Notes from the tax cut rally

Like many others, I did get to the tax cut rally. Unlike the rest, I did not take a camera or notes or anything else. I figured with the Sierra Club crowd on hand, knowing that someone would try to cause trouble, I left the electronics at home. That actually gave me the opportunity to drink in the atmosphere - and what an atmosphere.

I got there early and the very FIRST person that I run into (in the parking lot) was my old blogging mate Amendment X. We chatted as we walked from the parking lot up to the Capital Steps and parted ways when he ran over to the Taxpayers League booth to deliver a message. I continued on to the Capital to see if I could find anyone else that I knew. I talked to a couple of gents with a cute orange and white dog (a Brittney Spaniel cross possibly). We talked dogs and politics for a bit and then I moved on. There were probably already 100 people there by the time I got there at around 10:30. As the crowd built I couldn't help but notice the diversity of the crowd. Every walk of Minnesota life was represented. And oh the signs! I literally tripped over Sequel from Anti Strib (he was there with Baddablogger and a couple of others) as I was wandering around so I stopped and watched the event with them.

Chief from Freedom Dogs has a post with a lot of pictures of the signs. Badda Blogger was there with a camera and he said that he was going to post some but there is nothing yet. My personal favorites were two signs with "DFL - Demanding Fiscal Leeches" and "DFL - Destroying Families Lives with taxes". Both were carried by young children which made the signs even more appropriate.

AAA from Residual Forces was there with a video camera and has posts of the whole thing. The speeches of the day had to have been SD35B's Rep. Mark Buesgens and SD 37B's Rep. Mary Liz Holberg. You have GOT to hear Rep. Holberg's spoof on "Green Eggs and Ham". The payoff line "34 Billion is enough my liberal friend!" had the crowd chanting along with her.

There were a couple of times when the Global Warming folks tried to infiltrate our rally. The one that just made my day was a single "gentleman" who came and stood by us. He had on the oddest outfit (drab brown jacket, bright floral shorts, white long johns under the shorts, boots and a bombaderes hat with the ear flaps down and a killer whale beanie baby fastened to the top of it). He had beanie platypus and penguin in his hands along with a paper bag that had "stop global warming" written on it. Badda, Sequel and I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out if he was real or if he was one of our spoofing the global warming crowd. I suspect that he was really one of theirs because he kept trying to draw attention to himself in the hopes that someone would pick a fight? He was there for almost 10 minutes and then disappeared into the crowd.

The Tax Cut Rally crowd was, I'm guessing almost twice that of the Global Warming folks which was good. According to KTLK's estimates, there were 5,000 to 7,000 in attendance. A good day for Minnesota taxpayers to be sure.