It’s not like they’re protesting in Boise. Pretty much everywhere you go in this town is federal this, or Congress that. We’re in the most governmentally important city in the world and it’s been the center of protest activity for at least a hundred years (my knowledge of pre-Civil War protests is murky). As much as they chose to come here and slow down your commute, you chose to move to DC where you have to have known stuff like this is going to happen on a fairly regular basis. And if not here, where?

That being said, I stayed inside today and enjoyed watching the rain hit my windows, so I wasn’t effected at all, which makes it easier for me to be dismissive of your concerns.

At the same time, though, the protest isn’t purely to poke at the decision makers. After all, it’s not like the public reaction to the war is a surprise to anyone at this point. The point is, as it always has been with protests, to create awareness. Clearly there’s nobody at the IRS who has any ability to change the course of the war, but I sympathize with the desire to make a connection between the war and its costs.

After all, we just got the news this week that the Fed was going to commit 30 billion bucks to guarantee financial instruments in the Bear Stearns sale, a simply stunning number and it’s caused a lot of talk about the appropriateness of the government covering private risk and a lot of people have decried it as a ‘bailout.’

30 billion pays for just 4 months of the Iraq war at current funding levels.

So if that’s the kind of message you’re trying to get out there, I can understand why you’d want to make your stink at the IRS and do what’s necessary to get air time on the news. I’m not comfortable with it or sure I’m okay with it, but I can get why they’d be there rather than on the steps of the Capitol.