Although it was a far cry from the Washington DC rally that got such glowing reviews in the press (surprise), the Seattle ANSWER rally managed to bus in quite a few kids to join the usual communist/socialist/anarchist/leftist/feminist/open-borders/911-conspiracy-theorist/impeach-now-ist crowd.

Where else but in Seattle would they start a protest rally with a polite request to please step to the outskirts of the crowd if you needed to smoke? It got my hopes up for a moment, but not everyone in the crowd was so polite.

One of the fun things about the current political climate is the way that the left has been starting to eat their own young. After the results of the 2006 election the left is emboldened. “We gave you Congress, you owe us!” Woe unto any pragmatic politicians who don’t toe the hard left line. A speaker at the rally was urging massive phone calls to two Seattle City Council members who were not supportive of a useless Seattle resolution calling for the impeachment of the president. As she spat out their names like curse words the crowd dutifully booed. Who are these radical right scum that deserve such scorn?

From Democrat Tom Rasmussen’s bio page:

A long time advocate for human rights and social justice locally and nationally, Tom served on the national board of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. He was a founder and first co-chair of the Privacy Fund the first state-wide organization in Washington created to work for rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered people.

And Jean Godden claims credit for pushing through the Environmentally Critical Areas (ECA) Ordinance, which effectively seizes up to 150 feet (75 feet from each side) around a stream passing through private property, and up to 200 feet from the edge of a wetland. These sound like dream candidates for the left, but nothing is good enough. Even Murray and Cantwell are not immune to the ire of the hard left if they disappoint.

A tactic that the left is busily perfecting lately is this notion that they are so horribly concerned about the troops. They love the troops, when they turn on the mission. There were plenty of Ehren Watada supporters. And a coffin.

Tell me again how you are supporting the troops while rooting for victory for the insurgents in Iraq?

They introduced a Vietnam veteran, while carefully stressing during the introduction that he had been drafted. Gaia forbid that he had volunteered! Here is his take on Iran’s ambitions to get nukes, and the value of democracy.

We can’t keep on killing all these kids in Iraq. We can’t keep on killing kids in Afghanistan, men and women who are innocent, who haven’t done a thing! Who want nuclear power so they can have energy! So they can have a flushing commode. So they can have life. What’s wrong with that? That’s the same thing we want in New Orleans.

The last time I checked, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was not publicly gloating about the coming day when he can wipe Israel off the map. And New Orleans is not practically floating on cheap oil like Iran. He went on…

I’m still going to be talking about the wrongness of the Iraq war. I’m still going to be talking about men, women and children dying when all we got to do is to come to the table and sit down and talk peace! You get your nuclear, and you do what you got to do for your country, and we going to do what we got to do for ours. Instead of running around the world talking about democracy, and democracy is killing more people than anything in the world [the crowd cheers and claps]. So I made a new name for democracy. I want you all to start calling it democrolocracy. Cause that sounds more nastier and more dirty than democracy.

Wow. This spoken at a rally with sponsors whose idealogy gave us Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot. Give me that deadly democrolocracy any day!

Since it was a lefty rally, of course Che graced us with his dour visage. But if that grubby old Che t-shirt crawled off on its own one night and won’t come out from under the bed, the keffiyeh is always in style here.

One speaker was a Palestinian woman, now an American citizen.

 

What will it take before our leaders are gone? Before our representatives represent us? Let us work to end the war, NOW! It has gone on too long. Let us work to end the occupation, NOW! It has gone on WAY too long. And let us NOW tell our leaders, get out of Iraq, NOW! End the occupation of Palestine, NOW! AND HELL NO! WE’RE NOT GOING TO LET YOU ATTACK IRAN!! [Wild cheering]

Iran, which is a huge supporter of Palestinian terrorism, is also an up and coming issue at these rallies lately. I’ve been noticing more signs of the left providing supporting fire in American politics for the mullahs.

Just when you start paying too much attention to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, someone comes along and helps you remember who your real enemy is:

 

Somewhere around here the crowd started their march through Seattle past the Federal Building. As I watched this horde of America hating lefties line up in an orderly fashion and begin walking, I thought how odd it was that they were able to do so because of the polite, efficient police force working extra duty time to clear the streets ahead of them to keep them safe. Some police state we live in, there was only one arrest out of the whole bunch that day.

I marched the day before at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, so I stayed back and grabbed a bite to eat at the Sbarro’s at the food court. Unfortunately, all those keffiyehs and Palestinian flags reminded me of another incident at a Sbarro’s, this one in Israel. A Palestinian suicide bomber killed 15 people, many children, including a 15 year old girl named Malki Roth. The Palestinian response to this massacre was to create a museum replica of the restaurant scene to celebrate it, complete with body parts hanging from the ceilings and walls. For a perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that you won’t get from the mainstream media (or at ANSWER rallies) check out her parents blog.

There were a few counter-protestors there. There was the short-but-sweet sign, and the longer but dead-on version as well.

And what is it about the left that they think any public place is their personal canvas?

A few more, just because I like them.

They are trying hard to give legs to their impeachment fantasy.

Finally, if an afternoon of listening to “peace” activists advocating the overthrow of your government and the defeat of your armed forces gets you down, you can always walk across the street to a crowd (not associated with ANSWER) and get a hug.

Remember, I do this so you can stay at home safe and enjoy your Sunday afternoon.

The full gallery of pictures can be found here.

[UPDATE 3/20/2007 2:53pm] The Seattle City Council has voted unanimously to call for “an expedited and orderly withdrawal” of US troops from Iraq.