From all accounts it appears the Gathering of Eagles was a HUGE success. With many reports coming that the Eagles either matched the nimrod protestor numbers or outnumbered them. Many bloggers were lucky enough to attend the Gathering and had plenty of pictures up. Mike at Mike’s America was a central hub for quite a few of them who called in updates and sent in new pictures. Below is a sampling of the pictures sent in with the first one being one of my favorites.
(Due to the size of the pics you will need to check below the fold to reduce load times)
From Cajun Tiger:
A beautiful sight huh?
More: (via Jeff)
Check out this great sign at the bottom of the picture:
A better look at the sign:
Some more good pic’s from This Ain’t Hell:
Now for the ugly side of this country:
(via Midnight Blue)
Take a look at all the cookie cutter signs that were obviously handed out by some organization. (via Jeff)
Lifelike Pundits has some video up showing the Gathering and the idiots from the left.
With all the pictures comes the intel from the Patriots at the Gathering:
1337hrs EST
Patriots were spread in three different areas; Constitution Gardens, Lincoln Memorial and at the Wall. He reports Constitution Gardens is rated to hold 10,000 and they had the place FILLED! Don’t know if that means they were spread out or packed in though so the Patriots easily had a few thousand for the rally presentation.
The crowd has dispersed to occupy the three FReep locations along the Commie Death March route to the Pentagon and I imagine they will be giving the Moonbats an earfull.
Consider this: nothing like this has ever happened before. The commies have never seen a sizeable opposition to their anti-victory protests now or during Vietnam. That all changed today and I’m not quite sure how they’ll react now that the sleeping giant has been awakened.
That last point is a good one. I can’t recall when, if ever, the lefties have been confronted with such huge numbers to counter their idiocy. As this poster stated, a sleeping giant as awakened.
This report at 1400hrs EST stated Fox News was reporting equal numbers on both sides:
FNC on scene reporter, just said on air, that the Protestors only numbered about 5 thousand, and that the counter protestors (GoE) *also* seemed to be at about 5,000 in numbers, and as such, equal in numbers.
Of course CNN, MSNBC, and CSPAN all breathlessly reported about the war protesters speeches while ignoring the speeches of the Patriots. Surprised? Tanker Brothers reported (via email) that they called CSPAN and was told pointblank that they would NOT cover the Gathering:
I called C SPAN from here this morning – I am in Canada – and asked if they are going to cover G of E tomorrow. They said NO!
1445hrs EST
I just got back. Great turnout…much better than I expected given the weather. The Rolling Thunder guys are just wonderful.
Moonbats were not nearly the crowd they expected. They kept making announcements for everyone to go to the front of the park to make a better showing against the "Bush puppets". Put it another way, we were scheduled to be on the ground until 4 after the moonbats left on the march. I was walking back to my car by 1:45. I met a few late arrivals (peaceniks)on my way out and told them it was over already. They were shocked.
1500hrs EST
I just got back from GOE. I don’t know how many of us there were, but there was a crowd of about fifty just blocking one gate into the area, heckling the passing procession of moonbats. Total- probably several thousand that I could see of us.
Saw one minor scuffle due to a moonbat infiltration attempt. A guy I was talking to said a couple of ‘bats broke through, going for the wall, but got taken down.
Now this should really surprise you:
The biggest response Ive heard from the crowd is when this guy said we are "live on Al Jazerra" Wh000! Yay! W000H00!
Brian Brecker of answer.orgy is bragging that they are being broadcast on Al Jazeera. That ought to help ;o) You just can’t make this crap up.
Need anymore proof that these people are traitors to our country?
1548hrs EST
I have two moments:
One was walking up to the Lincoln Memorial through the veteran booths. Needless to say, the Eagles were in force there. There was a couple walking through and the woman said she felt "she was in enemy territory". Hey lady, you are surrounded by people who fought for this company. Exactly WHO is the enemy?
The other was walking back after the march. There were thre very lost looking peaceniks standing in the same spot as the moonbat lady from before the march. Everyone was tense and ready to pounce – until they noticed one of the peaceniks had blood all over his hand. The vets did a 180 and jumped to help them out. It was great – and a truly nice moment. Our vets are STILL fighting for others, even those that don’t agree with them.
1615hrs EST
Just got back home from the event. Was surprised at the large size of the pro-America crowd. We didn’t have an area big enough to congregate so there were pockets of Patriots in several places. I was part of the tunnel of Patriots that the communists had to walk thru to reach their big party. After a few hours of this I walked around and although the communists were in one fair sized group beside the Lincoln Memorial, there were Patriots (Eagles) all over walking around. Mostly guys, but I was happy to see a good deal of women and some young ones on our side.
