I was tweeting this morning and caught a link to the traffic cameras at 14th St. and E: think the Iranian protests. There were tens of thousands of people. Twitter is down now because of overcapacity. The current cams show the crowd breaking up and traffic resuming at 3rd and Constitution. A friend of mine who went just because she was so angry about Wednesday night’s speech, called me from the west side of the Capitol, where she was guiding a brother and sister pair from Greenbay, Wisconsin [not her sibs- total strangers, but she assured me, "They're very nice."]
This is very, very big. I think, though that Obama will try to get the “plan”-whatever it is- passed by running over Republicans and these people.
Comments 30
Hey! Something we can agree on!!
This seems to be pretty significant.
The WaPO says that there was on-line registration for this march and 30,000 folks pledged to attend.
Here’s the story, if you want it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091200971.html
September 12th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
When the count is in, I think it’ll be more than 30K. Just guessing.
September 12th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
So if we scale this by the same scale the media uses for “million man marches” and other such liberal demonstration type things that means that about 20 million people showed up in DC today. I am impressed.
September 12th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Lo and behold the
daily mail doesn’t let us down.
September 12th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
@Barbara –
You guessed right. 60-70,000.
September 12th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Several hunderd thousand, anyway.
I know a husband and wife from outside of St. Louis, MO, who went. He’s a farmer/teamster, and she’s a nurse; he says they voted Democrat until 2004. They paid “a few hundred dollars” for their bus tickets, and planned to arrive in DC and leave the same day. Their previous dive into politics concerned a county hearing on replacing the bridge across a river near them.
“It’s too much power when they are in charge of medicine,” he told me.
September 13th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Nope, not so many.
Barbara…..”those people” are the minority now.
365 EC votes to 173.
September 13th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
@strangelet – Do you have the official Metro Police estimate of the size of the crowd?
September 13th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
No one has the official Metro Police estimate of the size of the crowd. A foot-traffic count yesterday put it at a minimum of 450K with thousands yet to be counted. The 60-70K figure is obviously too low based simply on the webcam stills at the height of the protest, but there has not been an official statement from the police about the size of the crowd. Some readers of Allahpundit’s post on this at Hot Air have linked to other sites where it’s reported that the National Parks permit area on the Mall, which officially “holds” 250K, was completely full, so there were at least that many attendees.
September 13th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
@J.E. Dyer – Who counted 450,00? Someone disinterested?
September 13th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I doubted the “millions” figure because of the comparison to the inauguration crowds, but I saw the time-elapse (I’ll find that link somewhere) and thought that it would be reasonable to say 500K.
That’s a lot of people. A lot of grass roots who weren’t bused in on someone else’s dime, in contrast to the pro-immigration rally that people are comparing this to. True to form, however, the White House and Democrat leadership are doing the, “Oh, there was a rally for 9/12? Well, I swan” routine.
September 13th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
From Nate Silver–
September 13th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Hmmm…70,000 ppl is the turnout for a Redskins game, isn’t it?
You had your turn.
[redacted]
Now its our turn, and you are the MINORITY.
365 EC votes to 173 votes.
I think you should sit down and shut up.
You have much, much bigger problems to think about.
You see….HAYEK WAS WRONG.
The welfare state doesn’t cause socialism…it causes the death of the local [religious] welfare providers, ie community churches.
The local welfare providers can’t compete, you see, like the rise of secularization in Great Britian.
You should think of the welfare state as the public option for religion.
lulz
September 13th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
@strangelet – you already linked that.
Whoa! Strangelet (great name, btw): no cussing allowed. This blog is like a public pool: you can only use it if you’re potty trained.
And you think! Awesome! Does it hurt? And you and Dear Leader have the same opinions: that’s adorable.
September 13th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Ask the Highlander about my intellectual chops.
The federal intrusion into states rights and the growth of the welfare state coincides with civil rights for blacks. When blacks became citizens they were excluded from local government and local welfare providers in the south. The feds interceeded to guarantee civil rights.
Now once bureaucracies begin to grow, they are organic….unstoppable.
You planted the seeds of your own destruction.
Isn’t there something in the Bible about that?
September 13th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Still trying to get your point here, Strangelet. Plus, I checked with the Highlander: he doesn’t know you- I’m sure it’s just a mix up. And did you come here for Biblical expertise? Whoops! But I can google it if you want (kinda hurts your “intellectual chops” deal, though, if I have to google for you…)
Lemme get this: this is really about hating the South and Southerners for past racial animus, right? That Southerners invited Federal intervention by denying blacks their civil rights and thereby caused a massive interventionist trajectory of Government- right?
