So the Teabag "convention" was 600-1000 paying attendees TOTAL

[UTUSN]

So they weren't elected to represent anybody, were paying to attend, and they didn't even start off with a pledge of allegiance or FLAG or PRAYER!1 And there were factions boycotting and kibitzing. But bwah-HAH!1 some 'bagger asked Answers.Yahoo.com about getting a tax deduction for the expenses!1


**********QUOTE********
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100201072253AAa26my

Are tickets to the T.E.A. Bag Convention tax deductible?

No--political conventions are not charitable events.

You'll have to pay all $549 without receiving a dime of tax benefit.





http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020402884.html

Tea Party convention begins in Nashville

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 5, 2010

.... Attendees have paid $549 a ticket (plus hotel and transportation) to gather for three days at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, which critics say is out of reach for many activists. Some of the proceeds will cover former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's reported $100,000 fee for Saturday's keynote address.

Despite the fractiousness, however, officials said the event is sold out, with 600 "delegates" registered and scores more being turned away. The closing steak-and-lobster banquet, featuring Palin, has sold 1,100 tickets. ....

And outside the convention hall, entrepreneurs sold souvenirs: sterling silver tea bag necklaces ($89.99), bags of "Freedom Coffee" ($9) and T-shirts emblazoned with a bald eagle ($20).

The convention's first day lacked the orchestrated staging of most modern political events. The convention host delivered a meandering welcome speech without notes, saying he misplaced them. Former congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) offered a fiery defense of Judeo-Christian faith and traditional American values, but there was no prayer or Pledge of Allegiance to open the convention -- nor was there an American flag in the convention hall. (Skoda blamed the oversight on the hotel staff.) ....

Tea Party Nation, a social-networking site, is organizing the convention. Although it is a for-profit corporation, founders Judson and Sherry Phillips have said that any profit will be funneled back into the movement. "We have made the best of a tight budget and scaled back the price of attending this convention as much as we could without putting TPN into bankruptcy," Sherry Phillips wrote recently in an e-mail to members.

Still, other prominent voices in the movement remain furious. Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com, a conservative blog, wrote that the convention "smells scammy." Two tea party groups, the American Liberty Alliance and the National Precinct Alliance, withdrew from the convention in protest, as did two featured speakers, Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). ....

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[mediaman007]

1. How many people of color were attending?

I would think that they would brag about having a few people of color.

[UTUSN]

3. Likely NONE. But if there was ONE, for sure THAT one would be on t.v. Plus,

I in no way intend to give the impression that my ridicule of their numbers at the event or of their disorganization underestimates them as a political threat: The Beer Hall Putsch was 600 (below)? And if somebody says my comparison is absurd because the'baggers weren't ARMED, well, I say their hatred is their armament and can bear the fruit of future arms.

**********QUOTE********
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch

.... Hitler, along with a large detachment of SA, marched on the Bürgerbräukeller, a Munich beer hall where von Kahr was making a speech in front of 3,000 people.

In the cold evening dark, 600 SA surrounded the beer hall and a machine gun was set up pointing at the auditorium doors. Hitler, surrounded by his assocriates Hermann Göring, Alfred Rosenberg, Rudolf Hess, Ernst Hanfstaengl, Ulrich Graf, Johann Aigner, Adolf Lenk, Max Amann, Scheubner-Richter, Wilhelm Adam, etc. (some 20 in all), burst through the doors at 8:30 pm, pushed their way laboriously through the crowd, fired a shot into the ceiling and jumped on a chair yelling:

“ The national revolution has broken out! The hall is filled with six hundred men. Nobody is allowed to leave. The Bavarian government and the government at Berlin are deposed. A new government will be formed at once. The barracks of the Reichswehr and those of the police are occupied. Both have rallied to the swastika. ”


Hitler, accompanied by Rudolf Hess, Adolf Lenk and Ulrich Graf, forced the triumvirate of von Kahr, von Seisser, and von Lossow into a side room (previously rented by Rudolf Hess) at gunpoint and demanded that they support his putsch, or they would be shot. Hitler thought that he would get an immediate response of affirmation from them, imploring von Kahr to accept a position as Regent of Bavaria. Von Kahr replied that he could not be expected to collaborate, especially as he had been taken out of the auditorium under heavy guard.

During this time, speeches were held in the main hall by Göring, among others, obtaining a temporary calm, while no one was allowed to leave, not even to go to the toilet. Some, however, escaped via the kitchen, especially those foreign correspondents eager to file copy. ....

********UNQUOTE********

[sinkingfeeling]

2. And how many people have attended progressive conferences in the last 10 years and gotten the

type of 'news' coverage this 'convention' did?

[UTUSN]

4. Exactly. That's what made me curious about the stats. n/t