"0ne of those pathetic bloggers who tries to make a living out of attacking other bloggers and media folk in an effort to illicit a reaction and draw traffic to his site." -- Owen Robinson of Boots and Sabers
Rightwingers, who had no problem denouncing opponents of the Iraq War as un-American, are outraged that hatebloggers use the term teabagging to describe tea parties, such as the September 19 Milwaukee Tea Party.
Thing is, the term teabagging did not enter the lexicon until (as noted by the illusory tenant) Fox News' Griff Jenkins, covering the incredibly racially diverse anti-Obama rallies, alluded to how some protesters said they were going to teabag the White House.
The Brawler subsequently heard tea partiers refer to themselves as holding tea bag rallies, etc.
But give Griff credit: The unwitting use of the term captured perfectly the general witlessness of the protests, a refusal to deal with reality that most palpably manifests itself in hilariously overblown estimates of crowd sizes.
Charlie Sykes and his compatriots on the right, however, would never seize on such a gaffe in ridiculing the other. Right?
There's a lot to parse in this column about the September 19 Milwaukee teabagging by Patrick "Iraq war opponents are a surrender caucus" McIlheran, and the Brawler hopes to get to it. But he did want to zero in on this claim by McIlheran apropos of the crowd's size:
5,000 to 10,000 fellow Wisconsinites protesting high taxes
Based on the Brawler's observation of the baseline crowd at the Milwaukee tea party (perhaps just north of 1,000 when festivities began) it is difficult to imagine, based on simple logistics, how the crowd hit 5,000. That size, indeed, seems on the outside. Claims of 10,000 are ludicrous. And while it may be difficult to distinguish a crowd of, say, 800,000 from 1 million, a crowd of 5,000 vs. 10,000 at a relatively narrow strip of ground at the lakefront would look very different. So it's not clear how McIlheran came up with this estimate. (For what it's worth, Charlie Sykes pimps the 10,000 number.)
The Brawler would also note that a claim of 10,000 people directly contradicts the reporting of an actual JS reporter with actual reporting experience (as opposed to Patrick's two years of reporting experience in small town Minnesota before being kicked to a desk) of "several thousand."
But, to borrow from a different headline by Pat "Astrophysicist" McIlheran, "not whether it's true; whether it's useful."
Also: was Patrick there to gauge the crowd size?
Below: Teabagger, who must be taken seriously, protests high taxes.
A while back the Brawler wondered whether Barrett had, or was about to, receive a second phone call from Obama, this time urging him to run for governor. Then comes today's Kind announcement. Has the call come through?
After all, the Obama team has reportedly taken an aggressive role in state races. Surely they wouldn't ignore Wisconsin -- and the Brawler has to believe that Obama would tilt toward Barrett given 1) that's the way most members of Team Doyle would lean 2) as an early Obama supporter, Doyle conceivably would have some input -- and his input would not be favorable to Lawton and 3) if memory serves, Lawton was a Hillary supporter. That wouldn't necessarily be a dealbreaker, but given other factors, can't help. Of course, this would be a fairly sensitive primary for the White House to weigh in on.
Democratic sources say the Obama administration is paying close attention to how the Wisconsin governor's race is shaping up and wants Barrett to run.
"They've been interested in him running for a while," said one Democratic source. "I'm sure they're concerned about keeping the office in Democratic hands."
To what extent would an all-Milwaukee gubernatorial race potentially dampen outstate enthusiasm? And does Barrett running make the Republicans look at someone besides Walker?
The takeover talk suddenly seems a lot more like Barrett and Doyle (who us no great fan of Lt. Gov. Barb Lawton, the only announced Democrat so far) setting the stage for a state-wide campaign.
The Brawler, from his previously linked piece of clairvoyance, dated September 5:
Given that early Obama supporter Doyle and his team aren't particularly high on Barb "Vote Hillary" Lawton ....and that while Pelosi had apparently given Kind her blessing to run (and Kind's been making the rounds among muckity mucks to gauge support), the D's can't want to lose a seat they don't have to in 2010 ... perhaps [Barrett should expect a call from Obama to run for guv]. I'd imagine Tom could get Team Doyle support (noting how they're teaming up on taking over MPS ... a move that wouldn't play at all badly with out-of-Milwaukee voters).
Patrick "I possess skills"McIlheran will be deploying his knowledge of climate change (i.e. whatever he's read from PowerLine or the Heartland Institute that morning) October 10 at the "Future Wisconsin Conference" at the Days Inn at 11703 W. Bluemound Road. That's per a flyer someone thoughtfully handed me at the sparsely attended Milwaukee Tea Party on September 19.
Joining McIlheran on the panel, "Climate Change: Fact, Fiction, or Folly" (Hey Patrick, while I may not have your copy editing skills methinks you need a question mark there. Also, dispose of the superfluous final comma.) will be State Rep. Jim "Paul Joseph's Caddy" Ott and Dr. Yuri Maltsev. Maltseve of Carthage College is a man of many skills, as he also will be talking about missile defense.
Is Patrick getting paid for this gig? Or is this just an effort by the Journal Sentinel to whip up subscriptions among wingnuts?
Other highlights include a panel called "The War Against Christianity," moderated by Judge Randy Koschnick. Sue Armacoast of WRL tackles "Preserving Life in a Hostile World," Rep. Tom Petri and State Sen. Glenn "Mutter" Grothman bemoan how the shiftless will always be with us in "Back to the Past: Welfare Reform," and Mark Block will talk about the 2 million attendees of the September 19 Milwaukee Tea Party. You can optionally attend a viewing of the movie "Rendezvous with Destiny" by nutter David Bossie's Citizens United Productions, and caps off with a happy hour sponsored by the Conservative Young Professionals of Milwaukee.
Business casual -- no suits please! $60 a head. You can also sponsor students to attend. It is, after all, a waste to lose ones mind.
I think Sadly, No! nails it in this shorter version of Ross Douthat's Bush apologia (registration required):
Yeah, OK, so Bush fucked up everything he touched, but at least he had the good sense to scramble around at the very last minute while spending lots of lives and money to avert a complete zombies-roaming-the-streets type of disaster. In conclusion, Bush was a good president.
More on target, say, than this analysis of the spending habits of Bush vs. Obama offered up by Roland Melnick in retort to the Brawler's photo of an Obama supporter at September 19's sparingly attended Milwaukee Tea Party (sparingly attended, at least, in comparison to AFP's ludicrous crowd estimates):
Brave...maybe, but not in the way you think. Mathematically inclined? Not so much. Obama's flaccid stimulus spent more in one stroke of the pen than the entire war in Iraq. Claiming GW's military spending would buy 50 years of Obamacare is almost as dishonest and stupid as claiming you can pay for it by making government more efficient.
The Brawler is one of society's producers, so he needs to hurry to work. But just one point. The Brawler appreciates Roland desired a more turgid stimulus,. But the Brawler wishes Roland had a better sense of how much of our treasure Bush wasted in the Iraq War (particularly if he's going to quibble about someone's mathematical inclinations).
The Brawler is always deeply amused to see Charlie Sykes, who called Barack Obama a "sniveling, snot-nosed community organizer"* recoil at the "hate" shown by the "left" (which includes everybody from anarchists to Byron Dorgan). The latest case has been some comments by DPW Chairman Mike Tate, whom Sykes refers to -- sarcastically (always his sniveling metier) -- as a "genius." As opposed to the election, majority-losing genius of Reince Priebus or Rick Graber.
MADISON – Scott Walker joined right-wing extremists in Milwaukee on Saturday to participate in a hateful, fear-based rally aimed at preventing progress for Wisconsin families. Walker was joined by right-wing commentator Michelle Malkin and known tax cheat Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher at the rally, which was sponsored by corporate-backed Americans for Prosperity.
“Scott Walker’s open association with radical, right-wing extremists further demonstrates the divisiveness of his politics,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate. “While Democrats in Wisconsin and across the country have debated important issues in a civil manner, Walker and others on the right have attempted to turn the debate into a shouting match.”
Although organizers claimed the protest was peaceful, one man was injured and taken to the hospital.* Other protestors used scare tactics, name-calling and false claims of socialism to get their point across.
“Wisconsin has a history of open and honest debate,” said Tate. “The fact that Scott Walker would endorse this behavior should be a clear sign to voters across Wisconsin that Walker is too extreme to represent them.”
Now, even as a hate blogger the Brawler wouldn't necessarily use all the above language -- dig, I even had some decent exchanges with some baggers who didn't realize I was a cultural spy and agree with Dad29 on early crowd estimates!
The crowd cheered U.S. Rep. Mark A. Green (R-Wisconsin) when he said that "for too long I think too many of us have allowed other voices who claim to speak for us to go unchallenged. We've heard from the Hollywood half-wits who confuse their fame with intelligence or, worse yet, relevance. We've seen the peaceniks marching back and forth at our campuses carrying signs that say anything and everything, everything except for things like 'Saddam must disarm' or 'Freedom for Iraq' or 'We support our troops.'
"My friends, the folks who are here today, we don't have agendas," Green continued. "We have mortgages. We don't chain ourselves to trees. We drive our kids to school. We don't burn our flags or block the traffic. We pay our taxes, and we try to make payroll. We are the silent majority. Today, we are speaking up."
Every single bolded statement was an insult to the people who protested going to war with Iraq --and who proved to be, to borrow a phrase from Judith Miller, fucking right to do so. As opposed to Mark Green, who thought we would have been out of Iraq a couple years ago.
Did I mention Charlie Sykes was at the aforementioned rally?
* Sykes additionally likes to refer to Jimmy Carter as the worst president of the last 100 years although American fared better economically under the Carter years than they did under George W. bush, who, truly qualifies for the worst in the past 100 years if not EVAR. (Civil War was going to happen, don't Blame Buchanan!). Sykes also likes to call Carter a wimp, though Carter has the distinction, over Sykes, of having served in the military.
When the Brawler left the lakefront as festivities were beginning on September 19, it looked like the Milwaukee Tea Party had maybe drawn north of a thousand souls*. So you can imagine his surprise when he saw some of the estimates coming in. The Sheriffs Department claiming 8,000 to 10,000 (please note that Sheriff David "Slim Jim" Clarke was a speaker, as was Scott Walker, neither of whom can be said to be unvindictive personages). The MacIver Institute claimed about 10,000. The AFP claimed 15,000 (even though the MacIver Institute, as you'll see, claims the AFP said about 10,000).
The Brawler has no problem believing that the crowd grew after he left. He can even buy the estimate of his co-religionist Dad29 that 3,000 to 5,000 people attended. But 8,000? 10,000? 15,000? Did they parachute in? As the Brawler left he saw people coming in -- in ones, twos and threes. He saw the same as he biked past the proceedings. But dumping an additional 7,000 to 8,000 people on that spot in a 2-hour span would be all but a logistical impossibility given the constricted access of the parking along the lakefront -- not to mention that once they parked, they'd have to hike a ways to get there. So basically the 10,000 attendee argument is it took all day for north of a thousand people to get there but just 2 hours for 9,000 people to show up. Right.
And the Brawler might be more inclined to believe that the partydrew that crowd if there was some documentary evidence. But there ain't. And the footage offered up by the MacIver Institute claiming about 10,000 attendees belies that claim given that there's nowhere near that number in any of the footage. Note the visible verdant green space and abundant personal space (not to mention space occupying chairs) in the footage.
If there were 10,000 people there, let alone 15,000, you wouldn't have that kind of green space visible.
A crowd of 10,000 would represent a little less than half of the 23,000-person capacity of the Marcus Amphitheater. Seriously, does anyone there believe it was that big?
Now, I understand the right wants to inflate the attendance of its rallies to whip up a sense of resentment among the folks ("The media ain't reporting our true numbers!) as well as keep hope alive during what must be a time of dejection among a group of people who cheered us into a war based on lies, have had their ass handed to them in two consecutive election cycles, and are forced to watch the nation come closer than it ever has to large-scale health care and health insurance reform.
But saying 10,000 don't make it so and self-delusion has a tendency to come back and bite you.
Also, shouldn't the Journal Sentinel look into whether the Sheriffs Department is inflating the crowd estimates for political reasons? Seems that's an abuse of Milwaukee County taxpayer money -- most of whom are, of course, ideologically opposed to the teabaggers they so politely hosted. I mean, I pay more in taxes than, say, Patrick McIlheran, and it ticks me off my money's been used in this way!
*(While the Brawler is not a crowd countologist he has routinely been at large events and is intimately familiar with venues that hold 1,000 plus people and thus has a sense of what a crowd that size looks like. He also walked through the crowd and observed it from numerous angles, counted people in the hot dog line, and even, truth be told, chatted with a couple folks who liked his shirt and otherwise seemed like decent enough, if misguided, folks.)
