On Tax Day, You Ruled the Country **UPDATE**
Hundreds of Thousands
The latest count of nationwide Tea Party attendance is 315,000 and growing. Not sure if our 10,000 is in that number or not. Everyone who attended shares equally in the accolades and the pride. Here are two representative congratulatory messages:
* Congressman Roy Blunt: ”Congratulations and thank you. My friend Todd Akin told me that it was an amazing event.”
* KTVI Fox 2 News Director: ”You deserve major kudos! That’s the most people I’ve ever seen in Kiener Plaza, except, maybe, before a Cardinal’s World Series game.”
Congratulations to each of you. Those who want to substitute their judgment for yours and your money for their IOUs noticed; they’re breaking their necks trying so hard to look the other way!
More on KTVI
That news director explained that the Jaco piece contained factual errors. They apologized on the 10:00 news last night. His tone was sincere. He also apologized to all of you for bumping the Tea Party story at 9:00. He explained that the director was faced with a terrible fire story that included a fatality. He said that bumping our story was a mistake, and apologized.
When challenged that his station committed two major errors that hurt our Tea Party in 3 days, he acknowledged that the appearance was bad. ”I have told my people that. We made a series of bad decisions, and the people responsible are paying consequences. Mr. Jaco is aware of the seriousness of his mistake.”
KTVI has aired (or will have after tonight) 22 stories on this tea party. While one of those stories was terribly inaccurate and defamatory, the manager’s apology seems sincere. Let’s thank him for his honesty and move on.
Original Post
I will post more later. In the meantime, don’t forget to tell 2 people and to write, write, write.
(image stolen from Gateway Pundit. I hope he’ll forgive me)
Tonight St. Louis was a craddle of democracy as 10,000 patriots reasserted their Creator-given rights.
If you were there–in person or spirit–you owe yourself a pat on the back.
We’ll wake those who remain in slumber.
We’ll meet again July 4.
Between, we’ll shout our voices every day, in every corner of the country.
And KTVI will get new management.
True Patriot Love,
Bill Hennessy
54 Responses to “On Tax Day, You Ruled the Country **UPDATE**”
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Thanks for a great tea party!
The message was loud and clear. Vote out the incumbents in Congress who are spending our money like there is no tomorrow!
Bill,
Thank you and everyone else for making this a historic event for St. Louis. We all appreciate your hard work and are grateful for it. We the people will be heard.
Thank you again and God bless our movement!
What a great event, I took my 12 year old, (she had a sign that said is your 5th grader smarter than Barney Frank. Very Patriotic and fun, let’s do it again.
Thanks everyone for turning out last night – it was wonderful! Let’s never give up. We can take our country back again as long as we don’t give in, or give up.
How did the food drive go?
Bill,
Was St. Louis not a craddle (sic) of Democracy before April 15?
What “creator-given rights” were “reasserted” last night?
What specific acts will you do to change KTVI management?
Can progressive Democrats who support President Obama be patriots?
Thanks for all your efforts, they sure paid off.
And now on to making it really pay off with change we need!
It seems to me that that’s next discussion we need to be having, how to bring ideas such as the evenings closing points, into public understanding, and than an organized plan….
(sorry for typo’s – one shouldn’t type, swill coffee, and rush for work at the same time)
Thanks for a great teabagging!
Man am I sore.
OK… now what?
What do we do?
Seriously, was the tea party a success? How do you measure it? What is different today?
Good work people.
When we asked the attendant at the Kiener garage exit why we had to sit for 45 minutes to get out he said that they had not anticipated this!!!! Duh. Noone covered it to any extent. I am calling local newsrooms to let them know I am puzzled and disappointed.
Great turnout and the weather was perfect, unlike the cold February day. My compliments to you and Dana for your hard work. I also compliment you on refraining from having any politician talk. It was time for them to listen and I hope they heard us loud and clear. I hope this gives a strong message to others who want to truly represent us. It’s time for someone with a BIG voice to represent us. We don’t need deals, we need leadership! We really need someone that is not concerned about his second term but more about doing what we put him/her there to do. If that happens, a second term will follow! We need someone to represent US!