1815hrs EST
I tried to estimate the protesters that walked thru the Eagles gauntlet at the Lincoln Memorial. Based on the width of the "parade" the rate of march and the time they took to pass by my estimate is about 10,000. I note however that it appeared that 1/3 were there to espouse a variety of liberal agendas (health care for mothers, free the Cuban five, Katrina problems, etc) so there were probably about 6,000 anti war protesters.
The Eagles appeared to be about 2000 at around 1200 when I went from the rally site to the Memorial. While more would have been better the ratio was intimidating as they had to pass thru the "hard faced old men" who showed the same fighting spirit they had as young men in that now distant Asian War. I saw no violence but the moonbats saw that a lot of their fellow citizens do NOT agree with them and will not allow the young men fighting for us in SW Asia to be stabbed in the back the way they were in Vietnam. One of our speakers at the rally made that point ("We have your back"). Sounds like a bumper sticker to me… (GOE… We have your back… stand fast!).
My other impression is of the faith and courage of those who came to DC for the GOE. It was bitter cold… I watch a vet in motorcycle club leather (there were a lot as you can see in some of the posted photos) shake so bad from the cold he could not light a cigarette. There were also a lot walking with canes and several in wheel chairs including a few from Walter Reed or Bethesda who were well cared for. God and Jesus were present among the Eagles and both were acknowledged by men who have leaned on them in battle. The park service police were professional. They enforced good order but seemed happy we were there (overheard from a policeman after the protesters parade… "thank you for defending the Wall"). I am glad I went and proud to have been associated with brothers and sisters who love God, country, and each other in a way that the so-called protesters will never comprehend.
Lastly, if you want a good rundown of the Communist speeches go to Perish The Thought who did an excellent live blog of the idiots.
What a great day for our country. Not only did we show the lefties that yes, there are many here who do believe in this fight and the need to protect this country but we showed the world (via Fox at least).
UPDATE
Just had to post this picture that Wordsmith has up on his blog in his excellent roundup of the protest.
Marvin Joseph- The Washington Post
Ooh-Rah! Semper Fi to those who showed the Communists and the cowards what it means to love this country today.
UPDATE II
Another great photo from Grizzly Mama:
UPDATE III 03-18-07 2300hrs PST
Some new pics courtesy of a fellow jarhead MarineBryant:
Take a look at these signs the Communists held:
Disgusting!
UPDATE IV 03-19-07 1030hrs PST
Got some new pictures from reader George Sarkisian:
Other’s Blogging:
- The City Troll
- Michelle Malkin
- Sweetness & Light
- Atlas Shrugs
- Old War Dogs
- Gateway Pundit
- Chatterbox Chronicles
- Mary Katherine Ham
- Democracy Project
- Media Lies
- Bookroom Worm
- Hot Air
- The Redhunter
- Wizbang
- An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
- Mind In The Qatar
- Freedom Folks
- Right Voices
- Right Wing Champ
- JammieWearingFool
- Wake Up America
See author page
Wow! What an excellent post. Brilliant. If the juxta was anymore painfully clear, I haven’t seen it.
The left in America and the right. America MUST SEE THIS!
Curt, thank you.
Nice roundup, Curt.
I, a submarine force veteran from the Vietnam Era, was there with my Marine Corps Force Recon friend who fought in South Vietnam. As one speaker indicated, we have been quiet for 4 decades and now that congress is moving in the direction of abandoning Iraq as they did to South Vietnam, we will no longer remain silent. To me and others I talked with, this was a gathering that released the decades of disgust and personal anguish over our government’s abandonment of over 58,000 American men and women military personnel and those of our allies who died and the other hundreds of thousand who sacrificed to keep South Vietnam free from our mutual enemy. There was little talk of us not being held in high regard on our return, but open emotional displays of unity with those who shared our mission 40 years ago. Whether or not it was recorded, we took the physical and moral high ground today, adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the ANSWER mob and displayed our greater strength with just a portion of our patriot warrior contingent. To those that I talked with over a 5 hour period from all over the United States and from our many military service and organizations, the consensus was that this is just the first shot across the bow of the anti-war and anti-American ANSWER and congress.
Forty years wandering lost in the wilderness and today we took our country back. I can feel it in the air. Can you?
I linked at Eagles Up!
Thanks for the great photos and updates! We could not be in DC today, but were there in spirit –
God bless Gathering of Eagles, Rolling Thunder, MoveAmericaForward and all the wonderful folks who made the trip to stand up for us.
