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Federal Govt. Closed Tuesday
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Morning Roundup: After the Snowfall Edition
All photos by Holly Le
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the National Mall on a drizzly day to celebrate the day after the day that changed everything. At least, that's what brought Fox News broadcaster and Republican Party opinion leader Glenn Beck to the District. Beck organized this year's 9/12 Project, a campaign to return the nation to the mindset it held the day after the attacks on September 11, 2001. For his first annual 9/12 convention, he brought the campaign to Washington, D.C., a city that had a really great day on the day after 9/11. The Web site reveals that there are 9 principles and 12 values associated with the 9/12 Project, but doesn't share them. It does explain, "Any time you mention the words Marxism or communism, the left paints you as some sort of nutjob, a McCarthyite."
Judging by the number of signs labeling President Barack Obama a fascist, Communist, socialist, and czar, these rallygoers weren't afraid of being called nutjobs. Most of the protesters were sweet, polite Midwestern types hailing from distant Zip codes. One lady named Linda drove from Sugarland, TX, to Kansas City, MO, to pick up here sister (Twila), stopping only once for chili outside Cincinnati on the drive to the District. "We're ready to see this regime fall," she told me.
For an angry mob, the protesters were largely polite: crossing streets carefully, queuing up in long lines for water and hot dogs, smiling helpfully for pictures, pledging hand over heart for every patriotic number blaring from the Capitol PA. The line for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian was several dozen people deep, suggesting that many protesters thought 9/12 was an occasion for some sightseeing.
There's an irony to a white family of four carrying "Don't Tread on Me" flags into the American Indian museum that seemed lost on the protesters. You'd think that overwhelmingly white protesters, largely united by their shared antipathy for the nation's black president, would think twice about the message broadcast by a Confederate flag. Being from the South myself, I'm well aware that Confederate sympathizers -- who are self-declared opponents of the United States of America -- believe the flag stands for Rebel pride, Southern culture, and states' rights. That's not the way people outside the CSA see it, though; to a great many people, it is a symbol of hatred. The Don't Tread on the Stars and Bars mashup flag is clever, but it sends a message that contradicts the conservative mantra that issues, not race, motivates the opposition.
States' rights (or racism) was just one of a dizzying number of issues on hand. Truthers and Birthers represented fringe elements that were difficult to distinguish from the mainstream opponents of health care and Obamination. Anti-abortion protesters marched with enemies of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Libertarians and teabaggers probably share some politics, but it's difficult to see how such a diversity of political agendas fits in with the notion of national unity that 9/12 supposedly represents.
Finally, there were the Obama/Joker signs. Anyone want to take a stab at what those mean? The only political message that's more cryptic involves cheese in a mouse trap. This had something to do with Nancy Pelosi and the looming fascist crackdown that will follow from health care reform -- but it reads to me like whale cake.
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Clever strategy. Say every negative word or phrase used against Bush, apply it to Obama under any and all circumstances and see what sticks. You don't then even have to actually understand the issues at hand--you can express the frustration of being on the losing end of the culture wars (and I suspect the shallow end of the gene pool), direct it at someone visible, blame it all on him without bothering with those pesky little facts. And independent thoughts.
Absolutely hilarious. :)
The only thing good about this protest is that they are not blanketing our lightposts and garbage cans with posters that they leave for years after.
http://newcolumbiaheights.blogspot.com/2009/02/answer-posters-are-everywhere.html
Do you think that bizzaro-world blogs in fairfax our bitching about right-wing nuts not taking down their rally signs.
Too bad this article is so condescending, otherwise it might have raised some interesting issues...
It's hard not to be condescending when you're speaking about a bunch of people that are using some of the most intellectually flimsy arguments around as cover for their unacknowledged racist dislike for the president.
Scary. Have they left yet?
I don't get the Joker posters either; Rās al Ghūl would make more sense, as his plot to put crazy juice in the water supply seems more apt a comparison (these protesters being evidence of that).
I really don't get what the entire protest was going for either. They were ostensibly trying to "bring the country together like the days following 9/11" but it really seemed like they were trying to insult and alienate anyone who didn't agree with them.
I'm afraid conservatives are finding few en masse outlets to voice their particular concerns and disagreements, so that in the end, amorphous masses representing different interests come together under standards like "9/12" which, to many of us, seem to advocate and invoke an abstract and unidentifiable spirit--unidentifiable to insiders as well as outsiders to the movement.
Nonetheless, they all seem to be tied by a hatred for big government. And I support them! We'll see how it ends up playing itself.
If you're so concerned about big government where were you for the last 8 years?
It's a valid point! Government has been expanded by members of both parties, I would never deny that.
As for your question, unfortunately I was 11 in 2000 and 15 in 2004 :-p I couldn't do much, but I should have tried.
11-Year-Old Lands Interview With Obama.
Speaking of The Joker, I'm reminded of Jack Nicholson's line from "As Good As It Gets."
"Sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here."
Meh. These people are no weirder than the people who used to show up for the anti-Bush protests. They probably vandalize less too.
I think the Joker posters mean the same thing as this did:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/07/bush-as-joker.html
In short, political discourse in this country has become an ignorant, ill-informed spitting match.
But hey, forget about that, when does American Idol's new season start?
Oh lovely, pictures... so let's see... we got the creepy old pedophile making comparisons to Santa Clause, the angry punk teen who looks like he should be in rehab somewhere, a bunch of old fat white people (who are the ones that cost the system so much in the first place) and then the lovely poster which has a logo (and web address) for a for-profit clinic on it... yes these are the folks working against health care, how tacky and classless! DC'ist why even waste your webspace and bandwidth to put this crap up here? I hope you all put pictures of today's counter-rally on here, I HAVE PLENTY so contact me!
Crowd: "Read understand and respect the U.S. Constitution."
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
Idiots
"Read understand and respect the U.S. Constitution."
I really wonder how many protesters realize the president has the vast majority of them soundly beat at least two of the three points.
Oohhhh, and I thought this was the casting call for the Biggest Loser: Honky's for Jesus.
Is the healthcare movement's morality so bankrupt that this is the only retort they can come up with in response to the legitimate concerns of a large segment of the American population? Shame.
You've got it backwards - the "legitimate concerns of a large segment of the American population" are of those who are wondering why 20% more Americans were left uninsured after Bush's 8 years in office, and why we can't do something about it.
Before you go off and decide that the health care movement is morally bankrupt, please do me a favor and interpret these signs and how they are valid arguments, since I have no idea where these people are coming from:
"There's free cheese in the mouse trap"
"Your pork broke my piggy bank" (Last I checked, the 'piggy bank' broke in Nov 2008, and let's not even get started about arguing about when deficit spending started)
"Government is not Santa Claus and I am not his stinking elf" (I guess this is a poor metaphor for people getting taxed for something they're not benefiting from?)
"Prisoners of Obama's policies" (Funny how there actually are prisoners of Bush's policies in various countries around the world right now, while these POOP members get to enjoy their First Amendment, and other, freedoms)
"Hands off my health care" (Cute, but she's "Where's the birth certificate?" (Answer: in Hawaii)
"Read, understand, and respect the Constitution" (I wasn't aware there was any question as to the constitutionality of anything Obama has undertaken at this point?)
"Don't mortgage my future" (Tough luck kid, your grandma is already doing that for you - it's called Social Security and medicare.)
They had legitimate concerns? From what I saw at the rally, their chief concerns were that Obama is (1) a Nazi, (2) a Communist, (3) a fascist, (4) a socialist, (5) a Muslim, (6) an atheist, (7) an abortionist, (8) born in Indonesia, Kenya, and/or Hawaii, (9) an agent of Al Qaeda and/or the Saudis, (10) a comic-book supervillain, and (11) (in one really questionable sign) possessed of a set of lips that would make Mick Jagger look like Roger Prynne. Oh, and Nancy Pelosi is old and unattractive.
Okay, fine, their health-care concerns, which while not the main point were certainly there if you looked for them: they don't want illegal immigrants to get any benefits, which Obama had already agreed to; they don't want any benefits going toward abortion, which Obama had already agreed to; they want all life-or-death health decisions to continue to be made by insurance company executives, which Obama had already agreed to; and they want government to keep out of Medicare, which Obama cannot agree to because their demand is so far unmoored from reality that reality might as well be landlocked.
My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.
Are these the ones that smell like patchouli, wear hemp, break windows and sleep on futons in group houses when they protest here? Or are these the ones that smell like whiskey, carry rifles, obey traffic laws, and stay in Crystal City hotels when they protest here? Any more, it's tough to tell them apart.
