The Redhunter

This one gets you an idea of crowd size

Two of my heroes, Bryan Preston and Michelle Malkin were there. They also came to Friday night's FReep outside of Walter Reed. Their post on Walter Reed is here, and here's their initial report on today's GOE III. I'm sure they'll have more up later, and I'll link to it when I see it. I'll also link to the Free Republic After Action Report on Friday when that's up.

While all this was going on I ran into one of my favorite bloggers, Tantor of Conservative Propaganda. I didn't get his photo as I'm not sure he would want it published. As of this writing I don't see that he has his post up about today yet, but be sure to visit his site over the next few days. He told me that after spending some time atGOE III he was going right up to the White House and do an infiltration of the moonbat crowd. He'll have an excellent photo essay sometime in the next day or so I'm sure.

Here's a sign that would no doubt infuriate the moonbats later on

Many Vietnam veterans of Rolling Thunder where there. I got a chance to speak briefly with some throughout the day, and shook their hands and said "thank you for your service."

My general impression is that they come to counter the war protesters not because they necessarily believe lock stock and barrel in what the Bush Administration is doing, but because they remember having to come home to the anti-war hippies themselves and have said "never again". They have a great distain for anti-war types, believe you me.

Here are three from the front and back

Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic was emcee, and as always did a masterful job of keeping things on track. We started off with the pledge of allegiance and a prayer, something I'm sure the ANSWER people didn't do.

Taylor and Morgan had secured a very impressive list of speakers for the event. Some were more inspirational, like Lt Col Robert "Buzz" Patterson, and others were Gold Star mothers and fathers who of course had more somber and emotional presentations. One father recounted the last phone call he received from his son, which was quite moving.

Here is audio of part of Melanie Mortan's speech

Another speaker was Dr. Kimberly Kagan, president of the Institute for the Study of War. Check out her latest on NRO, where she and others analyze President Bush's speech last week on Iraq.

Then we had a surprise speaker; presidential candidate Rep Duncan Hunter (R-CA). I am a fan of Hunter, and wish he was doing better in the polls. I think he'd do well against any of the democrats, and would probably vote for him in a primary if I could.

My little camera doesn't have much of a zoom, so here's the my best photo of him

Here is audio of Rep Hunter's remarks.

I walked around to the side after the rally, and he was good enough to speak for a few minutes with me and some others. He shook our hands and I wished him well.

We finished right on time at 12 Noon, with Kristinn dismissing the crowd and giving everyone directions to Pennsylvania Avenue. Everyone slowly filed out and made our way a few blocks away to where we would spend the next 3 or 4 hours.

Part II - The March and the Counter

We gathered up and down both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue, taking up several blocks on each side. All this was part of a pre-arranged plan; the organizers of GOE III (as well as ANSWER) having negotiated with the DC government over permit areas for weeks if not months before this event.

And we waited

And waited

If you're not reading ThreatsWatch...

...you're not fully informed.

During what seemed an interminable wait, I finally got to meet my good friend Marvin Hutchins, who was in town with blog partner Steve Schippert. Marvin is the creator of ThreatsWatch, and Steve is a contributor. Steve also contributes to National Review Online, where you can find his posts on The Corner and The Tank.

They were in town attending some security conference, and as they would be here over the weekend of course wanted to drop by and see real life moonbats in action. They weren't disappointed.

FINALLY, at 2:45 they showed, a good 2 1/2 hours behind schedule. Here they are: Moonbats on parade!

It was, as always, a circus freakshow that would have made P.T. Barnum proud. I'll never figure out what it is about lefties where they think they have to dress up in costumes and carry all manner of vulgar signs. This one wasn't actually as bad as some I've seen in the past (see "Rallies and Protests" under "Categories" at right), but was a show nevertheless. Many of them carried preprinted ANSWER signs that their masters leaders had given to them.

Here's a good wide-angle shot so you can see that at times the street was thick with them

I think I've seen this contraption at other ANSWER demonstrations

The Chants

The leftists:

Iraq for Iraqis, U.S. Out Now!

Bush Never Served! Bush Never Served!

Strengh Through Peace!

Apparently flying F-102 Delta Daggers for 2 years doesn't count, but none of these people would know an F-102 if it hit them on the heard.

One of our number, a FReeper who calls himself "Dr Raoul" was shouting at the moonbats with his megaphone

End the Occupation, Commies Out of DC!

Audio here

There was shouting on each side, and some folks let their emotions get the better of them, and occasionally tempers flared. I've learned to remain calm in the face of provocation, but it's something you have to prepare for.

A few marchers wore bandanas over their faces. I think this is the so-called "Black bloc" of anarchists, but am not sure. I'll do some research tomorrow.

Many Eagles would holler at them to uncover their face, calling them cowards. Sometimes they did, making my wonder why, if they gave in so easily, why them covered themselves in the first place.

Pardon the vulgarity but these people need to be exposed. You'll never see this photo in the MSM

They are a creative bunch, I'll give them that. Too bad they don't put it towards something useful

I'm not sure but I think this is supposed to be Hillary

There were your Palestinian sympathizers, who of course insisted that they just wanted "justice for the Palestinian people".

