Posted on 11/04/2004 11:24:40 AM PST by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO - Several thousand protesters marched here Wednesday night, snarling rush-hour traffic downtown as they decried President Bush's re-election, demanded an end to bloodshed in Iraq and vowed that the political left will remain vibrant.
A 5 p.m. rally lasted for an hour before people began a rowdy march through the growing darkness and drizzle toward the Mission District for another gathering and planned civil disobedience of street blocking.
Earlier in the day, after another protest march, police arrested 16 people who refused to leave the sidewalk in front of the Philip Burton Federal Building, where they sat in a semicircle singing and holding hands. Each received a summons and was released.
"The sheer gloom of what happened has energized people," said Catherine Jones of Berkeley as she joined the evening march. Nearby, a man held a sign that said "Stop mad cowboy disease."
Another sign said "Please be nice, Mr. President."
Across Powell Street, several people waving American flags and Bush-Cheney signs looked on silently as the crowd grew. One held a placard that stated "Victory. The silent majority has spoken."
The anti-war group Direct Action to Stop the War organized the events, which lacked the rancor of larger marches here last year when police arrested hundreds who blocked streets and buildings.
As a flatbed truck carrying dozens of drummers in orange T-shirts led the procession along Market Street, the scene seemed half New Orleans second-line parade, half 1960s protest.
Participants said they had at best lukewarm respect for Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, who they said never fully courted his party's activist left wing.
Oakland resident Laura Wells said she believed Bush's re-election was sealed when former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean did poorly in the early Democratic primaries after appearing to gain front-runner status before any votes were cast.
"When the Democratic National Committee chose Kerry, they chose someone who was corporate-friendly," Wells said. "They decided not to go with the people's choice."
What's left now for people to choose is whether to end political dissent or continue to rally against Bush, said Josh Wolf, 22, who marched in a smaller protest earlier Wednesday.
"It's time to take back our country," he said.
Lucienna O'Keefe, another marcher, said, "No matter who is the president, we still need to fight for health care and housing. Our money is going to Iraq to kill people and people are dying here too. We have to fight."
Huh?
Maybe we'll all get lucky and that next big quake will come and the blue counties will just slide into the ocean.
Wishful thinking
draft em all and send em to Chechnia
"toward the Mission District for another gathering and planned civil disobedience of street blocking."
Funny. The will be causing their fellow rats inconvenience and not bothering any real Americans.
Proving once again pot does not improve your IQ although a user may think they are magnificent.
No doubt this march raised the consciousness of the vast silent majority in the Bay Area who supported President Bush in the election. (/sarcasm)
Well this is the same thing that Bush wants. These people should go to OBL and make their demands to him, face to face. I will help to buy their tickets!
Responding to the results of a free, fair election by marching in the streets and namecalling is nothing more than a childish tantrum by people apparently brought up to believe they are the center of the universe.
START UP THE DRAFT just long enough for them to flee to Canada and then issue warrants and then retract the draft. If they come back , arrest them.
Proving to that "unifying America" is a one-way street.
The DNC did not choose Kerry. The Democratic primary voters of Iowa chose Kerry as did the primary voters of NH.
Can we give the Bay Area to Canada, in exchange for Alberta?
When I was a pot smoker in college, I thought I was very insightful and witty. Turns out I was just stoned and fairly stupid.
Recalling their pleas for peace after 9/11, it's amazing that these people, and liberals in general, only "have to fight" against a duly elected president they disagree with, but don't "have to fight" after 3,000+ Americans are killed.
As for me, I "have to fight" back some vomit right about now...
Speaking from the bluest county in Washington State (King County, incl. Seattle), your goal would be accomplished here if only the westernmost four miles slid away. We're more conservative out here on the eastern side.
We would lose some good FReepers, though.
Looks like their dog is even embarrassed.
I have to deal with a brother in Europe who was e-mailing me the standard rants in the European press for weeks before the election. Then about a week ago he sends me a Gene Lyons piece from the Arkansas Press Gazette - entitled something like "Election a test of voter competency". I set up a kill filter at some point to stop having to look at this crap. I'm sure that Lyons will now declare us incompetent for reelecting the president. Ugh!
I, for one, am not done gloating yet - nor am I done enjoying the bedwetting that these folks re doing. Get it on tape!
Nice. Do these goofs not realize that a majority of Americans who voted on Tuesday chose a different path, yet they continue to "take back our country." It's not theirs. Look at a county-by-county voting results map. Even though the total vote count was reasonably close, the views of these weirdos do NOT reflect the views of mainstream, downtown Americans. It's this bitter, divisive retoric that divides the US, not the man in the Big Seat in Washington.
These commies had already mobilized to protest REGARDLESS of who won.
And the MSM swallows. It is SF after all.
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