Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street Hits The Road

David Taintor | November 9, 2011, 12:14PM

First they occupied Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, then Washington, D.C. and Oakland. Now they're going to "Occupy the Highway."

A small group of Occupy Wall Street protesters plans to march from Wall Street to Washington, starting Wednesday afternoon, inspired by Civil Rights-era marches. The two-week march -- covering about 20 miles per day -- will make stops at Occupy Philly, Occupy Baltimore and stops in between, and the marchers hope to pick up supporters along the way.

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Harry Reid

Reid: Government Shutdown Would Have Hurt D.C. More Than Abortion Rider

Ryan J. Reilly | April 12, 2011, 3:08PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

While he supports D.C. home rule, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters on Tuesday that a shutdown of the federal government would have damaged the District of Columbia more than the ban on the use of D.C. taxpayer funds for abortion services.

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Government Shutdown

41 Protestors Including D.C. Mayor Arrested During Protest Of Abortion Rider In Budget Deal (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | April 11, 2011, 9:15PM

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and 40 other protesters -- including members of the city council -- were arrested by Capitol Police on Monday after they blocked Constitution Avenue near the Capitol in protest of aspects of the budget deal reached by Congress which limit the city's autonomy, specifically prohibiting the use of DC public funds for abortions.

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Washington D.C.

DCers Storm Gov't Facebook Page After Yesterday's Insta-Blizzard

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 27, 2011, 1:45PM

Federal employees in the nation's capital are not happy today. First came the sudden rush-hour blizzard that stranded more than a few DCers on freeways turned to fluff-covered hellscapes where no car could escape. Then came the government's decision to be open for business in DC today on a two-hour delay.

The move was communicated communicated to the thousands of federal workers in DC by the Office of Personnel Management, which acts as the nation's HR department for the federal government. It also operates a Facebook page frequented by federal workers, which today became the home for angry employees upset about the icy trek to their offices ahead of them.

Right there on the internet, the bureaucrats that make your government work are letting their disgruntled flag fly. Here's a taste:

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Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart And Stephen Colbert Announce Rival Rallies In D.C. (VIDEOS)

Jillian Rayfield | September 17, 2010, 10:47AM

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert used their shows last night to announce dueling rallies in Washington, D.C. Though both will take place on October 30 on the National Mall at the same time, each touted a slightly different theme. Stewart called his a "Rally to Restore Sanity," while Colbert was all about his "March to Keep Fear Alive."

"Are you scared?" Colbert asked at one point.

"Reasonably concerned," Jon replied.

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9/12

The Littlest Tea Party Mega-Rally: TPM's Day At The 9/12 March

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 7:28PM

9/12 Tea Party Rally

For the most part, the day was gray, wet and overcast. Though the threat was there, serious precipitation never came. That's not how the several thousand tea partiers gathered in DC for the second 9/12 rally today would describe things, though -- according to them, a hard rain fell on President Obama and his socialist cronies.

This was not the 9/12 rally of a year ago. The crowd was miniscule by comparison, with many tea partiers kept away from the nation's capital by competing 9/12 events in Sacramento and St. Louis, and many others not interested in shelling out for a return schlep to the city so soon after they packed the Lincoln Memorial for Glenn Beck's August 28 event.

Some tea partiers were upset at Beck for holding his own late summer tea party DC rally -- more than one told me they wished he hadn't held his overtly apolitical rally two weeks before 9/12, which is all about political organizing and getting set for November.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Tea Partiers Storm DC For Second (And Smaller) 9/12 Rally]

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9/12

Tea Partiers Blame Mother Nature And Glenn Beck For Diminished 9/12 Crowd

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 2:01PM

At the 9/12 rally in Washington.

As we await the start of the speaking portion of today's tea party program here in DC, the 9/12 crowd has swelled from the small group gathered at the Washington Monument this morning. But even with the addition of new tea partiers, the crowd remains significantly smaller than all the other nationally-promoted, FreedomWorks-backed DC events I can remember.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Scenes from the 2009 9/12 rally]

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9/12

Tea Party's 9/12 Rally Looking Much, Much Smaller Than Last Year's

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 11:44AM

At the 9/12 tea party rally in Washington.

Maybe the tea party movement has had enough of DC's endless subway delays. An hour and a half in to FreedomWorks' second day-after-9/11 megarally, 9/12/10 is no 9/12/09. The thousands of angry Americans who packed Washington during the House vote on health care reform, who poured into town on Tax Day, and who came by the busload to heed Glenn Beck's call on August 28 just haven't materialized today.

The crowd is downright tiny by comparison to those past events. Sure, there are several thousand people here. But it's nowhere near the size of last year's 9/12 crowd. If FreedomWorks wanted a repeat of last year's traffic-halting protest, so far it looks like they've failed.

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9/12

Tea Partiers Descend On DC For 9/12 Rally Today

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 8:23AM

Tea Party really in Washington, D.C., April 15th, 2010.

For the umpteenth time this year, swarms of tea partiers will descend on the nation's capital to rail against the Democrats who they say have set this nation on a path that ends with a hammer and/or sickle. Yes, it's 9/12, one of the biggest holidays of the year for the tea party movement -- maybe even the most sacred day on the tea party calendar, second, arguably, only to Tax Day, April 15.

Follow my live coverage of the event throughout the day here.

Today, thousands of angry conservatives will march from the Washington Monument to the front lawn of the Capitol where they'll be fired up by plenty of rhetorical lighter fluid from a conservative speaker corps including Andrew Breitbart, Dick Armey and Erick Erickson. Much like they did the last several times they headed to DC, the speakers are expected to declare the rally the end of the line for Democrats.

