FINANCIAL TIMES: Banker fury over tax ‘witch-hunt’.

Bankers on Wall Street and in Europe have struck back against moves by US lawmakers to slap punitive taxes on bonuses paid to high earners at bailed-out institutions.

Senior executives on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday warned of an exodus of talent from some of the biggest names in US finance, saying the “anti-American” measures smacked of “a McCarthy witch-hunt” that would send the country “back to the stone age”. . . . “There are three big industries where the US has global leadership: financial services, media and technology. Introducing this 90 per cent tax is like taking one of those industries out the back and shooting it,” said a top Wall Street executive.

In Frankfurt one employee at a US investment bank said the new tax measures would “send [the US] back to the stone age”.

“Commodity traders are already moving to companies like BP where they can make as much money as they used to,” said another banker at a US firm.

Bankers at Deutsche Bank said it could benefit from the proposed legislation by poaching its US rivals’ most talented employees.

This will end well.

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News editorializes: Congressional Democrats’ bonus witch hunt will sink N.Y. “The tax plan approved by the House as revenge against a handful of obscenely greedy AIG executives would slam tens of thousands in the financial industry, many of them New Yorkers, who have nothing to do with AIG or any other wrongdoing. And that would be just start of the collateral damage. The levies are so draconian that major banks that took bailout money are threatening to give it back – defeating the purpose of jump-starting the economy with an influx of cash.”

WHO IS JOHN GALT:

Boycott is probably too strong a term. Quiet rebellion may be more like it. Whatever the word, on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. there were at least 10 open parking meters down one short block of Clark Street next to Lincoln Park.

At noon in Wicker Park, where Milwaukee Avenue is usually packed with parked cars, there were open meters waiting.

And at 2 p.m. around the Sheraton Hotel on Columbus Drive, a place where normally you can’t crowbar your car into a space, there were at least three or four parking spaces. What’s up with this?

What’s up is that a month ago, when the City of Chicago privatized parking meters, rates were immediately jacked way up, and you now have to feed 28 quarters into the meter to park a car in the Loop for two hours. In exchange for a 75-year lease, the city got $1.2 billion to help plug its budget holes. . . . The whole purpose of parking meters was as an urban planning tool, used to generate turnover so businesses could see a steady stream of customers who park for a short time, shop and leave, opening spaces for more shoppers.

Now, Waguespack argues, spaces have become solely “a revenue anchor” and the rates have shot “too high, too quickly.”

Are we seeing a boycott?

“I’m not so sure yet,” said the alderman, “but it’s definitely a refusal.”

Call it a pocketbook protest.

There will be more.

GAY PATRIOT: Will MSM ever cover protests that do not fit prevailing notion of what a protest should be? As I’ve said before, they’re getting local-media coverage. Soon to go national.

HOPE AND CHANGE: California’s Unemployment Rate Rises to 26-Year High. “California’s jobless rate surged in February to the highest level since 1983 while unemployment in Oregon and Nevada climbed above 10 percent for the first time in more than two decades.”

TEA AND TAGGART?

TAX REVOLT, in the air.

WHEN Green is white.

IN THE MAIL: From Eric Flint, Ring of Fire II. More stories in the world of 1632.

I’M NOT SEEING THE “TEA PARTY” MOVEMENT GOING THIS WAY: Porn Star Strips At Milan Stock Exchange To Protest Against Financial Crisis. But hey, if I’m wrong, send me pics . . . .

REUTERS: Resistance grows to Obama’s bigger government. “As the enormous cost of the Obama’s effort to stimulate the economy grows, many are weighing just how far government should be extending its powers.”

SOME ADVICE FOR FUTURE TEA PARTY ORGANIZERS: Be sure to have a signup sheet where people can put their emails and other contact information for future events.

Also, consider printing up some postcards addressed to your local Representative and Senators. They should say that they’re from the Tea Party protest, and carry a message of fiscal discipline. Get people to sign them, and solicit donations for postage, then mail them. Local mail from real constituents makes an impression.

Also, encourage them to contact local media after the event, and either compliment them on their coverage, or politely criticize it, as appropriate.

UPDATE: Also read this advice.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: “If I could offer one more tidbit: Tea Party organizers should keep separate email lists for those who merely want to be notified of upcoming events and those who want to receive the daily blast of organization news, interviews, etc. I joined one such list in an effort to be made aware of upcoming area events but quickly unsubscribed when I immediately started receiving multiple emails every day.”

MORE: Reader Greg Dougherty notes that printing postcards is cheap.

MORE ON CHRIS DODD’S IRISH “COTTAGE,” in the Hartford Courant: Dodd’s Explanations Misleading, Incomplete. Plus this: “Even when they do things they shouldn’t, Dodd takes care of the rich who’ve taken care of him.”

