Demonstrators and counter-demonstrators at today’s rally. Pics here and more coming.
President Obama, Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen hold 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.
Our Jillian Rayfield has a good wrap-up of the anti-Park51 protest down near Ground Zero this afternoon.
A few points worth noting. A police officer Jill spoke to at the event estimated the size of the crowd at about 1500. And despite efforts to bus people in from different parts of the country, Jill says it seemed to be overwhelmingly a local crowd. And there was a big turnout of counter-protestors as well.
Press reports suggest that the pro-tolerance demonstration had almost as many attendees as the hate festival which kicked off at 3 pm.
From TPM Reader TB …
Regarding ed. note on the post “Brings it all into focus“:
I’m glad to see you distinguishing from among those who oppose the building, those who “support the right of the builders to go ahead with it”. But I think even among those who oppose the building but support the right to build it, there is an important distinction that is less often made: those who are directly offended by the “mosque,” versus those who think it is a bad idea because others are offended.
Unquestionably my favorite image from today’s hate festival in Lower Manhattan is this one of John Bolton, piped in via Jumbotron for whatever reason, addressing the crowd.
Click the image for the full sized picture and rest of our slideshow of the event.
Tea partiers are descending on DC today for their big 9/12 rally — one of the most hyped tea party events of the year. Our Evan McMorris-Santoro is on the scene. Check out his preview of the day’s events, and follow his live tweeting here. And don’t miss our slideshow from last year’s 9/12 rally.
It’s looking like today’s FreedomWorks “Tea Party” 9/12 event down in DC is basically a bust. Tiny crowd not only compared to last year’s estimated turnout of 37 million people but even in comparison to the actual numbers of people who showed up last year. Our Evan McMorris-Santoro has live updates from the ground.
With Newt Gingrich now claiming that President Obama owes his allegiance to a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview and agreeing that the United States is now being “ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s … [a] philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anticolonial ambitions,” how long do you figure it is before he gets caught circulating the email photoshops of Obama dressed as a witch doctor wearing a loin cloth?
At this rate, I’d say: Not long.
Tariq Ramadan of all people says the organizers of Park51 should choose another spot to build on.
Did Boehner blink? I think so.
Today on Face the Nation, House GOP Leader John Boehner told Bob Schieffer that while he’d prefer to extend all the Bush tax cuts, he’d be willing to vote for a bill that extended them only for voters making less than $250,000 per year.
Here’s the exact exchange …
Bob Schieffer: “I want to make sure I heard what you said correctly: you’re saying that you are willing to vote for those middle class tax cuts, even though the bill will not include … extending the tax cuts for the upper bracket American.”
Rep. Boehner: “Bob, we don’t know what the bill’s going to say, alright? If the only option I have is to vote for those at 250 and below, of course I’m going to do that. But I’m going to do everything I can to fight to make sure that we extend the current tax rates for all Americans.”