knoxville tea party

What will follow will mostly be pictures of the recent Knoxville Tea Party – I will leave the reporting to the reporters (and columnists… and professional webloggers).
What I will do, however, is post up a few of the pictures I took.
The Knoxville Police Department initially estimated that there would be between 200 and 300 individuals at this Tea Party. From my approach to the event, this was believable, especially since I had never been to the World Fair Park before, and knew nothing about how the Ampitheater was set up:

However, once you round the bend on the Ampitheater, and are able to peer into the structure, you realize the Police Department’s estimations were off. By a lot:










The reporters make conservative estimates of between 1700 and 2000 individuals in attendance – I suck at estimating people, so I guess that sounds about right. Of course, on the flip side, those same reporters estimate that there were 40 counterprotesters, and by my count, there were only about 20 or so, and most of them are in this picture:

*shrugs* Estimating is approximate, after all.
Here is a sampling of some of the signs that showed up, along with the people holding them:

















Yes, that last one is Simon, hanging out while Mr. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, spoke in the background. Also speaking were Dr. Harold Black (the best speaker there, in my opinion – made an interesting case that the federal government would be persuing a consumption tax in the near future, in order to at least try to offset the horrific spending they have instituted), County Commissioner Mike Hammond, and Mr. Ryan Tuberville, a senior at UT and the vice president for the UT College Republicans. Blackwater and Mrs. Cathie Cardwell both performed, and Cathie’s husband Mr. Rand Cardwell was the master of ceremonies for this entire shindig. The crowd ranged from toddlers on shoulders and in buggies to gentlemen who could barely stand, and were probably veterans of multiple wars. High-powered business people, probably fresh out of the diminutive sky-scrapers in downtown Knoxville, showed up dressed in their smooth-and-shiny suits, while folks in well-used Carhartt overalls were also present. You could pretty much say Tennessee was present.
And last and least, yes, yours truly really was there:

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