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NARR: Bush used the same themes he has throughout his presidency.
SOT: Bush: We love our freedom, and we will fight to keep it.
NARR: But Sunsara Taylor wasn't listening.
SOT: Taylor: This is not a president who deserves a hearing, this is a president where we have the responsibility to drive him out. If we don't, shame on us.
NARR: Taylor is a political organizer with the group World Can't Wait in New York City. They protest because they can't wait for Bush to leave the White House.
SOT: Taylor: So in over 65 cities around the country, and here in New York in Times Square we're gathering.
NARR: They hoped to attract media attention with a big rally in the heart of Times Square. But the NYPD said that would have disrupted traffic, and police surrounded the empty center of the square with barriers and paddy wagons. The rally ended up a couple of blocks south on Broadway, and started an hour before Bush's speech.
SOT: Noor's speech: There are more reasons than ever to demand that Bush step down now.
NARR: About a thousand demonstrators were corralled into a pen made of police barriers. Bored looking police lined the streets and sidewalks. A woman from Paris wasn't used to that.
SOT: Parisian woman: I'm just really surprised to see that people can't protest freely, that they have to be packed like animals with policemen all around.
NARR: Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War were there.
SOT: IVAW member #1: I'm here because I feel that Bush is morally wrong and he has killed some of my best friends.
SOT: IVAW member #2: I don't want history to write that nobody cared about the people over there.
NARR: Folks on the street had different opinions of what they saw.
SOT: Observer #1: People get brainwashed by the media. They don't even know what the issues are. It's ridiculous. Get a job. Don't protest.
SOT: Observer #2: We're suffering in this country. We're suffering globally. We gotta stand up. This is like the last chance.
SOT: Observer #3: So far I just see a lot of misinformed left-leaning people thinking that they're going to effect positive change when it's not going to happen.
SOT: Observer #4: It's time to storm the Bastille. I mean, this has got to end, we're slipping into Fascism and I will not live in a Fascist State.
SOT: Observer #5: It's just a little bit too late, because he's already in, he's going to do his 8 years.
SOT: Observer #6: I'm getting a great sense of amusement out of it, because Alito is in and Rowe v. Wade is out, and these people are going to be irrelevant real soon.
NARR: Bush began his address at 9, and the protesters cranked up the noise.
SOUND: "1, 2, 3" noise.
NARR: To drown out Bush's lies, they said.
SOUND: Chant, "Bush step down."
NARR: At around 9:30 they decided to march on Times Square.
SOT: Taylor: ....up on the sidewalk into the heart of Times Square.
NARR: After last minute negotiations, police let the protesters parade up to 43rd street, around the police station, and back into the protest pen south of 42nd. They never made it into the center of Times Square, where the paddy wagons sat unused and a video screen on the lonely U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station's northern wall showed scenes of soldiers, tanks, planes and flags to an empty square. Words appeared on the screen: "Freedom-worth fighting for."
SOC: I'm Matt Hirshberg, Columbia Radio News.