Tuesday, April 13, 2010

There is a storm brewing over the Springboro Tea Party orchestrated by Sonny Thomas of N. Main St.  First of all, the "Tea Party"  Wiki says...


The Tea Party protests are a series of nationally-coordinated protests across the United States beginning in early 2009.[1][2][3][4] The protests are part of a nascent, larger anti-tax political movement called the Tea Party movement. Among other events, protests have been held on:
  • February 27, 2009: to protest the TARP bailout bill signed by Bush, and the stimulus bill then-recently passed by Congress.
  • April 15, 2009: to coincide with the annual U.S. deadline for submitting tax returns, known as Tax Day,[5][6]
  • July 4, 2009: to coincide with Independence Day,
  • September 12, 2009: to coincide with the anniversary of the day after the September 11 attacks.
  • November 5, 2009: Washington D.C. again to protest the impending Health insurance vote.
  • March 14-21: Several protests took place in Washington, D.C. during the final week of debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[7]
  • Most Tea Party activities in 2010 have been focused on opposing the efforts (supported by the Obama Administration) to enact a very broad program of changes to the health care and health insurance industries, and on recruiting, nominating, and supporting candidates for upcoming state and national elections.
The name "Tea Party" is a reference to the Boston Tea Party, whose principal aim was to protest taxation without representation.[8][9] Tea Party protests have sought to evoke images, slogans and themes from the American Revolution, such as tri-corner hats and "Don't Tread on Me" flags.[6][10][11] The letters T-E-A have been used by some protesters to form the backronym "Taxed Enough Already".[12]
Commentators promoted Tax Day events on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, while the Fox News Channel[13][14] Reaction to the tea parties included counter-protests expressing support for the Obama administration, and dismissive or mocking media coverage of both the events and its promoters regularly featured televised programming leading into and promoting various protest activities.

So the current Tea Party of 2010 have been in efforts to oppose the efforts supported by the Obama administration on healthcare and such.  That brings us back to the Founder of the Springboro Tea.  Which, though we do not endorse, one can follow on twitter via http://www.twitter.com/SpringboroTea

Sonny Thomas, the founder of the Springboro Tea, has been arranging Tea Party meetings in Springboro.  At first their were some Republicans that sought to support and even attend some of the meetings.  But after a racial slur left on the Springboro Tea Twitter account, since has been removed, those officials have chosen to pull away from supporting the group.  It is reported that Shannon Jones and Linda Oda have chosen not to attend the upcoming meetings.  The next meeting is scheduled for April 17th according to the tweet left at about 3:30pm on Wednesday, April 13th.

So what was the slur?  After doing some research, the slur was tweeted on March 21, 2010.  As stated before, the tweet has been removed.  Here is the snapshot found on http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/12/tea-party-racial-slur/





teapartytweet

This is the tweet that caused the stir and the Primary Candidates to begin removing their names, support, and attendance to the meetings.  But it doesn't stop there.  Rick Sanchez, CNN News Rick's List, slammed the Springboro Tea founder.  Sanchez contacted Thomas over the racial remarks.  Thomas went on to speak of the comments stemming from the old Bee Gees song, "Spicks and Specks".  As of right now there has been no official apology, as well.  Read this article discussing Sanchez's outrage on Mediaite by clicking here.

This is a HUGE storm of outrageous proportions.  But it still does not stop there.  WHIO is reporting that today at around 1:00pm charges were signed against Thomas.  These charges were for a first-degree misdemeanor stemming violating a protection order against Thomas through his ex-wife.  Read the story here.

So we are not sure if Thomas will make the upcoming Saturday protest but he has made some major local, state, and now national headlines.

What do you think of this?  Are you part of the Tea Party protests?  Do you support the Springboro Tea?  We want to know!!  Comment below and share this article with your friends!!

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5 comments:

  1. Wow, I'm very surprised.

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  2. Sonny Thomas is a racist idiot who thinks he has made the big time. He is an embarassment to Springboro and does not represent the views of the populace here. I'm hoping that he continues to lay low and shows up at whats left of the rally so we can all see him taken away screaming his views to any cameras there.

    He is undoubtedly enjoying all the publicity he is getting. What a fool. Once his 15 minutes of fame is over and he has lost his job at Speedway, he'll be at the unemployment line looking for handouts after he moves back in with Mommy and Daddy.

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  3. Actually, via his website and his email list he posted his appology statement shortly after this had broke out. I've been to a couple of his meetings and I get the impression that he is passionate about his politics. I might have done the same if I were still in a younger man's clothes. I've emailed him my support regarding the incident in question and his response was more than satisfactory for me. The thing is I've seen him put way too much time, heart and soul into this. I'm sure he will come roaring back on top. He strikes me as the type of man that doest just run when the times gets rough. At my age, it's quite refreshing, actually to see someone of his generation stand up for what's right. I only wish I were 20 years younger to stand with him. - George

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  4. I'm not surprised. The "T.E.A. party" has no credibility with me and I’d bet most of the people are harboring racist if not revisionist views. These TEA Partiers are so upset with President Obama, but said nothing as President Bush racked up a mountain of debt, passed the Patriot Act and illegally wiretapped AMERICAN citizens. These people can not be serious! - Angela

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  5. Obviously the guys comments are totally unacceptable. But back in the civil rights era, NATIONALLY prominent black leaders like Malcolm X, Elijah Mohammed, and Stokely Carmichael said equally incendiary remarks. (Not to mention modern leaders like Barack Obama's mentor Rev. Wright) But the 'intelligencia' always contextualized the comments by pointing out how they are probably good indicators about the frustration many rank and file blacks felt about living in a society that appeared to them as not offering fair opportunity and ignoring and not dealing with the underlying grievance would only lead to even greater unrest in the future. Could the so-called 'racist' elements in the tea party also be indicative of frustrations about what appears to be a society that is moving more and more toward a position where a relatively higher economically-performing white population is forced through the political system to pay for the upkeep of a growing relatively underperforming minority bloc(who more or less regards them as evil hethens to boot)? Is it wise for folks who claim they are interested in creating a better society to simply browbeat the dumbasses of a movement who say very stupid things and completely ignore the underlying grievances of the movement which may sound to many like a rather accurate description of modern circumstances?

    And by the way, I find it offensive that this site reported as fact that he violated the protection order rather than he ALLEGEDLY violated a protection order. Seems you have the man guilty before the judge has even seen him. Interestingly, Ms. Turner's attorney dropped her for her lack of credibility. Ms Turner filed abuse charges against him before (thus the protection order), and after an investigation--all charges were found to be unsubstantiated.
    ............someone who knows

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