Had a great time at the first of two Austin tax day tea parties (was unable to get to the second, and reportedly larger, tea party).

There were at least 2K very fed up tax paying Austinites (in other words, no Liberals) at City Hall today to peaceably assemble and petition our government for a redress of grievances.

And we had a lot of grievances. Too much spending. Too many taxes. Too much government. Too little accountability to the tax payers and citizens of this country.

What I didn't see where any counter protesters or "fringe" elements --- other than the occasional "disgruntled veteran" or right-wing extremist disguised as a grandmother.

I guess Austin's semi-professional protester class and hippie relics didn't actually have the balls to show up and confront true patriots.  Nope...didn't even see Pat out there. I guess he was looking down his nose at us from his high-rise corner office in downtown Austin.

Railroad Commissioner (and Texas' next Senator) Michael Williams started the party, and Gov. Perry got the crowd stirred up about states rights at the end.

Gov. Perry acknowledged the Veterans (numerous) in the crowd: "I'm just not real sure if you're a bunch of right-wing extremists...but if you are, I'm with you."

Gov. Perry then invoked the words of Texas' 7th Governor, Sam Houston: "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression," to which Gov. Perry added,  "We didn't like oppression then, we don't like oppression now."

Two of my favorite images from the day are these two young moms:

More pictures posted at my other blog, Urbangrounds, plus the full video of Gov. Perry's speech.