A phone tree only works right if you set it up ahead of time. I've been on a few. Otherwise, you just get a lot of people calling people at random.

Until you get past this idea that any group speaking in opposition to the administration's policies is somehow being manipulated by a group of shadow professional agitators, you will not understand the opposition.

I have never said that all opposition, or even all organized protests, are from "shadow" professional agitators, if by this you mean subversive organizations. I have pointed out specific large-city protests that have indeed been organized by major anti-American Stalinist groups, and have presented the evidence for it. (Just as an aside, they have further protests scheduled for March 15.) But that doesn't make all professional organizers part of such specific Marxist movements.

However, most of these protests are being organized by groups that A: have a definite leftist leaning and/or anti-Bush agenda and B: are well-versed in methods for bringing out the troops. Even liberals will admit that nobody knows how to fill a street like a leftist organization, and the right is only beginning to get some skills at this.

When I wrote the first post, I didn't know who Erin O'Brien (the organizer of the protest) was. I suspect it's the Erin O'Brien of Women Against War in Albany (near the mall), which is organized up the wazoo and about as "spontaneous" as the Egyptian Pyramids, but I'm not obsessed enough about it to make phone calls to confirm it. This does NOT make O'Brien an anti-American commie (although it doesn't rule it out ;) ) but after browsing the site I would bet a lot of money against her being a Bush voter.

BTW, note the following from a WAW item dated December 26:

Announcement regarding protests and demonstrations at area malls: WAW is a network for information/idea exchange, empowerment and action. A lawyer within our network has passed this information along so that women choosing to protest on private property understand their rights (or lack of rights).



To WAW Protestors: I am writing in response to the suggestion that Women Against War stage a protest at a mall. While it seems intuitively obvious that malls are public places and that people have First Amendment free speech rights in malls, in fact this is not the law today.

In several major cases, in New York state and federal courts, activists argued that the mall was this era's "town square". They lost.

Malls are private property and mall owners have absolutely no obligation to allow any kind of political statement on their property. This includes wearing t-shirts with political slogans as well as any kind of gathering. Many mall owners, including local ones, have a very aggressive policy to arrest those who protest at malls, and often people arrested at malls face multiple criminal charges.



Oh, really?

The site is not up-to-date enough to confirm involvement in the mall case, but if you don't think this whole thing was a setup to try and get around these limits, I got a bridge for sale.