My reply to you got censored, and it didn’t have any XXX words!!!??? Probably too truthful and embarrassing for the site.

Considering that this site is posting a figure of 600,000 and the MSM seems to be using 250,000 I’m going to estimate the actual turnout at 425,000 based on averaging both sides.

The individual Tea Parties often had horrible numbers in terms of protests. I heard that Buffalo NY only had 25 show up. Most events had between dozens and hundreds turning out while a few had between a couple and several thousand people. When you compare the Tea Party numbers to protests sponsored by the left the numbers are pretty feeble.

On the other hand Tea Parties took place in hundreds of towns and cities. Most of the time a major protest movement concentrates on a few large events in major cities. This protest covered a lot of geography (including towns I’d never heard of before) in terms of demonstrations you can argue that the movement might only be an inch thick but it covers the entire country.

There are may reasons for low turn-out. The weather in mid April isn’t too good in parts of the country and bad weather can hurt turnout for any outdoor event. It’s also true that having a protest in the middle of the week is going to keep the numbers down.

There is another factor. The left has been protesting for decades while conservatives, with the exception of the anti-abortion movement, have no history of public protests. The fact that the Tea Parties happened will test the willingness of conservatives to take to the streets. “The Silent Majority” (and face it, the majority did not go to a Tea Party) has now seen the fact that conservatives can take to the streets to protest. If a sizable percentage of the people who have voted Republican all these years decide to take to the streets THEN we’d see a big protest.

So the next round of parties is July 4th. More people will be off work. Organizers who had never done anything like this before will have had a bit of experience. Conservatives who have seen the April Tea Parties will decide if they want to join in or stay out. I think the whole thing comes down to this, if the July 4th numbers are a lot higher than the April 15th numbers then the Tea Party movement is a viable political protest movement that will attract more attention and support with each protest.

If the July 4th numbers are not a lot better than April 15th then the whole thing will lose steam and be remembered as a fringe protest.

I hope eveyone who was out prtoesting for the first time had a lot of fun. And for those who are going to be organizing or attending on July 4th, Good Luck!

Hey, that’s pretty cool that the teacher was able to connect with you to get that message down on tape.

The oligarchs definitely committed one of history’s great thefts in the transition from the Soviet Union to contemporary Russia. Just brute force thinly disguised under a thin veneer of law. I wish there had been a process similar to de-Nazification in Russia to rid the people of the politicos turned gangsters.

As I see it, once the slogans and promises of a revolutionary party turn to the reality of governing, the realization that all of those promises cannot be kept, so why not grab what one can and find an internal enemy to blame becomes the norm among the ruling elite. I read once that the Soviet Union was a “counterintelligence state” in which essentially everyone was spying on everyone else, looking for the slightest hint of deviation from the Party line. Such distrust between neighbors kills civil society.

Happy Easter. You’re right that it is a day to put higher things in mind than politicians and their tricks.

That is my battle cry now, and I’m sure it will be echoing through college campuses by 2011. Obama is EPIC FAIL. Best part about being a 20-year old conservative is that no one can accuse you of hypocrisy for taking Social Security, because you haven’t taken it and never will.

An economics teacher from Texas “interviewed” me for his students at the rally–not my finest moment, I must say, since I was trying to articulate an entire life’s experiences for the first time, but it was well worth it even if it reaches one single student. The guy was happy to record a “personal testimony” of what statism and collectivism mean in real terms.
Which proves exactly what you say: there’s a huge need for such personal knowledge and testimony. I often wonder why people like me in this country don’t speak out. There must be millions of us. I hear some on conservative talk radio, saying they are reliving their and their parents’ past all over again, like a nightmare that doesn’t stop. People like me, as one Alexei put it, know all the moves, all the techniques of seducing the masses with empty promises, the blatant, shameless lies, the totalitarian impulse disguised under a hypocritical, paternalist concern for the “have nots.” When I hear “spreading the wealth around” all I can think of is what happened back home, where wealth was confiscated for the benefit of the caste in power. Just look where the wealth is in most of the former Soviet Block countries now: former aparatchiks, secret police agents and collaborators, and their former black-market providers. After the so-called “fall of communism” they distributed what was once “collective property”–a Marxist nonsense in modern economical terms–that is, practically, the entire country, amongst themselves. They became capitalists overnight, for they were the only ones with the ‘capital’ to buy everything in sight. Where I come from they are now known as the “barons.” They and their clans rule, mafia-style, over whole jurisdictions and win elections by bribing their way into seats in government, where they can milk more money from taxpayers and European Union funds.
It sickens me to no end to see the U.S. Government, on both sides of the party divide, become more arogant and fatter and richer and more corrupt every day by milking taxpayers’ money: earmarks, pork, entitlements, jet-setting privileges (remember that sinister multi-millionaire Pelosi, who says the Tea Party movement is instigated by the “wealthiest” to avoid higher taxes), endemic tax-cheating, illicit contributions, you name it.

I’m stopping here, for it’s the orthodox Easter already, and I need to cleanse my mind of scum and dirt.
Add to that

Best assessment of 2009. Spot on.

The obama administration’s buffoonery is increasing expotentialy. It’s going to be fun watching President Dipstick’s face when Americans flush the congressional punchbowl come 2010.