Lets make the next party even bigger!
The Tea Party was Great, it’s nice to see so many Patriots from so many different walks of Life come together. I hope the Food Drive was a Success.
Where are the Possible locations for the Next Party? Any Ideas for a venue that may hold 10,000 Plus?
Thanks again to all those that Volunteered and of course to Bill and Dana. I hope since the Gov thinks we are all a Threat that the IRS doesn’t audit you two out of the Blue….lol
Some asked where this is going….For me the Obvious answer is Washington. Eventually these Tea Parties around the Nation will have to converge on Washington. These Politicans aren’t going to care until we are standing outside their Office in the Millions. But what will spurn that..what the Defining moment will be that Angers enough of us to that action is still unclear…..but I can speculate…
Great Peaceful Protest..Keep it up.
Thanks Bill for all your hard work. You can call on me for any help needed at the JULY 4TH TEA PARTY. I was proud to run into Nick and Ray from Boy Scouts a couple of high school 10th graders. They Get it, I hope the uneducated soon get it.
TAKE OUR FREEDOMS AWAY AND WATCH US GROW!!!!!!!
THANK YOU< THANK YOU<THANK YOU,,, great speakers and great people
I was impressed with fact there were so many young people attending,lots of 20-30yr olds,,, we do have a future for our country
Bill,
Thank you for stepping up and taking the risk to lead. I know the criticism has been strong your way and I applaud the way you have handled it. I’m looking forward to the 4th and keeping up the momentum.
Bill,
The Tea Party was awesome!! Thanks to all who worked hard to put it together. Our teenagers loved it. They really had no idea what to expect. I think they get it now. What an education for all the young people. We are really looking forward for July 4th.
Thanks, again.
Mark and Cheryl
Diane,
“Noone (sic) covered it to any extent.”??? What do you mean?
FOX and CNN covered the tea parties non-stop! Local media had stories as well. Should local stations have interrupted their regularly scheduled programming to report on a few thousand tax protestors congregated downtown?
Explain how poor planning by Bill and Dana (organizers) is the fault of local media? How do you figure? I hope when they take over Washington they run the government better than they run a tea party.
You can stand in front of the White House with pitchforks and torches for forever and a day, but as long as you total such a small percentage of the electorate, your impact will be minimal (except FOX News and Radio will make more money off you!). The modern conservative movement needs new ideas to compete.
How bout we do it at Bush Stadium on the 4th!!!
Bill, Thank you so much. I’m glad I got to shake your hand last night. It was hard for me to leave my teenage daughter on her birthday, but it was so worth it, for her future. Thanks again, Nancy
Thanks to the organizers. This was a great event.
I have one suggestion for action. Only three Republicans in the House and Senate voted for the stimulus bill, one of them was perrenial disappointment to conservatives, Senator Arlen Specter. The good news is that he’s up for re-election in 2010 and Pat Toomey is running against him in the primary. Send a message to Senator Specter by donating to Toomey’s campaign at toomeyforsenate.com. Running Specter out of the Senate will send a strong message to Republican Congressmen that there will be a price to pay for crossing the isle and selling out their constituents.
I was really glad that last nights “party” had such a large and peaceful turnout. We have to be careful that we continue to grow while at the same time not lose the spririt and purpose of why we gather…to let both parties in government know that we are sick and tired of their wild and irresponsible spending and taxes.
KTVI did a fair story, with the exception of the anchor claiming that “a few hundred” people gathered…, on our Tax Day Party. A link to their story is below:
http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-tax-protest-st-louis-041509,0,7585962.story
Awesome job and a big thanks to everyone that showed up, spoke, and organized last nights party.
Thanks to everyone for coming out. I had a great time. I was surprised when I turned on FOX 2 LOCAL news and saw nothing at 9pm or 10pm, even though I saw a FoX2 truck at the event.
Had it been even 2500 or so Iraq war protesters or a small “charge-bush-with-warcrimes” rally, they would have ran it as a feature lead story……just like a few months ago when the Delmar police beat down that dozen or so Anti-Israel protesters in the loop. There were less than 20 of them and that got minutes of airtime at 6pm, 9pm, 10pm, and a follow-up on the morning news.
