AAR: Boston Glob Reporter Forgot American Hero, but Knew Who Cindy Sheehan Was (WHCA FReep, 4/29/06)

Honor roll for tonight's FReep include: Jimmy Valentine's Brother, Mr/Mrs Mason-Dixon, bstein80, Doctor Raoul, staytrue, kristinn, tgsltakoma, angelwood, billf, sauropod, exit148, DollyCali, Wheelbarrow, bert, albion wilde, christopher lincoln, bufordp; dinasour, hellinahandcart and gunsareok.

Compared with other years, this year's WHCA FReep was no disappointment. The theme of our counterprotest this year was "Pulitzer Prizes for Treason" given that Dana Priest and others are receiving Pulitzer Prizes for reporting illegally leaked information. There were several signs that alluded to what is going on (only in America), including this brilliant one by BufordP:

This point was further reinforced by our very own Doctor Raoul appearing in front of the Washington Hilton as Boris Badanov and asking the partygoers in tuxes, wrinkled noses and furrowed brows where his Pulitzer was, since he had been working so long to help bring down America, just like them.

Kristinn used a sign to illustrate a point about what the MSM selectively chooses to emphasize. The sign had a picture of Cindy Sheehan and SGT Paul Smith on it. The sign asked, "Why are these two people notable?"

Kristinn's point was that everybody knew who Sheehan was, but very few people knew who SGT Smith was (Only Medal of Honor winner in the current action, died in battle at Baghdad Airport). Kristinn started asking partygoers this pop quiz (with a prize of a $5 Starbucks coupon as a reward for the correct answer). One fellow from the Boston Glob said he did not know who SGT Smith was. When Kristinn told him, he remarked, "Oh yeah, I wrote a story about him."

Think about this. The reporter that wrote a story about a true hero couldn't remember who he was.

There was only one winner for the evening, FoxNews' Bret Baier, who answered correctly immediately.

We saw quite a few other luminaries strolling up to the Hilton. They included Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, James Rosen (FNC), David Schuster (PMSNBC), Bill Plante, Michael Barone (US News and World Report), an infobabe from ABC (could not place her name), Steve Doocy in a cab, and Julian Bond (NAA of Some CP).

I was holding a sign that showed a picture of Dan Rather and Katie Couric (with middle finger extended) and it simply said, "Different hosts, same bias. See BS." Doocy gave the thumbs up from the cab when he saw the sign. I had my camcorder along for the FReep and think I have this on tape.

When I saw Schuster crossing the street, I was trying to man the camcorder and did not ask him about his excreble reporting on Chrissy Matthews show. However, I did score a personal best when BufordP spotted Julian Bond on the opposite side of Connecticut Avenue. I had enough time to get the camcorder fired up, and when Bond reached the median strip, I asked him "Hey Julian, how's the race hustling business going?" I also told him that if we were really the right-wing Taliban, that we had a burka just his size waiting for him. I think i got this on video also.

GunsareOK currently resides in very southern Virginia and came up to Dee Cee just for this event.

Staytrue did his usual stellar effort with posters for the counterprotest. Here are a couple he put together:

Our local yokels were in attendance as per usual. Here is Jimmy Valentine's Brother.

We had a couple of folks from Protest Warrior attend. One guy dressed up like David Gregory.

He had a lot of fun directly in front of the Hilton, greeting Our Rulers were arriving to attend the dinner.

Now, the piece de resistance' (as they say) was Doctor Raoul's brilliant idea of obtaining a bunch of large binkies for the White House Pimp Corps because they complained one day on Air Force One about the TV always being on Fox News. Here is the relevant exchange (posted on exposetheleft.com and originally attributed to The Hotline):

The "Q" making a big deal out of this is Washington Post’s White House Correspondent and frequent Countdown guest, Jim Vandehei:

Q It’s come to my attention that there’s been requests--this is a serious question--to turn these TVs onto a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied. My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?

MR. McCLELLAN: Never heard of any such thing. My TVs are on four different channels at all times.

