So, was the "Freedom March" a bust after all? (AMERICAblog)

[tuvor]

What if you threw a wargasm and nobody came?
by John in DC - 9/11/2005 10:05:00 PM

Now, I don't want to claim that the Pentagon's September 11 wargasm party they threw today, to try to help Bush's sagging approval ratings, was a complete bust, but...

Joe in DC and I decided to hit the fete and see exactly how many hundreds of thousands of patriotic Amurikans joined in the by-registration-only "sterile" event (they had the entire event, from the Pentagon to the mall (a few miles away), fenced in for safety or something).

Well, Joe and I arrived there at 2, just off of the Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Memorial, and here's what we saw:

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/what-if-you-threw-wargasm-and-nobody.html

[Carolab]

1. Where are the photos of the 15,000-18,000 DROVES??? n/t

[tuvor]

2. And no litter afterwards???

Yeah, uh-huh.

[havocmom]

3. Was just reading this on Americablog, funny as hell

Great pictures too. War did not get such a great reception this time around either. Somebody forget to invite the morans?

[babylonsister]

4. Thanks, Tuvor. I saw one picture this a.m. This gives me a

more legitimate reference.

More here:
"I went up to some guy on the soundstage and asked him when this all began. He told me 11am, as soon as people started arriving. How many were there, I asked him. 15,000 to 18,000, he told me. Yeah, right. The Washington Post says "thousands" and another story online simply says "droves."

I've seen a lot of marches on the mall in my 20+ years in Washington, but I've never seen one where 15,000 people arrive between 11am and noon, and are all gone, and everything's cleaned up, two hours later.

Methinks the Freedom March, Patriot Party, or whatever, was a bit of a bust. Clearly Bush didn't get the September 11 war-fest he wanted. And my suspicion is that after Katrina, and all the criticism of every other event the president ran to instead of focusing on Katrina, the White House wrote this thing off."

[Somawas]

5. Could be that the high cost of all the Iraqi gasoline we're getting

deterred the freepers from showing up to support the Culture of Life.

[IChing]

6. thanks for the link with an observation.. funny no pictures from the news

feeds yet

except this one.



But really they were able to clean it up in this huge crowd
look at the people !! Damn, that' impressive!





the most telling thing is this statement from the DOD:
"""" "Although the Pentagon required walkers to preregister for the event,
officials did not provide a crowd estimate."""""

[tuvor]

7. Apparently nothing on fr**r*p*bl*c, either.

That clinches it--an unqualified DUD.

[yorkiemommie1]

8. nobody seemed to be enjoying themselves

looks like a FORCED march to me !

[NeoConsSuck]

9. When it's not on the front page of CNN.COM

you *know* it's a dud. CNN.COM gives total coverage to every right wing publicity stunt.

[CatWoman]

10. hey!! where's the porto potties???

:D

[tuvor]

11. Hey...

Are you suggesting the attendees were full of shit?

[GoodSpud]

12. Stars and Stripes article here

Sounds like a bust from the get-go...

<snip>
More than 13,000 people registered for the Freedom Walk sponsored by the Department of Defense, according to Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner.
</snip>


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=31528


TDP

[tuvor]

15. 13,000 "registered". How many showed up?

If 13,000 showed up, they'd publish a much more impressive photo than this one.

[liveoaktx]

13. Vid Clip

From Cspan footage

[tuvor]

17. Thanks for the video n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

24. Pentagon approved T-shirts? People attempting to join the march would

be arrested? WTF has happened to this country that nobody seems to care about this?

[GoodSpud]

14. Best image I have been able to find... With porta potties

From http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/

Doesn't look too big to me...

[CatWoman]

16. not big

small and white.

[LynneSin]

21. there are no people of color in these picks

Seriously - pasty white like me.

[Spiffarino]

27. Freepers always need lots of crappers

You never know when one might start to leak. :evilgrin:

[charlie]

18. From their own site

Officials estimated that thousands took part in the walk to honor American servicemembers, past and present, and to embrace this country's freedom....

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2005/20050911_2693.html

There you have it, more than 2K, less than a million. Precise figures from the DoD.

[anarchy1999]

20. What an absolute treat. I'm so sorry, but it is.

I awoke to this C'Span coverage this am and I had to check out for the rest of this day. Disturbing images, people all in the same white t-shirt, slogans on the back. I turned off the TV and said good bye to DU for the day.

I'm back and I'll be here tomorrow, I had to follow my own advice to someone from the day or two before. Every once in a while we have to check out or we can not be effective in any way.

[LynneSin]

22. Here's a great point from the AmericaBlog site about the protest

I went up to some guy on the soundstage and asked him when this all began. He told me 11am, as soon as people started arriving. How many were there, I asked him. 15,000 to 18,000, he told me. Yeah, right. The Washington Post says "thousands" and another story online simply says "droves."

I've seen a lot of marches on the mall in my 20+ years in Washington, but I've never seen one where 15,000 people arrive between 11am and noon, and are all gone, and everything's cleaned up, two hours later.

Now I can appreciate that the people who can to this march are obsessive about not littering but even at the smallest of protests you'd still see the leftover of protestors gone.

Clearly there are chairs in the front of that concert pavillion but not enough for 15k-18k people so the rest would be standing the the back. Yet that grass is looking awfully fresh.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. And Nothing Sez "Freedom" More Than Row after Row of people wearing

THE EXACT SAME UNIFORM.



"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever.

Yay Freedom!"

[Carolab]

23. And the logo, oddly, reminds me of Dominos Pizza.

Did these people get these T-shirts in advance and were they required to wear them?

[Carolab]

25. Video here

http://www.archive.org/download/OYEMykeru_at_the_Freedom_Walk/freedomwalk.wmv

[Spiffarino]

26. OMG, that was outstanding. Must-see TV if ever there was.

Thanks for the link! :hug: