Posted on Wednesday, 15th April 2009 by Roland_Melnick
Here are some of my observations and some photos from the day. (Click on a photo for larger view.) At the end of this post is a quiz question. First BadgerBlogger visitor to answer correctly wins a prize!!…Read on….
I travelled to Madison by car with the lovely Mrs. Melnick today. She having the week off being that she is a school teacher, while I took a personal day off from work. Taking I-94 West, we saw many a car with people holding signs. This one, I honked the car horn and exchanged friendly waves…they threw one sign up in the window. Snapped this shot as we arrived at the Alliant Center:
Our plan was to park and take the shuttle service set-up by AFP and Fight Back Wisconsin. When we pulled into the designated parking area around 10:30am, a crowd was already waiting on the shuttles. My only criticism of the day was that they only made arrangements for two school-type buses. As explained by one of the organizers, they weren’t expecting this big of a turnout:
Rather than wait…we joined a group of folks who decided to walk the 2 1/2 miles to the Capitol Building. Along the way, we met up with an Economics teacher from my wife’s school…I’ll leave his name out to spare him any ostracism/reprisal from any of his peers. It’s been a while since old Melnick has been to something like this, but it was fun meeting folks. Was envious of those with “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, my personal favorite:
Blessed with great weather, it was truly a great day for a rally/protest. Unfortunately, I could think of a dozen specific things I’d rather be doing than joining my fellow Wisconsinites in an attempt to get Governor Jim Doyle to respect our concerns. But it was a beautiful day:
After making a pit stop at a nearby Starbucks, we made it over to the edge of the growing crowd. By 11:15am (15 mins before kick-off), I would guess a solid 3000 folks were in place. Took this shot from about 75 feet from stage-left:
Folks just kept streaming in on foot and by bus. By 11:50am, we were around the 5000-6000 estimated by various observers, including us. As you can see, all that green space is now filled:
Many good speakers today…my personal favorites were Vicki McKenna and Pastor David King…Congressman Paul Ryan wasn’t bad either. Speaking of the lovely Miss McKenna, got a chance to meet her in the backstage area. She was talking with a family from Delafield who wanted their daughter to get a little face time on stage; they were nice enough to pose for this photo for me:
Vicki is a very down-to-Earth, friendly person who was engaging several people in conversations and handshakes. I was glad to meet her. When Vicki and David King were speaking, I wished my video camera had been working properly because the crowd went nuts for them. Here’s a shot I would entitle “Passionate Conservatives As Far As the Eye Can See:”
Here’s a couple of my favorite signs:
The Gadsden Flag certainly was popular:
For all the rumors floating around that a disruptive counter-protest would be staged…NAAAHHHH…just three nimrods. On that note, I’ll leave you all with a fun little quiz question…look at this photo:
QUESTION: The nimrod in the front, as seen here with the “Save the Rich” sign, is a paid political hack…can you name him? The first BadgerBlogger visitor to correctly name the nimrod will win their choice of either an autographed photo of Herb Kohl or George & Laura Bush, if I still have them in my basement. (Sorry Bruce, Glenn and Patrick…only our visitors are eligible.)
Apparently, his conception of the people attending the TEA Party is that of rich folks who own yachts (notice the Gilligan’s Island skipper hat) and who force or pay for the rest of the protestors to show up. Funny that the only person likely being paid to attend the protest/rally was him. Does anyone think any of those three nimrods would have the nerve to carry the “Get Back To Work” sign at an ACORN rally?
In reality, this was a crowd within which I truly felt comfortable. These were average folks who work hard and who are tired of the likes of Governor Doyle treating them like subjects. Folks who are angry that, with a single stroke of the pen, Mr. Obama spent more money than has been spent on the entire Iraq war effort. Folks who are sick and tired of politicians from every party taking more of our money and lying about it…yet still leave us with a $6 Billion state deficit…500 times that at the Federal level.
This day was more than an attack on Doyle and Obama…it was also a message to weak Republicans: “If you want your base of support back…you better listen to us…you better distinguish yourself from this garbage and return to your Conservative roots.”
Posted in Home | Comments (18) |
18 Responses to “T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) Party in Madison-Tax Day 2009”
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April 15th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Thanks for getting a pic of THE SIGN of the day, which (with an unintentional paraphrase on my part due to the quick glance that I got) got a lot of Twitter play.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
I took a pic of “The Audacity of Arrogance” sign but it didn’t turn out. Glad yours did.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:06 am
I would like to guess that the hack would by mr. xoff
If by “xoff” you mean Bill Christofferson, then sorry…wrong answer Clint. One note to readers…one guess per person…no multiple answers…but good guess Clint. ~~Roland
April 16th, 2009 at 12:57 am
Thanks for sharing the great photos!
