Zach on Thursday's protest:

The maoists were ridiculous, dogmatic and annoying, but at least those of us on the DAWN march didn't have to deal with ANSWER (not to be sectarian or anything.) The anarchist-initiated splinter march didn't seem like it was really working too well. And then the cops reportedly decided to brutalize non-violent protestors for no reason (although arrests (and, for that matter, numbers) were nothing like what we saw with the NoRNC mobilizations here in august,) marking the first, or is that "frist" such incident of the day. Sometimes typos are downright revelatory. Still, i think the coffins remained siginifiers as powerful as they were in New York. Singing Woody Guthrie and "Carry It On" and "Solidarity Forever" held a profoundly strong symbolism for me - placing forth enduring visions of collectivity and the commons against the inauguration's celebration of greed, private power, and warmaking. Even "if i had a hammer" managed to be significantly less corny than usual. And no i am not a fucking hippy so fuck you.