The gathering today at the Loussac library was yet another successful progressive rally for Anchorage!

For a rally that did not even have a day to prepare, I was astounded at the number of people who attended. There are no official estimates so far, but we tried to come up with an unofficial number and tentatively agreed that there were probably around 500 or so participants.(Update: After examining more photos and talking to a few other people I am going to modify my estimate to somewhere between 200 to 300, and that includes the people who did not actively protest outside but did come in to testify.)

Considering how bitterly cold it was, that is just this side of amazing!

And the signs were absolutely incredible! they ranged from the informative, to the hysterical, to the downright fed up. Here are just a few of the ones I was able to photograph.



(This was off of my friend's facebook page because I did not think to get a picture when I was standing next to him.)

Don't you think it captures Sarah Palin's inner beauty?

And not only were hundreds of civilians there but the legislators were not exactly shy about showing their support as well.

Hollis French was one of the first to walk up and interact with the crowd, followed by both Les Gara and Harry Crawford.

But that was not all.

Walt Monegan was also on hand and seemed completely at home among the angry anti-Palin crowd.

Acting mayor Matt Claman also came by to shake a few hands, as did Ethan Berkowtiz, and even ex-Governor Bill Sheffield could not resist coming up and visiting with the feisty group.

You could not turn around without bumping into at least one notable Alaskan politician.

Right before we all went inside Les Gara made the startling announcement that we had won. "She is a backtracking like crazy, and we are confident we can at least get the education money". This was greeted with cheers and incredulous looks.

One protester said "Is it really that easy to beat Sarah these days"? It sure looks like it.

All in all it was a very gratifying experience. And Alaskans, once again, demonstrated that they cannot be bullied and pushed around by ANYBODY. Not anymore.

I will try to post a more expansive piece on what went on INSIDE the committee room, but first I have to talk my friend AKM out of some of the awesome photographs that my blogger buddy took.

However I will leave you with this.

When School Superintendent Carol Comeau stepped up to testify in front of the legislators she addressed the concern that this one time influx of money would not be used wisely, and she said: "Believe me, we KNOW how to utilize short term funds!" To say the least the crowd went wild.