Cute children, pretty dogs, old people and vets drink tea, protest government spending their cash and ruining their lives

Best of both worlds: child and dog. In this case, the critter's owner held up the dog for easy petting. This place was a zoo, I tell ya.

I'm punned out. There are just too many plays on words that can apply to this week's bevy of protests nationwide that follow in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party.

It all started Wednesday, tax day. Protesters pulled out their signs from the Clinton era, fetched some teabags from their kitchens and headed to four locations in Brevard County to rail against high government spending. It ended Sunday - at least for now - with a mass "tea party" in which community members and public officials gathered at a local park pavilion to let their voices be heard. They called it the Brevard Tea Party.

It has been a great exercise of free speech for everyone who isn't happy with Barack Obama's methods in heading up the response to the economic crisis. But it's downright difficult for a copy editor to write headlines that play with words typically associated with tea. My headline for this post was going to be, "On a Grey day and in a steeped tradition of citizens blowing off steam at their herb-smoking government, tea drinkers attend party, boil president alive, whistle in approval of others' signs about high spending, find a little ceramic animal in a box, get hot for the next presidential election - all while probably forgetting to send in their tax returns this week | Sponsored by Lipton," but it was too long.

Instead, I'll explain this story through photos, the only real reason I attended the protest Sunday at the Wickham Park Pavilion in Melbourne. And it was only a half-mile from my apartment, so there was little inconvenience.

While I was at the protest, I ran into my old roommate (you know, the guard dog trainer), who also was there to take photos. He has this blog called The Transmission Line, and I'm sure he'll eventually share his political opinions there.

But in the tradition of The Offlede, this post will be devoid of bias - unless it's through innuendo about questionable protesting ethics.

So, let's do this. ...

Don't spend my hard-earned Kibbles 'n Bits. Or I'll poop on you! A pair of Pomeranians were watching the show from stage right, under the pavilion. This was the most vocal one.

I like this photo, so I'm running it large. His flag says, "Don't tread on me." Where have I heard that?

According to the FLORIDA TODAY reporter at the scene, 2,000 people attended the tea party. I'm suspicious. The seats were full, yes. There was some overflow, yes. But 2,000? IIIIII dunno.

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, a Brevard County Republican, brought Obama's gigantic stimulus bill to the party, providing much booing fodder for the crowd. Here, he greets constituents just outside the pavilion, where I spent most of my time. Posey, by the way, introduced that bill to make future presidential candidates prove their native residency.

This boy was piggybacking on a woman I assume was his mother. It would make an interesting medical or psychological venture to study the developmental effects of imposing protests on young children. Old saying: Don't drink the Kool-Aid. New saying: Don't drink the tea. Unless it's Earl Grey; that stuff is good.

Back to the cute girls and the dog. Children wielding political signs is questionable. Kids waving American flags is unquestionably acceptable, right?

The first photo of this post was of her sister and the dog. So I had to round things out with a photo of just this girl, too.

Is that teabag standard issue?

This is the view looking underneath the pavilion and out the other side.

At least she's not saying the Washington Nationals rock. And by the way, I would have spelled "rocks" in this case as "rox" just for the effect. But then again, a blogger such as myself probably would have taken her photo just to point out her wayward spelling.

Answer: See sign in above photo. Also, I take this as a personal attack.

The guy in front looks quite irritated that he happens to be color-coordinated with that sign. Listen to the Pomeranian: I'll poop on you!

This man buys his tea at Publix. Hmm, that would be a good business story idea: What has been the impact on grocery stores of these tea parties? Also, it looks like this guy came all the way from 'Bama for this protest. Or is that "Obama?"

Must be a journalist.

Did you ladies dress like that for church, too?

George Washington and Betsy Ross. Unfortunately, the flag has too many stars for their time period.

Busiest table at the event.

Hard to argue with this one.

Time to go. Beat the traffic, as they say.