A Day Without A Wingnut
Porn star name Hall of Famer Shannon Love:
Via Instapundit comes a major (albeit British) media report that the Tea Party protest in Washington turnout could be as high as two million.
As impressive as that no doubt upper-limit estimate is, I think that the raw number leaves out an important qualifier. To be truly accurate, the report should say:
Two million people with jobs…
Getting hundreds of thousands of kids, the professionally unemployed and government workers to show up isn’t that hard (especially if someone buys the bus tickets). Getting two million middle-class, middle-aged people with jobs, careers, children and businesses is way, way more impressive.
Way more impressive — especially when you don’t have to present any data to back up your claim. But let’s say that two million gainfully employed teabaggers from across the country really did ditch work Friday to make their way to D.C. by Saturday morning. It shouldn’t be tough to prove. Did millions of fast-food burgers go unflipped over the past two days? Did gas stations across the nation suffer from the unexpected disappearance of SUV fuel-ups? Were all-you-can-eat buffets across the land nearly intact at closing time, their premises surprisingly free of wheeled obese people screaming at the wait staff?
Shannon Love should totally do this research, right after filming ‘Co-Ed Economist Ass-Bangers VI’.
Yes, that would be way, way more impressive, if most of them weren’t retirees (i.e. PEOPLE WHO DON’T WORK) convinced that they’re going to be killed by death panels. Or if there were 2 million of them. Given that they missed that mark by some 96.5%, I guess what Shannon is saying is that we shouldn’t be impressed.
Two million people with jobs…
Or to put it another way:
If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs. If we had some eggs.
Both Instacracker and Shanona are unaware (or are just bullshitting their readers, duh) w/r/t the following:
– British Sunday papers go to press around 10PM London time, 5PM Eastern, when no-one had a teabagger estimate.
– The Mail is a shitty rag that doesn’t do much journalism, especially in DC. It also has a shoestring online operation to do updates — it basically just puts its print copy online.
An overexcitable Dem staffer decided to report 2m on Friday as a potential turnout, and so the Mail printed that number knowing that “up to two million” would cover their asses on a story they didn’t have time (or inclination) to report properly before going to the printers.
Oh, and Smoove B Love ought to have read the writeups from those journos who were on the Mall, because they featured quite a few jobless patriots among those bussed in by the Dick Armey. Admittedly, that would have been the first time the bagmunchers had ridden on a bus in decades, unless they’d been on AARP coach tours of Yurp. And they already knew that they wouldn’t be riding with black people.
As best I can tell from rooting around this morning, the two million number came from Freedom Works, who called Malkin and said “ABC News says two million”, which Anchor Baby promptly reported. ABC News said “and where exactly did we say that?”, so a return call to Freedom Works gets “Gee, I don’t know why ABC News would retract their statement”.
Of course, once the “two million” got out there in the wingnut-o-sphere, it immediately became the truth, since the more times a statement is repeated the more true it becomes.
LP – to be fair, though, this is one of those things where the lie contains a kernel of truth.
In this case, the kernel of truth represents about 3.5% of the lie.
The problem was with the unit of measurement. They meant to report that there were 2 million pounds of protesters present.
From the overexcitable Dem staffer’s 9/11/09 memo:
From there it was off to the races.
there were 2 million pounds of protesters present.
Really? Only 5000 or so teabaggers showed up?
The problem was with the unit of measurement. They meant to report that there were 2 million pounds of protesters present.
I hate to squander the great potential of wingnut weight jokes, but 2 million pounds divided by 70,000 wingnuts comes out to 28.5 pounds per wingnut.
Words of wisdom and warning from Pinko Punko:
Two million people with jobs…
Really? From the pictures I saw, it looked like a heaping helping of folks on Social Security. Of course with the Republican trashing of the financial system, a bunch of them may now be forced to work as greeters at Wal-Mart.
Uh, isn’t Reynolds an employee of the University of Tennessee? Just sayin’.
Oh wait, this quote isn’t from Reynolds. Nevermind.
Two million people with jobs
Huh.
I remember Limbaugh making a big what-do a few years back about the “fact” that conservatives never had the time to protest BECAUSE they had jobs.
So why do all these people hate America and the capitalist system?
Of course, weekend death panels danger to the Republic Socialist indoctrination Tree of Liberty yadda yadda as well. Also.
Getting hundreds of thousands of kids, the professionally unemployed and government workers to show up
Given that it is illegal for government workers to engage in political activities while at work, this might be a tad harder than they imagine. Also makes me wonder about Glenn Reynold’s blogging activities. Pretty sure that Tennessee has the same laws as my University follows.
