Tax Day Tea Party Chicago

Great crowd, great signs. One of over 800 tea parties around the country. No sign of any "outside agitators", just us all-American radicals. I will add links below, here and elsewhere.

Their signs speak for them.A mother and sonOn the left a Marine, on the right, a Navy SEAL
My friend John from WilmetteThis one cracked me upNew Trier friendsWLS' Mancow wowed the crowdAyn Rand makes a cameo appearanceMy friend El Rider of Flying Debris, on the right, next to the Illinois Policy Institute and Americans for Prosperity peopleWe sang the national anthem, voices ringing out in the public square. Mancow with a Minuteman
Jonathan Hoenig the CapitalistPigEric Odom, of Don'tGo Movement and TaxDayTeaParty, who did yeoman's work pulling together a site to organize the day and link people up.If America falls, freedom dies.

My sign said We the People.

God Bless America.

More: Waved at Freedom Folks, their post here, video will no doubt be up soon. Am watching FoxNews, Ted Nugent is playing at the Alamo:) his distinct version of the Star Spangled Banner. Michelle Malkin. Gateway Pundit. My friend Lance Burri, TrogloPundit in Madison, 5,000 in that liberal enclave?!!

More: Some idiot threw a box of tea bags over the White House fence. The Secret Service sent out a robot to check it out.

More: CBS2 Chicago coverage. Our congressperson, flaming liberal Jan Schakowsky denounced our protest as shameful. You can thank her for your lousy $7 a week tax rebate if any and a slug of higher taxes and debt to come. Tribune photos.Earlier video, highlighting Naperville. Story here:

In Joliet Lipton tea bags hung from signs with slogans ranging from "Don't Tread on Me!" to "I'm a left wing American" as more than 300 people gathered outside the Will County courthouse this afternoon.

"We're saddling ourselves with ... unending debt--it's insanity!" Tim Kraulidis, 43, a Joliet resident and rally organizer, said to the crowd. "We have put our nation in financial jeopardy."

"This is not a pep rally; this is a call for action," Joliet towboat captain Randy Barron, 49, said. "I will not indenture my grandchildren with a [spending] bill that no honest people can pay."

Standing in the crowd wearing paint-splattered clothes and holding a sign that read "The real pirates are in Washington," Reggie Ogg, 58, of Channahon said he'd taken a couple hours off work to attend his first political rally.

He said his small business, which now employs five, has had to lay off a couple workers because of the slumping economy. He worries about where things are headed.

"We're kinda going week-to-week," Ogg said of his firm. "I think the American people need to stand up and speak their voice."

No Sun Times coverage?!!! ABC7 Chicago. NBC5 Chicago.

More: CNN losing it: More: As I recall, Mancow gave a crowd estimate of 2 or 3,000.[UPDATE: Per Eric Odom, Chicago Police Dept. estimate 5,000] But it sure was more than a few hundred, which is what we had in February. A Chicago Blog with more comment and pix. Founding Bloggers pix. Marathon Pundit is starting to post.

More: Freedom Folks video.

And Thoughts of a Regular Guy here and here. Marathon Pundit narrative here.