The 9-12 March On Washington!

Your blogger attended his first protest march yesterday.

At the initial musing of my friend and business partner, a co-founder of Newstex, the distributor of this blog, I agreed to join him at the Capitol for a rally of then-unknown size, as part of Fox News' Glenn Beck's 9-12 Project.

It was an amazing and energizing experience to be part of a 1.5MM strong, non- and bi-partisan peaceful gathering focused on restoring lost liberties, stopping the tyranny of both parties via their ignoring our Constitution as they swell government to heretofore unimaginable size and power over our individual lives.

Signs were everywhere, and they weren't bought or mass-produced. Not most of them, anyway. The creativity of the protesters was simply amazing, and spanned many, many topics and perspective. But all of these expressions shared a desire to restore lost freedoms and liberty.

Despite arriving downtown just as the march was getting underway, we were able to work our way very close to the Capitol steps and speakers' platform.

From that vantage point, however, we were only able to see a fraction of the protesters. Looking around the Capitol grounds and out over the nearby streets and intersections, we quickly realized, and confirmed with nearby attendees, that there were at least 100,000 people gathered within sight of our position.


We were present for Dick Armey's speech, but found it disappointing. He didn't initially use the microphone, and, when he did, his talk was brief and, frankly, not memorable. I've seen him far more passionate, articulate and detailed on CNBC or Fox News.

Later, South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint and Indiana Republican Representative Mike Pence gave more eloquent and rousing, if brief, speeches. The crowd responded enthusiastically to both.

9-12 Project flags with the Revolutionary War-era 'Don't Tread On Me' snake were everywhere, as was this creative, rattling stuffed snake.

When one of the speakers announced that even ABC had publicly declared the rally to be about one and a half million strong, the assembled throng roared its approval. Many hand-made signs thanked Fox News for giving voice to the movement, while castigating the major networks and NBC-owned cable property MSNBC for turning a blind eye to the recent Tea Party movement.

The protesters were very amicable and polite. Many conversed with strangers, as the nearby picture illustrates. That's me exchanging views with a fellow attendee who was standing near us for most of the rally.

My friend shot a brief video clip with his iphone to capture the flavor and sounds of the rally. It appears below.

I spoke with a friend this morning who cautioned me that, despite our effort yesterday, and those of the assembled multitude, and our passions for this cause, we won't make any difference. She doesn't believe any of this will affect what Frisco Nan, Wonderboy and Harry Reid will do in the coming weeks and months.

Respectfully, I countered that I did not expect this rally, or the 40-some other 9-12 rallies held yesterday, to influence those three.

However, as my friend and I discussed on the three-hour drive back from the rally, we do expect the 9-12 Project rallies to seriously change the views of Democratic House Members in districts won by McCain or Bush. Those moderate Democrats, some unofficially known as "Blue Dogs," whose tenure in office will likely be ended next year if they continue to support the ultra-liberal objectives of this administration and the current Congressional leaders.

Furthermore, one hopes that the Republican contestants for those seats, and others, will be more serious and honest about being Representatives of their districts, not, as our First Rookie and his minions have claimed, simply being given the power to vote for whatever they personally feel like. Or whatever will accrete more power to Congress and the administration.

One and a half million people clogging the streets of Washington, D.C., on a late summer Saturday is not something to be ignored.

My friend doesn't think Frisco Nan or even Wonderboy are capable of being other than in denial about this anymore. Maybe he's right. But we both believe that many of the 534 other Congressional members are doing some soul-searching today, in the aftermath of yesterday's powerful, spontaneous outpouring of so many ordinary citizens. Including many older, concerned voters who will be going to next year's polls, and taking a lot of their friends with them to unseat current members of Congress.

It's difficult to capture or convey in text, or even pictures and limited video, what I felt from the crowd gathered yesterday on the West lawn of the Capitol building. I'm probably not alone in that. But as I mentioned to my friend, nearly everyone in sight on the march and at the rally had a cell phone camera, and/or a digital still camera. Many had video cameras, too.

This event has been captured and communicated by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, some in blogs like this. I believe this phenomenon will help keep the momentum of the rally alive and growing.

Of course, time, and the November 2010 elections, will tell.

Glenn Beck's 912 Project Gains Momentum

I wrote this post about Glenn Beck's 912 Project back in March of this year. In that piece, I opined,

"While, as I noted above, I don't expect Glenn Beck to attempt to control the movement, I do expect him, at some point in the near future, to suggest that the local groups consider demanding that candidates for office in 2010 take a pledge to uphold the 912 Project's principles and values, or face opposition from one of the group's members in that locale or district."

I also offered a few sketchy scenarios concerning what could happen in Congress due to the influence or effects of this endeavor.

However, last Friday, when Beck had another live-audience program in the Fox ground floor studio on 6th Avenue, several new developments came to light. I have to say that I was right about the 912 Project spurring political change, but wrong about where and how. No surprise there.

