These uber right wing Tea Parties continue to be a magnet for extremists and crazy folk of all stripes. Though I wasn't able to make the recent hate-Obama rally that took place July 4 at the Arizona state Capitol, I have since discovered from info provided from some pals that none other than local neo-Nazi J.T. Ready spoke at the event.
More than one source has identified the Ready -- the Ernst Rohm of the East Valley -- as addressing the crowd. Indeed, you can see Ready lining up to take his turn at the mic in one of the Tea Party videos recently posted by BlessedONE333Returns on her YouTube account. Interestingly, she does not show Ready speaking, which may indicate that she knew who he was and wanted to keep his screen time to a minimum.
Watching her vids, I think BlessedOne333 might have been concerned J.T. would've been labeled "the sane one" by comparison. Still, the other Tea Party orators were pretty loony tunes all on their own, like the woman who says gays have more rights than straights (well, except for that whole marriage thing). And then there was Steven Anderson, a Tempe Pastor famous for posting a YouTube vid of himself being arrested and Tased by the U.S. Border Patrol. (That sound you hear is him baying at the moon.)
The organizers claim to have drawn 300 souls. One of my sources counted about 60. Another said about 120. Whatever it was, it certainly did not match the thousands who flocked to the April 15 Tea Party at the state Capitol. That rally featured neo-Nazis, too (such as old-line stormtrooper Elton Hall), but none of them spoke that I'm aware of. Alleged double-murderer and minutewoman Shawna Forde made that scene. As did one suburban right-winger who loudly proclaimed his belief that President Obama should be assassinated.
In any case, I'm told the July 4 TP-ers re-assembled afterwards at Steele Indian School Park (they did not march the whole way, as the Arizona Republic alleged), and that there was a passel of skinhead-looking types in the mix. Sounds like an Arizona-style Fourth of July if there ever was one. Glad I missed it.
