Pro-Terrorist Rally on US Capitol Lawn: June 10, 2007
Lamest Protest Rally ... Ever.
There's a line from Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" where Woody and Annie are sharing their first glass of wine together on a rooftop in New York City, and Annie complains that she meets a lot of ... "jerks".
Well, I meet a lot of jerks at these rallies ... true, some require more critical observation, some less ...
This guy ....
I think it was the keys. And the pathos. I mean really ... three signs? Or maybe it was the hair.
Oh well ...
This guy, then again, came a close second.
I'm not really sure why. I do know it was close, though.
***
The rally was marketed as:
The World Says No to Israeli Occupation March and Rally
Sunday, June 10th 2007 2pm
People around the world are joining together in a global day of action as “The World Says No to Israeli Occupation” to protest the 40th anniversary of Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and Syrian Golan Heights. In the United States, thousands of people from all over the country will converge on Washington, DC, from June 10-11, 2007, to send a clear message: The United States Says No to Israeli Occupation!
Those "thousands" ended up being about a thousand. Tops. That's "a" thousand, as in "uh" thousand. And that's counting the speakers. And I'm pretty sure that most of them were locals. Which means that the only people happy about this tonight is the ANSWER crowd. Finally someone has put on a protest more lame than their own.
That must be a relief. I would think.
There were, as usual, packs of pathetic leftovers from the 60's.
How anyone who actually lived through the Carter presidency can look at a picture of that man without either revulsion or lapsing into a giggle fit I have no idea.
Luckily for me I missed most of the fiasco by living in another country.
I did, however, manage to get the tail end, viz: the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Now there was a well managed international crisis. Yep, Carter put us in solid with the Iranians.
That peanut growing, rabbit fearing anti-Semite was the nail in the coffin of my own naive leftism. He was leftism's reducto ad absurdum at its best.
He still is. Perhaps more so.
I suppose I owe him for that.
One of the benefits of attending these rallies is one get's the truth raw.
I mean, none of this namby-pamby "two-state" crap.
Let's just drive those pesky Jews right into the Mediterranean.
That'll fix everything.
The Capitol Building really is beautiful, isn't it?
Hard to remember sometimes that Lincoln walked these grounds, along with most of the great men and women in our history.
At many points during the Civil War Union cavalry messengers would gallop across this very lawn with news from the front. The disaster of Chancellorsville ... the triumph of Appomattox. People crowded here on hearing the news from Pearl Harbor. VE Day, VJ Day were celebrated by thousands of cheering Americans, some weeping with joy. One can almost see them sometimes.
That truth just adds to the pathetic tragedy that is today's left.
Sometimes it just makes me want to weep.
Then I catch a glimpse of something that encapsulates so well everything they stand for ... a mascot ... an avatar of the irony and the comedy that is the warp and weft of today's left along with their pathetic, attention seeking neurosis.
And I just have to laugh.
Ah ... that's better.
More to come ... I hope.
**** UPDATE 06/11 8:45 pm ET ****
OK, the media and the organizers of this dead-end rally have obviously tried to pull their embarrassed butts out of the fire by claiming 5000 attendees. Now, while 5000 is still pitifully small, I want to enter into the record in the interest of full disclosure a group of photos I took at the height of the rally ~ 4:00 pm. I have put them together into a panorama. Please click on the image to get a larger, more detailed look. I have another 14 meg version on my computer here at 8500 pixels/2500 pixels if the media or anyone else wants an even better look.
That ain't 5000. It may not even be 1000. Don't push it.
**** UPDATE 6/12 8:15 am ****
Just a few more photos for those who are in denial that this event was essentially leftist:
Brian Becker ... National Coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition.
The "Man With No Tan"
He's holding the sign.
The keffiyeh/Che convergence.
This is the ANSWER table. The fellow to the left (!) is actually a decent enough bloke ... I've seen him at a number of these rallies and have spoken with him.
Sad.
He's the bloke in this video I took last year in front of the Israeli Embassy ....
Medea Benjamin (to the left, appropriately), one of the founders of Code Pink and professional harpy to various and sundry legislative assistants ... along with some of her quilting bee.
16 comments:
I have had birthday parties for my children that drew a bigger crowd. They were able to feed everyone with a 2 large pizzas and a 2 liter of coke.
Thank you for the enlightening footage. The last time I saw so many burn-outs was at the Berekely campus Ben and Jerry's.
Excellent film and coverage.
Just the same old tired out ANSWER Commie freaks I see.
I linked you over at the LGF Fallback Blog. Little Green Footballs has been down for over a day now. This is where we congregate in the mean time..
http://fallbacklgf.blogspot.com/
I watched the video and have only a couple of questions. Where was the clown making balloon animals? Also, was there a pony ride?
