Yet more photos from the March 8, 2003 CODE PINK Protest Against War in Iraq

We're ready for some more entertaining protest signs:




This one highlights how contentious the protesting lifestyle can become. As anti-war forces were milling around in front of the White House waiting for the bulk of their compatriots to arrive from Meridian Hill Park, they were confronted by perennial demonstrators of the pro-life variety. Coming as it did on a day of feminist empowerment, many of the progressive women in attendance were noticably chagrined by the anti-abortion rhetoric and posters.




This gem was riding the umbrella of a Code Pink protestor on the sidewalk next to the Old (now Eisenhower) Executive Office Builidng. If you look close enough you can see that despite its aggresive phrasing, the signmaker saved herself from employing obscenity by noting that SOB stands for "Son of Bush." Though if you're an anti-war protestor that's probably just as much of an insult.




The South Lawn of the White House with anti-war signage in the foreground, taken from the Ellipse. This was late in the afternoon when most of the protestors from 17th Street had retreated to either the McDonald's across from the New Executive Office Building or the Starbucks on K Street and Connecticut Avenue.


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More photos from the March 8, 2003 CODE PINK Protest Against War in Iraq

Now, for some of the imaginative and incendiary signs carried by the day's participants:




This one is actually a poster, pasted up on H Street, on the North edge of Lafayette Square. Nice Austin Powers reference.




Here's one that was being carried early in the afternoon on the pedestrian-friendly section of Pennsylvania Avenue directly in front of the White House. It's nice that they restrained from calling the President pure evil. From this person's perspective, the approaching War on Iraq isn't his fault at all - what can we expect from a misguided simpleton?




Remember, folks, that the French and their partially-Americanized cousins have feelings too. Pride appears, inexplicably, to be one of them.


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From the March 8, 2003 CODE PINK Protest Against War in Iraq



Code Pink marchers entering Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the U.S. Treasury building




Low-key face off with the police on 17th Street near the Old Executive Office Building




The Granny Bus drives down 17th Street through the crowd

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Dispatches from the Fringe

Some recent highlight from Reason magazine’s daily Brickbats feature: The new Chief Justice of Afghanistan, Fazl Hadi Shinwari (who is coincidentally also a Muslim cleric), has decided to ban all cable television in that his country because of the smut it shows. Satellite transmissions are, praise be to Allah, beyond his reach…Also out of Afghanistan, a Taliban soldier who fought against U.S. and British forces has been granted asylum as a political refugee by the UK. It seems he fears for his life if he returns to now Northern Alliance-dominated nation…And in a disturbingly French-sounding move, Labour MP Harry Barnes wants to legislate American words and phrases out of British broadcasting. You can take your aubergine into the lift while you’re on holiday, just don’t try to carry an eggplant on an elevator while you’re on vacation.

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Singing Songs and Carrying Signs

Jennifer Bishop has a great summary of one of San Francisco’s recent anti-war protests, complete with photos of inane sings and placards. As she points out, the last place anyone is going to find good anti-war arguments is at an anti-war rally. Such protests, especially in insular liberal-activist communities like San Francisco, have long since ceased to make any attempt at moving the opinion of the general population. Rallies like the one Bishop describes are now mostly victimization carnivals, where the people who can boast the most categories of oppression (female/black/gay/disabled/non-Christian/non-English speaker) get the most applause, and everyone else competes for the self-abasement award, lamenting their inalienable privilege and agreeing that, no, they could never really understand what it’s like to be a lesbian midget albino from a developing nation.

Link originally from Cruel.

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Oh Yeah, and You Too

Yet more celebratory Islamic crowing about the Columbia disaster this week, this time from London. Abu Hamza al-Masri, Muslim cleric and suspected terrorist, went one further than other anti-America, anti-Israel leaders, calling the shuttle mission "a trinity of evil because it carried Americans, an Israeli and a Hindu." How considerate of his fellow Muslims in Pakistan. People in Iraq only managed to hate the Americans and Israeli austronaut Col. Ilan Ramon, while al-Masri correctly remembered that Dr. Kalpana Chawla had been born in India. Now that’s multiculturalism at its finest.

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March On, Christian Democrat Soldiers

Anti-war sentiment in Germany may not be nearly as strong as most people thought. Yesterday’s elections were a “crushing defeat” for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats and their policy of opposing any military intervention in Iraq. Schroeder, in the reverse of the policy leftists accuse President Bush of employing, has attempted to draw attention away from a faltering economy by focusing attention of his party’s staunch refusal to confront Saddam Hussein. It doesn’t seem to be working.

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Requiescat in Pace

According to Hiawatha Bray, tech columnist for the Boston Globe, people are already trying to sell debris from the Columbia shuttle on eBay. The good folks at eBay, however, are deleting listings as soon as they are made. Fortune hunters with no respect for the dead might be their own worst enemies, however, as the NASA has already warned people not to handle any bits of wreckage. From the Fox News website: “The Army's 1st Cavalry Division sent a helicopter search-and-rescue task force from Fort Hood, Texas. NASA also asked members of the public to help in its search for debris, but warned people not to touch the pieces because they might be contaminated with toxic propellants.”

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The Last Images

Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has posted several photos from the last mission of the space shuttle Columbia, including shots of first-ever Israeli astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon. Americans and Israelis are joined in mourning by the people of India, in lamenting the loss of Indian-born astronaut Dr. Kalpana Chawla.

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The Surly Bonds of Earth

Accounts of the loss of the shuttle Columbia are here: Associated Press, United Press International, and Washington Post. Reuters is reporting the inevitable claim from Iraq, that the death of the seven astronauts was divine retribution for U.S. misbehavior.

Also, Declan McCullagh has posted an intriguing email from a woman who was apparently fired from NASA two years ago for complaining to administrators about safety concerns. Writes Dian Hardison: “I F-ING WARNED THEM. I told them that the technicians and engineers were overworked. I told them that there were too many managers and too many meetings and ‘dog-and-pony’ shows. I told them that their senior ‘face time’ play games, while they spent all their time plotting how to give each other pay raises, and left the guys on the floor to struggle day to day with obsolete and overpriced and unqualified equipment, was going to result in another Challenger.”

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