Posted on 09/12/2009 3:44:52 PM PDT by greyfoxx39
Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today, carrying signs with slogans such as "Obamacare makes me sick" as they protested the president's health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.
The line of protesters spread across Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the Washington Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
-SNIP-
FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey, organized several groups from across the country for what they billed as a "March on Washington."
Organizers say they built on momentum from the April "tea party" demonstrations held nationwide to protest tax policies, along with growing resentment over the economic stimulus packages and bank bailouts.
-SNIP-
Many protesters said they paid their own way to the event - an ethic they believe should be applied to the government.
-SNIP-
Today's protests imitated the original Boston Tea Party of 1773, when colonists threw three shiploads of taxed tea into Boston Harbour in protest against the British government under the slogan 'No taxation without representation'.
The group first began rising to prominence in April, when the governor of Texas threatened to secede from the union in protest against government spending. Waves of tea party protests have crossed America since.
Today's rally, the largest grouping of fiscal conservatives to march on Washington, comes on the heels of heated town halls held during the congressional August recess when some Democratic lawmakers were confronted, disrupted and shouted down by angry protestors who oppose President Obama's plan to overhaul the health care system.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Hey our local news, NBC and CBS both carried our local 9/12 protest, said we had 3000 people on our favorite protest street corners.
The world is listening and Americans are speaking, no to socialism.
And if they add in those of us unable to attend but there in spirit we’re into 8 maybe 9 figures!
I think at 2,000,000 protesters it was the largest march in history.
Hell, Fox News is only saying “tens of thousands”, which is a far cry from “UP TO TWO MILLION”....so far I have heard nothing persuasive or reliable about the actual head count, unless the two million figure relates to nationwide appearances at usual protest corners and venues.
How to distinguish Liberty from Tryanny:
Liberty | "Soft" Tyranny | |
1 | Rights are inherent in, and unalienable from, individuals | Rights are granted/rescinded by the majority through the government |
2 | Fundamental rights are life, liberty, and property (absence of coercion) | Fundamental rights are food, housing, and healthcare (absence of necessity) |
3 | Property is owned by individuals who make decisions as to its use, improvement, and transfer | Property is owned by 'the public' with government officials making decisions as to its use, improvement, and transfer |
4 | Government exists to protect the rights of individuals | Government exists to plan and direct the resources of society |
5 | Government authority is decentralized in a federal system with limited and enumerated powers | Government authority is centralized in a national system with broad and necessarily intrusive powers |
6 | Government action is prescribed by rules fixed and announced beforehand | Government action is arbitrary and at the descretion of "czars" and planning boards |
7 | Economic activity is driven by a large number of small entities interacting according to simple rules | Economic activity is driven by a small number of large entities operating within the constraints of complex regulations |
8 | Effective innovation results from contrarian thinking, individual initiative, and the voluntary exchange of property | Efficient implementation of government planning requires conformity of opinion, collective action, and the coerced transfer of property |
9 | Standards of living for the many increase permanently as they utilize improved products and services conceived by the few | Standards of living for the many increase temporarily as they utilize property redistributed from the few |
10 | Altruism is using one's own resources in concrete acts to help specific individuals | Altruism is obligating the resources of others for broad-brush programs to help mankind in the abstract |
Rights exists solely as a way to fairly decide whose will shall prevail in cases where two or more people disagree. They do not exist for the purpose of enslaving one person for the benefit of another (e.g., the "right" to free medical care.)
Liberty is the right to do whatever does not infringe the rights of others. Rights empower you to help yourself, free from interference by others.
Tyranny makes you a serf to be used by the elite to further their own power. Once upon a time, the nobility used religion to convince the serfs they had to serve the nobility. Modernly, the elite use good people's feelings of altruism to convince them to enslave both themselves and their neighbors. It's basically the same con game, just using a more sophisticated hook.
We couldn’t go so we held our own 9/12 support rally. According to local TV channels, we had 3k people standing in the rain for hours with the traffic honking their support.
FWIW there have been people on the scene telling me there were over 1 million.
I was at a Tea Party Express on the 12th. When I walked in I guessed the crowd at around 5K. After walking around I figured 2K-3.5K Still not bad at all for weekday and there were people coming and going all the time.
I have pictures posted on a Quinn and Rose morning radio show thread if you want to see what I'm talking about.
prisoner6
“Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today, carrying signs with slogans such as “Obamacare makes me sick” as they protested the president’s health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.
The line of protesters spread across Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the Washington Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.”
There is no way there was even a million people...probably in the neighborhood of 100,000.
I don’t do crowd guesses, but I remember when the million man march was lucky to have been 200000.
I tuned in when Glenn Beck came on he said the official count from the park service was 60,000.
Again I ask, when is Fox going to stop saying tens of thousands and start saying up to 2 million? they’re really annoying me.
I’m afraid you are not rightthis time. I live close to DC and have for 50 years and the crowd is one of the largest to protest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.