Special BRAD BLOG / Velvet Revolution coverageof the Sep 24-26 Rally in D.C.
Guest blogged by Katrina Wilcox
{apologies from Winter Patriot: Katrina sent us this piece last night but we didn’t manage to get it posted right away … but better late than never … here’s Katrina:}
Wow! Hell of a day. Crowds of protesters. How many? We tried to estimate all day. Definitely more than 100,000. But once surrounded by that number it is difficult to count more. Whoever was in the helicopter continuously circling overhead would know – but I doubt they will tell. Just all day … people as far as the eye can see.
The March started with a one hour shuffle of 100 feet. Then finally we started moving. People packed in the street in front, behind, and around any corners we came to – a giant river of people. At a corner we met the front of the March coming back to pass us making one giant loop. Then a row of police guarding the Treasury building reminding all of us that money was all they care about.
There was obvious excitement in the crowd – and the media appeared walking backwards with cameras a foot from Cindy Sheehan and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr. as they marched with linked arms. Dan and I found ourselves suddenly marching with 3 feet of empty space between Cindy and Rev. Jackson and us. Dan took pictures and video – then we had to ignore the celebrities and get back to marching.
Later, closer to our White House, shouts of “Get out of the way!” conveyed rather rudely to us the knowledge that the media was coming up behind us – marching faster than the marchers in front of us and apparently feeling that a pathway should magically appear before their special personages as they roughly pushed Dan and I into the people ahead of us while continuing to shout repeatedly and inanely for us to get out of the way. Dan just turned around and asked them where they expected us to move to – there was nothing we could do to get out of their way. He also brilliantly reached for his camera and got a very nice close up of Cindy and Rev. Jackson. Me … well, I was too worried about being trampled by the media to do much more than try to stay upright. Eventually realizing that indeed there was no way they could part the sea of people in front of them, the media with Cindy and Rev. Jackson following detoured off the street and around the immovable crowd.
Police were lined up with three fences separating us from our White House. Just didn’t seem right. The sniper with his gun on the roof of the White House only gave further evidence that those in our White House might realize they don’t occupy it legitimately. We did our best for all of you who couldn’t be there. We all shouted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” (while shaking our fingers at the White House). We shouted “Liar! Liar! Liar!” Over and over again. Someone shouted repeatedly “What do we want?” Everyone answered “Peace”, then “When do we want it?” And we all would answer “Now!” Then someone piped up “They’re pretty dumb in there – maybe we should repeat it!” We all made ourselves hoarse shouting. No one wanted to leave our White House. It was where we had traveled so far to be. We had Power. Tremendous Power. People Power. Fellow warriors … we have incredible power in numbers. Today those of us in DC saw it, breathed it, and drank it in to take back to all our homes around the country to share with each of you.
The return march after the White House to the entertainment was not so densely packed. Eerie too. All the streets were empty except for us protesters. Stores closed. Like everyone had left the city to us. They seemed to have kept two blocks empty all around between the barricades on our side and the rest of the world on the other side. Maybe they thought we would contaminate the rest of the world with something – maybe they didn’t want whatever we had to spread.
They did provide us with a zoo exhibit. A strange show of police guarding Republicans behind bars. A single row of vile-spewing beasts standing behind a fence of bars with police between them and us. 150 ridiculous rabid Bush supporters foaming at the mouth with filth shouting nonsense and swear words in a display devoid of any rational thought. A spectacle of insanity. Bush supporters know they are done and it has pushed them over the edge. No one will believe their lie any more that they are the majority. They are a teeny, tiny minority that is shrinking every day. They know even better than we that “Today is the beginning of the mainstream opposition to the war.”
——
– Joan Baez at Operation: Ceasefire Concert.
– Rev. Al Sharpton at Operation: Ceasefire
– Jim Hightower at Operation: Ceasefire.
William Rivers Pitt is reporting on truthout that CNN said there were 600,000 people and C-SPAN said 500,000.
When my two friends and I arrived at the "Republicans behind bars" site two gay guys went as close as they could get to the slavering repubs and kissed. My friend Terry took pictures of their huge corner signs words, the words of which seemed to be lifted straight from Karl Rove’s Republican, talking points, while Melissa and I stood back and marveled at it all. Terry says he has over fifty shots of everything with his digital and I have 54 taken with disposables. What an experience! The last one I went to topped 100,000. This one was MUCH bigger. Terry, Melissa and I stopped for lunch for thirty minutes at a hot dog stand on the street where Cindy and Jesse and a few protestors left the march and we still did not rejoin the parade anywhere near the end. Sheila Jackson
Katrina,
"The sniper with his gun on the roof of the White House only gave further evidence that those in our White House might realize they don’t occupy it legitimately."
