"Occupy Rose Parade" A Failure On Any Measure

Occupy protesters march at the end of the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade on Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena Monday, January 2, 2012 [ctrl-click image to see "Occupy Rose Parade" slideshow]. Image Credit: SGVN/Staff Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz/SXCITY


"Occupy Rose Parade" A Failure On Any Measure

On observation, the Occupy Wall Street's attempt to gain sympathy and support for their movement ended up being a complete failure on most any measure one wishes to apply to the display and its execution.

First off, very little media attention of their actual display and end-of-parade walk for the first mile and a half of the five and a half mile parade route was to be found on a Google search of "Occupy Rose Parade" - total postings and RSS feed pick-ups show only 24 listing Results. Any New Media writer knows that when one self-publishes, one must self-syndicate in order to increase Google search results on the title or subject of any article ... 24 item Results after 24 hours of an event is weak by any standard, let alone the platform the Rose Parade provides to a world audience. An estimated 40 million people viewed this year's procession of 43 floats, 16 marching bands and 22 equestrian troupes on U.S. television alone.

The first Rose Parade took place in 1890 and was attended by 2,000 people. The attendance has grown to one million parade goers lining Colorado Blvd. over the last few years.

Upon reading the stories leading up to the actual event, the "Occupy Rose Parade" organizers were hoping for tens-of-thousands of people turning out to participate in their side-bar, soft sanctioned, end-of-parade event. The initial projections provided by spokesman and organizer Peter Thottam estimated that 40,000 Occupy Movement (OWS) sympathizers would attend the demonstration but in hours before the parade, settled on the number of 3,000 demonstrators which the MSM press services of AP and Reuters picked-up and used as the template for all of their postings used by newspaper and television news broadcasts on the subject.

Actual estimates of the people who marched in the parade came to about 400 people. The official policy of the Pasadena Police Department is that they do not issue crowd estimates but when pushed, the Pasadena Police Department estimated that no more than 400 "Occupy Rose Parade" protesters marched the route and were joined by people from the crowd leaving the parade event, which made the actual protest seem larger.

Lastly, about the only people who took notice of this soft sanctioned, end-of-parade event were the real political activists who actually have a message people can relate to, and, to be frank, did not have to show up to act as a counter-weight to the "Occupy Rose Parade" protest effort. The Pasadena Tea Party Patriots, also known as TEAPAC, were upset by what they felt was the politicizing of the Rose Parade event and promised to stage their own protest if the city and the Tournament of Roses did not keep "Occupy Rose Parade" from demonstrating within the actual parade.

TEAPAC leader Michael Alexander said, "Occupy has no business in the parade, and neither do we. "But fair is fair and if the city and the (TofR) allow the parade to be politicized then we are going to be there."

So, the last failure of Occupy Rose Parade was that they were unable to have TEAPAC (and other serious political action organizations) take the bait and swell their protest crowd with a sizable counter-demonstration for the corporate media wire services to write about.

One has to ask - If 400 people in a parade and crowd of over 1,000,000 people represent "the 99%", just who are the rest of the parade and crowd of over 1,000,000 people ... the 1%?

The weather was perfect, the parade was beautiful, the Rose Bowl game came to a perfect conclusion with Oregon winning over Wisconsin in the highest scoring Rose Bowl game ever (Oregon Ducks, 45 - Wisconsin Badgers, 38), and 400 ineffective politically-progressive agitators were adsorbed (and nearly erased) by the general public as they left the parade route to get to their cars and get on with their first business day of the 2012 year holiday, happy being personally-free Americans.



<Article first seen as “Occupy Rose Parade” A Failure On Any Measure at Technorati>

May Day - Not Just For The Undocumented Anymore

The crowd gathered for the Tax Day Tea Bag event held on the front steps of the Glendale, CA City Hall. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2009)

May Day - Not Just For The Undocumented Anymore

Ever feel a little left out of the modern day festivities that surround the first day in the month of May?

There was a time that a community would look with anticipation toward May and the recognition that the spring planting season had begun in earnest. Townspeople would gather in the town center and halls to share in traditions that included parties, sing-alongs, Old World maypole dancing, and parades. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the month of May is a time to celebrate a renewal of life marked with May Day on the first day of May.

The modern trend for the last couple of years saw the introduction of attention getting protests about United States immigration policy. Protests re-branded not as May Day celebrations of life renewal but as "A Day Without A Mexican" and gatherings to promote socialists ideals where the Government should be in control of everything.

