Tens of thousands of protesters descended on Washington on Saturday, decrying US President Barack Obama, “big government” and big spending.
They carried hand-painted posters protesting Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms and accusing his administration of leading the US down the road to socialism.
“Abortion is not healthcare,” read one sign.
Another, held aloft by an immigrant from Ukraine, said: “I had enough of socialism in the USSR.”
The demonstrator, who refused to give his name, said he had come to Washington from Baltimore because “too many things remind me of what I saw in the communist countries.”
“Communism didn’t work over there and it’s not going to work over here,” he said.
Quinn Ryan, 11, stood in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue — near the spot where Obama and his wife Michelle greeted supporters in January after he was sworn in as the country’s first black president — brandishing a sign reading: “Born free, taxed to death.”
The protest was coordinated by Freedomworks, a grassroots movement calling for lower taxes, less government and more economic freedom for all Americans. The march had to set off before the scheduled 11:30am start time, as Freedom Plaza near the White House filled to overflowing.
Police were unable to say how many people had turned out for the rally, but at mid-afternoon the crowd stretched out of sight from the legislature and onto the National Mall.
The organizers said earlier in the week they hoped to attract between 20,000 and 30,000 people from around the country for the protest, which was supported by prominent conservatives, including former House Majority leader Dick Armey.
Holly and Nick Bikakis came from California for the protest.
“It’s not convenient for us to be here, and it’s costing us money we’d rather not spend, but we felt strongly enough that we decided we would come no matter what,” Nick Bikakis said.
The couple were among many at the protest carrying signs bearing the words “You lie,” shouted by Republican Representative Joe Wilson at Obama during the president’s speech about healthcare to Congress last week.
Lois Calzone from Maryland carried a poster showing Obama painted as The Joker from Batman with the captions “Un-American” and “cap and traitor.”
“He is a traitor. He’s either a Marxist or a Communist and we’re not. He’s totally un-American,” Calzone said. “I think Saudi Arabia is behind him. Where did he get all that money to fund his campaign?”
Her daughter, who declined to give her name, said: “The reason he hasn’t picked a church in DC is because he’s not Christian. He’s Muslim.”
“We were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but this is too much,” she said.
Some in the crowd were there to try and engage those skeptical of the Obama administration.
Georgetown University law student Lindsay Windsor asked demonstrators to explain their opinions of the president.
“A lot of the slogans are very inflammatory and I want to understand what they actually mean,” said Windsor, 22, who was wearing an Obama-Biden T-shirt as she walked over to Calzone and her friends.
“I don’t want to try to convince you that I’m right. I want to try to understand you. If we are going to fix our country’s problems, we need to have a conversation together,” Windsor said to the group of women.
“Obama is a sleeper cell ... Go have a conversation with someone else,” Calzone’s daughter replied.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS