Honor roll for the afternoon gathering of eagles: Angelwood, tgslTakoma, Kristinn, and BillF.
We first set up across a street from Layayette Park and waited for the leftists' march. When they came into the park along a route a block away, we crossed the street.
We asked a U.S. Park Police officer at the edge of the park where we could conduct our counterprotest. Even though the leftists' permit was for a small part of the park, the officer said that we had to stay at the very edge of the park, at least 300 or 400 feet from the assembly of about 200 leftists.
Several of us were interviewed by various media. Many of the late-arriving leftists walked by us and we expressed strong condemnation of their cynical use of war dead and wounded to advance their radical agenda.
The leftists were sufficiently far away that it was hard to hear them at times. However, we did hear portions when they read the names of U.S. troops who died from the Iraq War. Not to honor them, but instead it was a ghoulish, propaganda use of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to liberate Iraq and defend America.
Leftists also read names of some Iraqis, supposedly civilians killed by the U.S. As the speaker read one Iraqi name, he said that the name represented 200 dead Iraqi civilians.
The highlight for me was when Medea Benjamin, leader of Code Pink, arrived very late and walked about 25 feet from us. I just happened to see her as I turned to my side.
At the top of my lungs I chanted:
MEDEA BENJAMIN YOU CAN'T HIDE,
YOU SUPPORTED SADDAM'S GENOCIDE
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME ON YOU
USING WAR DEAD AND WOUNDED FOR PROPAGANDA.
Angelwood and tgslTakoma added their own shouts as Medea, who turned to look at us, nervously smiled and waved from about 60 feet. (Unfortunately, Kristinn had to go back to work a couple minutes before Medea arrived.)
tgslTakoma repeated the brilliant question that Doctor Raoul asked strongly pro-Castro Medea yesterday: "Are you a peace activist or are you a revolutionary?" (See this thread for Raoul's one man FReep of Medea on Sunday.)
(When the leftists had gathered outside Walter Reed Hospital this morning, one leftist woman told me that Medea was in New York. We wondered if she was just hiding somewhere.)
After Medea had passed by, tgslTakoma turned on her megaphone. A Park Police officer told tgslTakoma that she could not use her megaphone because "shouting things that make them mad is against the law as inciting a riot" (my paraphrase). She turned it off.
The officer's explanation was absurd, but the leftists had a permit. It is correct to say that we don't have the right to block their freedom of speech (nor would we want to), but we were so far away that it was NOT reasonable to believe that our expressions of disapproval would be any more than a minor annoyance. At most, failure to comply with the officer might have been "disturbing the peace," not any incitement to riot.
We had numerous verbal matches. One of the most amusing was a guy who said he was a slave because he had to work to get food, shelter and clothing. This guy, who happened to be white, said he would post a definition of facism on FR.
The leftists marched out of Lafayette Park. We packed up and left.
Walking back to my car alone, I ended up across 17th Street from about 200 leftists. They had relocated to the side of the White House, apparently trying to get the WH guards to accept mock caskets with names of dead.
When the leftists stopped chanting momentarily, I boomed out:
SADDAM NEEDS A HUG
SADDAM NEEDS A HUG
SHAME, SHAME ON YOU
USING DEAD AND WOUNDED FOR PROPAGANDA
The two hundred, now stunned and unhappy leftists just looked across the street at me. I laughed and walked back to my car just before the parking meter expired.