Is there any possible way to get these Tea Party protests to coincide with the IMF/World Bank protests? Seems like both have similar agendas: to run interference against bureaucracies they feel are wasting money and to make life unbearable for residents. If only these two groups of latter day patriots could meet to discuss their shared goals or, barring that, beat eachother senseless with banners and street theater puppets.
It was oddly ironic and bittersweet on my run this morning seeing all the trashed paper and wooden signs harping against socialism, Nazism (Godwin's Law much?) and taxes being emptied from overflowing trash cans on the mall and near the capital by NPS trash collectors at 7 in the morning.
We'd still be clawing our way out of expired hand warmers and Pepsi schwag from 1/20 if it weren't for these "evil" agents of big government who clean up after these out of town slobs on a Sunday morning at sunrise.
Thanks for visting, now please go back to the meth-addled towns you came from.
The latter. They were all really nice. To me, anyway -- some friends who aren't white reported that some protesters made vaguely hostile comments. Not at all indicative of the mood of the group as a whole, but then again, if I were a person of color, I would be uncomfortable being at a rally of that many white people who gathered to heed the call of a Fox News personality.
Being a black woman who happened to throw on an Obama tee that day while showing visiting friends around the monuments... no. Not a friendly crowd.
Could you please tell us what they did/say? I think that info is not part of the news stories, but it's definately important.
The best account of the day was reported here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-16143-Richmond-Republican-Examiner~y2009m9d13-The-912-Project-Tea-Projec5t-March-on-Washington-Part-One-with-slideshow
It's hilarious and sad that people don't realize what a million people look like. On Inauguration Day it took about a million people to fill the entire area between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, including people stuck underground.
The "Don't Tread on Me" flag is NOT a CSA flag. It's rather a Revolutionary War flag. The designer died in 1805.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag
Yes. I was referring to the flags I saw that featured the Don't Tread snake superimposed over the CSA Stars and Bars -- an angry white mashup flag. You can see that flag in one of Holly's pictures.
A version of the "Don't Tread on Me" flag is also currently flown on all Navy ships.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Navy_Jack#Modern_use
As the son of immigrants who managed to escape a very brutal communist regime, it angers me to no end that these disgustingly fat shitheads have the nerve to call Obama a "communist" or a "fascist." Maybe they should be stripped of all their rights and shot at a few times to sober them up. None of these people have any fucking clue how good they have it.
Hear, hear. I find that throwing those terms around are less a disrespect to Obama personally than they are a disrespect to the millions of people who have suffered and died, and the millions more who are still suffering and dying, under brutal regimes.
It's the same as how people casually use Hitler as an analogy for someone who's being particularly strict.
But we're America, we don't deal in context. We deal in hyperbole and sensationalism. Sigh... back to living under a rock...
+1 to both of you.
Amen. Half of my family escaped Hitler, the other half Stalin and I too get mad when I hear these terms thrown around so glibly.
The problem with the Teabaggers is that they appear to lack reading and critical reasoning skills. If they read, they'd quickly understand how offensive it is to call Obama a socialist, communist or a Nazi. If they could reason, they'd be able to articulate exactly which aspects of Obama's policies are constitutionally suspect. There are a few Paultards who can assemble something resembling a coherent argument - coherent, that is, if you've been drinking Thunderbird and smoking crystal for the previous week.
I personally think anyone carrying an "uphold the Constitution" sign who can't pass a basic constitutional literacy test should spend a week in the stocks with a Con Law textbook inserted where the sun don't shine. And anyone who compares Obama to Hitler should be sentenced to spend a week with a concentration camp survivor.
I really wanted to be at the rally but since those trutherfascists caused the market to collapse, my private option IRA isn't enough. I'm glad I waited until I was 65 to start drawing my government run social security check! NO BIG GOVERNMENT, NO BIG GOVERNMENT!
So Glenn Beck wants to "return the nation to the mindset it held the day after the attacks on September 11, 2001." Really. Am I the only one who remembers the knee-jerk, racist, shoot first ask questions later attitudes held by MANY people in the name of patriotism, and not just the right-wing nutjobs like Beck?
My brother-in-law (who is Turkish) does. Pulled off a plane because he looked "foreign", questioned by the FBI, he was made late in reporting to his first US Army duty assignment. Oh and he went on to defend US interests (in combat) in Afghanistan.
No, you're not alone. That's exactly what they're going for, in fact.
Two problems here.