April 16th, 2009 at 6:04 am
Isn’t Pastor King awesome?
Want to see a fine example of political bias in the media?
April 16th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Is that Scot Ross?
April 16th, 2009 at 6:54 am
WOW Patrick - nope - no media bias there….
April 16th, 2009 at 7:09 am
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April 16th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Scot Ross One WI Now?
St Paul had 5-10,000. Our local rag the Red Star reported only 2,000
April 16th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Here’s a good link showing what happened after the CNN hackjob. Yes Virginia this is not GOP or FNC driven like the media hacks want you to believe.
http://www.foundingbloggers.com/wordpress/2009/04/founding-bloggers-exclusive-our-footage-of-the-cnn-chicago-tea-party-throwdown/
April 16th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Pics from the Chicago rally.
http://www.foundingbloggers.com/wordpress/2009/04/breaking-chicago-tax-day-tea-party-pictures/
I love the One Big Awful Mistake America poster.
O B A M A
April 16th, 2009 at 11:41 am
What they don’t seem to understand is that by taking money, profits, and resources un-uniformly from the productive, they are really taking it from themselves.
Only to be wasted and squandered by inefficient and corrupt government. Given to the unproductive, given to the falsely entitled, sent to other countries, create vast unproductive jobs/administrations, lost,…
We can have freedom and share resources, but you do let your kids budget your money and you certainly don’t write them blank checks.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Gateway Pundit has an interesting video comparison that juxtaposes a 2006 clip where CNN Antagonizer Susan Roesgen took no offense with a Mardi Gras-style costumed character depicting George W. Bush with a Hitler mustache and devil horns…then compares it to a clip from yesterday’s TEA Party rally in Chicago where she confronts a guy and claims she is offended at his sign that supposedly compares Obama & Fascism.
To be historically accurate, Obama’s ideology is not the same as Fascism, in my humble opinion. When I see people making this comparison, I think they are focusing on the tactics employed in Fascist regimes to ascend to power. Such tactics do not belong solely to Fascist dictators…but more accurately could be described as authoritarian or totalitarian.
That said…arguing with folks…is that really Susan Roesgen’s job? She could be a snippy little sidekick for Keith Olberman on his show, “Countdown to No Ratings.”
April 16th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Roland Melnick thanks for posting a picture of my car with the sign in the back window. What a small world that two blogger cars would be next to each other.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Looking at all the pictures posted, here and numerous elsewheres, one thing that really sticks out is how much more originality, thought, and humor went into the sign making of these “protesters”. Compare what you saw at the Tea Parties to the usual leftwing/commie/antiwar/liberal gathering.
“No Blood For Oil!”
v.
“My Messiah Only Asks For 10%”
heh. No contest.
So who is that guy in the Skipper hat? And did anyone catch the dripping irony of the guy holding the “get back to work” sign?
April 17th, 2009 at 8:17 am
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April 17th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
The winner is Dan Deibert folks…I was holding out to see if anyone else wanted to hazard a guess…#1 nimrod is Scot Ross, professional political hack, head of the group with the totalitarian name (and mentality).
Dan…send me an email to [email protected] and let me know whether you want the close up 8×10 of Herb Kohl (liver spots and all) or George & Laura Bush in formal attire.
April 26th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
To America
Over the past few years, we have all looked at ways of bettering this land and our selves with the help of people like Al Gore and Bill Clinton we think we have came up with a good ideal. First our nation should not be looked at by privet Industry as a consumer but to help all tax payers should be set apart where government can and will be a independent sores
Lately with the high drain on energy by the public, we have put together a plan to reduce taxes to all Americans and better our way of life.
Lets look at others ideals first the Gop thinks nuclear power is an answer and wants to build 100 more nuclear power plants WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE WASTE and the cooling towers add to global warning not to mention the rate increase too build these plants and with all the added drought where will they get water to cool them
Wind good in some areas!
Solar my favorite whit the tax stimulus if we start and one thing at a time so we have money coming in from projects change every school every city every county every state building and every federal building including the army and we sale this power we don’t use back to the power co’s say for 34cents per kilowatt hour from my power I’m charged 95 cents per kilowatt hour?
Two the government no longer was to pay a power bill taxpayers don’t have to pay for power and we make 34 cents per kilowatt-hour?
We do not disrupt mining.
How many jobs for a new ind. Did we just create?
Oh and gas for the milatery I have and answer for that too I’ll let you read about it later
Sincerely Mark Hartness