As I mentioned earlier, I attended the Pittsburgh Tax Day Tea Party and took lots of pictures, some of which I'm putting up below. But first, some good stuff that readers sent me. It's amazing how many people showed up to the parties despite them being on a Wednesday (because, you know, we work) and on Tax Day (because, you know, we pay taxes).

First, Andrew Monaghan sends the following picture of himself from the Philadelphia Tea Party he helped organize:

For you Philadelphia ladies, as far as I know, I'm sure Andrew would be happy to share his thoughts on fiscal conservatism with you if you ask nicely. And here is another Philadlephia picture from Mary Ellen - apparently it was raining a lot:

Next we go to Troy, Michigan, where Kenneth took the following pictures:

I adore the pig. And I'm glad they had good weather up in Michigan, apparently better than it was in much of the East. But now we go to the west coast, from where James kindly sent me a story and a picture from the Oceanside, California Tea Party:

I took my family, 3 kids under 6 and all to the Tea Party... It was awesome... The most amazing thing, there were many people carrying flags. The speaker with the megaphone asked all the flags to come up front to the stage, and we’d recite the pledge of allegiance. Midway through, I started crying. I was so impressed, and felt so hopeful that America still had sound thinking, fiscally prudent individuals, I felt real hope. Not the “hype-hope” we’ve been spoon fed by Obamamaina and his minions. Real, hope.

Folks then broke out into singing “God Bless America.” It was great. Then, chants of U!S!A! U!S!A!, you get the idea. It was peaceful, lots of great signs and flags, and lots of smiling people. No real counter protests from what I could see. But the most interesting thing, not ONE news channel, reporter, or media outlet anywhere. (Update 4/17: James finds out there was one that showed up briefly). It was unreal... Anyway, it was calm, fun, happy, and rejuvenating in this current depressing environment.

Below is a pic of the amphitheater where we all sang, chanted, etc. This is about half of the venue, after maybe 40-50% of the people left. I would guestimate about 2-3K attended. 

Oceanside, CA after about half of the people left.And, finally, my pictures from Pittsburgh. It was difficult to estimate the number of people there, but the consensus seems to be that there were more than 1,000. Remember, Pittsburgh had just held a rally a few days before that drew 4,500, so they've done more than their fair share. Market Square, where the rally was held, was cut in the middle by traffic lane through which cars were driving, which was a bit annoying, but the tea partiers packed the area where they could. Here we go:

First, this doesn't have much to do with the tea party, but I did inadvertently walk by the United Steelworkers building (which is literally right next to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette building, by the way) and simply had to take a picture. The sign I held up is unclear in this picture, but it reads "Private Charity Feeds the Poor. Public Charity Feeds the Government." Above my right shoulder you will see a gentleman who was part of a group of people walking out with "Employee Free Choice Act" buttons on. The guy got annoying and started questioning us as to our motives, and I responded that the building was a Pittsburgh landmark that I just couldn't miss.

Now, the tea party:

There were a few annoying people occasionally shouting out O-ba-ma, but no organized counter-protest.Cute children! Always my favorite."Even GOD only wants 10% of my money!" This is one of the best posters I've seen - referring, of course, to Michelle Obama's statement that for the first time in her adult life, she was proud of her country because Barack's campaign was going well.Your truly, wearing a hoodie that reads: "Capitalists of the World Unite!"A traffic lane divided the square, so here are the people on the right side (they go several layers deep)......and on the left side (they go even deeper).If I were a teenage boy, I'd be all about these young ladies' HOT fiscal conservatism. One of my favorite signs: "The government solution IS the problem"This could be any politician's hand.This guy was all over the place because he had two signs with two different sides each. I'm still not sure if he got the right combination here.More cute children!

And, naturally, the occasion called for a meal from a Pittsburgh landmark: Primanti Brothers!

Oh yeah, and look what I found:

I'm opening up comments for this post, so jump in!