Protesting The President
From a "jazz funeral for democracy" in the French Quarter of New Orleans to a reading of the names of dead Americans and Iraqis in Kentucky, anti-Bush demonstrators staged scattered protests Thursday as the president was sworn in for a second term.
"We want to spend today reminding this country, this administration, that people are dying," said veteran Steve Morse, standing outside San Francisco City Hall by a poster that read, "To Party Big While Our Troops Die Is Obscene."
In Washington, about 500 people rallied in a park miles from the Capitol, where the inauguration took place. Protesters covered hundreds of cardboard boxes with black cloth and American flags to symbolize U.S. troops and others killed in Iraq. Signs read, "Worst President Ever" and "Four more years: God HELP America."
Along the parade route, and at the swearing-in ceremony itself, President Bush's second inaugural has been accompanied by the sound of dissension.
Groups of demonstrators have been expressing their opposition to the president's policies, including the war in Iraq.
As the presidential motorcade approached a designated protest site along Pennsylvania Avenue, chants of "No justice, no peace" could be heard along with boos. Some anti-Bush demonstrators waved signs stating "Worst President Ever" and "The American Nightmare."
At the inauguration itself, a man with a very loud voice yelled "boo" several times at the president from a front section and was removed, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss. It happened right at the end and Mr. Bush had to have heard it.
A flag was burned and demonstrators tried to rush a security gate three blocks from the White House, prompting police to temporarily lock down the area.
Anti-war demonstrators carrying cardboard boxes that looked like coffins were seen not far from the Capitol. Some chanted "no more wars," as U-S military personnel moved through the area.
At a mock inauguration in Baltimore, a woman wearing a Bush mask gave a pretend speech, stumbling over her words, and a guitarist played Bob Dylan's "Gates of Eden," which opens, "Of war and peace the truth just twists." Passing cars, buses and taxis honked horns in support, and a pedestrian raised a fist.
In Louisville, Ky., protesters solemnly read the names of dead Iraqis and Americans and staged a skit that spoofed Bush and his chief political adviser, Karl Rove.
"It's very frightening to me that we have four more years," said Ken Nevitt of the Louisville Peace Action Community. "For us, it's going to be four more years of protesting."
About 500 protesters joined the "Jazz Funeral for Democracy" in New Orleans. A mock coffin bearing copies of the Patriot Act and the Constitution was borne through the French Quarter's narrow streets on a horse-drawn hearse to the wail of trumpets and trombones.
In Las Vegas, about 30 peace activists talked on the steps of the federal courthouse about issues they said need to be emphasized: the environment and the Bill of Rights.
At the federal courthouse in Akron, Ohio, about 20 demonstrators stood on a snowy street corner.
"We think war is not the way to come to peace," said Mary Kathryne Ryan, 63. "So many people are suffering in Iraq — their people and our people. We just don't make friends that way. The children there are going to grow up hating us more, and that will create more terrorism."