more PHOTOS of the 'throngs' of adoring reaguns fans in DC

[diamond14]

news media are reporting HUGE turnouts....15 deep all the way from the White House to the Capital....over 80,000 looking at casket last night with 30,000 more waiting outside the capital...


the biggest crowds were at the White House area...includes reporters and security and military band...


looks like nobody along the sidewalk at all...












there should be people in between each fenced section, like in the airport...the lines are NON-EXISTENT....


news media claiming 5,000 per hour are pressing into the Capital to view reaguns...


at least 30% of the area around the casket is EMPTY, and visitors cannot even fill up a DOUBLE line, as the ropes are set up for at least TWO deep of spectators....

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Guess people are so fed up with the Raygun whorefest

then they decided to disrespect Raygun by not showing up...

[Archae]

2. The carriage casket ride was a practice.

Not the real thing, jsut a full-dress rehearsal.

[diamond14]

6. WRONG !...Pennsylvania Ave was NOT shut down for PRACTICE

both Pennsylvania and Constitution Ave. are major commuter routes with hundreds of thousands of cars using these routes, EVERYDAY...

if there was a PRACTICE, it would NOT be done along these major routes...but rather at one of the BIG military bases surrounding DC...

these photos are all REAL photos from the REAL reaguns parade and casket adoration in OUR Nation's Capital....

[displacedtexan]

12. I work 4 blocks from there...

There was no dress rehearsal along the route. And cars weren't blocked until one hour before the procession.

[CatWoman]

16. Standing up for your hero to the bitter end, eh?

[John_H]

24. As Stupid as stupid can get: a Republican from Wisconsin.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

3. Not one guy

of colour in the crowds ? Hmmm surprise !

[diamond14]

8. it's an ALL-WHITE adoration, in DC, a city that is 85% BLACK !

a tribute to reaguns promoting bigotry, racism and WARS....

[Jack_Dawson]

4. WTF is such a big deal about a dead ex-president?

And not a very good one at that. Is this how it is for every dead president? It's rather nauseating.

:wtf:

[Joanne98]

5. They're totally exaggerating these numbers.......

The pro-choice rally had over a million people and they treated it like a focus-group. Something has to be done about the "librul" media.

[displacedtexan]

7. Thank goodness for DC tourists with nothing better to do!

And thank the press (hated by Ronnie) for pumping up his numbers in the name of ratings!

I was tempted to go down there last evening (just to make sure the bastard was dead), but I didn't want to be counted as one of the "throng." There were more people inside Union Station (shopping) than I see in those photos!

[On the Road]

9. Really? The Numbers Are Completely Hyped?

Geez, I just accepted the fact that Reagan had many admirers. Every time I let down my guard a bit, I end up accepting some new lie. Unebelievable.

[progdonkey]

10. noticed that too

My sister and I were watching TV last night and on C-SPAN they had the live footage from the Capitol. We watched the changing of the guard at 11:30p, and then we noticed that the place, save for a few security guards, was completely deserted. While I'm sure the fact that it was half past eleven had something to do with it, considering that the media talked about people standing in line for six hours, etc., you'd think there'd be at least a FEW people.

Also, nobody who actually went to the viewing actually seemed to have a good reason to be there. Every response (all from white people, of course; they're all that's available there) was just a general "he was the President" type BS. I didn't see anyone who cited a specific policy or action by Reagan that they particularly admired. Typical white trash Republicans.

[nodictators]

22. Sparse turnout this (Thursday) morning too

Check this AP photo, and compare it with its caption:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040610/480/efa10106101345

People wait in lines ,which will last several hours <???>, to go into the Capitol Building in Washington Thursday, June 10, 2004 to view President Reagan's flag-draped casket which lies in state in the Rotunda through Friday. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

[stopbush]

11. Amazing. A million people show up in DC for an anti-bush rally and

the *official* estimates of crowd size are "in the thousands." But get an actual "in the thousands" turnout to view Reagan's coffin and the same sources talk about the incredible, overwhelming turnout, all the while the *visual* evidence gives the lie to both estimates.

Propaganda at its best.

[PATRICK]

14. Italians get bigger crowds

protesting business summits most Americans don't even understand.
And those armchair mourners are getting itchy fingers on the cable remote.

Amazing spin.

