I see a few folks lingering at the periphery of the Capitol building on East Colfax, but only a handful are actually carrying signs — and of those, at least two are advertising something from Quizno’s called a “$4 Torpedo.” So it’s too soon to tell exactly what kind of turnout we’ll have here in the Mile High City.
On the plus side, I have seen a number of people walking by with cups of steaming liquid, at least some of which, statistically-speaking, is likely tea. Couple this with all the cups I’ve seen that may or may not contain teas of the iced variety, and what we’re looking at here is potential stampede of disaffected right wing extremists.
So at least for now, the turnout appears to be in the hundreds of thousands — or even the millions, should either Subway or McDonalds prove to be one of the local staging places.
Sadly, I lost my memo, and Rick Moran has stopped responding to my emails.
Developing…
Be very, very wary of those people walking around with Snapple Green Tea with Asian Pear.
Chicoms!
The “$4 Torpedo” sign-holder was probably a counter-protestor advocating for reduction in U.S. military capabilities.
Whatever you do, don’t look up “tea-bagging” on Wikipedia.
You are all nothing other than a tool for Fox News Corp and the Rethuglikkkan obstructionists in Congress. Where were you when the Booooshies were spending money like a drunken sailor? Where were you when BusHitlerBurton was wiping its ass with the Consitution?
I was off building up my forearm strength.
LOL
My very own home-made sign (that’ll probably get me punched in Chicago):
T.A.R.P. $$$
+ A.C.O.R.N
————
= NUTS
Careful…community organizations seem to have lost their appeal and are now possibly subversive. Or so I’ve heard.
Just returned from the lunch time rally in Virginia Beach. Thanks to Global Warming it was freezing, but in spite of that there were quite a few people there (there’s no way I can approximate how many). I’ll have photos up on my website soon. Oh, and video later.
As an aside, what was hilarious was the fact that most of the folks there seemed to be utter n00bs at protesting because they had no idea when to chant, cheer or just stand there. There would be this awkward silence when the speaker would pause for a chant and it would take a minute for the crowd to realize what they were supposed to do. Gotta love the ‘grass-rootiness’ of it all.
Yeah, but Eben, that just proves how immaterial all this is. I mean, a real protest movement would involve the pros!
Is Les Nessman on the job?
Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the NYC session for a variety of reasons. I regret it, since it would be a chance to build up my Outlaw! street cred…
But it’s kinda hard to feel like a legit Outlaw! when suffering a multi-axis rotator cuff tear; my left arm is essentially useless right now…
I sure hope that they all go over big though, even though the MSM will never properly cover them…
Thre are soooo much more important stories to cover…
I mean, O! got a new dog! From Teddy the K!
Now that’s news…
Got some pictures up, just click on my name. And yes, they are as amateur as you would expect from a networking nerd.
I like mango tea. I have no idea how they make it. It comes from Russia, the box I’ve got. In Russia if you want some neat art you just poke a stick in the ground. You have to find a stick first.
About tea parties. I think the obvious thing about the tea parties is that the median age of people what are involved is very mature I would guess. NPR is a lot well trained to be dismissive of things what trend older, like their audience, for example. But these tea party ones are people what understand that when the NPR propagandists chirp chirp chirp about these economic times, when thrift is cool again that what the NPR propagandists are describing is not a trendy trend but a weapony weapon I think.
Thanks for the pics Eben.
Non-professional estimate in Chicago…2,000 and growing
Crowds are already gathering in Sacramento and that rally doesn’t even officially kick off for four hours yet…
Good job, Eben.
ohnoes. They’re doing it wrong. Yahoo! sez…
Americans’ Anger Over Obama’s Plan Is Real, But Misplaced*
I wonder if the laid off Yahoo! losers agree?
“You are all nothing other than a tool for Fox News Corp and the Rethuglikkkan obstructionists in Congress. Where were you when the Booooshies were spending money like a drunken sailor? Where were you when BusHitlerBurton was wiping its ass with the Consitution?”
Where were you when the Westfold fell?
I went to the one in South Bend, IN around lunch. Probably 200-300 people there. Civil atmosphere. Only heard one “Obama sucks!”
Seemed like a lot of newbie protesters out there (myself included)
i got plenty of pics, may take a while to sift through to find a few good ones. There were a LOT of people at the Lansing, Mi, protest. And, it was pretty well organized, so we didn’t have to worry about coming up with chants on our own. Joe the Plumber was there (it ran a bit long and I had to leave before he came on) but one of my favorite local radio guys was there.
