A Texas congressman sent a letter Wednesday to Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. demanding an explanation for why the transit agency didn’t do more to prepare for the massive influx of conservative activists at Saturday’s march on the Mall.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R) said an 80-year-old woman and her 60-year-old daughter were forced to walk and pay for a cab because the subway system was so crowded. He said he heard many complaints from people who traveled long distances to attend the event, which served to challenge some of President Obama’s signature policies.
Amazing. Simply amazing.
1. Conservatives shouldn’t be using public transportation anyway.
2. I took a look at the numbers over here on Media Matters. Conclusion? Metro ridership was up, but not by a whole lot.
According to the Washington Metro Area Transportation Authority (WMATA), 437,624 people rode on the Metro Rail system on Saturday, September 12th. How does that day compare to similar Saturdays?
September 5th, 2009: 300,963 riders
August 29th, 2009: 303,997 riders
August 22th, 2009: 293,200 riders
Ridership on 9/12 wasn’t even close to Fourth of July, let alone the inauguration.
3. I was on the train itself. It was a little crowded, but no more so than after a Nationals game or a Capitals playoff game.
These people are making their complaints up. They are laughable whining spoiled little babies who decided to come to your nation’s capital to put on a show and while they did so, like every other protest they didn’t change dick.
like every other protest they didn’t change dick
Well, the Teabaggers did change my mind about them. They are even more comically ironically challenged than I believed they were yesterday. Quite a feat.
Haha, so a Texas Congressman using his government position used government stationery to send a letter through the U.S. Postal Service to complain to the government about how there was a lack of government-provided services at a protest against the government.
“It’s like they take pride in being ignorant”
If you think the protest numbers were unimpressive, fine. But you belie that claim a little bit when you claim that a 46% increase in ridership over the average of the three dates you provide is “not a whole lot.”
The numbers of riders should also reflect there was the Black Family Reunion gathering happening at the same time on the Mall which draws a very large crowd.
But you belie that claim a little bit when you claim that a 46% increase in ridership over the average of the three dates you provide is “not a whole lot.”
And you base your claim on….what, exactly? What’s Metro’s capacity? Do you have those numbers handy? (An imperfect analogy: if the National’s average attendance increases by 46% for a game, could the stadium handle the crowd?). Were you on the trains? O-Dub was. In case you missed it:
And lastly, the point of the post was that…oh never mind. You’re either fundamentally incapable of getting it or don’t wish to get it (it = irony).
More Liberal Media bias regarding Teabagger numbers.
Colbert can’t keep up.
I believe most reasonable people would consider a 46% increase of anything considerable. That’s the pretty much the basis for my apparently groundbreaking statement.
Average saturday use is 300,000. 60,000 protestors, maybe, and certainly they couldn’t all have used public transit, but even if they did, it would have peaked at most at a 20% increase. Significant? Okay, a little, yeah. Indicative, independant of anything else, of a conscious failure on DC Metro’s part to make things convenient for the people who, ostensibly, oppose their very existence? Har-de-har-hardly.
I also love how the elderly pair of women were “forced” to take a cab, as though they were mandated somehow to attend the protest, and then held at gunpoint until they acquiesced to taking a cab, and equally as though taking a cab isn’t simply more convenient than squeezing into the quite likely a bit more crowded than usual metro cars. But then, having to acknowledge that two elderly women were simply not comfortable riding the DC Metro kind of robs you of a make believe cause to get fired up about.
Gawd, a movement that was declared dead in April by the all the liberal prognosticators sure does get a lot of ink here in September.
Ooo, ooh, that smell.
Can’t you smell that smell.
The smell of desperation all around you-ooo.
I believe most reasonable people would consider a 46% increase of anything considerable. That’s the pretty much the basis for my apparently groundbreaking statement.
I’m guessing you are not gainfully employed as a scientist, statistician, or economist. Just a hunch. Again, without the total capacity numbers, that particular statistic loses pretty much any meaning. Sorry to kill your Teabag buzz.
Did you figure out the point of the post yet (hint: it involves irony)?
OT, but remember when I said that the Government should have a FaceBook page ?
Well, looka here !
The smell of desperation all around you-ooo.
You know what is desperate? Trying to magically inflate 70K people into 2 million.
