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……….
Any pictures?
An agent provocateur, no doubt.
PHOTOS PLEEZZZZE! We gotta See da pictures. Which MSM van and ego flipped you off? I'm sure it would make a great news item for Sean H and Laura I would just love to talk about it come Monday's show I'm sure.
Bad Freeper SW6906, bad! No biscuit!
Thanks for the great report. Great writing too!
Keep up the good work!
Too bad you didn't have a video camera to document the unbiased press at work.
No, he difniately wasn't an enemy plant, he just had his own agenda. He was there for nearly two hours fighting the good fight for us quite effectively before he got on his homosexual/abortion rant.
I enjoy these first hand accounts.
Things you'll never see in the LSM.
Good job- thanks.
Sorry, no picture. It was a generic blue van with no marking except the "Press Pool" sign on the dash. No way to identify who he was. There were a number of others in the van with him, though.
If Protest Warrior was there, chances are they'll have photos of their own posted up in a couple of days. Check their website/forums.
How can I get involved with the Protest Warrior group?
Nice report, it was almost like being there.
They are loosely affiliated with us, we definitely have a similar message and agenda.
RATS! It would have been so much fun to plaster the offending Urinalist's mug all over the news.
Thank you so much for your activism and great report. Job well done.
Gotta run for a bit, I'll check back/reply in a while.
"An agent provocateur, no doubt."
My thought also. The left will stop at nothing to discredit the opposition.
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