An eyewitness to the Chicago Tea Party

From Danny Lemieux:

And, here’s the report from Chicago: I counted about 5,000 – 7,000 participants packed into the Federal Plaza. Everyone was very well behaved. It looked like a very diverse crowd – suits, jeans, black, white, Asian, old, young, very young (many people apparently took their kids out of school). I did see one of the Chicago Bulls players there, I believe that it was Ben Gordon. Everyone was polite.

We kicked it off with the Star Spangled Banner and some fiery warm-up chants of “USA, USA…”. No counter protesters showed up – there were a few odd Ron Paul supporters and about a dozen people from the pacifist Friends Service Committee protesting against military spending, but apparently they show up every year on Tax Day. I did chastise one of them for being an “enabler of war” when she tried to buttonhole me, but it was a polite exchange.

Best posters included “Chains we can believe in”, Obama: One Big Awful Mistake, America, and a large picture of George Washington asking “WTF?”. It was loads of fun! Let’s see how the media spins it.