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My Protest at Palin Rally Finds Some Support From the Crowd
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Acorn, Anti-War Movement, Anti-War Protestors, Campaign 2008, Code Pink, Election 2008, Indiana, Indiana Mccain, Mccain Indiana, McCain Obama, Obama Indiana, Obama McCain, Palin Mccain, Palin Protesters, Sarah Palin,
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Noblesville, Indiana -- A group of intrepid peace activist Hoosiers (members of CodePINK, Women for Peace) braved a Sarah Palin rally in Noblesville, Indiana yesterday. When we arrived, a country band was playing "Kiss This" which they dedicated to Barack Obama.
It was cold out and the crowd seemed slightly lost, dutifully wearing red as they had been told to, but a little dispirited under the slightly cloudy skies. There were people offering the free tickets at the entrance and we easily found parking in spite of claims in the Indy Star and other local papers that the event was sold out.
Having attended a number of other rallies, I was amazed at the lack of security; no metal detectors, in fact, less security than the average professional concert or football game. We estimated the crowd to be well under the 20,000 reported in the press as the lawn seating was only about half filled right up until the time Sarah Palin arrived.
The crowd rallied for a song called "Drill Here, Drill Now" pointing small American flags in the air, as well as for that old family values tune, "If the House is a Rockin', Don't Come A Knockin'" which was played twice.
Many of the attendees were young; family groups with babies, toddlers and teen-agers in jeans and baseball caps along with a number of small groups of men dressed in business clothes and a few clutches of senior citizen women looking slightly awkward in the concert venue.
Camouflage was a favorite; diaper bags, hats, and even camouflage tie-dye shirts with "Palin Power." Almost no one had McCain shirts or hats; it was all about Sarah.
Snow fences divided the crowd with free tickets from those in the arena who had made at least 100 phone calls for the campaign. A group of shirtless kids on the stage spelled out the word "Maverick" in paint; a giant "Country First" sign flanked one side of the stage with an enormous American flag on the other. Although there was a large green "Mitch" sign as well, Republican Governor Mitch Daniels was a no-show; Daily Kos blogger, "Dhonig", thinks he is hedging his bets and trying to distance himself from the McCain/Palin ticket.
At 5:20, a recorded version of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" came on the loudspeaker, (who knew Republicans were into AC/DC?) although the song with its focus on Texas, guns, and loose women apparently is part of the family values Sarah Palin addressed later (and Verizon Wireless owns the rights to AC/DC's music so since this venue was at the Verizon Center, I guess it was all in the family.)
The crowd started chanting" Sarah! Sarah!" but first they got Indiana Lt. Governor, Becky Skillman, who opened with "Hello Hoosiers!" "Is Indiana a red state? It looks like a red state!" (The Republicans are kind of nervous these days, as Indiana has been shading pink lately on the electoral maps.) She announced that Governor Mitch was named Governor of the Year (we wondered by whom-then she explained: "Governing Magazine") and skipped explaining why he couldn't be there in person.
She told the crowd that "Sarah Palin understands us; she's a mother, a mayor, a moose hunter and a maverick" and with that, the crowd went wild, shaking red and white cheerleader pom poms and their small American flags.
After reminding the audience that Sarah Palin was"real" and had faced the "slick speaking Joe Biden " and noting that Indiana wants to be attractive to business, she wound up with "Sarah Palin wants what we want and she's proved it time and again, keeping one eye on waste and the other on corruption" (no comment on whether she has a third eye trained on Russia). The crowd erupted into shouts of "Country First" and at 5:40, Sarah Palin took the podium in a purple suit jacket (someone forgot to tell her to wear red) and her trademark designer glasses. She rallied the crowd with criticism of the mainstream media to loud boos, her resemblance to Tina Fey (cheers) and noted that the movie "Hoosiers" is at the top of her favorite list of movies. She showcased her knowledge of local culture by invoking the Indianapolis 500 and bragged that her daughter's middle name is "Indy" (apparently for a snowmobile not the race but oh well).
