"TROOPS OUT NOW" MARCH AND ACTION, WASHINGTON DC: SEPTEMBER 29, 2007 Well, at least she got the symbol right. Usually these folks just end up carrying around ads for Mercedes-Benz. Still, given the probable average income of the families these kids spring out of the confusion is to be expected, I suppose... Q.E.D. **** UPDATE **** Here's some video. More will follow. UPDATE: I've posted Part 2 of the above video: Click Here **** Of course, an over-abundance of left-wing-academic indoctrination isn't the only thing that sets these folks apart. There's the other, paranoid simpleton village-idiot side of the coin. I, at least, know how to spell "News" ... This guy for instance ... I couldn't figure out if he was just some sort of village-idiot type who wandered into the protest, or is in fact ... [for example] ... a well-respected professor at some university earning tenure. The line can be pretty fine sometimes. Check the shoes. With ever step he desecrates the flag. Nice, huh? Then again, there are legions of those who simply want yet another excuse to display their foul-mouthed narcissism. And they're damn proud of it! There were puppets, too. Sorta lame. Check the "Visit Cuba" t-shirt, though. There were the subtle ironies, also ... ... some of which simply escape the protest community. There were meditation circles ... ... and suburban-guilt ridden Mumia partisans. Many of the costumes I see on these marches repeat from one protest to the next so I won't bore either you or myself with that repetition. These, though, were new. At least to me. "Oil" and "Imperialism" were big themes at this protest. Just how many of these folks wonder how devastating it would be to both our economy as well as their own personal lives if "oil" ever got either cut off or made prohibitively expensive? Just how do they think all that organic food gets to their local Safeway anyway? Ron Paul supporters have gotten pretty common at these events. The funny thing is ... no one is quite sure how to react to them. There was a lot of dancing at this one. I will, as usual, make a video documenting the "musical" aspects of this march. Please check back. You'd be surprised at how many very young children you see at these things. Or perhaps you wouldn't be. I always am. And what, I ask you, would a protest march be without ... the CHE! Cripes ... I knew a kid in middle school that looked just like this. I hated that kid. I think he's pumping gas now somewhere in Mississippi. Or he's a lawyer. Fidel himself made an unexpected cameo appearance. Something fairly new ... the Chavez supporter. We also had our fair share of unrepentant communists. This was a whole family. You see a lot of that at these marches. It's part of the whole "red baby" syndrome. Sorta like any other religion, Communism gets handed down from one unquestioning generation to the next. These people are probably indistinguishable from your neighbors in every other respect, and hold down nice jobs. As with any religion, consistency of belief doesn't matter here ... at least not on a day to day basis. For these folks attending protests is probably akin to taking communion. These folks [above] were actually selling a very cool looking t-shirt with this logo on front. Kinda expensive for a protest-march shirt [$20] but I almost got one ... except that just as I was about to the cops shut them down. I'm not sure why. Video to follow. Otherwise ... until next time!

AN AMERICAN FLAG BURNS ON CONSTITUTION AVENUE, WASHINGTON DC, SEPTEMBER 29, 2007 About half-way through the planned march, a group of anarchists broke away from the main march and blockaded Constitution Avenue near the intersection of Constitution and Third St. I'll have further video on the action later. As a part of their "action", though, they burned an American Flag. Here's the video of the burning:

I'M BACK! WOW AM I BACK!

I've got [as you can well see] Breasts not Bombs, flag burning anarchists, more music, and much much more! I've got about 2 hours of video to process, along with several hundred photos I need to sort. I plan ... for now that is ... to do at least three videos on 1) Breasts, 2) Flags, and 3) Music. Breasts comes first. Check back! For full coverage of the march and other insanities please click here. **** UPDATE **** Here's a YouTube Video ... it's mercifully short. It's live ... even if a splash image doesn't appear yet.

I've got the Flag Burning video up ... **** UPDATE October 15, 2007 **** Well, YouTube has taken down the Breasts Not Bombs video. Here's the same video, just not YouTube: **** UPDATE **** OK, OK ... I know you all have been clamoring for more ... here ya go ...

I'M OFF! They're congregating on Capitol Hill so I'll join them there. Then we march to the White House. That's the reverse of last fortnight's march, so I suppose there's at least some novelty involved in this. I suppose. Another day of rest spent running with and amongst the bedlam. I'll be back after a few hours, a couple of drinks and a nice cigar. See you then!

GREAT MOON-WALKING MOHAMMAD! Didn't these guys JUST HAVE one of these things?!? Bryan over at Hot Air just emailed me: "Communists, Iranian stooges and assorted Mumia hangers on. What else do they have to do on a Saturday?" You said it brother. And I'll ... *groan* ... be there too.

Hillary Clinton on Darfur: April, 2006 I've been transferring my video and photo archives over to an external hard-drive today and I came across this old video I took during a Darfur Rally, related to Simon Deng and his experiences. The video was taken in front of the US Congress, on the West Lawn in April, 2006. Here's my previous post on that event, which includes more video. Party wise, I don't have a dog in this fight. I thought it would be interesting to put this all on the record. Personally, I think she comes across pretty well, at least on this issue.

OK, I swear that this is my last 9/15 ANSWER/Code Pink anti-war protest blog post. But you must understand: there's a story here. After I created and uploaded my final video to YouTube I slapped my head in solipsistic disgust and said "Geez! I didn't use that great image of the Soviet flag being raised ..." [I really wanted to use that image. Damn ... I loved that image]. So I started to think what else I could use it in and ... voila ... the videos you see on this page. The reason there are two is that nothing I could do to the file would force YouTube and their conversion process to render the proper resolution ... everything I tried left the image way too lossy for my taste. So, what the heck I thought ... I'll just make my own Flash file and upload that into a webspace available to me and call it a day ... and damn the bandwidth issues. So, here's the good file: [I'm having some server issues, so the link may have disappeared for a while. It will return.] And here's the YouTube version if you start having bandwith issues: Please enjoy. I purposefully parodied Soviet-style propaganda imagery and timing. At least I tried to given the material and the fact that this was completely impromptu. For those of you who may think that the Soviet flag seen in the above-video was some sort of anomaly at these anti-war protests, or that the above-video doesn't illustrate a deep truth underlying these events, here [below] is one of the "official" Code Pink banners leading the march ... as for ANSWER ... well, just click on the "ANSWER" label at the bottom of this post to see all the other ANSWER events I've covered. You'll get the picture. Literally.

FINAL 9/15 POST: AN ANECDOTAL COUNT ... No way was it 100,000

OK, I know that this is purely anecdotal, but I've heard the "100,000 attendees" count for the September 15th protest more than once [by ANSWER and their toadies] so I thought I'd put it to the test, along with my own count of 30,000 to 35,000 [tops]. After the march began and I had followed it for a while, I wended my way back to the beginning of the march seeking "musical" themes for inclusion in my blog and video. As you will note below [see previous posts ... especially the video] any fair observer will admit that I had an incentive to do so. If there was "musical" material to be had I would have it. I wanted it. Believe me ... I walked to the end of the march. I found the end of the march ... at the moment I reached it ... to be at or very near the intersection of what was once PA Avenue near the White House and 15th St, which runs just to the east of the Treasury Building. You can see the intersection in the above image ... taken from Google Earth ... and the theoretical end point of the march indicated by the red dot. [Click on the image itself for a higher resolution image.] As I had reached the beginning of the march and knowing for certain that no more material was to be had, I decided that I would race to the beginning of the march ... as I wanted to be among the first to "run the gauntlet" between the ANSWER crowd and the GOE crowd. I thought it would be good material as my video [below] attests. It took me ... and I timed it ... approximately 10 minutes to get from the first intersection noted above to the intersection of 13th and Pennsylvania, which is noted in the image as the final red dot marking the end point. According to Google Earth, there are 2157 feet in that path.

That measure can be, therefore, taken as an approximation of the length of at least the main body of the march ... slightly longer, in fact, as during the time it took me to quickly traverse the length, the first end point itself moved slowly forward while I raced ahead, while the final end point itself crawled forward. The march also halted briefly at some points. However, in the interest of fairness I'll ignore that. The difference would be minor anyway.

Now to the approximation of area.

Along 15th St. the march took up all the lanes, or approximately a width of 60 feet [see the image above] ... once it met PA Avenue moving east, it took up all lanes once again, or approximately, also, 60 feet in width. Therefore, for about half the march [from the beginning to the intersection of 15th St. and PA Avenue] the total area was nearly 66,000 sq.ft. and for the next half [from the intersection of 15th St. and PA Avenue to the intersection of 13th St. and PA Avenue] approximately another 66,000 sq.ft. for an [admittedly approximate] area of 132,000 sq.ft. Actually slightly less as there is an overlap at the turning point ... but as there was also a certain amount of bunching there too it probably evens out in the end. So for ANSWER to be correct, the marchers in that area would have to have been packed in at somewhat more than one [1] person per 1.3 square feet.

Try it. You won't like it.

Most people won't tolerate less than 4 sq.ft. of personal space, which puts an average density of around 33,000 people into the area described above. To be fair, some people may have attended the initial protest at Lafayette Park and didn't continue on with the march to the Capitol, while some may have joined the march somewhere along Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol. Which would put the total for the march between 30,000 and [tops] 35,000.

