Posted on 03/20/2010 12:41:33 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
As part of today's rally to stop the Democrats' health care reform legislation thousands of protesters descended on the lawn of Capitol building. But many more were also using the occasion to visit the their congressional representative and tell them what they think of the bill.
However, Capitol Police recently stopped allowing any of the peaceful protesters to enter into congressional buildings. Crowds are now gathering in front of the House and Senate offices, demanding that they be let in to air their constituent concerns.
I heard reports of about 50,000. That seems pretty reasonable to me from what I saw. Not too shabby for just two days’ notice. I ran into some folks from upstate New York who had just come down on Tuesday, but they heard the call and were back again today. They will be there again tomorrow. Need people to go back again tomorrow if at all possible.
Thanks for going to DC!
“We just met a couple from Cincinnati 15 minutes ago who got into the Cannon building and got into Maxine Waters’ face around 3pm this afternoon..”
That would KILL me !
“That’s what it took to get rid of Allende in Chile//// And now I understand why that route had to be taken”
The sooner the better!
I know. I wasn't really trying to correct you. I was adding to it.
They deign to deem us worthy of their tyranny.
That's what I meant.
Have a good night.
Keep up the good fight!
I have to ask: If you cancelled your TV almost a year ago, how do you know "Fox is a cheerleader for Obama" and the news media are telling lies?
Awesome! Thank you for going to Washington DC on such short notice.
Good on you nutmeg and of course the race-hustlers LIED and played the race card. It’s what they do and it’s all they have. God bless everyone! The fight is on!
Heard on the car radio tonight with Fox News fawning over Obama, read a thread here where people said Fox and Shep fawning over oBama, talked to a realtive who said Fox is pushing the bill for Obama.
Fox/Saudia News - almost as bad as the rest now.
I'm way the hell weary and I've long since lost heart, but by God I'll go down fighting. It was a damn long day, but there were so many people on the Hill, even if they don't acknowledge us, they knew we were there. I got to shake Jon Voight's hand and tell him how happy I was to know there were still patriots in Hollywood.
The "Kill the Bill" rally/Tea Party started at 12 noon on the west side of the Capitol building. It actually got going about an hour earlier because so many Tea Partiers had shown up on Capitol Hill... some had been out there since 7am!
There were many speakers including Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN), Tom Price (GA), Joe Wilson (SC), Steve King (IA), Phil Gingrey (GA), Actor John Voight, Dr. Milton Wolf, Obama's second cousin who opposes ObamaCare, Amy Kremer, Tea Party Express, Jenny Beth Martin, Tea Party Patriots, and many more.
Fox News had a big presence there... we met Molly Henneberg and saw Griff Jenkins get swallowed up by the raucous crowd at one point, LOL! Also saw Carl Cameron, leaving for the night around 8:15pm
Once the rally ended around 2:30pm, the crowd walked across to the Rayburn and Cannon House buildings. The pic you see at the top of this thread was us "storming" the Rayburn building. Some Tea Partiers waited in line, and did get into Congressional offices, and others were standing on that balcony to get a good view of the thousands of protestors below, spilling onto the street and on the other side of the street, loudly chanting "Kill the Bill!" and imploring Nancy Pelosi to come outside. It was amazing to see this... everyone was REALLY ticked off.
The plan was to return to the West side of the Capitol at 5pm to encircle the Capitol building, as a symbolic "you are surrounded by We The People".
The crowd was told by one of the organizers that the permit obtained for that purpose did not allow for the crowd to be stationary, it had to keep moving. So we all began to move, and formed a moving circle around the Capitol. However, we all stopped on the plaza on the east side of the Capitol building (across from the Supreme Court) below the windows of the second-story office of Leader John Boehner, located between the two wings of the Capitol, the House and the Senate.
A couple of Boehner's young assistants had put up signs in his windows: VOTE NO and SCRAP THE BILL, much to the crowd's delight! About an hour later my husband saw two young men taking photos from the plaza of the windows. My husband asked if by chance they worked in that office and put the signs up. They said yes, and were thrilled at how visible the signs were.
