Open thread

Off to a party. Read the rest of this post...

Some photos and video from the anti-Iraq-war peace rally today in DC

(click for larger photo)

First, some quick video - about a minute, but you get the sense of it. Turnout was very good. I don't buy "a quarter of a million," but 50,000 yes. It's hard to tell, folks were already marching in the street, they were away from the mall area - where it's way easier to tell the crowd numbers by comparing to previous marches. Still, that's my impression form the streets. It was a good number.



It was an interesting mix of people. Rather young, which was very interesting. Lots of students, and kids in their 20s. And not your usual peacenik crowd - these kids looked like upper middle class college kids (not an easy crowd to motivate politically). The march was well organized, no violence or anything out of line that I saw. There were several people carrying American flags, which was a nice touch and interesting for a peace march. Along the mall there were various stands set up for t-shirts and literature etc. I can't say I saw a one that reached out to me - this was clearly an anti-war crowd rather than an anti-Iraq-war crowd (I consider myself among the latter). It was their rally, not mine - I didn't feel a part of it, there just weren't "people like me" there, but still it went well, was well behaved, and again, Joe and I were surprised to see so many young people from the kind of background you wouldn't expect to be protesting - this was good, and something the Democratic party needs to realize and come to terms with. People are ticked.

And here are some photos (as always, the photos are clickable to see larger versions):





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Tens of thousands rally against the war in DC

AP's take on it. Mine will follow shortly, just got back. Read the rest of this post...

Wal-mart pays $33 million in overtime pay

A simple mistake, no doubt, but thankfully they are a stand up company that caught their mistake.

"The fact of the matter is we discovered this matter, we reported it to the Department of Labor and we resolved the issue," Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said.

"We are committed to our associates (employees) and we've apologized to them for this error," Simley said.

Simley said Wal-Mart discovered possible mistakes in its formulas for overtime during a regular internal review. He said there was no connection between the company reporting itself to the Labor Department and multiple lawsuits against the retailer in recent years by employees alleging payroll violations.

Last October, Wal-Mart workers in Pennsylvania won a $78.5 million judgment for working off the clock and through rest breaks. Wal-Mart denied wrongdoing and is appealing the jury award.

Absolutely no connection whatsoever, I'm sure. Are we lucky to have these folks around or what? Gosh, we ought to be paying them for the honor of just walking in their front door and doing such a good service to mankind. Read the rest of this post...

I'm watching some idiot on C-Span

Joe and I are heading down to the peace rally in an hour, to take photos, etc. And I'm watching it on C-Span right now, and I'm asking myself - though I'm not surprised - why is some woman from the "US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation" speaking? And why is she speaking, ad naseum, about the "Israeli occupation of Palestine" rather than speaking about the war in Iraq? She gave 10% of her speech to Iraq and spent the rest of the time railing against Israel?

First off, wrong topic.

Second off, way to alienate most Jews in America, a rather influential group of people we could use as allies.

Third off, way to alienate the rest of us who don't hate Israel, don't hate the Palestinians, and don't feel that the problem over there will be solved by simply blaming everyting on Israel - there's more than enough blame to go around. And in any case, this rally has nothing to do with Israel leaving Palestine, so STFU and stay on topic.

I'm sorry, but as many of you know, I tend to have issues with "peace rallies," not because I have issues with peace or rallies, but because I find myself cringing when I see the substance of them, who's attending, the issues they feel compelled to bring up (Mumia, Israel, trans fats, the suffering of amoeba, whatever). Would it kill someone organizing these events to tell the speakers to speak about Iraq or don't speak at all? Would it kill people to try to present their message in a way that appeals to the majority of Americans?

