I was there. Unbelievable turnout in DC. We shut the place down. How the media can ignore this historic event is beyond me. Congrats to everyone who turned out. We made our voices heard inspite of the media's denials.

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I was there and was amazed at the amount of people that attended. I was 1.5 hours late to Freedom Plaza and people were still piling out of the Metro. It took over an hour to get down to the Capital and it was 1pm by the time we made our way around the pool to the SE side. It was amazing. I blogged about my experience at Political Lipskip and put up a video from the walk down Pennsylvania if anyone is intereted. What a fantastic day. I'm still buzzed about it.

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I suppose I should ask two questions.

The first, you don't actually believe, or want to believe for that matter, that Red County is unbiased/non-partisan do you?

The second, do you condone signs that were seen (on MSNBC, FOX, and CNN) that depicted Obama as Hitler and claimed he was an undocumented worker.

I'd ask about the rest, but honestly I think we'll just go in circles, it was a nice display of civic activism from middle class America, but sadly not one that had any proposed solutions, which is why I stuck to those two questions.

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"Anonymous", I speak for myself but 1) obviously Red State is biased. The site is called Red State. They attended and you didn't. They have a right to say what they saw and experienced. 2) Speaking of bias, obviously CNN, MSNBC and NBC are going to show signs by a few nut jobs to somehow "prove" the rally was a bunch of Nazi racists.

I don't condone racial prejudice or racism. I saw plenty of signs that were basically against GOVERNMENT. Democrats or Republicans. But you would never know that if all you did was sit on your couch and let the MSM feed you the information. Plus you have to wonder if the left was behind the swastikas??? hhmmmm.Anyway, lots of good decent people attended.

3) Plenty of solutions were mentioned. Limited government. Constitutional adherence. Reform health care in a manner that does not include a government run option. Stop spending. No federal funding of ACORN. I heard all of these ideas and more from the speeches and conversations from everyday Americans that attended.

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looks like the Anonymous Pinko Troll is back.

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"The first, you don't actually believe, or want to believe for that matter, that Red County is unbiased/non-partisan do you?"

Nope. And I don't recall saying that. In fact... the name "RED" County would seem to indicate that they align with - at the minimum, conservatism... and possibly the Republican party. However, SEVERAL of the essays and the assorted responses I have written have been HIGHLY critical of the GOP and I have never been sanctioned or censored for expressing those views, so I guess I don't see your point.

For the record, I am not a Republican. I consider myself to be a fiscally conservative Socially libertarian individual, best described as a civil libertarian constitutionalist. I know, doesn't work well on a bumper sticker, but many concepts that are reasoned and complex don't.

"The second, do you condone signs that were seen (on MSNBC, FOX, and CNN) that depicted Obama as Hitler and claimed he was an undocumented worker."

What, pray tell, in this short piece, would lead you to believe that I might condone controversial signs that you mention? First, regardless if there were 500,000 or 2 million people at this rally, I'd say that 60-80 percent of them carried signs. That's a huge percentage. A majority of those signs were hand made, and very creative. I personally did not see a sign similar to what you mention, but I would not be so arrogant as to suggest they did not exist. However, it would not surprise me in the least that the MSM would focus on, and highlight these signs - because they would fit the media's agenda to portray these people as rascist, bigoted rednecks.

So, as a person WHO WAS THERE, and participated in these types of events ALL WEEK, I can tell you that the average "Tea Party Patriot" didn't carry signs of the kind you mentioned.

The only "Obama As Hitler" posters I saw all week were near the "Doctors Rally Against Socialized Medicine" on 9/10 near the capitol. About 300 feet from the actual protest was a table of Lyndon LaRouche supporters handing out their materials. They were NOT affiliated with this rally, yet what little coverage the rally received spent a majority of their time covering the table not even associated with the event because of their controversial posters.

And therin lies the problem with the media bias that you would probably claim does not exist. I have now seen it first hand and it is out of control. It is clearly helping you define your opinions. Think about that... if you are a liberal in the classic sense of the word, manipulation and propaganda should be highly offensive to your sensibilities, and you, sir - are being misled.

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Well first, I didn't think that Red County was unbiased, but you mentioned it as an alternative to the biased MSM, so I wanted to make sure. Secondly, the signs I was mentioning were seen on MSNBC, CNN, and FOX (not NBC), which is why I mentioned them. And the reason I asked is because, while they were clearly in the minority, they are also the sort of bizarre sentiments that have been seen at the townhalls through August. There always was an element of those advocating for small government, but there are also a lot of so-called birthers, people threatening armed rebellion, Obama as a socialist/fascist (contradictory by the way), and so forth. Thus my question was to determine what you felt of those groups. Also, I have no illusions that the media is biased to some extent. MSNBC is clearly liberal, and FOX is clearly just as conservative. However, what bothers me is when conservatives claim that the New York Times is biased because it relased a story on wiretapping, or things of the like. That's not a bias, that's good journalism.

As a sidenote, the estimates I've heard for how many people attended were about 75,000 not half a million or anywhere near that mark.

