Since I am affected by the government shutdown, I've had entirely too much time to troll around Twitter and leave snide, cutting comments for Erick Erickson and other Tea Party "luminaries".
Indeed - reading Markos' front page post about Robert Costa's breathless reportage on the "game changing" million man Republican protest (minus 999,800 people, give or take) sent me directly to his Twitter feed, whereupon I dropped another wittily snide comment on his prediction, followed by the hastag #eyeroll.
But surfing on those subjects led me to see that there IS a real protest - or rally, rather - planned for tomorrow, Tuesday October 15.
More over the fold.
It was Paul Rieckhoff's tweets for the IAVA that caught my eye:
Oooh. A genuine rally by genuine Serious Veterans. Tell me more!!
Via CNN:
The event will be held Tuesday morning at the National World War II Memorial, several sources familiar with it confirmed to CNN. Some of the major groups that will be represented include: The American Legion, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Air Force Sergeants Association, National Military Family Association and Jewish War Veterans.
Rather a bit more luminary than Louie "Terrah Babies" Goehmert, Sarah "I'm an Idiot" Palin, and Ted "I'm Machiavellian" Cruz I'd wager.
Both the CNN article linked above and the one from Politico provide details about how the shutdown is, today, affecting veterans and active duty military.
Rieckhoff himself is pushing the event as being totally non-partisan:
Yet eleven hours before posting the Tweet directly above, he posted this:
Methinks the stunt at the WWII memorial with Tea Party assclowns, has-beens and whackadoodles didn't sit well with Rieckhoff.
If you are in or can get to the DC area for the rally, details and an RSVP are here.
Rather than using the memorial as a prop for feigned outrage, this coalition of veteran's groups are coming together to talk about the very real, life-endangering harm that the shutdown is having on veterans as it persists.