Around the time she started winding the crowd up with accusations about Barack Obama's alleged association with ACORN, it was time for my associates and I to hold up our large pink banner which read, "Silence the Violence" Stop the War!. We also revealed our red shirts had the words "Stop the war" and "Silence the violence" in large letters on the back. When one of our group, Lori Perdue, a US army veteran, started to shout "stop the war" loudly, things got lively- a group of men came over and stood in front of our banner, when we moved, they tried to rip it out of our hands.
A number of state and local troopers then came and stood protectively in front of us (thanks officers) -when the men came around from the back and again grabbed the banner, I said, "sit down" and we sat on it. As the men were getting increasingly physically threatening, the troopers told us we had to leave-and made a ring around us. Lori was still "shouting stop the war" the rest of us concentrated on keeping the banner up.
While there were some people who came up and gave us a hard time, (the usual comments of "traitors" "go die in Iraq" - you know, family friendly advice, several women came up and gave us the peace sign and thanked us. One said, "So you came to see the freak show too!" Two friends who were covering us with a video and still camera said a whole group of people followed us out, holding their hands in peace signs.
This was the point at which Sarah Palin apparently started talking about victory in Iraq. A state trooper told us we would be arrested if we didn't leave and we agreed to leave peacefully. As we got into our car, a woman sarcastically thanked us for "ruining it for her"- It was odd she left, since Sarah Palin hadn't finished speaking; our guess was her husband used our presence as an excuse to leave early.
While protestors from Planned Parenthood and local unions made the newspapers, our exercise in free speech failed to make the news but at least a few people in the crowd thanked us for countering the negative tone of Palin's rally.
Please note: I attended this rally (with a ticket) as a private citizen-comments in this blog are my personal opinion and not connected with any group or organization.
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True "heroes"
LMAFROF
I've spoken to people who were there. They used many adjectives to describe the scene, however, none of them was "dispirited" or "lost".
Were you in the right place?
Moreover, when you held up your signs, folks stood up to block them. Nobody tried to "rip them out of your hands". There isn't any video of that either. I looked.
You need to lie to emphasize your support for Senator Obama. That'll sure convince me to vote for him. Sure it will.
You openly state "I've spoken to people who were there", implying that you weren't there yourself, in person. So how is it that you know these things beyond the shadow of doubt? If you weren't there, which is apparent, how is that you know that these people were so innocently standing up only to block the signs?
We've all seen the way that these crowds deal with protesters since the RNC hit the airwaves. The woman having her sign ripped from her hands their, throwing her to the stairs, while the fellow perpetrating the act tears the sign and throws it back on her. It's only gotten worse from then.
It is very curious that Republicans are again trying to skewer media in general for being in the tank for the democrat, but you cite the inability to find footage of this particular incident. Interesting....
Also interesting is the assertion that you talked to people that were there who told you it was anything but the way the author described. Let's be honest, do you really think that anyone that showed up for a rally of this type is going to ever admit that it was even a little bit of a dud? Doubt it.
nycexile --
So, you're implying that you can be persuaded to vote for Obama? Really??!!
Now who's lying?
BTW, Barack will win, with or without your vote, so who cares?
Hello??? did you not notice the large gray boxes you stepped through just before you were wanded down by a state police officer? That wasn't to check your blood pressure! I was up front and I'm glad to say Sarah Palin didn't hear your group shouting nor did she start talking about winning in Iraq because she heard you. I didn't hear you, she didn't hear you, nobody heard you. In fact none of us in the seats knew there was any protesters until afterwards in the news. Thank you state troopers for keeping the peace! And I can hardly believe the comments about "physically threatening". No doubt, you had to make that up to have any kind of point to this story.
I guess that makes it a push - because apparently "Nobody" has heard her either.
And I quote: "No doubt, you had to make that up to have any kind of point to this story."
Ah yes, that sounds exactly like something a McCain/Palin supporter would do - imply that the person is lying, dishonest, untrustworthy.
I suppose if she had posted the video there would still be questions as to its veracity.
