Tea Party Blogging Day

This post will be updated frequently through-out the day. Return often for updates

I know I promised to upload the photos I took at the events to an online gallery later today, but it will most likely be tomorrow evening before I get that done. I will update with those when I get that completed. I’m tired.

I’ll post more on these events tomorrow, but I can say that I have never been quite as proud to be an American as I was today. Great job everyone!

Fayette County, TN

10:10 pm - Trish Corlew is reporting 500+ for the Fayette County Tea Party and provided a few photos.

Memphis, TN

9:30 pm - I created this mosaic of images taken from the stage. There are more people to the right side of the stage at the registration area and behind the stage. Further to the right (off camera) are 300 more people  lining the curb along Perkins. I’ll let the readers decide whether the 400-500 asserted by TV 24 is accurate or not. Click the image for the full-size mosaic (a big image).

FOX 13 got it right…”thousands of tax-payers across the county“…

 Mike Fleming (WREC 600) estimated 3500 and another estimate has come in of 4000. Between 3 – 4000 sounds about right.

Others weigh in on Memphis:

Tom Guleff : Joe Citizens
Rustmeister’s Alehouse

[video]http://www.youtube.com/v/7i8v0Y_ReHQ&hl=en&fs=1[/video]

********** Previous Memphis entries *********

4:34 - The tea party begins at 5 pm. It is gonna be big!

They are lining the streets already!

5:30 pm – I know inquiring minds want to know how many. To be honest, I have no idea. Comparing notes with some of the media types, we came up with 2,000 around 15 minutes ago. What makes it hard is that people are still walking in and the traffic is backed up on the main road trying to get in. That does not include those driving by honking and yelling from their cars. I am going now to count cars, so maybe that will give a better estimate. But it is definitely exceeding expectations – COME ON DOWN, WE HAVE AN HOUR-AND-A-HALF TO GO.

 5:56 pm – Well, Channel 24 has done gone an made me upset. I asked the reporter what he was reporting the crowd size as. He replied, “between 400 – 500″. I answered that I just came from an event that was in the hundreds, and this was definitely well beyond that number. He replied, “Well, its a free country! Think what you want.” I prefer to go with what I know. I walked down the sidewalk and counted the people waving along Perkins. I came up with 300 on the curb-side! I’ll create a mosaic later and post it of the crowd, but this is definitely in the thousands, and at this time 3,000 would be my best guess.

Brownsville, TN

11:27 am -  I just arrived at the Courthouse Square and the party has already started. This is genuine Americana!

11:45 am – Some initial photos

The Courthouse

Don Thompson – the lead “radical” organizer of the event

Volunteers getting the party ready to go at noon

 12:20 pm – For a small town, there were 100+ people showing up to get things started at noon, which is impressive! There were enough people that I could not get far enough back (without getting run over in the street) to get the whole crowd in one picture.

Warm-up crowd

Signs…

 
Younger signs…

 
They even served up some tea…

I even found a trouble-making “radical” from Fayette County here (Trish).

 12:56 pm – A nice little lunch-time tea party. The reporter for TV-7 (Jackson) and I had to reach an agreement on a head count. She was estimating 50, but after a quick count I counted that many just north of the front entrance and more than that were to the south. So we settled upon 100+ as the “official” head count for the evening news.

A group shot for the TV camera…

It took some doing, but we did manage to get Trish in front of the camera.

This was a great event, and while updating the blog, people were coming up to my little red truck and asking what was going on. I was only happy to fill them in. Great job Brownsville!

More Brownsville:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/v/3Hcbbew1CcI&hl=en&fs=1[/video]
[h/t] Mike Slater

FOX News On-line Coverage
I would link the CNN coverage, but there is none

[video]http://www.youtube.com/v/r0eoE9mi9iw&hl=en&fs=1[/video]
[h/t] PC Free Zone

Tax Day Becomes Protest Day [h/t] Drudge

BCR authors will be attending at least three tea parties today. I’m not sure if Mickey (Fayette County) and Jimbo (he is a scheduled speaker in Memphis) are set up to live blog from their respective events, but I will give it an attempt for the Brownsville (12 noon) and Memphis events (5 pm). I’ll be taking pictures and posting information at regular intervals, totally contingent upon 3G service. I’ll give it my best shot!

Now for you late-comers, be sure to visit the Tax Day Tea Party site and find one near you.

Update:

Newscoma will be covering the Martin, TN event for her blog and the local paper.

City: Martin (Weakley County)
When: April 15, 5:30 pm
Where: Martin town square (across from C.E. Weldon library)

Newsflash for Mediaverse:

Socialism, really? This is supposed to be bipartisan. (Not really.)

Oh yes, really. If you spend any time AT ALL at BCR, then you know it is a non-partisan effort or we would NOT be involved (except perhaps in opposition). Two of our authors are speakers at these events, one a Democrat and the other a very strong Independent. So get your panties unwadded and be there this afternoon.

Afterthought:

It has been a long day and I see no reason for me to duplicate Ol’ Broad’s fine work here. They actually did have tea parties elsewhere in the State today too

Ol’ Broad’s Nashville and Tennessee Round-up