Bring-Your-Own-Puppet Million Muppet March planned

A group of public TV fans have announced a "Million Muppet March" on November 3 on the National Mall in DC. They are upset at Mitt Romney's vow to have Big Bird waterboarded. This will be a Bring Your Own Puppet event. More from Reuters:

Within 30 minutes of the end of the debate they were on the phone with each other, planning the march.

"I figured, why just make it a virtual show of support? Why not take this opportunity because it seemed like there was already a growing interest in it and actually make it an active, participatory event," Bellavia said. "I literally just said, 'It's happening.'"

Both men consider themselves fans of "Sesame Street," perhaps the best-known program on PBS, which received $445 million of $3.8 trillion in federal budget outlays in 2012.

Coming from rural Idaho, Mecham said he was aware how important public broadcasting was in sparsely populated areas that receive no other signals over the air.

"Million Muppet March" planned to defend U.S. backing for PBS (via Reddit)

• [spacedoggy]

  This will look great in the news. Great defence of PBS by Mr. Rogers, Surprised no one’s mentioned already since it seems to be such an issue in the presidential debate…

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

• [someoneisafoot]

  seriously? million muppet march. this is a slap in the face. co-opting names of civil right activism is not cool. why can’t folks be creative and figure out a different name.

  • [chenille]

    Is it really such a slap that people find the Million Man March an inspiration for their lesser causes, and so name them in fond reference to it, rather than leaving it an untouched memory? I don’t think it detracts from the original.

• [Tchoutoye]

  Nothing against Big Bird, but this is a bit trivial for a million march. There should be one against the bipartisan stranglehold of the Democratic and Republican parties limiting real choice in the elections.

  • [EvilSpirit]

    Like it or not, the 2-party system emerges as the natural consequence of gaming our entire system of government. The particular pair of parties we’ve ended up with are the symptom of that, not the pathology itself. A million-anything march is just a fart in the wind when what you’re looking for is a whole new Constitutional convention.

• [Jim Saul]

  Makes me wish I hadn’t given my Kermit costume away.

• [niro5]

  Or, you could spend your weekend before election day going door to door convincing your PBS supporting neighbors to vote. Or try volunteering at a DNC field office.  If the Obama campaign had a million extra volunteers on the third, the election would be a forgone conclusion.

  Don’t like partisan politics?  Bring your Muppet to the local town square and while the kids play with them, you tell the parents to vote on Tuesday.

  If I wanted to screw PBS, the first thing I would do would be to schedule a useless march the weekend before election day.

  • [MadRat]

     I have to agree with you but in stronger terms. 

    This is an idiotic idea.  Let’s say that only 100,000 people show up.  How much fossil fuel will be burned up, polluting the environment, getting them there?  How much money will be spent on this even that could be donated directly to PBS? 

    What’s happening in the mean time?  “Terrorist” women and children on two continents are being crippled and killed by Predator drones blowing up weddings and funerals.  American citizens are sitting in prison for months or years without trial.  The US government is allowing its police force to monitor its citizens’ phone calls without a warrant.  DNA is being collected from American citizens who have been arrested, with or without a trial.  The list goes on and on…  When are we going to stop being distracted by puppets for pre-schoolers and get serious about the civil rights of ourselves AND our children being taken away. 

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      When are we going to stop being distracted by puppets for pre-schoolers and get serious about the civil rights of ourselves AND our children being taken away.

      Do you think that pre-schoolers will grow up to be compassionate, involved adults by watching corporate media instead of Sesame Street?

• [rezmuff]

  I think Obama and others were correct to mock Mitt on this issue, but the time for that has passed. It’s now just a stale punchline, and a small issue in a big campaign. These people should work on getting out the vote, and bringing more attention to Romney’s disastrous plans for the economy, civil rights, and foreign policy.

• [Damien]

  I always thought that yellow bird was Too Big To Fail.

• [Ian Wood]

  Yep. Oppressed minorities and Muppets.

  Well done, folks. Well done.

  Does no one comprehend the concept of “optics?”

  Nobody?

  Farrakhan almost sued the National Park Service over crowd estimates. Who’re the Muppet organizers going to sue?

• [Don Simpson]

  Ian, that’s only because the National Park Service wanted to report that there was no where close to a million men at his march…

• [jim weed]

  clown event.  this is a non-issue.  nothing is going to happen to cpb/pbs. romney was just giving a handjob to the tea partiers when he said that. 

• [beemoh]

  This is absurd. Muppets don’t have legs, they’re not marching anywhere.

• [skyhawk1]

  Guy Smiley would have to wear shades, and a false beard to avoid people confusing him with Romney.

  • [The Life Of Bryan]

    Couldn’t we get Romney to wear a goatee? Isn’t that how an evil twin is commonly denoted in modern drama?

• [Travis Etling]

  This is absolutely at the heart of the philosophical debate:  slashing and privatizing those elements that contribute to the common good (education, healthcare, environment, public information and programming) in order to facilitate transfer of wealth and resources from the commons to the Kochs.

• [John Smith]

  It’s too bad that after forty years the Children’s Television Workshop hasn’t figured out how to make any money off of these beloved Muppets.