Hi,
Your blog is one of my favorites. I think you are right on the number of people, I listened in to the WBIX stream broadcasts and they said the same.
On my blog you can find something that is too important to let slip: Prof. Boyle has drawn up a resolution to impeach Bush. He is trying to get backing from a representative in Congress. Complete text on this site:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0116902/
Regards,
Hetty Litjens
Amsterdam

I was at the event and the crowd was easily the largest gathering of people that I've ever been in. see the helicopter shots for proof that there's a large number of people that want an alternative to war. saw Rumsfeld on the news shows this morning smirking at the significance of the turn out. what's next, follow through. work the phones on Tuesday letting every elected official know that something happened.

You will see more people at a single Division 1A football game.

Natalie, we all know that football is more important than anything, especially war protests (well, for you they are).

But, you bring up a great point. We should have football matches to decide world issues. Maybe you'd be interested then. You could cheer for your favorite team, and maybe even have a beer?!?

Sound like something you'd be into?

I just got off the 24 hr. bus-ride from the rally in D.C. and there were people as far as I could see filling and overflowing out of the Mall. In your editorial you mentioned that the SF paper said that there were only 50,000 people there. Well, papers around the nation are saying that there were "tens of thousands" in D.C., even though in truth, it was more like 700,000 (Oh, and the majority of newspapers got their information from one of the anonymous machine gun and riot stick wielding paramilitary officers that were giving the COMPLETELY peaceful protesters the evil eye and batting their batons in their hands when we so much as went on the street curb 20 feet away from them).

You can reach me with any comments about the D.C. March, the San Francisco March, or any of the 30+ other pre-emptive peace marches across the globe at taekwondo145@hotmail.com

That's 350.000 in SF. The world doesn't end there though: In Latin America we are also rallying with badly concealed glee towards the imminent "Empire's" downfall, which might free us finally from seemingly eternal meddlings in local economics and politics, always to the US' and their cohorts' utmost advantage and hence (?) L.Am's disgrace: The on-drug?-wars f.ex.; the IMF's impositions; the trade-walls; the CIA-promoted assassinations; imposed poverty;
etc., etc.
Who knows, the world altogether might rally behind an unlikely "hero" like Saddam, upon the first signs of the US "losing it". Old enemies which were lured into the US' molds of capitalism might revert to their "Cold War" stances. Here I think of N.Corea giving China and Russia the starting shot.
Oh, well. With G.W.B. starring the scene, the US is doomed to prepare once again for being the rest-of-the-world's archenemy, to say the least.
Let's hope all together for a far more cosmopolitan view on behalf of ever greater masses of US-citizens with a head on their shoulders ( and a heart in their chests ).
Love, Peace, and Harmony;
Jim

There's a good discussion of this post going on at BoingBoing. Some pretty good numbers are supporting an estimate of around 80 to 100K people in SF. 350K is too high by at least a factor of two.

http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/EP49HQNayyaN

The march was an exceptional experience. To not feel so alone in the belief that there has to be a way other than war. One protestor had a sign that said "War - it's SO twentieth century." Seeing these bureacrats in their expensive suits being driven in their limosines sitting around talking about the most primitive response to disagreement is nauseating. LIFE IS SO PRECIOUS.
We should be resolving the world's miseries not adding to it.

The march was an exceptional experience. To not feel so alone in the belief that there has to be a way other than war. One protestor had a sign that said "War - it's SO twentieth century." Seeing these bureacrats in their expensive suits being driven in their limosines sitting around talking about the most primitive response to disagreement is nauseating. LIFE IS SO PRECIOUS.
We should be resolving the world's miseries not adding to them.

A group of us from Monterrey, Santa Cruz, Fullerton, Rancho Cucamonga and San Luis Obispo attended the march in San Francisco and it was an amazing sight. All of us, by the way, are American citizens, registered to vote.

There were many children holding up their beautiful homemade signs- 'Kids for Peace' 'If so many people don't want it, then why are we going to have a war?' The grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers and young people at the San Francisco demonstration, the students, adults, babies and dogs are a reflection of this great democracy's population; the people at the protest represent people from all walks of life, families, professionals, immigrants, college students, people from the inner city, the suburbs, rural areas etc.

The people of the United States are essentially saying No to a War on Iraq. And not just the American people, but the people of the world. In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, NO WAR ON IRAQ. On behalf of my family, NO WAR ON IRAQ. On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people in San Francisco and the millions all over the world, NO WAR ON IRAQ.

May those brilliant words ring true today,' A government for the people and by the people'. What could be more democratic that the government listening to its constituents and responding by halting their unreasonable, problematic, unnecessary, costly, dehumanizing plan for war against a country with innocent people who are simply trying to live their lives in peace. Problems should be solved through mediation, diplomacy and democracy rather than through violence. It is as simple as that.