Nothing says astroturfing like an astroturf organization lying about its turnout.
~
Somebody on the previous thread suggested handing Alabama over to the wingnuts for their own personal playground (and hopefully circling it with razor wire afterwards).
Well, far as I’m concerned, they can have it.
That is a fairly large proportion of the internet she owns.
Shannon Love Goes All The Way.
Shannon Love, Sea Pimp.
Two million ain’t shit. If they wanted some really impressive numbers they should’ve included their bacteria in the counts.
Lip-smacking self-conceit minus factual content plus basic error as entire substance of blogpost equals high-heaped ice-cream cone of rich wingnutty goodness
I see Master Studie made his appearance yesterday.
I had half-expected a thread devoted to his debut, but I guess snark waits for no man, no matter how cute.
Congrats, guys!
I see Master Studie made his appearance yesterday.
Yes, he’s a cute little bugger, isn’t he? And his arrival on 9/12 is an omen of great portent. He’s the Anti-Beck.
But really, we would not have expected less from the offspring of LDMM and Gav.
And here we find that Shannon Love has mated with Ch Kenzed Prince of Darkness to produce Tyebar Groundpower.
from the new york times this am:
“I want Congress to be afraid,” said Keldon Clapp, 45, an unemployed marketing representative who recently moved to Tennessee from Connecticut after losing his job. “Like everyone else here, I want them to know that we’re watching what they’re doing. And they do work for us.”
They meant to report that there were 2 million pounds of protesters present.
Fuckin’ liberals always minimizing conservative gatherings. Low-balling the teabaggers, one might say.
Nothing says astroturfing like an astroturf organization lying about its turnout.
This. I mean, come on, “PR firm engages in dishonest spin, film at eleven.” Its all about getting the 2 million number “out there” and by debunking it you have to repeat their lie for them, or, at the very least waste time swatting it down.
And there’s really no cost to lying. No one credible takes Malkin seriously and her partisans aren’t about to give up on her for lying to make them look stronger than they are.
Well, there is no problem then, have everyone sign off on ‘medical’:
and really, the vibrator was created for medical use:
or, maybe we just need to change the name to ‘home appliance’:
At a teabagger site that reported weather conditions for their march, commenter Chris majestically holds forth:
Fellow Patriots, Americans. The weather is no concern to us. Think about Washington and his troops during that freezing cold December 26th taking the city of Trenton, and the War of our Independence ending. Two soldiers froze to death during that March.
The war is now being waged. What is our price to pay fellow patriots? What must we do to establish the blessings of Liberty, Constitutional accountability once more upon this once great Nation of ours?
“Ready guys, let’s roll”
Chris reappears on the day of the march, and lets loose another blast of inspirational prose:
Americans, fellow Patriots, Good morning. The morning of 9-12. This is our day fellow Patriots for the Cause of Liberty. Each day is ours, inasmuch as with live according to the principles that give us freedom. Stalwart Patriots, I march with you today with boldness, yet not being overbearing, with courage, with gratitude, and with a determination to restore our Government to an accountability to our Constitution.
Let us unite, all across this once great Nation. Sons and daughters of Liberty, we have a great work to do.
Whoo-eee.
although on second thought, to be fair, the 70,000 who showed up brought enough crazy and stupid for at least 2 million, probably much more. So in that respect, it’s Teabagger WIN.
“and government workers to show up”
Maybe by gummint workers they mean cops. Cops were always present at anti-war and anti-world bank rallies, bustin heads and takin names, arrestin kids and the professionally unemployed and the like.
Using Wingnut Math I can absolutely attest that the last time Bush came to Nashville there were 4 million protestors.
{nods seriously}
How many of the motorized scooters being deployed by the ‘baggers were paid for by Medicare, I wonder?
They keep lowering their count: over at Twitter, just saw this:
@DavidShuster Freedomworks says #912dc attracted 30K people. Park police official says that is being “generous.”
So even FreedomWorks says they only got 30,000? Hilarious.
Also from Shuster:
“I’ve covered rallies at dc capitol for 20 years. When the crowd goes only as far as 3rd st, it is 50,000 or less.”
This is Shannon Love with a sweaty overweight jam
My name Shannon Love with a sweaty overweight jam
It may be five million, ten million, twenty million,
Just a little bit overweight now, welcome girl to sweaty town!
the 70,000 who showed up
Let’s not be overly generous here. The Park Service Police estimated about 30-35,000. The DC fire department said maybe 60,000. The latter is probably the upper limit for attendance.