***One said, "So you came to see the freak show too!" Two friends who were covering us with a video and still camera said a whole group of people followed us out, holding their hands in peace signs.***
Yes, it is difficult to people behaving so badly as a group attempts to exercise their Constitutional rights. And yet in North Carolina, Obama supporters' tires have been slashed:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/20/obama-supporters-tires-sl_n_136171.html
in Ohio, the effigy of Obama hanging from a tree:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbbcVNOMqSk
There were the people handing out flyers promoting intolerance of Islam at a McCain rally:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/20/muslim-mccain-fans-confro_n_136203.html
And the woman who yelled at Senator Obama himself when he came into a restaurant to get some food:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/10/obama-race.html
And of course, don't forget the people yelling "kill him," "Terrorist" and "off with his head," at the rallies.
I can't help but wonder whether you really don't believe there were threats, you prefer to believe there were no threats, or you just don't care if there were threats.
Last Wednesday a moderate sized group of local Obama supporters, SOME WITH SMALL CHILDREN, held a rally supporting Obama. This is what happened in a period of 1 hour:
We smiled, waved, showed our signs/shirts.
We got plenty of stone faced drivers who chose to ignore us. There were quite a few drivers who beeped their horns and smiled back and yelled out for us. Support from some truck drivers who tried to keep it under the radar. One man came over to show support but said he'd "pray for us" because we needed it. Crazy guy! It was great, some had their kids yelling too. Cute. Ahhhh democracy...
Soon enough, the crazies came out. My friend was called a "hippie", which he laughed and explained that there are no gun owning hippies in his home state of Idaho...
We counted at least 12 middle fingers, accompanied by hateful looks, a well put together woman who seemed that way until we understood what she was spouting off. She said, "He's a Muslim!" at the top of her voice. I just used my slogan of, "where's the love" and held up a peace sign. I was glad that my daughter had band practice and couldn't make it. She would have given up on us as Americans. I was surprised at just how hateful some can be. If we are going through this, imagine what Obama must deal with everyday. If he can do it, so can we!
I may be too late in posting in a timely fashion, but I was one of the 75,000 who attended the Obama rally in Kansas CIty, MO. on Saturday night. Along with young and old, black and white and Asian and Hispanic, men and women, we saw several people in shirts reading "Machinists for Obama", "Teachers for Obama", "Teamsters for Obama" and many others. We also saw the proud wearer of a bumper sticker, "Rednecks for Obama". We didn't see any McCain signs or anti-abortion rights signs like we have seen in the past. We also, as a group, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, sang the Star Spangled Banner and all said "Amen" after a moving prayer that called for the safety of Obama and Senator McCain. Who said liberals are heathens?
That's just another proof that we, the Republicans, are respectful to others' beliefs and political rallies and never interfere or try to disrupt them. Which, unfortunately, is not the case with the far-left loons, as evidenced by this very article.
OMG! This is great. McCain is proud of these people. The ones who yell kill him or terrorist can stay. The ones who ask for peace and stop the hate have to leave. God help us if they win this election.
Point well made.
Now that was real civility. Great family values.
I have protested in groups before and it is great fun! Everyone has to be organized and trained and things just fall into place. Direct issue organizing is different than what Code Pink does but just as effective for getting attention and coverage.
Good job you guys.
I wonder if there is an aging, decrepit painting of Palin in an attic somewhere. Just a thought.
As in "The Picture of Dorian Gray"? One of the best psychological thrillers ever written!
I wonder why no one is talking about how Gov. Palin delivered a check to every household in Alaska the past two years - brought to them be reductions in government. This is not something you'd like?
Gov. Palin sold the Governor's plane, cut corruption and tirelessly works for energy independence. All while Mrs. Obama is ordering lobster hors d'oeuvres, two steamed lobsters, Iranian caviar and champagne at the Waldorf Astoria for lunch!
Let's check our values...
Come now. $2,800 jacket worn to the RNC. Tattooed lipliner. Tanning bed. Nanny raising children. Vogue Magazine cover. Million dollar home.
Alaska's energy supply was there before Palin and will be there after her term finishes or she's impeached.