Well, in the first place, those of us here on this blog are not from the South. It may surprise you to learn that the Civil Rights Act passed with Republican votes- would not have passed otherwise. So the “us” planting “our” seeds and getting “our” comeuppance, well, it just doesn’t follow. And, as Dear Leader is fond of saying, I was like, zero to 8 years old when that stuff went down.
But, substantially, you have a general point. If you really want to make it better, do a really long, curse laden post on Roosevelt not letting a good [Republican-made] crisis go to waste.
September 13th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I stick my neck out for nobody.
I suppose that the bureaucratic welfare state might survive the heat-death of the universe, but, even if it does, what form it takes, whether and how much it matters to anyone outside the bureaucracy, what portion of the social surplus it’s allowed to consume, how much social surplus there will in fact be, are other questions.
I can imagine circumstances under which the Rooseveltian order was superseded fairly quickly. If they never come about, however, the price will be paid, sad to say, more by those now young than by the likes of Barbara and me. We’re doing our best to leave a world worth living in to you, whether you like it or not, and against your opposition. Could be that someday people like yourself will be a lot angrier with us for not having fought harder and better, than for having been on the other side.
September 13th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
http://www.arkive.org/media/35/35C0AB3C-E34F-4179-87C7-C909E4967711/Presentation.Medium/photo.jpg
September 13th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
@CK MacLeod – G*d, CK, I almost cried…you are so noble…
YES, YES! WE ARE DOING IT FOR THE CHILDREN!!
Well, I’m doing it for the ones who aren’t irredeemably stupid, but even those get caught in the broad net of my munificence. Strangelet, it’s your lucky day!
September 13th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
@fuster – fuster, I really don’t think J.E.’s gonna like this avatar.
September 13th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
@Barbara – Me neither,Barbara, that pic was for CK, the guy who says he sticks his neck out for nobody.
I’m scared enough when I argue with Dyer, not gonna try any of that, so don’t be dropping me into the soup.
September 13th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
You see…I was raised to be Republican. Guns, dogs, and United States Pony Club.
My ancestors were robber barons and land barons.
So you will understand that I feel rather betrayed at this point. Someone should have explained to me that Oakeshott and Hayek and Burke and small government federalism were just intellectual cover for Bull Connor and Yearning For Zion.
The reason we call you the Teabagger Demographic is that you are so out of touch with contempory culture that you were clueless about your branding to my demographic.
I am not a fan of exponential growth in government, but this is your legacy for my generation…..interventionist growth of the welfare state triggered by federalist civil rights for black citizens ….just like the Econopalypse, and the Grand Misadventure of the Manifest Destiny of Judeoxian Democracy in AfPak and Iraq.
September 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
You forgot heterosexist.
I know Strangelet is a sixth year undergrad and the College of Liberal Arts at UT.
This is what our institutions higher learning are doing to our culture.
September 14th, 2009 at 9:14 am
@strangelet – Perhaps you can explain whether you think Israel has less of a right to exist than other countries, and if so, why. And if you don’t think that, maybe you can explain what the smirky “yearning for Zion” stuff is about.
September 14th, 2009 at 9:58 am
@Peter Shalen Peter, Peter, Peter: he’s anti-God, anti-religion, and anti-pony club, which is a “cover” for antisemitism, among other things. Lotsa external blame-laying here with unhealthy and wildly inappropriate feelings of betrayal, vengeance, retribution, etc. You won’t get a cogent answer. Too much pathology here.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:35 am
You’ll be led from the straight and narrow.
http://www.popwars.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/guinesstweetyglasslg.jpg
September 14th, 2009 at 10:47 am
@Barbara – strangelet is a she, as I understand it. My idea was that if I asked a substantive question I might pressure her into talking about a concrete issue and giving an actual opinion in place of her usual innuendo and chatter. I’ll see how it works out. Remember that I had a few discussions with lester in the old days, so I have no illusions. Be well.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:56 am
@Peter Shalen – Shouldn’t that be strangelette? But, hey, whatever. You are welcome to invite anyone to a real discussion. I will resume my mocking-makery.
Peter, it’s bad when you refer to earlier this year as “the old days.” Oh, wait, it’s all coming back to me: I remember constantly getting fuster and lester confused. {{{{shudder}}}}
September 14th, 2009 at 11:03 am
@fuster – I love Guinness and I love Tweety Bird. I feel a new avatar coming on…
September 14th, 2009 at 11:07 am
No, at my age that’s good. What’s bad is remembering something that happened in 1978 and feeling as if it had been last week.
September 14th, 2009 at 11:15 am