MR. McCLELLAN: Every TV in the White House also has channels every--has a split screen, where they can--

Q Well, they always seem to be tuned to Fox, and there’s been requests, and these are paid for by taxpayer dollars. And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?

MR. McCLELLAN: First time I’ve ever heard of it. First time you’ve brought it to my attention, meaning the first time the press corps has brought it to my attention. In fact, I’ve watched other channels on here.

MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on, Jim, come on. I’ve watched other channels on here, so I don’t know where you’re hearing that. But it’s the first time anyone in the press has raised that question with me.

Q I’ve never seen--they’re always turned to Fox, which a lot of people consider a Republican-leaning network.

Q Scott, is it one--on the airplane, is it one for all? I mean, if it’s tuned for Fox here, is it Fox everywhere?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that certain areas may be interconnected, but I’ll have to double-check which.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the conference room, or the senior staff office, the staff office, they’re different TVs, and you can switch to different channels. I’m not sure if some of these in the back are connected to some of the others that are watching right here, right now. It doesn’t look like it to me. I’ve never known anyone that’s raised a complaint about a request from back here to watch a different channel.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I’m going to go see if we can change the channel for you. Have you called up?

Q I was the Fox victim, and I was told--the quote was, "No," when I asked for CNN.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don’t know who you talked to, so--it didn’t come to my attention. You don’t know who you talked to either?

MR. McCLELLAN: The magic people at the other end of the phone. Well, I’ll see if this cabin is--

MR. McCLELLAN: As I said, it’s hard to respond to something when I don’t know who it is you talked to.

MR. McCLELLAN: I find this all quite amusing, to tell you the truth. I mean, there are a lot of people on this plane that do watch that channel.

MR. McCLELLAN: First time you brought it to my attention. I’ll go see what we can do on it.

MR. McCLELLAN: We just called up. They’re going to be changing it, at your all’s request, to the channel that you requested, which is CNN —from the press corps.

What a BUNCH of WHINERS! To institutionalize this, Doctor Raoul developed the Jim Vandenhei award. The WH Press Corps were quite taken with these:

I'll ping some more people after I sleep (zzz per below),

but you were eager to get the below photos from this.

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Finally, my photos and sound files from the WHCA dinner and also my notes of some media personalities that we saw.

Photos with borders are hyperlinked. Click on one and it will open in a new window. Click on another and it should open in the same window as the others.

I also have a few sound files (all WAV format). You can click on the links and your browser should open them. Or you can right click and "save us" to save to your hard drive for later listening.

Doctor Raoul as evil spy Boris Badnenov outside the WHCA.

SOUND FILE (10 sec, 108 K): Click here for the too funny
audio.

FReeper Sign directing press towards their quagmire dinner.

Lurker Lauren and bstein80 as David "crybaby" Gregory
were right in front of the Hilton, next to "Boris," as most of the
press went to the dinner

sauropod and hellinahandcart

WW II Bronze Star winner Wheelbarrow and DollyCali, who
came all the way from Ohio and were a joy to have stand with us.

These pretty, young women joined us for a few minutes.

The three nice young women (photo above right), and a few friends of theirs were among, the friendly pedestrians who happened upon our group. There was also a nice young couple with the guy admitting to be one of the few GOPers living in the DuPont Circle area.

There were also the obligatory negative responses typical for liberals that dominate DC providing further evidence that Lenny Bruce was right about at least one thing. He said, "a liberal is someone who is so understanding that he doesn't understand anyone not as understanding as he is."

As an SUV drove by, one of its riders shouted and flipped us off. On the other hand, a woman riding in a different SUV laughed in appreciation at some of our signs as the male driver gave us a thumbs up.

SOUND FILE (2.95 M, 280 sec): Click here for a long file of a stealth liberal (he pretends that he wants us to win the war in Iraq) variously debate with sauropod, kristinn, and myself. He denies that the media has liberal bias, claims wrongly and broadly that Ralph Nader was NOT on the ballot in 2004, tells us that we "need to read more newspapers" (not too condescending), repeats the old liberal complaint about President Bush not attending U.S. troops' funerals, and praises CNN. This liberal went ballistic and left in a huff when I point out that anti-gay anti-troop anti-U.S. hate-monger Fred Phelps (who demonstrates at troop funerals) was a 1988 Al Gore Democratic convention delegate. Says that I need to get my facts straight and he won't talk to me.

[[BLOCK QUOTE THIS] Relative to the all-knowing liberal, here are the facts, as published on the non-partisan Answers.com here (and numerous other places on the internet) on the Phelps-Gore connection that he says I need to get straight:

[BLOCKQUOTE]In the 1980s, the Phelps family were strong political allies with then-senator Al Gore. The home of Fred Jr., Phelps' eldest son, located in the Westboro compound, acted as Gore's campaign quarters for one of his senate races, and the Westboro compound was host to a fundraiser. Numerous photos exist on the internet of Fred Phelps Jr. and his second wife, Betty Phelps-Schurle, posing with Al and Tipper Gore in Phelps Jr.'s home. Phelps also served as a Gore delegate on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988.

[END DOUBLE BLOCKQUOTE]

During an interaction with a early to mid twenties couple, the guy started telling us that the U.S. was losing in Iraq. I explained that (paraphrasing here): "No, we've won in Iraq and it just remains a question of whether we have the political will to sustain what is already a victory." This liberal guy says "over 2000 dead, you can't believe were winning." I said, "We mourn every one of those troops who died, including the over 700 who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country in Iraq last year, but we also keep war in perspective. Over 43,000 Americans died in traffic accidents last year and that didn't involve liberating a country or leading to three fair elections in a land that never had real elections. Hundreds of thousands of Americans die every year from smoking and obesity, both preventable conditions. Turning to war history, many more Americans died in WWII's Battle of the Bulge in six weeks than have died in over 3 years in Iraq. And that was when the military effort of Germany's National Socialists or Nazis was already in full death rattle."

At that stage, the guy, who had begin walking away silently, unable to offer any contrary facts, became annoyed that his girlfriend actually was listening to me. He sternly looked at her and induced her to walk away with him. At that stage, BufordP started calling out to them, "Quit, run. Run away before you hear any more facts. The truth might hurt you." They beat a hasty retreat with the guy looking downtrodden like he had just suffered the ultimate put-down in front of his girlfriend. (Then again, she probably already knew that he's a wuss and she's just using him for amusement until a real man, such as one of our brave troops, steps up.)

A long distance view of some of the FReepers with some pedestrians passing..

Closer view of FReepers.

Another view of some FReepers.

Jimmy Valentine's brother takes a well deserved break, after spending much time in carnival barker mode, in front of three of the
great FReeper signs. At least the ones on the ends were made made by staytrue, who came all the way from his temporary Ohio
location to FReep with us.

SOUND FILE (10 sec, 113 K): Click here, Jimmy Valentine's brother promotes the CNN pacifiers. (Pacifiers shown in photo in sauropod's great report starting this thread.)

Michael Barone crosses the street towards us.

At left, is Michael Barone, author of The Almanac of American Politics, 2006 and frequent guest on Fox News. We cheered him and said that we liked him, leading him to say, "Now I'm in trouble here." SOUND FILE (29 sec, 315 K): Click here to hear us, but the mike didn't pick up Barone's funny comments because he was too far away.

Bill Plante of CBS News

Julian Bond starts to deviate from the cross-walk to avoid walking
near us.

Bond is completely out of the cross-walk as BufordP looks on.

Chris Matthews and wife Kathleen Matthews, a local news anchor
in DC also walk outside the cross-walk to avoid coming close to us.

Despite Julian Bond's attempt to side step us per above two photos, sauropod ("How's the race hustling going?") and BufordP ("Whitey, right. It's whitey's fault."), among others, nailed him verbally from a distance. My thought was "Ah, that's going to leave a mark." Bond did not respond. SOUND FILE (26 sec, 281 K): Click here to hear our gentle verbal skewering of Bond.

Chris Matthews and his wife, Kathleen, a local TV news anchor, arrived incredibly late and avoided us the way liberals avoid facts or peaceniks avoid soap. They were still in earshot as I shouted, "Michelle Malkin is saving you a table" and Angelwood shouted, "I've got a pacifier for you, binky."

Among others spotted long before Matthews: David Shuster of CNN, Jamie Colby of Fox, Fareed Zakaria of ABC News "This Week," Steve Doocy of Fox News "Fox & Friends," Victoria Toensing and husband Joe DeGeneva (gave them a thumbs up), Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) (some FReeper told him that we don't like him), Joe Strup from Editor and Publisher, Wolfe Blitzer of CNN, Brett Bauer of Fox News (who won the award for knowing that Sgt. Paul Smith posthumously won the Congressional Medal of Honor for action in Iraq), James Rosen of Fox News, John Podesta, former WH Chief of Staff for the only impeached President since just after the Civil War (he had no idea who Sgt. Paul Smith was), Dana Milbank of the WashPost (who refused to stop to answer the Smith question for the $5 Starbucks gift certificate), Lou Dobbs of CNN (who waved in response to BufordP saying "How are doing?"), Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard, Jay Carney of Newsweek and his wife, Claire Shipman, of ABC News, Armstrong Williams and Suzanne Malveaux of CNN, Carl Cameron of Fox News, and Lanny Davis, the Clintons' sock puppet.

Liberal talk show host and occasional Fox News guest Ellen Ratner later took an elevator with BufordP and I. Recognizing her as she got out of the elevator, Buford told her that "Hannity could kick her butt." She stopped and chatted. I don't have the audio of the chat with her, but I have the audio of Buford and I discussing the funny conversation. SOUND FILE (100 sec, 1 M): Click here.

Post FReep, staytrue watches as BufordP and Jimmy
Valentine's brother pose

Double rows of limos parked in the street on both sides as I left

After the FReep, many of us relocated to the restaurant to watch the C-SPAN broadcast of the White House Correspondent's Dinner, including the hilarious performance by President Bush appearing with Bush-impressionist Steve Bridges. Jimmy Valentine's brother got rowdy, in a funny way, to the point that BufordP told the waitress that "We'll try to keep him away from the other patrons." The waitress, got into the fun, by saying that "if he keeps going, I'll have to make him use one of those," gesturing to the jumbo CNN baby pacifiers. See photo, above left.

Despite the record gas prices and the constant news stories about our excess gas consumption hurts our country, the news media came in fleets of gas-guzzling limos, the natural home of the limousine liberal. There were rare media in a few cabs or regular vehicles. Maybe fewer actually took public transportation, although we couldn't tell that.

At any rate, after the President's speech and the first few minutes of incredibly unfunny Steven Colbert, I left ahead of the crowd, and spotted huge double rows (see one photo, above right) of limos lining both sides of the main road and waiting for their celebrities. These WHCA are the same reporters telling us that we have to give up our SUVs, lest we help Arab radicals and cause global warming. And it seems that they hired every limo on the East coast. Where were the bikes, skateboards, and wind-powered wagons? Nowhere to be found.

The DC area gas price probably would have been a few cents lower had the WHCA required all attendees to use public transportation or non-gas methods (walking, biking, etc.) to attend, excepting those having legitimate security or medical reasons requiring other modes of transport.

I later found out that staytrue had left at the end. As he recounted in one of his great posts on this thread, his car was boxed in by security road closings. Being a good FReeper, he immediately made a sign that said "CALL 911/ COLBERT'S CAREER JUST DIED." This caused hysterically laughter among those who had just seen the comedian "die" on stage in a awful performance.

Anyway, the next day, I got a photo of that spur-of-the-moment sign. I added some brightness and contrast.

It was great FReeping with all, especially those who made such a long trip to FReep including Bert (TN), Dinsour (CN), staytrue (OH), DollyCali (OH), Wheelbarrow (OH), and GunsAreOK (VA, but really far from DC).

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