10 from 10: D.C. 9-12 rally in pictures and text (part 2: the players)

This post was from September 14, 2009. Perhaps it could lead to a piece on my thoughts on where the TEA Party has gone since those heady, bring a quarter million or more people to a D.C. rally days. I will say that this rally was perhaps my favorite event to cover, that’s for sure. So take a few moments to remember.

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Last night I did the crowd shots for the disbelievers. Today I’ll get to the more meaty parts of the rally.

But it may not be a bad idea for me to do this part chronologically as well. There were a lot of moments which cry out for comment and today is a good time to sit back and reflect on what the day meant to me and a million others like me – not to mention the thousands who participated in smaller rallies across the country and/or met the TEA Party Express tour bus in various parts of the country.

Since we walked from Union Station, where the bus dropped us off, directly to the Capitol (we were late enough that the march had already began) we walked by the Teamsters national headquarters. (Don’t forget I embed captions too.)

No it's not. Keep the secret ballot secret and don't allow Big Labor intimidation.

I know this isn’t SEIU headquarters, but card check performed by the same type of people who think nothing of beating up health care protesters doesn’t fly – keep the secret ballot as it is. So what if unions only win about 2/3 of the time.

The first attention-grabber I ran across at the rally had his own message.

The only thing missing from this guy's getup was money hanging out of his pockets. But he certainly looked the part - just hope he never actually runs for office with this picture all over the internet.

While this woman wasn’t dressed to the nines, the sign she held up intrigued me so she’ll be a featured player.

Unfortunately we can't hit the rewind button until November of 2012. Hopefully the damage won't be too severe.

Also, she had on two great buttons: “I’d rather be waterboarding” and “America: Not arrogant, just awesome”. Winners in my book.

This lady was sitting back deeper in the crowd, so she couldn’t see the stage but she could be seen.

Yep, typical right-wing extremist, spouting off those limited government principles. Perhaps this picture is appropriate since most of these values were kicked to the curb by Congress and our President.

One complaint I have about the setup was there were way too few facilities. I counted 60 portapotties for a million or so people. Disregarding potty parity, there should have been hundreds if I recall building code correctly – then again, even the organizers only predicted 75,000 to show up. This was stuck on a portapotty door and was worth a chuckle and a picture.

Look on the bright side - at least ACORN can't be punk'd there.

Once I finally got through the line, I wandered some more. This was when the main event got started so I listened to a couple speakers. I didn’t get the name of the guy who said this but he said, “Three days ago the President called us out…three days later, here we are!”

Obviously that got a big roar from the crowd, as did Andrew Moylan of the National Taxpayers Union noting, “Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored.” The crowd noise could be quite loud at times but since we were scattered about in a large area (as opposed to a stadium) it wasn’t deafening. Certainly it was great to hear as we walked up.

Crowd noise didn’t deter this woman from doing her job.

This woman was interviewing people for a later video and her company was called 'Hi There Productions'.

Since I have the web address I’ll have to see if the interview I did made the cut. If so I’ll put it up for Friday Night Videos. (Nice tease, huh?)

This may be my favorite picture from the event in an artistic sense.

I have no idea how he got up there but he was there for quite awhile and drew a lot of cheers. I know I wouldn't do that since I hate being on ladders let alone 20 feet up.

In a certain way it’s very symbolic of our cause, sort of reminiscent of Paul Revere’s ride. Speaking of riding, there were others who arrived in the same manner we did.

American Energy did a nice product placement with this attractive moving billboard.

I presume they had their people moving through the crowd exhorting support of a pro-energy position. But another bus was met with much more derision.

These protestors kept yelling at those on the CNN bus 'Tell the truth!' Maybe they need to start since their ratings are in the toilet. Notice the lady slapping up the 'Fox News' sign.

Returning to a space in view of the stage, I took a long-range shot of the TEA Party Express group, represented by a previous monoblogue interviewee, Deborah Johns.

Blue Star Mom and TEA Party Express participant Deborah Johns (center, at podium and on big screens) remarks on the 7,000 mile journey her bus tour took to end up in Washington.

I’m working on securing another interview with Deborah this week. They also brought the event organizers on stage to close the show.

The people who put together the 9-12 TEA Party put in hundreds of hours to get this together and on the whole did an excellent job!

But the pictures aren’t done. I have more fun stuff to discuss from the return to Union Station, like this guy.

Yep, he's looking for attention, but this guy gets his due for making a spectacle of himself.

The same goes for this truck. I did not Google “Mark the Patriot” but maybe sometime I will.

Here's someone who doesn't mind making his truck unique for a cause.

Arriving at Union Station, there were still protestors worth checking out. I suspect a lot of Congressmen may get a pink slip next year.

I can tell you that you'll see a sign like this again. We were all waiting for our respective buses at Union Station.

I saw buses there from points up and down the mid-Atlantic: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina were represented. I even was in proximity with a minor celebrity: Rev. James David Manning, the Louisiana preacher best known for calling President Obama a “long-legged mack daddy.”

The Rev. James David Manning (left) found a lot of supporters at the protest for his point of view. I wouldn't quite go so far as he does but certainly the frustration with President Obama is real.

Between two posts I have 24 pictures, plus another 14 on my Facebook page. But there’s no way I can create the full flavor of the event – I guess you just had to be there.

Hopefully this won’t be the last event the 9-12 Coalition conducts, but most of us know that this isn’t a climax, just a beginning. The change we seek isn’t one that occurs overnight and doesn’t stop even if we throw out Congress and Obama next time around. Vigilance is forever, and that’s the first lesson we all need to learn.

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