Greetings from Peachtree City, Georgia, a veritible hot-bed of public unrest. This comfy, wealthy subburb affectionately (and derisively) known as "the bubble" is an enclave of Atlanta's rich, white northern burbs tucked away south of I-20.
It was founded in the late 1950's and blossomed into a thriving upper-middle class bedroom community constituted primarily of white transplants from the northeast and midwest who were relocated to the Atlanta area and rather unnerved by the idea of living near the "rednecks and the coloreds." At a population of 40,000 today, its demographics haven't changed much. "The bubble" is one of the highest per-capita income communities in the state. It is also one of the most conservative. Because of its relative proximity to the world's busiest airport, there are lots of airline pilots and their families living in PTC--almost none of them originally from the south. It's hard to find a southern accent here.
Not surprisingly, the Peachtree City Tax Day Tea Party was a huge success.
We'll start off this photographic journey with one of the more embarrassing signs. This one is pretty lousy. I give it a C- in both artistic value and message.
This one is a little more arts and crafty and much more stable. Bonus points for the angry right wing sentiment.
Nice colors in this gem. This guy wants to pay taxes. What's he doing here? Oh, he must be beyond that 20-percent bracket.
This guy (in the Sarah Palin T-shirt) is really excited to be here, but he has no friends around to take his picture for him... so he's doing it himself. Also, in this photo we can play "find the African American." It's kind of like "Where's Waldo" only harder. Over a million African Americans live in metro Atlanta. The majority of them live south of I-20. Peachtree City is south of I-20. Remember, they call it "the bubble."
I like this sign. Though I prefer black coffee. Brewed at home.
Karen Handel, current Republican Secretary of State and 2010 Georgia Gubernatorial candidate, served as the keynote speaker. She got a great piece of news today: rival Republican candidate Casey Cagle has dropped out of the race (mistress).
Itty bitty protesters (I don't like using kids, but you've got to admit, those signs are pretty spot on).
This is the back side of that anti-immigrant sign featured above. I'm pretty sure the creator of this beauty is a retired art teacher or something.
This dude made his own t-shirt. He's really jazzed about attending the Atlanta Tea Party tonight with grassroots activist Sean Hannity. By the way, when all these Peachtree City-ers take MARTA to the protest tonight, it will probably set some kind of record for "most white people ever in the College Park Marta Station"
But the Bubble's residents didn't have to "Be Smarta with MARTA" to get to this protest. They just took their golf carts. Peachtree City is connected by a vast network of golf cart paths. No, I'm not kidding. The paths are great for walking or jogging, but the golf carts... not so much.
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Verbal Remedy AKA Denise
Skeptic Turtle
Thomas Huber
Dorinda D.
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Jocelyn Testes-Harder
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Comments
Thank you for sharing this.
Any protest that includes golf carts has zero street cred, I'm pretty sure. (Unless it is at a retirement community.)
That was hilarious. Thank you for your contributions to the struggle.
This state elected it first Republican governor since Reconstruction 8 years ago.The biggest economic boom in the state's history began to wane 7 years ago...
(thumbified for observation)
The GOP is hoping to use race to rebuild their Party. They are using the same tactics of Adolf Hitler to gain popularity, by whatever means necessary . Next on their agenda will be minorities and immigrants . They care less about OUR COUNYRY and the American people.
The following is an excerpt from a post from "Bonddad" a contributor at Huffington Post :
........" President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn't cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush's first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton's last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush's first term.
The Republican Congress has enthusiastically assisted the budget bloat. Inflation-adjusted spending on the combined budgets of the 101 largest programs they vowed to eliminate in 1995 has grown by 27 percent.
Yet there were no protests. And here is a report from the Bureau of Public Debt of the annual federal debt outstanding at the end of the last 8 federal fiscal years:
09/30/2008 $10,024,724,896,912.49
09/30/2007 $9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2006 $8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86
To anyone with an ounce of common sense, it's obvious what's going on. Republican/conservative rank and file are protesting because they are out of power and their leadership is terrible. But they aren't protesting spending; they are protesting the Democratic Party's governance. And that is fine. But please, don't tell me it's about spending or debt. If that were the case, you guys should have taken to the streets years ago."
The white participants at the TEA PARTY" remind me of the congregation at JIM JONES Commune. READY TO DRINK THE KOOLAID....No questions asked...Oh yes.. just one question.!..Can you tell my Great grand children , I died for them.?'
Your photos and comments are exquisite. The golf cart will stay with me for a few days. That's like Vanilla Ice trying to roll with Biggie.
Dammit, how can we writers compete with such picturesque comedy?
Reality is gonna ruin fiction.
And don't knock the suburbs completely. I like my area (south Fulton/North + East Fayette/Clayton). Marietta's town square is nice too. PTC, Alpharetta, Forsyth co., Cherokee co., Gwinnett, John's Creek, Milton, East Cobb, Paulding Co, Henry Co., Rockdale Co.,... well... you can knock them.