Sounds to me like a scam.

A scam to milk $$$ out of a market that has previously been untapped.

Why were there no flags there? Hmm maybe it was because the people running it hate our flag with a passion?

Maybe because the Republicans herding the sheep are actually traitors as well as those they condemn?

There was no pledge because these shepherds would never say that pledge. They hate our country.

And this Tea Party crap is just a clever way of distracting the common conservatives and keeping them busy so they do not keep digging and find some real answers.

This is just my observations. I am taking a more critical approach.

Both parties will try to destroy the conservative small government movement every chance they can get.

I am sure before the weekend is over there will be millions of strategically placed internet stories to vilify and ridicule the movement, mmmm wait.

Oh, the good old "blame game". The TPM pointing fingers just like the D's & R's

I say that a emerging party that has such an oversight in their planning is a party that need to disappear form the scene until they get their convention preparation, platform and leadership clearly defined.

Sadly, IMHO, this is the end result of a number of converging vectors in American society today.

First - the lack of education in American society is pitiful. We graduate more people with less skills than any other industrial nation. Now, we have a bunch of folk, young and old, who can't compete with what was done before and have no way to remedy that. In all honesty, if we put Pulic Works crew together and built another dam, would it really hold water? I doubt it.
I also work in education - I struggle on a daily basis to convince kids to learn math and health, and watch them blow it off cause they don't care - its too hard - they can work a call center or something... but they all want the new Escalade for their 16th birthday.

Second - the American sense of wanting the best and getting it has devolved into a sense of entitlement - like the world owes us for being American. I see it in the kids we've spawned as a nation - not willing to work now, not willing to put the effort in for what they want, like if they want hard enough, it comes to them or something... no work ethic.

Third - the fact that there is a lot of hidden racism in America still. Whether its overt or covert, conscious or subconscious, its all part of the whole resistance - the birth certificate was a handle, and frankly, I'd thumb everyone in the eye too after so much was done to smear Obama. I live in TX, i still see it. I can remember being pulled over for Driving While Mexican here, spreadeagle on the ground cause some cop thought my new truck was too much for a Mexican, never mind a college education and a work ethic.

These three vectors converged and bore the Tea Party. Its a place where angry neocons can vent their spleen. No real surprise there that when it came to putting rubber to road, theirs went off into the ditch?

Wearing an American flag or showing an American flag does not make you more patriotic than anyone else. I honestly don't understand the fake-outrage. Don't blame anyone else but the Tea-party goers for this problem. I am not surprised that some people on here are quick to blame this on a conspiracy. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[edit on 5-2-2010 by Frankidealist35]

This was an idiotic cash grab. With what my family does for a living I've spent a lot of time working and planning events a lot like this. The fact that this thing was handled so poorly on this level shows this guy never hired an event planner or put any money or thought into the prep or event. Why is he blaming the hotel for not putting out American flags? It's not their responsibility. They're only providing the venue. This whole thing is crashing in an absolutely hilarious way, just like we all predicted it would.