Think about Washington and his troops during that freezing cold December 26th taking the city of Trenton, and the War of our Independence ending.
But don’t particularly think about the several years and hundreds of miles that separate Trenton, NJ from Yorktown, VA.
OT, but what the hell. Tell me again how Hollywood is run by liberal secularists (translation in Teabaggerese: Jews) who want to shove their ideology down the throats of the American public. Please tell me that story again, Mr. Medved:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BREvUKpZTeU
Don’t know if the film itself is any good, but when has being gawdawful ever stopped a movie’s distribution in these United States?
when has being gawdawful ever stopped a movie’s distribution in these United States?
I always have assumed that that was a major selling point.
“they should’ve included their bacteria in the counts.”
No can do. The terms of the restraining order taken out by the ‘baggers’ bacteria specifically forbids the baggers from “asserting in public any association with plaintiff bacteria, whose health, welfare, and good name are entirely dependent upon complete dissociation from defendant ‘teabaggers,’ who are so fucking gross as to defy description.”
If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs. If we had some eggs.
Hey, that’s my line! Give it back!
Well, actually, it’s Benchley’s, but I doubt he’s in any position to sue me/us for copyright infringement.
So what actually happened in 912?
Ah. I see.
So really, fewer people than most major college football games held yesterday.
2 Million people descending on DC would pummel the city’s infrastructure and paralyze the city. The entire Mall would have to be shut down and the Metro system would grind to a halt.
Find me a report that Federal Triangle had to be closed off, and maybe I”ll belie the wingnuts.
fewer people than most major college football games held yesterday.
And only slightly fewer fat white people caring passionately about their side (virtue and light) defeating that other side, which they view with implacable yet unspecific hatred.
A worldview which should only apply to Notre Fucking Dame.
(x-post from previous thread, but what the hell…)
Burning Man drew 50,000+ this year. And there was no transit to get there, no restaurants, no amenities, no FOOD OR WATER unless it was hauled there, and it was in the middle of an alkali desert.
And the Burners clean up after themsleves.
So what we had in DC was wingnut Burning Man – for pussies.
I am so not impressed.
My friend cowgirl from far west Texas says it’s time to round ’em up, brand them, castrate them (where applicable) dehorn them, and pend ’em the hell up. Eonugh is enough.
Works for me.
OT, but what the hell. Tell me again how Hollywood is run by liberal secularists (translation in Teabaggerese: Jews) who want to shove their ideology down the throats of the American public.
Newbie, I thought tea-baggers wanted things shoved down their throats. Just sayin’.
“they should’ve included their bacteria in the counts.”
Actually, I think they were using the special teabagger math. Since every egg is a person, they got to count them as well (the number is somewhat depressed by the large number of postmenopausal women present). If they would just make that next logical leap to counting every sperm as well (funny, wonder why they don’t, hmmmmm?), they could have gotten some really impressive numbers. Again, given the number of old impotent farts in the crowd, that number would also likely have been depressed. Of course even the more realistic numbers depress me. Hate to think thaer are tha many people that stupid and crazy running around out in public.
2 Million showed up the minute the idea was hatched.
There have always been 2 million conservatives protesting in D.C.
They are still 2 million conservatives protesting in D.C.
There always will be 2 million conservatives protesting in D.C.
And in this corner!
THE HUMANS WITH NO SHAME!!
Newbie, I thought tea-baggers wanted things shoved down their throats. Just sayin’.
Yes indeed, Michael G, but only if those things are approved by a God-fearing Republican pastor or politician who says: “It’s ok, we won’t be judged if it’s just our little secret.”
Any other times that things are shoved down throats would be indictative of San Francisco-values.
Any other times that things are shoved down throats would be indictative of San Francisco-values.
Or indicative. Also.
Yes, it was certainly an astounding acheivement for people to show up in major city on a weekend. I mean the only ways to get here if you don’t have a car are train, bus or a plane to one of the three airports!
And the whole “we’ve got jobs so our protests are specialer” thing sounds really familiar. I swear this came up during the April teabag-o-thon. Can someone with a better memory help me out?
Yep. As I’ve said elsewhere (bWtH) I know what this place is like when we have large numbers of visitors. For one thing, they don’t just pop up on the day of the event. Yet on Friday Metro was unusually empty. If we assume they all came in really late Friday or first thing Saturday, I live near a hotel ground zero for people visiting the area. I saw a few people going to and coming from the local Metro station, but even with the first football game of the season going on here, things were fairly quiet.
