Tennessee Tax Day Tea Party

[56FordGuy]

I just got home from the Hendersonville Tea Party. they estimated 2500 attendees, and said Metro Police were estimating 9800 for the one in Nashville.

[bteague2]

Knoxville, TN: World's Fair Park

[Guest bkelm18]

I had my doubts when I first heard of this but I really am pleased to see it turned out really well. I wish I could have gone to one. Its nice to see that there are lots of people out there that are fed up with this government and want to be heard.

[Guest FroggyOne2]

I like that "Handy Stimulus Flow Chart" !!!!

[poak]

Excellent coverage bteauge!

[Guest bluecanary25]

I work downtown Nashville....REALLY close to the rally...but I could not party..

Glad nobody was a smartbutt with pedestrians crossing the road...

BIG crowd... I didn't see any busted heads...

Metro present in moderate force... Overall a friendly crowd.

Somewhat disappointed that it was so civil...

[Guest Jcochran88]

Yes I wanted to go but couldn't. Glad that it seems to be getting a lot of coverage from local media.

[Shima]

I went to the one in Mt Juliet. It was informative and interesting. It got pretty cold standing out there.

[Rightwinger]

Mt. Juliet had a good turnout. Probably 400-500 at a guess. It was hard to get in there with traffic and the parking areas, grass included were full. Lots of proud rightwing extremists in attendance. Guest speakers were an African American who owns a photo processing shop in Lebanon, a Cuban American that had more patriotism than any Obama voter, Mr. Mcall of D T Mcall's. The speeches were impromptu and rough on the edges but heartfelt and sincere. Well worth a little gas and some bumper to bumper coming and going to stand in the presence of other "Americans".

[Guest crystalm]

Voted against:

*forcing employers to prove differences in pay is due only to job preformance, repeatedly Maybe the government should step in, but IDK

*coporate accountability and executive over-compensationYes it sucks that these guys are over payed, but so are pro athletes. And the government has no business here. A bigger government is part of the problem.

*auto industry resturcturing act - which I am sure isn't popular in TN anyhow, but does affect me and my family in a huge way. Again, none of the governments business. If they go bankrupt, oh well. If new cars cost to much buy used, they run just as good as a knew one. My truck has 240k miles on it and I wouldn't be afraid to go anywhere in it.

*credit card holder bill of rightsAgain, none of the governments business. Don't like how you are treated. Get out of debt and quit using plastic. Live below your means, not above it.

*minimizing college tuition and cost increases Again, really not any of the governments business, for private schools anyway

*additional taxes on executive bonuses from companies under the TARP program.These companies shouldn't have got this money in the first place. They knew what they were going to do with it, they should have set terms for use before they gave it to them. The government has no right to target individuals with special taxes, but they do it all the time and we let them.

She doesn't seem very middle class friendly to me...

You're right. The government shouldn't be involved in any of it, but they are, and that's unlikely to change in my lifetime, so it might as well be favorable for the general population.

Yah, she seems to favor the free market. I'm fine with that.

Thanks for explaining your view, it's appreciated.

you're welcome.

...and as to not hijack the thread, i'm done with this.

[GTODALEP]

Went to the Hendersonville Party. Good turn out. I have already sent an email to Bart Gordon. I may have been a little harsh. Told him he no longer had my permission to spend my money.

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

Attended the Chattanooga party this afternoon. I was holding one end of an enormous Hamilton County Libertarian Party banner. I know we got filmed by one local news crew; guess I'll see if we make it on teevee in a bit here. Haven't seen us on any of the sites yet...

What was really fun was seeing the reactions of people driving by on the street. About half the people were honking enthusiastically, while the other half would stare straight ahead as if looking at us would infect them with Repub-itis or something.

[mcurrier]

Crystal McDowell's Photos - Nashville Tax Day Tea Party | Facebook

A small portion of some of my photos

Nice pics Crystal. Love the one of the little girl with the piggy bank sign!

[Falcon1]

You really think that there will be public officials there? (This is a legitimate question, not sarcastic.)

Lt. Governor Ramsey and Senator Ketron were at the rally in Murfreesboro on the square. I would estimate the crowd at around 500, but one of the speakers said the estimate was at 2000. Obviously, at least one estimate is wrong. It went well...very civil.

ETA: Evidently, U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn spoke before I got there.

Edited April 17, 2009 by Falcon1

[Guest crystalm]

Nice pics Crystal. Love the one of the little girl with the piggy bank sign!

Haha, thanks! She has a little sister, but someone else was taking some of her so I did what i could

[Punisher84]

I wanted to go to the one in Memphis, but couldn't due to work. My buddy called and said there was alot of folks driving by giving the finger and yelling.

Ah Memphis.

[Guest jcoyle6]

DWRD it was good to meet you

[bteague2]

I wanted to go to the one in Memphis, but couldn't due to work. My buddy called and said there was alot of folks driving by giving the finger and yelling.

Ah Memphis.

Don't you know, protesting Obama is racist...

[TripleDigitRide]

I was able to stop by the party in Hendersonville for a few minutes. I wasn't able to stay all that long, but I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout.

With a sick child and a good friends grandfather about to pass away at any minute, I wasn't able to hang out and get pictures, but to see all those supporters gathered for such a cause gave me hope that maybe one day the 2A supporters could do the same thing.

Will it help? Who knows, but it sure as hell can't hurt. It made the national news, so at least they know we're out there.

[Oh Shoot]

Spent all three hours there...didn't follow the march at the end to the Federal Building, though...

3 bad phone pix at the end of this...last one taken from on top of the SunSphere.

I estimated 3,000 there at one time at the height of things, around 5; more than that total if you counted all the comers and goers. For those of you unfamiliar with the open air amphitheater, it is LARGE.

Odd assortment of speakers, and yeah, some pols, Suntzu.

Stacey Campfield (TN- House) drove over from Nashville just for it, and spoke briefly but rousingly. Mike Hammond, long time radio personality and Knox County Commissioner, was quite forceful, he and Campfield probably got the biggest roars. Actually, come to think of it, Harold Black, UT prof got the crowd pretty revved too.

Oddest, and most ominous, act was Stewart Rhodes...he's the vet who has cranked up the Oath Keepers thing that has been mentioned here. Apparantly he is pretty tight with the primary organizers of the thing, Rand Cardwell and his wife (who sang couple of original songs), and Ryan Turbeville.

At any rate, was surprised to see him on the agenda, and especially to close it, as his "organization" is as yet just a blog:

Oath Keepers

Suffice it to say that he basically went FAR beyond tax matters right into civil disobedience, indeed with thinly veiled call for armed resistance, with inflammatory remarks like "the military will keep their oaths and fight alongside us against what amounts to acts of war" and etc. Fairly heady stuff, really. Crowd was REALLY behind him for about 10 min, but by the time he had all who wanted to stand and take the military oath "against all enemies foreign and domestic" seemed about half the crowd was finally getting somewhat uncomfortable with the tone.

While many among us might laud his tack, methinks Mr. Rhodes will be under a good deal of scrutiny before long, especially since there is some kind of Oath Keepers commemoration/protest on Lexington Green in a few days, supposedly with a number of active duty personnel. Dunno, stay tuned on all that ... methinks if you want to foment armed revolution you don't show your cards until you have something to revolt WITH.

Anyway, I found the whole thing quite exhilarating, especially in light of the recent Homeland Security pronouncement which would include most of us here as "terrorists" (and now most certainly Stewart Rhodes), and the 33 legislatures that have or have had States Rights/Sovereignty resolutions presented.

Sorry about the crummy pix .. I should have actually taken my digicam, but bteague2 caught the details quite nicely, kudos!

- OS

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

This is the only real picture of my involvement. That's my foot in the bottom left corner of the photo.

[bteague2]

Sorry about the crummy pix .. I should have actually taken my digicam, but bteague2 caught the details quite nicely, kudos!

Thanks guys, there all cell phone pictures that I transferred to my computer with a USB cable, glad you liked them.

[Guest SUNTZU]

I was thinking that both parties were looking at these events as a way to blow off steam. I'm glad to hear that some politicians showed up. I heard that some were planning on attending on the radio this morning. Great pictures, everyone.

[Guest dwrd]

I went to the event in Franklin this evening. I even ended up running into Jcoyle6, and one other gentleman, but I do not recall his TGO name. They noticed my Maxpedition bag and we started chatting. There was a great turn out, and people seemed to truly be interested in being heard. Here are a couple of pictures and a link to the full gallery.

The rest of the images can be found at http://www.dwrd.net/photography/galleries/franklin-tax-day-tea-party-2009/

Edited April 16, 2009 by dwrd

[Punisher84]

Don't you know, protesting Obama is racist...

I am unfortunately very aware lol

The CA comments today are priceless. Bunch of whiny Libs talking out of their ass. Someone goes "Yea I think only about 100 people showed up." Yea asshat that's why it was pretty much standing room only in Audubon park lol.