Nearly anything scheduled out-of-doors in January after sundown is going to have a lower-than-expected turnout.

The low number of protesters is not a surprise. It does not take any effort to join a Facebook group or other similar social sites. But when it comes to actually taking the time to attend a hearing, protest or even vote, I think you will find these social networking members say they just don't have the time. They would rather just take the easy way and whine on Facebook or in comments on this site.

What everyone also seems to be overlooking is that Sheila Dixon's crimes were committed when she was City Council President. Her pension is for all her time working for the city. Also, even though the protesters refer to her conviction, under the terms of her plea bargain, she is receiving Probation Before Judgment which is not a conviction. And, contrary to the protesters' comments, PBJ is not something which is reserved for the influential but is handed down quite often to ordinary citizens.

Probably unsustainable, the rate is unsustainable. State workers are allowed to collect their pensions way too early, and many will go an work in the private sector, essentially double dipping. MSRA is underfunded for pensions and grossly underfunded for retiree health benifits. The whole idea of a pension is outdated and they need to be eliminated.

It's facebook phenomenon is called "slacktivism". Rawlings-Blake announced the possibility that her administration is willing to evaluate the pension system--which is never a bad idea, even in good economic times--and I hope that this would occur, regardless of Sheila Dixon's circumstances. I hope that the city doesn't act out of revenge, but acts out of a need to perform an overdue evaluation of a current set of policies and procedures.

With the benefit of hindsight I'm going to attribute the low turnout relative to Facebook members to my scheduling it too early to provide enough notice and planning for more people. I received multiple posts and messages saying people would have gone if given more than a day or two notice and while I created the group on Friday, it didn't get big until late Saturday and it didn't get really big until sometime Monday. We now have 3500 members.

I'm going to float out some feelers asking for a committed RSVP asking how many people would attend a second protest to be held on or about Feb 4th. With 3 weeks notice, and a group measuring in the thousands, we could make our influence that much stronger.

It's kind of like throwing a party, and when you throw a party you give at least 2-3 weeks notice.

I would attribute the low turnout to the lack of any manifestation of global warming.

Why not try again in June?

ps. Easy fix to the pension problem: Tax pension distributions at 90%. Problem solved.

It appears that the criminal justice system is a success. It rewards the criminals with a system that gives big pensions to criminals for their crimes against society. Congrats, X-Mayor Dixon!