And so the Tea Party wars continue in San Antonio, TX.

Progressives in San Antonio, anxious to show the rest of the US that Texans aren't all rabid, right wing Tea Partiers or anti-government, anti-tax secessionists, decided to help the San Antonio Tea Party celebrate their one year anniversary. From the MoveOn press release:

As the San Antonio Tea Party throws a party for itself, and listens to the tired, repetitive message of woe from "Joe the Plumber", San Antonio MoveOn members have invited San Antonio’s own "Mike the Plumber" to speak about his real plumbing business and his work installing solar hot water heaters – and why investing in the small businesses that build our clean energy future is good for business owners like him, good for his customers and the environment, good for San Antonio, good for Texas and good for America.

The San Antonio Tea Party has had multiple problems in the past year:

Split between San Antonio Tea Party and Tea Party Support

San Antonio Tea Party spends almost $250,000 in a couple of months, records posted online



As part of the recovery process, they decided to plan an all day extravaganza. Beginning at 12:30 - you could enjoy lunch with Joe the Plumber for $40. Pictures with Joe were $10.

Starting at 2pm, you could rally with your fellow patriots and listen to Joe and some Oathkeepers tell us why our nation is going to progressive hell. The cost of a chair to sit is $2, but you could bring your own if you like. And, to top it all off, at 4:45, you could listen to a well known Climate Change denier explain why excess snow only helps prove his point, there is no such thing as Climate Change. We chose not to stay that late.

Because the Tea Party gets press coverage fairly easily in San Antonio, we decided the intelligent thing to do would be to follow the press. After all, the Tea Party has done it to us all year long. To make it easier, we planned a short program with a few progressive speakers that answer directly to the complaints of Joe the Plumber and the need for clean energy jobs in San Antonio. And we thought hard about visuals - no looking like astroturfers for us. Several came dressed in work clothes with plungers in hand, everyone held signs, we brought balloons because it is a birthday party, after all, and we proudly held two American flags.

To attract the press, we advertised all of that in our press release. We then sent the press release two different times, once on Friday and once again Sunday morning. We then followed up with press calls and asked, "Will you send a reporter?":

*** VISUALS: Flags, balloons, signs promoting green jobs and clean energy, fired up citizens

Including some dressed as plumbers with their tools***

You know, the press loves visuals. I have to say here, thanks to MoveOn.org for their media training! It has made a huge difference to our media coverage here in San Antonio!

We started the rally with a honk-n-wave on Commerce Street while the press did one-on-one interviews with a few of our members. It helps if you have folks lined up to interview and in San Antonio it's always a good idea to have Spanish speakers. We had three and Univision walked away happy - often at political rallies (especially around the Tea Party) it is hard to find more than a single Spanish speaker. I wonder why?

After a little fiasco with late speakers and one no-show, we managed to pull together our act. If you ever hold a rally of your own, don't expect it to run perfectly! Just go with the flow! We had Mike the Plumber speak about his local business, Roland spoke about solar energy and peak oil, and Randy spoke about the future of Geo-Thermal for Texas. Our wonderful Jolene MCed the whole event in plumber regalia!



Then we marched down the street to the Tea Party rally. They had their professional set-up in a rented space, with microphones and all. The comparison between the two is almost comic. They obviously had money for their event. We run our events of volunteer power and donated supplies. We can't even afford the permit for sound amplification on city street, so we just yell in order to be heard. We marched down the street chanting "Green Jobs Now", stopped across the street facing the rally and sang "Happy Birthday!" But not to the Tea Party. We sang for the Stimulus Package instead. The response from over the fence - a couple of signs.

Our point wasn't to be a pain in the side of the Tea Party. Our point was to get media coverage. And it worked. I watched us two times last night, once on KENS5 and once on KSAT12. We had fair coverage from both. Our side of the story was told. Both were going to repeat coverage on the 10 o'clock news. We had cameras out there from four different stations, a couple of free lancers, and a print reporter from our local weekly, The Current. If I get any online links to coverage, I will be sure to update the story!

(update) We found coverage from the local Tea Party itself on They Think You're Stupid:

He Who Shall Not Be Named did not show up, but Move On.Org did. The sang ""Happy Birthday" to us at the end of their counter protest. Gotta hand Angie Drake that one -- it was a nice touch. Angie and I talked afterward (Yes, the local Move On coordinator and I can be civil to one another. Hell, I like Angie and she's a military spouse. Not a bad person, just...wrong on her politics.) Remember, your opponent isn't necessarily evil. Isn't that the mistake too many on the other side make about us? We resist "The One!" so we must be evil.... So, too, with them.

(upate) From an email of a local MoveOn member:

I don't usually watch KENS--in fact, I barely watch local news at all, but last night, since I had been out of town all day, I decided to click around and see if there was any coverage of the rally. There might have been something on the other stations, but I don't know, because once I saw how they were going to cover it on KENS, I stuck around so that I wouldn't miss it. The best part is, they didn't include any political bias in their coverage, you couldn't tell what they were thinking (you know, like in the olden days on the news, ha!).

In the meantime, enjoy some more pictures! And consider holding a rally of your own!