A Teabagger Timewaster

The 9/12 rally in Washington is supposedly a big success. A lot of people managed to get out and make classless asses of themselves:



Clever, huh? Sure makes you want to jump on that bandwagon, doesn't it? Where do these people get the idea that being a prick is a good thing? I question someone's parenting skills.

Anyway, here's the skinny:

Washington Post:

Tens of thousands of conservative protesters crowded outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, a massive demonstration aimed at stopping what organizers called the over-expansion of the federal government under the Obama administration.

"Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored," declared Andrew Moylan, head of government affairs for the National Taxpayer Union, urging protesters to call their representatives. "You're being ignored today by the media and some politicians."

The crowd -- loud, rambunctious and sprawling -- gathered at the foot of the Capitol after a march along Pennsyvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza. Invocations of God and former President Reagan by an array of speakers drew loud cheers, echoing across the Mall. On a windy, overcast afternoon, hundreds of yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags flapped in the breeze, mingled with U.S. and Texas state flags.

This was billed as a non-partisan event, but it's pretty clear that the whole thing was a big "I hate Obama!" rally. It lacked any other central message, other than that taxes are too high. Never mind that Obama's actually cut taxes for most of these idiots. Bush gets out of office and everything that was just fine when he was doing it is the worst thing ever when Obama does. There's a lot of talk of racism -- and no doubt there was plenty present -- but the truth is that these people are just throwing a tantrum because Democrats are in power. They have no idea what they're angry about -- they're just angry. Is it healthcare? Is it immigration? Is it that Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a secret muslim terr'ist? All and none of the above. It's just a place to go and be mad at Democrats.

And even if they had some sort of cohesive message, they'd be disappointed. These protests don't actually accomplish anything.

Wikipedia, Protests against the Iraq War; February 2003:

On February 15, millions of people protested, in approximately 800 cities around the world. Listed by the 2004 Guinness Book of Records as the largest protest in human history, protests occurred among others in the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Syria, India, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and even McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The largest demonstration this day occurred in London, where 2,000,000 protesters (about 1 in 30 of the population) gathered in Hyde Park; speakers included the Reverend Jesse Jackson, London mayor Ken Livingstone, and Liberal Democrats leader Charles Kennedy.

It was officially the largest protest in human history and -- sorry to spoil the ending here -- we invaded Iraq the following month. Seriously, it feels good, but protests don't actually accomplish jack. What you want to do is use protests to organize people and build organizations. Otherwise you might as well just send a petition -- which no one gives a damn about either. This whole 9/12 thing is astroturf put together by already-existing organizations called "corporations." All they're really doing is flexing their muscle, while trying to keep the angry mob angry. They'll figure out what to do with them later.

All of these people are going to wake up tomorrow and find that nothing has changed and that they've made zero impact on anyone in DC -- and not just because they aren't extremely clear on what they want.

Basically, this was just a big political jackoff by conservatives and corporations not above politicizing 9/11.