give you a sense of the size of the crowd:

And finally, here’s how the Left and the mainly marginalized media will view the entire event:

This event was grassroots all the way - no MoveOn.org or ACORN lurking in the shadows, making it into just a display of astroturf. It was of the people, by the people, for the people. And the White House has the temerity to say the president is unaware of today’s tea parties. That’s the best his brilliant message strategists could come up with? There is hope for us yet!

but if that’s his position, I say, “Mr. President, rest assured that we are very well aware of you, and what you’re doing to our country.”

t’s as if the last eight years never happened. There was no George W. Bush. There were no deranged liberals making all sorts of hysterical claims about what was happening or would happen under W’s watch. We just went from Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America to today’s tea parties.

At least that’s the fantasy Paul Krugman is promoting this morning as he takes a look at the tea party movement.  He professes that he doesn’t want to “make fun of crazy people,” but then goes on to say of anyone who doesn’t skip and sing merrily under the smile of the Great Obama is “the subject of considerable mockery, and rightly so,” that they represent “standard practice” in the GOP, which is wont to make “bizarre claims about what liberals are up to.”

The rallys themselves are not spontaneous, grassroots campaigns in Krugman’s eyes, but rather, “AstroTurf (fake grass roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects,” in this case, Dick Armey and “the usual group of rightwing billionaires.”

It must be wonderful to live Krugman’s life, blind to the excesses of his own and hypercritical of anyone who has the timerity to think thoughts that are not his.

How nice to be able to ignore George Soros and Peter Lewis, leftwing billionaires who funded human waves of crazed anti-Bushies who relentlessly attacked the GOP while the Dems were out of power.  But they do exist, they have names, they have track records, they leave bodies in their wake - more so than any “rightwing billionaires” Krugman can conjure but not name.

How nice to be able to ignore current events, like how citizens like Keli Carender and Amanda Grosserode spontaneously organized tea parties following Rick Santelli’s unscripted rant, and how TCOT and Twitter and Craig’s List and Facebook are the tools of this movement - yes, new media used by gasp! conservatives - and how Armey’s tagging along, not leading.

How nice to be able to ignore the wrongs of your own party, with its ad hominem attacks and crazed policies, by just poking fun at the sincere and concerned opposition.  Here, for example, is Krugman explaining how silly it is to call Obama a socialist:

Thus, President Obama is being called a “socialist” who seeks to destroy capitalism. Why? Because he wants to raise the tax rate on the highest-income Americans back to, um, about 10 percentage points less than it was for most of the Reagan administration. Bizarre.

Bizarre is reducing the now-rich Obama record to the tired canard about tax rates on the wealthy.  Krugman’s coddled world will not allow him to mention massive government intervention into the private sector, like Obama’s firing of GM’s CEO, or the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, or cap and trade, or the Omnibus Public Land bill’s stripping of property rights, or the planting of the seeds of nationalized health care, or the massive new national debt or the power grabs by every branch of the federal government that have been going on since Obama took office.

How nice to live in a world where living, and writing, the lie gives one the fame of a New York Times column and the adoration of leagues of liberals who share Krugman’s psychotic fear of the real world that surrounds them.

If you’re not sure you’re going to attend a tea party this Wednesday, do it for Krugman.  Make us impossible to ignore.

T

hat’s the shredded stimulus bill from the San Diego Tea Party today, snapped by Cheat-Seeking Missiles’ field correspondent Christa - part of our far-flung network of intergalactic correspondents.   Here’s here report; scroll down for lots more photos:

The protest in San Diego was fantastic. There were at least 300 people in attendance (one estimate put it at 500, but that seems a little high), many lining the streets with cleverly sloganed signs protesting the government’s spendthrift plans.

As for what went down - although there were speakers, it was difficult to hear them, so my focus was on the protesters flanking Harbor Drive, shouting “Save Our Country” while they waved American flags and signs of all sizes and colors. Although people were driven by outrage at the government’s actions to protest, the atmosphere was much more friendly than angry. As we sounded off on the error of the Obama-led government’s financial expansion (which is rewarding bad behavior), there was a sense of joy in gathering with like-minded citizens who were willing to take the time to stand up for their beliefs. When the media blares its Obama-friendly tune over and over again, it’s far too easy to feel like we’re the lone Conservatives, so it was really validating to unite with protesters of all ages and races, rallying against the massive government expansion.

Some of the slogans were so clever! Hopefully you can see them in the photos. Amid the protest, someone was blasting music that sounded like parodies poking fun at the stimulus bill; there was also someone who blared the audio clip of Obama saying that any bill would wait on his desk five days for the American people to read online (ironic, considering that Congress didn’t even have five days!). If things don’t change, I have a feeling there will be more protests along these lines - particularly on July 4th. I know I’d be there again in a heartbeat. Totally worth the vacation day! When it comes to stepping up for what’s right and protecting the future for generations, well, nothing is too much to ask, really.

Thanks, Christa!  Job well done.  And thanks to all the patriotic Americans who turned out for the San Diego Tea Party!  Let’s keep it up!

F

leeting tweets are flying in defiance of the ponderous, lumbering doom of Porkasaurus, as Top Conservatives on Twitter (#TCOT) uses its network of Twitter-ing conservatives to create a nationwide network of Tea Party USA protests against Porkasaurus next Friday.

Here’s the bare formative steps taking place in California - so far the protest is just in “your town” at “the Pacific Ocean” at 9 a.m.  But people are starting to log in, and expect it to grow.  SoCal folks, watch here for updates as future tweets result in specific protest rallies being formed.

The events look like they’ll all be similar in structure - people gather with some good signage, someone will present a shredded copy of Porkasaurus, and with great ceremony it will be thrown, Tea Party-like, into a handy body of water.  Native American dress optional.

On this page, you can find updates for your city or a city near you - including Obama’s home town. And Biden’s. And Harry’s.  How about you folks in Pelosiville?  Michele Malkin has a running update of activities - complete with a suggested play list for the rallies.  Investors Business Daily has a history of the movement including:

To be sure, the protest sizes so far are a far cry from the left’s anti-globalization and anti-war demonstrations of the past decade. But they appear to have grass-roots origins. The organizer of the Kansas protest, Amanda Grosserode, calls herself a home-schooling mom who is “fed up” with the spending in Washington. She has been a member of Fair Tax Kansas City since last fall.

“My husband and I were feeling frustrated that the stimulus had passed with very little debate and no one had read it,” she told IBD. “I said, ‘We need to do something.’ ”

She began contacting family and friends, and eventually received attention via Fair Tax Kansas City and local talk radio.

Grosserode received considerably more publicity after e-mailing popular conservative commentator and blogger Michelle Malkin.

“I think the taxpayer revolt is the new counterculture,” said Malkin, who has been publicizing the protests on her blog. “People want to stand up and say, ‘Hey, I’m paying for that, I do not support that.’ “

Remember Amanda Grosserode - she may be the Rosa Parks of this new civil rights movement, demanding freedom from stupid, overbearing government overspending on the road to socialism.