There were people in Boehner's office waving to us. Steny Hoyer's office was below Boehner's on the first floor, apparently empty. The crowd broke into spontaneous chants of "Kill the Bill!" and "Nancy! Nancy!", "USA!", "You Work For Us!" and many other chants for about an hour and a half. A member of the Rules Committee (a Congressman from Indiana) came down the steps of the House and got up on a ladder to address the crowd. He was talking about the rules and other matters, and a small crowd gathered around him.
While he was speaking, the crowd continued to chant outside Boehner's windows. Between 6:30-7:00pm Congessman Steve King (R-IA) came down the House steps and began speaking to the crowd thru a bullhorn, firing up the crowd and explaining that on the third floor up above us the House Rules Committee was meeting and could hear our chanting and that we were bothering them... LOL. The crowd roared ever louder, egged on by Rep. Steve King (he is fantastic, by the way! He hung around after the first rally just talking and shooting the breeze with us and anyone who wanted to talk to him, or who wanted an autograph or photo).
Shortly after, several other Congressmen joined him on the steps: Poe from Texas, Tom McClintock of CA, Louie Gohmert of TX, Lynn Westmoreland of GA, Jean Schmidt of OH (who had just run her 81st marathon that day), two from Georgia, one a medical doctor, another from New Jersey... all were Republicans.
They were really thrilled at the numbers and intensity of the crowd. Each spoke for 10 minutes or more, interrupted time after time by cheers and chants from the crowd, disturbing the Rules Committee meeting inside. It was explained to us by a couple of the Congressmen the force and intensity of our presence earlier today may have helped to eliminate the "Deem and Pass" procedure. One of the Congressmen said he could hear us from inside the Rotunda, which, he said, was extraordinary. Another said he could hear us from his apartment, which was 4 blocks away from the Capitol.
We closed tonight's impromptu rally ("impromptu" because we didn't expect to hear from any Congressmen at this later rally) on the steps of the House in the dark (it was after 8pm) by saying The Lord's Prayer - yes, a PRAYER on the House steps!. We also said the Pledge of Allegiance and Rep. Steve King led us in singing "God Bless America".
Steve King told us that Congressmen (I think it may be mostly the Republicans) are having a prayer service with their families in the Capitol Rotunda tomorrow, Sunday, at 11am. He said this would be the first time a prayer service was held there in over 100 years.
He asked us to return to the House steps at the Capitol at 11am to pray outside, and to stay for the duration of the day, and continue our LOUD chants while members are inside getting ready to vote. He thinks the vote will take place around 2pm. He suggested our presence could possibly make a difference in tomorrow's crucial vote.
So... if you are in the area, come to the Capitol tomorrow at 11am or later. Bring signs, flags, bullhorns and a LOUD voice! :o)
We were there also, nina! My after action report is in #212.
Fox News is about the best we've got for now... CNN, MSNBC and the rest are totally despicable, unwatchable leftwing media outlets.
I heard earlier tonight that CNN hadn't even mentioned our protest today (which was huge, and couldn't be missed) and CBS estimated our crowd of 25-50,000 as "2,000".
Yup... we'll be back tomorrow! (My after action report is in #212)
THANK YOU dear nutmeg and Mr. nutmeg for taking the time to go- and for your post!
Source?
WTH?? Now we need permission to petition for a redress of our grievances standing still??
I wonder if any of the numerous "Million (man/mom/lefties)" marches was required to keep moving? Duh.
Let's see them DC police tell 1/2 million they have to keep moving. At some point we are going to have to acknowledge that no matter what we do, they will just keep raising the bar. That we will have to STOP doing it their way.
Wonderful, detailed report nutmeg and we can’t thank you enough for being there. There will be many praying with you tomorrow and I was thrilled to read that the U.S. Bishops have sent a plea to house members not to pass the pro-abortion bill tomorrow. Hopefully the Stupak coalition will stand strong in light of all the arm twisting they’re experiencing tonight with BO promising to sign an exec. order after the bill passes.
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