Last gasp of 1960's anti-war movement assembled less than 1,000 for the World Can't Wait's much publicized march in New York, from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to Union Square. Praise Hugo Chavez and pass the Geritol.

Hitler=Bush signs, check. Bush masks, check. People festooned with political buttons, check. Children's sizes only Abu Ghaib t-shirts, check. Kerry/Edwards bumperstickers, check. No giant puppets though. I think the movement is oversensitive about the scorn outsiders have heaped upon their giant puppets, so they canned them. A pity. (Charles thinks giant puppets are the key to the popularity of these events.)

Anyway, El Marco also took many photos at the 9-11 protests at Ground Zero, and below are some eyewitness accounts from people I know.

Oleg Atbashian, proprietor of The People's Cube, the merciless satirist of leftwing inanities, and '04 campaign parody Communists for Kerry, reports on behind-the-scenes musical choices among the NYC elite:

As the City is preparing for the 9/11 Anniversary Ceremonies, Commissioner Kelly's wife Victoria Kelly, who is in charge of the musical portion of the day, has picked a single song to be played by a number of bands all around town simultaneously (courtesy of taxpayers). The most appropriate song she could think of? All You Need is Love. A big Beatles fan myself, I remember the tune too well not to notice that this hippie-dippie anthem from the psychedelic "Yellow Submarine" cartoon (with its "Blue Meanies") hardly fits the occasion — not only because of its utopian message, but also because it begins with "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem. Do we really need to honor France's official anti-Americanism on this day at Ground Zero?

After seeing statistics on 9-11 conspiracy believers, Mary advises:

Now, [the conspiracy nuts and protestors are] not concealing their hate or their craziness. This seems to be similar to the degradation of the anti-war movement in the late '60's and early '70's, when members of the "peace" crowd joined the Weathermen and the SLA. Former 'peace' extremists probably helped get Nixon elected.

As always, the majority of Americans are pragmatic people. If the Democrats embrace these nuts, or if they're associated with them, Republicans might see some real gains, despite dissatisfaction with the Iraq war. . . . If the Democrats are wise, they'll take on the nasty job of contradicting the Truthers.

One more Sister Souljah moment for the Dems.

Eyewitness accounts, via email:

. . . .I found one asshole who stood in the most crowded part with a sticker on his chest that said "Bush voters not welcome". There was a crowd of people listening to him, some arguing. I couldn't stand and spoke up. After I left a couple of people came up to me to thank me for speaking my mind. One of them said, "I didn't vote for Bush, but this guy was wrong. It is just not the place to pick a fight like that".

Otherwise, people were very quite and respectful. Alot of people came alone just be with their thoughts. There were little memorials with candles, couple of Orthodox Jews davening, a Buddhist monk etc. In short, America showed up to pay tribute. I found it very moving. I took some pictures which I will upload at another time.

I did find some disturbing commericalization. There was an off Broadway musical with children, that took the cast singing through the memorial area. I found it to be in bad taste.I went too. I found one asshole who stood in the most crowded part with a sticker on his chest that said "Bush voters not welcome". There was a crowd of people listening to him, some arguing. I couldn't stand and spoke up. After I left a couple of people came up to me to thank me for speaking my mind. One of them said, "I didn't vote for Bush, but this guy was wrong. It is just not the place to pick a fight like that".

Otherwise, people were very quite and respectful. Alot of people came alone just be with their thoughts. There were little memorials with candles, couple of Orthodox Jews davening, a Buddhist monk etc. In short, America showed up to pay tribute. I found it very moving. I took some pictures which I will upload at another time.

I did find some disturbing commericalization. There was an off Broadway musical with children, that took the cast singing through the memorial area. I found it to be in bad taste.

. . . . As obnoxious as these people are, I think they are the worst advertisements for their own cause. My gut impression is that they made alot of enemies and very few friends.

I went down to Ground Zero this evening, as I do every year on 9/11.

This year was different, though. There were more than a few conspiracy nuts and anti-American leftists in attendance: holding up offensive signs ("Bush lied," etc.); starting arguments with people;being generally obnoxious and disrespectful. I stood it for a couple of hours and held my tongue. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and started speaking my mind (raising my voice occasionally) to the nutcases (and they definitely WERE nutcases; borderline psychopaths, really). At one point, the leftist nuts trained their cameras on me, so I may end up in some leftist nutcase's home movie. Oh well.

Fortunately, most of the people were respectful and patriotic. But I realized that just being respectful and patriotic isn't going to be enough for us (the forces of Good) to defeat the forces of Evil. I realized how important it is for all of us (not just Lib Hawks) to do something on a regular basis (not just once a year on 9/11), no matter how small, to counteract the rising tide of stupidity and ignorance.

