Excellent. 
Posted on 08/28/2004 3:33:16 PM PDT by SW6906
Today the unwashed masses gathered at the Tacoma Dome for a Kool-Aide drinking party AKA a Kerry rally. The line snaked down several blocks and was continuously feeding into the event for about four hours. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say there were thousands and thousands of Kerry-ites there. All-in-all, there were at the peak about 50+ pro-Bush/anti-Kerry protesters spread out over a couple block area.
I arrived in Tacoma around 8:30 AM and never before have I seen so many hard-core lefties in one place as I saw here. Nearly every car I saw as I drove to the parking garage (and in the parking garage) had at least a Kerry sticker, more often than not also some kind of anti-Bush sticker. This was truly going into the belly of the beast. As I parked my car, I decided that:
1-I better back my truck into a wall parking space, and
2-I better take down the 8X11 Unfit For Command book cover picture from my back window.
I need this vehicle to get to work. ;o)
I linked up with our fearless chapter leader, Libertina as she stood alone on a corner with her Kerry Lied sign. We weren't there five minutes before we got our first one-finger salute. One woman with a Bush Lied shirt stood across the street and gestured to herself saying "This is who lied". That was just too much of a slow, fat softball pitch right over the plate that Libertina felt compelled to swing it out of the park with her retort: "Yeah, that's right, you are a liar!" That lady gave us our second one-finger salute.
We weren't allowed to meet at our original meeting place, so other Freepers may have had trouble finding us. We met up with some Protest Warriors and headed up towards the event. We soon discovered that the real protest was down a block and around the corner, right at the entrance to the rally! Yes, folks, they set us up on one side of a narrow two-lane street with the line feeding into the rally across the street, WELL within eye and earshot. The police did a good job of keeping the street a "no mans land" as many a time one of theirs tried to come over to get in our faces.
There was one guy there on our side who was VERY vocal, mostly about Vietnam. For some reason, after a while, he decided to get off on a rant about homosexuals and abortion, asking the crowd across the street to raise their hands if they were a "homo" or had had an abortion. After some time of this, a cop came and asked him to tone it down and not use the word homo. Bad idea. This set him off even more and he got louder and even more offensive. Several of us tried asking him to calm down as he was not making us look good, he was not helping the cause. We eventually packed up and moved down the block as we didn't want to be associated with his over-the-top extremism and choice of language - especially when there were kids there.
I respect his opinion, but this just wasn't the place to go off on that. None of the 25+ signs we had dealt with homosexuality or abortion (including his), that was not what we were there for.
After about an hour, he left and we were able to return to the prime spot he had occupied.
The LaRouchie's showed up with a huge banner condemning Bush and Kerry. They had some obscene song they kept singing over and over in unison about Bush and (Dick) Cheney and Kerry and so on. It actually was a nice sounding tune, but the words were nothing I liked. Good thing it was hard to understand many of the words. ;o)
A big group of the protesters (Protest Warriors?) brought these HUGE 4 ft X 8 ft poster boards that they wrote everything from Kerry is a Traitor to Asians for Kerry to Washington Loves President Bush to Kerry Lied and so on. EXCELLENT signs as they were huge with large, easily readable letters. We took turns holding them at various times.
Of course there were a lot of one-finger salutes and swearing at us, all in front of kids that were waiting to go in. One guy was trying to sell stickers to people waiting in line that said “Lick Bush and his Dick” (as in Cheney) or something obscene like that.
One yell I used over and over as the line moved by was “Kerry wraps his campaign in Vietnam and says Bring it On, then when the Swift Boat Vets bring it on, he says make them stop, make them stop” (in a whiney voice).
Kerry was supposed to be there at noon, he ended up being 50 minutes late. By then, we had been told by some of Tacoma’s finest that Kerry was going to come right by on the main street at the end of the side street we were on, so we moved down there and lined both sides of the street with our huge signs and people waving flags. When his entourage arrived, he drove RIGHT THROUGH OUR GAUNTLET. When he came around the corner and saw us, he was clearly seen in his SUV (yes, he was in an SUV) immediately turning and ducking his head so as not to see us. Coward.
Several of the vehicles in the entourage had signs in them saying Press Pool. In one of them the passenger in the front seat had his window down and I saw him flip us off. Another person said they heard him yell FU as well. Nope, no media bias here folks, nothing to see.
A couple other Freepers besides Libertina and I were there, but I’m afraid I didn’t get their names. As I recall more details, I’ll post replies……….
Excellent.
I don't like the request to suppress either but it seems like the cop was working at pre-emptive riot control.
So what did you think of Washington? Was the weather cooperative?
I spent most of life childhood in Oly.
