Tea Party movement members may have thought they were prepared for counter-protesters when they came to San Francisco on their national day of demonstration against taxation, April 15th. At a late afternoon event in Union Square, some Tea Partiers held bright pink signs marked "infiltrator" over the heads of youthful leftists, who carried signs poking fun at the Tea Party penchant for misspellings. On at least one occasion a contingent of right wingers tried to surround the counter-protesters, threatening to "call the police if you make a false move."

But the Tea Partiers didn't count on that fact that San Francisco has a rich history of creative counter-protesting. In a smaller protest in Civic Center earlier in the day, mocktivist Billionaires for Wealthcare in formal attire bragged about their "old money, oil money, and dot-com money" and thanked members of the right wing gathering for "shooting themselves in the foot and helping the wealthy keep their tax breaks".

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Billionaires for Wealthcare