Washington D.C. tea party 9/12?

[themadscientist]

I heard a rumor there is one going down. I just got back yesterday. I'm down to go if I can find the info. Anybody going or have solid info on the rally point?

[4cefed]

http://teapartyexpress.org/

http://teapartyexpress.org/tour/dc.html

http://912dc.org/

Unfortunately I'm at work in Minnesota, otherwise I would be there. The outage starts tonight at the power plant, so I can't exactly take off for a couple days. I hope there is a massive turnout.

[audtatious]

It was covered by Fox and CNN actually did a good segment on it. The others just glossed over it. I hear some local stations in Chicago and other places did not mention it at all. Others mentioned it and the numbers they stated ranged from thousands to "tens of thousands". CNN's "reporters on the ground" said they did not believe the "ten's of thousands" number and said it was "hundreds of thousands". Reports are coming in today that there were at least 2 million at the rally.

Nice turnout....

[themadscientist]

I took a s***load of pics but I have to try and get a link cable for my camera and I forgot my PB account password so I will have to make a new account but I will try to get them posted. There were easily a million people and the mad one was front row. I could throw a baseball and hit the stage.

[srellim234]

According to the Washington DC Fire Department, there were between 60,000 and 70,000 people at today’s tea party protest. (Nowhere near the 2,000,000+ being claimed at some right wing blogs.)

The following is from FoxNews.com

"The tens of thousands of protesters marched to the U.S. Capitol chanting various slogans and waving posters that voiced a rather broad array of grievances against big government and the leaders, particularly President Obama, who the protesters blame for its size and scope."------------

My personal opinion is that these people would be a lot more effective if they got active actually working in political campaigns, working for a Constitutional balanced budget amendment, a flat tax system with NO deductions of any kind and forcing legislators to live by the same standards they impose on the rest of us. That includes gov't sponsored health care. I also believe there should be no retirement benefits for ANY elected official.

Showing up occasionally to protest without getting truly involved to affect gov't from the ground up isn't going to get it done.

Modified by srellim234 at 12:12 PM 9/13/2009
Modified by srellim234 at 12:13 PM 9/13/2009

[audtatious]

There were far more there than 70k, yet far less than 2 million, IMO. Dunno until an "official" number comes out. From comparing pictures there seems to be more there than came out for the Million Man march which was estimated at 400k.

[themadscientist]

I was standing in that mofo, it was at least a million people out there.

[HashiriyaS14]

Yay for freedom of assembly.

Boo for 80% of the people out there being totally ignorant of the specifics of the situation*

*This is a personal rant against protests and protesters in general, not against conservatives. Applies equally to liberals. A high percentage of protesters of any affiliation tend to be herd-minded rabble-rousers.

[audtatious]

While I do tend to agree with you, when was the last time Republicans and Libertarians have come out like this in the past? The majority at these events seem to have some clue as to what is going on based upon all the interviews I have seen on tv and youtube which is a direct contrast to questioning those protesting the protesters, again, via interviews.

Interesting that I really didn't see any Nazi stuff in the crowd like Nancy-girl stated and was prevalent during Bush protests. I have not heard of any issues with the crowd getting out of hand either. If all "protests" went this way it would be great.

[themadscientist]

I was very cognizant of the mood of the crowd. I wanted to see what they were like as all I had to go on was third-party suspect rhetoric from both sides. I was halfway there as an observer, half to add my voice. I noticed the following things:

There were NO nazi signs. I saw none of the Obama with the Hitler mustache signs. I saw one sign with Pelosi on it that said nazis? which made me laugh.

I did see some Larouche supporters who didn't really join but came out of the woodwork after we started dispersing, and tried to hand out literature. Larouche is a douche bag from way back and I don't believe he speaks for many people and the protesters for the most part treated his minions like harikrishnas at the airport.

There were some people saying unacceptable things. One said he would like to shoot Pelosi with his shotgun, but it had that talking out of his a** lilt to it like a forum post so I doubt he was serious.

I did see a lot of those Obama as joker signs. I was able to appreciate that most people likely see that picture differently than I. I don't like the connotation of a black man in essentially white-face, like Al Jolsen did back in the day. I know it was most likely not meant that way but I believe perception is crucial and I think that and suspect others may as well and I don't believe it's appropriate.

The demographics were unfortunately not encouraging. About 80% were late twenties and up. The remainder was mid twenties. They were ALL white people. I'm sure there were some black people out there but I only saw one or two in the mass of people within my vision.

I read that as an indicator that the people that were there were predominantly ones who didn't vote for Obama last year. I remember the rallies and the victory speeches and while a similar demographic was represented there, it was mostly black people and young adults. I saw next to none of that group at the party.

I don't think that means we are going away by any means, these people and I are resolute. We have had enough of this s*** and despite what the anointed one, brass balls Pelosi, that lemming Ried, and the left-wing talker like to suggest; we are not a manufactured movement, we are not a small group, and we are not joking around about our displeasure or motivation to see what change we can ram down their throats.

There is definitely a lot of people who like the direction the country is being steered but it is not a mandate by any means. Righties tend to be slow to rouse but when they do we can shake the ground just as hard as the left. The temper of a patient man is not something to provoke. This is just the beginning, 2010 is going to be very telling.

[heliochrome85]

i ran across this. i thought she looked alot like bud's kid .

[audtatious]

It's interesting when you compare this protest to protests like the Dems vs. GOP at RNC's. No real arrests and the crowd behaved whereas the RNC protests always seem to result in police action and broken storefront windows.

[adrianfromthecastle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fevga9jUC48

lol