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What Movement?
Glenn Beck and all his wingnut media cronies have spent two months promoting today's March on Washington on both radio and Television. The Politico, financed by Reagan/Bush/Pinochet crony, Joe Allbritton, breathlessly asks the question, "is this a movement?"
Borrowing tactics more familiar to protestors on the left, they're pouring into the Washington area in hundreds of buses, newly engaged grassroots activists who plan to march down Pennsylvania Avenue and voice their mounting displeasure with their government.
Organizers predicted a crowd of up to 200,000 but the Washington Post reports that maybe 30,000 showed up. Maybe Kenneth Vogel of Politico is too young to know what a Movement of "protestors on the left looks like."
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Wonder who payed for the buses?
September 12, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably not MoveOn.org. They're still making payments on the buses they rented for the inauguration.
September 12, 2009 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I hope Obama doesn't call out the National Guard. Is Joe Wilson going to speak? Everybody: "You lie! You lie! You lie!..." It makes me tingly all over. It's just like the Russian Revolution!
Note - This movement paid for by *FreedomWorks.
- *FreedomWorks paid for by corporate lobbies.
September 12, 2009 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the founders of FreedomWorks are following the (advice) of Orwell who said "the common man, to be controlled must remain an 'ignorant fanatic, whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation and orgiastic triumph.'"
September 13, 2009 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously these sore losers are having their temper tantrums in Washington because they hate America. It is time for them to grow up and realize they have to choose: either they are with us or they are with the terrorists. If they can't respect America's freedom and democracy they should move somewhere else.
September 12, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
No they don't hate America, they hate what Obama is trying to turn America into. And BTW "America's freedom and democracy" enables them and you, fool, to protest.
September 12, 2009 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
sar⋅casm [sahr-kaz-uhm] –noun
1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark: a review full of sarcasms.
i⋅ro⋅ny1 [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-] –noun,
plural -nies.
1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.
2. Literature.
a. a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.
b. (esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
3. Socratic irony.
4. dramatic irony.
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.
7. an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.
8. an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.
September 12, 2009 9:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
From The Register Guard (Eugene, OR),June 26, 2005
http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@yahoogroups.com/msg01395.html
"My Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, and George H.W. Bush. It was a party of honesty and accountability. It was a party of tolerance, and practicality and honor. It was a party that faced facts and dealt with reality, and that crafted common-sense solutions to problems based on the facts as they were, not as we wished them to be, or even worse, as we made them up. It was a party that told the truth, even when the truth came hard. And now, it is none of those things.
Fifty years from now, the Republican Party of this era will be judged by how we provided for the nation's future on three core issues: how we led the world on the environment, how we minded the business of running our country in such a way that we didn't go bankrupt, and whether we gracefully accepted our place on the world's stage as its only superpower. Sadly, we have built the foundation for dismal failure on all three counts. And we've done it in such a way that we shouldn't be surprised if neither the American people nor the world ever trusts us again. My party has repeatedly ignored, discarded and even invented science to suit its needs, most spectacularly as to global warming. We have an opportunity and the responsibility to lead the world on this issue, but instead we've chosen greed, shortsightedness and deliberate ignorance.
...Enough is enough. I quit.
James Chaney is a Eugene attorney who has been in private practice for more than 20 years, and who has been a registered Republican since 1980."
Of course Orlando your point may well be lost on the prior commenter, because pure ignorance, along with arrogance, go hand in glove with deliberate ignorance.
September 13, 2009 6:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
That is quite funny. Maybe it is failing this time, but this is just the first attempt. After the U.S. masterminded "color" revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgizstan, etc., fake popular revolutions, funded by plutocrats, designed to prevent democracy in the name of defending it, finally the fake democratic revolution is coming home to roost in Washington.
However sad it will be, there is poetic justice here in abundance.
I wonder how soon they will adopt a color.
September 12, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just sour grapes that your commie friends got kicked out.
September 12, 2009 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, clever, none so blind as he who will not see. And the truth shall set you free. Read, man, read. And verify, verify, verify.
September 12, 2009 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I verified it with O'Reily, Beck, Limbaugh, and Fox and Friends.
They all told me it's true that Obama is lying.
September 14, 2009 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Although total attendance might have been under 20,000 - never underestimate the opposition...
Semper Fi...
Right now it is scattered and lacking a structure/organization; maybe in time...
And probably, most here are too young to have seen the protests during the Vietnam War - The marches on Washington DC were truly an awesome sight to behold, especially the BIG one... (I would bet none of these recent sign holders waded in the 'reflecting pond' - now that's a memory worth keeping for a lifetime!)
Respectfully,
Don JD
September 12, 2009 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Protest is OK again:
I've been contemplating this photograph from the past few hours. Thank you Sir Jon.
OK, so Glen Beck is a Clown, granted. Let's step back and look at the larger picture. Let's take a historical perspective.
However contrived this event, however artificial, however right or wrong, it's OK to Protest again. This is something we can thank Glen Beck for -- whatever his true motivation might be, beyond money and the power to be gained from the sound of "tinkling brass."
(This is not a man inspired by Love or Charity or authentic concern for Americans, granted.)
OK, so where were the lines of riot police with shields? Where were the rubber bullets, the tear gas canisters? The hordes taken away in paddy wagons?
This event today was very different from protests staged during the previous Administration. Thank Goodness, that after eight years of well recorded and accurately reported intimidation, some few American people -- for whatever silly reasons -- can stand up and blow off steam without threat of jail or pain.
