WP: Antiwar Fervor Fills the Streets

[kskiska]

Thousands Take Their Message of Peace To White House, Despite Bush Absence

Sunday, September 25, 2005; A01

Tens of thousands of people packed downtown Washington yesterday and marched past the White House in the largest show of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the conflict in Iraq began.

The demonstration drew grandmothers in wheelchairs and babies in strollers, military veterans in fatigues and protest veterans in tie-dye. It was the first time in a decade that protest groups had a permit to march in front of the executive mansion, and, even though President Bush was not there, the setting seemed to electrify the crowd.

Signs, T-shirts, slogans and speeches outlined the cost of the Iraq conflict in human as well as economic terms. They memorialized dead U.S. troops and Iraqis, and contrasted the price of war with the price of recovery for areas battered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Riffs on Vietnam-era protests were plentiful, with messages declaring, "Make Levees, Not War," "I never thought I'd miss Nixon" and "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam." Many in the crowd had protested in the 1960s; others weren't even born during those tumultuous years.

Protest organizers estimated that 300,000 people participated, triple their original target. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, who walked the march route, said the protesters achieved the goal of 100,000 and probably exceeded it. Asked whether at least 150,000 showed up, the chief said, "That's as good a guess as any.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401701.html

[expatriot]

1. our 300,000 to the Freeper's 150! HA!

that is like 2,000 to 1.

[ShockediSay]

15. Wouldn't surprise me if they spent $500,000 trying to organize

Wouldn't surprise me if they spent $500,000 trying to organize their counter-demonstration. Figure the backroom bagmen, the fundraisers, the slushfunders, all trying to get freeper turnout.

Ain't it great when you got all that money and you don't have to worry about supporting the government, through taxes, that is.

[Bozita]

16. Ever figure out who pays for all of those Porta-Potties?

Sure as hell it ain't the pro-war folks in attendance.

[awoke_in_2003]

48. and don't forget

Halliburton.

[damntexdem]

19. And if local papers across the US report it at all tomorrow, ...

they'll estimate equal numbers of protesters and kool-aid drinkers.

[Faygo Kid]

2. Sunday's WP front page just up; police chief admits at least 150,000

I hope this qualifies as LBN, at 10:35 ET Saturday. This is just up, so far as I know. Organizers now estimate 300,000 today; check it out. More like 130,000,000, in terms of support. Stop the war.
Antiwar Fervor Fills the Streets

Thousands Take Their Message of Peace To White House, Despite Bush Absence

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 25, 2005; Page A01

Tens of thousands of people packed downtown Washington yesterday and marched past the White House in the largest show of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the conflict in Iraq began.

The demonstration drew grandmothers in wheelchairs and babies in strollers, military veterans in fatigues and protest veterans in tie-dye. It was the first time in a decade that protest groups had a permit to march in front of the executive mansion, and, even though President Bush was not there, the setting seemed to electrify the crowd.

Signs, T-shirts, slogans and speeches outlined the cost of the Iraq conflict in human as well as economic terms. They memorialized dead U.S. troops and Iraqis, and contrasted the price of war with the price of recovery for areas battered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Riffs on Vietnam-era protests were plentiful, with messages declaring, "Make Levees, Not War," "I never thought I'd miss Nixon" and "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam." Many in the crowd had protested in the 1960s; others weren't even born during those tumultuous years.

Protest organizers estimated that 300,000 people participated, triple their original target. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, who walked the march route, said the protesters achieved the goal of 100,000 and probably exceeded it. Asked whether at least 150,000 showed up, the chief said, "That's as good a guess as any.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401701.htmldyn/content/articl
e/2005/09/24/AR2005092401701.html

[Trevelyan]

3. Maybe the DUers this morning who decided to Media Blast got their request

Keep emailing the media and Congress - it is a Revolutionary act and may save our country and the lifes of our children and grandkids.

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.html?39
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8045532/l

http://www.c-span.org/about/contact.asp?code=About

Thank you for covering the massive Anti-War Protest Please give this important event as much coverage as you can. It could save our embattled Democracy and the people who are protesting are extremely courageous in the face of the vindictive never-elected Bush Regime.

(CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN) needs to be reporting much more on the demonstrations. Including the http://www.DemocraticUnderground.com reports of THREE of the Metro lines being down and people having to walk, disruptions of the Metro Buses and problems with Amtrak.

Also the Washington Post reported online about the Operation Granite and Geyser illegally using the US military and MERCENARIES to have a "Drill" for Martial Law conveniently at the same time as the largest Protest March on Washington.

I'm sure you remember, even if you have never reported about the NORAD "drill" actually a stand down of our airforce that made 911 possible and showed the bush regime complicity in this atrocity.

Also the suspicious "drill" that was going on at EXACTLY the same time as the London bombings.

