The gathering, made up of several groups including Code-Pink, has formed to let Obama know that they are not happy with the aggressive direction that the administration is taking in relation to Afghanistan, along with the lack of troop withdrawal in Iraq and the waffling of the attitudes about torture and transparency.
Also present are people from the Armenian community demanding acknowledgment of the genocide they have suffered by the Turks.
The anti-proposition 8 group is expected to join the protest within the hour.

Hundreds of Right to Marry demonstrators joined the anti-war protest in progress outside the Beverly Hilton at around 6:00 pm.

By their sheer numbers the demonstration quickly became a repeal Prop 8 rally. Hundreds chanted as Democrats left the fund raiser.

Almost all corporate media vans were at the event. No arrests have been reported. Police were most peaceful with the exception of one dispute with Armenian protesters on the use of amplified sound in the City of Beverly Hills.

Groups with members and banners present at the anti-war protest in addition to CODEPINK were World Can't Wait, Veterans for Peace, ANSWER, Progressive Democrats of America, and We Are Change. It was a good protest for visibility along busy Wilshire Blvd., and there were frequent honks in support from traffic. But it would have been wise to plan the protest to last longer than 3:30 - 5:30pm, because when the big Obama donors and celebs (I saw Alan Alda, Ron Howard, and Seth Rogen, to name a few) emerged from the Beverly Hilton, the anti-war protesters had already left. Moreover, the peace protest dwindled away just as rush hour was really kicking in. And I think most importantly, the fact that nightly TV news broadcasts AIR SHORTLY AFTER 5:30pm seems like a golden opportunity, but when the corporate media's local affiliates WENT LIVE FROM THE PROTEST SITE in the 6pm slot and the 6:30pm slot, there were only a fraction of the anti-war protesters remaining. I know we've all given up on the corporate media, but if we're going to go to the trouble of protesting in the first place and the cameras are right there but we're not, it gives them the wrong visual and makes it easier for them to diminish the movement.

I think the anti-war crowd in LA is showing its age. Very few youth and 20s - 30s folk at the anti-war protest. Most people were over 40 and many of the same old faces, very sad actually.

No 8 protests have diversity, youth and energy. No 8 protesters started showing up around 5:30 pm and by 7:00 pm there were close to 300, double the size of the anti-war rally. The No 8 rally had energy, a festive nature, and cohesion. The anti-war rally was more a display of the various factional sects of the hard left in the US and the all hate each other.

Anti-war activists, what's left of them, need to focus on out reach at high schools and colleges. They need to address aspects of the war that hurt youth, the poor and working class like countering the recruiters. This is what they always say they are doing, but most youth go to one or two their boring events and then lose interest.

They need to lose the old left jargon and stop with the same old stupid chants. I don't think they are capable of this because they just keep repeating themselves with permit marches in the same place. They lack the creativity of other independent non-aligned grassroots groups.

For any anti-war efforts to have any real effect it needs to be built back up by local grassroots activists without interference from any political parties.

I am appalled that there are these ridiculous attacks on "anybody over 40" essentially. You asked for a response, here it is: ONLY 18% OF PEOPLE AGES 18-35 VOTE AND THAT IS WHY WE LOST ON PROPOSITION 8. Young people are the majority of the population, but they do not vote like a majority, but like a minority. 50% OF THE VOTERS ARE OVER AGE 50; and that is the age group that will not change, and millions of us voted No on 8, but we did not have enough people voting. AND MORE TO THE POINT, WE LOST BECAUSE LOS ANGELES COUNTY YOUNG PEOPLE DID NOT VOTE, so that Los Angeles County, which gave No on 8 49.9% of the vote, DID NOT DO ITS NECESSARY JOB IN PUTTING THE NO ON 8 CAMPAIGN OVER THE TOP, which is always what Los Angeles County does for all worthwhile campaigns.

Here are the November 2008 Election Results:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2008_general/57_65_ballot_measures.pdf
Prop 8 passed with 52% of the vote; we needed about 700,000 votes to defeat it. Those votes should have come from Los Angeles County and we could easily have defeated it if young people had bothered to vote at all as it is the young people who have experienced 40 years of gay pride marches and have no memory of the time before 1969 when there was no such thing as gay liberation, much less gay marriage, and the years before 1975 in California, when sodomy was illegal. To old people, over age 60, if they are superstitious aka religious, the concept of gay marriage is completely beyond belief.

About 13 million people voted in a state with 27 million adults. That means millions of young people did not vote at all, and as usual, most of the workingclass, those of us who sell our labor for less than $76,000 a year, usually much less, did not vote at all. This was a typical presidential general election for California, a widely publicized election, with widely publicized Proposition 8, and still all we got only 13,743,000 people to vote on anything in November 2008. See
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2008_general/3_voter_part_stats_by_county.pdf

Here are the figures on who votes:
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/jtf/JTF_LikelyVotersJTF.pdf
California's Likely Voters as of August 2008, according to tihs Public Policy Institute of California "Just The Facts" Sheet, are 70% white in a state where whites, non-Hispanic European descendants are 40%, and 50% of the voters are over age 50.

I am proud to have been one of those over age 50 who not only voted No on 8, but also gave money and campaigned for the No on 8 campaign, and that is true for all of us "old people over age 40" that I know, and we all vote in every election. We do not, however, have the energy to go to nighttime protests, whether or not we are retired, and most people I know are still working.

I am proud of the fact that I have been going to peace marches in my hometown of San Francisco (which as usual led the state with 75.2% No on 8, but it should have been 90% No on 8), for almost 60 years AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A BORING PEACE MARCH OR RALLY. They have been large and small, but all very worthwhile and meaningful. I can remember peace marches in the 1950s, when you were considered a crazy radical, subject to being fired from your job by the anti-Communist US government if you went to peace marches. As you may recall from history, both the wars against Korea of the 1950s and against Vietnam of the 1950s and 1960 were "wars of anti-Communism." We also marched for peace with the Soviet Union and against nuclear war.

As to today's peace movement, IT IS TEACHING YOUNG PEOPLE BOTH IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS AND IN THE WORKINGCLASS COMMUNITIES TO NEVER JOIN THE MILITARY. If you think the work is inadequate, join us and help us do more.

Please do not attack people who are old enough to be your parents; thank them for doing the work that they manage to do despite their age, and do more work yourself if you have so much energy.

THERE IS WORK TO DO RIGHT NOW TO REPEAL PROP 8 IN NOVEMBER 2010. THE FIRST THING YOU CAN DO IS REGISTER TO VOTE. Go to your County Registrar, listed in the phone book and at the Secretary of State's website at:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_d.htm

There are 2 pro-gay marriage initiatives being circulated, and you could help circulate them. See
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm#circ
Nos. 1356 which replaces the term marriage with domestic partnership and 1357 which repeals Prop 8 of Nov 2008.

In the Fall of 2010, when the campaign heats up, we need young people to walk precincts that voted at least 40% No on 8 to make sure everyone there is registered to vote and pushes the pro-gay marriage people to the polls, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG PEOPLE, AGES 18-35. THERE ARE 58 COUNTIES IN CALIFORNIA AND WE NEED YOU TO WALK AS MANY PRECINCTS AS YOU CAN IN ALL 58 COUNTIES.

AND DON'T FORGET TO ATTEND ALL THE PEACE MARCHES TOO. I will be working both to repeal prop 8 and will attend as many peace marches as I can, on my very bad legs, after working a 40 hour workweek.