Photos of  Biggest Rally in ALASKA history… anti-Palin

[The]  Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of  the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged,  and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all  Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to  expect.

The rally was organized by a small group of women,  talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with  small groups of women talking over coffee. It’s probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and  sent notices to local media outlets. One  of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time  uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not  only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the  rally ‘a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots,’ and read the home phone  numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and  tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received some nasty,  harassing and threatening messages.

I felt a bit apprehensive. I’d been disappointed  before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in  Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it’s a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people  there that aren’t sent by Eddie Burke, we’ll be doing good. A real statement  will have been made. ?I confess, I still had a mental image of 15  demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing ‘socialist baby-killing  maggot’ haters.

It’s a  good thing I wasn’t tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or  I would have ended up in somebody’s trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes  early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library  grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find  a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I  got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every  direction, carrying signs.

Never, have I seen anything like  it in my 17 and a half years living in Anc horage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a  counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90  counter-demonstrators). This was the  biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was  absolutely stunned. The second most  amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove  by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and  awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute.This  just doesn’t happen here.

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried  to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who  started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn’t be heard.Then  passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama  chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs  high.

So, if you’ve been doing the math? Yes. The  Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally  that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy  the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around to anyone who  needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have  things to say.