Free Republic

I've got this thing about demonstrators: They turn me off, big-time. Pro, anti, protester or counter-protester, street theater just leaves me cold. It doesn't matter whether I agree with them (pro-lifers waving bloody pictures) or disagree (Code Pink waving their bloody hands), they generally appall me. Interrupting people is interrupting people. Shock is shock. There's nothing redeeming about it. Peaceful, dignified marchers, showing respectful solidarity in a cause, are one thing. But screamers indulging the urge to Act Out are another altogether. Perhaps the moment that tore it for me and protesters forever occurred in 1982, when my newspaper was...

Been away for awhile, busy at work. I wanted to point out today some observations I made about the republican convention. The news media and Katie "Koran" Couric have presented the Democratic convention in glitz and glamor with touching family scenes with Obama and his little girls and with big talk about the past 8 years being crap. (never mind that the 8 years previous with Clinton, the fact we are at war, and the rat congress are mostly to blame. Especially Clinton and the Dems. Lets not forget the RINOS.) All the Democrats are bringing up how their policies...

Day 4 Day: ThursdayLocation: CapitolArrests: 400 Arrests Mark Last Anti-War March Of Convention Percussion grenades, tear gas and nearly 400 arrests marked the final anti-war march during the Republican National Convention. More than 800 arrests were reported during a week of sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent dissent. Anti-war protesters rallied Thursday at the state Capitol and then planned to march to Xcel Energy Center, where Sen. John McCain was due to accept the GOP presidential nomination. But their permit had expired, and police -- in riot gear and using horses, snow plows and dump trucks -- blocked their way. For...

The three adult children who took turns disrupting John McCain's acceptance speech last night, now being heralded as heroes by some left wing blogs, are off-springs of the steady lineage of vitriolic shrill that's come from Al Gore (of "He lied to us; he preyed on our fears" fame), Teddy Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, et al, for they have helped sustain and sanction their growth. With each spewing of distain and hatred for Bush-Cheney, a divot is taken out of the fairway of what civility there was left in American political discourse. And, while partisans might meet...

A photo of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his Code Pink bundler, terrorist supporter Jodie Evans, has finally surfaced. Ironically, it most likely was released by Code Pink.The photo is included in a video report by WCCO-4 in Minnesota about Evans and her Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin infiltrating the Republican National Convention the night of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday night.The WCCO reporter, Esme Murphy, included the unsourced photo of Evans and Obama to illustrate Code Pink's claim that they go after both sides. Murphy describes the photo as a Code Pink member "interrupting Obama", yet...

Code Pink protestors were given or surreptitiously obtained media passes to infiltrate and protest a pro-life event held near the Republican National Convention. (Report by Fred Lucas and Jonathan Schulter, CNSNews.com.) VIDEO

Code Pink protesters got into the Republican National Convention during Governor Palin’s acceptance speech Wednesday night.

H/t Kimberly M. Did the Code Pink members who interrupted John McCain's speech last night use MSNBC press badges to get into the hall? Not according to Code Pink itself, which claims the two women "obtained passes to the convention from disaffected Republicans." Right. There is another much more intriguing explanation out there. According to Shay at Booker Rising, which describes itself a newsite for black moderates and black conservatives [emphasis added]: "I took the shuttle bus back to Minneapolis, and I overheard a convention organizer named Phil telling a convention delegate that the protesters on Wednesday night got through...

A protester holds a flower out to riot police outside the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota September 4, 2008. Police offered her a vase for her flower and then arrested her for possessing a Minnesota Yellow Gerbera Daisy, which is on the state endangered list. Illegal harvesting or sale of the flower carries a $30,000 fine and two years in prison. Semi-literate Code Pink Activist Janet Macaroni holds up a sign in support of "WAR" before collapsing from the weight of her handmade vinyl banner. Anti-war protester Jessica OrganicGrapeJuice is assisted by bicycle police after she puts...

By the time Sen. John McCain finished his speech and delegates let out of the Xcel Energy Center, downtown was so devoid of activists that a large diverse crowd gathered in Rice Park couldn't even muster a unified cheer, despite many signs indicating anti- Republican sentiments. In short, a stranger might not know this is a democratic town. The end came after protestors who had rallied at the Capitol grounds made several unsuccessful attempts Thursday night to reach the X, site of the Republican National Convention. Large rows of armed law enforcement officials, many on bicycle or horseback, stopped them...

They have disrupted McCain's speech several times. I've never seen anything like this during a convention. I wonder how they managed to get in. To me this is scary. What if these people were there to do something other than shout? I'm sure these people will be the headline on MSNBC and the New York Times....

Code pink and the next John Kerry woooopppppeeeeeee

As part of their recruitment drive, leaders of the anti-war, anti-American activist group, Code Pink, showed up at the Republicans' national convention in St. Paul yesterday and performed an act of political theater that got them arrested. Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, who really ought to be dressed in bright pink straitjackets, disrupted the acceptance speech of vice presidential nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and were led away. Benjamin and Evans wore pink slips upon which ''Palin Not a Woman's Choice'' was written and tried to wave a banner that read, ''We need a Peace VP.'' (Sean Hackbarth has a...

Convention protesters cling to free speech rights, more than 300 arrested | IDS | Date: 9/4/2008 ST. PAUL, Minn. – Katelyn Peck, a 20-year-old junior from California State University, stood with about 25 other protesters in a sea of pink. Pink dresses and umbrellas, jeweled crowns, sequined cowboy hats and pink banners formed the group’s attire, while one woman in the lead blew a whistle and ordered the march forward as mobs of media and citizens traipsed around them. The peace group, CODEPINK, danced, sang and marched to declare their distaste for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential candidate...

One of Barack Obama's elite fundraisers from the anti-American group Code Pink attempted to storm the stage last night during Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the GOP convention in St. Paul.Jodie Evans, one of a group of about 500 top financiers who have bundled tens of thousands of dollars for the Obama campaign was seized by the Secret Service after she had made her way to side of the stage and and started to yell at Palin.The Washington Post reported on the incident:10:45 p.m. A pair of Code Pink activists just got to the...

Four members of CODEPINK arrested By Andy Birkey 9/3/08 8:24 PM Four members of the CODEPINK women’s peace movement were arrested Wednesday afternoon. The women, Desiree Fairooz, 52, of Arlington, Texas, Toby Blome, 53 of El Cerrito, Cali., Kit Siemen, 50, of Quilcene, Wash., and Nancy Mancias, 38, of San Francisco, were protesting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin near the St. Paul Hotel when police pushed them to the sidewalk and into the fence surrounding the security perimeter.CODEPINK’s media contact Jean Steven’s sent this message along: In protest of the war and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s pro-war and pro-drilling positions,...

God's blessings on America would be good. I'd ask for prosperity, generosity, intelligence, opportunity, and peace. Apparently some people think of other divine blessings. Like the Bronze Age Hebrews, they pray for God's blessing in war. From McCain's Website, we learn his position on Iraq: "I know the pain war causes. I understand the frustration caused by our mistakes in this war. And I regret sincerely the additional sacrifices imposed on the brave Americans who defend us. But I also know the toll a lost war takes on an army and on our country's security." McCain says that Obama's policies...

Rocky Mountain News excerpt:Code Pink protester shown on video being shoved to the ground by a police officer's baton and later hauled away remains in jail on a charge of interfering with an arrest but should be released tonight, Code Pink officials say. Alicia Forrest was arrested outside Civic Center Park after confronting officers and asking them questions about another arrest they were making, said Sally Newman, legal liaison and spokeswoman for the group. "She was one of a number of people trying to find out where this person was being taken," Newman said. "They just arrested her along with...

Members of CodePINK, an organization opposed to the Iraq war, held aloft an effigy of Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks as they marched along Colfax Ave. today. Members of the group sang "We shall not be moved," an anthem of the Civil Rights movement, and chanted as they paraded on the second day of the Democratic National Convention. The group wants Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to pledge to end the occupation of Iraq, said Renay Davis, 58, a Code Pink member from San Francisco. "At this point I will vote for him. He is our last hope for change...

Kelly Jacobs will be wearing dresses made from a "peace flag" every day at the Democratic National Convention. As a delegate and a CodePink activist, she'll don bright pink earrings, shoes and backpacks - and hundreds of peace and pink-colored buttons. "There's no getting away from the peace message. It's on my neck down to my waist," said Jacobs, 49. The Mississippi activist, who is a delegate for Hillary Rodham Clinton, is one of about 20 CodePink women attending the Democratic convention. They probably won't be disruptive inside. But CodePink members outside the Denver convention are planning to stage parades,...