Does that make sense to you JK? Not sure we deserve an interruption in their regularly scheduled programming, but from what I saw, the main coverage we got was from the number one rated, most watched news channel on tv right now (FOX News Channel, Thanks guys!).
It’s been about 9 years since the war started, and there has not been an anti-iraq protest near as large as our tax day protest, and certainly not simultaneously across the nation.
I guess the difference is we aren’t paying our supporters and attendees like many movements have to. (can you say Acorn?)
Wow the turnout was huge! I was so glad to see how great the non-violent demonstration was. We’re all just sick of those not being accountable for themselves, not reading bills and information before the vote on it, and our Congress not spreading truth but spreading our hard earned wealth.
I must be too nice still because I actually expected our turnout to be covered by someone! KTVI Fox 2 has a 1hr news show and um hello is right across the street. KTVI aired 0 minutes of coverage! I only watched (think God for Tivo) to see if they would even mention it. As I expected, their news was really horrible and they had nothing exciting going on to report. The anchors actually looked bored and downplayed. Hence, the reason I do not watch them. KMOV CBS 4 had a breif coverage of it but nothing major. They all still seem to think we are nothing exciting to cover. Want to know what is sad, I am going to write a story and have it covered by El Mundo Latino one of our Spanish papers in St. Louis. We’ll have more coveraged than our entire STL media!
Write to KTVI Fox 2 and other media about their lack of coverage.
http://www.fox2now.com
It was Fabulous! Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
WELL organized..huge crowd from all walks of life..with a similar message..
ENOUGH!!! We want WE THE PEOPLE to run this country thru like-minded legislators who “get the message”. 2010 is the time.
The work begins NOW!
Thanks Bill and all who made this incredible event the HUGE success that it was…….and will continue to be.
Write letters..make calls..talk to your neibhors and co-workers..send e-mails….KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING!!!!
P.S. After getting a burger across the street after the festivities, we walked back to our car thru a SPOTLESS Plaza.
WELL DONE ALL!
Hey sorry……..can’t type, but do know how to spell (usually).
That is “neighbors”.
Great to hear about the success of the event. I couldn’t make it in person (due to a work commitment), but was definitely their in spirit. Would love to help make the July 4th event even better.
My 13 year old son and I had a great time at that great demonstration of democracy in action! The turnout blew my expectations away and it filled my heart with joy. We are actively recruiting for July 4!!!!
I attended the Tea Party last night and truly enjoyed conversation after conversation with people of all ages, races, socio-economic backgrounds. We had one common complaint–Stop the Spending. Our voices, sadly could not be heard because of the lack of coverage from our local TV stations. I am not surprised at all. I will attend all rallies, protests, etc. in the future with hopes of full coverage from the media.
My wife and I were at the amazing gathering at Kiener. We also were also part of an enthusiastic event in downtown kirkwood that evoked a lot of toots and thumbs-up reactions from passing cars.
Lest we forget how uninformed millions of our citizen are – this morning I commented to a local office manager, that we had had a great time @ Kiener plaza last evening.
She said, “What was going on?”
I replied, “the big Tea Party, There were 9,000 people there “.
She, “tea party? I haven’t heard anything abut that”
I – It’s the national protest against what is going on in Washington
She – blank look
This was not a put-on. She really didn’t know or understand..
GREAT JOB TO BILL AND COMPANY…!! Thanks for the successful Tea Party…So glad I was able to attend and to be in the company of so many like-minded PATRIOTS !!
As mentioned above…I, too, have been very encouraged by the number of young people, including teenagers, in attendance at these gatherings and who GET IT!!
I agree that our work is in front of us…we need to work cohesively to vote into office those who share our concerns and convictions for the future of our country, both economically and philosophically…!
We need leadership from OUR perspective as to how to most effectively accomplish that goal. We need to mobilize the heretofore “Sleeping Giant”…!
Great Job!
We need to make the next one larger!
I don’t know why I’m so disappointed in the local media they always let me down. I was surprised to see them all there. I guess they were only there to see if something went wrong to blast us with.
Talk to your friends and neighbors we will have to do this on our own!