And no leftist demonstration these days is complete without the 9-11 Truthers

The whole thing was over by 3:30. Huh? I looked at my watch in disbelief. Past demonstrations had gone on for a few hours. If I have it right (and I'll check my recorder tomorrow) this bunch went past us in just under an hour.

ANSWER flopped.

Many of us made our way to the US Capitol, only a few blocks away, to see this "die-in", that ANSWER had been advertising on their website.

Part III - The Moonbat "Die-In"

At the Capitol both groups got somewhat mixed up. GOE didn't have a permit area establised, so we wandered around in small groups, trying to figure out where the moonbats were going to do this die-in.

Here you can see the yellow ANSWER signs in the background by the Capitol

Not being quite sure what to do, our group walked around to the right. We headed up a path to the Capitol, but ended up on the wrong side of where they were doing this "die-in". One of our number told me that the moonbats were on the other side. Since the people I was with seemed content to stay where they were, this left me with a decision.

Hanging with the Moonbats

I took the plunge, and with flag in hand (I was carrying an American flag on a 10' pole), as well as with a American flag shirt, and a "Surge to Success" button, I waded into a veritable sea of leftists over to the other side of the gathering.

Ok, so I wasn't really "hanging out" with the leftists, but there was no way they could mistake me for anyone on their side of the political spectrum.

Sure enough, after a hundred yards or so I came upon a bunch of them lying down. I asked if this was the die-in and they said yes.

Most didn't exactly look dead. And of course the girl in this photo has a vulgar sign on her back. What is with them that they can't put forth their message in a civil manner?

A guy with a bullhorn was trying to get more to lie down, but most just milled about. Why, I wondered, didn't they just all lay down? That was why they were here, wasn't it?

A hundred feet or so past this spectacle was more of them laying on the other path up to the Capitol. Again a guy with a bullhorn was urging them to lay down in this play-dead thing, but most seemed more interested in watching. The guy with the bullhorn here had on a Che Guevara shirt. But of course.

Despite the fact that my appearance put me very out of place in this crowd, no one bothered me a bit. I got some odd looks, but that was about it. I think at this point everyone was pretty tired anyway, having spent their emotions at the morning rallies and afternoon march. I know by this point I was pretty spent, and I could see it in the people around me too. Nevertheless, I wanted to get a few more photos and wanted to see if anything really interesting happened, so I hung out for a bit.

This woman brought her little girl to the die-in. Wonderful.

Finally, as I was leaving, I met this sweetheart.

Just the sort of girl you want to bring home to mom.

Important Update

via Wake Up America WRAL is reporting that 190 Moonbats were arrested

Several thousand anti-war demonstrators marched through downtown Washington on Saturday, clashing with police at the foot of the Capitol steps where more than 190 protesters were arrested. ...

The arrests came after protesters lay down on the Capitol lawn in what they called a "die in" - with signs on top of their bodies to represent soldiers killed in Iraq. When police took no action, some of the protesters started climbing over a barricade at the foot of the Capitol steps.

Many were arrested without a struggle after they jumped over the waist-high barrier. But some grew angry as police with shields and riot gear attempted to push them back. At least two people were showered with chemical spray. Protesters responded by throwing signs and chanting: "Shame on you."

Idiots. Looks like all this went on farther up towards the Capiol than where I was. I don't know if it happened when I was there or not, as I was aways down and couldn't tell what was happenening up closer to the Capitol.

Do I even have to say that no Eagles were arrested?

ANSWER has a list of those arrested on their website

Among the arrested were Adam Kokesh, Liam Madden, Jeff Millard, and Garrett Reppenhagen of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism); Ann Wright, former U.S. Army Colonel; Michael Prysner, Iraq war veteran and ANSWER activist in Florida; union president Gloria La Riva; and Eugene Puryear, Howard University student and National Coordinator of Youth & Student ANSWER.

Imagine, a former US Army Colonel degrading herself by hanging out with these loons, and then getting herself arrested in a war protest. If you want to say the war is wrong, fine, but don't hang out with this bunch.

All Photos for Today

You can see all of the photos that I took today on my Photobucket site.

Others Blogging

Age of Hooper as usual has great photos and video

Michelle Malkin has an Us vs Them photoblog up, and has seen fit to include one of my photos. Thank you, Michelle!

This Ain't Hell was in Lafayette Park (which is by the White House) with the Moonbats in the morning and has excellent photos and commentary also.

Victory Caucus has tons of photos. Be sure and check them out.

Media Attention

Washington Post: "Dueling Protests"

Washington Times: "Protesters Slam War"

Fox News: "Thousands March in D.C. War Protest"

New York Times: "Anti-War Protest Ends with Dozens of Arrests"

Videos

At the risk of making this post too big, here are two videos of the Moonbats at the Capitol Building.

The first is by the Hot Air team of Michelle Malkin and Bryan Preston. At the end they use my photo of the girl with the "F#@% War" shirt.

The second was taken by Mario Loyola of National Review and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies