There are two main pics (meaning not from today) that are being recycled as if they were from today. Here is one, which just so happens to be the exact same picture from the "Promise Keepers" event held back in the 1990s. Not to mention that today was pretty overcast, and the sun is shining in the Promise Keepers’ picture.

And there is another obvious fake making the rounds as well – this one with so many things wrong with it, that you can make a game of "find as many things wrong with this picture being claimed to be taken today" out of it. - picture that is called into question (note, I am making the change here until I get confirmation on this from someone who knows DC better than I do) for a few reasons.

Here is another being used at The Minority Report as well as at Pajamas Media (Instapundit) - look around 1/3 of the way down labeled "ANOTHER TRAFFIC CAM PIC FROM DC" – and as I said above, the reasoning used when the true live camera shots don’t show the crowd (among other things) is that DC is looping old tapes on a Saturday afternoon to hide the "massive" protest.

I kid you not.

So what else is wrong with that picture? Well, for starters, the flag is at half mast, which it was not today. Here is the actual live cam updated every 2 seconds, and you will see that the flag is certainly not at half mast. Also, the photo is missing the National Museum of the American Indian (opened in 2004), and the trees are a bit fuller in the pic than they are now. Update [2009-9-12 23:6:36 by clammyc]: As I am getting some questions on this, and as I said at the outset, I am not from DC, can someone confirm this bit? I do not want to pass along bad info, but there are things that don't seem to add up....thx.

I've seen a couple more from the area but am waiting to get permission to post them. As soon as I do, I will put them in here. Here are a couple of shots taken early afternoon today as well by fellow kossack kombiz: 3rd Street looking west at the Washington Monument, and here is 4th Street looking east towards the Capitol. PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR BOTH OF THESE LINKS, you need to add a backslash ("/") at the end to make the pic work. For some reason, the html code won't let me add it to the link. Apologies.

Lastly, here is a video (for your enjoyment) taken by Mike Stark earlier today. This was taken from the steps of the Capitol:

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Update [2009-9-12 20:53:27 by clammyc]: - see this diary from dinnerbell for the live traffic cam pic this afternoon.

Update [2009-9-12 22:24:40 by clammyc]: OK, so there have been questions regarding the flag at half staff and video from earlier that shows the flag at half staff. As I said at the top of the diary, I don't know why a flag would be at half staff today (even if 9/11 was yesterday), and I don't know why there is discrepancy in the videos and the pics (and the museum not being in the pic). However, the rest of the diary, including the lack of the museum and the Promise Keepers picture are still without question.