Your insistence on using and reusing that nasty phrase – rather than being “cute” as you were so clearly going for – invalidated you completely as a credible source.

If anyone parked in buses along the street in order to get to this teabag “grass roots” event (and I use that term loosely), there’s no WAY they came close to a million people. The 1.1 million of us who marched in support of women’s right/choice had to park in buses at JKF Stadium and Metro it to the event becausae of the crowd size (you know, government-subsidized public transit on a government-supported public park patrolled by government employee Park Police?).

Admit it, teabaggers. Even when you had a good, legimitate opportunity to tell the truth, you just can’t.

jon, go visit Protein Wisdom re: intentionalism; what you think any other speaker or writer means is irrelevant to what they actually mean. If a speaker or writer expresses him- or herself inadequately to get his or her meaning across, the next step can correctly be either to seek clarification from the speaker/writer or to criticize that person’s ambiguity. It’s not by any logical construction to assign your own meaning to what he or she said and to declare that meaning the actual one.

I’m curious where he got that figure. It has to include the entire Mall, from the Capitol all the way to the Potomac. As can be seen from the pictures, there’s plenty of empty space between the back of the crowd and the Washington Monument, and that’s only half the length of the Mall. In fact, it appears that the crowd didn’t even reach across 3rd St., which would mean that they didn’t even get TO the Mall proper. Several commenters above have verified that.

Bad math, bad intelligence work.

Freedomworks has revised their figure to 30,000. They were the major organization putting on the event. Would Dick Armey lie to you?

I had not included the area in between the Capitol and the reflecting pool. I previously as excluding that area. Also, as you see in the photo there are still sidewalk to sidewalk people arriving on Pennsylvania Ave.

Using the Obama inaugeral as the baseline of 2 million, I’d say it looks like this event drew somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000.

And Rose, I don’t need to discuss demographics with you to acknowledge that yes, indeedy there are minorities who have succeeded in this country. But maybe you need to assess demographic information to see that minorities are more likely to grow up poor, which is the easiest indicator of a likelihood that an individual will remain poor throughout their life. There are far more poor whites in this country than blacks, but the percentage of blacks who are poor is higher than the percentage of whites. Similar statistics exist for hispanic people. So yes, keeping healthcare from those who can’t afford it disproportionately affects minorities. Opponents of healthcare can argue that this is okay since healthcare shouldn’t be nationalized any further, but they shouldn’t put forth sideshow notions about illegals unless they really want it to be about race.

“I don’t have to ask what Bethany meant ….”

Interesting response – given that ASKING her what she meant only costs you some key strokes and the few seconds it takes to type them.

What should I ASSUME about your use of the words “you people”? Or what you mean when you say that anyone who talks about “have’s” is using code words for denying health care from minorities? Do you really think ONLY minorities are poor and no minorities have succeeded in this country and are “have’s”?

What could we ASSUME about you for THOSE comments?

And as for the fringe elements? Does Code Pink sound familiar? Or the eco-terrorists who torch whole subdivisions and recently toppled two radio towers? Or the thugs who stood outside a Philadelphia voting booth with billy clubs harrassing voters – and the Attorney General dropped a case he had already won against and who is stonewalling an investigation into his dropping of the case?

Could THAT have been an example of what Bethany was talking about? Bethany what were you talking about earlier? (See Jon – a few dozen keystrokes and seconds.)

Oh, what the hell – what did you mean when you said “you people”, etc.?

A rally in our nation’s capitol is not intended to get people fired up, it is to send a message to our elected officials that they had better listen to what we are telling them. The intent is damage control, until we can speak with our votes. If you choose to ignore the sensible solutions to our nation’s problems offered up, that is your personal failing. We have no need to repeat them to ourselves incessantly as if we need convincing of their validity.

There are countless references to people having to walk in because the streets had to be closed as they were too crowded for street traffic and the metro can handle those numbers just fine, they don’t all get on at once. The march was forced to begin early because too many people had arrived already. To assert that everyone must arrive at the same time and from the same direction by the same methods in order to disprove the numbers is a logical fallacy.

The assumption that only minorities live in the ghetto is evidence of your own bigotry, not someone else’s.

Why do numbers matter? After being ignored while making phone calls ,sending emails and writing letters; after being mocked and scorned at town hall meetings, Americans are determined not to be marginalized. While those on the left strive to portray those in attendance as a meager few, those that believe in the movement strive to ensure that they do not succeed. The focus is placed on the D.C. demonstration because that is where the largest gathering occurred, but there were countless more at rallies close to home for those unable, for whatever reason, to travel to Washington. Those smaller rallies are not even acknowledged, never mind the many more that could not attend either. While I feel that numbers of 2 million and beyond are far too high I believe that numbers below 800k are ridiculous as well.

Government does not create, it consumes.Fairness is a lie. The government makes it harder to succeed. There are nuts in every tree, but when you try to portray every other fruit in the tree in that way because you find a nut, you simply want them all to be nuts.

OH COME ON!! you know that the world of Chicago politics is run by thugs that employ thug tactics… I mean, read the news today… Blago’s assistant and key witness died of an “Aspirin Overdose”?? can anyone really do that?? raise your hand out there if you think he was whacked! (mine’s up)

I’m sure Bethany’s thug comment had no racial entendre… there’s all colors in the Chicago ghetto of politics.

The things being discussed at these tea parties are how we get back to constitutional government. We have a bunch of ninny sissy lackies who vote with their feelings rather than what the constitution of the United States tells them to do. We the people have elected a bunch who use the wrong guidepost.
Things that I personally have discussed with people are simple but will probably never get done, like repealing the 17th amendment.

I think russ said it best and most eloquently. comment #69. very nicely said russ.

One more thing, I did not see one racist sign, t-shirt or word. In fact, at least 4 of the speakers were black. I’m sure I speak for everyone there that I would be THRILLED to have seen tons of minorities at the rally with us.

I agree with much of what is being said. Government is too big. It does intrude. But I don’t think it punishes success when it creates and maintains so much of what makes success possible: education, loans, financial stability, and the best market for products in the world. Much of that is the free market’s work, but take away government and it all can crumble and turn into the worst of robber barons and monopolies and all sorts of things that make the divides between rich and poor larger and make it even harder to become successful. So no, I don’t label anyone who disagrees with me (or with Obama, with whom I’m not in lock step) a racist. However, the Birthers and irrational nutcases among the Tea Party crowd have a contingent of racists. And I’d say that Bethny has shown her colors. And Bethny isn’t alone.

What breed of stupidity is this?

There’s not any drive to deny anybody anything.

Why don’t they have it now?

Why can’t the get it?

Why am I expected to supply it?