Coverage of the Vigil in DC to Honor Dr. George Tiller, Call to Action

On Monday, June 1st, people in DC and the surrounding areas assembled outside the White House for a vigil in honor of Dr George Tiller. Sum of Change Productions was there to document the occasion and brings us this video:



"We will not stand for cowards who resort to violence."

Dr Tiller touched many lives, and this vigil, or any, will never fully repay all that he gave to society. In most MSM outlets he is referred to as an "abortion doctor" although anyone who knows anything about him knows full well that he was far more than that. He cared for women and families, and provided them with many services, often when few others would. His assassination was "cowardice" and we shall treat it as so.

We want to take a moment to thank all the clinic workers and clinic escorts, they have lost a colleague, and our nation has lost a hero. Clinic escorts provide a valuable service. As the Washington Area Clinic Defense Task Force (WACDTF) puts it, they "ensure a peaceful and reassuring presence for patients, their companions, and staff, at several local clinics." It is a wonderful way that you personally can take action on this issue. People in the DC area can contact the WACDTF if you would like to volunteer. Others should contact your local clinic.

And do not forget, you can always contribute to the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF). The NNAF was formed in 1993. It is a "network of over 100 grassroots groups in more than 40 states that help women pay for abortion services." If you can spare, now is as important a time as ever to do so.

Lastly: Thank you Dr George Tiller for your years of service and dedication, you will be missed.

Debunking Crowd Estimate Lies

I wrote about this previously, but now I have a video evidence.

Quick recap:
On Saturday, March 21st 2009, thousands of people gathered in DC to march on the Pentagon for peace. However, some people in the media felt the need to blatantly lie about the size of the crowd, claiming it was as low as a "few hundred."

Using footage, captured from a bridge as the march went by underneath, we estimated the size of the crowd. The footage, which was not of the entire crowd, clearly showed that these reports were severely low in their estimates. The process for estimating crowd size is an incredibly easy one. It is, literally, middle school difficulty math. As I said before:

First, you single out a small section. You want to use as large a section as possible with the constraints of time and ability to count all the people. You count how many people are in that block. You can then count how many times that block is represented by the entire crowd. There is obviously a margin of error, but it is actually quite accurate.

The fact that these news organizations neglected to take the small amount of time necessary to produce an accurate estimate is not surprising or important. What is important, is that these organizations reported a crowd estimate knowing full well that they had no idea what the real number was. They could have simply not reported a number. Since they did report one, without knowing if it was accurate, they were lying.

Here at Left Chattering, we estimated the size to be, at a minimum, 3,250 people.

And here is Left Chattering's latest video, which includes the footage we used to estimate the crowd size:

VIDEO: Anti-War March on the Pentagon

Finally, after several incredibly annoying technical difficulties, many of which I have yet to figure out, I have finished editing footage from the anti-war march on Saturday. So here it is:

Pics: Saturday Anti-War March on Pentagon

Saturday, March 21st 2009, Anti-war march to the Pentagon and war profiteer offices:

Video to come shortly... Hopefully tomorrow, if I can get a little sleep tonight.

(click to enlarge)