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To: latina4dubya
can't they have more than one Bush supporter on a panel?

No.

And none at ALL on CNN.

4,717 posted on 09/02/2004 9:46:56 PM PDT by Howlin (I'm mad as Zell)
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To: Howlin

PROTEST WARRIOR MAKE LATIMES FRONT PAGE


NEW YORK - The political tensions dividing America boiled over in the streets Thursday, as antiwar demonstrators squared off against pro-Bush administration activists near Madison Square Garden, site of the Republican National Convention.

Both sides hurled insults at each other, and a line of stoic New York police officers stood rigidly between them, preventing the dueling rallies from getting violent.

The confrontation began shortly before President Bush spoke, when members of a large crowd of anti-Bush protesters were startled to hear a smaller group of people shouting "Four more years!" and holding sarcastic signs mocking his opponents.

They were members of Protest Warrior, a nationwide conservative group that has begun making appearance at political demonstrations across the nation. Tempers flared as the two groups moved closer in the street, screaming at each other.

"Bush is a terrorist!" yelled the anti-war protesters, shaking their fists.

"So was Washington!" answered the conservative activists, waving placards. One read: "Saddam Only Killed His Own People. It Was None of Our Business!"

At first, the two groups were mixed together within a barricaded-area created by police to control demonstrations. But as hostilities increased, officers separated the much smaller group of conservative activists and put them in their own enclosure. The antiwar protesters immediately surrounded them, and the war of words escalated.

"You liberals are working on Uncle Sam's plantation!" shouted an African American protester wearing pro-Bush buttons. A black demonstrator holding an antiwar sign screamed back: "Why do you hate yourself? Why are you such a disgrace?"

The invective was unflagging, the volume unchecked.

"These people are pathetic," said Butch Tiner, an anti-Bush protester who had come from Philadelphia to attend the demonstration. "They look like poorly trained puppets who don't know what to say, except maybe to provoke people."

The feeling was mutual on the other side, where Jean Hart, a Brooklyn resident, stood beneath a huge, hand-lettered sign that read: "My son suicide-bombed a bus full of Israelis, and all I got was this lousy teeshirt."

"We have a right to be here, even if those people on the other side don't like it," she said. "There's another point of view tonight, and we're the right point of view."

At times, the two sides taunted each other with similar chants. The Protest Warriors shouted "USA! USA!" and the other side echoed the slogan. The conservatives yelled "Four more years!" and their opponents said "Four more months!"

"I don't know how much longer these guys can keep it up," cracked one policeman, who stood with other officers in a line between the groups. "When does it end?"

Both sides were finally done in by the clock. The rallies ended at 10 p.m., by prior agreement, and both sides - separated by police - drifted south on Eighth Avenue.

"We'll be back!" said one pro-Bush activist, still waving his sign.

"I can't wait," muttered an antiwar protester, shaking his head.


4,720 posted on 09/02/2004 9:47:51 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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