Last weekend, I attended a fine rally at Westlake protesting the Bush Administration's numerous proposed and implemented outrages against women. It was what you'd expect--a few hundred people, good music, good speakers, five tables from competing socialist groups, all followed by an inexplicable march to the Federal Building, which is empty on Saturday. Sooner or later (hopefully much sooner) people who are concerned about Dubya's multiple threats to various issues must band together in a coordinated and strategic way, cuz predictable rallies with a few hundred people each ain't gonna cut it--a subject I want to write about in more detail next issue.

But what caught my attention was on the fringes of the rally. A dozen obnoxious male anti-abortion protesters had quietly gathered, holding the inevitable Jesus and fetus signs, and the cops wanted to force them out of the park on the premise that the women's groups had a permit, and they did not. One objecting protester waved around a copy of the Bill of Rights, claiming--accurately--that it was his permit, and the cops were threatening arrest based upon political speech and beliefs.

We've heard this before--at WTO, at numerous events, actually, where protesters were harassed by cops. But this time, some rally attendees were actively siding with the police, wanting them to evict the distasteful counter-protesters. Three women helpfully stationed themselves with placards in front of the largest fetus posters, so as to spare rally-goers the unseemly sight of an opposing thought.

Remember the old truism, "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"? Fat chance. Nobody that I saw came to these guys' defense. Everyone seemed quite happy that they were being run off. And those "stupid" Jesus freaks knew exactly how hypocritical it was. It's sobering, and dismaying, to witness an incident in which progressives were just as intolerant of dissent as the people they oppose.