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I went to the one in Denton at the courthouse square. Probably 700-1000 showed over the two hour period. Someone didn't complete a sound check as the speakers stopped working so we couldn't hear anyone that spoke. BUT, it was very family oriented with kids and several folks brought their dogs.

Went to the the one in Clear lake Seabrook
Ron Paul was there. I thing he is the only one in congress who has a clue what the tea party was about. Olson didn't show up (was in his district) One of the speakers asked how come he has been so quite and why hasn't he spoken out loudly about this.
Looked to me as though there were 2000 people there.

I listened to part of Rick Perry's speech on local news last night. He was pretty fired up about how the federal government is interfering with state business. He said some things I agree with, some I don't. I know Perry is running for re-election and I haven't made up my mind on who I will vote for yet. But one thing I don't like is hypocrites. Two things stood out in my mind as I listened to Perry lambast the federal government. One - Perry claims that the federal government is "oppressive" and meddles in state affairs; but he doesn't talk like that when he request federal troops to patrol the Rio Grande to deal with the drug violence down there. Two - while complaining about the federal government spending so much tax payer money, he has not offered to return that 17 billion dollars in bailout money Texas got recently. It's one thing to complain about the big bad federal government; but to do it while asking for their help and taking bailout money at the same time is just hypocritical. Again, just my opinion, nobody has to agree with it. I expect I'll get a lot of flack over my opinion, but so what.

Really not much flack from me.
One of the duties of the Federal govt is to protect the boarders of the US. So there I can see asking for some troops here. OTOH I dont really want them here since I dont trust "you know who". He could very easily decide that since they are here then they should be looking around for folks who might fit the discription of a Domestic terrorist. You know: right to life, 3rd party supporters, deport illegals, 2A supporters.........several more on that list.

I sure dont like him accepting the bail out money.
If we are ever going to really be free & let States Rights rule we are going to have to reject school funding, highway funding, & all the other interferrances that have been for YEARS.

Trouble w/ that is vast majority folks even in Texas only want the Feds to cut back on "Entitlement Programs" (we need a puke Icon too.) where cuts would not effect them personally. Just the other guy that is freeloading.

See why I keep my flame suit on all the time.

boomerang wrote:Some local coverage was fair: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=6763704" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TxDrifter: is there a way to view your facebook album without signing up?

I'm not sure. I'll look into it and see if there is. If not I will see about finding another place for them. Sorry.

TxDrifter wrote:

boomerang wrote:Some local coverage was fair: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=6763704" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TxDrifter: is there a way to view your facebook album without signing up?

I'm not sure. I'll look into it and see if there is. If not I will see about finding another place for them. Sorry.

In the process of uploading them to here. There is a lot more on here as I just uploaded the entire set.

http://picasaweb.google.com/TejasDrifte ... directlink

If you guys are on Facebook though, send a friend request.

Attended the College Station Tea Party. Good crowd, I'm glad I went. I was a little frustrated by the first speaker talking about prayer in schools, abortion and same sex marriage.

I was there to protest massive government spending, not discuss social issues.

Sorry for the late update.

Amarillo had 2 TEA Parties yesterday - at 12:00 and 6:00 PM. According to the local press there were around 800 people in attendance at each one (overlap of some people I suspect).
I got tagged to do an interview, available at http://www.newschannel10.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - click VIDEO, then find "Amarillo Tea Party" - I'm wearing a red shirt. I was kind of nervous, and my teleprompter stopped working, but otherwise I think it was ok?

We're having another one on July 4th.

Good to see so many people around this country (including me) waking up and trying to find ways to stand up for our rights.

David Belcher

RiverRat wrote:Watching the Austin kvue 24 news, lead story is a tree in a park.... 30 sec report on tea parties…emphasized only right wing extremists, malcontents, and republicans..... Austin’s tea party at lunch had100 or so people…they left out they would let only a max of 200 to see the gov at lunch on their permit, the rest were turned away…..SA Alamo tea party on Beck-fox, 10000 folks, not on Austin news I knew the media was biased, but this is an eye-opener for me.

That seems to be a fair assessment, at least from what I saw when I was there. It was a disappointing event, IMO. It played out like a Republican rally. I will say, the right-wing black helicopter folks were there, though they were not very significant in number. There did look to be a decent number of independant folks there, but the tone of the speeches was overhwelmingly partisanly Republican in content. I could tell there were a number of folks who were as disappointed with how things went down as I was.

I wrote a review of the event on my blog, and you can view it here:

http://therealnecessities.blogspot.com/ ... rties.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Austin Gun Rights Examiner has a pretty accurate assessment of the event as well:

http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-G ... ntentioned" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ClarkLZeuss wrote:

O6nop wrote:I'm no expert, but I thought this was supposed to be a "grassroots" style demonstration. I guess all organizers have a different plan but I heard most cities turned down any political figures (governors, congressionals and heads of the RNC) as speakers. Maybe I don't understand it that well.

I went to the Houston Tea Party downtown, and it was definitely grassroots (forget what the media says about this, it's all baloney). No politicians called me up asking me to do, and the majority of people there had hand-made signs, and otherwise just seemed like regular Joes like me. I met several people on the way there who you could tell are not frequenters of protests, but are simply fed up with the feds.

As for why politicians weren't asked to speak, here is a good quote from the Houston Tea Party's website:

We’re trying to not be a platform for elected officials and candidates. No one who’s frustrated with political shenanigans wants to come see a politician telling them how they are taking care of you or why you should vote for them. This is something we share and hear from others and are sensitive to. You still may see some speak though, as we’ve reached out to a few that we want there simply in capacity as tax-paying citizens who might have a first hand account to give us an account of what’s going on around them. We will be working closely with these type of speakers to help them craft their message as to not let it become about them but instead for us.

Here's a picture I took which ya'll will enjoy.

The Houston organizers were wise to do this. The Austin tea party was full of politician speakers, and the event turned into a Republican political rally. It was disappointing.

pbwalker wrote:

All I can say is - I am proud to have been part!!! San Antonio definitely showed up!

Look at what happened to this CNN reporter who tried to focus on only the ones who were showing negative Obama signs rather than the issue. You have to wait for her interview part to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd2tg8gxCDU

TxDrifter wrote:Look at what happened to this CNN reporter who tried to focus on only the ones who were showing negative Obama signs rather than the issue. You have to wait for her interview part to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd2tg8gxCDU

Funny how she thought it was acceptable to interrupt him and talk over him, but when the tables were turned and she got a taste of her own medicine, she had a hissy fit.

RiverRat wrote:Watching the Austin kvue 24 news, lead story is a tree in a park.... 30 sec report on tea parties…emphasized only right wing extremists, malcontents, and republicans..... Austin’s tea party at lunch had100 or so people…they left out they would let only a max of 200 to see the gov at lunch on their permit, the rest were turned away…..SA Alamo tea party on Beck-fox, 10000 folks, not on Austin news I knew the media was biased, but this is an eye-opener for me.

This pretty well rebuts the reported low turnout for Austin. http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum/sh ... p?p=891173" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Note the bit about APD estimating over 5,000 in attendance.