Tea Party floods capitol square, with message to both parties(Virginians!)

The Washington Post ^ | January 18, 2010 | Rosalind Helderman

[mdittmar]

Members of various groups affiliated with the so-called Tea Party movement are making a show of strength in Richmond today, rallying more than 1,000 demonstrators for a Capitol Square protest and then flooding the General Assembly building to meet with lawmakers.

The Martin Luther King Day holiday is traditionally considered Lobby Day in Richmond, with dozens of groups taking advantage of the day off from work to send members to the capital city. But the tea party group appeared to the be largest in recent memory.

Wearing "Don't Tread on Me" stickers and holding signs calling for states rights, a reacknowledgment of the 10th amendment of the constitution, limited taxes, lower government spending and--above all--a rejection of the federal health care bill, the group listened to almost two hours worth of speakers, including rousing addresses from Virginia's new attorney general Ken Cuccinelli and Del. Bob Marshall.

"The Revolution has begun!" said Marshall, as he took the microphone. He praised the rallyers as "sentinels on the tree of liberty."

[mdittmar]

Way to go Virginia!

[iceskater]

My sister and BIL were there. They said 3,000 people in attendance. I hate the media. They lie about how big the Tea Party movement is.

[upstanding]

Gotta leave it to the douchebags at the compost and that heinous himshe of a reporter... "more than 1000."

I won't venture a guess at the exact total, but it looked like the VA10thAmendment.org folks got over the 2000 protesters that they had been talking about.

Curiously left out of the compost's reporting is the fact that lobbying day groups simply don't turn out the numbers that came out today for the sovereignty / Tea party rally.

"...appeared to the be largest in recent memory." Yes, washington compost himshe... definitely the largest by a mile. A hundred people would normally be considered great for groups that come to lobby day. Several thousand is stunning.

[P8riot]

Hey ice,

I was there too,lobbying the GA on behalf of the VCDL in the morning. Maybe 2000 at the 10A rally, but that's stretching it. It was still the largest rally they've ever had there. The VCDL rally that followed had about 500 there.

[HokieMom]

This link is posted on Bob McDonnell’s facebook page

http://legis.virginia.gov/streaming/hod_streams/hod_session_streaming_live_info.html

It’s a live video feed of his Governor’s Address to the Joint Assembly. Maybe he’ll talk about the 10th Amendment rally today. It begins at 7:00 p.m. tonight. I’m pinging those who have posted after action reports on the Virginia from the Richmond rally today. Bob Marshall is introducing a bill to fight off Obama and his agenda.

[Gopher Broke]

Yes, Delegate Bob Marshall’s bill is HB 10, the Health Care Freedom Act....

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?101+sum+HB10