And that's MAX. The average density of marchers was actually way below that and there were huge gaps.

You be the judge.

PROTEST CODA: September 15, 2007 Yes, that's just a hand. My own left hand, to be precise. It's holding the corner of a Code Pink banner on the Capitol Steps. Don't ask why. **** PLEASE NOTE: More photos and the two videos are in the post just before this one ... just keep scrolling down. **** I've tried to keep my anonymity in tact for these events. Sadly, it's become somewhat unravelled over time ... Medea Benjamin [Code Pink] and I exchange nods and smiles from time to time ... same goes for Cindy Sheehan and Brian Becker [ANSWER], among others. People are people, after all. Still, I've never shown an actual photo of myself on this blog and I'm going to keep that as a rule. This hand is about as close as I'll ever get. By the way, I've heard silly rumors that ANSWER is trying to claim 100,000 attendees at this protest. No way. 30,000 maybe ... 35,000 tops. I walked the march from beginning to end and from front to back. The videos I took are from various parts of the march and should be adequate testimony that there were no where near 100,000 people at this thing. That's not to say that 30,000 is anything to sneeze at ... it was a respectable showing. MySpace activity in and around DC must have nose-dived for those few hours. Here, of course, is a collection of "peace-scarf" wearers ... or, as I prefer to call it ... the "I'd Rather Be Killing Jews, But OK I'll Settle For Your Infidel Protest" scarf. QED. If you read the printing on this dude's t-shirt I think you'll agree it's somewhat less than "peaceful". Just to be clear. You can click the photo to get a higher resolution.

The shirt says "Enemy Combatant". I believe it.

And what would an ANSWER protest be without ... the Che? Sadly, these folks kept thinking I wanted a photo of them with their pre-printed signage. I finally had to insist ... just put down the signs: I want the Che! And how, I ask, could I conclude this dreary little tale without reference to Medea Benjamin and her sewing circle? That is, after all, where I began my 9/15 sojourn. Here's Medea herself at the end of the march ... at the "die-in" ... walking among the dead. Notice she is on her own two feet. And here, also, for your viewing pleasure, are other images taken that 9/15 morn as we waited for the festivities to begin. A lovely time was had by all. And, finally, just a reminder of what all this is really about ...

MORONIC CONVERGENCE: September 15, 2007; Washington DC Puppets. Let's get that out of the way, shall we? Yes, there were puppets. Small and aging puppets. And stilt-walkers. That's new. Sort of. Once again, my video[s] will concentrate on the oddities ... especially the musical oddities ... present in these protests. Stuff you won't see otherwise. The speeches you can hear on C-SPAN, etc. and they're boring anyway. I'll probably have one video, however, dedicated to my walk between the ANSWER Protest and the Gathering of Eagles [henceforth: GOE] Counter-Protest. There was about a 10 foot corridor between them. I call it "The Gauntlet". **** CHECK BACK FOR VIDEOS **** **** UPDATE: SUNDAY 09/16/2007 **** Here's my second video: More Protest Music. It's still processing through YouTube so it may take a while until it actually works, though YouTube is getting quicker at approving these things. UPDATE: It's live ... go ahead and click! I think it's my best work. Hope you enjoy! **** FIRST VIDEO IS UP **** The last time we saw this puppet it was being blown to bits crossing Memorial Bridge. It is definitely the worst for the wear. I have a few words with the creator in one of the videos. Sticking with the jokes ... there was a small Ron Paul representation at the protest. Most people kept their distance. And of course, the ultimate joke ... Ramsey Clark ... was there in person. I got kinda close, ya think? Then there were the "normal" insanities one expects at ANSWER anti-war protests: These ... I have no idea where to even begin ... ... and then there was the just plain ugly. Or just plain stupid. Or, well ... er ... Then there are the surprisingly sentient and yet oddly insane ... and happy [!] ... jew-haters ... The Iraq Vets against the war marched ... Some folks got arrested ... And then the party ... well ... just ... er ... died. We wanted to ... well ... pull the plug on the whole thing ... ... but then Santa showed up again and everything was OK! YEAH!

I'M BACK! AND SANTA'S COMING TO TOWN! No, not really ... but it was [in a word] insane. Or, to quote the final scene of the "Bridge on the River Kwai" ... "Madness! .... MADNESS!!" I'm sifting through photos and processing video. You know the routine, right? Check back!

I'M OFF! Please be sure to check back at the end of the day ... at which time [subsequent several Knob Creek Manhattans (up) and a couple of Torano Cigars as an antidote to the insanity] I will begin to post the usual photos and video! See ya then!