I ran into Geoff and his wife there … he said he saw some kids counterprotesting. I missed that. People were pretty fired up. LOTS of signs. Pretty creative ones too. A couple anti-Obama ones, but also a ton of anti-Jenny Granholm ones, which is only to be expected. But, the protest stayed on focus.
Anderson Cooper says it is hard to talk when you’re teabagging. Anderson Cooper would know I spose.
I went to the Philly one in LOVE park. There were a couple hundred “noobs”, as bryan put it, standing around in the rain and cold. It was actually pretty cool. Definitely an older crowd, but there was pretty good cross-section of types of folks.
[…] See also: Ace, Hot Air, Unbridled Woman, Cheat Seeking Missiles, Protein Wisdom […]
[…] See also: Ace, Hot Air, Unbridled Woman, Cheat Seeking Missiles, Protein Wisdom […]
In the quaint little river town that the LTC and I live near there were about 100 people at the county complex with more streaming in. That’s a big deal for this area.
Comment by Freedom! (The Original) Patrick on 4/15 @ 2:52 pm #
I got caught up in a job and couldn’t make it.
I’ll try for Saturday’s at Independence Hall.
Hi just reporting in from Tampa’s tea party. We probably could use an open thread for everyone who’s gone today but I guess this will do for the time being =)
There was 1k+ people at the Tampa party (in the evening). There was also a lunchtime protest scheduled I couldn’t go to so not sure what that turn out was like. The people in Tampa are… well for lack of a better word, awesome. They are people, young and old, white and black, redneck and business guy and housemom and all of whom you feel comfortable hanging out with. The signs are creative and funny, the people are friendly. The chants are patriotic. The flags are being waved, not being burned or stomped on. These are real americans, not the pseudo rabble rousers at the “we hate america” war protests. Nobody hates their country at this protest- they recognize the country is changing for the worse and those smelly, hairy unemployed socialists who go to the anti war rallies are the ones in charge.
The one striking thing in Tampa to me was the kids. I’ve seen kids at the war protests holding up signs with vulgar language, wearing palestian garb, smeared with fake blood, wearing bush masks with nazi marks on the foreheads. In Tampa, the kids have signs but they’re having fun and the signs are clever (keep your hands out of my piggy bank or I’m only 6 and I’m already 5 trillion in debt). And I got to overhear a conversation where a man was explaining why the constitution was important to his young son – kid was probably 8-9. Dad was a redneck – no two ways to look at it. Southern twang, bad tshirt, the kind of man the left and our elitist gop don’t want to associate with. And he did as good as job as I could have in explaining the constitutional’s role in personal liberty and freedom. It was a very cool moment and I think moments like that are happening all over our country. Maybe the vietnam generation and all of the liberal indoctrination is not going to win, when families are teaching their children about real liberty.
Good times. If they had served beer, I would have been in heaven.
Oh and as an aside- conservative protests babes are SOOO much better looking then liberal protest babes.
Couldn’t attend the protest in Boise because I had a lunch appointment but I steered my confrere to a pizza spot on Capitol Blvd. and watched the entire march go by. Easily 2,000 people. Easily. And some great signs.
At least a thousand in Temecula CA. Lots of noobs and lots of enthusiasm. Lots of honking and waving from traffic passing by. Only saw two possible counter protesters. They were standing on the same corner as 50+ tea partiers.
You are all nothing other than a tool for Fox News Corp and the Rethuglikkkan obstructionists in Congress. Where were you when the Booooshies were spending money like a drunken sailor? Where were you when BusHitlerBurton was wiping its ass with the Consitution?
————————–
That’s right, JD, Fox News dispatched squads of gun toting operatives to make us attend the rallies. Bush spending like ‘a drunken sailor’? Mr. Obama has indebted the U.S. more, much more, that all prior presidents combined – and you know it. You have never seen anyone wipe their ass with the constitution and neither has anyone else. You lib frigs are such fun to watch as the loyal opposition, that’s us, begins to do what you guttersnipes have been doing for years: making ourselves heard. Squeal little pig, squeal.
Umm, Kay? About the JD comment? You’re new here, right? Trust me, it doesn’t mean what you think it means. Do carry on though!!