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.
I looked at her and said, "You are an idiot." I know I should have stayed there to debate on a more intellectual level, but I was in a hurry to find you guys.
I stoppeed to speak to a few police officers (and there were 2 men in suits standing there also). We spoke for a while and I found out they were there because of the presence of labor union people at the protest. The 2 men I spoke to were police officers from the "Labor Division" and they had to be there to watch and be sure that nothing bad happened. I wanted to ask more questions because I could not figure out if he was there to protect the union guys or to report on them....maybe both....but I was on a mission to find my FR buddies.