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Conversations With The Mob: An After-FReep Report

Posted on 08/24/2002 12:38:42 PM PDT by AnnaZ

 
 
 
We had to drive past the protest site twice. We thought it was going to be a rally site. We were mistaken. It was around seven-thirty a.m.
 
On the second lap we frenziedly scanned the signs and faces for something or someone familiar, or friendly, for Old Glory, anything. "There! I saw a freerepublic sign!" exclaimed HangFire. And ties. Ours was the only group with ties. We were seriously outnumbered.
 
We parked the car and walked to the intersection, a little nervously, yet HangFire still boldly unfurling his American flag. Ahead of us a man trod upon his.
 
We met up with the rest of Free Republic's LA Chapter: The Hollywood Resistance Force. RonDog and Tony in Hawaii* (*but not really, I guess) looked great in their ties, and they were flanked by diotima, Bob J, DoughtyOne, Floratina and daviddennis (and a couple of people whose names I didn't catch). feinswinesuksass showed up shortly thereafter. We were lucky. doug from upland, although also present, never found us.
 
Around three hundred protesters dwarfed and engulfed our small but valiant team. The mob filled the three open corners and sidewalks at the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards, site of The Regency Club where President George W. Bush was to be headlining a campaign fundraiser for California's next Governor, Bill Simon.
 
 
~~~
 
 
                Diotima: I fear for my country.
 
To our left (no pun intended) lots of young, attractive, mostly white people, voluntarily burqha'd it seemed with sweatshirt hoods over their heads and bandanas obscuring their faces from the eyes down, carried signs proclaiming various forms of communist rhetoric and condemning harshly all things Bush -- truth need not always apply. Our other flank was the unions-and-their-lackeys stronghold. Same signs.
 
                Diotima: They hate my sign.
 
One side of it read: HONK 4 SIMON. But it was the other side of it that she was referring to, the side she was holding aloft as she was walking up and down the sidewalk, holding it above the heads of the protesters: OSAMA FAN CLUB.
 
A Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP) approaches.
 
                YMP: Hey, you know your sign's not fair. You shouldn't have that sign.
 
                A FReeper: She's using her sharp and biting wit.
 
                YMP: But she's misrepresenting us.
 
                Diotima: No, I'm not. That's what you are.
 
                A FReeper: What do you care, you outnumber us 30 to 1.
 
                YMP: But she's misrepresenting our message. That's not what we're saying.
 
                Diotima: But that's what I'm saying.
 
He shuffles off.
 
 
~~~
 
 
Another Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP2) approaches.
 
                YMP2: You shouldn't have that sign.
 
                Diotima: Yeah, well I still have my freedom of speech, buddy, you haven't taken that away. Yet.
 
 
~~~
 
 
                Young, Pretty Tho' Misguided Protester: I don't know... I just don't think I like Bush but I think it's like really cool
                    that we all like have our freedom of speech.
 
She smiles.
 
 
~~~
 
 
Another Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP3) approaches, handing out flyers.
 
                YMP3: Come see my show.
 
                A FReeper: What is it advocating?
 
                YMP3: A new State.
 
                A FReeper: What kind of state?
 
                YMP3: A better State.
 
                A FReeper: Based on what... because if you can come up with something better than the US Constitution you win a
                    really big prize.
 
                YMP3: The Communist Manifesto?
 
                A FReeper: Bzzzzt. Wrong answer. Tried, failed, and the millions of corpses'll prove it to you.
 
He shuffles off.
 
 
~~~
 
 
The President's motorcade arrives. Chants begin. Bob J and DoughtyOne use bullhorns to mess with their intonements. Where were these people when we were bombing Yugoslavia?
 
About ten minutes or so later we decide to go for breakfast together and begin to walk past the crowd to Denny's.
 
 
~~~
 
 
 
                AngryUnattractiveSpittlingVietnamProtestHoldover: Bee-atches for Bush!
 
 
~~~
 
 
Later, two men are in an idling station wagon in the parking lot as we are on our way out. They were seen earlier in the viewfinder of daviddennis' XL-1 at breakfast as we watched the replay of them repeatedly giving the camera the finger.
 
                BlondeMale: Oh, it's "Luvya Dubya" girl.
 
                OtherMale: Are you a native of California?
 
                A FReeper: No, I'm a political refugee of the socialist democracy of Canada. I'm trying to save California from a
                    similar fate.
 
                HangFire: I'm half Native American... I go back I don't know how many generations. And leftist liberal loser policies
                    are destroying this State.
 
                OtherMale: You're a traitor to your own people. They used to worship the oil when it was in the ground, they
                    were thankful for it.
 
                A FReeper: What the heck are you talking about?
 
                BlondeMale: Yeah, and now you and Bush are pumping all that oil and spraying it in the air and causing all these
                    earthquakes.
 
                A FReeper: What?!
 
                HangFire: Uh huh. Well you just keep telling yourself that as you drive home in your car, okay?
 
They drive off, the BlondeMale repeatedly spitting through the passenger side window as they exit stage left.
 
 
 

 
 
We should never be that outnumbered. Where were the GOP people? The Simon people? An eighty-year old lady had joined us only because she had heard doug from upland on one of his many announcements on local AM radio yesterday.
 
FReepers do things that heretofore were solely the domain of the Left. Our side needs to learn. It's time for all of us to Network.
 

 
Pictures forthcoming.
 
 


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Breaking News; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Free Republic; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: anarchists; bush; calgov2002; commies; force; freerepublicnetwork; frn; hollywood; lachapter; leftists; protesters; resistance; simon
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To: AnnaZ
Ditto on my earlier thanks to DFU.

81 posted on 08/24/2002 2:13:29 PM PDT by dinasour
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To: FreedomPoster; AnnaZ
Thanks for the flag.

AnnaZ, I greatly appreciate the efforts you and your companions made.

82 posted on 08/24/2002 2:13:33 PM PDT by backhoe
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To: Interesting Times

But the good news is they can't win without controlling the information flow...

You guys did great.

Thanks for the kind words, IT. I have to admit we actually really enjoyed ourselves. (Or at least I did. ;^)


83 posted on 08/24/2002 2:23:09 PM PDT by AnnaZ
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To: AnnaZ; diotima
Welcome to FReeping the Left. If this is your 1st exposure to counterprotesting, i heartily recommend some peptobismol. BTW, the Osama fan club sign was good. What also works is using the 60s tactics against them. Start singing "all we are saying is give war a chance", Point at them and shout "shame, shame!"

'Pod

84 posted on 08/24/2002 2:24:30 PM PDT by sauropod
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To: Militiaman7

Thanks for your kind words.

The Hollywood Resistance Force: Facing down leftists so you don't have to... LOL!


85 posted on 08/24/2002 2:24:54 PM PDT by AnnaZ
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To: sauropod; StoneColdGOP; HangFire; L,TOWM

Last October(September?) there were 1200 of them and 30 of us. StoneColdGOP had a sign that said, "Give war a chance" that drove them batty. Was a report written up on that FReep?


86 posted on 08/24/2002 2:27:45 PM PDT by AnnaZ
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To: anniegetyourgun

Welcome back!! Thanks for gracing our thread with your presence, we's allllll special now!

;^)


87 posted on 08/24/2002 2:30:00 PM PDT by AnnaZ
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To: All
You were much too kind with your descriptions of the leftists out there Anna.  Yes there were a few average looking folks here and there, perhpaps ten to twenty total out of three or four hundred, but the the rest looked like Zombi stand-ins for Night of the Living Dead or some such.  Then there was the obvious question regarding those that did look okay.  What mental maladies did they have that made it seem okay for them to mix with the dregs?  Didn't it occur to them the likes of which they were aligning themselves?