[slor]

13. They wanted so badly...

for it to be like FDR's funeral...you should see the crowds for that funeral, and a very diverse crowd too!

[elperromagico]

15. African-Americans LIKED FDR,

and JFK, and LBJ. It's hardly surprising that the Reagan crowd was less diverse.

[redqueen]

17. No wide angle pictures?

No pics of huge throngs of crowds?

LOL

Nice try, LYING WHORES!

[treepig]

18. exaggerating crowd size - SOP for this crowd

remember the wide angle view of them pulling down saddam's statue?

there looked to be all of 20 or 30 people there.

[Hubert Flottz]

19. Maybe Reagan copied Bush and the people were a mile away!

A "Free Speech Zone", so the protesters were off camera! It's the Reich Wanker's MO!

[underpants]

20. Hold it-I thought the Parks Dept. doesn't estimate crowds anymore

They stopped after the Million Man March. Remember the "tens of thousands" at the anti-war marches?

[DoNotRefill]

21. I was watching C-span last night....

and the crowd actually going through was miniscule, while there was a many-hour wait outside. Anybody on the scene know how badly the security screeners are harassing people? I'm almost positive that has to be the major bottleneck...

[jtb33]

23. Hmmm...

The news channels here (live video) must have done a spectacular job editing the feeds then, because the lines were unbelievably long and there were a LOT (and I mean "wow" lot) of people...

[Cheswick2.0]

25. hmmmnnnn , I can't find a single picture showing huge crowds

Can you point us to a couple?

[jtb33]

30. Nope.

Don't know if I made it clear in my previous message, but I was referring to the live video that I was seeing on the local news stations on TV.

[skypilot]

26. And after watching some of the news coverage...

...I have to wonder how much of this "throng" was made up of bored young kids who were dragged to Washington by their parents. I saw quite a few kids walking past the casket with glazed expressions on their faces.

[LittleApple81]

28. I have seen the same expression on my kids' faces...But I am so proud of

them... it was when I took them to Disney World.
I had a stopover from another trip and decided I wanted them to know what Disney was all about (they were 9 and 14 at that time) so that they could judge when other people spoke about it.
Well, I gave them $25 each to buy souvenirs if they wanted...They liked Epcot (and the restaurants there... yummmmm) but decided that they preferred to spend their money somewhere else.

[skypilot]

29. What are you doing...

...raisin' a coupla commies?

[LittleApple81]

31. They consider themselves citizens of the world. Isn't that amazing? n/t

[Malva Zebrina]

32. another picture of the "thousands" who were waiting on line to look at a

flag draped casket that contained the body of a past president from twenty five or so years ago, who lived out his life to the age of 93 the past ten y ears of that life spent in total humiliation and in total unawareness.



This is not the same as John Kennedy who was actually in office at the time he was assassinated . Or of a Roosevelt, who was actually also in office at the time of his death.

This is a Hollywood funeral of a Hollywood actor man and his Hollywood posing wife, complete with all the dramatic lighting chiaroscuro effects to dramatize her suffering and her "grief" at the death of her Alzheimers afflicted husband who has had the desease for at least ten years, :eyes: It is all so sad that after ten years of babbling incoherency and inability to care for even the most basic of human needs, he died at the age of 93.

She, now 83 years old herself, poses with a fragile, arthritic, hand on the flag draped casket and the lighting of the shot, is definately an emotional presentation meant to garner in our sympathy and forgive him for every bit of his evil. For that very reason,however, this act, even at the age of a botoxed 83year old, I cannot believe there is validity to the grief that is being acted out. It seems so "contrived".

He, the dead one, who was out of office and whose accomplishments are tainted with charges of the most egriegious kind, and who lived to be really, really old due to the fact that his family had the money to have someone other than the family care for him 24-7, or the overworked staff in a nursing home, is now spoken of as a saint.

We are a corrupt society when this can happen and no one can be allowed to speak of the despicable acts he committed toward society when he was president. We are villified for telling the truth about him. And, becuase that is so, when George Bush dies, he will also be mythologized via the Reagan method--and America will laud him as the great emancipator and any of us, if we are still alive, who try to point out his murderous evil ways, will also be villiefied by the anal retentive right.