9/12 wasn’t even close to the 4th of July or the Inauguration?
Wow, what a poor excuse for a demonstration that was!
Not even a quarter of a million people at the first demonstration of its kind in decades.
Let’s fully low ball the estimate: 15,000 people show up.
They come from all over the country, some from thousands of miles away.
Sure, they are not the token – salted rainbow montage that are assembled for left wing
vandal festsdemonstrations, neither are they all “rich, old white guys.”Still unimpressed?
Star Trek stayed on for another season, because NBC received approximately 1400 letters.
Who could have predicted?
What a bunch of Drama Queens! The average commuter deals with crowded trains all the time! These so-called leaders are getting exponentially whiny with their sense of entitlement.
That was Sept. 12th. This is the 17th, Burn. And you guys are nowhere close to being done talking about it.
THAT is desperation, Burn.
This is bigger than health care to you guys, appparently.
neither are they all “rich, old white guys.”
true, there were many that weren’t rich or old, and at a couple of them who weren’t white
Still unimpressed?
Yes, given all the feverish bushwhacking by rich, white “conservative” media, and the number of selfish and ignorant people there are in the world, the turnout was distincly unimpressive.
Star Trek stayed on for another season, because NBC received approximately 1400 letters.
How many of those did you write, Frank?
Glenn Beck didn’t go to his own rally because he didn’t want to get a disease from his uninsured fanbase
If he’d have sent the letter via the Post Office, it hasn’t arrived yet.
Irony deficient, cluelessness and hubris–thy name is the modern GOP.
dennis, some of us actually ride metro every day. so yes, it is a big deal to us.
That was Sept. 12th. This is the 17th, Burn. And you guys are nowhere close to being done talking about it.
Umm, the reason we’re talking about it is because of the gentleman from Texas, Mr Brady, started his little hissy fit over the ‘lack of services’ that the Metro was supposed to provide for the birthers. That’s why O-dub posted this. Can you understand that much?
If he’d have sent the letter via the Post Office, it hasn’t arrived yet.
If he would have, then it has not. Try your hand at 7th grade English lessons again, Ferris. Maybe this time you’ll pass.
Also, if he sent the letter Wednesday evening by FedEx Expedited overnight (I’m assuming the evening, otherwise he’d have “leaked” his bold letter-writing-ness much earlier yesterday than he did), then know what? Still probably wouldn’t have gotten there by Thursday morning, so hey, the hell’s your point?
Can you understand that much?
No, he cannot. And don’t even start trying to explain the irony of the situation. Plus he’ll never stay on topic anyway, playing pathetic LookOverThere games. Also.
That was Sept. 12th. This is the 17th, Burn. And you guys are nowhere close to being done talking about it.
THAT is desperation, Burn.
You just don’t get it, do you Dennis? We will keep making fun of you losers long after healthcare is passed and Obama wins his second term. Why? Because you’re funny, that’s why
Congressman sends letter to DC Metro GM. Alert the authorities, Burn.
Media matters is being way too kind. If you look at the numbers for the corresponding saturday last year you see:
September 13, 2008 – Rail ridership: 362,773 Bus ridership: 236,347
http://www.wmata.com/rail/disruption_reports/viewReportArchive.cfm?Archive_Date=92008
So there were 74,851 more 1 way riders than last year.
I think we can safely say that at most 40,000 people showed up to this orgy of teabagging.
@ Buzz I believe most reasonable people would consider a 46% increase of anything considerable. That’s the pretty much the basis for my apparently groundbreaking statement.
@ Rex Average saturday use is 300,000. 60,000 protestors, maybe, and certainly they couldn’t all have used public transit, but even if they did, it would have peaked at most at a 20% increase.
I’m pretty sure almost all of the people who took the Metro TO whatever they were doing on the Mall also took the Metro FROM the Mall as well. It would count as two individual riders for the purposes of calculating total ridership even though it was just one person making a round trip. Seriously, is it really that hard to figure out?
Congressman sends letter to DC Metro GM. Alert the authorities, Burn.
Dennis, has it occurred to you to ask why such a minimal thing has been reported in a major newspaper? Who would have told them? People at the Metro who could provide no comment because they haven’t actually read the letter yet, or a congressman who HEY LOOK AT ME I WANT ATTENTION AND THIS IS HOW I’M GETTING IT YAY!
