More Useless Protests

Somehow, I don't think any efforts to "unify" the country are going to pacify these folks...

Thousands of people in dozens of cities across the nation walked out of work and school, held mock coronations, intoned the names of the Iraq (news - web sites) war dead and held candlelight vigils to show their disapproval of President Bush (news - web sites) as he was sworn in for his second term.

From Bridgewater, Mass., to San Francisco, the protesters carried a similar message Thursday, deploring the war in Iraq, angry about the Patriot Act and concerned about the next four years.

"The administration thinks it's got a mandate to continue its policies," said David Williams, a 49-year-old construction company owner from Oakland, Calif., who wore a T-shirt to the San Francisco march with Bush's picture and the description, "International Terrorist."

"This is my way of saying, 'I don't think so.' The Bush administration has no respect for human rights outside the United States and they have no respect for people anywhere else in the world," he said.

Crowds were larger than organizers expected in some communities — more than 1,500 people took to the streets of New Orleans in a "jazz funeral of democracy," an event that took on the appearance of a lugubrious Mardi Gras ball, a raucous street protest, Halloween freak show and traditional New Orleans jazz funeral rolled into one.

About 1,000 people rallied in Seattle, more than 2,000 in Portland, Ore., and several thousand gathered in downtown San Francisco, where protesters waved signs and carried banners with slogans such as "Not Our President," "Drop Bush Not Bombs," and "Hail To The Thief."

There were dozens of smaller rallies, marches and walkouts as well. Two hundred protesters filled a city block marching through downtown Atlanta, 150 marched on the state capitol in Lincoln, Neb., and in Denver, several hundred demonstrators were joined at the state Capitol by a group of women wearing witches' hats who chanted "We've been under a spell." The crowd cheered when they added "But we are waking up."

In Santa Cruz, Calif., about 250 marchers followed a 20-foot-tall Statue of Liberty puppet to the Town Clock in a demonstration where former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern was the featured speaker.

I've always wondered why people are "angry" about the Patriot Act. Believing it's unconstitutional is one thing, but suddenly becoming terribly angry about it strikes me as odd. But whatever. And having George McGovern speak -- look, the jokes would be too easy, so forget it.

In a larger context, it strikes me as odd that these folks are basically protesting because the candidate they supported lost the election. Fine -- some of these freaks think the election was stolen, but theyre about as credible as Donald Trump's hair. But everyone else is just protesting for the sake of letting out their anger. Seriously -- if they were just angry about, say, the war in Iraq, they could protest that any day. I guess there's more significance to protesting on Inauguration Day, but it's not going to change anyone's minds.

And acting like these idiots -- check the caption -- really hurts your own cause. Tearing up Army literature -- good move, guys. Maybe later you can stop by the local library and burn some books.