--There are plenty of Americans out there who suffer with this desease, which actually, if more a suffering on the part of the family than the person afflicted. Many of them have NO income at all, except for their SS checks which are routed to the nursing home that may accept them. Some do not accept them because their SS check is too small and too little.
They go to the lesser.

[daligirrl]

53. You said it all. . .

This week has been like the mourning of a sitting president. I don't think most people in this country give a f***. Even the freepers at my office are indifferent about it.

[diamond14]

33. reTHUGlicans are hauling out everybody possible to BEEF UP

the numbers...including spending $ 433,000,000 to let all Federal employees off work...also, all DoD mercenary war-profiteers have been ordered to go there.....

even down to the smallest detail...commanding officers ordering amputees (still in temporary casts) to get up from Walter Reed Hospital and appear....

and of course, the ALL WHITE boy scout troops are being bussed in from Virginia....

KKKarl rove is madly calling all bushies to BEEF IT UP at the Capital today...bring in everyone they possibly can....








People pass by the body of former US President Ronald Reagan (news - web sites), who lies in state in the US Capital Building Rotunda in Washington, DC. Up to 5,000 people an hour moved through the rotunda.(AFP/Stan Honda)

[outinforce]

36. When Nixon Died In 1994,

that known Rethuglian, President Bill Clinton, gave Federal Workers a day off at a very large cost to the taxpayers.

Give it a rest, man --- any time a President dies, Feds get a day off.

[Judi Lynn]

27. What really seems so odd is that this kind of large scale event

was staged for John F. Kennedy, when the country was in a state of shock over his assassination, and something large seemed to be the only way of addressing the enormity of the situation. People had a need to really GRIEVE, in a HURRY, and come to terms with that horrific event, and losing a larger-than-life, beloved, popular President.

There was a big funeral for Lincoln, probably for the same reasons.

Everyone knew Reagan was going to die any time in the last few years.

I don't see the connection between his passing and that of the two assassinated Presidents. Why the vast glorification of such a strange man?

I think it's because he's the only one true conservatives have had to admire of all our Presidents.

[displacedtexan]

34. Compare the AP Photo to yours!

Dodgy AP photo cropping! Notce how close the camera is to the railing... completely ignoring the vast empty space in the line.

Damn it! Can't get zippy to work! Will keep trying!

Try this website:

http://www.zippyimages.com/63232.html

[NoVaGator]

35. As a professional photographer who was there....

1) The media reports of the numbers are legit. It was about 15 deep as far as I could see...deeper in some areas.

2) A good photographer can take a picture to 'editorialize' his/her view of any event.

I wasn't concerned about crowd size, (big or small) so I wasn't taking pictures to emphasize (or deemphasize) the crowd. The pictures below (most didn't "make the cut" for various and obvious reasons) illustrate the crowd size.

Notice the people on the structure:




and in the background:


(all of these pics are copyright me. It would be nice if you credited the pictures you use in this thread - and anywhere else for that matter)

[diamond14]

37. NO PHOTOS showing either 15 deep spectators, or even BOTH

sides of the street, or a panorama view....


so, you made your point....there's hardly anyone there...except small cropped groups to editorize YOUR viewpoint of a so-called big crowd...



noted once again, an ALL-WHITE adoration in DC (a city with 85% Black people)....which tells the world of reaguns racial hatred, bigotry, and wars against people of color...thanks for showing us that once again...

also, if you want us to credit your photos, then you should identify who you are and give us a link to your site....


BTW, welcome to DU, NoVaGator ! This site may be quite different than other sites you post on. This is a 'fair and balanced' web site, DRUG-FREE...and LIES are not allowed...you must be totally honest to post here....so Welcome, and hope you enjoy your stay here, however long it lasts.....

[NoVaGator]

46. thanks for the welcome amen1234

FWIW, none of those photos are cropped. I posted all of the pictures that included any crowd, not sure how I could prove that to you. I simply wasn't there to document crowd size. The Archives building was behind me and it has about 20 steps and a large portico.

I'm not particularly inclined to advertise my employer or my name, esp considering that I've been accused of being a troll on this thread already. (Not sure that anything that I posted was trolling, but that is besides the point) You can see yourself from the URLs that they're hosted on a personal clubphoto account - not a commercial photography website - these pictures were not work-related, so frankly I don;t care if you abuse my copyright. (However I'm quite sure that AP, Reuters, Corbis, Getty et al don't feel the same way) I will say that I'm a sports photographer, that I handle the east coast operations for my comapny, and that we shoot about 550 events per year.

