D.C. hippie march 'different'

Salon.com has an entertaining report of the D.C. anti-war protest and march. Amid the usual crowd of weird socialists and commies, with signs reading "Free Mumia!" and "Bombing for peace is like f****** for virginity", there were a lot of folks who seemed ... ordinary.

Regardless of size, the protest felt different. The demographics of the crowd had changed. As opposition to the war in Iraq mounts, sparked by the president's decision to send 21,500 more troops, protesting against it has become mainstream. There were plenty of professional protesters in evidence Saturday, the kind for whom protests are a lifestyle choice, but there were also more yuppies, more families with small children, more older people and even a fair number of stylishly dressed young girls in North Face jackets and Ralph Lauren sunglasses. Just as important, the confused, off-topic rhetoric of so many past protests was noticeably muted.

But the usual suspects were there, of course. You know the type -- chicks with hairy armpits, young men with big, liberal beards and Che Guevara t-shirts, and what would an anti-war march be without a contingent of anarchists?

And there were still some of the kind of colorful, not ready for Middle America displays that these protests are known for: a sign reading, "Will give blow job for impeachment"; a man in a gorilla suit carrying a sign that read, "Another gorilla against the escalation"; the occasional whiff of marijuana smoke; the odd, pointless dash of 30 or so black-clad anarchists into the crowd, waving black flags and screaming. And, of course, plenty of drum circles.

Not drum circles! Here come the tears. I can't help myself! And this:

There was a distinct radical element in the crowd. Besides the anarchists, there were members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which lead a feeble chant of "Fuck the U.S. and all its might, revolutionary war is what we'll fight," and there were three lonely signs produced by the Spartacist League, one of which read, "Defend China, North Korea and Vietnam against imperialism and capitalist counterrevolution! For workers [sic] political revolution!"

Defend China? How about defending the Chinese from the Chinese government.

Rounding out the event were Hollywood's big, bleeding hearts -- Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Jane Fonda, and Danny Glover. Danny, you'll remember, called Hugo Chavez "my brother" right after the dictator called our president "satan" in New York City. And when is the traitorous bitch Jane Fonda going to die? I don't hope for anyone's death, but when Jane bids farewell, people who don't hate America will breath a big sigh of relief. Who am I kidding? We're going to throw a party.

Fortunately, the president is still Commander in Chief, and he doesn't care what any of these crackpots believe. Just like me.