The guy has a neat motto: "I am, therefore I rant".
http://chblue.com/rantarchive/dailyrant051500.asp
Why march when there are places to shop?
May 15, 2000
The Marching Moms came to Washington this past weekend, but the rally fell well short of the "Million Mom" hype.
March organizers claimed as many as 750,000 wandered into the Mall for the march, a lie so blatant that even the Washington Post couldn't buy it. Although the U.S. Park Service no longer provides "official" estimates of such events, a Park policeman we know said the crowd "may have topped 100,000, but not by much."
And those who did attend didn't stay long. Long before the rally was over, women wearing "Million Mom March" buttons and T-shirts crammed into Washington-area shopping malls with children in tow.
Northern Virginia's Pentagon City Mall enjoyed a heavier-than-normal throng of shoppers, thanks to moms who would rather shop than protest.
"Sure, I took one of the buses here," one mom said Sunday at the mall. "I've never been to Washington. It was a good chance to see the monuments and do a little shopping. It was something different to do on Mother's Day."
At a time when Washington's tourist season is just starting, Tourmobiles were packed and traditional stops like Ford's Theater, the Smithsonian and the Zoo reported long lines.
"They started filing out long before the speeches were over," said one Tourmobile driver. "A lot of these mothers seems to have a low threshold of boredom."
In fact, boredom set in long before a lot of the moms even came to town. Many planned bus caravans from various places around the country were canceled because they couldn't muster enough moms to pay for the trip. The J.W. Marriott Hotel, closest to the Mall, still had rooms available on Saturday night.
What the moms lacked in numbers, however, they made up in media hype. All the Sunday TV news talk shows featured the march. Some gave equal time to the Second Amendment Sisters, a group marching against gun control. The Today Show sent mom-to-be Soledad O'Brien to Washington to interview Hillary Clinton. The number of reporters, cameramen and supporting crew damn near outnumbered the moms.
Perhaps it was the presence of Hollywood loudmouths like Rosie O'Donnell that spurred so much television coverage. It wasn't news value. Other protests have drawn larger crowds and generated less news interest.
Or perhaps it was just a slow news day. After the talking heads finished pontificating about marching moms, they moved on to equally-important topics, like Rudy Giuliani's love life.
If they had wanted the real story, they should have sent camera crews to the shopping malls. Then they could have discovered the real reason mothers come to Washington in the Spring.
(Doug Thompson is the founder of Capitol Hill Blue. The Rant appears on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays or whenever the mood suits him)
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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
http://chblue.com/rantarchive/dailyrant051500.asp
Why march when there are places to shop?
May 15, 2000
The Marching Moms came to Washington this past weekend, but the rally fell well short of the "Million Mom" hype.
March organizers claimed as many as 750,000 wandered into the Mall for the march, a lie so blatant that even the Washington Post couldn't buy it. Although the U.S. Park Service no longer provides "official" estimates of such events, a Park policeman we know said the crowd "may have topped 100,000, but not by much."
And those who did attend didn't stay long. Long before the rally was over, women wearing "Million Mom March" buttons and T-shirts crammed into Washington-area shopping malls with children in tow.
Northern Virginia's Pentagon City Mall enjoyed a heavier-than-normal throng of shoppers, thanks to moms who would rather shop than protest.
"Sure, I took one of the buses here," one mom said Sunday at the mall. "I've never been to Washington. It was a good chance to see the monuments and do a little shopping. It was something different to do on Mother's Day."
At a time when Washington's tourist season is just starting, Tourmobiles were packed and traditional stops like Ford's Theater, the Smithsonian and the Zoo reported long lines.
"They started filing out long before the speeches were over," said one Tourmobile driver. "A lot of these mothers seems to have a low threshold of boredom."
In fact, boredom set in long before a lot of the moms even came to town. Many planned bus caravans from various places around the country were canceled because they couldn't muster enough moms to pay for the trip. The J.W. Marriott Hotel, closest to the Mall, still had rooms available on Saturday night.
What the moms lacked in numbers, however, they made up in media hype. All the Sunday TV news talk shows featured the march. Some gave equal time to the Second Amendment Sisters, a group marching against gun control. The Today Show sent mom-to-be Soledad O'Brien to Washington to interview Hillary Clinton. The number of reporters, cameramen and supporting crew damn near outnumbered the moms.
Perhaps it was the presence of Hollywood loudmouths like Rosie O'Donnell that spurred so much television coverage. It wasn't news value. Other protests have drawn larger crowds and generated less news interest.
Or perhaps it was just a slow news day. After the talking heads finished pontificating about marching moms, they moved on to equally-important topics, like Rudy Giuliani's love life.
If they had wanted the real story, they should have sent camera crews to the shopping malls. Then they could have discovered the real reason mothers come to Washington in the Spring.
(Doug Thompson is the founder of Capitol Hill Blue. The Rant appears on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays or whenever the mood suits him)
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.