Boston Tea Party turns 234, doesn't look a day over 62
American colonists tossed 300 boxes of British tea into Boston
Harbor in 1773 to protest Great Britain's taxation without representation.
The Boston Tea Party led to the American Revolution and the protest
continues to be celebrated and reenacted in US cities every December
16.
In San Francisco, enthusiastic supporters for anti-war presidential
hopeful Ron Paul staged
a Tea Party and rally
outside the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. Paul supporters
in Boston
used the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party as a massive fundraising
event.
By midnight, the Texas congressman's acolytes
raised over $6
million online during a 24-hour "Money Bomb." On
November 5, Paul's first Money Bomb raised over $4 million.
Local 9/11 Truthers party like it's 1773
A few piers up the Embarcadero, Northern
California 9/11 Truth Commission organized their own Tea Party
event, with protestors colorfully clad in 18th-century period
costume. The protestors gathered at Pier 39, then moved west to
Fisherman's Wharf and the Hyde Street Pier.
After a presentation by several speakers at Hyde Street Pier,
the protestors then marched on to Aquatic Park and Municipal Pier.
V
for Vendetta meets A Christmas Carol: the ghost of 9/11 past.
At the end of the march participants threw a replica of the 9/11
Commission Report into the San Francisco Bay. To ensure the utmost
environmental responsibility, a wet-suited activist retrieved
the replica from the water.
Costumed revelers toss the 9/11 Commission Report into the Bay.
"There she blows!"
The San Francisco protest focused on omissions from the 9/11
Commission Report, criticisms of the Military Commissions
Act, the National Security Presidential Order 51, Homeland Security
Presidential Order 20, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown
Terrorism Prevention Act, and the Patriot Act.
Sept. 11 conspiracy theories have become a hot topic on the web,
with new "9/11 Truth" videos
appearing online daily. Even South Park got into the act, spoofing
the conspiracy theorists in an episode
entitled "The Mystery of the Urinal Dunce."
After an act of gross vandalism in the boys' bathroom, the investigation
turns into a broader conspiracy about Sept. 11: an inside job
perpetrated by the Bush administration to win support for a pre-planned
occupation of the oil-rich Middle East.
Comedian Bill Maher, self-described libertarian like Paul, angered
Sept. 11 conspiracy theorists September 14 when he made the following
statement during HBO's Real Time:
"Crazy people who still think the government brought down
the Twin Towers in a controlled explosion have to stop pretending
that I'm the one who's being naïve. How big a lunatic do
you have to be to watch two giant airliners packed with jet fuel
slam into buildings on live TV, igniting a massive inferno that
burned for two hours, and then think, 'well, if you believe that
was the cause.' Stop asking me to raise this ridiculous topic
on the show and start asking your doctor if Paxil is right for
you."
The "9/11 Truthers" made headlines in October when
Maher ejected them from a live studio audience.
9/11 Truthers infiltrate Bill Maher Show
Here's your chance to chime in. With many 9/11 conspiracy theories
abound, what do you think really happened on 9/11?