What I saw last Saturday:

[Atticus]

We made it to DC this past Saturday to attend the One Nation March at the Lincoln Memorial. I'll try to post some pictures later this week. For now, just some observations---

There were a LOT of us there.

) Glenn Beck's "Whitestock" event about a month ago at the Lincoln Memorial and there were 87,000 (per AirPhotoLive, the only "non-estimate" source)in attendance then. I believe One Nation topped both of those.

Notice I said I "believe". I don't KNOW how many were at any of these events, but I do know enough to ask a few questions.

One of the major networks---CBS I think---paid Air Photos Live(http://www.airphotoslive.com/home_page.) to take numerous aerial photos, including angled shots to show those under the trees where possible, in an attempt to gauge the size of the Beck crowd. They said 87,000 with a margin of error of 9,000, more or less. That sounds to me like a reasonable way to "guesstimate" the crowd size.

But, of course, the crazies didn't like that number. Beck was saying 500,000 people in attendance almost before the event was over and Michelle Bachman, always willing to take crazy to new limits, insisted that there were 1.7 million there. How'd she know? "We witnessed it!" she explained.

Oh.

So, why wasn't Air Photos Live or some similar outfit hired to count all of us FBI watch-listers on the Mall last Saturday? Could the answer be that some did not want anything approaching a "count" or "scientific estimate" because it would not have served their purpose?

As it is, anyone is free to claim any number they care to as the "actual" crowd size. And, since the corporations control the MSM, guess whose claims will be given the most coverage.

Our creow

(Sorry, having computer problems. Lost rest of lengthy post. Will try later)

[defendandprotect]

1. Yesterday... SCHULTZ reported that MANY BUSES DIDN'T ARRIVE ....!!!

Forget where he said he was but 102 buses were scheduled -- two came --

and evidently this was true around the country!

Another area, more than 80 buses ordered -- 40 came!!

Anyone else heard this???

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Yes and a lot of buses were late

[defendandprotect]

4. Have to agree with Schultz's comments re possible involvement of Repugs ....

wouldn't have been far off --

Promises perhaps of better deals and usage of particular bus companies come the

T-bagger victory???

Again -- there is no victory for the right wing except by violence and theft!

:)

[AuntPatsy]

11. Thank God for the interenet...how much proof does the average citizen need to realize

that the media cannot be taken at face value any longer, true journalism though not dead has been effectively silenced or so they hoped...as for now we still have the value of the interenet..I wonder how other than planting propaganda amid the many avenues of Internet reporting they can ensure the Internet becomes under their full control as easy as our media had been....

[eilen]

5. Our bus was delayed quite a bit

We didn't get there until 2am as two tires blew (I understand one, but 2? I wonder at this company's maintenance competence). Another bus-- the driver pulled into a rest area and declared he wasn't driving any further. Apparently he hit his 8 hours. A couple of other buses also had flats. Half our buses didn't show up on time to pick up the hundreds of people who were waiting at the the pick up area to begin with.

I'm not surprised.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Hey my son met you in the bar!

He told me he had met you. I was bummed I wasn't around to meet you too.

We heard from our union that the official count was 250,000. Seems reasonable.

A couple observations - they promoted this as a MARCH. But there was no march. What a bummer. All those labor activists and no march. Stupid move. And people left before the end. It got boring sitting there listening to speeches for 4 hours.

The cops blocked the sidewalks off and on and you couldn't get to the bathrooms. Dumb. Also long lines for food. They needed more vendors.

We were also puzzled by all the fenced off areas. We got there early - around 9 am. And first thing we noticed were all the areas fenced off, especially the ones you couldn't get to. It was like they were trying to confine us. Another bummer.

Here's my pictures: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9254725

[Atticus]

6. Yes! He saw my DU cap and asked "Are you a DU guy?" I said I sure was and he

asked if I had heard of "Proud Lib". I said that I had and told him to relay that he'd bumped into "Atticus".

We were also disappointed that we did't "march"---to the Capitol or somewhere---and thought they should have limited the program to 10 or 12 "meatier" speeches. I could easily listen to Sharpton or Jones or Schultz kick some ass and rally the troops for 15-20 minutes or longer. But, it was not productive for the dozens of unknowns to tell us how "honored" they were to be there.

90 minutes of passionate calls to action and then a big, long, "can't ignore us" march on the Capitol would have been my recipe for the event.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. We were with hissyspit

And we were both bummed we missed you.

[eilen]

7. We noticed those fenced off areas too.

Some of them had speakers on a tall mount. Others had nothing. But they seemed to corral people so the only way to move was to go through the very crowded area on the road where the tables were (and that were not visible from the Memorial).

Sometimes Security would not let you go on the sidewalk, and other times they would. There didn't seem to be any consistency. There were not adequate garbage bins for such an event. We weren't there long enough to get bummed by the food stands. The Metro was really backed up. We got there after 2 and met up with some friends who had been there since 6am. They told us lots of people left. A large contingent that marched started off home at around 1pm.

[blue sky at night]

9. never seen so little coverage of an event like this....

it really never happened...NO BODY is talking about it.

[defendandprotect]

10. And, kicking this cause I think it's something everyone here should know ....

Remember, however -- SILENCE IS ALSO A RESPONSE!!

Meanwhile, I do think that if we want to come out, we have to come out into the streets --

why go to DC on a Saturday when no one is there?

Interference with protests -- and public's right to free assembly -- is something we should

also be protesting!!

[LibertyLover]

12. On another site that I read for the articles on odd subjects

someone posted a thread with "Photos they don't want you to see from the One World event". One of the photos was a shot towards the Lincoln Memorial showing a sparse crowd contrasted with the Glen Beckathon event. The poster was head over heels thrilled with the difference seemingly in favor of Beck. There were also a few "scary" photos of some of the socialist groups who attended, since we all know that socialism and socialists are eeeeeviiiilll. I suspect that both groups were about the same with a few more from our side.