What nonsense!!! Clintoon also had snipers on the roof.
This protest like past Iraqi anti-war protests will accomplish nothing. The American people realize that we can’t cut and run like yellowed bellied liberals want us to. Doing that would turn Iraq into one large terrorist training camp like Afghanastan was. Plus militant islam would get a boost proving once again (Vietnam, Somolia, Beruit) Americans can’t stomach death and if they give us enough death, we will capitulate to their demands.
nuked one? So you are a Washingtonian, eh? Or, were you among the caged ones? Interestingly, you seem to lurk just a bit too close to the
White House. Really! You are a blooming, stench of a pest. Someone stepped on your mop of a tail, and you’re on the inroad to the outside! Surely, that is disorienting! Tell you what, just truck around the corner from Connecticut down M Street, through Georgetown, don’t slow down, right up the hill to Georgetown Hospital! There, there! Now commit your frenzied frizz of a self! Stay there! Don’t slip out! You need de-nuked!
Pulling out of Iraq isn’t about being "yellow bellied", but I"d not expect a warmonger to understand that. We had NO ligitimate position to enter Iraq, we have no ligitimate position to stay..
And there are now reports that very few of the "insurgents" seem to actually be external agents and/or terrorists.. it’s more LIES being fed to us by our ILLEGALLY ACTING government to keep dupes like you spewing forth their lies and hate-filled mantra..
Again, for you retarded types that need it repeated over and over.. Terrorists only attack the United States because WE keep sticking our noses in their business.. for profit and religious ends.. Then the retarted folks supporting illegal invasions change "noble cause, noble cause", yet don’t want to feed and clothe the poor in our own country? Again, you have to be RETARDED to not see the hypocraciy, and thus the illigimitacy, of your position.
Not to mention, Afganastan is the worlds leader in Heroin production.. nice.. glad we got the terrorists out and put the drug-lords back in charge.. course, that drug money is going to fund terrorists cells, but that’s ok since the leaders are our friends? Saudi Arabia, NO QUESTION about it, supporting terrorists.. NO QUESTION.. yet we do nothing? Hypocracy.. moronicy.. ignorance.. and undefendable positions for anyone TRUE American..
5 or 6 hundred thousand?
Shoot, next time we’ll have to get it up to 6 or 7 hundred thousand, so George W. can see us clearly from Colorado. Maybe if we shouted a little louder he’d hear us.
Weird isn’t it, that Bush goes to Colorado to see the Hurricane hitting southern Texas?
Let’s see now…500,000 against the war and 200 for it. That seems like a real mandate to me.
Dya think Bush will seize on that opportunity to set things right? Somehow I doubt it. But, the congress might finally recognize there is a public who won’t object to them forcing an end to the war. Will they? If they don’t we’ll just have to march and scream until they get the point.
"500,000 against the war and 200 for it."
Seems like the inability of the Republicans to get any
demonstrators out bring into question their claims that they got the
voters out.
NUKE "This protest like past Iraqi anti-war protests will accomplish nothing." wrong ,it shows the rest of the world that not all Americans are as moronic as your president.
Then there’s "Doing that would turn Iraq into one large terrorist training camp like Afghanastan was." hay guy it IS NOW the largest "terrorist training camp" the world has ever seen.Don’t you check any "world news services"?
Plus militant islam would get a boost proving once again (Vietnam, Somolia, Beruit) Americans can’t stomach death and if they give us enough death, we will capitulate to their demands.Real "SUPERPOWERS" don’t sacrifice the lives of 2000 of their best people without a reason that lasts longer that the latest news headline.
SHOCK AND AWE ya right ,I was shocked at how poorly planned bushes hole Iraqi IS, AWE FULL did he mean?
"Plus militant islam would get a boost " DID GET A BOOST.
Osama would have voted for bush on Nov 2nd. bush has created more terrorist in Iraq than OBL could have dreamed of.
It is all about oil ,the guarding of the Oil Ministry building at the beginning of the invasion is proof of that.
Why is bush pissed at Iran moving to nuke power generation ? Because it means Iran will have their oil longer than Cheney wants, longer than the USA ,you figure out what the world will look like when OPEC wells start drying up .
HE WHO CONTROLS THE LAST OIL RESERVE CONTROLS THE WORLD.
better get working on those "electric tanks,bombers and hummers".
Savantster you said :
Not to mention, Afganastan is the worlds leader in Heroin production.. nice.. glad we got the terrorists out and put the drug-lords back in charge.. course, that drug money is going to fund terrorists cells, but that’s ok since the leaders are our friends?
Isn’t that how bush plans to finance his next invasion?
daddy bush used the same method to finance the Iran-Contra deal, just ask Ollie .
