DCDL

There’s a fair bit of blogging out there about the Freedom Walk — though surprisingly few photos on Flickr. I went to the Unity Walk instead (and ran into Paulo of How Now, Brownpau?), but here are a couple of interesting bits of blogospheric coverage:

• StealthBadger went down to the Mall and reports on what he saw there, including a couple of idiots who decided to add offensive messages to their shirts (and will star on right-wing websites for years to come) but who amazingly managed to escape bodily injury.
• Rev. Mykeru attended and has video of some of his (Michael Moorish) interviews with participants — mostly asking them to sign up with the military (part of Operation Yellow Elephant.
• Campus Progress has photos.
• Thomas Nephew has the story of what happened to him at the start of the walk. He made the New York Times:
  

  Earlier in the day, several protesters appeared to run into trouble with the large police presence at the Pentagon and along the route. One man who registered for the walk was detained by a Pentagon police officer after he slipped a black hood over his head and produced a sign that read, “Freedom?”

  The man was removed from the Pentagon registration area, handcuffed and taken away in a police car. It was not clear whether he was charged or simply detained and the police did not respond to messages requesting more information.

Update: AltHippo has a report as well.

The Houston Chronicle has an editorial today about the Freedom Walk:

Today the Pentagon will hold the America Supports You Freedom Walk, ostensibly to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and to show support for members of the armed forces. Nothing could be better contrived to show the high price Americans have paid since that day of infamy.

The Freedom Walk is limited to those who register and submit to being searched. The route of the march will be fenced and lined with police officers. No one can join the march en route. No one can leave it. The press cannot walk along the route. The walk to proclaim Americans’ freedom reveals how much freedom we have lost.

It continues.

(Via the People’s Republic of Seabrook.)

The Liberal Avenger has photos of the fake dog tags that Stars & Stripes is apparently really giving out to Freedom Walk participants.

On a less serious note, Kevin K. at Catch has a speculative map of the route for the Freedom Walk.

Billmon at Whiskey Bar reveals amazing similarities between the Freedom Walk and a previously undiscovered Slavery Walk in North Korea.

In today’s Washington Post we learn how the Pentagon is celebrating Freedom through the extensive use of snow fencing:

The march, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the Pentagon to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and “sterile,” said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.

The U.S. Park Police will have its entire Washington force of several hundred on duty and along the route, on foot, horseback and motorcycles and monitoring from above by helicopter. Officers are prepared to arrest anyone who joins the march or concert without a credential and refuses to leave, said Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford.

In other news, the campaign slogan for the Walk (or is it a March now?) has changed from “America Supports You” to “Keeping America Closed and Sterile.”

The Washington Post reports that security for the “America Supports You” Freedom Walk will be unusually tight for an event that’s occurring on a two-mile-long route on public property:

The march, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the Pentagon to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and “sterile,” said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.

The U.S. Park Police will have its entire Washington force of several hundred on duty and along the route, on foot, horseback and motorcycles and monitoring from above by helicopter. Officers are prepared to arrest anyone who joins the march or concert without a credential and refuses to leave, said Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford.

Hooray for freedom!

Also, even though several media organizations are sponsoring the walk, coverage will be restricted:

One restricted group will be the media, whose members will not be allowed to walk along the march route. Reporters and cameras are restricted to three enclosed areas along the route but are not permitted to walk alongside participants walking from the Pentagon, across the Memorial Bridge to the Mall.

Looking at the sponsor list, it seems the Washington Times wasn’t deemed worthy after all, as fishbowlDC observes.

With the administration’s post-Katrina blame-the-victims, blame-Louisiana, blame-New-Orleans PR efforts (with photo ops) in full swing, it’s hard to know whether the Pentagon’s “America Supports You” Freedom Walk on September 11 will be ignored by the media or successfully folded into Operation Revive the President’s Approval Ratings.

In any case, the administration continues to go all out in recruiting government employees for the propaganda effort. Another government department has joined those encouraging their employees to participate in the event:

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Alphonso Jackson, will join members of the HUD staff, their families and all Americans to take part in the “Freedom Walk” sponsored by the Department of Defense on Sunday, September 11.

“Americans will never forget the extraordinary loss we experienced on September 11. The Freedom Walk is an opportunity to come together on the anniversary of this tragedy to honor those lost and pay tribute to those fighting the war on terrorism at home and abroad,” said Secretary Jackson.

The “Freedom Walk” begins September 11 at 10 a.m. in the Pentagon’s south parking lot. The route will wind two miles through the Arlington National Cemetery and over the Potomac River before ending at the Reflecting Pool. The walk will conclude with a free concert on the National Mall by country music performer Clint Black.

The Defense Department hopes to make it an annual event, with other communities holding their own “Freedom Walks” next year.

Note again that the idea of pre-election Freedom Walks in every state next year, which was removed from the Freedom Walk site last month, is still alive.