Thank you for all your work and was great being around like minded people! My wife and I are looking forward to spending some time on July 4th with you all again and appreciate all the volunteers to pull this off!
Message to JK…
that’s okay..feel free to spew your “sour grapes”…while we continue to fight to protect your right to do so !
That isn’t 10,000 people LOL!
Dearest JK,
May The Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
FYI to Roger..
Unfortunately the aerial shot was taken earlier, before the whole crowd had gathered in the amphitheater area, and it also didn’t show the east side of the Plaza on the grassy area, on the other side of the stage, which was also jam-packed with people…so this aerial photo, while impressive, was regrettably not a true reflection of the mass of people in attendance.
Hi All!
My husband is stationed in San Diego so I went to the Tea Party here…I am a native St. Louis girl and was with you in spirit. I am so impressed with how everyone handled themselves and was on target with this message. There were about 2,000 people at the Tea Party here…its California, so I guess we have our work cut out for us here!
God Bless the USA and its amazing people!
Thank you for putting the Tea Party together. Thank God for the Beautiful Weather!!! What a pleasant evening!
It was great to see so many Americans ready to take to the streets for their beliefs and to send a message as to what we perceive to be a threat to our Liberty and our future and our Children’s future! I found the crowd to be extreme in EVERY way!! **Extremely friendly** **Extremely Well Mannered** **Extremely Knowledgeable** **Extremely Reverent**…you get the picture! Also, I thank you for opening the Tea Party in Prayer! “If God is FOR US, Who can be against us”?????
God Bless America!
10,000? (cough, cough) Didn’t the police estimate the crowd to be about 5-6K? Even 5-6K would be mighty impressive, making it reportedly the 2nd largest in the country. But…
Remember the first party at the Arch steps? Hennessy said on Ch.4 that they expected 50-100 people and got 10X that (500) based on the number of people who “signed”. Suddenly, later counts on local sites estimated the crowd at 1,000, then 1,500.
What I’m still waiting for is the Conservative/Republican/Teabag alternative. This isn’t like bailing out Chrysler in 1979 with $1.5B.
What we have now, like it or not, is the result of degegulation, massive corporate greed, cronyism and companies like Goldman Sachs declaring a “profit” that really doesn’t exist!
Again, what’s the alternative to tens of thousands of auto workers losing jobs if the company folds? What’s the alternative to buying “toxic assets” – massive home defaults that increase the homeless population? GM is offering a public bond-exchange trying to wipe out $28B in debt by June 1st. What happens if they fail?
Something had to be done. Unfortunately it happened to the tune of trillions of dollars. I know that financial institutions that received bailout monies are required to pay it back. We were willing to gamble that would happen but I’ve got a feeling it’ll be pennies on the dollar.
I really think our first step is to radically revise the tax code, in its entirety. Visit every tiny subsection and revise and simplify.
We all had a blast who attended this event! It was fantastic!
Brandy Pedersen
What’s the matter JK? Scared of the “real” voice of America?
At the beginning of the speeches the park ranger estimated 6 to 7 thousand in attendance. For the next hour or so I saw people still arriving. Did it reach 10,000? I don’t know. What I do know is that there were a lot of us and there will be more next time.
For the person who said that would make us the second largest party in the US evidently didn’t see the Sacramento, Atlanta or Alamo tea parties. They had approx. twice as many as we did.
Bill… it was a great day. Thank you and all the volunteers who helped you make it such a success. Keep it up.
All the people who come here and try to run you or the event down are peeing in their pants to see the ‘real’ America in action.
Looking forward to July 4th and the 5 million voter march on Washington DC. ( I really do think we could get that many there if we step up our efforts to get the message to the people )
Lets put our wiggle in place and a smile on our face and join the July 4th TEA PARTY. Vocal and verbal is the password.
Congrads AND applause! St. Louis
To all who are surprised at the fact that none of the local news channels gave the event the coverage it deserved….HELLO…. have we all forgotten who runs the OLD MEDIA, or shall we call it the PROPAGANDA ARM of the iberal movement, ether will do. I’m sure their orders were to cover only those things that could be used to discredit the event as a gathering of violent antigovernment crazies. Hence…NO SIGNIFICANT COVERAGE…get it…
We were so sick of the OLD MEDIA bias that after the 08 elections we called our cable provider and told them to remove the local channels from our package. There are other less biased ways to get local news.
