Reporting From Chicago's Independence Day Tea Party

In the third installment of the TEA Party, the one here in Chicago was held at Navy Pier. The crowd size was decidedly underwhelming. The last one, on tax day, had several thousand people. This installment had several hundred at best. The organizer of the event was Christina Tobin of the Free and Equal Coalition.

There was an eclectic group of speakers including folks from the Green Party, two local Republican candidates, as well as activists of all shapes and sizes. The theme of this Tea Party was the elites versus the regular folks. Alternative publications like the libertarian magazine, Republic Magazine , and infowars.com were present while the MSM was nowhere to be found. The theme could be summed up by reclaiming a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Speakers railed on the corruption relationship between business and government causing endless bailouts, corrupt giveaways in cap and trade, and all sorts of friendly deals to the unions.

That's why the Green Party fit into this particular Tea Party. They are the insurgent third party trying to break the establishment of the two party system. Charlie Howe, long time Green Party activist, railed for ten minutes about the difficulty that a third party has of getting on the ballot. It takes significantly more signatures. Here in Illinois you can also bet the Democratic Party machine will challenge each and every ballot.

Once again, the Federal Reserve was a target of scorn. There was a petition going around this time for S 604 the Senate's version of the Ron Paul bill HR 1207. This bill is sponsored by Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Senator from Vermont, and it demands a full audit of the Federal Reserve.

Of course, much like with everything else, all politics is local. With that, those in Springfield, Cook County, and Chicago were the ire of many of the speakers. Jim Tobin, President of the National Tax Payer's Union of Illinois, provided much of the attacks on our local government. Here in Illinois, newly minted Governor, Pat Quinn, is attempting a massive new tax hike. According to Tobin, that's to pay for much of the unfunded liabilities of the pensions of state employees. He used accused murderer Drew Peterson as an example. Peterson retired at the age of 52 with a pension that paid him about $6000 monthly. Tobin also identified the single biggest recipient of the state's pension, Tapas K. Das Gupta, who is receiving a pension of $379,356 a year… $31,613 a month. Tobin also pointed out that Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid would cost the city $4 billion in higher taxes.

The two Republican candidates were Adam Andrezejewski and Isaac Hayes. Hayes is a Reverend, an African American, and coordinates and runs Heat on the Street Ministries which "provides moral stability to young people who choose a life of crime". Meanwhile, Andrzejewski is a former entrepeneur who started a competitor to the yellow pages in local communities in Illinois. Both railed against the corruption in all levels of government. Andrzejewski is in a wide open race, while Hayes has an uphill battle. Hayes will face off against Jesse Jackson Jr., who normally gets near 90% of the vote in his district, Illnois 02.

The Tea Party was concluded with a speech by Christina Tobin and other speakers included former Congressional candidate Rosanna Pulido, columnist Paul Jacob, and Christos Dimoulis of Concerned Youth of America.

(sorry, no photos at this time as my camera has been "corrupted")
Here's some photos from the Tea Party in Portland, Oregon, video from the Tea Party in D.C., the full round up from Eureka, Ca., a report from Boston, the full round up from Houston, and the details from the Tea Party in Frankfort, Kentucky.