Now you know why I love FR so much!
Excellent notion for those whose transports are wounded in the line of duty.
It was gorgeous! And the weather was absolutely perfect. I had a wonderful time. I want to move there!
Actually, something kind of funny happened. We took the "Duck Tour" in Seattle, (which was hilarious and a lot of fun, BTW.) At one point we passed this guy who held up a sign saying, "Hug a Republican in Seattle!" I figured, if that poor guy was a Republican in Seattle, he probably needed a hug! I could feel his pain, since being a Republican in LA is just as lonely! LOL!
Anyway, thanks again for your help. My friends and I had a terrific time in Washington and can't wait to go back!
Seriously, we have glorious summers, but when it rains non-stop for two solid months or more during the winter, the non-natives usually move away at their first opportunity.
SW6906, have you been impressed with our summers the last few years? When I was a kid, we went days or even almost weeks with gray skies in summer, waiting for a day to get warm enough to go swimming. Now we wait for a day to get a little overcast so we can cool off. It's strange.
Nea, did you go into the Capitol building with the dome? That's where I hung out almost all the time in grade school, sliding down the low marble edges of the massive staircases, sneaking along the ledge of the Supreme Court building to look into its upper story offices, climbing to the dome (it was still open then), riding my bike down the capitol steps, slipping quietly into the legislative chambers or diplomatic reception room in awe, using the big trees for forts, playing in the Sunken Garden, etc. I lived very near the Capitol grounds. I think living in the shadow of the Capitol affected me in a political way ... hehe.
I'm so glad you came here and got to see the grandeur.
What I found suprising was we didn't hear anything this summer about water restrictions or water conservation like we have in hot summers past. Interesting.
We went into the Supreme Court building, but the Capitol building was not open for visitors at that time. Olympia must have been a fun place for you to grow up!
Oh, yeah, I know it rains a lot there. I've been real lucky the two times I've visited, though. Real nice weather!
I was pouring myself a glass of tap water the other day and thinking exactly what you wrote.
When the local "news" (lol) programs were threatening us with a severe water shortage a couple or three years ago, taking film crews out to the reservoirs and lakes and showing the *frightening* water levels, predicting death and mayhem, so to speak, I asked the Lord if I needed to pray about this -- was it really that bad? I had the feeling they were beating drums for a manufactured disaster. After praying over time, I just had the strongest sense that they were in an old playbook and were not basing their projections on anything but fear not founded in fact, on the assumption they needed to tell us to ration our toilet flushes or something.
It rained good and plenty when we needed it.
Wash, rinse, repeat. I think they finally realized how silly they were being and knocked it off.
I'm so glad you got to see at least part of the Capitol complex. It WAS a fun place to grow up. I lived up Capitol Way while they were building Interstate 5 next to my school (we were way up on the bank over the freeway but my friends and I scooted down the big cliff to watch the construction).
The Capitol grounds were our park and second home. It was as if all the kids in our neighborhood had a mansion with its grounds for a back yard, and professional gardners to make it all look gorgeous as the seasons changed. My parents, on pleasant summer nights at dusk or early dark, sometimes piled us in the car in our PJ's and drove us to the fountain and let us run around to blow off energy while they sat in the waning light and enjoyed the quiet beauty. There was a Dairy Queen a couple blocks away ... and Capitol Lake for swimming just down the hill from the Capitol grounds.
It was all just the right size for kids to feel free to play, roam, learn, enjoy.
When the local "news" (lol) programs were threatening us with a severe water shortage a couple or three years ago, taking film crews out to the reservoirs and lakes and showing the *frightening* water levels, predicting death and mayhem, so to speak, I asked the Lord if I needed to pray about this -- was it really that bad? I had the feeling they were beating drums for a manufactured disaster. After praying over time, I just had the strongest sense that they were in an old playbook and were not basing their projections on anything but fear not founded in fact, on the assumption they needed to tell us to ration our toilet flushes or something.
I know of one lake that may or may not be drained by man-made means. Alder. When I first got here, they were draining it (other lakes too, maybe?) .... not sure why, maybe fear of flooding... I don't know. Maybe they're not "wasting water" anymore.
These are the kind of people who support kerry including the media who are obviously not objective or decent human beings who know how to conduct themselves professionally. I only hope the American people reject these immoral bunch of pigs on election day.
Nope, no media bias here, move along, nothing to see........
I was stunned by the level of swearing and incivility displayed by the Kerry side. I was going to bring my 8-year-old daughter today and I'm glad I decided not too. Now, before you think I'm some kind of prude, you should know I can be about as crude as they come ;o) I just choose not to expose my daughter to these things.
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