Crowd gathers to urge change in government

A group of several hundred people gathered at the Battleship Memorial Park Pavilion on Thursday night, calling for a change in the makeup of Congress in the next general election.

As they stepped into the building, they used black markers to sign a giant pink poster.

It read: "Notice of termination. The U.S. Congress is hereby given one year notice of termination for: Failure to limit the federal government — spending us into bankruptcy — exporting American jobs — failure to secure our borders — undermining the free market system — mortgaging our grandchildren's futures — focusing on re-election instead of the people's business."

They filed into chairs set up in front of a stage, where leaders of the group The Common Sense Campaign called for change in the federal government.

A man and woman sat up front, wearing black T-shirts with the phrase "You lie" emblazoned on the front, a reference to Republican South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson's remark during an address by President Barack Obama to a joint session of the House and Senate on Capitol Hill in September.

Glenn D. Frazier of Daphne, the group's founder who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and survived the Bataan Death March in 1942, said he was saddened by the country's "present situation."

"It's grim," he said. "It's bad. ... We're the smartest nation in the world, and here we are close to becoming a third-world country."

The World War II veteran later compared the Obama administration to Hitler, implying that Obama was trying to control the media.

"Let me tell you, Hitler used some of the same tactics we see our own government using against us right now," Frazier told the crowd. "When he started taking some things that were said about our good news media, the Fox News, and tried to get rid of them. They have to stand up and force that issue."

Among the speakers was Mobile resident Jennifer Morgan, a member of a group called Millions of Moms for America, a spin-off of the "tea parties" that began shortly after Obama took office.

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