So again, who’s not yet done talking about this?
Dennis – “That was Sept. 12th. This is the 17th, Burn. And you guys are nowhere close to being done talking about it.”
That’s the problem here, the lie keeps defining the debate. I’m not sure that facts are what’s required to navigate the mine field that the Conservatives are planting. In general terms, Obama is being too nice and must do more to harness that same public anger that got him to the Oval Office in the first place. Diplomacy without anger is futile and it flounders; it’s the crack in the door that lets the rats in. What were seeing here is Willard 3.
Forced to pay for a cab?
Hey, that’s the free market you’re dissing there, Congressman! The invisible hand of the market was there to provide choice(!) when collectivist nanny-state government failed in its all-things-to-all-people approach to the needs of the people!
Tell us, Dennis. What’s the expiration date on a topic? Are we flogging the dead pony after two days? Three?
A solid freakin’ month?
1773 English News Network – “It was now early evening and a group of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill.” as witnessed by some but others including reporters put the estimate at around 20, there was a small increase in horse traffic, that night. All we do know is someone dumped some tea in the harbor.
This is why our Politicians fail.
“Yea, keep denying the movement”
Well only socialists and commies use public transportation.
Real Amuricans drive their big-ass trucks and SUVs to the end of their driveways to pick up their mail.
‘Gawd, a movement that was declared dead in April by the all the liberal prognosticators sure does get a lot of ink here in September.’
I don’t recall any ‘liberal prognosticators’ pronouncing the tea bagger movement dead; misinformed, misguided, mistaken and insignificant yes, but dead? Hardly.
As long as Hannity/Beck/Limbaugh and the movement’s self proclaimed leader Mark Williams, are prepared to manufacture and regurgitate lies and scare tactics about the president, the economy, health care reform and other administration policies, there will ALWAYS be a fringe element of American society willing and eager to let others tell them what to think, rather than educate themselves about the realities of life, which is so much more difficult and time consuming to engage in.
Dennis, September 17, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Dennis, September 16, 2009 at 7:42 pm, concerning a topic he could not let go of:(and you should see the context, it’s a beaut)
Pathetic, mealy-mouthed false equivalence and/or attempted LookOverHere distraction in 3…2…
If not for the holdup in transit you would have seen the 2,000,000 protesters claimed. It’s just that the other 1,940,000 couldn’t figure out how to operate the turnstiles.
Well only socialists and commies use public transportation.
…or, as I like to call it, “the public option”.
‘Sure, they are not the token – salted rainbow montage that are assembled for left wing vandal fests demonstrations, neither are they all “rich, old white guys.”’
But they do manage to represent ‘real Americans,’ right Dennis?
And you people get incensed when you’re accused of being a minority fringe of bigots and morons.
Like your prediction on the Joe Wilson monumental occurrence, ‘two days, tops’, Quibbie.
That wasn’t me, Junior.
Did you belt down a few Mooseheads for lunch or something?
And I’m someone you can’t let go of, apparently.
mrak, bingo that is a funny post.
“Real Amuricans drive their big-ass trucks and SUVs to the end of their driveways to pick up their mail.”
Real Americans send their shit with private companies UPS and FedEx, because if you use the US Postal Service, they’ll use their socialist X-rays and read your correspondence.
“Ooo, ooh, that smell.
Can’t you smell that smell.”
Redneck Zeppelin for disaffected shitkickers to drive your point. That’s total win for the “USA #1” foam finger movement.
Dennis: We all look alike to him.
Teehee.
Frank, stupid knows no color.
Frank you really need to update that Myspace picture.
Oh wait, that is current. Never mind.
Brady added,
Why would decent, god-fearing conservatives even consider using a socialist public rail system when they could support free enterprise by taking a cab?
Gawd, a movement that was declared dead in April by the all the liberal prognosticators sure does get a lot of ink here in September.
It is dead. But, much like a zombie, it just doesn’t know it yet.
Wait a minute. People who don’t ride the subway on a daily bases is complaining that they had to spend money to take a cab? Um stand in line like the rest (but with ones that uses that transit everyday) and wait your turn with your white privilege.
