The Alternative Protest to Teabag Day: Million Can March
By bluegal Friday Jul 03, 2009 5:45amIn case you haven't heard, the Million Can March is a counter protest to the teabagging protest redux scheduled for the Fourth of July. Good luck wi dat, teabaggers.
Since the news cycle is spinning the Missouri legislator who thinks summer nutrition programs for kids de-motivates them, the Million Can March is all the more timely. And should we remind the leading Tea Party advocate in the Senate, David Vitter, that food banks also need donations of disposable diapers?
But seriously, I'm already in the process of cleaning out my pantry and getting some food over to the local food bank.
The idea is to do something positive in response to the Teabagger business. The instigator of this project, Rev. Phat of Les Enrages, points out:
This all started with a vague notion that we should do something more than just have a good laugh at the next round of tea parties scheduled for July 4th. I thought that if teabaggers are so afraid of socialism, maybe we could show 'em socialism on a national scale. And what is more socialistic than sharing our food with others.
And in the spirit of forgiveness, Rev. Phat invites conservatives to provide the drinks: dry packaged drink mixes and other non-perishable beverages are welcome at food banks, too.
For bloggers/webmasters the flash image above is free to copy here, and there's a free-use set of non-flash images on Flickr courtesy of Tengrain. There's also a Facebook group (login req.) for those wanting to promote the activism.
Donate a can or two to your local food bank this week. Feeding America has a food bank locator if you need help finding one in your area. Thank you.
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I've been doing this for a long time. I buy extra food every week and make two deliveries a month to the local food pantry. The lady there tells me what they can use and I just add a few things to my bag every shopping trip. When a store has something like mac and cheese with a deal like buy one get one free, the pantry gets two mac and cheese or maybe more. The lady at the pantry said that peanut butter goes a long way for a family along with providing protein. The local grocery here donates their day old bread too. Pasta is always needed here along with canned fruits and vegetables. Also my pantry takes donations of pet food for people who love their pets but maybe can't afford to feed them proper pet food. Oh and one more thing, instant oatmeal is appreciated especially by the elderly.
The closest food bank to me is in Miami...and I hate driving in Miami...there's gotta be somewhere in the keys to donate food...churches maybe...
I don't have much, but I can share with those who ain't got nothin, no problem.
... at least here in the bastion of liberalism called the San Francisco Bay Area, have donation boxes for food banks. (During the holiday season, you can actually pay $10 for a pre-selected bag of groceries that is much more than $10 in value.)
Publix does that here too on holidays...I think it should be year round.
I'll find somewhere to donate stuff.
Check the local churches. Often times they either have a pantry or know where the closest one is located. Maybe I'll drive down to your place and pick up the stuff. I wouldn't mind a few days in the Keys right now. :)
When I was growing up there were many times my family would have qualified for food pantry goods but my parents were too proud to do something like that and as a result I know about missing meals and eating biscuits alone as dinner. Now I'm in a position to help the local pantry a lot so I do it. I feel it's my responsibility.
Vitter and the need for diapers! Too rich Bluegal!
Don't Progressives have something better to do than REGRESS to the level of Tea Baggers?
Seriously.
Whatever. Providing food to people who need it is always the right thing to do, especially now. No matter the cause involved, it's just the right thing to do.
... providing a positive example by contributing to a local food bank 'regressing' or moving in any direction similar to the teabag protest crowd?
Sure, there's some humor to be found in likening a food bank to 'socialism,' but it's still not even close to the actual thing.
How in the hell is donating food to the needy regressing?
"In case you haven't heard, the Million Can March is a counter protest to the teabagging protest redux scheduled for the Fourth of July..."
That's how. The fact that they are making it something to do with Tea Baggers instead of just doing it.
If it were me I'd just have the food drive and not even mention Tea Baggers. They have nothing to do with anything I'm doing and I sure don't want to be associated with them.
Of course I CAN associate myself with them by declaring them important enough to have a fucking counter protest to.
Hope that answers everyone's questions.
I don't care if it's done as a counter protest to UFOs, if it gets the food pantry more food that's the most important thing.
I don't disagree. All I'm saying is that the can people chose to associate themselves with the Tea Baggers and that's just stupid.
Their cause is great but given the option to give to them or another charity that's just doing whatever they do without the politics, I'll give to the most politic-free charity whose cause I support.
Anyway, it just annoyed me so I had to say something.
The adage, "Ignore them and they'll go away" is true. Unfortunately, nobody on the left knows how to ignore anyone on the right, even when that thing on the right is on the brink of extinction due to lack of interest.
So let's keep them relevant.
That's my point.
Sorry for preaching.
kinda makes a bit of sense.
Actually I think the timing is good.
