Posted on 04/21/2004 9:10:57 PM PDT by kristinn
Honor Roll for tonight: Angelwood, tgslTakoma, Trueblackman, scholastic, 3D-Joy and kristinn. Big thanks to Rummyfan for the tip!
Her Heinous, Hillary Rodham Clinton, held a booksigning for the paperback release of her book, Living History, at the Books-a-Million in Washington, D.C.'s ultra-liberal Dupont Circle tonight.
The booksigning was nearly called off because Hillary Clinton's staff freaked out when Trueblackman went through the line twice to get copies of Hillary's books signed by her.
To set the scene, we had thrown this freep together in one day thanks to the alert eye of Rummyfan who tipped us off on another thread about the booksigning.
Angelwood sent out a permit application this morning as a courtesy to the D.C. police and Secret Service, even though we knew there would just be a handful of us out there so a permit was not required.
Angelwood was first to arrive--around 5:30 p.m. On a lark, she went in the store to see if any tickets were left. To her surprise, not many had been issued even though they were available since 9 a.m. So she bought a book and got ticket number 136. The booksigning was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
The rest of us arrived between 6:15 and 7 p.m. We initially set up on the right side of the store facing the table at the far end of the store where Hillary would be signing. The D.C. police told us we'd have to move soon as the line from the store would be spilling out to where we were. So, when the line came near us we switched sides and stood near the other side of the entrance.
Angelwood had to leave, so she left the book with tgslTakoma. Trueblackman volunteered to do the honors of getting the book signed by Her Heinous.
He went through the line while we stood outside holding our signs and bantered with passersby. Because we were so close to those waiting in line, we chose not to speak out to them so as to not get them riled up.
However, folks walking by engaged us in civil conversation for the most part. We only got flipped off once and got a surprising number of positive responses.
A uniformed security guard got in tgslTakoma's face when she stood on the sidewalk at the entrance and took some pictures of Hillary at the back of the store. He told her she couldn't take pictures. She held her ground until a store employee told the security guard to back off and leave her alone.
Trueblackman came out with his signed book. He played it straight and shook hands with Hillary after she signed the book. He called his liberal girlfriend to tell her about it and she asked him to get one signed for her.
Love will make a man do the most dangerous things, so he asked a Books-a-Million employee if he could buy another book and get back in line. They said sure, no problem. Being that the turnout for Hillary was nowhere near what it was when she barnstormed the country last year for the hardback edition of Living History, he was able to get a ticket in the 270s range.
He was on the phone with his girlfriend as he got up to Hillary and held the phone out for Hillary to say hello to her, which she did. It was a pleasant exchange. However, Hillary's snake-eyed staff had noticed Trueblackman talking with his fellow D.C. Chapter members outside before he came back in.
After he had left Hillary the second time, Hillary's staff threw a fit with the Books-a-Million managers, telling them that he was with the protesters outside and if they allowed him in the store again they would shut down the booksigning and Hillary would leave.
The store acquiesed, even though he had done nothing wrong, and sicced the security guards on Trueblackman--outside the store on the sidewalk!
One guard got in his face and told him he was banned from the store. Trueblackman got upset because he knew he had done nothing wrong. A D.C. police officer intervened and calmed things down. However, the banning from the booksigning stood. I guess Hillary's people were afraid he'd buy a third book.
The booksigning was scheduled to end at 9 p.m. Because of the lack of customers, it ended early around 8:30 after about 350 books had been sold, by our estimate.
Pictures to follow.
Nyet, you weel not take picture! Ees against State Security!
Talk about a whiff of fascism!
Yowsa, what was it like being so close to the Hildabeast?!
30 minutes 'til Her Heinous' arrival
Is that Trueblackman, waiting in line with Hillary's book?!
Trueblackman has fun with the book and the folks in line.
Trueblackman can't believe the revisionism in the book.
Not a very big crowd for a "beloved" figure
Books-a-Million gal came out to smoke a cigarette, and went after Angelwood and 3D-Joy.
Yikes! (My favorite shot of the night.)
Hillary in back of store, at end of aisle on left of photo. Hmmmm, where is everybody?
The line for Hillary's book was short, and it moved very quickly
Did the short line tonight lead to a temper tantrum by Hillary afterwards, at her WhiteHaven Manse? No doubt.
Security guy tries his best to antagonize Trueblackman
Continuing to antagonize and inflame
Now a different security guy blocks my camera-eye view of the Heinous One
Funny what a uniform does to some people.His shirt should be brown
Isn't the USA a great place? This guy not only tried to pick a fight with Trueblackman, but earlier he tried to tell me I couldn't take pictures from the public sidewalk.
The BAM person who told the security guy to talk to Tbm
Thanks, Rummyfan, for the last minute heads-up on this event. With your (intel-gathering) help, you guys sure do keep us busy around here.
;-)
BTW, I understand you met with 1sgt Mike at Walter Reed and took him out for a tour of D.C and told him about some of the D.C. Chapter FReeps. I was fortunate enough to get him away from Walter Reed for lunch earlier that day. Mike is a class act and I was glad to be able to meet him.
Eagles Up,
Mike
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Hillary! was wearing that turqoise pantsuit tonight. Y'know... the one that made her look pregnant in those photos last year.
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