ALBANY COUNTY — Blue America’s answer to the Tea Party is planning to meet in locations across the country on Saturday, including in the Capital Region.

The Coffee Party, which began in January, is holding a nationwide conversation this weekend, engaging people who are disappointed with the level of political discourse in recent years. 

“On March 13, 2010, National Coffee House Day, Coffee Party USA plans to take the next steps towards creating a movement that will reignite the passion for civil discourse and participatory democracy that has been absent from the political arena for some time,” says a release from Colin Abele, a Berne native who is planning to gather with people at the Uncommon Grounds coffee shop at 1235 Western Ave. in Albany at 2 p.m.

The Tea Party, which has recently become active in the area, is planning to have its second gathering at the Highlands restaurant, in Knox, on March 20 at 11 a.m.  Daniel Smith, who is organizing the group, is looking for speakers but also wrote in a recent e-mail, “It gets tiring listening to people talk about what we need to do, let’s all plan what, when and how we will do those things.”

— Saranac Hale Spencer