SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A man protesting the looming U.S. war on Iraq fell to his death from San Francisco's famed Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday as he was hanging a banner, officials said.

"He appears to have been hanging a banner of some kind," said California Highway Patrol officer Timothy Willock. "We're not sure if he decided to jump or slipped while he was, you know, hanging the banner. That's unclear right now."

Anti-war sentiment is strong in the San Francisco Bay Area but the death of the man in his 30s was the first related to the latest protests over the U.S.-led war against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

At least he died doing something he loved.

Darwinism is more than just a theory

Howdy All,
The gene pool has just been stregthened.

__________________
Frank X. Morris
17 Kia Niro
08 Jeep Wrangler 4 door unlimited

Do you think god may have pushed him???


SEMPER FI
Gunny

My thoughts exactly

I'm sure our troops in the field will get a kick out of this news.

__________________
D. Chang
Network Integration Engineer
MCSE, CLP, CCNA

08:41 PST -- In a unique form of opposition, some protesters at the Federal Building staged a "vomit in,'' by heaving on the sidewalks and plaza areas in the back and front of the building to show that the war in Iraq made them sick, according to a spokesman.

Many of the approximately 300 protesters demonstrating at the building at 450 Golden Gate Ave. attempted to block building entrances.

Seven anti-war demonstrators were arrested at mid-morning as they sought to block a group of about 20 federal employees and other visitors seeking to enter the building, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Ron Rogers said.

Rogers said all seven were charged with creating a disturbance and two were additionally charged with resisting arrest.

Only the back entrance of the Federal Building on Turk Street was open this morning. People with business inside the building were required to wait outside and were allowed to pass through metal barricades at intervals. The seven arrests occurred during one of the intervals as federal police officers sought to lead visitors around the metal barricades into the building.

On the Larkin Street side of the building, demonstrators blocked the driveway that leads into a basement garage used by federal judges and other officials who work in the building.

Numerous officers from the Federal Protective Service and San Francisco Police Department, wearing helmets and other riot protection gear, formed lines around the building.

OLYMPIA -- A man spent hours chained to the wrong building Tuesday in an ill-planned effort to protest war with Iraq, police said.
Jody Mason padlocked himself to an entrance of the Washington State Grange building at 924 Capitol Way S., thinking it was a sub-office of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Grange employees found him about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday and asked what he was doing.

He told employees he'd chained himself to the building in civil disobedience Monday night after listening to President Bush's televised ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.

Mason padlocked one end of the chain around his neck and the other to a door, which opens to a bottom-floor office. He told onlookers he was protesting Bush's foreign and domestic policies. He had affixed a sign to the building reading, "Reduce Deficit."

Grange employees explained that he was at the wrong building. The Grange is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that advocates for residents in rural areas.

"I don't think that's ever happened before," said Larry Clark, Grange communications director.

No charges

Police officers used heavy-duty bolt cutters to free Mason.

"He asked for help because he didn't have the key," Olympia police Cmdr. Steve Nelson said.

Mason wasn't arrested and won't face any charges. Officers let him go and didn't take his name, Nelson said.

"He was our first protester since President Bush's speech," Nelson said.

Mason, who identified himself to a photographer, said he had looked up the Department of Energy in the phone book. The phone book, under the Department of Energy, lists a Bonneville Power Administration Office at 924 Capitol Way S.

This may piss some people off, but it is honestly not meant to.

I don't get the comments about the guy falling off the bridge. I may not agree with his views, but damn this is America, last I read the constitution, protesting was the most American of Activities. It really scares me, the comments I hear from average man on the street in American these days. Seems it is more about tearing the other guy down, not building your own argument, or attacking his argument, but attacking him personally. Sometimes I think the Sept 11th terrorists would be pretty happy to see what we have done to ourselves as a country since the attacks.

I may not agree with someones opinion, but I certainly would defend his right to speak his mind.

Mack

Spock, I was refering solely to the guy on the bridge comments, as an example of something I don't understand. Maybe he was an idiot, maybe Darwinism was in effect, but I expect he still had a family that will miss him, and he was being an active member of our society. (Once again, this one example is no big deal to me, but as an example of things I have seen over and over again on the news, and other forums since Sept 11th, it does make me pause for thought.)

I was just surprised when the issue came up in the mainstream media: "Is protesting patriotic?" The fact that someone could even ask that question, let along be taken seriously in this country, certainly surprised me. Most of this stuff I take with a grain of salt, maybe chuckle over, or just don't give much thought to at all. But on the other hand, I am taken aback a bit, by how much people seem to be into slamming other people, based on the others opinions. I understand going after someones opinions, it's the nasty personal attacks I don't get. Especially when so many of these attacks seem to come in a mob mentality, fed from news media comments, overall it just kinda worries me a bit about our values, and where we are headed as a country. Though we are mighty strong as a country and have survived similar things in our past, hopefully we will once again take the high ground.

As a side note, I am really waiting to see how we handle Afghanistan, and Iraq in the aftermath. I think the rest of the world's opinon, and our own sense of identity will be far more effected by this in the long term, then what is going on now in Iraq. Hopefully, we can try to prevent this stuff from recurring in the long term, by actions that are taken in the near future.

Cheers, Back to Fox and CNN.

I just have to question the effectiveness of all these protests in the first place. Do people really think blocking traffic and chaining themselves to buildings (even the correct building) will have ANY effect on the decisions made? Maybe it makes these people feel warm and fuzzy about exercising their 1st amendment, but I haven't seen it change anything.
Just wondering.

__________________
past MB rides:
'68 220D
'68 220D(another one)
'67 230
'84 SD
Current rides:
'06 Lexus RX330
'93 Ford F-250
'96 Corvette
'99 Polaris 700 RMK sled
2011 Polaris Assault
'86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper)