The right-wing lie machine, led by such notables as Michelle Malkin, initially estimated the crowd on the Washington D.C. Mall as 1.2 million:The Tea Party Express blog is here.
12:34pm Eastern: Police estimate 1.2 million in attendance. ABC News reporting crowd at 2 million — tweets Tabitha Hale from D.C.
Teeny, tiny fringe, huh?
This quickly morphed into reporting by right-wing sources all over the country to "ABC reports DC crowd at 2 million!"
The DC police put the crowd at between 60,000 and 70,000. I guess teabagging morons have a difficulty counting, once there are more than a couple of zeroes strung end-on-end. But they don't have much trouble being rude:
One teabagging Youtuber has created a loop, so you can pretend you're seeing a lot more people than there really are:
In case you still have trouble grasping the difference in magnitude between 70,000 and 2,000,000, here's some assistance.
I've been searching the web for pictures from yesterday's Wasilla Tea Party event at Wasilla Lake. I couldn't make it. If you find any, you can provide a link in the comments.
Palmer-Wasilla area Alaska State Rep. Carl Gatto, who considers himself a teabagger ("our Tea Party"), promised to be there. This is from his most recent newsletter (PDF):
Remember, the Tea Party is this Saturday, September 12th, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Wasilla Lake Park!
See you there!
Carl
hat tip to Blue Texan
Update: Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis has more!
Another DC picture:
21 comments:
I bought an airplane from Carl once. I called it the Running Dog and I took it all over Alaska before I crashed it in Katie John's back yard. Well, in Mentasta, anyway, where I had gone to see Katie.
It was a damn good airplane and I miss it. I need another one. Why don't you donate one to me? Then you will have taken a big step in your laudable quest to advance blog coverage of rural, Native, issues and people.
http://wasillaalaskaby300.squarespace.com/
Bill,
Speaking of crashing airplanes, I was talking to a friend yesterday about all the airplanes Mike Dodge crashed before he finally crashed himself into the big one.
Mike was the best P&W R-2800 engine mechanic in the history of Alaska aviation.
""But they don't have much trouble being rude"
Oh my God !!! US citizens were "rude"
to the hacks at corporate giant CNN !! Oh noes !! Whatever happened to "speaking truth to power" ?? So much for the prissy progressive Left - they never met a liberal corporation they didn't fawn over. And is it just me or are "progressive" blogs sounding increasingly desperate these
days ? What happened to Hope 'n Change ?
You guys are seriously shaken by the 9/12 turnout aren't you ? Why else the stupid lies about the turnout and the childish abuse ? Hey, next you'll deny that Michelle Malkin's book has been top of the NYT best seller list for SIX WEEKS now. Oh, maybe that's just the evil, right-wing NYT lying to the public. You never expected this did you? After Nov '08 you were gloating about how the country had turned your way, that Obama would heal the planet, that conservative
America was dead BUT no !!! the sleeping giant has awakened...the liberal fascist experiment has already hit the buffers, ACORN are reduced to a PIMP N HO's show, Van Jones takes a walk, the pro-Obama networks are tanking, "progressives" are slinking back into the shadows...Wha' happen !!
Yep, those humble citizens that you insult every day are getting stronger and stronger while your Emperor is stark naked and the US public is seeing the Left for what it really is. Roll on 2010 !!
In your dreams, Anon at 3:21. What are you doing here anyway. This is PROGRESSIVE Alaska. Go piss in your own Wheaties.
I drove by the Wasilla event- it was minimal- it didn't even come close to filling the open area. They had lots of signage to fill space, but body count was low. I was disappointed to see front and center, Jim Colver, our School Board President. Can't wait to NOT cast my vote for him on Oct. 6th. I wasn't going to vote for him anyway, but seeing him there will make me more vocal in getting others to vote as I plan to.
Loved your title on this post! made me lol.
Anon @ 3:21
I've been reading your comments now for quite some time and what you think is fear of this 9/12 fiasco is actually disgust at a minority of people who actually think that bigotry and uninformed opinion is going to make some kind of difference in this world. Thank you Mr. Munger and your colleagues for bringing this event to light.
Just saw that the hideously right-wing MSNBC reported that the event was massive and attracted "hundreds of thousands". As for the previous comment that this event was a "fiasco" - how so ? Was there violence, a breakdown in public order ? Or maybe any event that dares to show dissent against Obama is, in your mind, a "fiasco" (I guess freedom of speech isn't such a big deal for the Left these days.)
BTW what is "bigoted" about protesting against big government and the nation's spiraling debt ? Is all dissent now "bigotry" or just the dissent that you approve of?
There were a lot of independents in that 1,000,000 or so march who are sick of both parties ...I'm sure they are going to find it very instructive that the Left and the Mainstream Media (but I repeat myself) are now calling them "bigots" and "racists"
merely for expressing disapproval of their government. Speaking truth to power, baby !!
anon @ 3:21,
I'm on the mailing lists of several right-wing news sources or aggregators, like NewsMax,for instance.
They've been offering me Michelle Malkin's book for free for the past eight weeks. So have some other right-wing sites.
Right-wing groups buy up thousands of copies of her books, and those of other right-wing hacks, like Jonah Goldberg.
Let's be logical about this. Why would the tea-baggers lie about their numbers? There is one of two reasons. To inflate the numbers is to make it sound like more people were there than actually attended, or the other option is that they want to say that the opposition are the ones who inflated the numbers in order to claim a smaller total attendance than predicted somehow seeming to blame a smaller turnout on others . Either way it's nothing more than hype on their part. I have family that lives in DC and has for years. Guesstimates are in the 40,000-60,000 range maximum. Some who attended said it was less. One older woman at the rally was overheard to say, throw your signs on the ground because they estimate numbers by the amount of trash that has to be picked up.
