With 86,000 people pledged to get arrested over Keystone XL, expect a lot more

protests like Sunday's at the White House.

With 86,000 people pledged to get arrested over Keystone XL, expect a lot more

protests like Sunday's at the White House.

"Hey! Obama! We don't want no pipeline drama!"

That was one of the chants of an estimated 1,000 mostly young demonstrators who marched from Georgetown University to Lafayette Park across from the White House Sunday to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Along the way, they briefly stopped at Secretary of State John Kerry's house. Because the pipeline would cross the Canada-U.S. border, Kerry is charged with advising President Obama as to whether it is in the "national interest."

Speakers in the park explained their opposition to Keystone XL and the continued burning of fossil fuels as hundreds of protesters zip-tied themselves to the White House fence. Others lay down as part of a "human oil spill."

By the end of the day 398 of them had been arrested for civil disobedience for "blocking the sidewalk."

Unlike such acts during the civil rights era when police turned firehoses, dogs and billy-clubs onto crowds, protesters were taken Sunday in their plastic zip-cuffs to waiting police vans smiling and laughing as their supporters cheered them on. As has been the case with most Keystone XL-related arrests, this was catch-and-release, with protesters fined and let go. There was no violence on the part of protesters or police.

This is just the latest round of Keystone XL-related arrests at the White House that began in 2011. Not likely to be the last. More than 86,000 people have taken the CREDO pledge to be arrested, if necessary, in opposition to the pipeline. President Obama is expected to announce his decision on whether to approve construction sometime after May 1, but the "after" could be days, weeks or months.

Please read below the fold for more about Sunday's protest.