TEA PARTY UPDATE: I’ve already mentioned Harrisburg and Fullerton, but now here’s a news report from Green Bay:

Hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday afternoon outside Titletown Brewing Co., replacing Boston Harbor with the Fox River for a Green Bay tea party to rally against government programs and federal bailouts. . . . Speakers at the rally included Marc Savard, who is running for the 8th Congressional District (to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen, D-Appleton) and WTAQ talk show host Jerry Bader.

Though coined as a taxpayer rally, taxes aren’t the only issue at hand, Bader said, it’s also about having a government that allows citizens to be self-reliant.

“Conservatism is based on I’ll take care of me, you take care of you. … This is often translated to mean we’re not compassionate — nothing could be further from the truth,” Bader said.

“Picking my pocket and deciding what’s compassion, is not compassion. When you are forced to be compassionate at the barrel of a gun, we have a word for that, it’s robbery.”

The mass of protesters marched into downtown Green Bay to bring their message to Kagen at his office at 700 E. Walnut St.