Jody – “Why would decent, god-fearing conservatives even consider using a socialist public rail system when they could support free enterprise by taking a cab?”
It’s a double bind for them – most cab drivers are ethnic and slightly brown.
Duros 62 – “It is dead. But, much like a zombie, it just doesn’t know it yet.”
Funny.
so a Texas Congressman using his government position used government stationery to send a letter through the U.S. Postal Service to complain to the government about how there was a lack of government-provided services at a protest against the government.
That’s not even the funniest part. the funniest part is the protesters who went there to protest the “big eeeevill government” contacted their duly-elected government representative to complain about the lack of public (socialist) transportation.
Dennis would prefer liberals not question conservatives bullshit claims days after events have passed. The better to let them seep into the consciousness.
And yet, Dennis has no problem bitching about what somebody may have said somewhere 2 years ago.
No, Denny, don’t start.
And yet, Dennis has no problem bitching about what somebody may have said somewhere 2 years ago.
Not any more, D. Now Dennis says a topic is past its freshness date after two days. I, for one, intend to hold him to that.
What a stupid series of comments. You figure out how many people showed up to a rally by doing a statistical analysis of photographic evidence of people actually at the site of the rally. Increased use of public transportation is just evidence of increased use of public transportation. Maybe there was an especially interesting exhibit at the Smithsonian involving astronauts and porn stars.
On the other hand, photo evidence is suggesting far more people showed up than 60,000.
Oliver, c’mon, a congressman from Texas who one here has ever mentioned before wrote a letter. Really, BFD.
My next door neighbor wrote a letter to my community organization because the branches of my sycamore trees were drooping down and blocked the view from his house to the community park across the street from us. He could’ve just asked me but he decided to write a letter, I guess because some people think that’s the better way to get shit done.
Between your side and ours, which one do you think writes more letters? More bullshit claims, too.
And the biggest bullshit claim is the 60-70,000 figure being bandied about by your side.
Here’s and excellent run-down, but the best thing about it is the high-res photo from the top of the building view.
More 9/12 Crowd Data: Yeah, It Was Big
Now Dennis says a topic is past its freshness date after two days. I, for one, intend to hold him to that.
All righty, then. Everybody on board?
That was a playfully mild jab at your ‘two days, tops’ prediction for how much longer you guys would be talking about Joe Wilson that you made 7 days ago, Quibbie.
I’ll remind you of that every time you decide to hold me to the two days freshness date.
Joe Wilson. $2 million and counting. And crocodile tears from Nancy Pelosi. Yeesh.
Ahem.
Not as big as you think.
You wanna try that linkee again, there, chuckles? ‘Cuz if it’s the one I think it is, it’s already been discredited.
This one?
That was a playfully mild jab at your ‘two days, tops’ prediction for how much longer you guys would be talking about Joe Wilson that you made 7 days ago, Quibbie
Who brought him up today?
Besides you.
Apparently, the last time there was a bunch of conservatives on the mall.
Right. FreedomWorks was in error. Not Michelle, no sir.
Also, it was overcast and rainy that day, wasn’t it, Oliver?
Dang it! Those protesters made off with a whole museum!!
The Museum of the American Indian is missing from the photo–because it was only built five years ago.
Duros62, doing the research as you and I had no idea prommise keepers rally was so huge. For me thats a shocker in this thread.
Here, Duros, Mr. 24-0.
More 9/12 Crowd Data: Yeah, It Was Big
And here’s a link to the overhead hi-res photo. Please try and tell me that’s only 60,000 people, because I’ve almost stopped laughing from comment on the ACORN thread and I need a recharge.
Star Trek stayed on for another season, because NBC received approximately 1400 letters.
And yet 10x the letters couldn’t keep Futurama going. Go figure.
Correction, Duros Hussein 62.
0-24.
“That was Sept. 12th. This is the 17th, Burn. And you guys are nowhere close to being done talking about it.”
Who’s not done?
Probably more relevant to compare the 437,624 people who took the Metro Rail on Saturday not with the previous couple of Saturdays but a couple of other big event days.
