Posted on 01/20/2005 10:09:24 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
WASHINGTON - Anti-war protesters, including some who carried coffin-like cardboard boxes to signify the death of U.S. troops in Iraq, descended on the capital Thursday.
About 500 people rallied in a park several miles from the Capitol, where George W. Bush was taking the oath of office for a second term.
"Worst President Ever" and "Four more years: God HELP America" were on some of the signs. Protesters covered hundreds of cardboard boxes with black cloth and American flags to symbolize U.S. troops and others killed in Iraq.
"It's important to show that when Bush's second inauguration goes into the record books, there was healthy dissent" said Jared Maslin, 19 of Hanover, N.H.
Aidan Delgado, 23, of Sarasota, Fla., returned to the United States last April after his military service. He said he was a mechanic at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, which gained notoriety as a place of torture during Saddam Hussein's rule and was the scene of alleged prisoner abuse by U.S. troops.
"What I experienced in Iraq fills me with remorse," Delgado told the crowd of protesters. "If we are going to preserve our nation at all, we need to criticize what we did wrong and we have to criticize ourselves," he said.
Several police cars lined the perimeter of the park, but the event remained peaceful.
At one demonstration, supporters of the president engaged in a shouting and shoving match with some opponents of the war.
An anti-war group called the Rhythm Workers Union banged on steel drums and danced in mudcaked boots.
Elsewhere in the city, more than 300 anti-war protesters — organized by a social justice peace movement called CodePink — sported beauty pageant style banners with "resist!" scrawled in black.
"We're against the war mostly," said Shannon Fell, 22, of Detroit, who wore a bright pink wig and feather boa.
Some protesters carried signs advocating abortion rights. Others urged people to donate money to tsunami relief efforts. Some took issue with Bush's environmental and economic policies.
500? ROFLMAO!!!
Not to mention that the media always doubles the numbers.
What a bunch of scmucks and simpletons. Oh, brother.
"It's important to show that when Bush's second inauguration goes into the record books, there was healthy dissent"
If 500 people constitute healthy dissent, I hate to think of what pathetic dissent is.
"We're against the war mostly," said Shannon Fell, 22, of Detroit, who wore a bright pink wig and feather boa.
And they can't understand why America does not take them seriously.
What only 500? I thought it was going to be 500,000...heck, I could pick up that many drunken Democrats, pay them $20 each (or a bottle of cheap whiskey) and tell them to go protest. Piece of cake -- wow, where are the bus-loads of professional protesters that Kerry used during the campaign??? Wow, these losers of American society are slipping -- (chuckle)...
"I BELIEVE"- DU
It's a variety of the usual "No Justice No peace Us out fo the Middle East" half hearted kame chants.
If AP says 500, then there were probably less than half that...
I bet the DC dope dealers are raking in the cash today at that little hatefest.
Gee whiz, I think they were expecting a million deluded souls.
"Million" has become a generic term covering anything from two or three people to maybe half-million.
Is this what you're talking about?
She should put her resume to john mccain wannabe, jesse ventura.
"We're against the war mostly," we're also against fur and red meat. Oh! and bingo,we also don't like big cars and dingos...mostly. Brown dingos are okay but the red ones suck!" Said Shannon Fell, 22, of Detroit, who wore a bright pink wig and feather boa, pink tights and an ALF mask.
Descended on the capital? AP is a disgrace.
Is this the ANSWER crowd who claimed they would have thousands?
someone post the URL to the National Suicide Hotline over at DU.
It will be the lead story on cBS news tonight. Dan Rather will claim the mood in the country is sour.
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