Posted on 02/27/2009 9:08:01 PM PST by neal1960
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A massive rally in downtown Greenville on Friday to protest government spending was started by the rant of a reporter in Chicago.
Several thousand people flocked to the banks of the Reedy River to re-enact a uniquely American form of political speech. The crowds dumped tea into the river, evoking memories of the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
"They're not like putty in our hands," said CNBC on-air personality Rick Santelli. "This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbors' mortgages, that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills? We're thinking about having a Chicago tea party in July. All you capitalists that wanna show up at Lake Michigan, I'm gonna start organizing."
Santelli's words spurred thousands to take action across the country, and about 2,000 in Greenville alone.
"I'm sick and tired of it," said protester Barbara Keeton. "That's my money. That's my grandchildren's future. It's down the toilet."
Protesters said they were angry over the billions spent by Congress and the billions more on the table.
"No one looked at it, no one read it, no one had any clue what was in it except, of course, for the guys who prepared it," said protestor Joshua Schatzle.
"The debt that Obama's got, is way higher now, less than 100 days after he's been in office," Keeton said.
The protesters vented through signs, chants and tea.
Carl Clegg said he got the idea to start the party less than a week before it occurred.
"We're giving the opportunity for people in the area to come out and say, 'I do not approve of what's going on in Washington,'" said Clegg, of the Upstate Young Republicans.
In a few days, it grew to a size that amazing organizers and observers.
"I'm not exactly supportive of everything that's going on, but I think it was a great display of what you can do in America," said onlooker D.J. Harris.
The rally was one of at least a dozen tea party protests scheduled planned in major cities on Friday. Many more are scheduled over the next few months all across America.
Didn’t happen. This is all photoshopped Obama rally images and bloggers’ dreams.
If it had really happened, then Perky Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams would have been fist figting in the streets for the privilege of being the first to tell me all about it.
Remember: “If we didn’t broadcast it, it wasn’t news!”
David Carr (b. 1956), US Journalist. CNN "Reliable Sources", Sunday, August 10, 2008.
When is the March on Washington? How about May 30, 2009 the last Saturday of May.
You have every reason to be proud! Thank you for showing me the pictures...it’s the next best thing to being there. :)
i am so computer ignorant! My computer will not let me on your site to see the pix. Anyhow, congrats! I went to my tea party here in NC! :)
We are too few and too scattered (and too frozen and snowed under) to have any effective action here. AFAIK, the nearest rally to us would have been Cheyenne, WY, about 250 miles away...and I'm about 50 miles closer than the next-nearest SD FReeper I know of.
Way 'yonder above my pay grade to make a call like that. I'm just trying to hem up some of the links and threads in one place so it will be convenient to find, and build a ping list. With a bunch of scattered threads, many of us FReepers miss stuff.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=319841
‘Tea Party’ protests stimulus plan
I am Fire Up, let’s march on Washington!!!!
If you think this something to get fired up about, just wait until they start trying to grab guns, because its coming, slowly at first, but the movement is already starting! America, please wake up!! Our country is being taken away quietly, because the media is not on our side!!
...Only 4 more long months until I FINALLY get to go to Greenville for good and leave this socialist hellhole!
That's where it's at. We are holding down here in the deep South and are locked and loaded ready for the big reaction coming soon enough. Plenty of good churches and fine people around here, and if you like to party, we call it GVegas. Something for everyone, but still with that slow, sweet southern style. We even have a pretty good economy still going. I guess hard work really does pay off.
Love it WOOOOHOOOO..Bump to Pics.:)
' "REPEAT AFTER ME..."I'M MAD AS HELL...... AND, I'M NOT GONNA TAKE THIS ANY MORE!"
Oh, these people make me so proud.
Thank you Rick Santelli and thank you real Americans.
That is EXCELLENT. “Handy Stimulus Flow chart.” “Here’s $15. Please buy a flat screen TV.” BWAAAhahahahaha!
Boy. Those pics bring tears to my eyes. Thanks for posting them. God bless America.
That is a great flowchart!
I really don’t want to file my return this year. We’ve already paid through our paychecks.
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