Take Eddie Burke for example. On his twitter account he is claiming that there was 250 at the Anchorage rally while the Anchorage Daily News is reporting the number at aprox. 150 so that shows a large discrepancy in the numbers.
I would also like to point out that there was no clear point to this rally with the exception of their disgust with anything and everything, and their love of Fox News and Glenn Beck. There was no clear message, there was no central theme. You had signs hating the media, hating Pelosi, hating Obama, hating healthcare, hating social programs, love of Reagan, one sign had a doll dressed up like the statue of liberty being crucified (I have the photo), some calling socialist, some marxist, some fascist, communist or any combination of those mixed together and my favorite comments were the ones about the communist czars (they need to go back and reread their history I guess). Basically it was nothing more than a gathering of people who wanted to spout whatever they felt like at the moment. Heck there was even a woman who had a sign telling people to keep their hands of her medicare (don’t touch my socialist program, or I got mine to hell with you).
So many were too worn out to do more than sit in their lawn chairs and prop their signs up, some didn't even bother to go that far. It was hysterically funny based on the accounts of those who've shared their experiences with me.
I have also pointed out that there are those who are claiming that those who are protesting are doing so because they don't like the way our government is being run, but they don't tell you that when people did the same thing under the Bush administration, those protesters were told they were un-American, unpatriotic, and that those who protested the War were guilty of not supporting the troops, not to mention the times I heard people say if you don't like it move. Those people who said those things are now the ones who are complaining about the way the government is run and would froth at the mouth if someone dared tell them that what they were doing was unpatriotic or un-American!
Total hypocrites!
EOY
Thank you , EOY , for a wonderfully informative and deeply analytical look at the 9/12 protest.
"Why would the tea-baggers lie about their numbers? "
Naturally no "progressive" comment about fellow Americans is complete without sexually abusive insult.
"Either way it's nothing more than hype on their part"
What a clever person you are...whatever the numbers are, the
protestors must be lying...classic liberal logic.
"I have family that lives in DC and has for years. Guesstimates are in the 40,000-60,000 range maximum."
Wow, that's amazing ! EOY not only has family in the DC area but they're all experts are "guesstimating" crowd sizes ! What smart people.
"Some who attended said it was less. "
Yes, of course they did. They heard your family shouting out "guesstimates" and they shouted back "No, no, it's way less than that...we're trying to hype the numbers !"
"One older woman at the rally was overheard to say, throw your signs on the ground because they estimate numbers by the amount of trash that has to be picked up."
Who overheard her say it ? Let me guesstimate - your family ! Thank god they were there to catch out those wily right-wing racists ! I bet they all came with boxes of litter to throw around to hype up the numbers....will their evil never end?
"Take Eddie Burke for example."
Why ? Was he in DC too?
I could go on but this is like shooting fish in a barrel. Is this really the best you "progressives" can come up with ?
The DC Fire Department is the source for the 50,000 to 60,000 number.
Even Michelle Malkin acknowledged that number.
As for the Best Seller list - Michelle Malkin's book has been bought in bulk by a large number of organizations, including FOX NEWS and then offered as a free perk in their promotions.
Teabaggers on the right, lying and deceptive bloggers on the left.
This is so fucking entertaining....really it is.
You nutjobs on the left complement the nutjobs on the right quite nicely, thank you.
Phil, I hope you have plans to dispatch the anonymous coward trolls. They bring nothing but their ugly.
ABS,
I usually Tend TO ignore them. I do believe in free speech, even for asshole trolls who find pleasure in trashing sites' comment threads.
"Right-wing groups buy up thousands of copies of her books, and those of other right-wing hacks, like Jonah Goldberg."
Fascinating. I've never heard of any political book getting promoted by special interest groups before. It's not that any Leftists have ever done this before is it ? Oh yes, that's right - the moderate Van Jones had his book mass-purchased and given away by various Leftist/environmentalist pressure groups but he still didn't get SIX WEEKS at the No. ONE spot of the NYT best-seller list did it ? And all those people I saw lining up at a Mark Levin book signing were all bussed in by Fox !! Ha, ha...didn't realize tht sour grapes were such a big crop in Alaska.
Philip Munger said...
ABS,
I usually Tend TO ignore them. I do believe in free speech, even for asshole trolls who find pleasure in trashing sites' comment threads.
********************************
Which just goes to show you that you are a better person than they are considering they are terrified of allowing opposing viewpoints on their own sites and just delete anyone they don't agree with.
EOY
Phil, I believe your friend called me tonight. We had a good talk about airplanes and other things.
Thanks
"Which just goes to show you that you are a better person than they are considering they are terrified of allowing opposing viewpoints on their own sites and just delete anyone they don't agree with."
You need to blog more....let's see, of the top of my head, ACE OF SPADES, HOT AIR, MICHELLE MALKIN, THE OTHER MCCAIN, RIEHL WORLD VIEW, PROTEIN WISDOM, ROGER L. SIMON, and many other conservative and libertarian sites feature comments from Left wingers.
speaking of morons and marches in Washington D.C.
the Muslims are heading there on Sept 25 I hear, including a few from Alaska...
I bet the security will be out of this world considering all that has gone on between NY and Colorado lately.
Valkyrie
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