For All I Know About How the March For Jobs Turned Out

It would have been nice if I had gone so I could report in person what the crowds were like, how the scene was set, the mood of others worried for their jobs...

There's not much online I'm finding at the moment other than this article from The Atlantic Wire, which mostly just focuses on the debates on what the turnout meant and what turnout they actually had (and if the turnout was bigger than Beck's).

The problem is that "official" numbers from the National Park Service aren't given out anymore, so it's left to the rally leaders to proclaim GREAT VICTORY in the millions of people who turn out for their shows.  For Beck, he was gloating he had 500,000 at his rally (CBS did their evaluation and got it at 87,000.  Other observers did their own math and considered numbers between 100,000 to 150,000).  The One Nation crew is pushing that they got better numbers than Beck, but on-the-ground reports are suggesting they got a smaller turnout (like 80,000 to Beck 87,000 kind of comparisons).

The one thing that does seem worthy to note: the largest amount of representation - and what was the stronger effort at the local level to organize buses - came from the unions.  This pretty much got to be a March for Unions than a March for Jobs by the sound of it.  Which makes sense when you think about it. Unions are all about jobs: keeping the union jobs they've got and wanting more jobs created for workers to join unions later on.

The phrase "enthusiasm gap" is going to get played up nowadays: comparing the eagerness of the Far Right to the lackluster responses of the whole Left toward the current political mood and potential results this November.  All I want to say on this matter is WAKE THE HELL UP AMERICA.  You don't want the Republicans to reclaim control of Congress and drive us back to the economic horrors they created from the 1990s and through the Bush the Lesser years.  Okay?  Do I need to re-hash what I've said about the damage the Republicans have caused with their insane obsession with tax cuts and deregulation?

One month to go.  Please DON'T VOTE REPUBLICAN.

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The March for Jobs

Someone in the Tampa Bay area finally made enough contacts with the groups organizing the One Nation Working Together's March for Jobs and has a bus scheduled for the trip to and from D.C. for the event.

Now comes the hard part: convincing my parents to babysit my kittehs while I go off to a ZOMG Socialist rally.  Dad, settle down!  Stop having a heart attack!  Yes, I know they're Socialists!  But Dad... DAD!  They're the only ones out there protesting for more jobs...!

Sigh.  And given my brother up in DC is openly Libertarian... this is gonna be a fun two weeks...

UPDATE: Well, I told my mom about the planned road trip.  Her primary concern is "watch out for trouble," and my reply is "I'm going Quaker," which is my code for "I'm going non-violent and will make sure my group goes that way too."  She seemed a bit upset that I was going, but I reminded her I do have this political bent and that I'm frustrated enough about my lack of success job-hunting to want to head up to DC to protest.  She taught history, so we debated a bit about FDR's New Deal with its four different Jobs programs which I argued helped reduce unemployment from 25 percent to 11 percent within 3 years (my math might be a little off, but that's how I remember it).  Mom, being fiscal conservative, argued that those programs increased the debt too much.  At least she and I agree on Marco Rubio being a crook and that the whole budgeting process is corrupt with lobbyists and hidden riders/bill attachments.
Good news is, they'll help watch over the kittehs and my car and help get me to the bus pick-up next Friday.  It better be next Friday.  Gotta call and make sure.

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You Guys Working the One Nation Working Together stuff Ought to Advertise Better

For the seven people following this blog, you might notice I've been unemployed for about, oh, 19 months now.  And that I've been YELLING AND SCREAMING for about most of that time FOR JOBS DAMMIT OBAMA WE NEED JOBS.


One of my pet peeves was this realization that for all the Congressional apathy that has been slowing down if not killing any legislative attempts to GET AMERICANS BACK TO WORK DAMMIT, the whole nation seemed to be in this funk of not wanting to do anything about the unemployment problem.  While the televised media itself seemed... distant and aloof about it (the local papers have near-daily news updates and check-ups and job hunting tips, so they at least are aware there's still a problem - and this being Florida with 14 percent out-of-work, IT IS STILL A PROBLEM), there didn't seem to be anything else out there going on.  No marches on state capitols, no rumors of marches, no mass rallies protesting the lack of effort to 15 million Americans back on their feet with good full-time jobs at good wages (As I've let Congress know, Wal-Mart Greeter is NOT a career!).