I think another reason for the negative or lack of coverage is because the liberal political machine is SCARED. The truth is there are more of us (silent majority) than there are of any other constituency group. They’re scared to death that they may have awakened the sleeping giant in this country and have visions of a good butt kicking come 2010. So let them POO POO all they want…let’s keep this going by getting bigger, louder, and stronger. I think folks; we are the tip of a VERY LARGE iceberg, that has remained submerged far too long!
Thanks to Bill and Dana and all the volunteers for a great event!
Also, Dana, this was the first time I’ve heard you speak…You seem to have trouble expressing yourself…you seem so shy, timid, and subdued…Perhaps some counseling will help you come out of your shell!!……NOT!!!!…….
Bill et al,
THANK YOU for all your work in making this event possible. I hope to be part of the team that makes it happen again on July 4th.
I can’t say I’m surprised at the snark from people who weren’t there and didn’t meet or talk with any of the thousands of participants, but as a non-conservative, non-Republican I can attest that this was anything but a GOP “astro-turf” affair.
To the person who asked “Can progressive Democrats who support President Obama be patriots?” — well, sure you can. Love of country and being right about any particular issue aren’t the same thing.
But, I hope some progressive Democrats who support President Obama were Tea Party participants. Supporting President Obama doesn’t mean blindly accepting that every decision he makes is correct, and if you really support him, the best thing you can do is participate in activities which push him in the right direction when he’s wandering off in the wrong one.
Corporate welfare is not a good thing. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard progressives say so in the past. If it’s not good when the Republicans are doing it, it’s not good when the Democrats are doing it, either.
Deficit spending and the attendant accrual of massive amounts of new government debt are not good things, either. If they aren’t good things when George W. Bush is pushing them to finance wars in the Middle East and Central Asia or to bail out AIG, they’re not good things when Barack Obama is pushing them to continue those wars or to bail out General Motors.
Best regards,
Tom Knapp
Chair
St. Louis County Libertarian Central Committee
Awesome !
Wish I could have been there ….but I was there in spirit!
So everyone, how about a new political party? The Tea Party? For all of you who were here, have you ever considered running for office? We need YOU. We need fired up people with a love for the Constitution to run and turn this country around, and fast. I think such a candidate, for any office, would have a great showing at the polls.
I was there in the front row, and it made me even prouder to be an american and patriot. Thanks much!!!!!
Kudos to Bill and Dana: The teaparty was great.
My friend and I hung around afterwards for a while and watched people as they left. One thing that struck me was how clean we left Kiener Plaza – almost no litter. This was unlike the pictures I saw of political rallies in the fall and the inauguration where the grounds were left totally trashed. I guess conservatives clean up after htemselves and liberals expect others to do it for them!
My husband and I went to the St. Louis Tea Party and had a great time.
Everyone was friendly, the speakers where remarkable, the music was
fantastic, and the signs were honest. I felt good about being there and
it was nice knowing that other people felt the way we do. The mood was
very patriotic, I was proud to there, and bursting with pride in America
again!
I was extremely disappointed to come home and find out that we were
being labeled extremists, terrorists, and worst of all tea
baggers!!!!!!!!!!! I am very offended by this. For one thing there were
a lot of children there. What kind of low-life would say something like
that. To be honest with you, I did not know what that meant until now.
Obama says he know’s nothing of the tea parties, then explain to me why
we
have a Home Land Surety report that labeled us as extremists! Liar! That
is the wrong answer. He should know about all the Tea Parties. They are
after all his constituents and he should listen to all of us, whether we
disagree with his policies or voted for him.
It really scares me the way the government and the media has handle the
coverage of the Tea Parties. Most of the attendees were registered
voters, tax-paying, law abiding citizens, and to be talked about like
this is truly disgusting. But I will say this, it has really fueled my
fire! We are going to the July 4th Tea Party and bringing friends and
family.