From the San Francisco Chronicle:
It was so easy to get into the Republican National Convention that activist Gael Murphy got in two straight nights before making national news by stripping down to her pink slip during Vice President Dick Cheney's speech. Seconds later -- enough time to get her photo taken -- security officials tackled her and hauled her away.
The 50-year-old's key to burrowing into her own personal Death Star: a media pass. Obtained from "a friend of a friend" whose media organization she won't divulge.
Secret Service spokeswoman Ann Roman did not know how activists like Murphy from the peace group Code Pink had acquired the passes. Roman said, "People who got onto the convention floor had proper credentials."
But that doesn't mean they were holding their credentials. Murphy's pass didn't have a photograph on it. Plus, the Washington, D.C., resident is a veteran disrupter, who has crashed everything from the Senate hearings on the Abu Ghraib prison debacle to the United Nations. She is able to devote substantial time to her activism thanks to her savings and "a supportive partner," she said.
On Monday and Tuesday night forays, she just walked around inside Madison Square Garden, scoping out the joint. She kept moving so as not to sit in the wrong place and be escorted out. Despite wearing a media credential, she wasn't carrying a pen, notebook or camera.
"I was just experiencing what it was like to be surrounded by a convention hall full of Republicans," Murphy said. "I was getting high on the ignorance. And it wasn't a good high."
On Tuesday, she accompanied Fernando Suarez del Solar, an Escondido (San Diego County) resident who also slipped into the convention on a borrowed media credential. Suarez's son, Jesus, was a Marine killed in Iraq in March 2003. After unfurling a sign that said, "Bush Lied. My Son Died," he managed to do a few interviews before being escorted out of the hall. He was not arrested.
On Wednesday, it was Murphy's turn. She tucked a 4-by-4-foot cloth sign reading "Cheney and Halliburton, Making a Killing in Iraq" under the waistband of her black pants. Her pink slip, with "Cheney is in bed with Halliburton and we got screwed," written on it, flopped over the sign. Covering the slip was a blue silk shirt.
She entered the Garden carrying only a shoulder purse, and cleared the one metal detector. Nobody patted her down. Her media badge was checked five different times before she made it to a bank of still photographers near the stage. Then she handed off the sign to another activist, who flashed the sign. When Murphy unbuttoned her shirt, delegates yelled, "Look! She's got Cheney and Halliburton on."
SNIP