As a sideline to Scott's earlier blog, it turns out some of those aerial photos of the protesters that descended upon Washington, D.C. this weekend might be fake. At least one is. The photograph shown here was touted by Say Anything, a conservative blog, as reasonable justification for the claim of 1,000,000 attendees.
A sharp reader on the site posted the following photograph, proving that the above picture was taken before the National Museum of the American Indian was built. It's not clear what this picture is from - I will update if we find out whether it's a real image of a protest or if it's been photoshopped. The blogger has rescinded his claim that this is a tea party photo and has instead posted a new image.
The new image, duly impressive in that it depicts what Fox News estimates as tens of thousands of protesters tired of being "treaded on", shows quite a bit of green just a couple of blocks back from the Capitol building. 
Truly, these are good numbers that the TeaPartyExpress PAC generated, so why lie? Say Anything surely wasn't the first to use the photograph - but someone twittered it, or emailed it out, or started sending it out as proof that the teabaggers had their own "million man march" - but why? Your humble blogger has a theory. They so want to beat Obama any way they can, they'll even trump up numbers to prove that they are "right " or at least more of them than the Democrats. They're so concerned with the numbers, in fact, that I'm not sure what they're protesting. The signs that they carried, like the pre-printed "Bury Obamacare with Ted Kennedy" sign that was seen all over the place, seemed to just oppose Obama himself, and anything he may or may not have ever done, believed in, or proposed. Facts, truth, or whether it would help or hurt the country be damned.
Sorry, folks, this is what 1,000,000 plus looks like:
**UPDATE: The fake tea party picture is an image of the 1997 Promise Keepers Rally.
Why would they lie?
Because that's what they DO. They think they can lie and lie and eventually, voila, it'll become the truth.
(Wilma, feel free to edit if I crossed a line, but she is and you know it).
*I can't edit anything but the forum.
beats me why they would try to lie when thee are experts trained to estimate these gatherings.
Overcompensation, perhaps?
Due their propensity to inflate numbers, perhaps conservative bloggers should henceforth refer to it as the "2/1 protest".
The Obama election victory rally in Grant Park was estimated at 250,000. That would be about four times the estimate for the teabaggers event.
Hopefully that same formula will work in 2012 when the protesters nominate the next GOP candidate for president.
Stex, both teams losing? Why, I think the only teams that could pull that off were if the Cubs played themself in an exhibition game. :)
I agree with you on all points. Particularly when you got to the last sentence. I was actually rooting for both teams to lose. I know, I know, it was a futile dream.
The truly scary and pathetic thing for conservatives is that 70,000 sounds like a great number, until you figure that it's about 70% of the attendance for Michigan-Notre Dame, and both teams suck. Just sayin...
I don't know if any of you read the media matters blog on this issue (http://mediamatters.org/columns/200909140039) but it is hilarious how the right wing media machine works. THEY make the mistake and then THEY turn around and blame the mainstream media for something they never did.
It was a 1997 Promise Keepers rally: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/sep/14/tea-party-photo-shows-large-crowd-different-event/
When I saw the original It was obvious to me that it had been photo shopped. I work with PS all the time and I know what to look for. Its hard to do it in such a way that its not obvious.
They can't claim they are the majority unless they photoshop it. How do you spell pathetic ?
As usual Sparkle is still lying on her blog and has the picture posted. She even has the comment where someone called her out on the number and linked to a the DailyMail a UK paper which obviously didn't do its research -anyone know if this is a Rupert Murdoch Paper ?
I stopped posting comments on Sparkle's blog during the start of the health-care debate. She sees no problems with people carrying guns outside presidential rallies, people comparing our president to hitler or stalin and calling him a communist. By demonizing him, she is fomenting violence against our duly elected president - period. In short...she's become bat-shiite crazy like most of her followers.
Oh well, like the new format on Daily Hurricane and I'll put it in my regular rotation for reading.
And on a related note:
"In a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 68 percent of Americans said they "oppose what Joe Wilson did during the speech." Twenty-one percent said they support Wilson's behavior."
Twenty-one percent. Once again, those in the minority believe themselves to be occupying the high moral ground, persecuted by liberals for their beliefs.
I'll have to consult my wife, who has worked in mental health for decades. I doubt there is a drug capable of effectively treating such rampant paranoia.
Yesterday I quoted "Doug", a commenter on Sparkie's daily rant, who had said something or other about being tired of the majority being ignored in this country. Ignoring, quite obviously of course, that minor detail that Doug was not part of the majority.
On Des' Chron blog yesterday, I again cited the 2008 vote count, the overwhelming Electoral College majority Obama won and the larger Democratic majorities gained in both houses of Congress.
So it comes as no surprise to me to learn that people who cannot grasp simple concepts of democracy, much less math, have no moral scruples about lying with respect to the number of people who turned out in DC for their little protest.
It's who they are - lying, dishonorable, paranoid bastards.
They have no morals. They have no scruples.
And they have shit for brains.
Hey, Sparkle Farkle! YOU LIE, bitch! (Wilma, feel free to edit if I crossed a line, but she is and you know it).
It's all good. Basically if you are louder and meaner then you can make it look like you speak for the silent majority. Truth is that the majority is silent because they just don't want to get involved.
I can hear the shouts of "We are the Champeons!"
(I did misspell that on purpose, now...Don't get uppity!)
How gauche. It's the political equivalent of posting an old, slimmer picture of yourself on a dating website. And what could be more humiliating than being out-done by the Promise Keepers? Ouch!
WTF????
Liars! Just for good measure, I threw a shoe at the fake picture!! ; }-~
They are the minority. They know it, we know it. That is all that needs to be made clear on any issue they have a problem with.
RE: The Teabagger's Ball photo - wow, you can actually SEE the astroturf in that pic...
C'mon, y'all, let's say it together to all the teagagging idiots:
YOU LIE!