As if taking their cue from Jeb Bush's interview in the Wall Street Journal back in February, and Beck's project, four state legislators from Utah, Texas, Montana and another state which I cannot recall, were in attendance, discussed laws they are introducing or have passed that limit federal actions in their state, as well as a new organization for state lawmakers across the country, the Patrick Henry Caucus.

Listening to various audience members, including Fox News lead Legal Contributor, retired NJ Judge Andrew Napolitano, and a Tenth Amendment expert, it became clear that what many people feel ails our nation is not a partisan issue, but a state's rights issue.

As the Tenth Amendment expert noted, the Constitution was written in such a way as to leave most governmental power to the states, where, it was felt, you'd be electing dozens of local citizens, from small districts, to your own legislator. Accountability would be, presumably, greater in the many, smaller districts.

For example, in my own state of residence, New Jersey, the most densely-populated state in the Union, many state representative districts share a single federal Congressional Representative. Although this state was long-ago captured by liberal attorneys, in theory, what ails my state is fairly easily fixed by many, smallish groups rising up and replacing our state representatives, thus shifting policy. Because running for a state representative seat is much less expensive than a Congressional seat, it should be easier to 'take back' the state, than the federal government.

This is something which, I confess, had not occurred to me quite so clearly prior to viewing Beck's Friday program.

But it became very clear that a lot of state legislators, without partisan labeling, are serious about competing with other states to offer a hospitable, low-tax, low-regulatory climate, with which to attract new business and residents.

Additionally, states are not allowed, legally, to run deficits at all, or for very long. Thus, they tend to have to actually "work." Well, they're supposed to, anyway.

One major debate topic was the unconstitutionality of Barney Frank's call to give federal loan guarantees to California bonds. Several people, including the state legislators, repudiated the right of the federal government to make 49 other states responsible for bailing out California's messed up government and budget.

This does, indeed, sound like a serious "line in the sand" issue. And, in fact, it would seem that California is in danger of legal bankruptcy about a decade ahead of when I predicted to my daughter just last March that this would happen. New Jersey and Illinois are close on its heels.

All of this is, I think, excellent. Rather than partisan bickering about whose party has screwed up Washington more, the issue is morphing into people, through their states, desiring to have such uninfluencable activity and spending reined in by stronger states' rights. Whether Democrat or Republican, people seem to feel aghast and helpless as both parties have, since Teddy Roosevelt, made the federal government more rapacious and unconstitutionally powerful.

Napolitano, I believe, reminded everyone that there are only 13 enumerated federal powers in the Constitution, with the Tenth Amendment reserving the remainder to the states.

I think Beck's 912 Project is already facilitating a structured, productive movement, or movements, to affect federal-level problems in our country. The solutions appear to be taking on a distinctive state-based, populist flavor which will be more answerable to voters in their smaller, more numerous state representative and senate districts.

This would seem to be a very good thing.

Glenn Beck's New Movement: The 912 Project

Fox News' new hire, Glenn Beck, recently began the 912 Project. Announced last month on his highly-rated 5PM weekday program, it seeks to facilitate individual Americans in returning to pre-911 principles and values. According to the website, the effort currently has about a quarter of a million members.

As I watched a few weeks ago, Beck revealed an ordinary-looking kitchen-type table on his set and began talking with Chuck Norris via video link. Norris, at his ranch, had gathered a large group of individuals to observe and participate. Hearing Beck describe this next step in his group's development, that of gathering together with like-minded neighbors around kitchen tables, I immediately recalled Frank Capra's famous movie, Meet John Doe.

Here are two YouTube clips about it. The first is the original trailer, and the second is a scene from the movie.

In the film, "John Doe Clubs" are formed across the nation. Beck's 912 Project seems to emulate this, although he's made no mention of the parallel. Nor, to my knowledge, has anyone else. But the similarity is unmistakable.

Unlike the movie, where the character played by Eward Arnold attempts to hijack the movement, I don't think Beck has any intention of leading the project. He genuinely seems to be attempting to provide a skeleton for a self-organizing, truly grassroots citizen movement to retake government at any and all levels. Especially, I would think, Congress.

I've spoken with my partner about this a few times, speculating on what might ultimately result from the Project.

While, as I noted above, I don't expect Glenn Beck to attempt to control the movement, I do expect him, at some point in the near future, to suggest that the local groups consider demanding that candidates for office in 2010 take a pledge to uphold the 912 Project's principles and values, or face opposition from one of the group's members in that locale or district.

Can you imagine what would happen if 40 or 50 sitting, partisan House members were defeated by party-independent members of the 912 Project? It's not hard to envision the group demanding that one of their own be elected Speaker, with the party first succumbing to their demand gaining more representation on various committees.

Further, one could imagine the 40-50 independents being content to leave the House leaderless until their demands are met. It's unlikely that either party would or could compromise around them and select a partisan Speaker in that environment.

Who knows what could happen in the Senate, where an uprising that took, say, 10 seats could cause havoc with Wonderboy's programs.

I remain very interested to see where Beck's efforts at providing support for this type of movement lead.