With hundreds of tea parties taking place today, we thought we’d provide you with highlights from some of the events half-way through the day.
MICHIGAN: With dozens of protests planned in the Great Lakes State, Lansing led the pack with a crowd estimated to be as high as 7,000 people – and growing. "Joe the Plumber" is scheduled to speak on the capitol steps as well. An hour south of Lansing in my liberal college town of Ann Arbor, about 200 people marched from the University of Michigan campus down Liberty Street towards the federal building.
KENTUCKY: In Louisville, one thousand people gathered at Jefferson Square downtown.
PENNSYLVANIA: About a thousand people gathered in Market Square in Pittsburgh.
RHODE ISLAND: The Providence tea party kicked off at 3:00 today, but the smallest state in the country has lined up over 20 speakers, from average moms to radio talk show hosts. The protest is being held on the State House steps. They expect over 500 attendees.
CONNECTICUT: A crowd of 3,000 gathered at the state capitol in Hartford.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Thousands gathered in Columbia, also cheering for Governor Mark Sanford who has been a strong opponent to Obama’s "stimulus" package.
FLORIDA: 2,000 showed up in Jacksonville to pour wagons of tea into the St. Johns river.
IOWA: Over 1,000 gathered at the Capitol in Des Moines.
TEXAS: 1,500 people rallied in the capitol of Austin where Governor Rick Perry (another critic of the "stimulus") spoke to the crowd. A second Austin tea party will take place this afternoon, where they will re-enact the 1773 Boston Tea Party.
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