I find the “tea-bagging” (thanks, Fox News and CNN!) going on today to be particularly amusing. Not because people are protesting the bailouts — I’m glad they can and are.  It’s excellent that people in this country have right to make their opinions known, and that we have leadership in position that doesn”t place dissenters in bizarre segregated areas far from anyone who matters. Ahem.

But then there’s this:

Plan to dump million tea bags foiled
In Washington, D.C., protesters had planned to dump a million tea bags in Lafayette Square and even promised to put the bags on the tarps and clean up afterward. But their plans were thwarted after National Park Service officials said protesters didn’t have the proper permit to dump the bags, NBC affiliate WRC TV reported.

“We have a million tea bags here, and we don’t have a place to put them because it’s not on our permit,” said Rebecca Wales, lead organizer of D.C. Tea Party.

And part of me thinks that its cool that they’re treating the protests respectfully, behaving within the boundaries of the laws.

But part of me thinks that it’s a damned good thing that those folks in Boston, some 230+ years ago, remembered to include “plans to dump large amounts of tea into the harbor” on their permit application. Without such forethought, the Revolution may never have been fought, and then where would we be?

And oh, for the love of whatever you hold dear, don’t go read the comments on their website (Google will find he link for you).  What sounds like a reasonable protest quickly turns south into the usual us vs them red/blue doldrums. If you find that you’re really bored, watch this from last night’s Daily Show, with Muppets and more:

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