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Montgomery County Fair Closes with a Bang and Crash
Here are some cool photos from my evening at the Montgomery County, MD Agricultural Fair last Saturday, the fair’s closing night.
There’s just something about how photogenic pigs are.
These three pigs are crying for dinner. In response, a pig is sprayed with water for an instant. The pigs continued screaming.
At the Demolition Derby, the audience reacts when the #01 car briefly shows flames from underneath. Notice the white station wagon #57 stuck on the barrier. The white-doored #777 eventually went on to win the derby.
America Stands with Cindy, Vigil at the White House
Gale Goodwin, above, was visiting Washington from Greenville, SC. She and a friend from high school attended the vigil at the White House. The two protested together against the Vietnam war three decades earlier. In recent years she has taken up protest against the war in Iraq. “I’ve been trying to stop this,” she said.
Several families were part of the crowd at the vigil. MoveOn.org volunteers said the vigil drew over 400 people, more than eight times what they originally expected. The vigil took place with four days of planning and promotion.
Nat Parry lights his candle from Vicky Bram (names via Reuters).
Right, Charles Stanford of Washington for three months has been attending two vigils each week at the White House, he said. He updates the number of US deaths in the Iraqi war on his protest sign. Today the count reads “01858.”
Spc. Kevin Pannell spoke to people in a counter-protest area where I counted about a dozen protesters representing Free Republic.com. The Associated Press reports Mr. Pannell’s views on the vigil.
“If they don’t want to support it, they don’t have to support it,” said Iraq war veteran Kevin Pannell, who had both legs amputated after a grenade attack last year in Baghdad. “That’s the reason I lost my legs.”
Vicky Bram
A board chronologically lists the names of service members who have died in the Iraq war, with an overlaying question, “How many more of our children must die?”
Erica Madris from Houston, TX, continued about fifteen minutes after the larger protest ended, making her own direct protest. She moved to Washington recently to “get closer to somewhere I can agitate.”
Exclusive: Another Mother Speaks: "Fed up with Painful and Insulting Lies"
In a speach directed as much to “half the population” as it was to President Bush, a military mother drew strong reaction from hundreds of people at the conclusion of a candlelight vigil held at the White House this evening to support Cindy Sheehan’s vigil near President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, TX.
The mother’s printed notes containing the entire text of the speech was obtained by me and is being reported exclusively and simultaneously by joetresh.com and PageOneQ.com [additional report].
The mother, Gilda, who declined to give her last name for publication, said her son was injured by shrapnel from an improvised explosive device (IED) in the assault on Falluja in Iraq. She said he was treated for minor injuries and returned to “the front lines” of Fallujah within days. She is a member of Military Families Speak Out. She said she wrote the speech in the two hours before the vigil began.
The end of the speach drew the strongest reaction when Gilda referred President Bush when he said “But I think it’s also important for me to go on with my life” instead of meeting with Cindy Sheehan.
My name is Gilda. I am a member of MFSO, and I have a son who is an active duty Marine. He was deployed to Iraq during the bloody assault on Fallujah in November. One-hundred thirty-seven of our sons and daughters and countless Iraqis died in that assault.
We are gathered here to support Cindy Sheehan in her quest for truthful answers from President Bush about Iraq. This is a call to conscience! This is about supporting our troops who have served honorably and bravely under impossible conditions. They went under orders of their Commander-in-Chief to a war of choice unprepared and under equipped. President Bush, you owe us an explanation! The only noble thing in this rotten war has been our noble sons and daughters who answered the call to serve their country, something you could not have understood or valued.
President Bush, we are not radical political extremists as the right-wing media would like to portray us. We are citizens - ordinary mothers and fathers who are fed up with painful and insulting lies. We have carried the weight of your disastrous policy on our shoulders while half of the population has been intentionally or unintentionally ignorant of our plight. For many, it has been convenient to believe they are supporting the troops with their yellow magnets.
President Bush, meet with Cindy. Tell that mother in that pathetic ditch by your house just exactly why her son died. Tell her how the war is going and what your plan is. Explain to her that ‘taking the fight to them’ was really a brilliant way to get the naive and ignorant to fall unquestioningly behind you. Tell her how through your incompetence and at great expense in resources and human life, we destroyed Iraq, giving the Iraqis an infinitely worse hell than anyone could have ever imagined.
‘We would send the wrong signal if we pulled out,’ you say, Mr. Bush. What signal do you think we’ve sent the world since we invaded Iraq? You’ve destroyed our credibility and our good standing in the world. Most of all, Mr. Bush, what’s unforgivable is that you betrayed our idealistic American sons and daughters who trustingly placed their lives in your hands. We, their mothers, will not let you ‘move on with your life,’ Mr. Bush. We hold you accountable for their deaths and injuries. And we call now for an immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. Now. Not next year. Not in ten years!
Smoky Bethesda Rush-Hour Slowdown
The Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service fought an engine fire this afternoon at Montgomery Lane and Wisconsin Ave in Bethesda, MD. The automobile fire slowed traffic near the intersection, and hazy smoke clouded downtown Bethesda.
Above and below, Firefighter James Martinez, 20, directs the hose into and under the burning car.
In a phone interview later, Martinez explained how his responsibility was directing the hose lines, while other firefighters managed water supply and kept an eye out for trouble, such as spilling fuel. The risk of explosion was minimal. “It’s not like it happens in the movies,” he said.
The first unit to arrive was a truck that carries two-and-a-half gallons of water, according to another firefighter at Station 6 in Bethesda. The truck wouldn’t normally respond to an automobile fire, Martinez said, but the firefighters used the limited amount of water on the truck, jugs of water, and extinguishers to keep the fire under control until more units arrived.
Martinez, who lives in Damascus, MD, said he began firefighting five years ago at age fifteen with the Germantown Volunteer Fire Department. He said he was the youngest in his graduating class last May and is now a full-time firefighter at Glen Echo Fire Station 11. His truck, Engine 111, was near Bethesda after responding to a fire at the National Institutes of Health.
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