Posted on 03/21/2009 4:19:17 PM PDT by Roos_Girl
What a great event! Lisa Feroli and the gang hosting the event did a fantastic job of organizing.
The Tea Party was supposed to last from noon to 2pm. I got there around 10am and met up with SeekTheTruth and her hubby and we started getting set up. There was a good number of people already there. Fantastic job and a big Thank You to Freeper "surfer" who ordered and donated a 3' x 8' banner with the simple message www.FreeRepublic.com. And well done and Thank You to Freeper MinuteGal for supplying business cards with Free Republic information, all of which were handed out!
We had a good number of people stop by the table that either were already Freepers or who said they were regular viewers and every one of them commented that Free Republic was the best conservative forum on the web!
There was a lot of talk about Glen Beck showing up, but he did not. However, our own Kristinn Taylor was the last speaker of the day and (not being biased or anything) Matchett-PI and I thought they saved the best for last. This is a list of the other speakers:
Tom Gaitens, Florida coordinator, FreedomWorks
Nathan Pick, Americans for Tax Reform
Harry Mihet, Senior Litigation Counsel, Liberty Counsel
Jon H. Gutmacher Esq, local attorney and second amendment expert
Andrea Shea King internet radio talk show host
SeekTheTruth was kind enough to supply a disposable camera and the pictures I took with it are posted below. I stayed at the Free Republic table most of the time, except to get a closer seat when Kristinn was speaking. There was such a huge crowd I was mostly trying capture the number of people there and had to do that by just holding the camera up over my head and hoping I was catching something good! Hopefully some other Freepers will post their pictures too and add their comments about their experience from their vantage points.
I was too far away to get a good photo, but this is Kristinn speaking and chargin up the crowd.
Thousands Rally Against Bailouts At ‘Orlando Tea Party’
Hi Leni;
Did you go to the rally? We were there, but had to leave before Kristinn spoke. It was great!
Roos_girl and I had to make sure everyone got some nice American Patriotic candy!! :)
Think they were across the street from the park trying to find two Obama supporters to interview!
Thanks, Surfer Bert for posting the video link! Lloyd was really great and sure fired up the crowd! I love the song he wrote and it sure rings true! :)
WOW! WAAAAAAY COOL pictures and commentary, Dave! What a day! Thanks to all FReepers who did their part to make the Orlando Tea Party such a success!
Kristinn: Do you have a transcript of your FANTASTIC speech that you can post in this thread? Hopefully there is a video of it floating around somewhere, too, that can be linked to. I know Dave thought he was able to capture some or all of it on his camera even though his batteries were running low.
We sorely missed Leni, Gonzo, Bob Ireland,OldGlory (who is in Colorado right now), Pete Kessler, seekingthetruth (who are both out of state now), and many of the other faithful Florida Freepers who weren’t able to make it for one reason or another. It was really good to see TigerBill back in his usual great “FReeping” action with all those wonderful signs he makes, though! I loved the one where he had the cans of tar and feathers hanging from it. LOL!! I hope someone got a picture of that one, too!
I forgot to put on any sunblock so I my face - except the owl-eyes where my sunglasses were :) - and neck are sunburned liked you wouldn’t believe! The “cause” was worth it though. Whoo Hoo!!!
It was great to meet you to, CRBDeuce! See you again at the Freeper Convention! :)
My daughter and son-in-law live in Orlando and were there!
They were thrilled with the huge turnout-and were also disappointed (but not surprised) with the media coverage and the low estimated number of people there!
We live in Ocala and I’m really sorry we couldn’t make the trip down to be a part of that!
June K
I loved that shirt too, Leni! That would have been the perfect shirt to wear when I was on Gandy Bridge at a Freep back in the old days!:)
bttt
...and more! Yes you did, that's certain! Great pics...you guys have done yeomans work all these years, we owe you! Kinda sorry I missed all the 'fun' in the Clinton years, hope to be able make up for that!
Ditto, I plan on it, unless I get up to DC for 'the big one' and am still celebrating! On a side note, while we were witnessing the Florida Event of the Weekend, my son was talking to Huckabee at his Media Covered (therefore NOT the) Tea Party in Elkhart, Ind. I learned more about solutions to the financial crisis watching that show last nite on Fox than I learned watching the media coverage of the last 6 months of 'solutions'.
3k to 6k, magnificent! And in liberal South Florida, no less!
Leni
“Ditto, I plan on it, unless I get up to DC for ‘the big one’ and am still celebrating! On a side note, while we were witnessing the Florida Event of the Weekend, my son was talking to Huckabee at his Media Covered (therefore NOT the) Tea Party in Elkhart, Ind. I learned more about solutions to the financial crisis watching that show last nite on Fox than I learned watching the media coverage of the last 6 months of ‘solutions’.”
We will be sure to watch the replay of Huckabee program this evening! Missed it last night. Can you give us a little info so we will know when Huckabee is talking to your son? :)
Well done!
Here's another photo, with you on the right.
It's out of the picture, but you're holding up one of the great "don't tread on me" flags. That breeze off the lake really made the flags stand out.
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