Carter tried to free the Teran hostages bush1 had them held till after the election ,what a sick bunch of assholes have taken control of America.
Worse then that…..Why the f$*(k is about 80% of these "pro war" folks under the age of 30!????
THESE YOUNG IDIOTS!!!!!!!! THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING, JUST LIKE NUCLEAR!
Its like this shit is no longer taught in school….WTF!?!?? Okay that confirmed to me, these idiot cowards used vote fraud for sure. The 3 million or so evangelical nutcases who make up Bush’s base don’t stand up for Bush, and there is no way there is over 30 million of those people who voted for him. I bet he got about 25 million people total and the rest were vote machines.
Doug
Plus militant islam would get a boost proving once again (Vietnam, Somolia, Beruit) Americans can’t stomach death and if they give us enough death, we will capitulate to their demands.
Damned A-rabs and (dark-skinned) furriners. Always demanding one thing or another. Like they notice we murder 100,000 or so of their fellow citizens (or 1,000,000+ in the case of Vietnam). We kill and plunder, and they still make unreasonable demands. Maybe if we killed them all we could finally have some well-deserved peace.
Nuke has a screw loose.
Lindy,
Nope, currently in Michigan but I was in the area during the Clintoon time and saw the snipers up there. But hey, what do you guys care about accuracy and the truth???
Savantster,
Keep drinking your kool-aide bud. Iran has had several agents smuggling shaped charges across the border. The British undercover agents were investigating a smuggling ring.
Here’s another stupid statement of yours: "Again, for you retarded types that need it repeated over and over.. Terrorists only attack the United States because WE keep sticking our noses in their business" Yeah…. that’s why terrorist threatened beheading of French reporters if France didn’t revoke the headscarf ban in schools. If you guys only had a brain…
One of our "sticking our nose into" is the fact that we support Israel. Arabs want to wipe them off the face of the earth, have failed three times but, it’s still an objective. Of course, many of you on the left also hate Israel… why, because they refuse to give up and die???
You guys ARE yellow bellied cowards. You haven’t seen a fight that you didn’t want to run from. You cry crocodile tears for the Iraqi’s. Have you even considered what would happen if we pulled out right now??? Sunni’s would get (more) weapons from Syria and try to regain power, Iran would provide weapons to their fellow shiite’s. Civil war would break out with hundreds of thousands dead if not millions (sort of like what happened when we left Vietnam). The Kurds would announce thier own country and Turkey would invade the kurds. If the Sunni’s get the upper hand, Iran will invade to protect the Shia’s, If the Shia’s get the upper hand, Syria probably will invade.
Democracy is taking place in Iraq. The election is scheduled for December. But hey, you idiots on this site would rather bring the troops home today and allow hundreds of thousands to die rather than bringing democracy to Iraq (and credit to Bush).
MMIIXX,
"Why is bush pissed at Iran moving to nuke power generation."
Iran has already stated that it’s their goal to produce nuclear weapons. Their vice president has also stated that if an arab state gets a nuclear weapon that it’s their duty to use it on Israel. He stated that Arab countries would survive nuclear retaliation. Israel being so small wouldn’t.
"Plus militant islam would get a boost " DID GET A BOOST."
Hey Dufuss, why do you think OBL used Blackhawk Down as a recruiting tool????? It was his favorite movie. Just kill some Americans, drag them around, show it on TV and Americans will run.
Petgoat,
"500,000 against the war and 200 for it."
We just have better things to do rather than rant and rave to no effect. Normal Americans are just used to you guys acting silly and stupid. That’s why you can’t win any elections.
Want to know another reason you guys didn’t any coverage???
The last time they saw a liberal parade, it was in New Orleans and it involved a steady stream of liberals walking out of stores with plasma TV’s.
NUKE I’m getting sick of talking to you ,you link no facts to any of your statements ,so like you say "We just have better things to do rather than rant and rave to no effect."
You proposing invading Iran to protect Israel?
P.S. The last guy who had the guts to say to my face " Hey Dufuss" is still paying his medical bill but thats the power of the internet .
Nuke is losing it. Frankly, it appeared that he/she would bring in an interesting point-of-view that we could bounce around a bit.
Now it is clear that we are dealing with (or not) just another ignorant, fearful troll who is blind to the reasons we are doing what we are doing.
"Yellow-bellied cowards"? Smile when you say that, buddy. You don’t know anything about us. A supporter of the chickenhawk administration par excellence.
If you weren’t entrapped in the feverish fantasy of straw liberals and plastic patriotism, you would know that we don’t oppose the war because someone has "demanded" our exit. It has nothing to do with it. (And it didn’t in Vietnam, either.) It only satisfies the conditions of your fearful, anxious fantasy, as does the safety of the little play weapon of "liberal". It’s not real. It’s a toy gun.