It shows how large a community the liberal crowd is
And that the tea-baggers aren't some silent majority as they seemed to believe.
Besides being an act of charity (lima beans don't count),
It's an act of patriotism
And isn't an act of waste like the knuckle-draggers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDA9NbPAK8o
Here we go again. While these conservatives are having their angry protest, I'll celebrate America. Their loss. Nobody cares about their self-serving crap anymore. It'll be interesting to see Fux News' ratio of coverage between tea parties and the CELEBRATION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF OUR COUNTRY.
Fox already covered the tea party they had in NYC a couple of days ago and Fox and Friends wondered how many other channels covered it. They said they did because they are fair and balanced. Irony at its best.
circle jerk?
HA!
Losers. Using every "reason" they can come up to protest Obama, but few will admit it's simply because he's black.
These teabag assclowns are going to conduct protests during the 4th of July weekend?
Like, in Washington, D.C. amid all the pageantry of 'A Capitol Fourth'? Or any major city where there will be parades and fireworks displays?
Good luck with that.
You have to wonder if any of them know the meaning of the 4th.
... the Washington, D.C. crowd wound up being a laughingstock because they didn't have a permit for their little show. Then they tried to march outside the Treasury Building, same deal. Then someone threw a 'teabag' over the fence at 1600 Pennsylvania, and they were ordered to be dispersed.
So if the Mall is prepped for a lavish celebration and concert, you can imagine that there will be restrictions on parking, where one can go, etc. ... and increased security.
So these yahoos think they're going to get noticed? They probably will - for the wrong reasons.
All good points and besides hearing it from Beck, I wouldn't even know about their plans. This one didn't get the big promo from Fox that the first one did. I wonder if the fox folks will report live from around the country like they did the last one. If there are no big time cameras there, this will probably be the end of the tea parties.
..the right-wingers will find some reason to say "Well, isn't that cute...but it's WRONG!!!"
Fu*k 'em. When was the last time they personally did something for their fellow man....and tea baggin' doesn't count. :)
http://talkingpoints.wordpress.com/2006/12/01...
Here's the first sentence: "So what are we to make of the fact that conservative Americans donate 30% more to charity than liberal Americans?"
I don't mind the right wing having "protests," don't even mind too much their artificiality (or astroturf nature), but I am starting to very much mind them taking this nation's historical events and holidays as if they are their own. Much as they did while in power, the right-wing is cashing in assets they had nothing to do with earning, solely for political gain. So I think the Million Can March is a great counterpoint to this so-called movement's selfishness and piggery.
The food bank search linked to in the article is religious related. Is there a food bank search that is more accepting? I know of 3 food banks in my area yet only the Good Shepard, 80 miles away is shown on your search.
The ones here are church related. Often times the churchs are the only ones who care enough to set up a pantry. For all the bad knocks churches get, you gotta give them credit on this front. And no, I am not in any way a religious person but I do believe in giving credit where credit is due.
Our church has seen a three-fold increase over last year. When I saw how much food they were giving away last year, I was shocked.
I cannot even imagine how much worse its gonna get.
But as long as millionaires and billionaires don't have to pay taxes, America still has its moral authority. Because that's what is really important and matters most.
In fact, if we just cut taxes on the top 2% again, it would trickle down to the starving masses, and we would have like, an even more totally awesome like country.
Here are some of the plans for the tea parties and it's ugly
We had a group of teabagger morons in our June parade last week. A bunch of $8-10 an hour people who are terrified we may start taxing the rich bastards who keep them stuck in their desperate $8-10 an hour lives - without hope and without health insurance.
These people are so clueless - and frankly so fucking stupid, I doubt if they would notice their hair was on fire. I was laughing at them and shaking my head. And I wasn't alone.
Side note: One of the idiots has been unemployed for over a year, with no health insurance and two toddlers. The army of Rush and Fox noise. The circular firing squad of American voters. Oh well, what you gonna do?
Nothing points out the difference between conservative and liberal better. On the one side you have "whaaaaa! I don't want to pay taxes!", and on the other you have people quietly collecting food for the hungry.
This is the best breakdown I have heard yet! VERY well said!
We had a group of teabagger morons in our June parade last week. A bunch of $8-10 an hour people who are terrified we may start taxing the rich bastards who keep them stuck in their desperate $8-10 an hour lives - without hope and without health insurance.
----------------------
In case you hadn't noticed, there is an economic depression going on.
You are pretty clueless to think that the rich are keeping people stuck in $8 to $10 jobs. People move up and down the income ladder, over their life span. People have started out poor and become rich or middleclass. People have started out rich and become poor, by squandering their inherited fortune.
Additionally, the rest of the world wants to industrialize, which puts downward pressure on wages and prices. It is called deflation.
