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Thursday, January 14, 2010

3,000 AFP Members March On Annapolis










As I boarded the loaded bus from Salisbury heading to Annapolis, many had already loaded up from Worcester County excited about heading to Annapolis with a voice, a goal, a message saying, Enough Is Enough!

We arrived at the Senate building and enjoyed fellowship with Senators from all over the state of Maryland. We then enjoyed some great food sponsored by Senator Andy Harris and soon after made it outside where literally thousands of people gathered.

Our very own City Councilwoman Debbie Campbell was one of the guest speakers, (a registered democrat) who was welcomed by everyone there. You see Folks, the AFP is a non partisan group and welcomes all AMERICANS.

The peaceful, yet very vocal group sent a message to our elected officials that they were not happy with the direction this country is headed in and I have to tell you, the elected officials were present and were also overwhelmed with the large crowd that had gathered.

The way I see it at this point is, everyone had better keep a keen eye on the AFP because they are growing so fast, there's never been anything like it. I truly enjoyed just about every speech that was given last night and the way that each speaker was managed time wise. No one seemed to be grandstanding, just passing off good messages.

The next time you hear of an opportunity to get on one of these buses and make a trip to Washington or Annapolis, do it! I'm confident you'll never regret the experience.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the legislature holding an evening session? Otherwise they will never know about this. the msm will never cover it.

joealbero said...

anonymous 10:34, No, they had a day session and were present to hear what was being said. I did state that in my Post.

Alex said...

WBAL11 and WJZ13 covered it in detail here in Baltimore.

Anonymous said...

Great event! Keep up the good work AFP.

TDP said...

What is AFP ??

Anonymous said...

Where's the local AFP group when we need them to control spending by Wicomico County -- Pollitt proposes over $5 Million for a parking lot at $250,000-300,000 per acre -- and the City of Salisbury ("The Bricks" and so on).

joealbero said...

anonymous 11:47, maybe if you showed up for a meeting once in a while you'd clearly see the local AFP Members there.

Anonymous said...

11:47 We are working as hard as we can in Wicomico, please join us at the next county or City Council meeting. We need all the voices we can get... and Joe thanks so much!

Mardela said...

Americans For Prosperity

Anonymous said...

It was in today's edition of the Daily Times. Interesting that the total number of participants is in dispute, and the number of buses that went clearly indicates the number was far less than this site reports!

But that is ok...what is important is that citizens have the right and are willing to demonstrate for their beliefs. I just wish places that this forum and others simply reported facts. That would be refreshing!

joealbero said...

anonymous 1:42, While I will admit I am no expert with crowd numbers, I was there personally as well as the Sarah Foxwell search and I can assure you, there was between 2,000 to 3,000 people there and I'd say it was closer to 3,000.

The Daily Times had a photographer there, not a reporter. I did not see that same photographer at the Shorebirds Stadium, with all due respect. In fact, I know the photographer that was at the Shorebirds representing the Daily Times.

I have looked at other Websites referencing this event last night and it ranges from 2,000 to 3,000 people.

Perhaps you could join me the next time and count heads?

Anonymous said...

As usual the MSM tries to disparaging the voice of the people and the Tea Party Movement, minimizing crowd size or screaming names designed to marginalize people. There were literally thousands not hundreds in attendance last night. I estimated 3,000 and it was amazing. As usual the people who were there know.

I know there's been some discussion (given ABC and CBS reporting "hundreds" turned out last night) about crowd size.

Here's a handy way of justifying:

http://www.helium.com/items/1444274-estimate-crowd-size-journalist-reporter-obama-palin-mccain-parade-rally-inaguration

Journalists have a thumbnail for doing such estimates - given crowd densities. I think that at our strongest point, we could easily be considered to have been at "mob" density - approximately 2.5 square feet per person.

Looking at Lawyers Mall on Google Maps today, I'd say our most dense crowd was in a space that was roughly 100' by 70' - That's 7,000 square feet (Lawyers' mall is substantially larger - measuring about 200' by 100'). Figuring in a loss of about 500 square feet for trees, the statue, other features of the space, that's 6500 square feet.

6500/2.5= 2,600 people.

Considering that we had people milling about on the sidewalks near College Ave, in the back of the space, and all around, I'm safe going with about 2,500, and you should feel safe doing so as well.

jp said...

Lets read a bit about the groups leading your little herd...

"Americans for Prosperity" are little more than a lobby group with tobacco and health insurance companies funding these "marches".
AFP isn't grassroots, is ASTROTURF.

the "Institute of Liberty" was just one of a hand full fronts to collect private cell phone numbers during tea party marches for u$e by private lobby groups. (what happened to that "Liberty"?) Furthermore, once the numbers were collected the former head of IoL ,Jason Wright, paid himself more than twice the amount the IoF contributed to ANYTHING before jumping ship! ...ASTROTURF...

"Freedom Works" is literally a self described "mouthpiece for hire" and is the group responsible for the leaked memo urging town hall meeting attendees to create "outbursts to derail an otherwise productive forum". They were also the group that was found to be responsible for creating "fake grassroots websites" opposing the recent energy bill- It was later revealed that the American Petroleum Inst was funding them! What a coincidence. ...ASTROTURF...

"Tea Party Patriots" was supposed to be the group that the formally exposed "freedomworks" was to hand control of the "tea parties" to. However, Rolling Stone magazine reports that internal correspondence from TPP's private listserv made it clear that FreedomWorks was still directing the Tea Party Patriots' activities. Not only that but Rupert Murdoch's FAUX news is one of their top sponsors- making them ASTROTURF.

Anonymous said...

jp bla bla bla....yea we believe you, no one cares that EACH of us is in debt to federal government for $40,000 and in the state by hundreds....and growing every day. But we're astro turf to you, like federal paid for ACORN I guess.

Anonymous said...

[from Wikipedia] -

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a Washington D.C.-based conservative political advocacy group which describes itself on its Web site as "... an organization of grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels." It was founded in 2004 by David H. Koch of Koch Industries, who in 1984 had also established its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy, from which Americans for Prosperity split in 2003. (Citizens for a Sound Economy rebranded as FreedomWorks.)

Anonymous said...

JP Is nothing more than a left wing propagandist ! He would rather leave what we have in office and run the country further into the ground, Rather than admit his left wing ideas are destroying all of us !

Anonymous said...

3:29 makes no sense whatsoever. They live in a dream world apparently. It's insane to even suggest that FOX news is not the most reliable news available. FOX is number 1 in all the ratings.
Where is CNN and the other liberal networks in ratings 3:29?

Anonymous said...

Some folks cannot accept the truth and rather live in denial. 3:29 is one of those folks.

Anonymous said...

Rolling Stone reports? Who would believe anything that they had to say other than some Obama lover.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous... Do a Google search for Wikipedia, "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit." Oh my...

jp said...

I tried to reply twice now, Joe wont post my replies. I guess it easier to respond to counterpoints that nobody gets to read? haha he took his kickball home so I couldn't play with it...

Anonymous said...

The slugs at WBOC reported that several people boarded a bus from Salisbury. May they rot in hell.