Your welcome guys, and great posts yourselfs Pam, Word, and Bill…I would definitely second that God bless RTaylor and AMR, what a wonderful comment.
Nicely put! You and your brethren did indeed take the moral high ground today and made the communists and cowards look like the fools they really are.
The gathering itself may have been a success, but its influence on anything that matters was a complete failure. No one in the country will know about it, because the media did not cover it. This is what the average American and the average international person will know about what happened yesterday: War Protests Grow in D.C., Across U.S.
Read that. You will see they mentioned the GoE, not even by name, just as “counterprotesters” and even painted them in a completely bad light as having made a peaceful protester cry by treating her badly and ripping up her sign.
No biased media there. But that is what the average American and international person will know about March 17, 2007 in D.C.
On top of that, as Scott Malensek posted on March 10th, the Left and their PACs control Congress. If we want to not let the Democrats and the left lose this war to Islam, we have to do more than just stand around for one day waving flags and signs and making fun of leftists and make ourselves feel good.
I certainly hope people are not thinking protests are going to make a difference. As someone commented on another site I read regarding this, this GoE was simply a drop of water in an ocean of Leftist, Communist propaganda.
How many of the 30,000 are willing to work 365 days a year like the leftists do in order to save our country by writing and calling Congressmen and by countering the lies and propaganda of the media and by exposing Islam for the evil that it is? My bet is not too many.
But I hope I am wrong.
Excellent coverage of this marvelous event!
Thank you all!
thanks for posting the poll, but like all polls, there is something for anyone to point to.
Q2 (pg 2) asks whether the locals think things would be better immediately after the US pulls out. The answer yes 53% to 26%
Q3 (pg 6) half of the respondents report a family member or friend murdered or kidnapped in the last three years. HALF!
39% said Iraq is far from a Civil War, 49% say that they are in one or close to being one.
Less than half of the country believes that they are better off now than under Saddam (did you get that?!) (pg 32)
32% of those that responded say not one single person in their household has a job of any kind.
And Fox reported on this poll
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259405,00.html
Several Newspapers
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8db7e102-d3e4-11db-8889-000b5df10621.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1530526.ece
It is a brand new poll from an organization owned by two different Russian Organizations. It has very mixed results and nobody has ever heard of ORB because until three years ago they did Business Market research only, specializing in Movie Theater Marketing.
The MSM may or may not be ignoring news that does not fit their agenda, but this is certainly not a very good example.
Think you commented on the wrong post, you meant to comment to this one. Be that it may:
Yup, 26% believe it was better under Saddam. 1 in 4. Pretty good numbers and a majority would be Baathists I imagine. Your point?
Overall this poll is something you wont find in the MSM because it the majority of it points to real progress.
And HALF! didn’t. But you obviously didn’t read my whole post to the end where I quoted Tigerhawk:
Exactly! But easily ignored by you.
It was founded 13 years ago, hardly brand new.
They don’t have an agenda to push, plain and simple. ABC, CNN, USA Today, Zogby, they all have a specific agenda to push. And what the hell is it with MSM outfits doing their own polling.
So in conclusion, your final point:
Wrong. It’s a great example, and yes the MSM is ignoring news that does not fit their agenda. For you to be hemming and hawing on that point tells me all I need to know about you.
I think KOS is calling you back to the fold.
Thanks for posting my comment in the right section. Sorry about that.
I can not believe though that you are happy about a poll that reports half of the country in Iraq think we and their current Gov’t. run their country worse than Saddam. Shocking. But not as shocking as the fact that you are OK with the fact that half of the people that responded have lost family and friends because it is only half!
Q3 (pg 6) half of the respondents report a family member or friend murdered or kidnapped in the last three years. HALF!
And HALF! didn’t. Truly shocking.
The real reason that the MSM avoided this poll is because ORB is a company that has specialized in research for marketing purposes. The NY Post, Chicago Sun Times and so many other legitimate press reports have included coverage about this poll.
Here is a link to the PResident’s weekly address where he talks about Iraq (2 days ago).
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070317.html
He does not mention it either. Are you going to tell him to go back to KOS? If you already know all that you need to know about me from one sentence I certainly have learned a great deal about you as well.
CENT,
Your still in the wrong post. Go here please…..
Sure thing. I wouldn’t expect any other excuse from a lefty.
What the hell does the President not addressing the poll, the very day it comes out, have anything to do with it? Because of that we should now not believe the poll but instead believe a MSM one?
Wow.
Cool…then begone back to KOS and stop stinking up the place.