So what’s up with the slacker departments? Come on, Agriculture. Come on, Energy. Come on, Treasury. Do you want the other departments to show you up in support for Our Leader? I’m sure you’ll be putting out your own press releases in the next day or two.

That’s odd.

The line in the description of the Freeper, I mean Freedom Walk that used to say:

Participants are encouraged to arrive at the Pentagon South parking lot between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. for screening to avoid long lines.

Now says:

Participants are encouraged to arrive at the Pentagon South parking lot between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.

Does that mean that they’re not screening participants any more? Or does it just mean that they’re extremely attentive to the language used to describe the event? If I showed up wearing my “Bush Lied, People Died” t-shirt would I be screened, or wouldn’t I? What if I showed up wearing a t-shirt that said: “Dissent is Patriotic”? Conversely, how about a t-shirt that supported the Republican party?

I’m just wondering whether they’re planning to screen people or not. If so, what are the criteria?

Karen, a reader in California, reminded me a few days ago about this announcement from the VA:

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs has urged employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), veterans, their families and all Americans to take part in the “Freedom Walk” that begins Sept. 11 at the Pentagon.

“This is everyone’s chance to salute the valor of ordinary Americans during the 9-11 attack and the extraordinary sacrifices of our service personnel in the Global War on Terrorism,” said the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Karen notes that the Freedom Walk site itself never talked about the GWOT (or GSAVE, for that matter) and that the announcement mentions the 2006 pre-election plans for Freedom Walks in every state that were memory-holed a couple of weeks ago.

I suppose it’s not surprising that the VA, being closely connected to the Pentagon, would be pressuring its employees to attend the Freedom Walk. But now the Department of Commerce has joined in (and there’s even an audio version):

This is Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, and I have a message for every Commerce employee in the Washington, D.C. area.

I’m asking you to join me and thousands of our fellow Americans on Sunday, September 11th as we stand up for our men and women in uniform. […]

I strongly encourage all Commerce employees to join together in support of our country and the brave men and women who defend it.

Are any other government departments making such announcements? If you work for the government (or even if you work in the private sector) and have gotten similar “encouragement” from your superiors, let us know in the comments or by e-mail to keith@dcdl.org.

By the way, I finally decided to create a “Freedom Walk” category, so you can now browse through all our posts about the event.

Update (Sept. 1): Via Kos, I see that Americablog has posted about a similar message sent to employees at the Department of Health and Human Services:

From: Announcements to all U.S. DHHS Employees
[mailto:HHS-STAFF@LIST.NIH.GOV] On Behalf Of News, HHS (HHS/OS)
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 4:57 PM
To: HHS-STAFF@LIST.NIH.GOV
Subject: Commemoration of Patriot Day

In twelve days, we will commemorate Patriot Day, a day to remember the tragic events of September 11, 2001, a day to honor members of the Armed Forces currently serving at home and abroad, and a day to reiterate our commitment to the freedoms we enjoy. I will honor Patriot Day by participating in the Freedom Walk, a memorial event sponsored by the Department of Defense. I invite you as employees of the Department of Health and Human Services to join me.

The Freedom Walk begins at 10 a.m. in the Pentagon’s south parking lot, winds two miles through Arlington National Cemetery and over the Potomac River, and ends at the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall where country music star Clint Black will perform. The walk is free, but people must register by visiting www.AmercaSupportsYou.mil

September 11 marked a change in the way we view our world, our nation and ourselves. The betterment of ourselves and our country is our response. In whatever way you choose to commemorate the horrendous acts of early September four years ago, let us once again renew our gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy and reaffirm our commitment to tolerance, peace and liberty throughout the world.

They’re really going all out on the opponents-are-unpatriotic message, and at this point it looks like it’s in all government departments.

Update (Sept. 7): HUD has joined in.

The list of sponsors for the Pentagon’s “America Supports You” Freedom Walk grew by two today, with the addition of AOL and McDonald’s.

Also, although it’s not mentioned on the walk’s website, the Washington Times has offered to provide free advertising for the event. It’s possible that the Pentagon is hesitant to accept such an offer from a newspaper owned by Sun Myung Moon, a billionaire Republican funder and self-proclaimed messiah who was crowned last year in a ceremony attended by members of Congress in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. But Republicans have never been shy about associating with the paper before, so my bet is they’ll be adding it to the sponsors in a later site update. We wouldn’t want Fred Phelps to be the only cult leader associated (though in his case as an opponent) with the Freedom Walk.

Guess who’s going to be picketing the Pentagon’s “America Supports You” Freedom Walk? The Blue Voice informs us that Fred Phelps and his gang of cretins from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, will be coming our way September 11. They’re the folks who own godhatesfags.com (no link — you really don’t want to go there) and have been showing up at military funerals with signs saying things like “Thank God for IEDs!” Their “logic” is that God hates the United States because the country has become too accepting of homosexuality.

Regardless of what signs any peacenik demonstrators or freeper participants show up with, they’ll look good by comparison. But the danger is that any opposition may be painted as allied with Phelps.