Long day yesterday which I started by heading down to the Boston Common to check out the Boston version of a series of such events scheduled to run on that day across the country: National Day of Action - New England Mobilization to End the War in Iraq. A host of far-leftist groups were there, tabling, speaking, and holding signs. The predictable panoply of far-Left groups, aging hippies, naive young people drawn by the promise of Socialism (seriously), and lots of other folks pushing specialty agendas gave the audience mass. It was a major event and attendance was certainly in the thousands in spite of a day that started with a driving rain. The rain mostly held off during the day, though.

Thanks to Solomonia operative "Daniel" for many of the pictures you'll see here. Between us I think we've managed a nice gallery of stuff, a selection of the more interesting of which I'll share with you here, including some video. Let's get to it.

To keep things interesting, I'm going to go right to the stage show here in the beginning, then you can scroll through the photo gallery in the extended entry at your leisure.

I am going to spare you the a/v of the Raging Grannies. You will thank me now.

This rapper, Son of Nun, performed. His politics are up his behind, but I gotta admit, I liked his raps. Pretty witty.

One thing to emphasize. It must be pretty tough to be on the Left politically and/or be against the war and still support Israel. From the rapper above to a number of other speakers (some emphatically so), to signs in the crowd and the feedback the speakers got, "anti-Zionism" and Palestine was a recurring order of the day.

I was nursing my video battery, so I didn't get complete video of everything, but hopefully enough to get a taste of some of the more interesting cases. Here's City Councilor Felix Arroyo advising us to "bring the trops home." If it were up to Councilor Arroyo, non-citizens would be allowed to vote in the City of Boston. (Note the Truther wacko. They had a strong presence.):

Iraqi-American Dahlia Wasfi makes sure you know she has a Jewish mother before peddling the highest (and discredited) civilian casualty number available (1.2 million+), railing against Israeli nuclear weapons (and the crowd went wild...) and claiming CIA and Mossad are responsible for the violence in Iraq:

Now let's talk sedition with celebrity Lefty Howard Zinn. I should have filmed the whole thing, sorry 'bout that, but I was playing it too safe with the battery. When he started ranting about how people should fear knocks on the door at night from government agents ready to lock them up so they're never heard from again, I knew I better start filming. It never occurs to these guys that the existence of rallies like this one show that our government and society have nothing to do with this nightmare-fantasy they peddle, while the Socialist hell-holes they pimp for embody them to the T. Howard's gettin' old, but he's still got it. Watch when he gets going. He sounds just like Christopher Walken. Seriously.

Wrinkled, but still swingin'. 'Eeexcellent.'

Here's some nice anti-Zionism with Merrie Najimy, President of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts (ADC). Najimy and the ADC deserve their own posting here (ADC was founded by terror-supporter James Abourezk), and I have one in the pipeline. Stay tuned. Najimy is one of several people who make appearances in both this rally and the Sabeel rally that followed and which I will handle in an upcoming post. Najimy also goes off on Daniel Pipes and Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Again, sorry for the shaky camera-work. Najimy is a school teacher in Concord, MA.

The final video from this rally is a lovely screaming anti-Israel rant from Salma Abu Ayyash, Brighton teacher and Palestinian activist who runs the group called Tawassul that sponsored the recent Boston Palestine Film Festival. You really have to bite your tongue to be honestly interested in the Iraq War but disagree on all this other stuff. Abu Ayyash runs out of time here, but I have her in full at the Sabeel rally and will be posting that one in full. Talk about demonization. I love the boiler-plate, "We accept the Jews" business, right after she says that Israel was illegitimate from the beginning. Watch Merri Najimy clap and cheer.

At this point they were going to come up with another music performance and I couldn't take it anymore so I headed out to get more photos of the crowd. My apologies for not waiting to see if Medea Benjamin actually showed.

Photo essay and snarky comments available in the extended entry below. Enjoy.

Merrimack Valley People for Peace were big defenders of Wheels of Justice and regularly hold anti-Israel events.

Lots of far-Left groups had a presence:

I wonder what capitalist manufactures these flags and how much they make off of them.

The Kucinich people were the only group that even approached the word "mainstream," and it's a stretch at that.

That 70's Show:

Truthers were out in force:

Paulians!

This is my crazy buddy and his dog. Video of his rant is in my posting of the anti-Khatami protest at Harvard (scroll down).

Christian Singles Against War

Surprise: The kaffiyeh is a popular accessory this season.

The dreaded triplets of the red cloth performance art.

It was a patchwork quilt of affinity groups.

I'll remember this sweatshirt the next time I consider leaving a tip after a hotel stay. Let Fidel leave the tip.

National Lawyers Guild with appropriate red background.

Someone build a wall around this girl, quick.

It feels better going on than it does coming off.

Does not think highly of the President.

Reform-minded prostitutes.

Buddhist Dude

Did we remember to bring the granola bars?

Red hands were also a popular fashion statement.

The Boston City Council's Lefty Contingent

Call me some time when you...have no class.

Why does the fat kid always get stuck with the tuba?

I hope you brought your rain coat. The spitty-guy was organizing with the International Socialist Organization.

After the speeches were over, the whole gang packed up and had a mass march up to Copley and back. I'll hand it to them, the far-Left does a good job of getting people out on the street (and that's about all they're good at).

Peace duck. Note Israel=Apartheid poster courtesy of ADC in the foreground.

Look out! The fat kid from Goonies is in a Peace Rage!

Arts and Crafts was my favorite subject.

Halloween came early for these guys.

Lots of slick posters from the well-funded ANSWER were on display.

As I mentioned, the march went out to Copley and back, and some of those marching joined the Sabeel event at that point, as did your Solomonia team. With that, we leave off the story of the Boston Common rally, and move to the second event of the day, but that will have to wait for a future (hopefully upcoming in the next day or two) post.

It is worth noting that this rally, an embarrassment to the mainstream left, as heavily attended as it was, does not merit a mention on the front page of the Sunday Boston Globe. It only gets two columns (and not full columns) on page B-6. Sabeel's "Blame the Jews" conference is referenced on Page 1.

Update: Bonus Videos. You'll recognize a couple of the characters in this video as the group marches down the street screaming "Free Palestine!" (sorry for the tilted video in the first few seconds):

In spite of the wind, you can still hear the chant coming from the City Councilors' truck:

Update: Daniel ("Agent D") has placed his entire collection online, here (includes photos from the Sabeel rally and protest).