Skeptic Project

Pamela Geller is planning to hold another protest next week against the proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero, or as she calls it, "the Ground Zero Victory Mosque."

This January 12 protest will be held at a City Council meeting, called to decide whether to build Wal-Mart stores in New York City. Geller argues that the City Council wants to say "no to Wal-Mart but yes to the Islamic supremacist mosque. The limousine liberals deign to deny the working class and the poor jobs and prices they can afford."

Over the summer, the right-wing (and the cable news networks) freaked out about a proposal to build the Cordoba House Islamic Center a few blocks from Ground Zero. Pamela Geller, a right-winger who blogs at Atlas Shrugs, and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, were some at the forefront of the anti-Islamic Center movement, organizing a much-hyped rally on September 11 in opposition to the proposal.

But after September 11, things suddenly died down. As Justin Elliott wrote for Salon last week: "After a last gasp in October in the run-up to the election (including a few memorable anti-mosque campaign ads), the story all but disappeared." (Check out his helpful graph of media coverage from May-December from Google News -- there's a huge drop-off after mid-September).

Geller, though, has not shown any signs of letting it go. On December 30 she exclaimed on her blog "WE DID IT" and cited the "tens of thousands" who showed up to the rally to "[change] the paradigm" (local law enforcement told TPM at the time that about 1,500 people had shown up).

City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn had originally scheduled the meeting for December 14, but changed the date of the meeting, telling the New York Times: "We needed a bigger room. We heard from unions all across the city, small business leaders from across the city. It's a growing list of people."

Geller had a different perspective: "The council canceled tomorrow's hearing at the last minute, in the dark of night, and will reschedule it when no one will come and there is no notice. But we will be there."

So if 1,500 showed up at the height of the controversy, how many is "we" now that Geller no longer has national attention?

Here's the flyer from Atlas Shrugs:

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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/will_anyone_show_up_to_pamela_gellers_next_anti-gr.php?ref=fpb