"Reconquista", the undocumented immigrant movement to re-assimilate the southwest United States back into the territory of Mexico has become a modern day May Day theme. Image Credit: Google Images

Two weeks ago, a phenomenon popped-up in the pantheon of protests. Citizens who have always desired and worked toward being a part of the fabric of a strong and free society, gathered in front of City Halls holding Tea Bags as a sign of protest, in the spirit of the original Boston Tea Party against the governmental act of taxation without representation in England to the colony states in North America. These were gatherings in protest of excessive tax laws being enacted and out-of-control Federal Government Spending used to support a shift toward a Socialist society as opposed to one that is based upon self-reliance and the God given rights to make decisions about and control ones personal life.

The April 15 Tax Day Tea Parties amassed nearly one-million (1,000,000) people at over 900 gatherings throughout the United States.

Since the newly elected executive administration assumed power in office January 20, 2009, the actions of the Obama Administration and the current Democrat Party controlled Congress have enacted two large Taxing/Spending laws (The Stimulus and Omnibus Spending Bills) amounting to an assessment of over $18,000 of additional debt for each and every household to fund spending increases of over 90% of current bureaucratic infrastructure programs. Normal increases generally keep track with economic expansion and inflation (a single digit 3% to 6% increase has been the custom).

Image Credit: May Day! May Day! - Defeat 1A page in Facebook

Enter May Day 2009 in Pasadena (this notice excerpted and edited from a Facebook Tea Party message broadcast):

May Day! May Day! - Defeat 1A
... because socialism isn't cool

An action to celebrate spring and protest the upcoming May 19th vote that asks California citizens to tax themselves even MORE through a YES Vote on Propositions 1 A, B, C, D, & F!

This gathering is to bring attention on why one would want to Vote NO on all of these propositions and reject the notion that they would actually limit government and government spending.

Where: Pasadena City Hall
100 N Garfield Ave

When: Friday, May 1st, 4pm

What: VIP Speakers, Rally, May Day Parade, Happy Hour

The Pasadena Tea Party Patriots are thrilled to announce that conservative thinker Larry Greenfield will join Evan Sayet, Victoria Jackson and Andrew Breitbart to speak at our May Day rally.

Our theme is "Anti-Socialism", so please go all out with the clever signs and "propaganda". We're also having a contest to see who can come looking most like their favorite communist dictator. The top 5 look-alikes will get VIP seating behind the podium for maximum media exposure. This could be a recipe for hilarity!

See you ALL there!
----
Dear Tea Party Patriots,

On behalf of the Pasadena Tea Party organizers, we'd like to thank you for standing with us against high taxes and Big Government. Our Tea Party and hundreds of others around America this week are just the first steps toward restoring the personal and economic freedoms that our Constitution guarantees. We must now translate this energy into IMMEDIATE AND AGGRESSIVE POLITICAL ACTION. We must punish those who betrayed us and replace them with principled representatives.

> DEFEAT CALIFORNIA PROPOSITIONS 1A-1F ON MAY 19

Our immediate objective is simple: DEFEAT PROPOSITIONS 1A-1F on May 19. California is already fiscally and politically bankrupt. If passed, these propositions will only drive us further in the hole. When we win, politicians in both parties will know that Californians intend to retake control of state government. Like Proposition 13, it will send a shockwave throughout California, Washington, D.C., all of America and even the world.

> MAY DAY! – MAY DAY!

Our next action dates are May 1 and May 19. We’re choosing May Day because that’s when despotic socialist countries like North Korea stage parades pretending to celebrate the worker and democracy. We need to take that day back. Choosing “Mayday” is also fitting because all pilots and mariners use this expression to signal distress and imminent danger. This is exactly where we are in California.

> SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

May 1, 4p-7p, Pasadena City Hall
Tea Party Rally, Parade and Happy Hour

May 1- 19, San Gabriel Valley
‘Boots on the Ground’

May 19, 6-10p, Mijares Restaurant
Post Election Party

> COMMUNITY RE-ORGANIZERS NEEDED NOW

The radicals and agitators driving us into financial ruin – including at least one President – like to call themselves “Community Organizers.” Well, I guess that makes anyone trying to fix this mess a “Community RE-Organizer.” If this describes you, then we need your help in putting Boots on the Ground. Wes Hampton has volunteered to lead the ‘ground game’ here in the San Gabriel Valley. He has generously offered the use of his San Gabriel offices and phones to support our efforts.