It's sad that the small minority could ruin such a beautiful Sunday for visitors and residents of DC. I'm all for free speech, but that same rally could have been held at the local fellowship hall. It's ironic how the only the "oppressive" nations (such as the US, France, Israel, etc) afford their citizens the right to free speech. I'd love to see those protesters having the same gathering in Palestine while dodging suicide bombers and rocket attacks.
Trackbacked by The Thunder Run - Web Reconnaissance for 06/11/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
Uh, guys. Fair's fair. If the left can pull half a million or more to an anti-US Irag occupation fete, but only 5,000 to a "Fuck Israel" rally, then maybe this one wasn't a quintessenially "left" event, eh? I don't support Israel's death-wish settler policies or its tin-ear sensibilities toward the Palestinians, but I sure wasn't going to attend this dumb gathering, either. Looks like half a million friends agreed and voted with their feet.
Well, first it wasn't 5000. It was 1000 at the upper limit, and that's giving it a lot of credit. I know that the organizers are giving a higher number but there's no way the attendance was that high. I could cobble together a panoramic set of photos I took at the height of the rally to show you, but I think that the video speaks to that point adequately.
Secondly ... I've been to all the anti-war "fetes" here in DC (at least) and I've never seen anything approaching half a million. 30,000 yeah. If you're talking about an event in another city then you're comparing apples and oranges. Let's keep our metrics straight.
Third, if this wasn't a "quintessenially 'left' event" then that would be news to the organizers as well as the attendees.
The very fact that you chose not to attend "this dumb gathering" is in itself a demonstration of my point ... that whatever the organizers and/or speakers say or said about this rally and others like it - there is no deep groundswell of support on this issue, which is the impression they were trying to convey. Your friends did vote with their feet and they voted to validate my point.
i had s friend in dc saturday for some big girl scout thing i was told they saw naked protesters such a shame one cant take their kids to DC without having to explain these weirdo's
Yeah, it was a "Left" event. The pictures I posted at my blog http://thisainthell.us clearly show socialists recruiting, Green Party signs, ANSWER signs and "twoofers" spewing. Who is more "Left" than that?
Jlilyea, I've got those, too ... along with photos of Code Pink and ANSWER honchos prowling the grounds.
I'll put those up later.
I was at the rally, and I'll agree that it was pretty lame. Unfortunately, despite the low turnout on the aging-hippy front, there were considerably fewer at the counter-rally across 3rd st. Where the terror supporters had about 1000 massed at the capitol, the Pro-Israel folks had about 100. Tops. When I get the film developed (stone age- I know!) I'll post some photos I took at both rallies.
Also, by my estimates, the Gay Pride event probably had more than five times the population of both political demonstrations combined. That fact alone kept me laughing throughout the ensuing "march" to the ellipse.
Here's a short clip I took of the marchers. I don't know how long Youtube takes to process these, but it should be viewable soon.
charlesr;
I finally looked at your video and I noticed you caught my wife and I while we were photoing, so I guess we should adjust our crowd estimate accordingly - 998 'tards.
Funny how you and I both came up with the same number, separately, yet all the reports I've seen say 5k.
They should have held their event in a smaller space. This will really backfire for them. It's like an engraved announcement telling Congress how little support they have. They only displayed their weakness for all to see. They must've had some idea about who was planning to show up. Dumb move.
joanne ...
Well said ... and that's why they are trying to inch their numbers up to at least 5000.
After all, "sorta lame" is still better than "totally and, like, absolutely lame".
And that's why I just love what I do when I do it.
This is being posted by me for Yael at http://bokertov.typepad.com/btb/
...
Eumenides writes: "I don't support Israel's death-wish settler policies or its tin-ear sensibilities toward the Palestinians..."
Who's got the tin-ear sensibility? Perhaps you didn't notice that Israel expelled over ten thousand of her citizens from Gaza and gave the Gaza strip to the Palestinians in exchange for nothing less than two years ago. And then the Palestinians torched the synagogues that were left behind. So much for Israel's gestures of good will. No one even notices them. And to think, most of those people who were expelled still do not have jobs or homes elsewhere. Thousands of lives ruined for nothing, with Israel thinking all the while that then/now the world would see its desperation for peace. Fat chance.
Yael
Boker tov, Boulder!
Maybe a thousand people, although I'd put it more at six or seven hundred, and that's with the extra people that joined at the march. The swastika guy I didn't see inside, I'm guessing they shut him out (rightfully so) but not before people from the other side caught a picture of him and used it for their ends.
No pictures, but here, a view from the other side.
http://stealthbelmont.blogspot.com
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