Thousands attend America's Tea Party protest at Southfork Ranch

KDAF TV News (Channel 33) ^ | July 4,2009 | Staff

[txroadkill]

DALLAS - Celebrating Independence Day for one group means voicing their frustration with the government. Tea party rallies were held in cities across the country and one of the largest took place at Southfork Ranch near Plano.

Even the youngest generation got involved this Independence Day. They took part in America's Tea Party, a growing and conservative grass roots movement trying to put a stop to what it calls a "tax and spend" government.

"This whole thing transcends party lines. It's important for everyone to stick up for their freedom," said 18-year-old Beau Brehm of McKinney.

Brehm and his friends recently graduated from high school, where they say teachers encouraged them to stand up for what they believe in.

"We are the people and these are our opinions and I just hope they respect our wishes," said 19-year-old Trey Evans, also of McKinney.

They heard about the event through recruiters. Phillip Dennis is one of the organizers. He says it's not endorsed by a political party. It's just people on both sides of the fence who are upset with the current state of government.

"I'm frustrated with my leaders in Washington D.C. And in Austin as well and we want to get people off their couch and get them active in the political process, let their voice be heard," Dennis said.

That's what brought out Claude Owen and his wife Patsy.

"The country is not the same country that my wife and I both grew up in. There's too many changes, there's too many radical decisions being made that the people are losing their freedoms," Owen said.

"You know it's all we know to do right now is just protest, you know call the Congressmen, write letters, we don't know anything else to do," Patsy Owen said.

The Owens say they're concerned with what they believe is wasteful spending.

President Barack Obama addressed criticism today.

"We, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America," he said.

The Owens hope the tea party will inspire more people to become informed.

[txroadkill]

video at link

[zorro8987]

how many were there? it says “thousands”?

[txroadkill]

Aprox. 35,000

[GeronL]

35000????!!!!

[txroadkill]

From Michelle Malkin's site:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/04/live-from-dallas-tea-party/

It was an awesome day at Southfork Ranch! Michelle was awesome. Didn’t get a photo op. Maybe next time. I heard estimates of 35k in attendance.

A few things that impressed me;

1. I didn’t see any drunk idiots running around. You can have a good time without getting drunk.

2. Everyone was polite. I couldn’t believe how orderly it was leaving the ranch. Everyone took their turn merging into the exit lanes.

3. The general atmosphere was uplifting. It gave me hope for our future.

I pray that we can keep the movement going. If you didn’t make it to one or haven’t gone to a tea party at all, you should. It’s a great experience and you get to meet a lot of good American’s.

Lastly, I hope that in the near future we can stop calling it a tea party and start calling it a freedom party. Happy Independence Day everyone!
 

[Bellflower]

ping

[Penny]

At this writing, The Dallas Morning News has nary a word of the event on its online front page. Ummmmmmmm . . . typical leftwing omission when propaganda value isn't met . . . . Does the paper really think their online readers won't notice?

Regards . . . Penny

[WVNan]

Why don’t you ask them that question, Penny?

[fwdude]

...typical leftwing omission when propaganda value isn't met . . . . Does the paper really think their online readers won't notice?

You got it.

In contrast, the Ft. Worth Startle-gram has been harping incessantly about the unfortunate "oppression" of "gay" patrons by police at a "gay" bar on their high holy day. Somehow this makes it as a top story day after day here. Actually, it was all about an idiot drunk who understandably got his butt kicked during a routine TABC inspection when he assaulted one of the officers (grabbed his crotch.) Not news, but great fodder for propaganda.

[real_patriotic_american]

100 war protesters, 100 gay rights protesters- 300 members of the media.

35,000 Tea Party protesters- 5 members of the media.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

I was (briefly) watching my local MSM news yesterday, and they had an African-American reporter out there at the tea party. He starts his report by saying, “thousands of people are here to protest the Administration — but WE talked to some who are JUST as upset...with the REPUBLICANS!”

I flipped the channel at that point. What jerks — they seek out the small minority of left-wingers who are counter-protesting the tea party, and interview them instead (of course, close-cropping the camera angle so they fill the screen and you can’t tell that they’re just a few wackos way outnumbered by the larger tea party crowd).

Pisses me off.

[manc]

pisses me off too and hardly anything on the fox news channel(I don’t watch the others channels anymore)

In our little town of st Augustine last time we had over a 1000 which is good but some estimated nearly 2000.

Hardly anything in our local media and not one news channel.

Makes me sick that you can have 50 homosexual activists marching and the media go in a tizzy to report this and yet thousands demonstrate and nada from the media.

I’m going to our tea party today and taking my family this time and if the media actually do their job and turn up then I will be more than happy to explain a few things and ask them why they like to report only when the left wing scruffy brainless sheep march

[KansasGirl]

[”We, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America,” he said. ]

Exactly, Barry. That’s why we will fight you every step of the way. They type of “change” you want is not what American partriots fought and died for. You are a wanna-be tyrant and Americans are waking up to that. We will send you packing in 2012 and this irrepsonsible, lying Congress packing in 2010.

[Munz]

35,000 in one city .. that ain’t astroturff!

[bareford101]

I’m proud of everyone who attended a gathering for freedom! God Bless America

[txroadkill]

From the Dallas Morning News (12:07 PM)

 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/070509teaupdate.f126890.html

More than 25,000 attend Southfork Ranch tea party, organizer says

By WENDY HUNDLEY

An estimated crowd of 25,000 to 35,000 people attended the Independence Day tea party at Southfork Ranch on Saturday, one organizer said.

While the official figures haven’t been tallied yet, Debbie Meyers said the bulk of the crowd arrived after 7:30 p.m. to avoid the heat of the day. The temperature reached a high of 101 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

“I was standing on the stage and couldn’t see the end of the people,” said Meyers, president of the event-planning business Bravo Entertainment.

The event had been billed as the largest tea party in the nation, and some organizers had said the crowd could reach 50,000.

[txroadkill]

from MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31741915/ns/local_news-dallasfort_worth_tx/

 

Tea Party Lures Thousands to Southfork Ranch

By Susy Solis

NBCDFW.com

updated 20 minutes ago

It was billed to the be the largest Tea Party in the nation, and the Dallas Tea Party did not disappoint.

Thousands showed up to the Southfork Ranch in Parker for the celebration.

"We are celebrating independence and are putting together like-minded people who are concerned about the direction of fiscal responsibility, or lack thereof," said James Dickey, organizer of the Dallas Tea Party.

Organizers said they were hoping to gather more for smaller government with a grassroots approach without the help of politicians. No politicians or elected officials were invited to speak at the event, and organizers said they did not accept donations from any political parties.

Attendees said they wanted to be free of high taxes and were tired of what they called "runaway spending."

"It affects my daughter's future. She's going to be the one paying the bills for all this, and obviously they are going to have to raise taxes for all the spending," said Diana Clary.

Dickey was adamant in saying the event was nonpartisan, but many tea-partiers shared Republican conservative values.

"We've got Democrats, Libertarians, Republican. We have people of all parties," Dickey said.