Let’s take
July 4 2009 (a Saturday): WMATA says:
July 04, 2009
Metrorail: 631,206
January 20, 2009 (inauguration)
On Inauguration Day, Metro provided about 1,120,000 rail trips, 423,000 bus trips and 1,721 MetroAccess trips for a total of 1,544,721 trips, the highest ridership day ever in the transit authority’s history.
If one wishes to make inferences based on ridership I think these dates provide a better source of comparison.
Another person who was actually there:
Dennis-”And here’s a link to the overhead hi-res photo. Please try and tell me that’s only 60,000 people…”
If that pic is proof to you that there were “1 million or 2 million” of tea-bagger protesters that day than President Obama had 10 million at his inauguration because that pic doesn’t even compare to this
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3337/3213340126_76c0b0170b.jpg
Even that pic to President Obama inauguration doesn’t even do justice, or show all of the people on either side, or the huge crowds lining the side walks for blocks.
Even that pic to President Obama inauguration doesn’t even do justice, or show all of the people on either side, or the huge crowds lining the side walks for blocks.
Not only that, but there were much, much fewer Obama as Hitler posters, outright, unambiguously racist screamers, or barely veiled threats to foment armed revolution. Virtually none of that nonsense and outright hatred and what have you. It was an awesome day. A lot colder, though.
Republicans = WATB’s.
‘That wasn’t me, Junior.’
Sorry, but it gets more and more difficult to distinguish between you and Frank every day.
Mentioning a quality brew is about the most impressive thing you said.
Sorry, but it gets more and more difficult to distinguish between you and Frank every day.
Says the Clone of Zython…
[...] really big mass of people all in once place, the subway gets crowded, and you may have to wait. Also: Haha, so a Texas Congressman using his government position used government stationery to send a [...]
I might’ve said he’s closer to a clone of CS Strowbridge, Frank, but I think you’re right. They both appear on here and make what they think are academic arguments that have no grounding in real world events. You read their comments and shake your head as to just wtf they’re trying to say, but then you realize just as quickly that it’s not worth responding.
They’re both just kids. But after watching 20year old Hannah Giles do more damage to the opposition party in just the last week with a near zero budget and little else than some extraordinary ingenuity than OW and Media Matters have done in the last five years combined, then I’d have to add there is nothing wrong with being young and politically curious. Zython and jrfunky are just young and politically naive, and are both under the impression they have something going on upstairs. Bad combinations, to be sure.
Dennis, at least they are here. Maybe someday, by osmosis, something will rub off. Remember Brian? He moved up into the rarefied air of Pajamas Media from here.
No, I wasn’t here when he was, I guess. Does he blog there, or just posts there?
One would hope that some things rub off on them, yes, but their cockiness and smart-alecky tone don’t give me much reassurance that will happen. These are the guys who bitch about their job situations, too, oddly enough. I’m sure there’s no correlation there, though. At all.
You think people posting for Pajamas Media is an upward move?
He writes for Hot Air and Pajamas Media , not unlike your work for Huffington Post
He moved up into the rarefied air of Pajamas Media
Heh.
Dennis-”And here’s a link to the overhead hi-res photo. Please try and tell me that’s only 60,000 people…”
What are those tents down the mall? Is that another, unrelated event perhaps?
I’ll have to look him up, Frank. Thanks. I’ve seen some pretty big-time bloggers post on here from time-to-time; Don Surber, Jim Treacher, Jay Tea, Nicole Belle, etc, but not him. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention when he did.
He moved up into the rarefied air of Pajamas Media
Oxygen deprivation would explain a lot about those folks.
Heh. Jay Tea is big-time.
Heh.
He contributes political clips for Hot Air. He took a lot of heat here, because he was young AND conservative.
By the way, yes, we in the political left in the blogs have never accomplished anything.
But hey, the righties are free to go after community groups while we run the country.
O W: You don’t run the country! Your party has won an election. You run the government.
“He moved up into the rarefied air of Pajamas Media from here.”
Dumbest and funniest thing I’ve read in a while. Pajamas Media is wingnut welfare, and the checks bounce a lot of the time.
Give me a call when right-wing blogs raise 1/10th of the actual campaign funding that DKos did in the 2008 election cycle. And not just for the presidential election, but for the tactically significant Congressional races.
You can keep talk radio. I’m happy that we rule the internet, since it actually impacts races.