Thursday we at the Daily Glean made the case that the Tea Party gets attention beyond that which they have earned. We thought we made the case pretty well, but did the local media listen to us? Oh no; no they didn't. Do they ever? Let's offer a little round-up of local coverage of tax day protests and see what we can learn:

At the start of the day, the Associated Press offered an opinion from statewide Tea Party coordinator Toni Backdahl that "protests could be larger this year because of anger by some over the health care overhaul." As it turned out, Backdahl was exactly wrong.

Hart Van Denburg of City Pages, in the meanwhile, noted that Michele Bachmann appeared on the Tea Party Express' list of heroes (originally reported on Talking Points Memo). The CP story notes that this organization seems to be primarily the creation of a GOP Republican consulting film, making it a little different that more grass-roots Tea Party organizations. It's worth mentioning that the Tea Party itself has weathered repeated claims that the movement as a whole is a fabrication, with their early meetings organized and funded by lobbyist-run think tanks, such as this Think Progress piece from back in April 2009. Wikipedia has a nice summary of these charges.

Michele Bachmann herself was in Washington, rather than Minnesota, so she didn't participate in any of the local protests. However, being a hero and all, she did make her way to a Washington protest, calling for angry voters to throw the current administration out in the next election. "I'd say it’s time for these little piggies to go home," Kate Zernike of the New York Times quotes her as saying. The story also claims there were only a few thousand at the Washington rally.

Still, it was a larger turnout than appeared at the Capitol in St. Paul. Jessica Mador of Minnesota Public Radio doesn't offer an exact count, but offers up that "hundreds" were there. The Associated Press confirms that rough estimate, describing the number of protesters as being "several hundred." They also note that Michele Bachmann spoke to the Minnesota crowd via speakerphone, and offer up this priceless quote from a protester: "It's good to be around people who are just as confused as I am about what's going on in this country."

"Confused" is probably as fair a description as your likely to find, based on the results of a NYTimes/CBS poll of the Tea Party. For instance, 52 percent of Tea Party members says they consider their tax burden fair, which may be why this supposed typhoon of a grass-roots anti-tax movement was only able to muster up a few hundred people locally to protest taxes. But, then, self-identified Tea Partiers don't seem to be big ones for supporting the Tea Party anyway — according to the same poll, only 13 percent have attended a rally or a meeting, and only 2 percent have actually donated money. Also, 84 percent of the Tea Party think that "the people involved in the Tea Party movement generally reflect the views of most Americans," but, for instance, 54 percent of all Americans think "it is a good idea to raise income taxes on households that make more than $250,000 a year to provide health insurance for people who do not have it"; 80 percent in the Tea Party think it's a bad idea. 37 percent of Americans are OK with the idea of a bigger government that provides more services, 92 percent of the Tea Party prefer a smaller government with less services.

John Croman of KARE11 puts the number of local protesters at 500, and also notes that there were counter-protesters actually demanding more taxes: "In the morning a two-story tall banner, draped across the Capitol Rotunda declared, 'Tax the Rich,' as protesters chanted, 'Hey Pawlenty, here's the fix!' "

"The Capitol rally was expected to be the biggest in the state, but it was smaller than last year's tax day gathering," notes Bill Salisbury of the Pioneer Press, who quotes an attendee: "I'm encouraged by what I see here, but I don't think that there's enough of us."

MinnPost's own David Brauer notes the difference in coverage the tax day protests got at the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, with the latter dedicating a chunk of its front-page real estate to the story, while the Strib "ran five Associated Press paragraphs on the very bottom of page B7, across from the obits." "I can't help wondering if the second year of other demonstrations, like an anti-war rally, would get similar posterization," Brauer says, "especially if attendance waned into the 'several hundreds.'"

And now let's turn away from the Tea Party to something that actually draws an audience in the Twin Cities — the arts. The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival has opened for its 28th year, and the Twin Cities Daily Planet offers a video interview with the festival's espiègle artistic director, Al Milgrom, via the Minneapolis Television Network. According to Milgrom, about 35,000 people attend the festival. Euan Kerr of Minnesota Public Radio also offers a story about the event.

The Minnesota State Arts Board in Park Square Court in downtown St. Paul has what looks to be a very interesting exhibit: a collection of art by victims of crimes. They've been doing this for seven years now, and the exhibit is called "The Art of Recovery"; Abby Simons of the Star Tribune offers this quote about the exhibit from the executive director of the Arts Board, regarding people's squeamishness about the subject matter: "[O]nce they see the artwork and a statement of what that artist went through and what making the art meant to them, people will come back and say, 'This is really powerful. I had no idea something that deals with something so awful could be so inspiring."

We'd also like to offer up some good news for anybody who has ever felt like a misfit, and felt alienated from their peer group: It's possible to find a community that will support you. All you have to do is move to Chicago and live in a zoo. Or, at least, that was the solution for Spree, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin who had trouble bonding with the other dolphins at the Minnesota Zoo, who now resides in the delightfully named Seven Seas Dolphinarium in the Windy City, where apparently she has a better chance of making friends. Paul Walsh of the Strib has the story.

In sports: Oh jeez, it's more Bachmann news. The Strib's Hot Dish Politics blog reports that there were at least 10 people at last week's Bachmann fundraiser who paid $10,000 to get their photo taken with Bachmann and guest speaker Sarah Palin. Among them was Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, who the blog notes is "a well-known Republican donor." Jason Hoppin of the Pioneer Press notes that the forthcoming 6th District congressional race has started to develop quite a high price tag, with the three main contenders all raising more than a million dollars.