so that right-wing protest, "revolt at the state house", was this morning. it warranted a whopping three-paragraph AP story. here's the story in its entirety (and yes, i'm going against my "no quoting the AP" policy):

An eclectic group of nearly 200 people gathered at the Indiana Statehouse today to show lawmakers that they are generally "fed up" with government.

Some at the rally held signs urging lawmakers to retire or be voted out of office. Others wanted to repeal property taxes or stop what they considered eminent domain abuse. Other signs supported a state immigration law and a revolt against socialism.

Speakers at the "Revolt at the Statehouse" event included taxpayer group leaders and community activists. Organizers said the focus of the rally was the frustration average citizens feel with government at all levels.

well, that sounds like a ragtag bunch. of course, saying the event's "focus" was "the frustration average citizens feel with government at all levels" is a nice way of saying what jim shella said: the event lacked focus.

shella's report is amusing: he plays it for laughs, finding a few fringe types and letting them embarrass themselves on camera. gary welsh, as is his nature, takes shella's criticism personally.

abdul, on the other hand, has no qualms about mocking gary by name, saying that when gary "screams" into a microphone, "he sounds like Godzilla on helium." abdul also writes that "At times it was hard to follow where it all was going. For the next rally, I'd try to stay a little more focused and have a more tangible universal theme that is easy for people to grasp."

compare shella and abdul's complaints with what i wrote a month ago:

i don't see this protest attracting a lot of protesters nor much media attention. the whole thing is too vague and ephemeral for tv reporters, who won't have a clue how to cover the thing. and in today's economy, i don't see the typical taxpayer getting too riled up about "the executive and legislative revolving door"—these days, people are more worried about just finding jobs and making ends meet. if this were a focused protest centered around, say, the mess at the CIB, i could see it being a moderate success. but a kitchen-sink protest of complaining about "corporate welfare" is doomed to failure.

of course, as melyssa loves to remind me, nobody reads this blog, so who cares what i have to say? ¶

I thought of your earlier comments as I was reading some of the coverage. So that's one! ¶

Abdul's crack about Gary Welsh is classic! I considered making some comment on his blog about it being leakage from Gary's heels but thought the better of it...

I had wondered about attending as an observer but I didnt want to be mistaken as a supporter so I mused about prominently wearing Obama and Democrat buttons. That'd simply provoke the crazies into all sorts of taunts and confrontations so I went to Krogers and got dog food. That was really a better use of my time.

It seems to only person missing at that Rally was Timothy McVeigh! ¶

Well, I'm nobody and I read the post, so there you go. ¶

another nobody here as well. Boy, there seem to be quite a few of us around. ¶

Yep, your post was what I thought of right away when watching Shella's coverage of the event. You were spot on. ¶

I should have linked to it from my short post about the event, actually, but I hadn't had coffee yet when I made the post this morning. I'll remedy that now. ¶

I read it to but of course I related to you so probably don't count anyway ¶