NYC Supports the Troops, the U.S.A. and President Bush

Super Kat....I was just about to turn in when I saw you pinged me. Thanks so much. It's really cool your son wants to go next time. My friend (the other mom from the preschool) flipped out when she found out I went and didn't ask her along. I felt bad that I didn't ask her when she said that she would have gone, but she is such a new friend and since I didn't even decide for sure that I was coming until about 90 minutes before we left, I didn't feel it right to call and put her on the spot like that. Anyway, She really wants to go next time. She has such a great story too....of how the U.S. Military came in and freed HER and her country of Panama. She is just so grateful and admires them so much.

Thanks again for riding in with me Kat. The pics came out fine...so I guess you didn't hit any 'erase' buttons after all. I have to remember to bring my camera next time!

Kudos to the NYC Freepers! It's a shame that your legion of 3,000 was outnumbered by anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 against the war.

It's almost unfathomable that the city that took the greatest hit from the 9-11 terror attacks could rally in any numbers greater than a few hundred against the war.

I don't regret leaving NYC a year ago - I salue you guys but the numbers in NYC are so overwhelming. NYC is, by and large, a lost cause.

Wait until Mayor Ferrer or Sharpton gets elected!

It's a start, a month ago you couldn't get 100 conservatives at a corner.

The left is organized and united. Unfortunately we have a lot of catching up to do.

You also must remember that large cities is where the pseudo intellectual rabble congregate such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

The next liberal mayor will have the city council declare NYC a terrorist free zone by passing a resolution. The terrorists naturaly will cower in fear and remove NY as a target. Next they will pass a resolution declaring NY a nuclear free zone and the Chinese and Russians will take us off their target list.

Having solved these major problems, they will next pass a resolution banning poverty in NYC. Ahh and last but not least, a citywide gun free zone which I am certain will convince all criminals to throw away their guns and hold people up with bannanas.

You have to love the liberal mindset.

Since 90% of normal people are working on weekdays, you have to wonder if the 100,000 that march on weekdays are independently wealthy or unemployed to be able to parade on the streets.

I wouldn't worry too much. The polls nationwide are clear, the majority support the war and the president up to 75%. The same was true during the Vietnam era. Until the very last, polls showed most people supported the troops in Vietnam. The radical left always has been and always will be in the minority. The only reason they win is that they are more commited and more likely to show up at the polls on election day.

Conservatives are too busy working so we can pay the exhorbitant income taxes that subsidize the demonstrators.

Looks like the police may be cracking down, holding these people responsible for their actions. It's about time!

http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/iraq/0303/0325protests.html