First, very few in the crowd were physically attractive. How can I get excited by unhot protesters? But at least it looked like they bathed more than the typical anarchist protester.
And their outrage is awfully selective. All about their personal freedoms being taken away by the government, but I'm betting the vast majority there have no problems with gays being treated as second class citizens. Or Muslims. Case in point: their 'states rights' argument...... I'm betting they aren't out there fighting to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.... the most obvious example of the trampling of states rights in two decades.
Or, for that matter, how many except the Paultards are concerned about government freedom-usurping by not allowing marijuana use (talk about your personal freedoms and fiscal issues wrapped into one neat package....)?
And I don't see them asking for repeal of the Bush-passed prescription drug benefits. Even though it is bigger than the entire 'socialist' health care reform package.
Why not? Could it be because many of them see themselves wanting some cheaper prescription drugs?
And their protests about being taxed without their consent/input? Try asking them how they feel about DC not having voting rights, yet being taxed silly.
Either you have core values and you apply them consistently, or you don't.
By and large, from the arguments I've seen so far, they don't.
Not to say there isn't a real concern about too much spending, big government, etc. Just that they aren't offering any real solutions, and they are mighty selective with their outrage.
I guess it's easier to pull the race card than to actually address the issues brought up by the protestors. Can't imagine why I'd expected anything else.
And what were those issues, exactly, and the reasoning behind them? Just saying you are against government isn't really very specific.
So sad, I'm guessing you get most of your news from NPR (I read 4 newspapers a day). I could go on and on, but one of the biggest issues is the government takeover of health care (even more than it already has). The fact that anyone thinks that this is a good idea completely mystifies me.
"Government takeover" of health care? Who the hell said the government plans on taking over the health care system? And you read 4 newspapers per day? You're either an overly impressionable, brainwashed Glenn Beck groupie or a comment thread troll. I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, whichever of those it may be.
And next time, how about articulating a well-formulated response for your arguments? It might help the rest of us learn what makes you people tick, because it sure as hell isn't common sense.
Um, NPR has a pretty good track record on this issue and others.
But you didn't really answer my question.
I was asking a real question.
I really was hoping for a substantive answer.
As for why anyone thinks health care reform is a good idea, how about starting by asking any of the tens of millions that can't get health care? They may be able to tell you about about it.
Or how about comparing simple statistics between what we spend on health care and what we get for it, as compared to other nations.
"(I read 4 newspapers a day)"
And I jerk off 4 times a day, but that doesn't make me more qualified for porn.
I don't have anything else to say, just that your bragging about your newspaper reading was pretty pathetic.
Remind me not to sit on your couch.
It's PLAY the race card. You can't even get your imaginary racial persecution straight.
Main difference between WTF protestors and these Tea Bagging idiots: the Tea Baggers are old enough to know better.
What's the average age at a WTF protest? 20? Of course they're ignorant little shit-whistles whose idea of a political statement is to throw a trash can through a Starbucks window and call themselves an Anarchist.
Meanwhile, these Tea Baggers are actually representative of middle-aged, middle-class adults. Parents. Grandparents. Hell, half of them are probably pretty respected in their communities.
How you can get to that age and still have no ability to articulate a coherent political thought is stunning.
But, no, hearing Tea Bagger -supporters compare them favorably to WTF idiots is like Bush's old habit of comparing the US torture record with Al-Queda's.
Pretty low motherfucking bar, there, Ace.
Sadly, events like these are a sure sign that the U.S. educational system has been in the crapper for a loooong time.
(Chime in with the potty jokes in 3, 2, 1...)
This whole argument with the tea baggers, Beck-heads, O'Reilly-philes, etal. isn't about racism directly. It's about KEEPING STATUS QUO. The majority of the people making all the noise do not believe they are racist, but they refuse to acknowledge that their cause is. It's not because the president is African American or that they don't want people to have health care.
It's ultimately because right now WASPs, represent the largest portion of middle-class and wealthy Americans who enjoy the highest standard of living in this country with access to health care, education and "freedom and liberty", etc. These tea-baggers are overwhemingly WASPy and middle to upper class.
But what would motivate this level of outcry: fear of losing the status quo. So when they preach on about liberty and the pursuit of happiness, what they really mean is, they are afraid that government is going to interfere with THEIR pursuit of happiness and liberty, regardless of what everybody else has to go through. Particularly those of different race, religions or creed because they make up the astounding majority of the impoverished, malnourished, uneducated in our society.