I wish you could have been in two places at once! We needed pictures of the DC rally and march so that the ASSociated Press couldn't willfully and maliciously underestimate the crowd. There were 4-500,000 in DC, not the "tens of thousands" reported in my local rag. A helicopter hovered over the march the entire time - there are aerial photos, but the mainstream press doesn't want us to see them. Good work, Lisa!

I was a volunteer in SF who was stationed in a way as to have the whole march pass me. I watched for 2 1/2 hours as people streamed by me, from curbside to curbside. It was beautiful ,moving, electric and I would love to say there were 350,000 attending but i don't think that's true. rue. My very rough guess is 100,000 to 125,00 possibly a touch more. I believe it's very important for the anti-war organizers to not emulate the tabloids and police by embellishing numbers. Stick with the truth once and always and trust it'll be OK. Keep carrying the message. JD

Bush & Capitalism will never survive. It's just matter time. So, Khilafah Islamiyah will bring bad new to the world. Bush is a man without eyes & ears, and he is juast an animal sitting in the whitehouse.

This is a revision.

Bush & Capitalism will never survive. It's just matter time. So, Khilafah Islamiyah will bring GOOD news to the world. Bush is a man without eyes & ears, and he is juast an animal sitting in the whitehouse.

I was at the SF rally, and have taken some photos of the area filled with people.
I will post these images ASAP (as soon as I transfer them to computer, so that you can count the people on your own. It is hard to estimate the numbers, I only know it was much more than ever before, and it was such a great feeling too!
InternationalANSWER.org has more information about the upcoming week of February 13-21, so be sure to check it out, and be part of the history!
By the way, I wonder what's this guy talking about (who posted something before me).
We have to be careful, there are crazy people out there who would like to misrepresent some people, so use your common sense!

I was also at the Peace March in San Francisco. The police have revised the count up to 150K. 50K was in the Civic Plaza. They just forgot to count the 100K that were still moving up Market Street from the Embarcadero to City Hall.

The number count is getting out. The truth will be heard. Back in September I joined a demonstration in front of my Congressman's office in San Mateo, CA. I think at the outside there were a hundred voices. I wandered around not really comfortable with what we were doing and just wanted to know that we were not alone. We are not alone anymore. I knew the American people would make the right choice.

natilie is a LIE r.
there were at least! 3 football stadiums full of attendees.

get a life natilie.

hL!

natalie, the last three letters of your name say volumes: LIE! there were at least! 3 football stadiums full of attendees.

get a life natilie.

hL!

****If any one has pictures from the helicopters I would like to see them just e-mail me :)***

I was at the march in S.F. and am sooo happy to know that so many people have thier heads and hearts in the right place, and that-yes-democracy is still alive in this great nation of ours, our fore fathers would be proud. However freedom of press is not, there was at least 150,000 people marching for peace , just in S.F. alone, yet the media makes out like both S.F. and D.C. combined were fewer than 100,000. YUCK!!
--How can we let the rest of the nation know? Because from what I hear so many support the war who are unaware of the disent that exists in other parts of the nation.

The SF demo was so huge, we didn't get to civic center until most of the celebrites had given their speeches. I'm sure the front of the line had arrived at civic center before we even could get started. It was at least twice as large as October's march. The signs, banners, costumes and puppets were creative and beautiful. The media's description of "Tens of thousands" of participants is just another way to deny the strength of feelings gainst this war.
Arlene

As an Australian I join with you in solidarity against this vicious war. I fear for the future of your democracy as much as ours. So many people around the world are happy to see your country possess massive weapons in the 'comforting knowledge' that your system remains democratic and free of despots. I think Bush will help change this dangerous perception. Please keep protesting, and maybe our voices will join together among the clouds and rain on people all over the globe.

I did an independent estimate of the crowd in SF and came up with figures around 200,000.
I posted a description of the calculation at http://southvalleypeacecenter.org/Articles/SFRallyCount.htm
In general consider: 34 meters wide, 2.7 km long parade route ==> surface area = 91,800 sq. meters (not counting the plaza at the end).
1. The density of the crowd was easily higher than 1 person per square meter.
2. The parade route was filled twice.

Perhaps this compilation of articles relating to the roll of oil in geopolitical calculations may be of interest. The compilation was originally posted in July of 2001, and has been updated numerous times since then. For those not familiar with the possibility of an early peak in global oil production, Part IV of the compilation , 'Oil as a finite resource: When is Global Production Likely to Peak?', may be of particular interest.

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The Oil Coup: Bush's Master Oil Plan?
http://www.mymethow.com/~joereid/oil_coup.html

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I was not at the march in SF- I live in Australia- but I used to live in SF. I am proud to see that Bay Area folk are still resoundingly out against injustice in the world.
I once marched against a war in a little country called Vietnam...here we are again- 30 or so years later and the US government is still up to similar tricks.
Please keep marching - so will we- and no, I do not believe the news any more either. Thank god for AlterNet etc or we would not even know that people in the US are against this stupid, senseless war.