WAR ON IRAQ 40 arrested at Austin peace protest By Erik Rodriguez AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Austin police arrested 40 people, including three juveniles, Monday during a new round of anti-war protests that targeted a federal building, the local Fox television affiliate and a technology company downtown. About 250 people turned out for the demonstrations, a significant decline from events last week that drew thousands opposing the war in Iraq. But organizers said they're planning major events in the days and weeks to come. Other activists gathered at the University of Texas and in San Marcos, where the City Council passed a resolution supporting President Bush. "There's not as much diversity here because of the time, but this effort will continue to grow in strength," Debbie Russell, an Austin protest organizer, said Monday afternoon. Seven people were arrested in front of KTBC-TV, the Fox affiliate, and charged with criminal trespassing after they chained themselves to street signs and blocked the exit to the building's parking garage. The others were arrested in front of Computer Sciences Corp. on Cesar Chavez Street and charged with obstructing the roadway. Both offenses are Class B misdemeanors, more serious than the Class C citations given to 50 protesters arrested on Thursday — a sign that police are losing patience with uncooperative demonstrators, said Kevin Buchman, a police spokesman. "As this progresses, we're going to be less and less tolerant of the individuals that are there to cause problems and impede traffic," Buchman said. The demonstrations began about 12:30 p.m. in front of the J.J. "Jake" Pickle Federal Building on Eighth Street. Demonstrators waved peace flags and took turns denouncing the war. They later marched to KTBC-TV, which organizers said marchers targeted because they think Fox News Channel's coverage of the war is biased. "There's been a misrepresentation of the facts," activist Andy Gallagher said. Danny Baker, general manager of the station, said he had no comment. The group had a parade permit to march on downtown streets, but the marchers angered police when they unexpectedly lay down on the street, forcing officers to block off traffic. Before police could make arrests, the group quickly returned to the sidewalk, playing drums and chanting anti-war slogans. "They didn't tell me they were going to do this," Commander Harold Piatt told reporters. "We had tried to work with them." Police blocked the southbound lanes of Congress Avenue to allow the demonstrators to march to the CSC building. The crowd again sat in the road in front of the building, prompting repeated warnings from police. About 50 officers both in regular uniform and in riot gear moved in to make arrests. A security guard at the CSC building who declined to be identified said no one from the company would comment. CSC is a defense contractor. Those arrested included older women, one boy that protesters said was a high school student and Missy Bolbecker, an event organizer who said she was not intending to be arrested. On Monday evening, a smaller group of demonstrators waited at Wooldridge Park, near the jail. "I think the Class B charge is way out of line," Renee Morris Larson said. "They think we're violating the troops, but we're saying, bring the troops home." In a much smaller rally on Monday, about 40 people gathered at the University of Texas campus to speak out against the bombing campaign launched by coalition forces last week. "When you're bombing cities, there's nothing you can do to not bomb civilians," said Matt Korn, a member of the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice, which organized the event. In San Marcos, about a dozen protesters descended on a City Council meeting to speak out against a proposed resolution supporting President Bush, as well as Mayor Robert Habingreither's characterization of an anti-war demonstration on the town square Thursday as "disgusting." The meeting was temporarily halted after shouting matches erupted among the crowd and protesters balked at putting down their signs inside the council chambers. "I'm going to hold this sign up!" Lamar Hankins, whose son-in-law is serving in Iraq, told the council. "If you want to have me arrested, have me arrested." After a 10-minute break, Habingreither agreed to let protesters hold their signs. The council then voted unanimously to support the resolution, which also included a clause saying, "The people of San Marcos, Texas include both citizens who support a war with Iraq and citizens who seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict." Before voting, Habingreither told the crowd he made a poor choice of words in describing the protesters last week but said he was concerned that current troops would face the same ill feeling that their Vietnam-era predecessors did. After the council voted, a protester yelled, "You lost a lot of votes tonight."

erodriguez@statesman.com; 445-3673. Staff writers Claire Osborn, Diane Holloway and Jeremy Schwartz contributed to this article.

Email your support for Mayor Habingreither at cityhall@ci.san-marcos.tx.us

It's almost unfathomable that the city that took the greatest hit from the 9-11 terror attacks could rally in any numbers greater than a few hundred against the war.

Actually, many, many, MANY of those animals were from the 'burbs. I had the misfortune of being in Penn Station at about 4 p.m. Saturday and saw them all there with their dopey signs. Frankly, I wanted to kick their teeth in for coming into my city, wasting my tax dollars and preventing the police from protecting us from the protestors' terrorist buddies.

I never get tired of looking at your photos. Ahhhhh. A big rally for a change. Thanks for taking all these great shots of the crowd and those excellent ones of Schundler.

So why did you have a bad week? Anything to do with the rally or none of my business? : )

Thanks.

All I can say is...

"That looks like one Hell of a FReep..."

I had to miss it for one reason, it's a four-letter word...

RENT!

Aside from the excellence of the FReep-Crew, the thing I noticed most was the total ease of the NYPD.

Come Hell or High Water, I'll be at the next one...

what the hey, I got a tax return coming.

The Signs of the Times
Wednesday, March 26, 2003

As I approached the pro-Bush demonstration in Times Square, I saw a lot of people carrying sings that had bland slogans like "Support our troops." I also saw a tall guy in a yarmulke holding a sign with a more colorful slogan. "Nuke Iraq" it read in big letters. "And Boycott France" it read in smaller letters below.

The guy's name was Heshy Friedman. He told me he lives in Brooklyn, just across from the mosque at which Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman spent considerable time before the first attack on the World Trade Center. After that bombing in 1993, Friedman told me, he and his friend began collecting information about the goings-on at the Al Farooq mosque. The FBI wasn't interested until after the 11th of September, 2001. Earlier this month, the feds cited the mosque as the center for raising millions of dollars for Mideastern terrorists.

That sort of thing certainly justifies some arrests. But does it justify nuking Iraq?

"If it saves just one American life, then we should do it," Friedman told me.

He was smiling as he said it and I surmised that, though he wouldn't admit it, his "Nuke Iraq" sign was not meant literally, but symbolically, much in the same spirit as those "Nuke the Whales" bumper stickers that lampooned extreme environmentalism some years ago.

It was in that spirit that many of the passers-by seemed to interpret it. "Nuke Iraq and boycott France?" said one wag. "How about the other way around?"

The pro-Bush crowd behind Friedman was having a great time. To the tune of "Give Peace a Chance," they sang "All we are saying, is kick Saddam's ass." A contingent of New York City firefighters rode past in four trucks with the sirens blaring, all hands waving to the crowd.

The people passing the demonstration were largely supportive. Though this is Manhattan, the sidewalks of Times Square on a Sunday are filled with a very middle-American crowd. The latest polls show that about 70 percent of Americans support the war in Iraq, and that seemed to be the way sentiments were running. It's true that the antiwar demonstration the day before had been much larger. But the antiwar protesters tend to be the type of people who have lifestyles. The pro-war people just have lives, and they need to get on with them.

Heshy noted that some of the antiwar people carried signs alleging that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job. "When you have that type of mentality out there, you've got to go to the other extreme to even things out," he said by way of justifying his sign.

There's always somebody who takes things literally, however. A reform rabbi walked up and began debating Heshy about the sign. Heshy is orthodox, so the debate quickly ascended into esoteric theology. I repaired to Starbucks for a "venti," which is what they call a real big coffee.

When I got back 20 minutes later Heshy and the rabbi were still arguing, so I went off to watch some more of the demonstrators. An Hispanic woman was in front carrying a sign that said "No rights for women in Iraq." She was loud and persistent. Every once in a while, an antiwar passer-by would make a comment back to her. "If you were over there, you wouldn't have any rights!" she'd yell back. The cops loved her. So did the tourists.

As the afternoon wound down the crowd dwindled to half a dozen people. Off to the side was a middle-aged man dressed neatly in a white shirt and tie and holding an American flag. He hadn't said a word, so I asked him why he had come. In heavily accented English, he said his name was Joseph Rivera and he came over from Union City. He had five family members in the war, two in the Air Force and three in the Marines.

That's why he had come to the demonstration that and the fact that he had lost some friends in the collapse of the World Trade Center. He worked for Verizon in a building right next to the towers, he told me.

As we were chatting, one of the demonstrators got into a loud argument with a passer-by who had said that the president had "no smoking gun" to invade Iraq.

"You need a smoking gun?" the pro-Bush demonstrator yelled. "There was smoke all over the city. People were jumping out of windows."

Rivera turned to me. "I seen that, man," he said quietly. "I seen one guy jump and the wind caught him. He flew three blocks because of the wind."

That was shortly before Rivera heard the rumbling that preceded the collapse of the first tower. He ran toward the river. Some people on the sidewalk near him made the mistake of running uptown and were killed in the collapse, he said.

Another antiwar type walked by, a well-dressed young man. He stopped to scream at the lady with the "No rights for women in Iraq" sign.

"Murderers!" he yelled. "You're all murderers!"

The other five rose to the bait and yelled back. Joseph Rivera didn't say anything. He knew who the murderers were.

Paul Mulshine is a Star-Ledger columnist.

Paul is a Conservative, probably the only one writing for a major newspaper in New Jersey.

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/mulshine/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1048665010229330.xml

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/mulshine/

the antiwar protesters tend to be the type of people who have lifestyles. The pro-war people just have lives, and they need to get on with them.

That line just about says it all.

good stuff...should be interesting in the big Apple today

ping