Please start telling the truth on the air!! CNN went to court to get a restraining order so that you could report on what was happening in NOLA AFTER the hurricane and newspersons were having guns aimed at them and cameras smashed.

Why is the Hurricane Czar Rove fundraising (see Sen. Lautenburg's unbelieving letter on his government site) and what is bush doing at NORTHCOM???

PLEASE REPORT THE TRUTH TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Thank you.

[Faygo Kid]

5. Thanks. I will do my part. Spend a lot of time in Gaithersburg, BTW

Next to Michigan, Maryland is the best, and I love spending much time there. "She who must be obeyed" is there, and that has much to do with it, but anyway, from one Blue state resident to another, I will follow up.

[Robertwf]

4. There is a trend

out there. The media seems to be on a definite campaign to underestimate or not estimate the size of the crowds that turned out around the country at the protests. NYT for Sunday says vast numbers--the WP gives marcher estimate of 300K and cop estimate of 150K--anybody's guess. Local TV stations in my city are not giving numbers.
Who got to all of their editors? This is a freakin' outrage!

[Ken Burch]

8. That's not a new trend.

I remember when there was a massive gay rights rally in the Eighties's, with a crowd comparable to or larger than today's turnout(probably larger), and all the camera angles made it look like 20 people showed up.

It's part of the historic media pattern of trying to stop opposition movements after they've become slightly newsworthy but before they actually become a threat. Same thing with the antiwar rallies in the Sixties and the anti-nuclear, anti-Central American War rallies in the Eighties.

[damntexdem]

20. In 1963, Martin Luther King was smart. He told those in the Mall ...

to stay quiet while those who couldn't get into the Mall shouted. The roar was overwhelming, and it made his point about the size of the protest. Of course then, the media did turn their cameras on the crowd, unlike anything I saw on CSPAN; and the media were there, unlike anything I saw from any electronic media other than CSPAN.

[ShockediSay]

12. NYTimes is the lamest coverage I've seen so far.

It looks like somebody asked Rush to write an article that made it look like the same old style liberals doing the same old style thing.

Good coverage from Reuters > really got into the diversities involved

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-25T010224Z_01_WRI465220_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-PROTESTS.xml&archived=False

[BrklynLiberal]

34. They had the same crap coverage for the Women's rights March in

April of 2004! It was Disgusting!!!

[Cha]

41. They totally underestimated on

Purpose our Numbers in NYC on Feb 15, 2003..there were almost a Million there.

The media had their had in starting this WAR ON IRAQ and should be indicted along with the bushwa.

[survivor999]

6. Great!

How many DUers were there?

[Ken Burch]

7. My rule of thumb on protest crowd estimates

is figure the crowd is somewhere between 1/3rd smaller than the organizers estimates and 2/3rds larger than the police estimates.
I'd guess it's 250,000 at a safe minimum.

[savemefromdumbya]

46. The police said it was 22 blocks long

so if it was 22 blocks long approx 10,000 per block then you are close.

[NewInNewJ.]

11. Here is One that was there!

[thecrow]

17. I was there! It was a fantastic day.

[BrklynLiberal]

24. I was there too..and I agree.

You can see some pics I took at this online album.
(You do NOT have to register to see them)

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=12jp8jjz.3w59m6er&x=0&y=-73bk44

[anakie]

28. they were great

thanks for putting them up. Glad to see Americans in large numbers protesting the war. It looks like it was a good day out.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

33. Great photos

thanks for sharing them. The WW II vets and the elderly woman in the wheelchair brought tears to my eyes

"I can't believe we still have to protest this crap"

[primavera]

36. Great shots!

Did you see the guy behind the White House shouting "Bush is an asshole" at the Secret Service while wearing a sign that read "Hey Oswald, where are you when we need you?" Now that takes cajones!

I confess, I myself had a bit of difficulty joining in with some of the "What do we want?" "Bush OUT!" chants because, really, I'm past the point of being content with Bush just being out of office. Best would be his head on a pike with crows pecking at his eyeballs, although I could probably live with him being dragged off to his Gitmo gulag to be tortured and imprisoned without trial or access to counsel. But just having him out of office and out making $20,000/hr on the lecture circuit isn't going to do it for me anymore.

[BrklynLiberal]

39. I agree.. and his whole admin has to be out as well, or the crimes will

continue..

"I'm past the point of being content with Bush just being out of office."

[CANDO]

30. I was there!

And it was an awesome feeling to be among all of the beautiful people striving to rid ourselves of this awful scourge called dubya. George Galloway and Ramsey Clark were truly amazing speakers!

[MADem]

21. Ramsey (the DC POLICE CHIEF) is one of us

He is sick and tired of losing his best and brightest, who often serve in the Reserves, to that quagmire called IRAQ...

A good man, that fellah...

