Saturday, September 12, 2009

9/12 Tea Party Protest In 'March on Washington'

According to ABC's George's Bottom Line, tens of thousands are expected to participate in a "March on Washington", organized by Freedomworks and advertised heavily by Glenn Beck.

A couple interesting things about quickly put together event.

First, the White House, in what many are speculating as an attempt to limit the impact the protest has, sent a memo declaring up to two million people would attend, where the White House got that number is anyone's guess.

Some believe this is the White House's attempt to control the public relations nightmare that such a protest would cause for them, by pretending to expect millions when the actual number is tens of thousands, thereby claiming the protest a bust.

Secondly, in the midst of planning for this event, it seems that on 9/11 no less, someone called the offices of FreedomWorks with a false bomb threat that led to evacuation and a search for a bomb that didn't exist.

Tens of thousands of anti-big government activists are expected in Washington on Saturday as part of a "March on Washington" being organized by FreedomWorks, a conservative group headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.

A FreedomWorks staffer told ABC News that the organization's offices at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue were evacuated on Friday afternoon by DC Metro Police because of a bomb scare.

DC Metro police has confirmed to ABC News' Jason Ryan that the DC Metro police had, indeed, evacuated the organization's offices after being told by the organization that it had received a bomb threat.

The threat came when a man called the FreedomWorks main line and told the organization's female receptionist: "I put a bomb in your building, bitch."

The FreedomWorks staffer who spoke with ABC News said that the organization has received multiple threats but that for some reason, the DC Metro police thought that this one was credible enough to evacuate the building.

The FreedomWorks staffer did not fear for his safety but worried that it was an effort to disrupt the organization's ability to round up activists in advance of tomorrow's "March on Washington" which is expected to bring tens of thousands of activists to the nation's capital.


The Politico places the number of protesters expected at 20,000 to 200,000, still a far cry from the millions that the White House claimed to expect.

Saturday’s “Taxpayer March”– at which organizers expect anywhere from 20,000 to 200,000 people – as well as dozens of smaller marches around the country, will prove that the fledgling “Tea Party” movement is real, according to Mark Williams, a conservative radio talk show host from Sacramento who is vice chairman of Our Country Deserves Better PAC, a political action committee that is co-sponsoring the march.

“If I’ve learned one thing in 30 years of doing activist talk, it’s that you can’t manufacture this kind of thing,” said Williams. “I could get on the radio and rant and rave until I was blue in the face, but if it’s not out there, it’s not going to happen.”


Last but not least, Joe Wilson, the Representative from South Carolina that shouted out "You lie" to Obama during Obama's latest Obamacare speech, is receiving support from his constituents.

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