As for ideas, perhaps you would care to share some of them. I have, after all, been pressing to hear about how Republicans would like to reform healthcare, what they plan to do about environmental concerns, how they plan to help education, and it would have been nice to hear an economic plan that was more detailed than "unspecified tax cuts" and the "budget without numbers".

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 Well first, I didn't think that Red County was unbiased, but you mentioned it as an alternative to the biased MSM, so I wanted to make sure. 

Well, again - never claimed Red County was unbiased, or the be-all, end-all penultimate news site either. It is simply an ALTERNATIVE source of information. That was the concept I was trying to communicate. Furthermore, I don’t have a particular problem with sources of information having a bias. But what I *do* have a problem with are major networks who claim to be unbiased and without agenda to be so clearly so. Call it like it is, and let the chips fall where they may.

And before you bring up FOX News, if you are being intellectually honest, you must recognize that there are two components to this channel. There is the news division, which I find to be EXCEEDINGLY fair, and then there is the infotainment division, where the talkers (e.g. Beck, etc) do their thing. The latter is clearly biased, but is identified as such by each and every one of the hosts.

Contrast this to the MSM, last week an NBC “reporter” told me that if I had concerns about my son watching the Obama address to school kids live in the classroom that I was, basically, an unfit parent. This type of editorializing buried in so-called “hard news” coverage is unacceptable.

Secondly, the signs I was mentioning were seen on MSNBC, CNN, and FOX (not NBC), which is why I mentioned them. And the reason I asked is because, while they were clearly in the minority, they are also the sort of bizarre sentiments that have been seen at the townhalls through August. 

My response is “if it bleeds it leads” has been the first commandment of hard news gathering my entire lifetime. This is no different. A sign with a bible verse or some other vanilla platitude (which most of the signs carried, there was very little true controversy on the signs carried by marchers.) However, while FOX may have covered negative aspects of the rally (you should have watched Geraldo Rivera later that evening) there were also three hours of overwhelmingly positive coverage hosted by Glenn Beck that balanced any negative portrayal of the participants. The same cannot be said of the other networks you mentioned. As for the other fringe elements which you mentioned, they are not part of the 9-12 movement, I have already stated that I do not agree with their tactics, nor do I understand their philosophy; and as such - I cannot comment on it more than I already have.

Also, I have no illusions that the media is biased to some extent. MSNBC is clearly liberal, and FOX is clearly just as conservative. However, what bothers me is when conservatives claim that the New York Times is biased because it released a story on wiretapping, or things of the like. That's not a bias, that's good journalism.

You would need to cite a specific example for me to comment directly. However, the amount of hard news critical of the Obama administration has fallen off the charts, and I can say with a degree of certainty that if you took the name “Barack Obama” off the page and replaced it with “George W. Bush” and did a little date switch that the media would be thrashing about like sharks being chummed. 

As a sidenote, the estimates I've heard for how many people attended were about 75,000 not half a million or anywhere near that mark.

First, you need to consider your source. Second, you need to compare photographs to previous events and first-hand experiences at other events. Third, are the numbers critical? I don’t think so. The bottom line is that we shut down the highways, crippled the ground transportation system and completely overwhelmed every single estimate of participation. They had no clue what to expect and they were all blown out the door.

As for ideas, perhaps you would care to share some of them. I have, after all, been pressing to hear about how Republicans would like to reform healthcare, what they plan to do about environmental concerns, how they plan to help education, and it would have been nice to hear an economic plan that was more detailed than "unspecified tax cuts" and the "budget without numbers".

Well, that’s a story for another day… this is an article about the march, not my views on particular issues. However, as I stated before I am not a Republican. What I can tell you I do believe in is the principles of the free market and of constitutional, limited government. I believe there is much that could be done to improve healthcare without a massive overhaul, including making individuals purchase their own policies and simply let the market work the way it was intended, rather than promoting the entitlement mentality of “I don’t care what it costs, my insurance pays for it.” In most instances, Health Care is broken because of government involvement, just like so many other issues we face. The solutions lie with free markets and within the entrepreneurial American spirit, which should be unleashed to work their magic.

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My source for the 75,000 people at the march was based on a unofficial estimate given to NBC. Given that the number was also the estimate for a number of news organizations it's what I've been going with, see the following link for more details.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/sep/14/tea-party-photo-shows-large-crowd-different-event/

As for the idea of no government regulation helping everything I would like to remind you of the recent banking/financial crises, caused by lax regulation. Also remember that the insurance industry is not subject to the regulations that are being proposed now. Yet, despite that, they are not fulfilling the role which we believe they should fulfill, including coverage of all people, coverage of people regardless of pre-existing condition, etc.

I'm sorry, but the whole notion that markets and industries will function better without government interference just seems wrong. And, if they do function "better" it is often measured by an increase in profits at the expense of popular well-being.

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 Anonymous... the banking crisis was caused by the Federal govt requiring banks to make loans that would never have been made otherwise. Another perfect example of government inserting itself where it did not belong.

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