This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Protests/Rallies

  • The first stage is denial

    I’m not claiming to know the actual number of people in the rally at the Capital today, but I know more than 70,000 people when I see them;

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    The DC Fire Department has issued an unofficial estimate of 60,000 to 70,000 people in attendance, which is smallish by big DC protest/event standards

    Yeah, if you’re used to ANSWER’s inflated numbers. I’ve yet to see the Left reach 20,000 – a whole lot smaller crowd than the number of people I saw today. I’ve been doing these protests since 2000 and today’s crowd is largest I’ve seen. I didn’t go to this last Inauguration, so I can’t compare it to that – but I’ve hardly missed a protest since the World Bank protest in April of 2000.

    Michelle Malkin has published a 2 million number, and I heard that number at the rally, but I’m not sure I want to commit to 2 million. Allah Pundit examines the figures at Hot Air.

    Somehow, Think Progress thinks these pictures are important;

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    I saw very few birthers at the protest – everyone I saw was worried about their family incomes. To make this one tiny sign (added almost as an after thought) representative of the crowd is disingenuous.

    And the second sign; I guess they’re saying that white people can’t be concerned about their own civil rights. That’s what The Washington Monthly is trying to say, apparently;

    As for what the overwhelmingly-white crowd had to say, I still think these protests could benefit from some focus. We learned today that right-wing activists don’t like government spending (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers spent freely), don’t like the size of government (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers increased the size of government), don’t like deficits and debt (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers added trillions to the nation’s tab), and don’t like czars (except when Bush used dozens of them to implement his agenda).

    They don’t like health-care reform, though it’s not clear why. They don’t like gun control, though it’s not clear why they think anyone’s coming for their firearms. They also don’t like taxes, immigration, abortion, Muslims, the U.N., and the idea of “socialism,” though their understanding of the word is tenuous at best.

    The Washington Post isn’t far off TWM’s mark, either;

    The crowd — loud, rambunctious and sprawling — gathered at the foot of the Capitol after a march along Pennsyvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza. Invocations of God and former President Reagan by an array of speakers drew loud cheers, echoing across the Mall. On a windy, overcast afternoon, hundreds of yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags flapped in the breeze, mingled with U.S. and Texas state flags.

    I saw a lot more minority people there than you might imagine – don’t believe me? Checkout some of the photos El Marko took today. I even saw a black family who had temporarily adopted a white disabled veteran and pushed him through the throngs in his wheelchair the length of Pennsylvania Avenue.

    The New York Times describes the crowd like this;

    But as they sang verse after verse of patriotic hymns like “God Bless America,” sharp words of profane and political criticism were aimed at Mr. Obama and Congress.

    Profane? You’d think they’d offer an example of what they mean – but they don’t. Just the standard Nazi charges;

    The atmosphere was rowdy at times, with signs and images casting Mr. Obama in a demeaning light. One sign called him the “parasite in chief.” Others likened him to Hitler.

    No mention of LaRouche?

    So the Left can try to deny what happened today and besmirch the participants, but that doesn’t change the facts. Welcome to 2009.

  • The Tea Party Rally in DC

    I’ll start off with an apology. I couldn’t get on the internet to save my life at the rally today. The only thing I can figure is that there were so many cell phones, I kept getting bumped off. I spent more time trying to get online than I did taking pictures.

    I’m not even going to guess how many people were there – I’ll leave that to the experts, but according to concretebob, the Park Service made them start the march an hour and a half early because there were too many people in Freedom Plaza. Two hours later, the police ended the march and several thousand more people streamed in on the sidewalks.

    You tell me how many were there;

    Here’s the video I took from Freedom Plaza to the Capital of the march route at about 10:30. I took it from my bicycle so you might hear me cuss a bit when folks wouldn’t get out of my way. I haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know how it turned out;

    And some photos;
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  • Barbecue and Patriotism at Walter Reed

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    Just got back from a day at Walter Reed and thought I’d share some of it with you.

    First, we ate courtesy of the organizational skills of Concretebob and his crew;

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    Then it was off to the front gate where the action was, courtesy of the DC Chapter of Free Republic who has standing at Walter Reed to welcome the wounded soldiers home for 230 consecutive weekends, rain, shine, heat and cold. They were gratified with the huge turn out tonight;

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    Of course the other side was there, too, in pitiful numbers;

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    There were a pair of matching trucks with a huge sign in the bed that we all signed;

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    Did I mention that at This Ain’t Hell we love dogs?

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    If the turn out tonight is any indication of what tomorrow is going to be like, the news media is going to be real sorry that they didn’t cover it. This was the largest crowd I’ve ever seen at Walter Reed on Friday night – and I left when I was losing light and folks were still arriving.

    Video Added;

    There are more pictures, as always, at my Flickr Photostream.

