Lyndon Johnson was once on the verge of becoming one of America's greatest presidents.

But with a single wrong turn into Vietnam, LBJ plunged himself and the nation into a ghastly tragedy that still makes us all weep and bleed.

It is NOW! up to us to make sure Barack Obama does not do the same.

Even the corporate media shows signs of understanding the parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan. So many of us are alive today who remember March, 1965, and all the horror that followed, that there is simply no excuse for allowing this lethal mistake to be repeated.

LBJ inherited the momentum of the New Frontier, the murder of John Kennedy and a huge 1964 electoral mandate. He turned them into a string of civil rights and social welfare victories that still vastly enhance all our lives.

But LBJ also inherited from JFK the beginnings of the war in Vietnam. LBJ's choice was to escalate or pull out. Recent biographies indicate he had a strong premonition that the war was futile, and that it would do him in. A century from now, historians will still agonize over why he took the plunge anyway.

Many of them wore kerchiefs over their faces, along with goggles during the protests today. It seems that anarchism has things in common with neo-conservatism with its emphasis on a lack of government control so as to enable huge corporations to escape accountability to the general public.

Today, as was the case during yesterday's protests, there was a large group protesting against China's policies toward Tibet. There were some people near me who were taunting the black-clad riot police by humming one of the themes from a Star Wars movie.

There were signs and chants saying "money for jobs and education not wars and occupation." There was a marching band playing The Battle Hymn of the Republic and an anarchist group chanting "no laws, no borders, no bosses," and a sign that read "Obama, keep your fair trade promises, and "rescue Falun Gong practitioners "

Later I met Adan Stevens-Diaz who came to Pittsburgh from Brooklyn, NY. He was carrying a sign that read " Obama, you're a speech walking. So was Robespeare." When we spoke, Diaz referred to Obama as a "walking sound byte."

The smaller march in Oakland made its way down the slope of 5th Avenue into downtown. When I got there, it was too crowded for me to get close to the area where people were giving electrically amplified speeches. But I caught some of what they were saying. I had heard some of it during events earlier in the week, before this main rally took place.

It seems ironic that some public misconceptions about G-20 protesters have involved the idea that activists are storing human waste to be used against the police and other people. My guess is that the vast majority of the people involved with protesting the G-20 are also intensely and extensively involved in serving their communities, whether it's helping to feed, house, or educate people or some other type of sevice.

Today two young men repeated to me the tale of urine -filled barrels being discovered in Seattle in 2000. He also said people staying at a small tent city in the Hill District had something similar going on during the past few days.

His view of the people at the tent city contrasts with that of the people at the People's Summit who talked about the problems of foreclosures and how domestic and international policies are hurting people. It seems that an element of public sentiment about the G-20 is the idea that people who question and oppose our leaders are pretty much lowlife terrorists and the people who are hurting econi

za of United Students Against Sweatshops, said that Obama is wrong by saying that G-20 protestors have too abstract ideas in terms of their opposition to G-20.