[bklyncowgirl]

49. The DC cops were great. Very professional and polite.

I was expecting a huge police presence but except for those working the traffic details and guarding the entrances to some buildings I hardly saw any cops until we came to the counter demonstration near the end of the march.

There were two cops for every Freeper not counting the mounted unit and the riot squad. It was pretty funny.

[Bozita]

9. Front page! ... Congrats to all participants ...

... along with my most sincere thanks.

[mshasta]

10. Anti War Pic

[Bozita]

14. SHAME! We can't use the military against the American people, BUT ...

... it's OK for cops to do what they do during anti-war demonstrations?

[CANDO]

31. Where is this picture from?????

Certainly NOT from the DC rally, because it was heavily overcast all day long and actually sprinkled rain occasionally.

[mshasta]

47. san francisco

[primavera]

38. Please notice the gas masks at their hips

That was one thing I noticed: all of the riot police were equipped with gas masks (see the bulky black nylon bags at their belts?). And here I thought the shrub opposed gassing one's own civilian population.

[GetTheRightVote]

13. I attended the event & it was great !!! I am in a photo on Yahoo, so cool

It was great to be right up front by the stage with a great view of the speakers, ect. It was great to share the experience in such a huge setting with the number of people beside me, the ones were huge, simply huge. It was wall to wall people everywhere you looked. You could not even walk thru the crowd in a normal way at all. It was awesome, totally awesome, best day ever for me.

:kick:

P.S. I am no good with numbers but it was well over the estimated 100,000. The march itself was extremely slow (not the word for it) and it still took 4/5 hours to complete. I marched and then watched the rest of it go by.

[damntexdem]

18. But it didn't happen -- on the MSM. I looked several times:

and saw not a single reference to the march, other than on C-SPAN, whose camera angles made it look like there were maybe 200 people there.

[MADem]

22. This is DAY ONE

MOTIVATION DAY.
The shit hits the fan on DAY THREE (MON), when CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE comes into play...

[EndElectoral]

23. Watching the media, the protest numbers were equal...

[dbt]

25. The Murkin Media is a JOKE. A SICK joke.

Not a WORD about the demonstrations on CNN and Headline "News" this afternoon. NBC Nightly "News" also jumped at the chance to ignore the story, too.

Of course, if any of the Whore Nets DID cover the demonstrations, it might remind a good few Americans of how TV fell all over itself to whip the viewing public into a frenzy of support for bu$hler's little War Of Convenience in THE FIRST GAWDDAM PLACE!

That vile little clip of Katie Couric, all starry-eyed and wet-pantied, gushing "Navy SEALS rock!" from Fahrenheit 911 tells the ENTIRE STORY of the media's role in this whole screwed-up business.

:argh:

Remember New Orleans

[depakid]

32. Marching on the media needs to be the next order of business

In every city.

That's the only way to get their attention- short of another natural disaster (or virulent pandemic) that is.

[dbt]

51. Ain't THAT the truth!

The one thing the media cannot resist covering is ITSELF. If there were to be massive demonstrations against CNN (for example), ALL of the other Whore Nets would be on it in a nanosecond. CNN itself would even be forced to give it a mention.

Moreover, the number of demonstrators against CNN would be over-reported by the Other Guys.

:evilgrin:

Remember New Orleans

[SusanF_CA]

26. Interesting numbers

I think it is interesting that with 300000 showing up, which to me is hundreds of thousands, yet they start the article off saying tens of thousands. Though their way is technically correct if somebody just scanned the top of the article they might think maybe 50 or 60 thousand attended. This is not the first time I have seen progressive rallys and protests described in this manner.

[calimary]

29. Welcome to DU! Infuriating, isn't it? They have consistently under-

estimated crowd size for these rallies since the run-up to the war. And of course, years earlier with other rallies against the Vietnam war ans such - ALWAYS lowballed it. Dammit!

[intheflow]

27. Thanks for posting.

There's a different story up on WP now, its good to be able to read this earlier one as well.

[Peace Patriot]

35. 58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war BEFORE the invasion.

Across the board in all polls. Feb. '03. Before all the lies were exposed; before the full horror and costs of it were known. 58%!

About half of that 58% opposed the war outright; the other half would only support a UN peacekeeping mission (world consensus)--NOT unilateral, preemptive war by Bush.

That number dipped only once, in the few weeks of the invasion when US troops were at max risk, then went right back up to nearly 60%, where it stayed throughout the election. It's now over 70%.

63% of the American people oppose torture UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. May '04.

Look at the issue polls, and you find that the great majority of Americans oppose every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, way up in the 60% to 70% range. You name it. The Iraq war. Torture. Social Security. The deficit. Women's rights. MOST Americans disagree with Bush, consistently, in all polls, for well over a year.

And that is not even to mention personal approval polls, so low for Bush before the election that Zogby said he could not win--and down in the low 40s today in even the most rightwing corporate polling. (All corporate polls are weighted to the right, so all of these numbers are even worse for Bush than is apparent.)

Bush's "re-election" was non-transparent and unverifiable. The votes were tabulated by two Bushite corporations--Diebold and ES&S--using SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code! That is the only evidence that Bush won. All other evidence points to a Bush loss, including the national and state election day exit polls.

On election night, the TV networks, acting in concert, FALSIFIED their own exit poll data (Kerry won) by "adjusting" their exit polls to "fit" the "official result" derived from Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae--thus depriving the American people of major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation.

Worse journalistic crime ever, in my opinion.

So it shouldn't surprise us to find these war profiteering corporate news monopolies downplaying the numbers at an antiwar protest, and not giving it the coverage that is due. They've been ignoring their own polling over the last year, which said that Bush was not re-electable and was not re-elected, and that most Americans oppose Bush on every issue.

The point of all this--of their falsifying their own exit polls, and NOT COMMENTING on the huge disapproval of Bush and Bush Cartel policy, and NOT REFLECTING majority opinion in any way--is to MARGINALIZE the huge progressive majority in this country, and to make people feel isolated and alone, and powerless. And they give a Big Trumpet to the rightwing MINORITY for the same reason--to make us FEEL that the country as a whole is pro-war and anti-progressive.

The American people never supported this war. Never! And, furthermore, the American people are NOT in the least ambivalent about basic progressive values, such as the decent and lawful treatment of prisoners and protecting old peoples' pensions.

What we MUST realize is that the great majority of Americans have been DISENFRANCHISED. Literally.

And we have to go back to square one, and RESTORE THE INTEGRITY OF OUR ELECTION SYSTEM before we can address all the other crime that is taking place.

This is still doable at the state/local level, where power over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some influence. The bipartisan corruption at this level, wrought by the $4 billion boondoggle of electronic voting, is a formidable obstacle to reform, but it is nothing compared to the corruption of Congress and the federal government. (They CREATED this corrupt mess in our election system!) (--deliberately!).

With no right to vote, we have no power. The people in government have no reason to listen to us. We could put 500,000 people in the streets, or a million, and it wouldn't matter to them. They are NOT beholden to US. They are beholden to Diebold and ES&S. We have in fact already lost our democracy, and we MUST do everything we can to get it back, while we still have the opportunity. TRANSPARENT, VERIFIABLE ELECTIONS are a MUST DO. We need...

1. Paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level (--Canada does it in one day, although speed should not even be a consideration, just accuracy and verifiability)

or, at the least...

2. Paper ballot (not "paper trail") backup of all electronic voting, a 10% automatic recount, very strict security, and NO SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code! (...jeez!).

My advice: Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

More advice: I am not dissing antiwar protests, by any means. I'm a veteran of them starting way back in 1967. It is heartening and empowering to take to the streets. However, if we had 200,000 people burning electronic voting machines in effigy--or throwing them into 'Boston Harbor', or a Louisiana levee--we would be more directly targeting the CAUSE of this war and of so much injustice. The first cause of this war is direct, deliberate DISENFRANCHISEMENT of the majority.

[CTD]

37. Did anyone actually see the printed W Post today? Front page, top.

Color picture. More prominent location than even the Hurricane Rita coverage. And the follow-up pages inside had lots of protest pics, all in color. The coverage was, overall, extremely favorable. And the sidebar article on the counter-protest certainly played it down (and the picture accompanying the sidebar showed a freeper flicking off a kind looking woman - how appropriate).

I can't wait for the freeper LTEs slamming the paper's coverage.

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[leftchick]

42. there were no stinkin 200 freepers!

give me a break. 50 AT THE MOST on Penn. Ave as we passed. :eyes:

[intheflow]

43. Absolutely not 200 freepers yesterday.

There were barely 200 at their big rally on mall today. :eyes:

[leftchick]

44. no kidding! And how many stories about them??

soviet ameriKa is alive and kicking! :puke:

[Danmel]

45. "Bush suffers from Iraq-Tile Dysfunction"

is a sign a friend of mine who was able to attend saw! Pretty clever.

[0007]

50. Do drunks ever wake up?

Army 1st Sgt. Frank Cookinham, with a Special Forces patch on one shoulder, scorpion tattoos crawling across the back of his neck and "LOCO" permanently inked on his Adam's apple stands out in most crowds. He was pretty uncomfortable yesterday.

"I've never done this before, but here I am, in uniform, figuring this is the only way I can shove it to Bush," said Cookinham, of Newport, R.I., a Persian Gulf War veteran who recently returned from a second tour in Iraq. "This war makes no sense."

[0007]

52. junior must be numb with excitment that 54 freepers

from freerublic.com protested on his behalf.