Showdown in Chicago, to Counter "Tea Party" Goers?

Counter or co-opt...

This is a curious site I ran into on an online message board.

Showdown in Chicago - Put People First!

The home page has this to say:

"The same financial institutions that caused the economic crisis and took billions in taxpayer bailouts are back to earning incredible profits. Meanwhile, Americans face shrinking pensions, rising foreclosures and unemployment, state budget cuts, predatory lending, outrageous overdraft fees, and sky-high credit card interest rates.

"The American people want oversight, accountability and common-sense financial reform NOW. This is the classic David vs. Goliath fight, with Wall Street spending millions and millions on lobbying to defeat reforms that would protect the American people and our economy.

"JOIN US on October 25-27 for a series of demonstrations when thousands of Americans - retirees, farmers, workers, homeowners, renters, students, clergy, and small business owners - come together on the streets of Chicago to demand a banking system that puts the American people first and a Congress that makes it happen! Take a look at the Showdown schedule of events, stay informed about event details and join our mailing list, and fill out the Showdown inquiry form to tell us when and where you want to plug into the fight!"


It sort of sounds like it has borrowed a page from Tea Party movement that the left-leaning sites and blogs have attacked. So I clicked on "About Us" page, and I found this list as their "allies":

My eyes were drawn to AFL-CIO and SEIU. Hmmm.

Then I looked at "Our Solution" page. Top of the list is "Modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)". They have now removed the link to their detailed solution proposal, but when I first looked at the page it had such a link and I copied it:

http://www.ntic-us.org/images/cra%20policy%20paper%20ii.pdf

The paper has this as the title:


The site turns out to be National Training and Information Center (NTIC), based in Chicago. It is "a national organizing, policy, research, and training center for grassroots community organizations dedicated to building power to reclaim our democracy and advance racial and economic justice." In other words, a community organizer.

Among their "Successes", they proudly list:

• Spearheaded efforts to pass the Community Reinvestment Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in the 1970s – often referred to as the most important economic justice public policy for neighborhoods.
  
• Lead a successful and productive partnership with Fannie Mae to develop mortgage products to meet the home mortgage needs of underserved neighborhoods. To date, this 8-city partnership has resulted in $4 billion in loans to families.

In other words, they are responsible, along with the government regulators/agencies and banks, for the subprime debackle that triggered the worldwide financial crisis that tanked the stock markets and economies into recession.

And "National People's Action (NPA)" turns out to be another community organizer.

Hmmmm.

Showdown in Chicago "Our Solution" page had another link, which they later removed. It was about "Modernize Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)", and it had the same red header with red stars. I suspect that "Solution" was also a NPA paper.

Then I saw Michael Moore as one of their "Allies".

Hmmmm.

My tentative conclusion: This may be an answer from the administration's supporters - labor unions, community organizers (if not the administration itself) to "right-wing" "racist" people of all ages who descended on Washington DC in September to hold a gigantic "Tea Party", protesting all sorts of government policies from healthcare reform to gun control to war in Afganistan.

I don't know whether all these "Allies" of Showdown in Chicago are aware of their affiliation.

Lastly, why October 25-27 for "series of demonstrations"? That's when the American Bankers Association holds its annual meeting in Chicago Sheraton Hotel. So this organization (Showdown in Chicago) could be just a one-time setup for the occasion.

But when I saw that paper's header in red, with words like "People's Action" and two red stars, and recalling one of the White House communication director's favorite philosophers (Mao Zedong), I have to say it made me feel uneasy.

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How Many Marched in DC on 9/12? Close to 2 Million

according to Zac Moilanen of Indiana University.

New York Times said "thousands" marched.

Washington Post said "tens of thousands".

Japan's Nikkei said "one hundred thousand".

UK's Mail Online said "up to 2 million".

(Please see my original post on September 12 for more details.)

And the winner is.....

U.K.'s Mail Online. The author of the article below says it was somewhere between 1.78 million and 1.98 million.

If the author of the study is anywhere near correct, that was the largest-ever crowd descended on Washington D.C.

It goes without saying that the author and his paper are dissed thoroughly by Democratic supporters of the administration in the blogsphere (here's one). Mainstream Media (MSM) outlets either openly deride or simply ignore the "teabaggers".

I personally don't understand why being against the government's policies should be labeled "right-wing" or Republican. Liberals, conservatives, moderates, Dems, Republicans, libertarians, any citizen, should be against any wasteful use of their tax dollars by the government, and vigilant against any attempt to curtail personal liberty.

Critics seem to have latched on to Republican politicians and a conservative TV show host as if they were the chief instigators, instead of thinking of them as piggybacking on the movement that already exists and which has no apparent central organizing body. They want to find the bogeyman.

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How Many Attended the 9/12 Washington DC Tea Party?

New York Times thinks it's in thousands: "Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government". Washington Post ups the number to tens of thousands: "Anti-Government Protests Draws Tens of Thousands to D.C."

Some Youtube videos of the event claim 1 to 2 million, and U.K.'s Daily Mail Online says up to 2 million. 2 million?? That's got to be a mistake, as the discrepancy in numbers (thousands to 2 million) is just too huge. Even if this 2 million number is a mistake, what I've seen in videos and photographs is pretty impressive. (Watch the time lapse video at the end of this post.)

Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama's spending in 'tea-party' demonstration (9/12/09 Mail Online) [photographs are from this article.]

"Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today, carrying signs with slogans such as "Obamacare makes me sick" as they protested the president's health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.

"The line of protesters spread across Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the Washington Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. "

A lot of signs look to be hand-made. According to the ABC News, "As he left Washington this morning aboard the Marine One helicopter, President Obama flew over the crowds forming near the Capitol."

That's kind of "Nixonian" moment. (Nixon flew over the protesters to go play golf.)

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