A.I.G. PROTESTS VS. ANTI-STIMULUS PROTESTS: Who’s got the real energy? “I’m sure the MSM won’t report this, but the far bigger demonstration was of fiscal conservatives , not anti-business radicals. . . . Now, let me remind you. This is suburban CT on a not so warm day we are talking about. We don’t do protests and ginning up a crowd of any size is tough. But they showed in Ridgefield today. And I can’t remember ever hearing about Dodd being protested before. . . . We have 300 folks outraged at Dodd. They got 40 upset at AIG executives. I like our odds”

Maybe some of that press mob should have been retasked to Ridgefield? But that would assume that they saw their job as covering actual news, rather than advancing the proper political narrative.

Meanwhile, Don Surber makes the comparison, too.

Photoshop courtesy of reader Dark Eden.

UPDATE: ABC News notices.

ANOTHER UPDATE: In the comments at the ABC item, I’m noticing some lefties making unsubstantiated claims of “violence” at the tea party protests. In keeping with Robert McManus’s prediction, I guess this is a sign that someone’s getting worried. Next they’ll be calling them “hate rallies.” Hey, it’s not like they’re marching on people’s homes with preprinted signs . . . .

MORE ON ORLANDO: Orlando ‘Tea Party’ rally draws more than 4,000:

Several speakers addressed the crowd, estimated by Orlando police and event organizers at 4,200, on a variety of topics, including gun rights, freedom of speech, the dangers of communism and, most prevalently, the economy, especially the Obama administration’s bailout plan.

“We have had enough of massive government-driven bailout using our money,” Hedinger said, prompting the crowd to start chanting “U.S.A.” over and over.

The country’s economic woes weighed heavily on attendees, such as Ed Squire, 52, of Winter Springs. Holding a sign that read “Obama — he’s robbin U.S. not Robin Hood,” he said that he was worried about the current rate of government spending.

“There’s absolutely no way as a nation that we can sustain that kind of spending,” Squire said.

Another report here:

A huge crowd showed up at Orlando’s Lake Eola Saturday afternoon, to take part in a national movement called the “Tea Party.” It’s a throw back to the Boston Tea party, but this time, tea isn’t being dumped into the sea.

Cities nationwide have been holding the so-called “Tea Parties” as peaceful protests driven by conservatives who say they want less government, less wasteful spending, fewer bailouts, and no socialism. The “Tea Parties” are filled with people ranging from young and old, to current voters and future voters.

Indeed.

PRESIDENT ZOBAMA:

CHARLIE COOK: If Republicans really have pulled even among independents, it’s an ominous sign for Democrats. Stay tuned.

FRANK GAFFNEY: Frank Gaffney: Radical Islam Is Coming to America.

LAST DAY for these Blu-Ray markdowns.

A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE: Dollar Declines Most Since 1985 Plaza Accord on Fed Bond Buying. “The dollar dropped the most against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners since the Plaza Accord almost a quarter-century ago as the Federal Reserve’s plan to purchase Treasuries spurred speculation that it’s debasing the greenback.”

The country’s in the very best of hands.

DONALD SENSING IS defending President Obama from charges of a gaffe involving a Marine.

HERE’S A NEWS REPORT FROM THE RALEIGH “TEA PARTY” PROTEST. “More than 200 people gathered in Raleigh to protest taxes, corporate bailouts and all manner of federal and state spending. . . . The event, billed as a modern-day tea party, captured a sentiment of frustration with the government’s efforts to aid banks, automakers and homeowners. Those in attendance said the government, by intervening in the markets, is rewarding the irresponsible behavior of executives and home buyers who made bad bets. And, protesters said, government leaders are burdening taxpayers with their actions.”

Scroll down for lots more “tea party” coverage from all over.

WERE THE FED’S BOND PURCHASES DRIVEN BY foreigners’ reluctance to buy? I think it’s a little early to draw that conclusion, but there are some troubling signs.

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME: Obama to Limit Pay for Wall Street, NFL, NBA, MLB.

HAS OBAMA LOST Bonnie Erbe? “President Obama’s profligate spending habits are starting to look an awful lot like his predecessor’s, and that’s not good. . . . Problem with his outrage is, the government funds were used as bonuses on Mr. Obama’s watch. President Obama could legitimately object to $165 million in wasteful government spending if he weren’t simultaneously in the process of committing waste on a much grander scale.”

UPDATE: When Frank Rich and Paul Krugman are sounding unhappy, it’s a bad sign . . .

MORE ON THE RIDGEFIELD, CONNECTICUT TEA PARTY:

They carried signs, chanted slogans, urged motorists to honk horns. There was even a folk singer urging the audience to “take back” the country.

Sounds like your average protest, right?

The difference here: many of the protesters were political conservatives who had never felt it necessary to take to the streets before.

And yet there they were, about 300 strong, lining both sides of Main Street in front of Ballard Park on Saturday for a “Tea Party” protest against President Barack Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget and the government’s effort to “stimulate” the sagging national economy through spending.

“The primary focus is a concern over the direction the policies of the current administration are taking us,” said Andrew “Skip” March, a Ridgefield resident who helped organize the protest, news of which spread like wildfire on the Web.

Like wildfire, indeed.