Today there was a "tea party" in downtown Chicago...

[VIDEO] I missed today's Tax Day Tea Party in Chicago, however, John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit was there for the festivities. Wisconsin Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch was there to speak to the faithful today as recorded by Ruberry.

Also here are two posts that he had written so far to mark the time where most American must file their federal taxes.

• Video: Lt. Gov. Kleefisch talks about Wisconsin reforms and fighting Big Labor at Chicago Tea Party
• Pics: 2012 Chicago Tax Day Tea Party

BTW, this is a great picture from Ruberry today!

 Ruberry's caption:

Wisconsin's lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, gave a great speech which I reported on earlier this evening. As you can see, Tea Party members come from all races--we're not just a bunch of white people.

Obama confronted after town hall by 'tea party' activist

I hear the President is engaged on a bus tour of the Midwest riding around in expensive coaches. These two Tea Party activists confronted him about comments made by his tactless Vice President Joe Biden:

An Iowa "tea party" activist, Ryan Rhodes, confronted Obama after the event to speak to him whether Vice President Joe Biden during the debt-ceiling talks in Washington compared tea-party affiliated lawmakers to terrorists.

Rhodes first brought up the question during the town hall and then approached the president afterward and the two got into a heated exchange.

He complained to Fox News afterward that Obama had not addressed the question whether Biden actually made the remarks. Reports at the time had another member of Congress, Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, actually saying the word “terrorists” and Biden agreeing. But the vice president's office denied that Biden ever used the term.

“He just denied it. He said the vice president didn't make any of those assertions,” Rhodes said. “If he doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally -- all over the place -- then how can you have a conversation?”

Obama also faced criticism during the event from Emily Neal of Decorah, who openly questioned his negotiating skills with Republicans and asked whether the president had abandoned liberals in the healthcare and debt-ceiling fights and in extending the Bush-era tax cuts.

The president responded by saying that the political reality of governing had forced him to make choices.

You can watch that [VIDEO] below

Ward Room: Why Neo-Confederate Tea Partiers Need Joe Walsh

From NBC Chicago's Ward Room blog the skewering of the Tea Party and Conservatives continues:

Why has Rep. Joe Walsh become one of the faces of the Tea Party movement?

According to author Michael Lind, writing in Salon, it may be because the Tea Party doesn’t want to show its real face: as the latest iteration of white Southern radicalism, which dates all the way back to the Nullification Crisis of 1832, when South Carolina declared it had the right to ignore federal laws.

Lind, who is himself a Texan, points out that 63 percent of Tea Party Caucus members are Southerners. Only 19 percent are Midwesterners. (None are from New England, which is ironic, given the movement’s name.)

Why aren't there more "minorities" in the Tea Party movement? I don't consider myself a tea partyer myself, but sympathize with some of their issues, especially government spending.

An answer to Garafalo on "tea parties" being racist

Heh, I haven't really been following these protests consistently, but I have seen pics of many of these events. Just do a search at Instapundit and pics are provided of tea party events around the nation. We're not talking about merely angry white people upset that a black man is President of the United States, but in a lot of these pics you'll see some black faces.

How many of us are really upset about the spending by the current administration. The various stimulus programs started by this administration and the growing deficit because of it. It leads me to suggest that if we're seeing a black woman represent a tea party movement in Dallas, Texas and others involved in some way around the nation something is really up.

It might shake the notion that blacks are all for Obama. They may not be, but for different reasons. Perhaps Obama doesn't have experience or perhaps he's under someone else's thumb. Perhaps they may genuinely be opposed to his policies. I'm sure someone out there knows the answer or an answer.

Anyway this beautiful young lady invited comedienne Janeane Garafalo to a tea party protest after making the comment that these protestors are ignorant of US history and called them rednecks who are against a black man as President. You know I don't know why anyone would listen to her, she's merely an entertainer who should stick with entertaining. She's not likely to say anything earth shattering that will really get people thinking.

On the other hand it would be something if we were talking about an academic who was saying that. I might look at such a person differently only that I would be surprised that this academic, a professor at a top university, would ever get caught saying such a thing on camera or in front of a microphone.

Anyway this vid's duration is about 4 minutes!