Report Back from Tom's River NJ Tea Party 9/11/09

Well it all started as an idea to just have fun at the expense of right wing nut jobs and people who were on the pay roll of the insurance lobby who were disguised as right wing nut jobs that a comrade of mine let me in on. We trekked down to Tom's River about 4:30 pm braving heavy rain and traffic on the parkway. We made signs that said "librarians are commies" and "privatize the fire department". Very Colbert esque satire even tough the Tea Baggers do an amazing job of satirizing themselves. Amidst a sea of flags with 13 stars and signs that read things like "Obama is an illegal Alien" "Impeach The Marxist, Nazi, Muslim, President", "Get Your Dirty Government Paws Of My Medicare" and Taxed Enough Already, We were wondering why Jon Stuart, Steven Colbert, and John Oliver weren't there to report on this juicy peace of satire. We decided to go in there and start our satirical counter protesting. We yelled things like "Stop the big government spending on the police department!" "Let Black Water Outsource The Cops", "Privatize The Fire Department" "Why should I pay to put out a fire thats not on my property?" and "Abolish Medicare Grandma's A Communist Freeloader" "You can't have it both ways" . But after about an hour the tea baggers were finally on to us. Which lead to allot of threats of bodily violence and name calling. To the point were a tea bagger accused of us of making threats and went to the cops. We did not make any threats all of the threats were from them. The cop did pull out of the crowd and ran our IDs. Then the cop calmly said he was only doing that to save face because he had a full plate on his hands. He told us that he didn't want things to escalate because the crowd was extremely volatile. He said we have every right to be there and counter protest but he asked us nicely to tone things down because many of these people could be armed based on news reports. He just didn't want anyone to get hurt. Understandable even coming from a cop who turned out to be an alright guy after talking to him more. Later we found out that many of these "grassroots" protesters were being bussed in on a expensive bus that is more comfortable than my house. Most of them weren't even from the state let alone the town. Allot of the residents coming in and out of the shops and restaurants along with the police officers were not too happy about having there town held hostage by an organization funded by the insurance lobby. We talked to some local residents who said that the Tea Baggers did not speak for them and many admitted top being desperate for a strong public health option. A local football coach was leaving a Pizzeria with his team when he decided to call this group out on their bullshit by saying to one of them "I don't care if you got a permit. Most of you never even set foot here let alone live here and my team and I can't even enjoy a victory dinner without you nut jobs going on and on about dumb crap! You have your right to free speech but we have a right to go about our lives undisturbed as residents and if you're so against taxes why the hell did you come here on a federally funded highway you crazy jack ass?!" They almost got into a scuffle until a cop separated them. Then came the really bad right wing protest songs that made my comrade, myself, and the residents in the surrounding area want to commit ritualistic group suicide. So we decided leaving would be a less extreme alternative. Though, we were outsiders as well the locals were very receptive to us. And admitted to having a good laugh at our satire. One elderly woman who was on our side who was holding a sign that said "Medicare Works Why Not Give It To Everyone?" said we were "insightful young men" and our signs were a "stitch". It was a strange day for small town America.