Thousands of the conservative faithful in DC? Big speeches from the most irascible public figures on the right? I know what you're thinking -- didn't we just see this movie two weeks ago? The answer is yes...and no. Glenn Beck's August 28 "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial was the Fox News star's sequel to last year's 9/12 rally (you know, that one that basically every American alive attended, according to Beck) and featured some of the same audience who attended last year's 9/12 event.

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Michele Bachmann

Bachmann Claims Estimate Of 1.6 Million People At Glenn Beck Rally (AUDIO)

Eric Kleefeld | August 31, 2010, 10:10AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is saying that a lot -- a lot -- of people attended Glenn Beck's rally in Washington over the weekend.

Appearing on Laura Ingraham's radio show yesterday, Bachmann said: "The crowds were overwhelming, and if you saw the aerials on the Drudge Report this weekend, there was an aerial photo. Unofficially, off the record, we talked to one of the guys from the National Park Police who told us he thought it was 1.6 million. There had to be over a million people there. People were packed in from the Washington Monument all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. And for anyone who's ever been there, that's a huge area."

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck: Obama's Not A Racist -- It's His Religion That's The Problem (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | August 30, 2010, 10:32AM

Fresh off of his "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Glenn Beck said on Fox News Sunday that he regrets saying that President Obama has "a deep-seated hatred for white people" last July, but chalked it up to a misunderstanding: "I didn't understand really his theology. His viewpoints come from liberation theology. That I think is what at the gut level I was sensing, and I miscast it as racism."

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'Restoring Honor'

Beck Rally Attendees Say Tea Party Misunderstood

Ryan J. Reilly | August 29, 2010, 1:52PM

Former "Saturday Night Live" star Victoria Jackson has released a YouTube video that is on the verge of going viral that warns the American public, "There's a communist living in the White House." William Temple (Georgia) appeared as Patrick Henry

Members of the Tea Party are misunderstood, those in attendance for Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally yesterday told TPM in interviews.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally Showcases Who's Beckistan?]

Willie Wood of Dunbar, N.C. told TPM she and her family -- sprawled out to the left of the stage on lawn chairs -- came to the rally to honor her country and to see Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin because "they stand for freedom." She is hopeful Republicans will take back the House in November. Her biggest issues are jobs, security, taxes and the national debt.

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'Restoring Honor'

Beck Rally Participant Demands: 'Protect White Cracker Babies'

Ryan J. Reilly | August 29, 2010, 12:58PM

A participant in Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally wore a T-shirt that read "Protect White Cracker Babies."

A Cleveland man wore a t-shirt to Glenn Beck's rally on Saturday with the slogan "Protect White Cracker Babies."

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally Brings Out The Red, White And Blue Sequins

Ryan J. Reilly | August 28, 2010, 7:21PM

Thousands of Tea Party activists gathered for a "Restoring America" rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Saturday, August 28, 2010.

There weren't many signs. There were, however, shirts, flags and flag-shirts.

Glenn Beck's controversial "Restoring Honor" rally took over the National Mall on Saturday, in the same place as and on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.

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'Restoring Honor'

Beck Rally Attendee: 'Homosexuals' and 'Affirmative Action' Keep Me From Moving Up (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | August 28, 2010, 7:09PM

An unidentified man who said he was a federal worker said that "homosexuals" and "affirmative-action" were keeping him from moving up at his job. The man got into an argument with an African-American man at the site of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday.

"Why you punishing me for something I didn't do?" the man said. "Oh, I'm being punished, I'm being held back. I work for the federal government. I have a job, but I can't move up," he added.

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Glenn Beck

'Restoring Honor' And 'Reclaim The Dream' Attendees Clash Over MLK (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | August 28, 2010, 6:26PM

Protesters at the rallies held on August 28, 2010 clashed on the Mall.

Conservatives attending Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally clashed with demonstrators headed towards the future site of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on Saturday.

One marcher with the "Reclaiming the Dream" rally which was organized by Al Sharpton's National Action Network, the National Urban League and the NAACP was holding a sign that said "Reclaim the dream... stop these racists" with a cartoon of Beck.

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Glenn Beck

TPM's Live Coverage From Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally

Megan Carpentier | August 28, 2010, 10:00AM

Glenn Beck is holding his controversial "Restoring Honor" rally today, and TPM's own Ryan J. Reilly is there. The rally, which Beck scheduled for the anniversary and location of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, is nominally dedicated to raising funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which gives scholarships to the children of Special Ops soldiers killed in combat and financial assistance to wounded troops. But although the charity isn't political -- and has asked that the rally not be -- the line-up is a who's-who of conservative and tea party stars, including Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, and is supported by volunteers from conservative and tea party organizations. Read more about the people, and the controversy, behind the rally here.

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Glenn Beck

Your Guide To Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally: No Signs, More Security

Ryan J. Reilly | August 27, 2010, 5:44PM

Glenn Beck addresses fans.

Glenn Beck -- the guy who once said President Barack Obama has "a deep-seated hatred for white people" -- is having another rally. And wouldn't you know, the talk show host's "Restoring Honor" rally will just happen to take place on the anniversary of and in the same place as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

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Washington D.C.

Tea Party Primer On D.C.: Dangerous, Scary And Full Of Arabs

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 23, 2010, 6:45PM

A tea party in Washington D.C.

Tea partiers preparing to pour into DC for Glenn Beck's March on the capitol Saturday needn't worry about where to eat or how to get around -- thanks to a tea party leader in Maine, they have all the info they'll need about how to operate in the nation's capital.

But D.C. is a scary place, tea party activist Bruce Majors writes, full of "immigrants, frequently from east Africa or Arab countries." (They are most often found driving cabs and working in restaurants, Majors says, and "do not like for you to assume they are African Americans and especially do not like for you to guess they are from a neighboring country (e.g. Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia) with whom they may have political or military tensions."

Good to know.

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