Looks as though they got penned in after the fist-fights. Those were happening in the morning and would surely have continued.

When I came up from the Ground Zero pit what struck me was how many more people had filled every spot they could. It was PACKED with people, but not all were there to pay respects. As Reynolds and Steve pointed out it was a carnival for the nuts and vendors.

Those NUTS numbers grew as well.The 9/11 nuts in the black shirts seemed to have multiplied like the maggots they are. They were everywhere; for blocks!

Their other tact was to go one-on-one, like the scientologists do on 42nd St.; nicely chatting with individuals...persuading them of how well-intentioned that are. That was harder to challenge as you'd be invading a private conversation.

Glad to see a few of us got out there to counter the conspiracy nuts. I must admit it felt good to have people come up to Desiree and me and tell us how glad they were to hear someone stand up to that scum.

I did the counter rally to the 9/11 conspiracy nuts this morninig. A little late. I got there at 8:30.

A rerminder of who and what was the offendinf party: The main 9/11 conspiracy nut is of course only 22 years old. And this is the site for the conspiracy film. As usualy these lunatics are obviously well-funded. Probably Mr. Soros. And at the end of the day they will go to the famous hell-hole: St. Marks in the Bowery for a party. Nice, huh?

At first the protest was just me, my sign and the nuts then it became me and Desiree and her message.She's fabulous. The message about 'Wake Up, America to the threat of Islmo-Terrorism' was made loud and clear. There was lots of support from the crowd and a lot of obnoxious challenges by the nuts that brought on a few fist-fights by some outraged and loyal American patriots.It was an intense rally.

then Desiree took me into the Ground Zero pit with her where the families were placing flowers in the memorial pools.)
She lost her brother in the north tower.What sobering experience.

I took pictures so I can always remember how sadly huge and deep that pit is. Sadly there's no better memorial to the threat of Islamo-terrorism than to be inside that pit.

I went to Ground Zero this past Monday to honor the memory of the victims of Islamic terrorism and to counter the 9/11 conspiracy nuts. I didn't bring any signs or wear any shirt with a message because I didn't think it was appropriate.

Well when I got to Liberty Street outside the PATH terminal, it was obvious that many didn't care what was "appropriate." There was a large cabal of people wearing T-Shirts like "Investigate 9/11" or "9/11 Was An Inside Job." It became clear what those miscreants were up to.

I listened to some of the effluvium. The said they wanted to "ask questions" about 9/11. The truth is, they REALLY didn't want to ask questions, they wanted to blame the US government and Bush for 9/11, plain and simple, They were handing out free copies of a DVD by a Michael Moore wannabe, this 22-year old punk Dylan Avery. They basically said the World Trade Center was brought down by bombs, and that 7 WTC was a controlled demolition. They said that the CIA,
Bush, FBI, Cheney, Halliburton engineered 9/11.

Many of them completely denied the existed of Islam-O-Fascism, and said that anyone that thought that was racist.

I decided to challenge these mooonbats, so I asked my OWN questions:

Who was responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center attack?
Who was responsible for the Khobar Towers attack?
Who was responsible for the Bali bombings?
Who was responsible for the attack on the USS Cole.?

Most of them that I asked this question of said either the FBI, CIA, or the government. They said it didn't matter if it was
Clinton or Bush, it was all the same "evil" government. I should have asked them who was responsible for the Madrid
and London bombings. It's like they memorized the talking points exactly, and got their brainwashing exactly right. Some of
them said they had no idea who was responsible for the above attacks---but they are CERTAIN Bush and America were responsible for 9/11.

I tried my best to argue with them and stand up for America, but it fell on deaf hears. Willfully deaf ears, I might add. Just a few of the choice morsels these America hating libtards said:

1. There was one sign that said "Bush Regime Engineered 9/11" and he tried to convince me of it. We got into a conversation about the war. One of Protest Warrior's sign said "Except for ending slavery, fascism and communism, war never solved anything." So I asked him about different wars. He said that both WW1 and WW2 were "noble" wars. (How magnanimous of him.) I then asked him about the Civil War. He said "the South was right." So..... slavery was right, eh?
2. One guy kept going on aobut "how can you hijack a plane with box cutters? How could the passengers not fight
back?" Hmm....how could the victims of the Wendy's massacre not fight back? How could the hostages of the Achile Lauro not fight back?
3. Oh by the way, did you know that know that Valerie Plame was really outed because she was going to "blow the whistle" on where the CIA was going to plant WMDs in Iraq so Bush would be proved right?

Robert Bidinotto has some theories on why people love conspiracy theories so much.