Ugh, I knew it. Trapped inside my apartment, with the chants of "No justice, no peace" waft through my apartment as I try and watch the NFL draft. Stupid rally. Have to leave at some point to go play some softball, but I have to leave at the same time the rally is switching from chanting and speechifying at Dolores Park to chanting and speechifying at the Civic Center so I'll probably get socked in by traffic as the unwashed masses march onwards.

Checked out the Web site for the protest and found these instructions about the rally already occuring in Washington D.C.:

"It is clear from the intensifying mobilization and support for the Palestinian people battling the U.S.-backed Israeli aggression that the April 20 demonstration at the White House will be attended by tens of thousands of people. The main demands at the White House demonstration will be "FREE PALESTINE! No new war on Iraq!", "Stop the attacks on Arab and Muslim people! Defend civil liberties!", and "Money for Jobs, Education, Healthcare and Housing, Not War!"

How's that gonna work? At the rally, are they gonna divide things up into sections so that everyone in the left will be yelling "Free Palestine" while the group on the right will be yelling Money for Jobs, Education, Healthcare and Housing, Not War!"? You know, like at rock concerts where they get one side of the crowd to yell "fuck" and the other side to yell "you." Or maybe they'll get all arty and do it round-style, like how you're supposed to do "Row, Row, Row Your Boat!" Yes, it won't make any sense and sound like a huge roar, but that's pretty much what it sounds like anyways. Or, maybe they've divided the day into hour-long segments. Like between 10 and 11, they'll chant "Free Palestine!" and then at 11, switch over to "No War on Iraq!"

And I also found a listing of organizations who endorse and will be attending the rallies. Some of them sound like really heartfelt, earnest and serious organizations. Some of them, don't. Because I find this all highly funny, here's a list of some of the groups supporting the rallies (I tried not to be snarky, but I didn't get much sleep last night, I'm tired and well, I'm snarky):

-Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoner and journalist (because it's not a rally without Mumia.)
-Lesbian and Gay Insurrection
-Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (splitters!)
-International League of Peoples' Struggle (huh?)
-National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America
-Chicago Anti-Bashing Network (I'm down with these guys. I hate bashing. Bashing is bad.)
-Freedom Socialist Party (Rock on)
-Populist Leftist Front, New York City (what about the Leftist Populist Front?)
-Freedom Road Socialist Organization
-Womens Fightback Network
-Rainbow Flags for Mumia (all three of them)
-Singing with the Enemy (performance troupe) (!)
-La Vay Smith, Bay Area Vocalist (I know her. She's kind of cool. She used to waitress at Vesuvio's too when my friends and I would all go crowd the top part of the bar, get really drunk and blow pipe hits out the window).
Radical Women, California (is this a group or just a general description of who they are?)
-Anarchist Action of Rochester
-Revolutionary Communist Party USA
-Red Wing Movement of the Green Party of Humboldt County (huh? Are they just members of the Green Party who also happen to be Hockey fans?)
-Behavioral Support Services, NC
-First Quarter Storm Movement, Northern California (whatever)
-Madison Revolutionary Front, WI (rock on)
-Anarchist Freethink Movement, CA (how do they rally for anything precisely, I mean they're all freethinkers and anarchists, so you'd think they'd never be able to organize for anything. And if they did, does that make them hypocrites)
-Chicago Revolutionaries Artists for Fair Trade(CRAFT)
-Grandmothers for a Just World, NC (awww)
-Alternatives to War of Modesto (do they mean alternatives to war or just war in Modesto? I hear things are pretty nasty in Modesto too)
-Revolutionary Communist Party- SF Bay Area
-Moonanum James, National Association of Letter Carriers, Boston, MA*- (What, a postal worker? And they're important to this rally because......)

Someone's screaming something right now. Shut.....up..........