To Washington & Back

Still a little shot from lack of sleep and too much travel for a full recap, but here are some links that will placehold until I can get more together:

1) Thank you so much to all of the wonderful Threepers who came out from all over the country, helped assemble the flags and banner, and marched. Well done.

2) This Pajamas piece does a good job of laying out arguments for the actual attendance. As a veteran of the 1986 Mets and the 1998 Yankees World Series crowd swarms in Manhattan, it is simply impossible that there were less than 500,000 folks on hand, and the 1 million figure is well within reason, based on my observations. Incidentally, an ally talked with a beat-level US Capitol police officer, who claimed 1.2 million attendees.

3) Miraculously, the WaPo coverage on Sunday was reasonably balanced. Key graf:

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Some came to protest what they see as government interference with gun ownership. Shaun Bryant, 40, a leadership trainer, was among eight people who flew in from Salt Lake City. They fashioned a sign with a drawing of an AR-15 assault rifle and the words, "We came unarmed from Montana and Utah . . . this time!"
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4) Beck says much in this evisceration of Roger L. Simon's post on Saturday; read both Billy's slam and Simon's article.

5) Mike was first on keyboard, and files these pieces, along with others I will post later.

6) Our rally point on Saturday morning was surveilled by persons unknown; Mike has the details.

7) All of Denninger's synthesis of the 9/12 protest and what it means going forward is essential; key grafs here:

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...There were 56 men who signed The Declaration of Independence in 1776. I'd expect we could find at least that many in Congress today who will stand on the steps of the Capitol tomorrow and say in one, loud, coherent voice:

You, American Business and we, The Representatives and Senators of this nation, have gone too far.

Whether you be bankers, lobbyists, pharmaceutical companies or any other form of business, the days of corruption and grift are over. We confess that we have sinned against the Founders and the People of this great nation and you shall confess your sins, effective today.

We assert that we shall not take upon ourselves nor force upon the people of this nation debt that they are unable to pay in a futile and fraudulent attempt to cover up past scams.

We shall return to a Constitutional and law-abiding system and form of government.

We shall not permit banks to make loans for which they have no collateral value and no excess capital, and we shall impose this standard upon them each and every day.

We demand, today and every day forward, that every firm shall produce a true and correct balance sheet, marked to the market, with no off-balance sheet games - without exception. We shall insist that those who refuse or lie go to prison.

We demand the strong application of anti-trust laws to the banking system, a lowering of the maximum concentration of deposits from 10% to 1%, a break-up of all institutions that exceed this amount, a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall in its entirety and an absolute ban on cross-ownership of banks and investment, finance or insurance-related firms.

We demand that bills be filed with sufficient time to read them before being voted upon, in full, with "sufficient time" being at least one full business day for each 100 pages of bill, without exception, and that the full and complete text be made available both to us and to the public before the clock begins to run.

We demand that every law that compels a government agency to act shall have as a default "or else" clause the immediate removal from office of any official who willfully disregards that law's tenets.

Finally, we assert that we work for the people as their representatives, and for good or bad, we shall listen to and be beholden only to them. In furtherance thereof any lobbying contact of any sort shall be recorded or in written form and be made available to the public immediately, so that all speech from corporate interests shall be disclosed to the people for their consideration, without exception.

If we cannot find at least one hundred good men and women in Congress who will stand on the steps of the Capitol tomorrow and make this speech then it is clear from the 9/12 protest that the next step shall and must be the ballot box next year, where we shall be forced to remove you from office and replace you with men and women who actually will and do represent us.

And should that fail?

Let's hope it does not for the good of all in America...
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Forward.

Let's win.