Not a peep.  And nothing on the Intertubes either.  Not from the liberal blogs nor the conservative ones.  Not from the blogs that tend to be truly balanced and informed.  It was as though NOBODY wanted to go through the hassles of getting into the streets and raising a fuss.

Which is getting really frustrating for me.  Because there are other groups in this nation taking to the streets, and these are groups that in my humble opinion don't have any legitimate grievances to drive them into the streets: the goddamn wingnut Teabaggers.

For one thing: these Teabaggers are NOT grass-roots.  By definition, grass-root organizations aren't funded by billionaires.  For another thing: these Teabaggers are out there protesting things - "OBAMA'S A SOCIALIST ZOMG!  OBAMA'S A SECRET MUSLIM ZOMG!  HEALTH CARE DEATH PANELS ZOMG!  DEMOCRATS ARE EVIL ZOMG!" - that are NOT TRUE.

It came to a head for me this weekend with the realization that a particular Rage Merchant was throwing his own Ego Rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a High Holy Day (Anniversary for Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech during a march in 1963 for... get this... jobs!).  I felt angry and pissed that an idiot like Beck could get 80,000 Teabaggers to travel to DC to boost his ego, but that 15 million unemployed Americans couldn't get anything together to host a rally in DC to yell and scream for the good jobs we desperately need.

So I went to Daily Kos - yes, Dad, I know they're Socialists - mostly 'cause I figured that would be the one venue where I could vent this matter using a Diary entry.  Mostly I raged that we needed to organize and get a Jobs Rally on DC done as soon as possible.

Well, it kinda worked.  Within minutes, someone posted a response, letting me know that "Hey guess what?  There IS a rally planned for Saturday October 2nd!"

It's being hosted by a group known as One Nation Working Together.  It's really associated with the AFL-CIO, as well as the NAACP and SEIU.  Yes, Dad, they're unions and they're liberal.  They're also the only ones I'm seeing out there in the political arena giving a crap about the unemployment crisis.

So thank GOD there is actually something going on out there.  But here comes my next greivance:

WHEN THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS GONNA TELL US ABOUT THAT?

You'd think the AFL-CIO or the NAACP or SEIU would have a grasp on the concept of advertising.  Because I certainly didn't hear anything about this and it looks like this has been in the planning stages since June.  At least since August 4th, when these guys finally got around to securing the October 2nd event.  Nothing.  NOT A PEEP.

You've got friendly ears in the televised media, don't you?  This was something Rachel Maddow could have been talking about the last three weeks, or at least Keith Olbermann.  Why isn't Daily Kos dedicating Diaries and updates on their site?  Or FireDogLake, which devotes some talk about SEIU?  I will tell you one thing: I'm not hearing anything about this among my fellow unemployed at the Career Center!  Sigh.

Look, here's the thing: we've got about a month before the event takes place.  We gotta start getting the word out to the unemployed across the nation.  It's gonna take time, and money, and travel planning and expenses, and a lot of other things, to make sure we get a good turnout.  'Cause the media's not gonna sit up and take notice if you get just 5,000 people attending.  The media's not gonna pay attention if you even get 80,000 like Beck did.  No, you're going to have to impress the shit out of the news channels: you're gonna need at least 2 million in the streets of Washington DC.  You're gonna need to clog up traffic from Alexandria to Baltimore.  You're gonna have the scare the crap out of the political insiders who simply can't see the number of unemployed people who are out there in the United States.

I'll do my part to spread the word.  But you guys?  AFL-CIO, NAACP, SEIU, the lot of you?  Start getting your ads out there!  Start chatting up Maddow or Cooper Anderson or god help us someone at FOX.  GET THE DAMN WORD OUT.

We need everyone there on October 2nd.  EVERYONE!

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