I don't care what happens to them so long as Government doesn't bother me!
You raise a valid point. How many in that crowd don't have health care or think they are in danger of losing their health care? How many know someone personally that has been denied healthcare or died because of lack of health insurance?
I'm betting very few.
All of these people pictured look like they smell like farts.
i don't get these people with their 'socialism' nonsense.
our gov't has been doing socialism for a century. the US military is the biggest socialist project in the modern world but you don't see anyone bitching about it... i guess socialism is ok when it's used to kill brown people but not ok when it's applied to health care for the public.
Here's what I find so baffling about this "debate." (That is, to the extent that there really is a debate amd not just a bunch of NeoConJob smoke and mirrors).
Let's hop in the old time machine and take a ride back to September 1945. Nazi (yes, the actual Hitler-run version--no Godwin here, thank you very much) Germany lays in dusty ruins as a result of relentless day and night carpet bombing and the the entire population is relying upon the Berlin Airlift for the basic necessities. Japan has just has two cities levelled by atomic weapons and the unthinkable, a Japanese surrender, has given way to the beginnings of the Marshall Plan. The year is 1945, a little more than half a century ago.
You'd think that two countries with that much on their plate wouldn't have time to mess around with socialist ideology, much less, socialist programs--like healthcare, and they'd have quite a bit of bootstrapping to do to get things back up and working. And yet, in that short time, socialized health care notwithstanding, they now export some of the finest value-added consumer goods to us. And how'd they do it? We picked them up, dusted them off and gve them the keys. And why? Well, so that the same companies that were charged with war-time production for the Axis Powers could now compete with America for the American market for consumer goods. And under their model, THEY INSURED EVERYBODY--no questions asked. Sure the immediate cost of living might have been a bit higher because of socialized healthcare, but shucks--when EVERYBODY is working and those firms don;t have to individually bear the cost--it's good for productivity, right?
Now let's get back in the time machine and come back to the present. The folks at Mercedes are doing quite well, especially without the added costs of insuring their workforce--everybody's in the system, everybody's working. Serr Gut, Danke. Here at home, we've got unemployment like in Hoover's day and you can't give away a GM product even with offering a 60 day return policy like you bought the thing at Sears. I'm not saying the unions haven't gotten a windfall or two along the way and haven't been greedy, but to what extent was their greediness precipitated by, among other things, the need for decent healthcare for their workers in the presence of a system that would have otherwise left them without coverage?
I just don't know what everybody is BITCHING about. Hell, what do you want to bet that guy with the "There's Free Cheese in the Mouse Trap" sign gets social security benefits and Medicare?
Jerks
When I encounter those opposed to health care reform, I counter with how un-Christian they are. It shuts them up fast. "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." as long as one American is without insurance then we should all forgo it.
The funniest thing about these rallies is the willingness of these "Patriots" to abuse the flag by making it into a shirt!
I find it odd that so many people are arguing against having somebody else touch their beliefs or their money. Yet, they're willing to spend plenty of money to go to DC and do what Fox News prompted them to do. What is even funnier is that this is not tea we're talking about here..it's health care!
yonas angrily jibes "And next time, how about articulating a well-formulated response for your arguments? It might help the rest of us learn what makes you people tick, because it sure as hell isn't common sense."
yonas - if you're genuinely interested in why so many are growing leery of big government you're wcome to check out any of the massive numbers of questioning commentary in The Economist, Forbes, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Barrons and other not so wacky sources. Many of us don't believe big brother is the answer to all of life's issues. Purely from an economic standpoint there are real concerns. Personally, I don't like the Feds telling me I have to buy what they decree or pay a fine. A number of Americans believe goverment has simply gotten way too big and that it's beyond time to have a real debate on the role and size of govt we want overseeing how much of our lives. I'm personally in the "that government is best which governs least" camp. I detest the nanny state and am growing very uncomfortable with the emerging version which is nanny with a cuddgle.
OK people, read the US Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the 5000 Year Leap. But before you do, imagine, if you can, living in Russia or similar country where they do not have the freedoms we do here. (We won't know what we have until it's gone). If we don't turn this thing around, we'll be like them! If you don't like America, you are free to leave or stick around and contribute and benefit from the freedoms we have. But don't try to change the GREATEST country in the history of the world!
Sooo, did you ever get your GED cousin Carl?