FBI came to the Tea Parties too

I know this won't come as much of a shock to many of us, but the FBI is reported, by the Canada Free Press to have been at the TEA parties, gathering information and taking pictures of the participants. Ladies and gentlemen, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was using cameras and man power funded by US, the very same citizens who were protesting wasting our tax dollars were being watched by our own government.

I have no doubt by now, they have scoured all the networking sites and collected those images too. Many of felt this was a historically important event, enough so that we brought our sons and daughters too, I'm sure their pictures are collected up in a book somewhere now as well. I am furious at yet another betrayal of my government.
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"Listen to what I am saying,” stated the source during an interview with Doug Hagmann, founder (NEIN). “The Department of Homeland Security Intelligence Assessment that is receiving so much attention is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, and the true patriotic citizens of this country are on the Titanic. This is what bothers me. But is goes far beyond that assessment. There have been very significant changes made over the last few years that redirect the focus and assets of the intelligence community internally. These changes have greatly accelerated under this administration, and the threats have been redefined to include those who used to be patriots. It’s not only chilling but absolutely insulting to God-fearing Americans.” http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10371

But, wait, it just keeps getting better...
"In addition to obtaining or confirming the location and time of each “demonstration,” each field office was instructed to obtain or confirm the identity of the individual(s) involved in the actual planning and coordination of the event in each specific region, and include the local or regional Internet web site address, if any. The information collected by region was then reportedly sent to FBI Headquarters."

“The implications to the citizens of the U.S. are ominous. It seems that there is a hostile political agenda coming from Washington that characterizes the supporters of our constitutional freedoms as threats to our domestic security, which is totally absurd. The redirection, the refocusing of domestic threats from al Qaeda cells to ‘flag waving right-wingers’ is something that has gone from a murmur a few years ago to a roar today.”
http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=2659

Nashville TEA Party

Wow what a great day to be a right wing extremist at a protest! I went to the Nashville one--and we started as we did the last time, with a word of prayer. Then the Pledge of Allegiance, then we sang the National Anthem--yes WE, the audience sang. All around me patriot voices sang the words, loudly, strongly and I got chills listening to the words coming from ordinary people, just like me.

Oh, before we started, the organizer laid out a few ground rules. He said that we were to expect some ACORN people to show up and if we were bothered by anyone that we should immediately begin to chant USA! USA! to let people around us know. Then the orange vests(specially trained volunteers from the local organizing chapter) were going to move in and escort the trouble makers away. And don'tcha know, a couple of fools showed up and tried us---but we were ready for them and it was basically a non starter. I was too far away to get any shots--but, who cares, let the loosers think they accomplished something. I felt very safe--there were lots of police there and I even took my son out of school to go with me, he's 6' 3" and 230 pounds of solid muscle(he plays football when hes not eating). So, along with a couple other local bloggers we staked out our spot about an hour before the actual event started. Here is an image about an hour-ish before TEA time.

The building in the background is the state capital building and at this time I would guess at least 300-400 people were there--an hour before T-time

This is about 30 minutes later. See how fast the plaza filled up? I like the sign in the center right that says "Karl Marx is Dead" Nice huh?

This one made me giggle, because it is as direct of a message as one could hope for directed to our state Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker. I have to say Corker has done a better job at holding the line on spending than Lamar has--Lamar I guess this is your unofficial notice.

Do you see that big greyish building in the background? Tall men around me told me the crowd was all the way back to that building--I think it is a hotel, but I'm not sure. I'm not that familiar with Nashville, I don't come to the big city that often...well, lately it has just been for protests and hockey games. The speaker told us they were estimating the crowd at around 10,000. I have no way to confirm or deny that, since I am much too short to see over the crowd--and I wouldn't be a bit surprised because there were substantially more people than last time.

I will be back later with some more pictures and thoughts--but right now I have to make supper. Yeah, down here in the south we eat supper. :)

God Bless America!