Posted on 07/05/2008 4:01:45 PM PDT by Syncro
By John Henderson jhenderson@dailyprogress.com
Published: July 5, 2008
While thousands flocked to hear President Bush speak at Monticello on Friday morning, Dana Palmer stood by the side of Route 20 dressed like Lady Liberty to teach her kids a lesson in free speech.
Palmer, her husband and their two children were among more than 100 people to protest Bush’s visit to Monticello with homemade signs, costumes, expressive T-shirts and their voices.
Palmer wore bright green robes, a foam crown and had her face painted white to represent “the death of liberty,” while her husband, dressed in black, was “Darth Cheney.” Palmer, a Charlottesville resident, brought her son and daughter to see the First Amendment in action. “What better thing can I teach them about free speech than bringing them out here to show them free speech?” she said.
Protesters started arriving around 6 a.m. in Quarry Park, a mile from the Monticello Visitor’s Center, and their numbers grew through the morning.
The earliest to arrive stood at the entrance to Quarry Road on Route 20, but moved nearer the visitors’ center to make their views known to drivers, bus passengers going to the naturalization ceremony and eventually Bush’s motorcade.
Most people held up signs of their own creation with messages including, “Healthcare Not Warfare,” “Save The Bill of Rights” and “Who Would Jesus Bomb?”
The protest got mixed reactions from passersby. Many drivers honked to show their support and gave the thumbs-up or the peace sign. At least two, including a limousine driver headed toward Monticello, gave protesters a less-friendly finger gesture.
State and Albemarle County police officers made sure the protesters did not stray into the road or onto private property. At around 8 a.m. a Virginia State Police trooper asked everyone to move 75 yards from the intersection of Route 20 and the Thomas Jefferson Parkway, where Bush’s motorcade would pass by.
The protesters included members of CODE PINK Women for Peace, the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, the Charlottesville Democratic Party, and Web sites moveon.org and afterdowningstreet.org.
Sarah Lanzman, an organizer and Center for Peace member, said the protest was about protecting the Constitution from what she described as attacks by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
“We don’t want to hurt the ceremony for the new immigrants,” Lanzman said. “We just want to state our constitutional right that someone who has destroyed our Constitution should not be at the home of a president who initiated it. … That seems very disrespectful to the memory of Thomas Jefferson.”
That seemed to be the central theme for protesters who chanted over and over, “Impeach Bush! Defend the Constitution!”
The only counter-protest was carried on by Jeff Gray who stood in his driveway solemnly waving the American flag. Gray, who supports Bush, said he felt like one man against many.
Keith Drake, former chairman of the Albemarle County Republican Party, said those in opposition to the protest would be at the naturalization ceremony in support of the new citizens.
“To cast a stain on their day … is shameful,” Drake said. “The time and the place is elsewhere.”
One man had protested the Vietnam War at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s, where police used tear gas to control the crowds. Another joined protests in New York City and Washington, D.C., in the ’60s and ’70s.
Pat Dowd, a longtime Charlottesville resident who participated in protests in Washington in the early 1970s, said young people are not as politically active as they once were.
“We really thought we could change the world when we were kids,” Dowd said. “Kids [today] don’t have that feeling.”
When Bush’s motorcade finally appeared down Route 20, the protesters were ready. They cried for Bush’s impeachment, held their signs high and spilled into the road to get a better view.
The police officers who stood guard at the intersection of the Thomas Jefferson Parkway gently escorted them back while a line of black cars, one of them bearing the president, drove away toward Monticello.
Obama doesn’t need the Code Pink/MoveOn vote any longer. In fact, this sends a clear signal that Obama considers them a millstone rather than a life preserver at this stage of the campaign.With that comes a loss of power. They have never been more than a pimple on the backside of lefties anyway, peopled by the dregs of society.
They make fools of themselves where ever they appear.
Heck, they are a bunch of witches.
Which they desiginated Themselves As
LOL
>>Pat Dowd, a longtime Charlottesville resident who participated in protests in Washington in the early 1970s, said young people are not as politically active as they once were.
“We really thought we could change the world when we were kids,” Dowd said. “Kids [today] don’t have that feeling.”
Nothing sadder than a person who will not grow up.
Um...Jude only has one chapter.
Like I said many times here before, code pink shouldn’t be walking the streets let alone protesting anything or anyone. They ALL should be in prison for treason.
These are the same pigs that gave money to terrorists in Iraq. The ones who are killing our soldiers.
I don't know. I've been finding it much more difficult to communicate with the Taliban and Al Queda by phone and email since my liberties were trampled. Plus you conveniently forget all those people you know Bush would have in the gulag right now, were it for me and others protecting them by speaking truth to power. So there.
And what you taught them was that your free speech has NOT been impinged. You were not handcuffed, imprisoned, hung on the gallows, or shot.
What you did was in extremely poor taste under the circumstances and blatant evidence that it is "all about you." Ho-hum.
Try pulling this nonsense in Cuba, Iran, China, North Korea, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or any number of other places in the world, and see what happens.
Lady, and I use the term loosely, you should be teaching your kids to kiss the precious ground they walk on that has been paid for in blood.
>And if the Pres were a Rat they would be foursquare in favor of the exact same war. Loonies.
Serbia.
One thing I had never thought was the commandment thou shall not kill.
Then I listened to Dr. Savage.
He says that the true translation in his opinion from Jewish scholors that he believes is that “Thou shall not murder.”
It made me ponder. David & Goliath being a good example. The red sea falling on the egypians another. Why if killing is evil would it be done.
It’s “murder” the killing of an innocent that’s a crime. Thus war can have it’s point. Like WWII among current others.
The lefties use “Who would Jesus bomb?” because they don’t understand that Jesus didn’t come to change the law... he came to provide salavation in case we fall short.
Nitpickers.
Why is it that conservatives can make their point just by speaking or writing, whereas liberals seem to need props and costumes?
Yes they do, you a$$, they are in the military, protecting your sorry butt and making it possible for you to make a fool of yourself.
'Murder' is a legal word, 'Kill' is not a legal word. Every murder is a killing, but every killing is not a murder.
Dennis Prager, as well as Dr Savage, discusses the original use of the word 'murder' in the 10 commandments. It is indeed 'Thou shall not murder.'
Today, murder is the intentional killing of another human being with malice aforethought. Self defense killing is not murder, for example.
Jewish law also distinguishes between murder and killing. Murder is what the commandment is speaking about. It is not a general mandate to never kill.
I was using Howard Dean's bible....the one with Job in the New Testament.
This woman is really stupid. Thomas Jefferson was the writer of the Declaration of Independence. James Madison is credited with the writing of the Constitution.
When Jesus returns to rule, with a word of His tongue He destroys His enemies. He doesn’t need a bomb.
Rev 19:15 & 16 NASV
“15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
16And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
I wonder if election handicappers have adequately considered the possibility of a Obama/Far Left split as he desperately tries to escape the territory he has staked out in Kos/DU/Soros land.
“15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword....
The left will still blame Bush.
“We just want to state our constitutional right that someone who has destroyed our Constitution should not be at the home of a president who initiated it. … That seems very disrespectful to the memory of Thomas Jefferson.”
*snorts*
This guy’s one to talk, considering the party he no doubt supports is the one actually destroying our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
I also learned that the word used in the “thou shall not kill” commandment translates as “murder”. Self defense, or the defense of another, has always been a legitimate defense to the crime of murder. When a soldier kills someone during a war, it is in the defense of others (one’s fellow soldiers or countrymen) or for self preservation. Thus, soldiers carrying out legitimate orders in the line of duty are not “murderers”.
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