Etiquette demands that you check facts before you make wild and woolly statements
So, as you suggest: Let's check our values:
1. The cheque came from oil company royalties, not from reductions in government.
2. "Government" in Wasilla and Alaska increased in numbers and costs after she came to power. Wasilla now has a $20 million debt (about $3,000 per head). Her equally uneducated friends replaced people who had qualifications, and for whom their positions had been career jobs.
3. She tried to sell the plane on eBay - and it was eventually sold by others at a $600,000 loss.
4. She has been found by a Republican-dominated investigating commitee to have committed crimes by abuse of power as Governor. That's a form of "corruption" which she perpetrated.
5. There are huge question marks hanging over who built her new house.
6. She praised the next President, Barack Obama, for his energy policy in late 2007.
7. She has lied about just about everything, even her control of the US Defence force in Alaska.
8. She claims to be a person of faith, yet perpetrates lies and incites people to hatred and violence, all of which are opposite to the teachings she espouses.
You said . . . ?
The worst part of all is that she continues to call God's name in vain for every hateful thing she does. She is going straight to hell. And McCain is too. He is so desperate to become President and she is just as desperate that they are willing to do anything to get there. He is a fake and a liar and a cheater and they have both been proven to be unethical in government office. They are inciting and tolerating racist behavior in what is supposed to be the best country on the face of the earth. What this has taught us is that racism is still very popular in the US. It's just that it was tacky to say it out loud before but now they have a forum of Sarah Palin rallies across america to get them stoked up!! I'm glad they made her look stupid on SNL this past weekend. What a dunce to think they Fey and company would be fair and nice to her. Just goes to show you what bad judgement she, McCain and their campaign handlers are. I can't wait for this chapter to be over.
OBAMA/BIDEN '08
This post falls entirely into the definition of "delusional". A classic example!
Do you understand anything at all about the Alaskan economy?
The state makes so much money off oil that they never have a state income tax. They often have a surplus. This year Palin decided to give it to the citizens instead of spending it to put roads and water into vast parts of rural Alaska that do not have these things, for example.
In other words Alaska is like Saudi Arabia: supported 110% by oil revenues.
But first, why not check your facts?
One more socialist GOP poster! There you go again! By Golly! you got it. Welfare for Alaskans - from the taxpayers of America - courtesy of Mooselini. Alaska is at a deficit now! So more socialism on the way eh?!
Fantastic and brave! Join through through their organization codepink.org
See link to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzOHexHyu44
I'd like to thank all the members of Code Pink. They are braver than I am that's for sure. I'd be scared for my life doing what they do. Kudos to you all!
thecanadian
YOU WOULD NOT THINK THAT IF THEY WERE STANDING OUTSIDE WHILE YOU WERE BURYING A LOVED ONE WHO HAD DIED TO GIVE THEM THAT RIGHT
WHAT A JERK YOU AND ALL THE OTHERS ARE THAT THINKS THIS IS FUNNY TO HAVE PEOPLE TO SCREAM AND SHOUT THE MOST AWFUL THINGS ABOUT SOMEONE YOU LOVE. THAT DOES NOT TAKE GUTS TO ATTACK SOMEONE YOU DO NOT KNOW BUT DIED SO YOU HAD THE RIGHT TO PROTEST. SO TO THINK THIS IS COOL OR FUNNY THINK OF SOMEONE YOU LOVE AND THEN THEY DIE AND PEOPLE ARE STANDING OUTSIDE SAY AWFUL THINGS ABOUT SOMEONE THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW
PUT YOURSELF IN SOMEONE'S PLACE BEFORE MAKING JUDGEMENT
IT IS NOT FUNNY AND EVERYONE KEEPS TALKING ABOUT OBAMA BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER IT IS NOT TRUE. I AM ALREADY HEARING SOME OF YOU ON THIS BLOG TALKING ABOUT GOING TO MCCAIN/PALIN RALLIES AND PROTESTING. BUT YET IF ANYONE SAY OR ASK ANYTHING ABOUT OBAMA THEY ARE RACIST.
i dont understand why protestors get kicked out. we do have freedom of speech, right? the guys who tried to take the sign should have been kicked out. they were the ones that were out of line.
