Email from T.P.S.M.'s friend J., just back from D.C.:
I wasn't checking email but thanks for the good wishes. The drive was a little dangerous at times but fun with friends. This is too late to be "live from the scene" but here are a few of my impressions, from being very active in the crowd but not hearing much from the stage except the slogans....
There were a lot more young people, high school and college students, than I've seen in a long time.
The spirit was stronger, more focused.
A lot of anger about the administration's announced plan to escalate but not enough focus from the stage on the threats to expand the war to Iran and possibly Syria.
Impeachment was all over the crowd, in homemade signs as well as WCW's "Stop the War Now! Impeach Bush for War Crimes" posters, all 5-thousand of which were gone before the rally started.
I think the crowd was ahead of the stage, which focused on what some Democrats in Congress are willing to push for now: Stop funding the war.
There was still more self-congratulation from the organizers than really appropriate, since the train is still thundering down the tracks, poised to run over whole countries if we don't stop it.
Can this war be ended short of impeachment?
Will all of this (Military Commissions Act, Guantanamo, Patriot Act, etc., etc.) be in place when the next president is sworn in? The point has to be to stop the war and overturn Bush's whole program, and not anything short of that.
-- Thanks, J., and I'd be remiss in not linking to the analysis and blog/links round-up at lefter,warmer.
Tags: State of the Union, Bush, Saddam, Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein execution, Saddam execution video, Iraq, Iraq war, Iraq surge, troop surge, Iraq withdrawal, impeachment, Somalia, anti-war movement, March on Washington, United for Peace and Justice, UFPJ, World Can't Wait, ANSWER, Zombies, law, policy, international law, public international law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, racism, International Court of Justice, Rumsfeld, war crimes, crimes against humanity, surveillance, NSA, eavesdropping, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Centrifugal Bumblepuppy, Guy Debord.
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