The radical left is planning more "anti-war" protests in Washington starting Saturday, and like clockwork, The Washington Post is publicizing and sanitizing it. No ideological labels were applied to the Stalinists of International ANSWER or Cindy Sheehan, but counterprotesters belonged to the "conservative group Free Republic." The Post story even quoted leftists saying they were the mainstream:
The antiwar movement "is far from where Bush would like you to think we are, that we are the fringe. They are the fringe. We are the mainstream," said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation, which encourages Muslim civic participation.
Reporters Michelle Boorstein and Allison Klein calmly noted that the obligatory "die-in" will be followed by other events: "War opponents are scheduled to go to Washington area military recruitment centers Monday to try to shut them down." If abortion opponents walked into "women’s health centers" to try and shut them down, do you think the Post would just calmly report it as legitimate protest tactics?
Keep in mind that the ANSWER organizers are talking a big numbers game again, which they may have to retract:
The group's permit with the U.S. Park Police is for 10,000 people, a source said, but ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, expects tens of thousands, Becker said. More than 1,000 people had signed up on the group's Web site as of yesterday to lie down at the die-in, he said, which is meant to represent Americans, Iraqis and others who have died in the war. Organizers expect the number to double or triple by Saturday.
