Illinois Marathon Pundit

What a difference six weeks make. We were pleased when 400 patriots showed up to protest high taxes and Barack Obama's expansion of government--in the president's hometown.

At noon, over 2,000 freedom lovers showed up in Chicago's Loop to do the same thing--only louder.


American and "Don't Tread on Me" flags, sign--both handmade and professionally printed, and many people wearing patriotic garb, as wells as "USA" chants filled the Kluczynski Federal Building Plaza at 230 S. Dearborn

The Heartland Institute's Brian Costin served as the event's master of ceremonies, and after the singing of the National Anthem (Do they do that ACORN rallies?), syndicated radio host Mancow Muller grabbed the microphone for a wild ride from "The Cow."

Mancow thanked "the almighty God for this making this day." He liked the signs, singling out ones featuring Ayn Rand as well as a couple of others: "How dare you steal my future," and "Don't spread my wealth, spread my work ethic."

Muller's deep baritone scolded the members of America's most notorious community organizing group: "Hi ACORN...you are a morally bankrupt organization and you're going straight to Hell." A few ACORN members were there to protest the rally.

And then he mocked the president: "This is the greatest country in history of the world, now join me as I change it."

Mancow's speech then took a surprising turn. Noting that he had never seen a crowd filled with so many people like himself, Mancow asked the crowd to turn to people next to them, and introduce yourself. Which everyone did. Well, I couldn't see what the ACORN protesters were doing.

John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute also spoke, and he channeled the crow, "The politicians are failing." He then led a "We must lead" chant. It's the people, not the politicians, who must lead. And he has a site, Wemustlead.com, and he encouraged the crowd to e-mail him at john@wemustlead.com. And then....he gave out his cell phone number. Which I'm not going to post. But I have it.

Kristina Rasmussen, who is also with the Illinois Policy Insitute, reminded the crowd, almost all of whom were from Illinois, that Governor Patrick Quinn wants to raise state income taxes...which I just paid a few hours ago...by a whopping 50 percent. Oh, Rasmussen's work has appeared in the National Review Online, the Washhingon Post, CNN and Investor's Business Daily.

Other speakers included com, Fox News Contributor Jonathan Hoenig of Capitalistpig.com, Americans For Prosperity's Joe Calomino, and Eric Odom of the DontGo Movement, a co-founder of the Tax Day Tea Party.

On the south end of the plaza is a post office. It was filled with people--mailing their income taxes.

Chicago's Tax Day Tea Party was a success. Several people I spoke with told me that not only had they never attended a protest before, they had never even considered going to one. Until now. It was a friendly crowd, as far as I know there were no fights--there were a few verbal altercations when the few liberals in the crowd spoke up, and the Ron Paul people rubbed a few people the wrong way. As for the police, it was probably one of the easiest large protest assignments they've ever had.