Earlier today I made the mistake of attending the impeach Bush Downing Street Memo day in Hollywood. I've been to several "peace" protests, and this one earned a "2", with a "10" involving the Pope pledging to work with Bono and the Rockefellers to build World Communism, and a "1" being one guy on a street corner with a crudely-lettered sign.

At its peak, there were approximately a dozen people at the corner of Van Ness and Sunset in front of the Tribune Company's KTLA building. I had expected many more. Reinforcements were supposed to arrive from an earlier confab at Maxine Waters' office in Inglewood. That event ended at 3:30, but, after standing around in the sauna for over an hour, I finally left at 4:45. If a large contingent arrived after that I'd be very surprised.

There were no papier mache figurines, no handing out of the leaflets, very few passersby, and, aside from (more or less) your blogger, no reporters. While there were a large number of supportive honks, at least two newsvans drove by without stopping. A police cruiser parked across the street and turned its watchful eyes to the protest, but it wasn't necessary either for the safety of the protesters or the local shopkeeps. It is highly doubtful if they decided to storm KTLA after I left.

While it's not visible in either photo, one of the protesters was wearing an Iraqi flag as a skirt, and, of course, there's the hippieized upside-down American flag. But, in comparison to some of the things I've seen at past protests, this was nothing.

UPDATE: The MSM weighs in with an AP blurb that has no details on the numbers who turned out for the Inglewood protest. It doesn't mention the rally I went to across town. Those who want to look with a teary eye on what might have been can see the press release that failed: "300 Communities Throughout the U.S. to Hold "Downing Street Memo" Events". Even being mentioned in the People's Weekly World didn't help. No word yet on whether "Special to the World" is rehabilitatable or whether he/she will be sent to Siberia.