Grow up and talk to us on our own terms. Otherwise, you are just another ignorant troll.
Yeah! Remember? Some flunkie of a pilot kind of flopped out of the sky against the White House in his small plane? How many of you remember that?
Did we not more recently hear, "It never occurred to us that a plane could be used as a weapon to be flown into a building."
Oh, yeah! Makes you wonder if that pilot was wearing cowboy boots, doesn’t it? (It was not a high-flying bicycle, though — forgot!)
Voila, the beginning of the sniper on the roof.
#3
The american people don’t agree with this war, its not just "yellow bellied liberals" anymore that dont agree but a fair amount of everyone from all sides. It seems your administration keeps changing its mind as to what the insurgency really is. First it was saddam loyalists then outside agents from al qaida then a few times they say it was people from inside the country. From what the administration has said, Iraq is already a terrorist breeding ground, pulling out now won’t change that one iota.
It was one George H W Bush who said in his memoirs that invading Iraq would create an instability in the middle east that would cause a total breakdown much to what we are seeing today.
It was people like you who thought we should continue fighting vietnam no matter how many americans died. How many american soldiers must be murdered in this war until it is satisfactory for you and you begin to say its not worth it?
#11 .. Nukefool…
If the British agents you’re referring to are the two who were recently busted out, they weren’t investigating smuggling.
Accuracy and truth you say? – You’re pro-war, you haven’t a leg to stand on, period. Your entire argument is based on lies.
"We just have better things to do rather than rant and rave to no effect. "
If you were interested in truth and accuracy… why did you say that? … and THEN come on to this blog, ranting and raving to no effect?
Your own actions contradict the bullshit your dribbling.
and that shouts out to everyone "Hey, I’m another right-wing hypocrite!!!"
Troll elsewhere, you’re just making yourself look dumb ranting and raving here… to no effect.
"We just have better things to do rather than rant and rave to no effect. "
If you were interested in truth and accuracy… why did you say that? … and THEN come on to this blog, ranting and raving to no effect?
Your own actions contradict the bullshit your dribbling.
and that shouts out to everyone "Hey, I’m another right-wing hypocrite!!!"
Troll elsewhere, you’re just making yourself look dumb ranting and raving here… to no effect.
The march was so powerful!!! I went with my 17 year old daughter – it was the best thing we have ever done together
Here’s a picture of her expression when she found out about those snipers on the WH roof:
http://cd.smugmug.com/photos/37358628-O.jpg
Here’s the rest of moy pictures from the day – what an amazing demonstration of who is actually the majority.
http://cd.smugmug.com/gallery/834409
ps – the screaming ‘pro-war’ people scared my daughter..
400 Show up.
$600 Raised
Gee that’s about $1.50 each – good job!
M3,
I hate to prove you wrong (not really, my pleasure) but…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1788585,00.html
Tehran’s involvement may be linked to Britain’s hardening position on its nuclear programme
THE violence that erupted on the streets of Basra yesterday was the result of a simmering struggle between British forces and the increasingly powerful Shia Muslim militias active in southern Iraq.
Attention has been focused on the Sunni Muslim insurgency against US-led forces further north, yet the British have been facing a sharp rise in attacks from an increasingly sophisticated and deadly foe.
There are strong suspicions that the bloodshed is being orchestrated with weapons and encouragement from Iran…
…British officials are convinced that Iran is implicated in the upsurge in violence and suspect it may be connected to Britain’s hardening position against Tehran’s nuclear programme…
…Apart from the activities of al-Sadr’s supporters, military intelligence has concluded that Iran has been supporting a local terror group run by Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani, who is blamed for the murder of at least 11 British soldiers. In a secret report, military intelligence warned commanders that attacks on British forces were being deliberately intensified, with the use of a new bomb, developed in Iran, that can penetrate the thickest armoured protection…
I wonder why war supporters like the esteemed Chemist won’t just stop the litany of selective propaganda (we can always find three to match every one of his, but he’ll never look at them either) and give us the TRUE bottom line: War is his ultimate thrill.
Until that’s admitted, no other argument, evidence or edicts from God will be considered.
MMIIXX,
"P.S. The last guy who had the guts to say to my face " Hey Dufuss" is still paying his medical bill but thats the power of the internet ."
hey Dufuss, how many days did that kid miss from his first grade class???
We have a pathetic, small-minded, bigoted troll here.
It’s very, very pathetic and very sad.
It is in the minority, not only here, but in the United States as well as most countries in the world.
Sorry, #24 — you’re a LOSER.
# 21 Bluebear2 – That’s funny.