Tom Jenney Arizona Director Americans for Prosperity (Arizona Federation of Taxpayers) http://www.aztaxpayers.org/ kicking off the Arizona Tea Party #teaparty #TCOT at Tempe Town Lake in Tempe AZ on February 27, 2009 taken by http://twitter.com/wbaustin/ for http://www.evliving.com/
Announcement of the Arizona Taxpayer Tea Party

JEFFERSON CITY | A couple hundred taxpayers turned out this morning for a "tea party" on the Capitol steps to protest the federal bailouts and private-sector incursions since the financial collapse last year. They heard comments from several Republican lawmakers, chanted, cheered, waived signs and dangled the Lipton teabags handed out by Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group sponsoring the event. A few came bearing their own signs, although many more picked up ready-mades available on site.

The right wing and Fox News are trying to paint tomorrow’s tea party protests as an organic uprising, when they are in fact being spearheaded by high-powered business interests. Now, organizers are doling out generous financial incentives to publicize the tea parties. In a Facebook message today, Erik Telford of Americans For Prosperity told supporters, “I wanted to make you aware of an opportunity. Americans for Prosperity Foundation and Heritage Foundation have teamed up to launch the Stop Spending Our Future project, which offers four contests and $5,000 in prizes“

This string of nation-wide protests was spontaneous, but it was egged on and given form by the establishment of the conservative movement. In Washington, the Tea Party protest was brought into a rough, flash mob order by J.P. Freire, the young managing editor of the American Spectator and a rising star in cable TV punditry. Freire launched a web site and Facebook page for the Washington event, Malkin promoted it, and conservative think tanks jumped on the bandwagon. By Friday the event was endorsed by Americans for Tax Reform, FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union, and Americans for Prosperity, whose local chapter had helped promote the Kansas rally. The timing meshed with the 36th annual Conservative Political Action conference, and dozens of attendees had hopped on the D.C.