Rally To Stop Genocide. OK, I suppose we need to address first things first. So, "Yes" ... there were puppets. Two, kinda scraggly, hardly noticeable, somewhat embarrassed and embarrassing puppets. Here they are. From a distance. That's all there were. And, "Yes" they were re-treads. I'll have some video after I finish processing it. Not much, but interesting I hope. Requires Windows Media Player UPDATE: Here's one version of the video ... I was forced to put up a low quality version because of some network issues I can't surmount at the moment. I'll replace it with a better quality soon, I hope. I'll note the change in an update when it happens. I did manage to get Elie Weisel's speech (at the end of this video) so perhaps that alone is worth it ... UPDATE: Here's the higher quality video: The first part is of me in my fruitless quest to find any muslim representation at all in the crowd. The second part is Elie Weisel's speech. Requires Windows Media Player UPDATE: I've created another video which I will put up today comprising two (2) of the speeches made at the rally: Elie Weisel and Paul Rusesabagina (Hotel Rwanda) which I call "Two Voices, Two Holocausts". Please check back. UPDATE: Here's the new video mentioned above: Speeches by Elie Weisel (Night, etc.) and Paul Rusesabagina (Hotel Rwanda) ... Two Voices, Two Witnesses: Two Holocausts. Requires Windows Media Player So, on to other things. This was a large crowd (finally). Not that I support any lefty causes (this rally, though, was a mixture of people from the right and the left) ... but the last few anti-war "rallies" they've held here in DC have been, frankly, embarrassing. Which is OK, don't get me wrong ... it was just getting all too predicable and boring. I missed the sea of faces. Even crazed anarchist faces. This was the biggest non-Immigration rally I've been to in a long time. I was speaking with a friend on the phone during the rally who (being used to the more underpopulated rallies we've been having recently) asked me for an approximate count. "Large", I said ... "very very large." "A thousand?" she asked innocently. Ha! "Many thousands," I replied emphatically. This was no anti-war, CodePink affair. There were puppets, sure, but that detracted not one whit from the overall effect. This was the real thing. I'll leave it to the organizers for the final count ... in the tens-of-thousands is my guess. I couldn't get close to the rostrum. Not even within 50 yards ... people must have camped out. Packed. I could find no footing. After a certain point, no progress was to be had. A wall. So, I contented myself with wandering the crowd. And, as I wandered the crowd (the very substantial crowd noted and described above) I began to notice a particular trend ... ... at first a subtle trend ... ... until it became, frankly, overwhelming. One quick caveat: your humble correspondent is, indeed, MOT (Member Of Tribe). However, I hadn't seen a concentration of "T" on his scale since I worked on a kibbutz. Tribespersons abounded ... I was awash. I'm not trying to be unfair here ... I'm really not. I snapped other signs and other group logos whenever I could. Here's one for good measure. But Jesus-Tapdancing-Christ ... "Where" I asked with subdued irony, "are the Arab/Palestinian contingent? Where is the Muslim "street"? That motley crew of oppressed victims and peace-lovers? Where? Aren't the Palestinians the 'new Jews'? Shouldn't they be here in solidarity against oppression? If so, where are they? There was simply none to be seen." This was a real head-scratcher. I only ask. To be fair. Indeed, the first video I captured is, in part, my quest to find one ... one (1) ... representative of that community here in sympathy with some real victims. Just "a". Did I succeed? No, not really ... not one. I was deliberately wasting your time. And I was only being funny when I said it was a "head-scratcher". Ha, Ha. It isn't. I guarantee you. Go ahead, ask any imam in the 'occupied territories' (at least) what they think of the genocide in Darfur and you'll find them in complete sympathy with the head-choppers, rapists and those forcing famine on entire villages including women and children. That's their idea of "peace". That's what they mean when they say Islam is a religion of "peace". "Peace" is when no one disagrees, or at least shuts up and keeps their dhimmi place. This is genocide, my friends, and it is part and parcel with the current international jihad. Darfur is just one face under the hob-nailed Islamofascist boot. Sudan is the reality of the muslim "street". Forced starvation is what they'd like to do to everyone who stands in their sick, medieval little way. Let no one tell you different. And you only need to open your eyes to see who are the ones standing firm here. And, oh, it's the same ones the "Religion of Peace" blames for all its own dysfunctionality. What a surprise. Yeah, for sure, there were imams giving speeches here today ... every now and then some sort of "ecumenical" grouping got up and made the appropriate blather about how everyone agrees, one deity, brothers-in-spirit, blah blah, and there was always at least one imam ... it would have been embarrassing otherwise. But they were token ... the real test was in the crowd -- who bloody well showed up to be counted. And not one bloody member of the "Religion of Peace" could I find. Not "a" representative. Remember that. This could probably be called the theme of the rally. Were there "moonbats"? Sure. "Wingnuts?" You bet. This was a good cross-section of the "Tribe" ... there were people on the right and there were people on the left and a vast center. Some speakers praised Bush, some exorcated him. Here's a good example of the "pro-Bush" type sign ... Here's a good example of the "anti-Bush" blather ... Discuss. Here's a somewhat interesting sentiment. Something makes me doubt that it would last beyond the first US casualty, but still ... and does "chickenhawk" apply here? Your guess is as good as mine. I'll leave, instead of the standard "protest babe" interlude, with one of my favorite moments. Here is a man, a mench, probably a rabbi (but perhaps not) who, like all good MOT's everywhere, does not allow the Word or the Thought of G-d to depart from his lips, morning or night. So, in the midst of all this humanity, he finds time to open his small Talmud (I have the same edition I believe ... I couldn't make out the particular tractate) and commune with his Creator. More beautiful than any "protest babe" I could find (and there were many). And he's not concentrating in spite of the crowd ... but rather as an embellishment for it. Baruch haShem.