It got to the point where the best part was seeing the most inventive sign.

The actual marching, in my opinion is much more effective.

-C.

United for Peace and Justice has a whole menu of the other stuff, including for this weekend in DC -- they are the folks who've been doing a lot of the Cindy Sheehan logistics.

You folks are lucky. Where I live in San Fran, nothing as sensible as UFPJ existed to muscle in on ANSWER and make some sense of this, so we'll have a major march with no other forces in charge. But we've learned to all go anyway -- and NOT LISTEN to the speeches.

Fwiw, protests as well as making a point are celebrations of free speech: the founding value of our democracy.  If someone wants to talk about gay rights in the context of Iraq....as someone likely will in the march I attend in SF tommorrow... they are more than welcome to in my book.  (Hell, there might be a connection.)

Of course, we all want folks to speak well and make good, on topic points whoever they are and whatever point they are making, or clothes they are wearing.

And isn't that the point, Chris?  Not to censor content or appearance...but to make the protest effective and empowering and informative?

If someone in mime makeup wearing a tutu does that tommorrow....and they likely will...I'm all for it.

And, fwiw, I'm one of the least hippy-dippy looking people out there.  Jeans and a t-shirt all the way for me...and plenty o' sunblock.

I understand she was under a lot of pressure, but still no apology as far as I can see.

Here are the people I have now seen or heard storm off an interview:

1. Bill O'Reilly on Fresh Air.
   
2. Robert Novak (Carville)
   
3. Cindy Sheehan

• Don't engage in street theater. That will just leave people wondering what your point is.
• Don't march around with giant puppets. It just looks dumb.

Add that to the other "don'ts" -- most of which We've seen in countless other marches, and may yet see in this one -- is it any wonder that democratic leaders are getting the hell out of Dodge before this march hits town?

I remember being at a Black Panther meeting, and there's about 200 black folks in attendance. I am the only white person. I see my friend Talmage go up to the podium, and he starts talking about how all white people are evil pigs, and he goes on, and on, and on about that. He finishes up a speech, comes down from his podium, slaps me on the back, asks me if the speech was good. I said oh yeah, that was really good!

I remember when I take my best friend on a run to New York City. He picks up a total lunatic, one of his New York friends who happens to be a speed freak Shakespearean actor. We bring the guy home (our homes -- you don't wanna know about his pad). He always walks with a cane, he takes over the local peace movement, waving that crazy cane in the air, crying out "I am the King and this is my castle!"

I remember being in Washington DC for the biggest antiwar protest just about ever. Hundreds of us are there, and these little tiny white pills are going around, and we know they are some kind of acid. I tell my friends "do not take that crazy acid" which really gets a lot of attention, since everyone knows I'm not one to pass up good acid. Well, they take the damn pills anyway. And this "leader" who's been monopolizing a bullhorn all afternoon gets on some kind of a gigantic speaker system and starts telling everybody that, since they all have long hair, they absolutely need to become queer. My friends start to freely freak, digging into the ground with their fingers, me telling them the guy is CIA, and the acid was CIA.

What can I say? What goes around eventually comes around again. But never get the dumb idea you've seen it all. Just remember, anything can happen at an antiwar demonstration.

We did have our share of "serious types," some so serious they made Mormon missionaries look like Elvis. There were all types. We had hippies straight from San Francisco with flowers in her hair. (We even had those total wackos from Ohio who were into some kind of Satan worship.) Sure, a lot of these folks were profligate jerks. But then, a lot of us were meditating for weeks on end (no, we didn't drop everything to do that, so we had to turn everything into a meditation).

We used everything available to fight against that war. Actually we lacked many of the things that are available today. There was absolutely no "Internet" (except for what was available to a few geeks at MIT). The conservatives of the time were one hell of a lot less aware than many conservatives are today. This is something that people who are seriously trying to stop the Iraq fiasco seem to be mostly unaware of. Even people who call themselves "conservative" and "right-wing" (and yes, they really are that) are starting to notice that our current crop of "elitists" has nothing in common with them.

On the other hand, we did not have computer voting, so we did not have people like Bush running the country. It is easy to compare Nixon with Bush, but the reality is that there is absolutely no comparison to be made. The most you could say is that Nixon was sort of "right-wing" for his time. Just for the record, if Nixon was around today, spouting the socialist jargon that he did then, people would consign him to the Socialist Worker's Party -- I shit you not. Did you know that at one point, Nixon rolled out for the White House to have a little chat with the hippies? He did. Can you imagine Bush doing that? Some people may not know that it was Richard Nixon who prevented a war between Russia and China that would've destroyed the world as we know it. A lot of very bad things have been said about Nixon (by many, including Hunter S. Thompson) -- and many of those things are no doubt justified. But remember, it was Nixon was stopped the Vietnam conflagration (though many still despise him for that). One more detail: Watergate was a setup. Think about how tiny that little Watergate break-in was compared to the felonies that occur daily in today's White House.

I think the qualities necessary for ending the war were not all that different from the qualities necessary for fighting in it. Flexibility was an absolute must. The ability to laugh at yourself and your comrades and your adversaries is critical. You know, LSD was something that helped. There is nothing nearly as funny as a "mainstream" news broadcast heard on acid! I shit you not! (And the weather reports! -- Ever look at that damn weatherman right in the eyes?) My point here is that, although these frightening experiences may have been less than helpful to some, they had the effect of making many of us rather difficult to deceive via the medium of outward appearances. You may notice that I talk a lot about a media matrix. When I talk about that, I am not kidding at all. This involves the thing that frightens me the most. So many seem so incredibly unaware of just how manipulated they are.

One other crucial point: if we were to have a conflict on the scale of Vietnam today, the truth is we could never even begin to afford it. People today seem so completely unaware of how (in a very profound way) they are so incredibly poor. So many think they have so much, yet so much that they have is so ephemeral. The people of that era would swear that the entire America of today is so, as we used to say, "made in Japan."

I protested Iraq for days on end just prior to when numbnuts started it. As of today, I see protesting computer voting as a much more significant enterprise. Why try to convince people who really have no vote?

Chant this: Where Republicans tread, people wind up dead !

http://tinyurl.com/8ghl8

Use Sheehan's Crawford vigil as a benchmark and see for yourself. I'm guessing that this protest gets a cursory mention in most outlets and then dissipates into nothingness while the media focuses on Rita and Katrina.

Accentuate the positive, is my view.  Sheehan gave us a great example of how anti-War activism can work.  It's our job now to follow her example--whether or not we chose to follow her to DC this weekend.  

Not this war, not this point and not this pResident. I supported the war in Afghanistan even though your chimp in the white house provoked the 9-11 attacks over an oil deal that went awry with the Taliban. He lied us into the invasion of Iraq. Iraq did not pose a threat to us. TheAnthrax killer who killed several people and sent Anthrax to 2 Democratic Senators posed more of a threat to our country and the Bush administration has not found him yet.

George W Bush stole 2 elections, How can we fight for democracy over there when the Republican Party has suppressed votes in 2000 and 2004 over here and stole 2 elections?

The chimp's failure to defend America on 9-11 and the failure to save people after the recent hurricane shows his weakness on defense.

Any person who fights for the US and votes Republican does not fight for me.
The Republican Party hates America. They hate people to earn a minimum wage enough to live an adequate life today. The Republican Party has blocked an increase to the minimum wage since 1996. One of the first acts the chimp took after the hurricane appears his suspension of the prevailing wage in the hurricane affected areas and he gave a no bid contract to Halliburton. The Republican Party hates dissent to the extent they call dissenters unpatriotic and suppress dissent around the chimp's rallies and events. The Republican party hates business regulation and the chimp's FDA sat back while people died while taking Vioxx and other medications. The Bush admninistration did nothing about Enron when it stole money from their own employees and many thousands of investors. Ken Lay once employed your chimp George W Bush and befriended him. The Bush administration did nothing when Enron stole money from California residents in the power shortage scandal.

I believe in capitalism but not George's version of laissez faire cheap labor pirate deathbringing capitalism.

If you don't like my criticism of the chimp, mere criticism appears mild in comparison to what Bush has done to 30,000 innocent Iraqis who died in the invasion of Iraq, 3000 people who died on 9-11 who Bush failed to defend, and over 1,000 people who died in the hurricane and flood that Bush failed to get FEMA involved for a week and people who died from prescription drugs that Bush's FDA failed to regulate properly.

Where Republicans tread, people wind up dead!

http://tinyurl.com/8ghl8

UFPJ and ANSWER have totally fucked this up. This protest should have only been about Iraq, not about Palestine, Haiti, Africa and all the other places mentioned on the posters behind the stage. This was the anti-war movement's chance to show the country that withdrawal is now the MAJORITY opinion. Instead, moderate Americans will just think that this was another bunch of crazy hippies.

It's interesting that allmost all the tshirts and homemade posters in the crowd are focused on Iraq and Iraq only. Too bad the organizers just had to indulge all the small coalition constituencies, instead of broadcasting a unified, strong message.

Went to the gym this morning and as I was getting on the bus, I noticed 2 hipsters evidently heading to the anti-war rally in SF.  I know this because they were holding about 10 signs, which when dropped, revealed the words "fuck" and "war" on all of them (in various manifestations).  

Dude, that'll win middle America.  

I came home feeling so good about today only to read your grapy comments about what you believe monopolized the event!  ANSWER was a small part of the much bigger event which was the three hour march around DC and in front of the White House. I was proud to be part of all of it!

First come the lies, then comes the blood.

Middle age military evaders are pledging allegience to the flag, the lies and the blood.

Noble is the cause, absent are Jen & Babs.

Lies become fact but never truth.

Look in the mirror and pledge allegience to the lies and the blood.

Gooodnight and God Bless the World

Specialist Sheehan died because he voluntarily joined the Armed Services. There was no draft. Anyone who joins the service blind to the fact that they may be called upon to fight, for whatever reason, deserves to die. Cindy Sheehan needs to shut the fuck up and afford her son the dignity of living (and dying) according to the consequences of his own decisions. Had there been a draft, Cindy (along with the rest of you fucking morons) might have an anti-war leg to stand on. But there wasn't a draft, and as such there isn't a point to her or anyone else's protest of the war based on the fact that their loved one VOLUNTEERED for service and then got smoked. But then that's a hallmark of liberal Dem whiners - ignore reality, just scream and cry loud enough and your fantasy world will become reality. I want to put this as sincerely as possible - fuck each and every last one of you. Your blindness to the realities of the world and your political obtuseness is downright fascinating, but it became a bit of a bore a long time ago.