While I support this protest, in my opinion, this is a non-media savvy day to have it. "Regular folks" use the day off for family, friends, and bbqs. It's a holiday so no one will be working at the government buildings, and it's typically a lousy news day since the skeleton crews are on.

But hopefully this event will start getting people together to keep the pressure on as new revelations come out. Protesting matters, phone calls matter, emails matter---I've seen it. Generally the rule is for every one constituent (that's key) call there's 100 more who think that. Right now you can start to see the official line fraying a bit with various actors attempting to cover their own asses. Maybe they don't care about the big picture, but they care about legacy, career, and ego. And no one wants to be on the wrong side of history.

These protests have not been well organized. From the outside it looks like a handful of Redditors who are thinking of hanging out together - and there seems to have been no PR or outreach to folks beyond Reddit. Most of the nation does not use Reddit.

My page for my New England city has nothing except a link to a conversation with half a dozen folks planning a preliminary meeting, with no follow up info posted. I could drive to Boston, but what's the point: the Boston group is only predicting an attendance of 40. I doubt it will get media coverage, and at that size I honestly hope it doesn't.

> I could drive to Boston, but what's the point: the Boston group is only predicting an attendance of 40

This defeatist attitude is why the predicted attendance is so low.

No, the predicted attendance is low because no one has heard about this.

Only organizing among Redditors, not bothering to reach out to people with more experience organizing protests, and not partnering with affiliated organizations (Tea Party, Occupy, various student groups) who might all come together to rally around this is why predicted attendance is so low.

Update: Added first sentence to emphasize point.

And yet we have armchair critics like yourself declining to get involved and help out, opting instead to bicker and put down the efforts of people trying to actually make a difference.

I'm sorry this has devolved into a back and forth. I was trying to offer the perspective of someone who believes passionately about this issue and is looking for ways to get more active, but who cannot get excited about these protests in my area. I do hope there are bigger protests in other cities and they make some impact.

I believe we are both frustrated that more is not happening, and unfortunately that frustration is being directed at each other instead of the real issue. I do applaud your enthusiasm and stepping forward to help advertise this.

Thank you for your support :) Please don't take my direct tone personally, I've been following Greenwald's twitter a lot recently and emulating the way he responds to critics. Generally it's been very effective at rallying support but can tend to alienate folks who disagree.

I find it much more likely that the lack of interest/poor organizing is why rather than a few skeptics on the internet. Their Twitter page has less than a thousand followers, their Facebook page has just over 2,000 likes. You can argue the people involved don't want to use social media, but the reality is no one is hearing the message besides a couple hundred insiders talking amongst themselves. It is hard to quash a movement with defeatists when there is no movement.