50K is a really generous estimate.
Any bets on when the fRighties will claim that while it is impossible to get an accurate headcount [insert conspiracy theories about ACORN/George Soros/Teh Lieberul MSM], millions of RealAmericans were here in spirit.
Not sure who Julia is, but this is funny:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/the_blame_ameri_1.php
Leads to this, which is generous yet still funny:
http://pbump.net/912.html
When the teabaggers arrive at the figure of 2 million, are they also counting protests in places like French Lick, Indiana or Blue Ball, Pennsylvania?
“I remember Limbaugh making a big what-do a few years back about the “fact” that conservatives never had the time to protest BECAUSE they had jobs.”
So how come his show airs in the middle of the day, weekdays?
you know, when people who have jobs cant listen?
So how come his show airs in the middle of the day, weekdays?
you know, when people who have jobs cant listen?
Because his audience are small business owners who work from sunup to sundown except for those 3 hours they listen to his show and another 2 or 3 hours to hear Hannity and because SHUT UP! that’s why.
I posted this on Tbogg, will repeat it here,
When about 2 million showed up in January for Obama’s inauguration the following happened…
1. Metro had to run special trains starting at about 5 am, all day, well into that night.
2. people had to wait hours to get a train. I don’t mean that as a euphuism, they literally had to wait in line up to a couple hours to get a train. My cousin and her friend got back to the West Falls Church station at about 6 pm having started back in the early afternoon.
3. all the bridges into DC were closed, restricted to the several thousand buses that brought in people
4. The entire Mall was lined with thousands of porta potties
5. The entire Mall, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building was wall to wall people standing elbow-to-elbow with the surrounding streets as crowded with those who couldn’t get onto the Mall.
6. The highways into town had backups for miles with all the buses and cars. I-95 north into DC had traffic piled up as far a Fredericksburg (about 45 miles away) (this according to friends who live there. Fredericksburg schools CLOSED because they expected that level of traffic)
Any of that happen this time? Nope. Traffic was normal. There was also a marathon or some such race downtown and a festival at the Kennedy Center which went off without a hitch.
Woodrowfan,
D.C. Metro traffic is not a reliable indicator of a 9/12 headcount. After all, what self-respecting Twelver is going to use public transportation?
Otherwise that’s a good list.
Easy to check the 2 mil claim.
Check all DC restaurants that have “Early Bird Specials”.
Shoulda been swamped!
Not sure who Julia is, but this is funny:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/the_blame_ameri_1.php
Oh, wow, that first picture with Obama telling the jihadis “I’ll take it from here”.
I SO wish I could punch that smug asshole holding it in the face. Repeatedly.
So really, fewer people than most major college football games held yesterday.
Less than one-third of those who gathered here in K-town, Tenn. The stadium holds around 110,000. Yes it’s very scary. But, what with many of this burg’s teabaggers up in DC and the rest of ’em watching their beloved Vols lose, it was a lovely day for a matinee and dinner out at the restaurant of our choice.
Government workers don’t have jobs?
How many lies must a good wingnut tell before the GOP hires him on?
The answer, my friend, is about 2 million, yes it’s about 2 million.
I got pics!
(All copied from flickr, but whateves…plus I’ve added alt text.)
Also: ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© Enterprises, LLC, LP, LDHA, and such as proudly announces our endorsement of
Billionaires for Wealthcare
~
Government workers don’t have jobs?
Not REAL proper capitalist white-male workin’ man jobs like described in The Bible.
Remember, anyone taking government money is tainted by Socialism.
Great comparison pic at Crooks & Liars.
Looking at photos it seems obvious to me that a substantial fraction of the 60,000 – 70,000 protestors are retired. Love’s view seems to be that the set of people with jobs is identical to the set of conservative people. I won’t speculate if the proof that almost there was hard working was that almost everyone there was white.
When the teabaggers arrive at the figure of 2 million, are they also counting protests in places like French Lick, Indiana or Blue Ball, Pennsylvania?
Well, that might (if everybody in town joined in) get you all the way up to a maximum total of maybe 62,000.
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©,
Billionaires for Wealthcare has to be the group formerly known as Billionaires for Bush, correct? If so, it’s awesome they’re still around whatever they call themselves these days:
Now, now. They’re Brits, and old school, so it’s two million Stone (400lbs ea.).
I have to wonder if the 2 mil number wasn’t picked just so they wouldn’t be outdone by the dusky Million Man March, which I’m reasonably sure is the thing S-Love is dancing around with her “hard to get Real Americans to show up” bit.