Oh, and it's not just the peace folks. Big gay rallies have similar issues with invited speakers and folks holding ridiculously offensive signs that, while funny (obscenely funny), are hardly appropriate for a public rally in which you're trying to affect public opinion. The 93 March on Washington, boy did I get an earful from family and friends (and even my doctor) about the coverage on C-Span. The entire country watched women flashing their boobs at cameras, like it was girls gone wild, rather than one of the most massive civil rights rallies in American history. Think, people, think. (Though, I fully admit and acknowledge that you can't control everyone, so some idiot is always going to pull something stupid that the cameras will pick up. Having said that, you do have control over your own speakers on the stage.)

Anyway, Joe and I will head down in a bit and I'll let you know how it's really going. If it's good and effective and sane - like the Latino immigration rally, which was shockingly mainstream (for any rally) - then I'll report it as such.

But seriously, what is the point of doing public events that simply piss people off rather than winning them over? Sometimes I can see the point in doing an in-your-face action, but you have to have a reason, a strategic reason, for doing it in that manner. And just because it feels good, that's not a reason. The goal here is to win, not feel good.

Again, I'll report back in a few hours. If it's a good rally, I'll say so.

MORE: Actually, we had an interesting comment in the comments from a drag queen. I'm serious. They raised a fascinating point, comparing my concern about this rally to the concern that some gay people feel about drag queens attending gay civil rights marches in drag. This is an issue that everyone who runs rallies deals with. Here's the comment, and my response:

Good points. As a drag queen, I always wonder how I should join rallies...if I go in drag, do I attract much-needed attention to a cause...or do I alienate people who hate drag queens? If I don't go in drag, am I sanitizing the culture or looking like I'm ashamed of something? And yes, there always seems to be some clueless person who rattles on about a pet topic that may be important...but isn't topical.

My response:

Actually, I'm not sure if you're being serious or not, but I think you are, and you raise a good topic, drag queens. You/we don't want to tell a legitimate part of our community to stuff it because some people find them embarrassing, but at the same time, every one of us needs to think about what we're trying to achieve with the rallies (boobs are probably not appropriate). I happen to find drag queens a riot, so I don't like it when people say they generically find drag queens offensive, or whatever. And at the same time, I don't want to find myself hiding who we really are just to appease the public - I mean, it's hard to deny that drag queens WERE Stonewall, we owe everything to them. But at the same time, will the public understand why drag queens are so important to the culture, both politically and simply because they're a hoot? No. But does that mean we "ban" them? It's actually a great metaphor for trying to work this out.

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Huckabee to join 2008 campaign

There must be dozens out there begging for him to jump into the GOP race. Read the rest of this post...

Dowd destroys beyond delusional, deranged Dick

Vintage Dowd. This is why we love her:

Delusional is far too mild a word to describe Dick Cheney. Delusional doesn’t begin to capture the profound, transcendental one-flew-over daftness of the man.

Has anyone in the history of the United States ever been so singularly wrong and misguided about such phenomenally important events and continued to insist he’s right in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

It requires an exquisite kind of lunacy to spend hundreds of billions destroying America’s reputation in the world, exhausting the U.S. military, failing to catch Osama, enhancing Iran’s power in the Middle East and sending American kids to train and arm Iraqi forces so they can work against American interests.

Only someone with an inspired alienation from reality could, under the guise of exorcising the trauma of Vietnam, replicate the trauma of Vietnam.

You must have a real talent for derangement to stay wrong every step of the way, to remain in complete denial about Iraq’s civil war, to have a total misunderstanding of Arab culture, to be completely oblivious to the American mood and to be absolutely blind to how democracy works.

In a democracy, when you run a campaign that panders to homophobia by attacking gay marriage and then your lesbian daughter writes a book about politics and decides to have a baby with her partner, you cannot tell Wolf Blitzer he’s “out of line” when he gingerly raises the hypocrisy of your position.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

The decisions of the decider are deadly. Very deadly. Rein him in, Congress. Soon.

Stir it up. Read the rest of this post...

Bringing in the year with some good old fashioned boot licking

He's so pathetic. Lining up your conservative speaking tour of America, Tony? Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Chat away Read the rest of this post...