Video: from the Tea Party Rally William Gheen spoke at yesterday at Sam Houston Raceway Park in Houston Texas.

Click on link below to watch the video

by MojoPages


Tea party activists rally across Texas

by Associated Press, khou.com staff

Posted on April 15, 2010 at 11:54 PM

AUSTIN, Texas -- Flag-waving tea party activists gathered at
tax-day rallies around Texas on Thursday, denouncing big government
while cheering on former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other
politicians.

Gov. Rick Perry wasn't set to address any of the rallies where
thousands were expected from El Paso to Tyler, but he did warn
organizers to watch their backs for liberals trying to make them
look bad.

About 300 turned out to hear Gingrich and watch him sign a tea
party pledge at an Austin hotel -- chanting "Newt!" when a
moderator asked about his political plans. Gingrich dodged the
moderator's question but later told reporters he didn't know if
he'd run for president in 2012.

Gingrich, well-known for his support of the Contract With
America that helped Republicans recapture Congress in 1994, drew
loud applause and hoots when he signed a pledge called the Contract
From America, in which tea partyists ask those seeking elected
office to adhere to 10 core conservative principles.

Gingrich praised the movement as crucial to conservatives'
chances of taking back Congess and the White House.

"I would be very concerned if the tea party movement drifted
into a third party because if we split our side, we re-elect Pelosi
and Obama," he said to cheers. He drew applause from the crowd
when he predicted a balanced budget amendment would emerge as a
major issue this summer and when he repeatedly called for the
repeal of President Barack Obama's health care legislation.

Gingrich got a rock-star greeting at the event, drawing a
prolonged standing ovation and repeated applause throughout his
speech. As the event concluded, throngs of people followed him out
of the room, seeking his autograph and snapping pictures.

Although Republicans are ideological allies of many tea partiers
-- and GOP operatives are involved in some of the organizations --
they are also part of the establishment that many in the movement
want to upend.

At other tea party rallies across the country, Republican
participation drew opposition. In Wisconsin, a half dozen tea party
groups from around the state decided to boycott Thursday's rally in
Madison because former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was among the
speakers.

In an invitation-only call with tea party organizers on
Wednesday, Perry said that they need to "continue looking over
your shoulder ... for people trying to make the tea party into
something that it's not."

Perry, a frequent Washington basher who capitalized on the tea
party movement to defeat Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the March
primary elections, said the movement was certain to be
mischaracterized.

"You can bet that every dirty trick is going to get played on
tea parties, trying to marginalize them, trying to make them into
something that they're not," said Perry, who faces Democrat Bill
White in November's gubernatorial election.

There was plenty of flag waving and shouts opposing the federal
government and health care at a lunchtime rally Thursday on the
south steps of the Capitol in Austin. One woman held an anti-tax
sign that said, "Even my God only asks for 10 percent." Others
held flags showing a picture of a cannon and the Texas Revolution
slogan "Come and Take It."

One man at the rally, Jim Dillon, approached the crowd carrying
an AK-47 on his shoulder that he said was unloaded and legal. A
state trooper stopped the man, examined the weapon and then left
him alone.

"Our rights are hanging by a thread already as it is," Dillon
said, referencing the constitutional right to bear arms. "If we
don't exercise our rights frequently, we'll lose them."

Barry Walker, leader of a tea party group called New Revolution
Now, roused the crowd with his speech about the movement.

"There is a revolution under way in America today," he said.
"We're at the very beginning of it, but make no mistake, it is
happening."

Before any speakers addressed the rally, a man who identified
himself as a former Baptist minister gave a fiery prayer that said
the nation is under siege "by enemies abroad and domestic."

Republican state Reps. Leo Berman of Tyler and Wayne Christian of
Center also spoke to the crowd about resisting federal overreach.

State Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, leader of the House Democrats,
said tea party activists are being duped by Texas Republicans who
are criticizing the very federal largesse they relied to keep the
state afloat financially.

"All of the Republicans who are banging the drums at these tea
party rallies all voted to receive and spend the stimulus -- if they
voted for the state budget, they did," Dunnam said. "It's rank
hypocrisy ... I think ultimately people are going to figure it
out."

In the Houston area, tea party organizers made extra security
arrangements and asked their crowds to be "vigilant to make sure
no one tries to misrepresent us," said Suzanne Guggenheim,
president of the North Houston Tea Party Patriots.

Speakers at rallies there include conservative radio talk show
hosts, state lawmakers and Rick Green, an evangelical former state
lawmaker who was defeated in the GOP runoff election Tuesday night
for a seat on the state Supreme Court.

Organizers at Sam Houston Raceway Park tea party, which park officials said drew 11,500 attendees, said their large gathering reflected that the movement is gaining momentum.
“We want all Americans to realize that this is such an important movement," said Cathy Locke, a protestor attending the party.
"So many people are forgetting how many people fought for this country, and I don't want to see it go down the drain," said Allen Bishop, another Tea Party attendee.

In the year since the movement took off, hostility over Wall
Street bailouts, the national debt and government spending helped
Texas tea party candidates beat two longtime House Republicans in
recent elections.

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