Gathering of Eagles 3 - Eagle Justice - September 15, 2007

My videos of the event can be found on YouTube

My photos of the event can be found on Flickr

Review of the day, more photos and video can be found on MidnightBlue 

Michelle Malkin stands with the Eagles on September 15th

 As retired Army Col. Harry Riley explains, “Unlike the 60s and 70s, the anti-war lemmings will not have the streets or the political stage to themselves. This time, Eagle Americans — we who support our troops, understand the stakes in the War on Terror and the true nature of our enemy, who aren’t blinded by an insane hatred of our way of life and our form of government — will also be in Washington, D.C., to show Congress that we will not tolerate another betrayal of our own forces or our allies…While the anti-democracy forces are well-funded by pro-left, anti-Americans, we Eagles have steadily been building our own coalition to stop ANSWER in its tracks, and keep Congress focused on winning the war, not their political ambitions.”

I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

See y'all in DC!

 Gathering of Eagles 2

Surf over to MidnightBlue to follow along as I mobile blog the Rolling Thunder/Gathering of Eagles event this Saturday. Mike Miller has graciously offered to post my cell phone photos and my commentary on his blog:  Mikes America.

 A retrospective of the weekend can be found on MidnightBlue - HERE, HERE and HERE 

Saturday morning arrived with an early wakeup call from CJ informing me he was on his way to the hotel. 45 minutes later – a record for me – I was dressed and heading towards the hotel lobby to meet CJ. Monica and Troll were en route to the hotel so it was only a matter of time before we headed out to the Mall. CJ and I met quite a few interesting individuals who were participating in this pro-American rally. One couple flew in from Germany in order to take part in this event! One of the veterans gathered in the lobby presented CJ with a unique gift of lip moisturizer that contained a special added ingredient of bacon oil. The moisturizer is a perfect gift to give to your jihadi friends here and abroad. The City Troll reported for duty a day out of surgery with his arm in a sling and his fingers stained a greenish-blue from the antiseptic used during the procedure. I remarked to Monica how the coloration really suited the Troll.

It was a brisk, C-O-L-D day at the Mall. Holy cow, it was frakking COLD and quite muddy at the GOE staging area and in ANSWERS bullpen. Thankfully, my boots, not the monuments were the only casualty of this weekend.

My first impression of the staging area was of the hundreds of American Flags on display and the number of people assembled there so early in the morning. I knew then and there this was no typical gathering. Today a new day dawned for those who understand the price of freedom.

In addition to liveblogging this event, and meeting up with bloggers that I greatly admire, I wanted to use this opportunity to work on my photojournalism skills. I envisioned myself as an East Coast Zombie capturing images ignored by the MSM. If you haven’t viewed his work, I suggest you do so after reading my report. Little did I know that on this day I would meet a character from the Zombie photo chronicles here in DC.




CJ and I walked over to the staging ground of A.N.S.W.E.R and company. One the first things that jumped out, besides the derth of supporters in the ANSWER bullpen, was the collection of media vans lined up alongside the protestor’s camp. Fox News and Channel 7 news vans were parked and their crews were busy setting up equipment.

After a few moments of picture taking, we headed back to the GOE staging area in order to listen to Kit from Euphoric Reality sing the National Anthem.

As the day unfolded, early media reports went something like this:

NY Times:

As they gathered before the march, the protesters met what several veterans of the antiwar movement described as an unusually large contingent of several hundred counterdemonstrators. Many were veterans in biker jackets who said they had come to protect the nearby Vietnam Memorial, citing rumors that had circulated among veterans groups that the demonstrators planned to deface it.

Cox News

While police in the nation’s capital no longer give official crowd estimates at public demonstrations, The Associated Press said a private count by police found perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 antiwar marchers and hundreds of counter-protesters.

LA Times

As CJ, Kit and myself wandered around the anti-war staging ground, it was quite apparent that there was far more elbow room here than over at the GOE staging ground. Twice I heard the MC ask the liberals to gather closer to the stage in an effort to make it appear there were more people present. This aggregation made it easier for the media to photograph this seemingly large group of protesters. Don't take my word for it or that of Cajun Tiger. CJ over at A Soldier's Perspective posted an audio recording of this request. All during this time, I was snapping photos with my cellphone and sending them to Midnightblue. I happened be in the middle of reporting on the liberal no-show to Mike's America just as the MC started to crank out what some might call music. I managed to video a portion of one of most requested songs in his lineup in anticipation of sharing it with all of you. Enjoy!