I think they say it's a priviate venue. So you can protest outside but not usually inside, unless you sneak in. I am so glad there are brave people out there and I thank them all. Now, I wish our government would stop getting them killed for no reason.
Were you paying attention to what happened in St Paul?
So called "free speech zones" are utterly and completely unconstitutional.
After attending an anti-war march in Washington DC I was told by the security guards at Union Station that it was private property and "management" would not allow me to carry my protest signs through the station -- unless of course I obscured the sign as not to be able to be read. What?
When our leaders begin speaking only to pre-screened audiences - that allow no dissent, no variation from der Party line - it is an affront to our republic.
I understand your point - but to me if an elected official is speaking and attempting to persuade citizens to vote for them -- then the venue whatever or wherever it is -- is a free speech zone and access should never be granted on the basis of ideology. (Actually our entire nation is one big free speech zone imho)
It is our duty as Americans to demand accountability from our elected officials - and also to demand they tell us exactly how they would govern.
It is .... "We the People ... ".
It is our duty to ensure that never changes.
Many years ago the Detroit Zoo and at the Metro Airport, tried to ban the "Moonies" from handing out their literature to visitors to the zoo, it went to court and the court said that it was public property and they had 1st Amendment rights so they were allowed in after that, did that get reversed somewhere along the line?
it may be as much a violence preventative measure.
T H A N K Y O U !!!
T H A N K Y O U !!
T H A N K Y O U !
And BTW, it is scary to think that in America - to exercise a Constitutional Right ... may now bring about arrest and detainment -- not to mention being labeled by the neocons as a "terrorist" or a "traitor".
I think CODE PINK is doing what a lot more of us -- SHOULD BE DOING. Please keep doing what you do Susan.
Oh, do not kid yourself. The Secret Service has technology that allows them to see everyone in a crowd down to their skin and maybe even underneath. They have tech that will detect a gun.
Did you think the Terahertz camera was just a fiction on "Alias"? It is real.
They supposedly are investigating those who shouted threats to Obama. Why aren't we hearing anything?
Do you honestly believe the Secret Service is going to make public information on threats to a presidential candidate? Hardly, in fact they will do just the opposite... for the very purpose of protecting the candidate.
BECAUSE IT WAS A REPORTER THAT LIED. IT CAME OUT LAST WEEK. THERE WERE POLICE AND SECRET SERVICE IN THE CROWD AND THE NEXT DAY THEY SAW IN THE NEWS PAPER WHAT WAS BEING SAID
IT DID NOT HAPPEN A REPORT MADE IT UP
Thank You, Susan!
Your bravery and commitment is much appreciated here from So Cal.
We are bravely protesting the hate-mongers and zealots who have infiltrated our state to push Prop 8.
They stand in front of public schools every morning and are using Scare Tactics to frighten parents of young children into believing homosexuality will be taught in public schools.
They look like foreigners from PlanetHowdyDoody and WE are standing up to them.
STOP THE H8!!!!
Thanks to you and your friends for your courage and admirable conduct in the face of un-American thuggery in the Happy Heartland Republic.
I am grateful for the comment about soldiers who served in previous wars. Before the days of a significant conscientious objector network in Indiana, some of them were mind-f***ed by the notion that it was their part of a social contract with the Land of the Free to serve the nation because John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (both elected instead of more militaristic Republicans) "knew" that the Communsts were a threat to world peace. Lafayette lost at least two men before their prime to this lie in the 1960's, a talented satirist and friend, John Miller, who graduated from the technical writing program at the [work-study] University of Cincinnatti (his jeep flipped over on him during anti-Soviet maneuvers in Germany in 1965), and Denny Burton, a year younger than John (a talented African-American musician also selected for and made Vietnam cannon-fodder while the country club chicken-hawks with higher priorities sat it out).
Lafayette native and Vietnam-era veteran.
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