Just back from the Boston Tea parties…

…some quick thoughts and impressions photos will follow in the next post.

The two women who put this together did an incredible job and deserve so much credit that it can’t be adequately expressed. I was watching them juggle all the work and they were astounding. I would trust them with any enterprise that I needed done. I will definitely add GOPMOM to my list of blogs to read.

Got there at 10 and the crowd built and built. At it’s peak the crowd was at my raw guesstament Over a thousand.

There were a fair amount of elderly people there. The long amount of standing must have been pretty hard.

Most of the signs were home made, they also had blank poster board available and markers so people could make their own sign.

The 1st Rally took place on the common at the State House and the monument to the 54th Massachusetts.

I made it a point to ask the police how the protesters were. It was calm and quiet and peaceful an easy day. At the 2nd Tea party I asked the police officer there the same question, got the same answer.

There was a very small contingent of Paulians carrying Paul 08 signs. I thought it was out of place as the election is long over.

There was a single LaRouchite passing out literature. I turned it down but a few people took it.

Carla Howell the mother of question 1 was there. Not only is she a most articulate and well spoken women on these issues, she is also a very handsome one.

The two protests were split as rival radio stations sponcered them. WRKO had the one at the common and WTKK had it at Columbus park where we walked after the first one was done. Quite a few people went to both.

The 2nd party seemed more organized than the first, I suspect that is because the Radio station took a more active role. I particularly liked the bit where they allowed people to come up and speak for 30 seconds each to give their opinions.

I only saw two pro Obama people there with signs. I give them props for showing up and displaying their colors.

The 10th Amendment was very popular, Barney Frank is was not. There were one or two vulgar posters involving him but many more creative ones. He and the president were the villains in chief, although at the 2nd rally Governor Patrick ranked high on the villain list.

The people were not all solid behind all the opinions, one called for the end of the Federal Reserve System another wanted the 16th Amendment repealed.

Invariably the people there were friendly and interesting, quite a few parents had their kids there and there were plenty of college students.

I talked to a reporter from NECN and asked him about the threat of bloggers who do reporting, in his opinion the biggest threat to papers was not so much bloggers as complacency. In his opinion if reporters are professional and accurate then they can compete. He seemed to have exactly the right attitude.

Lots of local press there and Fox and CNN as well. No sign of MSNBC.

The 2nd rally talked about actually getting people to run for offices. That is the actual solution, particularly in Massachusetts. Nothing is going to change unless we change it.

A blogger from Redmassgroup was doing audio interviews and asked if this would be the reaction if this was happening under McCain. I honestly couldn’t say but I suspect McCain wouldn’t have been as bad. He also asked about the Bush spending. I offered the opinion that the war was the big thing. You can always change laws and votes, you can’t unloose a war.

All in all it was a very interesting experience. I’m not one to chant or get excited but it was very worthwhile and I would do it again. The real question will be what happens after this?

Update: Ed Driscoll notes that the mainstream media didn’t take the NECN reporter’s advice.