Tea Party Protesters Protest D.C. Metro Service?

[Bravo Zulu]

Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.

Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.

Seriously.

The Texas Republican on Wednesday released a letter he sent to Washington’s Metro system complaining that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.

“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,” Brady wrote. “These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.”

A spokesman for Brady says that “there weren’t enough cars and there weren’t enough trains.” Brady tweeted as much from the Saturday march. “METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,” he wrote on Twitter.

Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs. He concludes that it “appears that Metro added no additional capacity to its regular weekend schedule.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-prot...

[CakeGrrl]

1. So the people who don't want to pay ANY taxes are bitching

about a public service.

Tough toast.

[burrowowl]

14. I would say Tough Teaty!

No wonder Europe is turning Dumb Blonde Jokes into Dumb American Jokes!

[madeline_con]

19. Another bit of fun is the people in wheelchairs getting cabs.

These assholes couldn't help them? Dumbshits.

[katandmoon]

2. This is like the kid who murders his parents demanding mercy because he's an orphan.

[JBoy]

9. Or complaining that he's not going to keep getting his allowance.

[C_U_L8R]

3. What a freakin' circular cluster youknow

The immense unintentional irony of republican morons is astounding

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. There was no need to add any additional capacity -

the turnout for that event wasn't terribly large, not big enough, certainly, to warrant my kind of adjustment to regular weekend Metro service.

I'd love to have seen those dickwads trying to comprehend Fare Cards and the Metro. THAT had to be funnier than hell....................

[Roland99]

5. More people come to town to catch a Redskins game

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. What's the stadium's capacity?

Those Teabaggers would not have filled it, I am certain............

On edit - I just looked up the capacity of FedEx field - 91,665.

Not even close....................

[GrantDem]

7. My thought exactly

I'd love to have seen those dickwads trying to comprehend Fare Cards and the Metro. THAT had to be funnier than hell...

The comedy value alone would have been worth the time and effort to camp out at L'Enfant Plaza watching these fucks.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Can you imagine the jams at the turnstiles?

While they tried to figure out how those damned slots worked?

And then the chance to see those assholes (Van Jones was right) looking at the Metro maps, trying to figure them out?

Really, I'd have camped out with you, just to watch that show. Although, I'm not sure that my vaccinations against Polyester Overload and Fat People Sweat are up-to-date.

I'd have risked it, for sure....................................

[GrantDem]

15. Definitely

Imagine all of the free fare cards that could have been collected as the idiots threw them on the ground because they "didn't work".

[MrScorpio]

6. DC has one of the best public transporation systems in the country, if not, the world

Perhaps he was expecting Metro to hand out ponies?

[ezgoingrl]

8. The irony is

stunning.

Edit: I need to learn to spell "the" apparently.

[JBoy]

10. Most of those dipshits have probably never taken a subway in their lives.

[marmar]

13. They dared use SOCIALIZED transportation?

I want my oxygen back. It's wasted on these people.

[chollybocker]

16. This explains why they all arrived late for the satellite photos.

[Hello_Kitty]

18. Luckily, enough people arrived for the Promise Keepers march in 1997.

So they used that photo and called it the same thing.

[Hello_Kitty]

17. What bullshit. On any given weekend in DC there are a bunch of people coming in for something.

The trains get crowded. Deal with it.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. But, but, but.......

Don't you understand that if the Teabaggers had gotten on those trains, they'd have been forced to stand next to - maybe even TOUCH - "those people"?

They'd have liked, I am sure, a bunch of trains designated "Whites Only," just like the good old days, you know, the America they "want back".....................

[Hello_Kitty]

25. It's so ironic, on several levels, that they chose DC for their "massive" protest.

A Southern city with a long and sordid history of segregation, racial tension, and (justified IMO) resentment over lack of representation in Congress. Do they really want to talk to DC residents, who are larger in number than Wyoming (which gets 2 Senators and a Congressmember) about feeling left out of the political process?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

26. For a while, a long time ago,

DC license plates bore the legend "Chocolate City."

I wonder if any of them understands the racial composition of the District.

