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Add an EventPhotos from Crawford Pro-War Rally; 'Protest Warriors' Attacked by Rightwing Mob
About two thousand people converged in Crawford yesterday for the “Cindy Doesn’t Speak for Me” rally. “Gold Bless America, God Bless the Troops, and God Bless President Bush” was the theme of the day. Favorite chants included, “Cindy Go Home!” and “What’s Our Exit Strategy? Victory!” Many of the speakers were AM radio talk show hosts from across the country.
The theme of most of their speeches was that Cindy Sheehan was prolonging the war by giving hope to the terrorists. “Iraqis love us… and we are winning.” “The media is currently on a anti-American rampage… Insurgents love the U.S. media.” Darrell Ankarls of 570 KLIF AM radio boomed from the stage that “Cindy’s stuff is making into the sandbox” and it is “getting our boys killed.” Cindy should “shut up” and “go home!”
I had heard that military recruiters were going to be on hand to sign up the youth who attended the rally. I did over hear two young women excitedly talking about having just “jumped in, and sign up.” However, it turned out that they were talking about having signed up for the University of Texas Young Republican Club. It was announced that a woman riding around the parameter of the rally on a beautiful horse was the mother of a teenager who was waiting to enter the military.
Free Republic and the their right-wing youth group of “ironic” Protest Warriors were repeatedly thanked for their support and participation in the rally. The Protest Warriors are young people who usually appear at anti-war related activities with slogans based on “right-wing irony,” such as “War Has Never Solved Anything (except for everything).” However, in a odd turn of events, and despite repeated pleadings that “we are on your side, we are on the right,” the rally turned on these kids. Shouting “Cindy Go Home!” a small mob gathered around the three or four Protest Warriors, attacked their oversized signs, and began stomping on the signs.
Visibly shaken, the Protest Warriors beat a retreat from the rally to the chants of “Get Out of Here Liars!” Over and over again, “We are on your side” were meet by “Liars!” One man clarified that even if they were trying to support the war, they were confusing people, and that “it is the devil who wanted to sew confusion.” It is safe to say that irony, or any opinions that hinted at “shades of gray” were not welcome in Bush Country.
Archive of photos and reports from Crawford, Texas:
http://www.notinourname.net/war/sheehan.htm
Many Bush supporters only saw the top of the sign and believed the men were war protesters, so they began shouting and chasing the pair out.
One man tore up their signs. When Will Marean of Minneapolis kept repeating that he was on the Bush side and tried to explain Protest Warrior's mission, one Bush supporter shook his hand and apologised.
FReepers score own goals in Crawford
Via Atrios, professional Freeper agitator Kristinn Taylor tried to distance FR from a fellow pro-war protestor in Crawford yesterday:
The only way the sign wouldn't be "“representative of the crowd here today,” is if there weren't any Freepers there, because as you can see here and here, the sign is highly representative of Freeper attitudes and rhetoric, more shame to all of them. The Free Republic website is monitored, highly censored and demands conformity of ideology so if posts calling Cindy Sheehan "The bitch in the ditch" or "Ditch Bitch" were unwelcome, they'd be out of there. They're displayed in all their vicious glory still.A handful also got themselves arrested, including a protester whose anti-Sheehan sign was deemed unnecessarily offensive by organizers of a
large pro-Bush rally. The man carrying the sign became violent when he was asked to put it down.Ken Robinson, of Richardson, Texas, who described himself as aVietnam veteran, was carrying a sign at a “You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy!” rally. The sign read, “How to wreck your family in 30 days by ‘b**** in the ditch' Cindy Sheehan.”
Kristinn Taylor, an event organizer with FreeRepublic.com, heard about the sign and rushed up to Robinson.
“This is our rally and you can't do that here,” he said, only for Robinson to insist he was within his rights.
Camera crews rushed in and Taylor turned to face them.
“To all the media here, this sign is not representative of the crowd
here today,” Taylor announced. Some of the crowd around Robinson came
forward to shake his hand, while others chanted, “Idiot, go home.”The two men then squared off and raised their voices.
“Just get outta here!” Robinson yelled, and aimed a kick at Taylor's midsection. Taylor called for security, and a young Woodway policeman
quickly showed up.“I have the right to freedom of speech,” Robinson said.
Robinson continued to protest loudly as police handcuffed him and led him away.
Were there Freepers in Crawford this weekend? Well, who else would be stupid enough to attack their fellow pro-war Republicans? Apparently, some reading-challenged Freepers were enraged at some Protest Warrior signs that were sufficiently complex for the message to go right over their heads, so they did what comes naturally to them - they eliminated them.
AP reports: At the pro-Bush rally several miles away, there
were some heated moments when two members of Protest Warrior, a group
that frequently holds counter protests to anti-war rallies, walked in
with a sign that read "Say No to War Unless a Democrat is President."
Many Bush supporters only saw the top of the sign and believed the men
were war protesters, so they began shouting and chasing the pair out.
One man tore up their signs. When Will Marean of Minneapolis kept
repeating that he was on the Bush side and tried to explain Protest
Warrior's mission, one Bush supporter shook his hand and apologized.
A Freeper who was there posted, "Even the "victim" admitted that he could see how the misunderstanding could happen. But it WAS quite a scene, and I think the poor guy was literally terrified."
It's like when cops fight skinheads--you don't care who wins, as long as someone gets fucked up.
But it was cool that the (staged) press coverage of Cindy Sheehag was lost for a bit, and Protest Warriors got some media coverage and were able to explain their mission and people around the world could see their signs.
yeah, me and my friends regularly stomp eachothers signs at rallies and start mob-chants to run eachother off
you are trying to downplay it because it is an embarrassment to your cause and it reveals how absolutely moronic and violent so many of your pro-war allies are. but they are still your allies and you play the apologist for them here
Finally, making assumptions of people's intelligence because they may look ignorant is pathetic. It's like ripping on people with Down-syndrome cause they look abnormal. Great job making yourselves look like the donkeyhats you truely are.
No discussions of how to mow down liberal antiwar protesters with trucks or guns, or cropdusters. No poking fun at personal appearance. none of that.
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=118263
And don't forget the lies, and how the story changed:
http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/lieswmd.html
And let's not forget that Iraq was in the sites for many years:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
And also, we armed Saddam when it was convenient and turned our heads when he was commiting atrocities:
http://counterpunch.org/dixon06172004.html
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