Every inflation ends in a deflation. Inflation and deflation complete a cycle. Cycles are mathmatic. Periodicly, over long periods of time, there are deflations and depressions. There is no avoiding them. Every long term inflation cycle ends in one.
You call them tea bagger morons, but the tax payers of California soundly rejected 5 ballot propositions to balance the state budget in part from higher taxes. One consideration for a public health care plan was to levy taxes on company health benefits. That would affect those 8-10 $ an hour workers at those companies. It isn't just about higher taxes on the rich.
The city of El Monte just avoided bankruptcy- for now, because city unions accepted pay cuts. The tax payers pay their salaries and can't afford the cost any more, with the area U-3 unemployment rate above 10%. The city of Valeho filed for bankruptcy, after it could no longer afford paying high salaries. Thousands of California teachers are being laid off, after they would not accept unpaid days off or pay cuts. They run ads pushing the tax payers to protest the cuts, but with the unemployment rate among tax payers above 10%, there isn't a lot of sympathy for those who think they are entitled to keep their job, at our increased expense, while we are in danger of losing ours.
And have you hit the down part of your cycle in this life yet?You sound pretty smug.Have you ever worked for minimum wage as an adult? Can you even comprehend it?I work one of those jobs, and even though they tell us business is booming and up 20% from last year, we've been told that when review time comes the best we can expect is a max of 3% raises.That was based on the other industries in the area and their failing business.We are working overtime,usually 9 hr, 6 day weeks, and we are falling apart.But wait! there is an inexhaustible supply out there, just waiting for disposal.And the ranks of management which seems to expand like the girth on a pig are make well more than 100,000 a year.I just want to be able to be treated like a human,instead of part of a machine.
Don't condescend to me with your semi-retarded GOP bullshit talking points. If they took back the 2 trillion in tax cuts that Bush gave to the upper 5%, there would be plenty of money to start to turn things around.
Furthermore, I know most of the losers who were in the teabagger crowd. Apparently you didn't read my side note.
And I'll tell you something else: I have been in education for over twenty years, and I am sick of hearing bullshit from morons like you!
In the 90's when everybody was making big bucks and bonuses, we went 4 years in a row without a raise! The republicans told us that "you have health insurance, we can't afford a raise." Then they gave their corporate buddies billions in tax cuts, and within three years the SOB's left the state anyway.
I work in one of the top districts in the state, and we don't even have money for paper! We don't even use our textbooks anymore because they are 16 years old, and all the state can do is give us new unfunded mandates.
We were the last of the last to be taken to Grovers bathtub, but even we will have deficits for the first time ever next year - despite cuts after cuts after cuts since 2000.
I have never had more than a 2.8% raise in all my years (even when I was at University), and 10 times we have gotten NO raise at all. All of my private sector family and friends use to laugh at me for dedicating my life to teaching and research, because they made a lot more money on little or far less education.
But now that the economy sucks, we are the scapegoats, and guess what, the same republicans who wouldn't give us any money during the 90's boom, are attacking us because we have health insurance! The evil bastards.
Frankly, you are a cheap, stupid, whining sack of ignorant shit that knows nothing about anything other than your own greedy ass, and the ignorant moronic rightwing talking points you spew like the Mayor from planet stupid. Why don't you keep your ignorant uninformed opinions to yourself, or take them over to red state where you and other dupes can complain about other Americans not being entitled to a liveable wage.
By the way, the reason nobody has any money, is because 5% of the population has half of the wealth, while the top 2% have more money than the bottom 50%! The reason for this is because of the idiotic tax code repukes gave us.
So if you wanna complain, complain about the rich SOB's who have billions and whine about needing another tax cut. Don't attack working people who are just trying to survive.
Let's see if even YOU can follow this: The private sector is laying off millions and hiring nobody, nor have they for the last two years. And now dumb asses like you want to make sure those public servants no longer make more than a couple of bucks an hour? Pray tell, no private jobs, no public sector jobs? Hmmmmmm, just how in the hell are we gonna find employment.
Their is a very limited number of corporate welfare crony openings out there, and we don't exactly qualify.
Honestly, where do people as clueless as you are come from?
How about sending used disposable diapers to republican headquarters?
What about sending old worn dirty socks instead?
Everyone has old socks, not so with diapers.
And, the smellier the more impressive and to the point. Don't you think?
Remember men, our superior expects every one of us to do our dootie.
What is the difference between Federal Stimulus money to the states and Republican pork barrel spending?
How does this effect your republican organizers when asked of this?
Has this idea been sent to the stupid news outlets? I've been on vacation but this is the first I've heard of this very nice Million Can March idea. Good job!
I gave earlier this week. California is going to be hurting.
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