But that doesn't stop the dumb fucks from whining - after the fact, of course - about all this strange stuff they encountered in this big old evil city, does it?

I must confess, there was a part of me fantasizing about a HUGH group of DC residents, mostly black, showing up on the Mall, wearing Obama t-shirts. I'd have given ANYTHING to have seen that.

Imagine the silence...................................

[DCKit]

20. Hate to say anything to back their argument, but you've got to allow an extra hour...

for weekend service on Metro when going anywhere. That's just the way it is. I hate using Metro on the weekend. But I'll bet the people attending the Black Family Reunion won't be registering any complaints - it is what it is.

Did the Hatriots wait until fifteen minutes before their big meet-up to leave the safety of their hotel rooms, expecting those socialist trains to arrive on demand? It's not as if Jesus himself is sitting in the control room, making sure the lowest, most common denominator get where they're going on time.

In light of their stance on anything socialist, how dare they even mention this publicly funded transit system. Just when you think they couldn't sink any lower into hypocrisy....

[Tangerine LaBamba]

27. As someone posted here,

imagine all the perfectly good Farecards lying on the Metro floors all around the turnstiles, thrown away by those dumb fucks who couldn't figure out how they worked.

They had no idea that there would be "those people" on the Metro, and I'm pretty sure they were really surprised to find out that "Metro" means "subway." That HAD to throw them.........................................

[AnnieBW]

22. They got treated like DC Residents

Everybody in the DC area knows that Metro sucks on the weekends!

[kwassa]

23. well, I agree with the tea-baggers on this one ..... Metro sucks.

and it is not Meto's fault so much as that they have no guaranteed revenue source, and they operate in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, who all have wildly different financial priorities, and are all in serious financial pain right now.

Metro has been declining for awhile, but even in better times, there was no pain like trying to get on the Metro after the 4th of July fireworks on the Capitol Mall. It could take hours when 600,000 people try to get on trains at the same time. Life in DC. On the other hand, I had an easy trip getting to Obama's inauguration, the real pain was when I hit the mall and the complete ineptness of the crowd management there.

you might recall a couple of months back when two Metro trains collided and killed 9 people. Several train workers have died recently, hit by trains.

[daleo]

24. They seem like self-mockery, but they have a plan.

People like this aren't about rational debate, but rather about the appearance of debate. It's called crazy making behavior, meant to wear others down so that they give up and cede the field.

[LostInAnomie]

28. Most telling sentence in this whole story:

"Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs."

Or, you lazy, teabagging fucks could have gotten off your fat asses and let them ride while you took a cab (or, God forbid, walk). That whole sentence is a perfect summation of the modern Republican attitude.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

29. The Metro elevators were working?

I'm impressed. It's really good thinking to put an elderly woman in a wheelchair and elderly veterans in wheelchairs on a public transportation system over a weekend, when it's always crowded.

Really good planning.

Fortunately, the zone system for cabs in DC probably cost them a bundle, so it all worked well, as far as I'm concerned...

[Hello_Kitty]

32. Ding ding ding!

"They should have brought rickshaws for every teabagger who needed to brought to the event! To hell I say, with this communist socialist 'public transit system' that forces me to sit on a train with THOSE people!"

[GOPisEvil]

30. I attended marches in DC (all the way from Texas too).

I daresay there were more people at the rallies and marches I attended than at their little gathering. I had zero problem using the Metro in DC. It was crowded, but it worked.

But then I planned ahead and allotted extra time. I didn't expect people to make my life easier for me.

[Hello_Kitty]

31. Thank you. I grew up in the DC area and went to more than one big event there.

You planned ahead and allotted extra time. It's not that hard.

[no_hypocrisy]

33. Same thing. Metro has been the least of my worries when I've gone to DC to protest.

[noel711]

34. They've never ridden subway in NYC, Philly or Chicago...

Riding the D.C. Metro is like going to Paris,
eating lobster or drinking expensive imported scotch.

You gotta complaint with that?

Obviously this crowd isn't accustomed to riding subway...

Try riding the B train during rush hour...

[tonekat]

35. Ha! Welcome to DC, teabaggaroos...

...perhaps you would like a WHAAAAAAAMBULANCE?