(This is good for the country's overall Health)
Obama didn't pull the plug on them. And Glen Beck blew off the cap, regardless of Beck's 23 Million dollar a year clown suit!
Reluctant makes a good point. And the rest of you might take a little courage. There might be value in this event. Recall Socrates - You've got to know a lot to know that you don't know.
Let's see what develops when the Left (or a legitimate Right) gets truly motivated to speak out. Of course there could be a time table of 4 years -
What a relief that Glen Beck stepped up! "Tag," you are it People :)
September 12, 2009 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point, showtel. And at the same time of the "march on Washington," Obama was speaking to a crowd in Minneapolis who had acquired tickets on a first come first served (free) basis. Nobody signed a loyalty oath or anything! Oh yes, Let Freedom Ring!
September 12, 2009 9:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the crowd at the Obama event was 15,000. The crowd in DC was 40,000-60,000.
After the PUMA fiasco I always look for numbers!
September 13, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you read the article, or go straight for the comments? WaPo puts the crowd size at 30,000. 30,000 from all parts of the country in an open park that has accommodated crowds thirty times that size in the past, for an event that was planned months in advance vs. 15,000 at an arena in which the people attending were all from the same general geographic area and were given perhaps a few days' notice at best.
I ask you now, who won the day?
September 14, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
As best I can remember, never in our history have the police or federal government attempted to stop a protest of liberal/left/Democratic ideas. It has always been the protests of conservative/right/Repub ideas that aroused the police and federal government to intervene. So, really, nothing changed. When Democrats can mount one of their 100,000 attendance protests and not face arrest, beatings, and federal government bloviating about treason, things will have changed.
September 12, 2009 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Would you be willing to give some examples to support this statement? This certainly doesn't accord with my memory of official responses to past protests.
September 13, 2009 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I believe you reversed what you were trying to say, Hoppy, judging from your last sentence (unless that was sarcasm :).
September 13, 2009 1:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously Hoppy lived the history and was being sarcastic. Two words to defeat any contention of the Left never being abused by the police - Kent State.
September 13, 2009 2:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
My language was not as precise as I meant it to be. To clarify: government oppression has always been against left wing protests, never against right wing protests. I can't recall a single instance where the government, in the form of police or federal law, has assaulted protesters who are right wing activists. That is blatantly obvious based on the treatment of protesters against Obama vs protesters against Bush - just imagine what would have happened to an armed protester against Bush.
September 14, 2009 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I see now, Hoppy. "Protests of..." as in 'protests against..' My mistake.
September 14, 2009 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jon, you got that right. I bet he's too young to remember Ricky Nelson, John Cameron Swayze, and mini-skirts, too. Jeez, what a loser.
September 12, 2009 11:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dayum . . .
You left out Uncle Miltie ... The dude that dressed in drag on our 9" black and white TV . . .
~OGD~
September 13, 2009 3:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
And when Uncle Miltie would "inadvertently" say "makeup" and the guy would run out with a huge powder puff and smack him one right on the kisser?
September 13, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
CNN estimated the crowd at 2 million, as did the UK's Daily Mail. And by the photos from the event, it is certainly of a similar magnitude as that Movement you are so fond of.
September 13, 2009 12:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
What Movement would that be- the Civil Rights Movement? Does this compare in any way? What is this one called? I suggest that, since it is primarily about health care, we call it the Bowel Movement. No? Oh well.
The reports I'm seeing estimate the crowd in the thousands; estimates of the Obama rally in Minnesota are 15,000. And though I was being sarcastic above, they actually were shouting, "Li-ar, Li-ar..." It's a fake protest, though I have no doubt many of the individuals involved are sincere and believe otherwise.
September 13, 2009 1:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wish someone would post the story about how some of the organizers were charging the protesters to attend. Real predatory capitalism that.
September 13, 2009 2:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's paradoxical because the Washington Post estimated it at 30,000. And they're a scuzzy bunch of right-wing shit-for-brains, like Krauthammer (well actually he's a psycho), Fred Hiatt, and many more.
I DON'T CARE! My official estimate for today?!
TWENTY MILLION! Twenty million embittered ruralists raging! Yow!
September 13, 2009 2:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
The only numerical value of 2 million that can accurately be ascribed to today's wingnut conglomeration is the collective IQ of the 50,000 attendees.
September 13, 2009 4:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Am I the only one who watched uncomfortably
as Fox "News" personality Griff Jenkins disrespectfully
shouted over the National Anthem at yesterday's
Washington protest?
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/30479/
September 13, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I found yesterday's event a real eye popper. It is undeniably clear that this is the new face of Racism in America. But now it is openly corporate funded. Fascism is here, and Glenn Beck is the new right great white messiah.
September 13, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
As far as 'movements' go...this past weekend in DC was more like a bowel movement.
September 14, 2009 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I may be stating the obvious here but it seems to me that the “protesters” resembled Nazis/Fascists more than the Administration. Plus, weren’t both Nazis and Fascist right-wing conservative political movements who claimed they represented the common man and wanted to return their respective countries to their former glory? Furthermore, is it just me or doesn’t a Glen Beck performance seem more like an Adolf Hitler speech than anything that President Obama has delivered?
While I’m on the box: In the run up to the Second Continental Congress weren’t the conservatives and traditionalist called Tories? And didn’t George Washington come down on the side of Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, i.e. those who believed that States rights should be limited and that the ‘better Union” should “promote the general Welfare” of the people?
September 14, 2009 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink