Brew City Brawler

How Fox News invented the term teabagging

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?

Just in! Tea partiers self-identifying as teabaggers at a Washington DC tea party in February. Funny how in the interweb era a case of sign fail can brand a "movement."

Libertines!

Patrick McIlheran tries to estimate size of Milwaukee Tea Party

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 sober defense of the Bush Administration

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).

Charlie Sykes, 50something going on 12

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.

Here's what Tate had to say:

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!

But Let's take the wayback machine to see what elected politician Mark Green had to say about anti-war protesters back in April 13, 2003 (from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel):

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.

How many people attended the Milwaukee Tea Party 2: Swelling teabag crowd estimates

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.)

Scenes from a Tea Party: Bravest guy there

Scenes from a Milwaukee Tea Party: No to TYRRANY!

Scenes from a Milwaukee Tea Party: We heart Glenn Beck

Also, glad to see the guy on the right thought people might not get his Orwell math.

Scenes from a Milwaukee Tea Party: The real reason 2 million people showed up

Apparently, the Decemberists were not available.

How many people attended the Milwaukee tea party?

How many teabaggers packed into the Milwaukee lakefront yesterday? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says several thousand. As noted yesterday, Dad29 pegs it at at least 3,000 to 5,000. National treasure and insubordinate ex-cop Glenn Frankovis, channeling AFP honcho Mark Block allegedly channeling the Sheriff's Department, puts it higher (via Badger Blogger):

I just received word from Mark Block (AFP) that the Sheriff’s Dept. estimated the crowd size at 15,000. Not too shabby.

Haven't seen this number publicly reported (may have missed it). Interesting, if true. Was David Clarke, who spoke at the event, giving the estimate?

As mentioned yesterday, the Brawler left the festivities just as they kicked off yesterday. This was the shot of the crowd I took from the Mason Street ramp off Lincoln Memorial at approximately 2:40.

I'd believe that this crowd, which I inexactly estimated as high as north of 1,000 (an inexact but  in line with Dad29) grew over the course of the event. But did it grow ten times in size? Anyway, we can trust Charlie Sykes will say the number was MORE THAN 15,000. Or maybe he'll go with Illusory Tenant's estimate of 2 million.

JUST IN! AFP doubles down on more than 15,000! TMJ reports that organizers estimate attendance at 3,000 to 10,000! Close enough for wingnut math!

This guy pegs the crowd at 10,000, citing this picture:

That's not 10,000 people.

If the words "15,000 at tea party" sound familiar, they should. That was the number cited by organizers of an Atlanta tea party, a number picked up by the media and widely reported -- and then determined to be physically impossible.

As noted in the Galloway article, a man typically takes up 4 square feet, women a bit more because they on average have wider hips. A good number of people at the rally brought chairs, meaning they would take up even more space. So a crowd of 10,000 would take up more than 40,000 feet; a crowd of 15,000 would fill up more than 60,000 square feet. Unless the AFP can demonstrate how they did that -- what was the allotted space, anyway -- I think the estimate of 3,000 to 5,000 (i.e. several thousand) sounds about right.

JUST IN! Obama attracted a crowd of 15,000 when he spoke at the Minneapolis Target Center. Here's a sense of what a crowd that size looks like (and obviously the photo doesn't capture the full crowd).

(h/t Minnesota Prairie Roots)

I didn't see a crowd approaching this size or density when I left, as the festivities began with people reading the Bill of Rights. Maybe the AFP parachuted them in after I left. A crowd of several thousand people is nothing to be unhappy about. No, it doesn't suggest that there's any sort of mass uprising against Obama. I don't see the point in the AFP trying to delude people.

JUST IN! Hilarious. AFP says more than 15,000 ... MacIver claims more than 10,000!

MacIver claims it could not find a high enough vantage point to capture the entire crowd ... which causes the Brawler to question their thinking ability, given even he was able to do it (see above). MacIver did provide photos shot at areas of high density. This looks like a huge crowd, right?

Compare to a pic the Brawler took when while the front was relatively dense, there was plenty of elbow room in the rear.

JUST IN! At a rally that counted County Exec Scott Walker and Sheriff David Clarke as speakers, the Sheriff's Department estimates the crowd at 8,000 to 10,000. So some 7,000 to 8,000 people showed up fashionably late. Then who told AFP's Mark Block it was 15,000?