Cross posted from Blue Virginia. I'll be adding more videos, including of Bill McKibben and Van Jones, as soon as they upload to YouTube.
Here are some photos (click to "embiggen") from today's "Forward on Climate," anti-Keystone Pipeline rally near the Washington Monument. Despite the cold, there were upwards of 35,000 people [UPDATE: I'm hearing there may have been as many as 50,000 there] from all over the country, and speakers such as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Van Jones (NRDC Trustee and President of Rebuild the Dream), Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, 350.org President Bill McKibben (see his Daily Kos diary here), Tom Steyer (Investor and founder of the Center for the Next Generation), Chief Jacqueline Thomas (Immediate past Chief of the Saik’uz First Nation in British Columbia and co-founder Yinka Dene Alliance), The Rev. Lennox Yearwood (Hip Hop Caucus President and CEO), Maria T. Cardona (Latinovations Founder, Dewey Square Group Principal), and more. Also see the Forward on Climate press release.
UPDATE: Here are a few photos from LA, courtesy of RL Miller. I hear there were as many as 2,000 people at that rally.
And thousands in San Francisco, courtesy of CREDOMobile:
And the amazing, inspirational Bill McKibben!
UPDATE: Van Jones calls out President Obama, says his legacy, credibility, accomplishments ALL ride on his actions vis-a-vis climate, Keystone.
UPDATE: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) says "Congress is sleepwalking through this crisis and it's time to wake up!"
UPDATE: Billionaire investor (and Obama supporter) Tom Steyer says we need a cleaner, cheaper, more secure energy system, not one based on dirty, damaging tar sands oil.
UPDATE: Actress Rosario Dawson says, "We need to say yes to science and technology, yes to our health and our future, yes to local economies...no fracking, no tarsands, just an innovative technology for our future..."
Also, here's some video of the crowd getting fired up just before the first speakers took the stage (note that it's loud, so you might want to turn down your volume!).