If there was any question on where America stands right now I think these images from DC should help answer them. Look at the number of people. Y’know the estimates on the crowd size range wildly. Read a story last night from the ‘Daily Mail’ over in London they were saying it was around 2 million, I’ve also read stories that it was, y’know, the obligatory ‘tens of thousands of people’. Yes, there are tens of thousands; that’s low-ball, I think.

Whatever the actual number is, it really doesn’t matter.

Time to Re-found America: Glenn Beck – The 912 Project (transcript of Fox News video)

It’s with some delight that my Britishness can be of some assistance in the US Health Care debatecle. Glenn Beck cites The Daily Mail as his source for the ‘2 million’ figure. Oh boy. The Daily Mail, which I guess has a perfectly respectable name, is a vehemently conservative, racially intolerant, hate-ridden rag of a tabloid back home. Their values toward immigrants (legal ones, even) and privatisation of industry are remarkably well aligned with Beck’s own ranting hate. They are biased. They are not a respected, reliable, citable publication.

What’s more, given the time-difference to the US, they hastily republished an incorrect crowd estimate of ‘2 million’ that was attributed to ABC News. ABC News reported no such thing, and debunked the claim. Their estimate, like many others was nowhere close. Other supporters of the protests have claimed that they got word of the ‘millions’ estimate from the DC Police. Residents of DC have vehemently pointed out across blogs that the DC Police do not release crowd estimates to anyone as a matter of policy.

Today, supporters of the 9-12 project claimed that a years-old photograph of a different rally in the Mall was theirs. Even though the National Museum of the American Indian was missing from the picture. It was built in 2004.

No wonder Beck says that the number ‘doesn’t matter’. It’s because it’s entirely false.

Nate Silver at http://www.fivethirtyeight.com (he of incredible election statistics last year) makes a detailed estimate of around 70,000 in attendance. “About the number that will attend the Washington Redskins’ home opener next week”.

It’s wrong to write off a protest of 70,000 people (which is still a lot) just for a low turn out, but it boggles my mind that they can’t even report their respectable turnout without being full of shit, and pulling up debunked numbers. Everything this movement does is reinforced by more lies.

Boggles the mind that this shit can even gain any traction at all. Via: the912project.com.