    1stCavRVN11B sends a link to the live streaming photos from Walter Reed.

  • Tea Partiers protest healthcare plans

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    Across the country, Americans expressed their displeasure with the president’s healthcare plan. The lovely ladies above were at fake Mexican Loretta Sanchez’ office. I snagged the picture from American Power blog who has quite a list of links of other protests across the nation.

    Gateway Pundit reports on the protest in St Louis at Senator McCaskill’s office there. Apparently, her staff is so accustomed to dissenting opinions that they closed the doors and windows and called the cops on the surly protesters. According to the Schilling Show, the cops were called by the staff of Tom Perriello’s Charlottesville office, too.

    Our buddy, DanNY at GOE; NY visited several politicians offices in NY including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kristin Gillibrand, Rep. Steven Israel, Rep. Tim Bishop.

    Instapundit has photos from Cleveland, Dallas and Raleigh. Michelle Malkin has pictures from Houston, Mobile, and St Louis. The local Fox station in McAllen, TX reports in the protests there.

    The Eureka California Times-Standard reports on protests there, Contract With The Constitution has pictures of the San Antonio event.

    Send me your links and pictures and I’ll add them as the day goes on.

  • Distress or disrespect

    In the space of about ten minutes, I got this article from three people last night. It’s about a business owner in Wisconsin who decided to protest his local government’s refusal to issue him a liquor license for his restaurant by flying his US flag upside down on the 4th of July along a parade route, apparently.

    The police reportedly stormed his private property and took the flag down (Daily News);

    Hours before a Fourth of July parade, four police officers went to Congine’s property and removed the flag under the advice of Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey.

    Neighbor Steven Klein watched in disbelief.

    “I said, ’What are you doing?’ Klein said. “They said, ’It is none of your business.”’

    The next day, police returned the flag. Brey declined comment Friday.

    I don’t blame the police, by the way, they were just doing what they were told to do. But it turns out that the guy who turned the flag upside down, is an Iraq War veteran.

    Congine, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004, said he intends to keep flying the flag upside down.

    “It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else,” Congine said, “and then I come home to find it right here at my front door.”

    I can’t testify to his service in Iraq, but he was (is) a Marine;

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    But this is probably why he can’t get a liquor license;
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    He was arrested for a theft of less more than $10k. The only thing I altered in that record was his home address.

    Anyway, last year I wrote a post about how no one was that upset when people were flying flags upside down to protest the war until after election day (the pictures in that post were all taken on Federal property and only one was removed by Capitol Police after I took thepicture). I don’t approve of folks doing that, but I approve less of using the police to squelch free speech like they were used in the case of Vito Congine. Especially when they trespassed on his private property without Congine’s permission.

    The ACLU is contemplating a lawsuit against the village of Crivitz, WI and good for them- if they plan on seeing it through. Like I said, I don’t approve of people flying flags upside down, but they certainly have the right to do so without government intervention.

    So, OK, flame me now.

    H/T to Olga, Sporkmaster and The Wolf for the story.

  • MoveOn and Acorn Meet Patriots

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    Our buddy, DanNY, went and counter-protested a MoveOn/ACORN rally at Lil Chuckie Schumer’s office with a number of his friends out on Long Island today. Apparently, they outnumbered the Soros minions by a 10:1 ratio. Click on over and give them some love in the comments (make TSO jealous).

  • Protest against Gen. Petraeus in Seattle tonight

    Nucsnipe writes to tell us that General Petraeus is scheduled to speak tonight at the World Affairs Council in Seattle. Of course, the moonbats of World Can’t Wait spot an opportunity to do some fund raising;

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    Some background on World Can’t Wait from Discover the Networks;

    Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, World Can’t Wait (WCW) is a direct action movement seeking to organize “people living in the United States to take responsibility to stop the whole disastrous course led by the Bush administration.” The organization asserts that removing President Bush from office “will be like removing a forty-pound tumor from your gut.” WCW vows “to send Bush, Cheney and the rest of those fascists packing. … After that, there are people in ‘World Can’t Wait’ who are working for everything from reforming the Democratic party, to building a 3rd party, to revolution.”

    This is the first protest that I know that’s been directed at General Petraeus since the Inauguration. If there’s anyone in the area that can get to the site on such short notice, I’d sure appreciate some pictures.

  • Setauket TEA

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    Our buddy, DanNY sends a link to pictures and videos of him and his neighbors’ Taxed Enough Already rally at  Congressman Tim Bishop’s Town Hall meeting in Setauket, Long Island the other day.

    Dan has excellent pictures and videos of most of the event. Apparently, they had Bishop so shook up he needed a police escort back to his car. Good job, Dan.

    An admin note; Today is the first day I’ve been in the office since April, so, as you can imagine, I’m a little bit backed up with work which explains the spotty posting today.