All Red in the Mall..

Our buds on the left had their turn in Washington. A rally of..what? The AP describes the gathering in its article:

More than 400 organizations — ranging from labor unions to faith, environmental and gay rights groups — partnered for the event, which comes one month after Beck packed the same space with conservatives and tea party-style activists.

Organizers claimed they had as many participants as Beck's rally. But Saturday's crowds were less dense and didn't reach as far to the edges as they did during Beck's rally. The National Park Service stopped providing official crowd estimates in the 1990s.

Well, if you'd like to get an idea of the type of participants and perhaps a glimpse of the crowd size, here's a tongue-in-cheek vid that AFP put out on You Tube:

I have been all over the net and cannot seem to find many pictures which gives a clear idea of the participation -- none of those overhead shots like those of the Tea Party assemblages. You know, the ones where the park service and other organizations kept claiming the milling throngs were "in the hundreds" or "in the thousands" in their wild-eyed and frantic attempt to downplay the Tea Party intensity and fervor.

One would think if the turnout were substantial, then the satellite pics and airborne shots would be plastered all over the net.

I did find one showing the aftermath of the gathering:

Eerily reminiscent of the detritus strewn about after the Obama Coronation. For a shocking comparison of the inauguration and the Glenn Beck rally earlier this summer, head over to LiveLeak.

UPDATE: the authoress of Just a Conservative Girl visited both the Beck rall y and this one. She notes the contrasts in attendance and after-action detritus:

The closer I got to the memorial I was thinking it was a very large crowd. But once I got to the World War II memorial I realized that that the crowd was no where near the size of the Beck rally. At the Beck rally people were very densely packed and this crowd was mainly just around the reflecting pool.
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I went and sat in the same basic location that I did for the Beck rally. I had virtually no one else around me and no one came up to me. I listened to Jesse Jackson speak and he mainly talked about Michelle Obama's contributions about "food deserts". He also talked about the need to increase mass transit.
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The other thing that I noticed was how many people left early. There was virtually no one left when it ended. On my train ride home I was sitting next to a woman who was from Baltimore. She told me that she drove to a metro station in Virginia to meet up with friends who came in from Chicago. I said to her that must have been an expensive bus trip; "oh, no it only cost $15, the union subsidized the rest." Again, I didn't say anything but I was thinking to myself that the pensions are in trouble and they are looking for federal bailouts, but they can subsidize bus trips. These are the people who want to talk to me about financial responsibility? I don't think I need any financial advice from these people.

Truly a comprehensive essay on the soiree held yesterday; I haven't hat time to assimilate all of it (I am off for a meeting this morning) but I recommend your visiting and looking at the fine contrasting pics she put up.

UPDATE II:  The Conservative Perspective has posted a great..er..perspective comparison of the Beck rally and the Commie Woodstock that took place yesterday:

 

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