Anti-Bush demo kicks off in NY:go Michael Moore

[cal04]

The protesters gathered 1.6km south of the convention site, and were to make a loop around it after being refused permission for a mass rally further north in Central Park.

Moore, clad in a red baseball cap and shorts, mixed a message of welcome for Republicans visiting this Democratic bastion with harsh words for Bush, who is fighting for re-election against Democrat John Kerry in November. The director, whose anti-Bush touchstone for many Democrats, reminded the crowd that the Republican was elected in 2000 without winning the overall popular vote. "The majority of the country never voted for the Bush administration and it's time to have our country back in our hands," he said.

As for the 5 000 Republican delegates here, Moore said: "We want to welcome them here because we know they feel a little depressed, because the end is near for them." T-shirts and baseball caps mixed with funky black leather and fashionable yuppie dress in the demonstration, which bore much of the feel, diversity and language of the 1960s.

The old inverted Y peace symbol was omnipresent and along with balloons, placards and buttons promoting a variety of causes.
"Bush gave us Iraq-tile dysfunction," read one sign. A T-shirt proclaimed: "Stop Bitching, Start a Revolution."

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1580430,00.html