Such descriptions sound like a poor attempt to discredit others with valid ideas and a Constitutional right to voice them.  In all sincerity, I am not exagerating one bit.  None of these people could debate the issues beyond the first or second sound bite.  Their crude, rude and insightful tactics on display for all to see.

One young woman was very offended when Bob stated that Hitler was a Socialist, in reaction to seeing Bush denigrated with the Hitler title one time too many.  Obviously her Socialist hot button had just been pushed.  "Well that just isn't true." was her retort.  Bob reminded her that Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist Party of Germany.  Blank look...  Next subject!  Now Bush was a baby killer or some such.  Bob asked if she approved of Clinton bombing the aspirin factory.  Her response was, of course I didn't.  "Well, did you hit the streets in protest?" Bob asked.  She replied, "Well no, I didn't."  Well, why are you our here today then?  Her feeble comback was that enlightenment doesn't hit everyone at the same time.  Duh!

One thing is for sure, those folks didn't want our civil rights exercised at the event.  When I tried to use our bullhorn to counter theirs, the shoving began and didn't end until I had finally had enough of it and walked away.  Diotima was pushed into the street several times.  Signs were pushed in front of ours.  Several "trouble-makers" were observed positioning themselves to force confrontations.  Our group stayed civil throughout.  At one point when the shoving got out of hand, I used my bullhorn to go "Waaaaaaaa, we outnumber you 20 to 1, but you don't have a right to voice your opinion.  Waaaaaaa  Waaaa Waaaaaaaaa.  Go away you don't have any rights."  They found having their tactics voiced out loud to be quite unacceptable.  It's one thing to do it, just don't describe it in detail.  Now that's wrong!

The police showed up in force.  Over one hundred officers in cars, on motorcycles and on foot tried to keep the croud under control.  At each light change massive waves of socialists would cross the street perhap five to seven people wide.  The police finally put up yellow tape around the corners to prevent this.  This drove the leftists to the verge of insanity.  "We have a right to cross the street!"  One organizer trolled the crowd seeking those who wanted to break the baracade with him.  It was ugly.

I can't say for sure all the groups that were taking part in the leftfest.  Some of those who did identify themselves were, an A.N.S.W.E.R. affiliate, a number of leftist web sites, several Libertarians and the Green Party.  I suspected union activity, public employees and teachers although I have no way of proving it.  One of the chants going up was, "Welfare is a Human Right!"  Another was, "Women on Welfare Need More Childcare!"  Still another was, "Spend money on Welfare not Bombs."  There were several with this theme.  There were several other chants that left little doubt that government payroll employees were on sight.

For the most part the police tried to intervene as little as possible.  However I did hear more than one of the opposition ask their people to act-up.  While some of this was just for the cameras, others were clearly trying to push the limits for real.  Officers were heard stating that unless the crowd would stay on the curbs, citiations would be issued.  You can imagine the response.

At one point I came to the realization that all it would take was for one spark to insite this crowd, and a maylee would ensue, our group being the target of their animosity.  I urged the group to consider leaving.  I didn't want to see the situation escalate to the point that someone would get hurt.  To their credit they stuck it out until Bush came by.  When he did, they hooted and hollered and I used my bullhorn to chant supportive slogans of Bush and Simon, dumping on Davis with the old stand by, "Governor Davis has got to go."  You'd have thought those folks were the ones outnumbered 30 to 40 to one as angry as they were.  Any opposition at all was totally unacceptable to them.  They were angry, mean and more than willing to push, shove or strike out.  Congregated on street corners shoulder to shoulder, it wasn't possible for the police to keep an eye on all of them.  They were basic free to take any actions they desired.

I am very proud of the folks who braved this onslaught to support Bush and Simon, speaking out on the truths regarding Davis.  I took part in a five minute interview with KPFK 90.7 on the FM dial.  That interview will air tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m.  I will try to capture it for your review.  Hope I didn't sound like a total idiot.  It's difficult to compose your thoughts with the commotion going on all around.  I inserted just enough charitable comments about the other side to make us sound like reasoned folks, then took Davis to task on his budget.  I stated that he had increased the state budget from $65 million to $100 million in the last four years.  Further I made it known that when Davis took office he had a $6 million dollar surplus, which he has turned into a $24 million dollar deficit.  That's a thirty million dollar spread in just four years.

Folks it's very demoralizing to have to put up with this leftist nonsense in our own nation.  For the life of me I cannot understand people defending Saddam Hussein and the Taliban.  And yes some of those folks were doing just that verbatum.  One enlightened young man wanted desperately to inform me that the Bush family had close ties to Osama Bin Laden.  "You get the implications don't you?"  When I laughed out loud he attempted to bait me with the old "you'd rather live in ignorance" line.  Heh heh heh, I've taken worse than that on FR.

I think you should all be proud of the folks that made it to our protest in support of Bush and Simon today.  They showed a lot of courage, and have my deepest respect.  But then I have to remind myself that it's only a matter of time until I and a few of them wil be told that we hate Bush again.  Se la vi.

As we walked away from the protest sight, it was all thumbs up and smiles from the officers on site.  On days like this you take your victories where you can find them.

88 posted on 08/24/2002 2:31:14 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: doug from upland
he made the ap wire and they used him as the LIBERAL AP cheap shot at the President.

A lone supporter of President Bush stands in front of anti-Bush protesters outside a Bill Simon for Governor breakfast attended by President Bush in Los Angeles, Calif. Saturday, Aug. 24, 2002. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
89 posted on 08/24/2002 2:34:19 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
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To: Jim Robinson
I let the group down on the tie front, but I did wear my Bush Cheney inauguration sweat shirt that's gray with the modified official seal of the United States on it, with eagle, arrows and olive branches. It's the first time I'd worn it. It looked nice.
90 posted on 08/24/2002 2:35:07 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: DoughtyOne
Why were Libertarians supporting more Welfare?
91 posted on 08/24/2002 2:36:26 PM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: AnnaZ
Anna, what a riot! You guys were sharp with those dimwits! LOL! Nice job!
92 posted on 08/24/2002 2:36:36 PM PDT by RedBloodedAmerican
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To: AnnaZ; diotima; DoughtyOne
Great job! Thanks for the reports. The A.N.S.W.E.R. goofballs are a well-organized group and have been for awhile. Don't worry they outnumbered you today. The OSAMA FAN CLUB sign is a hoot! Congrats to all who participated!
93 posted on 08/24/2002 2:38:15 PM PDT by Ligeia
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To: AnnaZ
I do not recall a report wrt that FReep. The one in DC was several thousand of them against about 250 of us (not all FReepers.).

I have it on tape. Priceless.

94 posted on 08/24/2002 2:39:11 PM PDT by sauropod
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To: Tony in Hawaii
It was good to see you again Toni. Also Rondog, AnnaZ, Hangfire, Dolores, BobJ, Diotima, Floritina and AnnaZ and the boys.
95 posted on 08/24/2002 2:40:09 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: TLBSHOW
he made the ap wire and they used him as the LIBERAL AP cheap shot at the President.

A lone supporter of President Bush stands in front of anti-Bush protesters outside a Bill Simon for Governor breakfast attended by President Bush in Los Angeles, Calif. Saturday, Aug. 24, 2002. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

This sounds like something to be included in Ann Coulter's Slander: Part 2

96 posted on 08/24/2002 2:40:22 PM PDT by Ligeia
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To: Tony in Hawaii
...and Fienswinesucsass.
97 posted on 08/24/2002 2:40:42 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: AnnaZ; diotima; DoughtyOne; Bob J
Looks like a great FReep everyone......
98 posted on 08/24/2002 2:41:13 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
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To: Illbay
Anotherwords you think Bush should have zero support where ever he goes, just lots of protesters. Nice thinking bud.
99 posted on 08/24/2002 2:42:11 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: Illbay
so your not a freeper HUh"
100 posted on 08/24/2002 2:46:25 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
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