Oh this is so great!
Now ABC is to blame for the bogus 2 Million claim.
Yep it’s ABC’s fault, because, they hyped up the Freedom Works on-stage claim of 1.5 million by refuting it.
Hmm. From tig’s C&L link, I see that sack-sucker central says they had a permit for a one million man event. One wonders, if that were the case, who is supposed to provide and pay for enough portasans? Judging from any pictures I’ve seen, there are virtually none. So, either DC issued the permit for 1 mil, and knew it was a bullshit estimate and didn’t bother putting up the shitters (also, extra cops, ems, etc.), or the organizers knew it was a bullshit estimate, and weren’t about to waste perfectly good wingnut welfare money on toilets for nonexistent rubes when there’s Hot Pockets to eat.
Either way, nobody actually expected anywhere near a million people to show for this bullshit. As they say, Follow The
MoneyToilets.This is our day fellow Patriots for the Cause of Liberty. Each day is ours, inasmuch as with live according to the principles that give us freedom. Stalwart Patriots, I march with you today with boldness, yet not being overbearing, with courage, with gratitude, and with a determination to restore our Government to an accountability to our Constitution.
Kee-rist, this is hilarious! When you figure that their bold, determined act was to board a charter bus, wear comfy shoes, eat doughnuts and hold signs and mill around on the mall, such florid language must have truly inspired!
Isn’t Shannon Love a dude? I noticed some people using female pronouns…
Does she even listen to herself?
– 50,000-70,000 becomes 2 million (a lie spread by the president of Freedomworks)
– 2 million becomes 2 million with jobs (pulled straight out of Shalov’s ass)
I did. My bad. Frankly, other than possibly besmirching the better sex, which I apologize for, I can’t be arsed to care. The less I know about this clown, the more pleasant my life will undoubtedly be.
Also, this is what one-and-a-half-million-plus people on the Mall looks like. I doubt the sack-suckers got as many folks there as were huddled in front of the jumbotron next to the Washington Monument at the back of the inaugural crowd.
Again, take note of the amount of temporary infrastructure required to host that sort of crowd. I’d love to see any picture of yesterdays tantrum showing anything like that.
As I pointed out upthread, Shannon Love is clearly a bitch.
I am also at a loss to understand how people like these can be gainfully employed.
Clearly the Cincinnati Bengals of the protesting world.
A bomb threat kept the crowd from being two BILLION.
This is our day fellow Patriots for the Cause of Liberty. Each day is ours, inasmuch as with live according to the principles that give us freedom. Stalwart Patriots, I march with you today with boldness, yet not being overbearing, with courage, with gratitude, and with a determination to restore our Government to an accountability to our Constitution.
This is always an issue for me. These assholes have gone so far into their own assholes over their reactionary nostalgia that they need to pretend every action they take is going to appear in some Ken Burns WEDU documentary, read sternly by the celebrities of a hundred years from now.
You went to a fucking protest rally, you knob. Better yet, you watched the Weather Channel and then rewrote the five-day forecast in this overwrought drama queen language that the rest of us abandoned when we realized it was better to just get information instead of beat our breast about how fucking awesome we were every fucking moment of the day, you fucking nationalist Pharisee.
In short, rewrite or die, fuckknuckle.
Stalwart Patriots, I march with you today with boldness
When history repeats itself for these guys, it is not so much farce as slash fiction, with them as Mary-Sues.
“Fellow Patriots, Americans. The weather is no concern to us. Think about Washington and his troops during that freezing cold December 26th taking the city of Trenton, and the War of our Independence ending. Two soldiers froze to death during that March.”
The war of our Independence ended in Yorktown, Virginia in the summer. With the French helping.
Nothing class-warriorish about that. No sir, not a thing…
We porn star name Hall of Famers are very selective. We would reject her inclusion the same as we did for Christy Love of “Get Christy Love” fame (though the “get” part was certainly a point in her favor). As it turns out however, “Lotta Love” was a shoe-in.
Thrustingly yours,
LanceThruster
Ha, if all “two million” of these protesters had instead voted for McCain in 2008 (presumably most of them did, so let’s say double-voted or whatever), then Obama would only have won by seven and a half million votes! I blame the media.
Incidentally, the Daily Mail article which the ol’ perfesser linked to as evidence for the 2 million claim has had it’s headline downgraded from “up to 2 million” to a just “a million”. Which then goes down to “up to a million” in the article and “tens of thousands” in one of the captions.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1213056/Up-million-march-US-Capitol-protest-Obamas-spending-tea-party-demonstration.html