Tag Archives: Washington DC

I love America.

Even though I live in DC, I hope these things never get old. The minute they do, I will head back to North Carolina.

Washington Monument:

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WWII Memorial:

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Lincoln Memorial:

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Setting the record straight: My diabolical "misinformation campaign"

I hadn’t planned on responding to the entire Tea Party attendance controversy, but since Media Matters is using information I was responsible for to smear Michelle Malkin, I figured I’d set the story straight.

Estimates for the 9/12 march ranged from the “tens of thousands” all the way up to two million. Yes, two million.

While I was attending the rally, I asked a police office how big the crowd was. He said they were estimating it was at 1.2 million people. When I asked a Park service employee, that person told me they thought that around 1.5 million were attending. Perhaps they had some basis for those numbers or perhaps they were just making wild estimates. Either way, after FreedomWorks misquoted ABC’s report on stage, that number was mangled and passed along to me at 2 million. That seemed to be in line with the previous estimates I’d heard at the rally. Had I been at my computer, I would have double checked the estimate and learned that ABC never put out that number. But, since I wasn’t, I tweeted it out on my 22,000 follower Twitter account and it was picked up all over the place.

We still don’t really know how many people were the 9/12 rally. The DC fire department put the number at between 60,000 and 70,000 people. However, other credible estimates put the number 800,000 plus.

Had Media Matters asked me, I’d have been happy to tell them that I didn’t just make the number up for fun. However, they just ran with an unconfirmed story — just like I did — and, also like I did, they got important parts of it wrong. A mistaken tweeted estimate has now been turned into a “2 million protester lie” and that story is now being thrown around the left side of the blogosphere like mine was thrown around the right.

Bottom line: I tweeted a mistaken estimate instead of writing an entire misleading story about it. I corrected the record instead of trying to claim that a mere mistaken crowd estimate was part of some sort of diabolical “misinformation campaign.” I’ve been wrong before and I will be wrong again. There’s a difference between an error and a lie – figure it out, Media Matters.

9/12 Teaser

So I’m going to do the big photo dump tomorrow and get the rest of this stuff out there, but let me just say that this was the most amazing thing I’ve been a part of. I was just stunned by the amount of people that showed up. I spent the day taking as many pictures as I could and whipping out the Flip cam at every turn…

Somehow I found myself onstage doing line kicks at one point. Which, you know, may or may not have been one of the most ridiculous things I’ve done in recent memory.

So I’ve got a giant recap I’ll post tomorrow. However, I won’t keep you waiting forever for the coverage. Here are some photos and a couple quick videos.

Thank you all who were there for an INCREDIBLE day.

Note: All the ABC 2 million drama that happened yesterday. I reported based on what I was told by Police, Park Service and staffers. The ABC thing wound up being wrong. I didn’t make up the estimate. ABC was misquoted by FreedomWorks, and I tweeted it. I apologize for the confusion,

Bottom line is that many will downplay the numbers. I don’t care much what they are. This is what I saw:

View from the front.

View fron the front.


A Month In The Life: Where I've Been

So I’m sure you’ve noticed that things have been light around here lately. I apologize for the lack of content. That, however is changing. I’m going to give you a little recap of the past month.

Let me start by relaying a story from Thursday, because it’s a pretty awesome illustration of where my brain has been. I show up at a friend’s house for a “goodbye” lunch of sorts. My Nissan is about half loaded at this point, and I’d stopped to pick up food on the way. I hop out of the car, and in my haste, forget to pull up the parking brake. I’ve driven a manual for years, and never forgotten – it’s second nature. But alas. The car stars rolling backward down the hill.

I managed to drop my Blackberry and lunch on the street and try to open the car door to get in. The remote wouldn’t work – the door was stuck shut. So, in an effort to display my superhuman strength, I get behind the car and try to stop it. I cuss loudly when I realize that it was about ready to run me over and jump out of the way to watch helplessly as my rogue vehicle mows over the neighbor’s mailbox and my Blackberry, and parks on the lawn. It was glorious. But lunch was unscathed and I have a new phone, and all is well with the world. Well, my small and narcissistic world, anyway.

My vehicle and I did, however, make it up to the metro DC area yesterday, with my life in the backseat – packed from floor to ceiling to a point that is unsafe and probably not legal.

So, I’m here now. Semi-permanently I reckon. I literally hit a wall on my way back from Staten Island this month (a concrete one.. at 70 mph. Yes, I’m fine, God is good) and quit my job and accepted a new one with the Leadership Institute. I’m homeless. I’m excited. I’m a little weirded out that I managed to leave my life and start over all in the span of a few weeks. A lot of people have offered condolences on the DC move. And they can kiss my butt. It’s a gorgeous city and despite (maybe because of!) everything going on with our government, I’m thrilled to be here. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work from the “inside” so to speak, and to be able to kick liberal butt full time.

So there we have it. Thanks so much for putting up with me, and I’m glad to be back! Stay tuned for some vlogs, more writing, and a resumed Raisin’ Hale. Missed all of you, and hope to hear from you soon!