While we appreciate your financial support, we are most interested in your personal involvement. Our strength lies not only in our numbers but in the active commitment and participation of our members in the political process. We have to take the battle to the Big Spenders. The upcoming special election will be our first big test. Our opponents will be watching us very closely to find out just how real we are, whether we can transform vigorous dissent into electoral success. They are hoping that the Tea Parties will be a one-time event that fades into politics as usual for the two major parties.

The only way we can change their political calculations is for us to participate fully, regularly and reliably in the electoral process. Ronald Reagan once said that the Russians loved the arms race as long as they were the only ones in it. It’s the same with California politics.

The Spendocrats in both parties have had the game to themselves – with predictable results. All that changes starting now.

> ACTION STEPS

Here are the steps you need to take:

• Make sure we know who you are. If you’re getting this message, at least your on our facebook page. Reply to this message and provide information requested below.

• Volunteer for something. We currently need volunteers to perform the following tasks:

· Full-time and part-time volunteers to monitor our email and web site. This can be done in the office or at home.

· Full-time and part-time volunteers to staff our office, especially during the upcoming Prop1A-F campaign.

· Bookkeeper and/or treasurer. Financial professional preferred.

· Coordinator for Speakers’ Forum

•Make sure we know who your friends are. Using the reply function, send us the name, email and as much additional contact information as is available for anyone you think should be on our distribution list.
Reference Here>>

So, we at MAXINE urge ... come one and come ALL ... May Day Is Not Just For The Undocumented, Anymore!

UPDATES - Photographs and videos to be added after the event HERE >>
(MAXINE will be in attendance as a Citizen Journalist - Pajamas Media/Editor - NowPublic).

Impressions from the event:

May Day! May Day! No On 1A!

An action to celebrate spring and protest the upcoming May 19th vote that asks California citizens to tax themselves even MORE through a YES Vote on Propositions 1 A through F! This gathering is to bring attention on why one would want to Vote NO.

A great and enthusiastic crowd showed up ... we were even visited by one (1) protester who interrupted the speaker at the podium and claimed that Andrew Breitbart was involved in racist hate speech by citing that the policies of our current president amount to practicing socialism. Andrew asked him to take the microphone and defend his position, who, at that point walked up to the podium and continued to spew accusations without being able to support his position. He left, frustrated that he was unable to have his thoughts come out clearly at the podium.

As the crowd gathered around waiting for the event to begin, ethnic Russian sounding music performed by LIMPOPO filled the air of this decidedly ANTI-socialism rally setting a fun tongue- in-cheek posture amongst this community of ... PROTESTERS!

VIP speakers included:
-Victoria Jackson, comedienne and Saturday Night Live alum,
-Evan Sayet, political pundit and comedian who will serve as Master of Ceremonies
-Andrew Breitbart, Washington Times columnist and creator of Big Hollywood and Breitbart.tv
-Larry Greenfield, Vice President of the Claremont Institute and former Regional Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

All were filled with great focus and good advice on how to stick to ones convictions. Evan Sayet had one of the most humorous lines of the gathering when said that the Left and the Right are really not that far apart - The Right quotes Patrick Henry (personage in full costume and fife played by Jim Riley of the apple growing region of San Bernardino County, Oak Glen, CA) and states "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" where as the Left ... while close, says "Give me Librium or give me Meth!"

There was a costume contest for protesters dressed as infamous communist dictators (i.e.Castro, Mao, Stalin, Chavez). The top 5 look-alikes would have received VIP seating behind the podium for maximum media exposure, but they wanted to remain in the crowd to give it the color and the humor the event commanded.

Victoria Jackson was brilliant and perfect for this gathering of unlikely protesters (she stated that she was not the type to get up and speak on political things, that this was her third time ... one couldn't tell, especially as she introduced her daughter). The protesters were unlikely in that, they were all well dressed, clean and a pretty sober bunch with smiles. It isn't that they lacked passion for the protest subject, the crowd just wouldn't be the sort that would go out and turn over cars, break windows, and such because they respected all peoples property and space ... but get them in a voting booth - WATCH OUT!

Following the rally, a fife playing Patrick Henry led protesters on a patriotic march through historic Old Town Pasadena where participants gathered for a happy hour celebration at Brix 42 Pub & Brewery. The march drew honks from passing cars on Colorado Blvd. in a show of support for the messages on the signs they had read.

It is time for all with a passion to place "BOOTS ON THE GROUND" in the community in order to defeat Propositions 1A-F. California is already fiscally and politically bankrupt. If passed, these propositions will only drive us further in the hole. When we win, politicians in both parties will know that Californians intend to retake control of state government. Like Proposition 13, it will send a shockwave throughout California, Washington, D.C., all of America and even the world.