At any rate, I was there and know that the crowds were far larger than some here would like to admit.

Good day

[eridani]

41. Let's have some overhead or other distance shots, please

You know, like the one that shitcanned the fluffy bunny story of throngs of cheering Iraqis pulling down the Saddam statue.

Don't see anything like that here so far.

[hiphopnation]

42. nice work

and thanks for the lesson in copyright law. I credit this work to the artist Ms. Laura Harris.




On edit: It's a troll. :)

[T Town Jake]

44. Hi!

Welcome to DU, NoVaGator! I'm a newbie too! :hi:

[Sugarbleus]

49. I wasn't there so I don't know but

IF it matters at all, to me it did look like there were plenty of people watching the procession. At one point there were photos of quite a large crowd outside waiting to get in.

I watched almost through the night--it obviously slowed down at night. I watched when the crowds thinned out in the dome and when they got a wee bit thicker. I don't suppose this event was like any in the past, but it wasn't teensy weensy either.

I did see any number of "suits" coming every so often from some "special" place to circle around the casket--they looked like federal workers. I saw an Indian Chief wave a feather (lol) and a lot of other interesting and uninteresting things as I've had this marathon thingy on C-span.

I've lost count how many times they've changed the guard--what, every half hour? That would be about a million times by the end of this thing?

I was a teenager during Kennedy's funeral--that was a doozy. I witnessed Nixon's (poor dear), I missed Johnson's, and now this one. This one ranks up there in terms of devotees...

Just to be fair and honest. ;)

[thebigidea]

52. "copyright infringement is your best entertainment value" - Negativland

I for one think its past time that we printed full copyright information for each and every item linked to here... when books are quoted, I want the copyright page typed in meticulously, listing if any song lyrics are included in the case of Stephen King work.

[TankLV]

55. A lot of empty space there!

And we should believe you just because you say so - and only started posting TODAY?

Who ya gonna believe, what you say or my lying eyes?

Ha!

Nice try.

[powergirl]

38. Next time I go to a funeral, I need to put on my flip flops and Beer hat

Don't these people know how to dress??? I know it's hot and all, but at least wear some pants. What gives??

[diamond14]

40. reTHUGlicans are so desperate to BEEF UP the numbers...

they are probably over at the local swimming pools, and paying people to show up....

several Pro-Peace rallies that I attended in DC had a tiny number of PRO-WAR people with LOTS of outhouses...and when I spoke with a few of the attendees...they told me that they were homeless, or jobless, and the reTHUGlicans PAID THEM to stand there to BEEF UP the TV broadcast....

IMO, that's what's going on here too....since it's NOT an election, the reTHUGlicans have pulled out all their usual tactics...rounding up boy scouts, school kids, tourists, homeless Veterans, and military personnel under orders from their commanders...there is about 28,000 people working at the pentagon, just a few miles away..and more at Andrews AFB, and McNair Army Base, and Ft. Meyers, and the Navy Shipyard...so it's easy to ORDER a lot of military to go there...and give them the afternoon off at taxpayers expense to go, and take their kids from the on-site day-care and scout programs....

[jtb33]

43. *Sigh*

You don't get it... there are PLENTY of DU'ers in D.C. who can witness this first-hand. It's not something that can be made up! C'mon, be realistic here.

Here's some I found on a quick search:

(CNN)

(also CNN)

(more CNN - and look in the background - that's a LOT of people IMO)

(CNN)

(CNN)

(CNN)

...and that was only looking on CNN. If I had more time to look around, I'm sure you can see that the media is NOT fudging numbers.

[Sterling]

54. Your photos seem to be of specified pockets of people.

Where people are all huddled together. From what they say on CNN you would expect wall to wall people up and down the streets and I see no "throng" of a line waiting to view the body?

I was in DC for one of the pre war protest and it was much larger of a crowd than the ones in your photos.

Ive seen more people at the local fair in my small town in Okla. when the help the parade.

[jtb33]

59. Uh, that's what cameras do...

...they take a picture of a specific area. Look, your argument is just plain dumb. Here are some pictures that a friend actually took himself:















I mean c'mon... they media is DEFINITELY not exaggerating the number of people.

[Sterling]

61. They are exagerating, judgeing from your photos.

I ve seen bigger crowds at t ball games.They make it sound like a crowd that rivals the war protest crowds or the famous marches on DC. This just seems like people herded into "free speach zone" like barackades. Maybe a few thousand people, no big deal. Besides they are all WHITE!!! WTF is that about?
Yet the claimed the War protest crowd was "in the thousands" when it was clearly in the hundreds of thousands.

[jtb33]

63. useless...

You have some idea in your head and won't budge... A picture is only ABLE to take a snapshot of a PORTION of something this large. The picture taker's goal wasn't to show the number of people there, but if he took some more pictures faciing DOWN the street or UP the street, you'd be amazed.

[NoVaGator]

62. your friend was on the steps of the Archive bldg

....as I mentioned in my earlier post.

He/She was a hundred yards to my left

As you can see in your pictures, there's a tall wrought iron fence behind the people on the other side of the street (there's a sculpture garden behind the fence) and people cover the sidewalk clear back to the fence. There really couldn't be too many more people there w/o packing them in tokyo-subway-style.

In your third pic from the bottom, you can actually see see spectators in the sculpture garden behind the fence.

It's roughly one mile from 16th (where the cassion was loaded) to 4th - where they really clamped down on the crowds. There's nothing special about this the location I shot at or jtb33's friend shot at. I think it's safe to assume that the crowd was as large as these pictures show along the entire mile - larger where more space permitted, smaller where there wasn't space. I'm sure an interested person could measure the space in one of the pictures, count the people, and extrapolate the crowd along the entire length.

[sbj405]

45. They are obviously clueless on flag code as well

enough with star spangled theme. In addition to being disrespectful, no one looks good in it.

[Sugarbleus]

48. Too Funny...............ROFL!!!! I noticed. n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

39. Did anyone see the lady this morning who looked like she was going to

faint. :eyes: I kid you not! She had on a pink shirt and her husband had on a blue t-shirt... Her husband/S.O. was holding her up and she kept leaning on him, acting like she was going to faint as she walked passed the casket. :eyes: She kept looking at the camera....it was all a pathetic attempt at acting. She looked so stoooooooooopid! I was laughing my ass off!

[JP Belgium]

47. just comparing...

When Belgian king Boudewijn died in 1993, about 200.000 people came to pay respect. I think they had 2 or 3 days of this. Some people had to wait 10 hours before they could enter the palace. Maybe crowd-control has improved sice, but still I doubt if the numbers stated are correct.

(picture has only a small part of the crowd wating)

[Sterling]

51. Now that is a throng!!!!

nt

[Sugarbleus]

50. I wasn't there so I don't know but

Subject: I wasn't there so I don't know but
Message:
IF it matters at all, to me it did look like there were plenty of people watching the procession. At one point there were photos of quite a large crowd outside waiting to get in.

I watched almost through the night--it obviously slowed down at night. I watched when the crowds thinned out in the dome and when they got a wee bit thicker. I don't suppose this event was like any in the past, but it wasn't teensy weensy either.

I did see any number of "suits" coming every so often from some "special" place to circle around the casket--they looked like federal workers. I saw an Indian Chief wave a feather (lol) and a lot of other interesting and uninteresting things as I've had this marathon thingy on C-span.

I've lost count how many times they've changed the guard--what, every half hour? That would be about a million times by the end of this thing?

I was a teenager during Kennedy's funeral--that was a doozy. I witnessed Nixon's (poor dear), I missed Johnson's, and now this one. This one ranks up there in terms of devotees...

Just to be fair and honest. ;)

[Bread and Circus]

56. Reagan dying is in the "who cares" section of my brain.

[T Bone]

57. Maybe they meant a THONG of supporters instead of a Throng ?

Those pictures only show a THONG of supporters is you ask me.

[Elidor]

58. Stalin had a better turnout!

The media brings us a Potemkin Funeral.

Real people simply don't give a shit.

[VolcanoJen]

60. CNN International: As of 11:00 pm edt 6/11/04, 69,000 viewed casket

CNN International quoted the Military District of Washington with the 69,000 number.

That seems low to me, compared to the earlier numbers they've been fawning over all day... it would seem that the media has been blowing the whole damned thing out of proportion, as amen1234 suggests.