And The Band Played On

Yesterday's march in DC:

[W]ar protester Susanne Shine of Boone, N.C., found herself in a crowd of counterdemonstrators, and came out in tears, with her sign in shreds. "They ripped up my peace sign," she said, after police escorted her, her husband and two adult daughters from the group. "It was really pretty scary for me."

No mention of our side spitting on troops or pissing on The Wall, as many trolls had been suggesting the Peace Creeps would.  But My Batshit Insane Future Ex-wife (Magalangadingdong Edition) is incensed anyway:

As they gathered before the march, the protesters met what several veterans of the antiwar movement described as an unusually large contingent of several hundred counterdemonstrators. Many were veterans in biker jackets who said they had come to protect the nearby Vietnam Memorial, citing rumors that had circulated among veterans groups that the demonstrators planned to deface it.

Pure bullcrap. Yup, the journalistic standard-bearers of the NYTimes relied on "several veterans of the antiwar movement" to give them crowd estimates of the Gathering of Eagles. It's the domestic equivalent of MSMers relying on dubious Iraqi stringers to provide them with war coverage while they sit in their comfy Green Zone offices in D.C. and Manhattan.

Uh, my dear?  The Times isn't suggesting that there were only several hundred counter protesters.  They are saying that as they were gathering, the anti-war folks bumped into what the peace vets thought was an unusually large group of pro-war people ready to protect The Wall.  Don't be fucking stupid. 

Oh, wait, you're feeling defensive because you're on the wrong side of history and stuff.  Sorry.  Please vent.  Catharsis is your friend.  Anyhoo...

Protesters walked in a blustery, cold wind across the Potomac River with motorcycles clearing their way and police boats and helicopters watching.

Police no longer give official estimates but said privately that perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 anti-war demonstrators marched, with a smaller but still sizable number of counterprotesters also out in force. An hour into the three-hour Pentagon rally, with the temperature near freezing, protesters had peeled away to a point where fewer than 1,000 were left.

Stupid police: there were 850 MILLION pro-Americans there!  Or, well, maybe a little bit less.  But it was a lot and shows that the ever-shrinking minority is no longer as un-silent as they never weren't.

Meanwhile, the protests continue today, as does the violence in Iraq.

ntodd