Inaugural Parade & W2 Ball Report, Audio, and Photos (large file warning)

January 23, 2005 | BillF

[BillF]

SKUNKS AND BLUE BRACELETS AT CHECKPOINT CHARLIE

The 7th Street security checkpoint ("Checkpoint Charlie") for the inaugural parade was closest to the American Sector established by the DC Chapter of Free Republic.  Waiting there, I coincidentally ended up near DC Chapter member, bmwcyle, and Flora McDonald, a Richmond-area FReeper of long-standing. As we waited in the crowd (it wasn't orderly enough to be a line), pro-Bush people mostly tried to stay quiet in the face of some leftists (maybe ten percent of the crowd) occasionally and individually shouting anti-Bush or anti-war slogans. However, numerous Bush supporters and people who just came to watch a parade would shout back every now and then.

On one occasion the crowd started singing God Bless America.  The song's title has three words, each word representing a concept antithetical to many of the leftists.

I told one leftist waiting in the security line near me to "swim to Cuba, free healthcare, free education," much to the amusement of most nearby people. (Some of the other, regular parade-watchers started chiding leftists. I heard one later say "go to Cuba" to another leftist.)

In response to my "swim to Cuba" line, he said "why did you come to annoy us today?"  The leftist was serious.  He and many of his leftist friends truly believe that the world revolves around them. It's all about them.

I said: "Get real. We won. You lost. We're here to celebrate and watch a parade. You are the skunk at the parade." Seeing his discomfort at that characterization, I started referring to all of them as "skunks at the parade."

That particular skunk, stung and not used to being verbally challenged, retreated about 25 feet from his original location that was a couple people away from bmwcyle and me.

When I laughed at another skunk, he complained that he had a right to criticize "Bush," but said that I was violating his First Amendment rights. After laughing at that absurd comment, I said, "I'm not interfering with your rights. I'm just using my First Amendment rights to criticize and ridicule the way that you use your rights."

Bmwcyle and I left after waiting for about 20 minutes at the security checkpoint, but Flora McDonald decided to stay. BMW and I didn't think that we would get in because there had been little movement towards the entry gate.. Also, there was an ugly incident when some leftist was shouting slurs against President Bush into a news camera and a conservative (not a FReeper as far as known) quickly charged 20 feet through the crowd, getting into the guy's face. It had not gotten physical, but appeared to be on the verge when we left.

We later returned and waited again at the "Checkpoint Charlie" that was a couple blocks north of our intended American Sector destination. Some of the sound files which are linked below are from the first time waiting and some are from the second time waiting, but I'm not sure which ones go with which time.

Click here for a SOUND FILE (regular left click to play the WAV-format file, right click if you want to download it for later listening;  188 K, 17 sec.). This is some leftist saying "stop the Nazism, we don't need another Hitler." In response, bmwcyle says, "Yeah, Clinton is out of office." More back and forth is in the audio.

Click here for a SOUND FILE ( 853 K, 78 sec.) that begins with bmwcyle and a leftist arguing ("sore loser" vs. "sore winner") and ends shortly after I tell a guy wearing a Che Guevara button that he should "swim to Cuba."

Click here for a SOUND FILE (679 K, 62 sec.) that begins with a woman telling the leftists "if you don't like it here, you can leave" (paraphrase). Later the audio has a guy who had not voted for Bush.  The guy wanted to see the parade, but was disgusted at the leftists. He was asking a leftist "where is your political cadre." However, the guy told me that, as disgusting as the leftists were, it was appropriate for the leftists to be exercising their First Amendment rights there.

Although I agreed that the leftists had the right to demonstrate (i.e., be skunks at the parade), I argued that it was not appropriate.  It was uncivil, rude in the extreme. Suppose a Democratic Senator had led a filibuster of a Bush Supreme Court nominee, it would be our First Amendment right to protest on public property adjacent a wedding reception for the Senator. I'm sure that FReepers would not hold such a classless protest, despite it being within our rights.

As bad as the leftists' conduct was, I believe that the leftists are digging a hole for future Dem candidates. Like the guy who didn't vote for Bush, but was disgusted by the leftists, many Americans will turn away from the Dems upon becoming aware of such conduct.

A leftist climbed up a Jersey barrier and stood 3 feet higher than the crowd. He started shouting leftist inanities to the crowd.  Ridiculed by bmwcyle, me, and others, the leftist soon realized that the crowd was overwhelmingly against him. He abandoned his perch.

Some guy, who had been given a blue wrist bracelet (i.e., Blue State emblem), asked if anyone wanted it. The man was a Bush supporter and didn't really want it, but apparently had accepted it from a guy handing out dozens and dozens of them. The man had previously not felt confident enough to "out" himself as a Bush supporter by turning it down.  After he heard several of us ridicule the leftists, he realized that he was not in enemy-occupied territory.

I warned the nearby leftists that the blue bracelet might be misinterpreted as a sign of willingness to perform a sexual act.  I explained that National Review online had linked to a site which explained the sexual significance of various bracelets. As delicately as possible in view of the young ears not far away, I said that Monica would have worn the blue bracelet to go with the blue dress that was the legacy of our last President.

When a leftist accepted the blue bracelet, I suggested that he should avoid the possible misinterpretation of the bracelet as a sex signal. Instead, I said that he should have a blue letter "L" tattooed on his forehead.  He didn't like that idea.

With the one exception when the conservative interrupted the leftist's interview, this was great fun.  Nothing had come close to physical confrontation, probably because the leftists were so outnumbered.  Most of my comments were made with a laugh and a smile.  Indeed, bmwcyle shook hands with one of the better behaved leftists.

This was a great day to celebrate. Our side had won and could afford to laugh at the pathetic losers.

BARBARIANS AT THE GATES

Between our first time waiting at the security gate and our second time, bmwcyle and I drank some beer at a brew pub a few blocks away.

[Click on a photo to see a full size photo in a new window, except where noted. PROBLEMS SEEING PHOTOS OR HEARING SOUND FILES? You may want to try TEMPORARILY turning off Zone Alarm or other firewall and trying again.]

As I drank, I looked out the window and saw a black wave moving down the street.  Like the hordes of barbarians or Vikings that storm establishments in the Capital One credit card ads, the anarchists had taken to the streets. Grabbing my camera, I went just outside the door of the restaurant and  took these photos. Two waitresses from the brew pub had stepped outside to watch the garbage pass. One said, "that is so cool." Obviously, she was highly sympathetic to them. I could have taught her a lesson by shouting "hey, this chick here is a Bush supporter," but it would have been wrong. The anarchists looked like they were spoiling for a fight. Hundreds, possibly over a thousand, moved by very quickly and turned the corner on the way to the security checkpoint that bmwcyle and I had left 20 minutes before. A few police cars trailed the anarchists.  A short time after they had passed, at least ten police cars and ten police motorcyles zoomed by. They were going a different way, but apparently planned to head off the anarchists.

ANARCHISTS , OFTEN CALLED  "BLACK BLOC" DUE TO THE BLACK CLOTHING [CLICK ANY PHOTO TO SEE FULL SIZE]

Returning to my beer, I would later hear about the anarchists' further exploits from witnesses. The anarchists moved towards the crowd at the checkpoint, apparently hoping to create a stampede. The anarchists probably wanted the crowd to flee the anarchists by breaching the security gate. The anarchists could have walked across the bodies of the injured people and used the chaos to get into the secure zone without going through the checkpoint.  Fortunately, police vehicles swooped in to block the anarchists from getting too close to the waiting crowd.  The police vehicles protected the crowd from the anarchists, but some people at the edge of the crowd had to quickly get out of the way of the police vehicles. This created a big crush in the crowd, causing many to fear for their safety, especially those with small children.  Many of those people gave up on the parade and left the area as soon as they could. The anarchists got a Protest Warrior on the ground and kicked him. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured.

CAMERA-SHY GUY THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO MEET IN AN ALLEY

[THIS PHOTO, NOT HYPERLINKED TO LARGER ONE] SKULL AND BONES, BUT NOT IN HONOR OF THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET YALE SOCIETY

The anarchists threw snowballs at people. Then they took the signs and flags off their support poles.  When they threw the poles at officers, the police responded with a canon that fired pepper spray on the anarchists.

AMERICAN SECTOR

After about an hour in the pub, bmwcyle and I went back to the gate and started our second wait.  It took us about an hour to get in.  Separated from bmwcyle during the security processing, I made my way to the American Sector. Unfortunately, I missed President Bush by about 5 or 10 minutes, despite the fact that security concerns had delayed the start of the parade at least an hour. (The anarchists' lawlessness and near-riot described above MAY have been the security concern that delayed the start of the parade.)

At the American Sector, I talked with kristinn, trueblackman, staytrue, Flora McDonald, Rabidralph, the Sarce, BufordP and DCBryan1, among others.

Sad to say that my camera didn't work all the time. At the parade and at the ball, I "took" photos that never registered, but I didn't realize it until later. Some of the better parade photos are below.

TRUEBLACKMAN ON RIGHT AND ANOTHER (SORRY, I DIDN'T GET THE NAME) HOLD ONE OF BUFORDP'S GREAT SIGNS	PROUD MOTHER FLORA McDONALD HOLDS SIGN FOR A MARINE SPECIAL TO HER
BUFORDP HOLDS ANOTHER OF HIS GREAT SIGNS	LURKER (L) AND DCBRYAN1 HOLD SIGN
RESCUE DOGS AND HANDLERS MARCH AS POLICE SCAN CROWD	IMPRESSIVE TEXAS FLOAT
TWO ROWS OF BARRIERS (ONLY ONE ROW VISIBLE HERE) AND POLICE LINE SAFEGUARD THE PARADE AS POLICE (SNIPER-SPOTTER TEAM?) WATCH FROM BUILDING TOP	WYOMING FLOAT WITH STATUE OF COWBOY (INSERT DEAN SCREAM HERE) ON BUCKING BRONCO

W2 BALL

The Capitol Offense Band with Gov. Huckabee, the comedian/impressionist singer Billy Finch, the program, Sauropod's video, and Jimmy Valentine's brother as Saddam Hussein in prison stripes dancing onstage as the band played Jail House Rock, it was all great. Meeting old friends and making new ones and proving once again that FReepers are the greatest!

 

SIGNS NEAR THE MAIN ENTRANCE	PHOTOS OF VARIOUS FREEPERS AND RELATIVES IN OUR MILITARY
JIMMY VALENTINE'S BROTHER AS SADDAM HUSSEIN	PHOTOS OF PAST FREEPER ACTIONS ON WALL WITH GREAT SIGNS FROM STAYTRUE ("VOTE FOR BUSH") AND BUFORDP ("ROCKIN' FOR BIN LADEN")
KRISTINN INTRODUCES CAPITOL OFFENSE BAND	KRISTINN AND TGSLTAKOMA
TWO MORE SIGNS THAT STAYTRUE USED IN FREEPS THIS PAST YEAR	MUDBOY SLIM, HELMS, SAUROPOD, AND IRONMAN
MORE FREEPER SIGNS USED IN FREEPS	BUFORDP MADE THE SIGN ON THE LEFT AND USED IT IN A FREEP OF SeeBS News

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[Little Bill]

I ain't afraid of no protesters, I just want to go to one of these FR Mega events. I have been a member or a lurker since 1997 and have lots of vacation time, but I generally have to work, a piss poor excuse. CPAC is coming up.

[doug from upland]

Great report.

[blackie]

Good Stuff ~ Bookmarked!

[bmwcyle]

bump

[bmwcyle]

bump

[bmwcyle]

bump

[bmwcyle]

bump

[RightField]

Wish I could have been there bump!

[TaxRelief]

CSpan DVD of the Official Events

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Summary from CSPAN store:

      This compilation video contains full C-SPAN coverage of the major official events of the Presidential Inauguration 2005. Included is the musical prelude, official arrivals on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, the swearing-in ceremonies, the inaugural address, the Congressional luncheon with remarks by President Bush and Congressional leaders at the U.S. Capitol, review of the military honor guard, the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, and inaugural ball highlights. The videos are available in DVD or VHS format. All ceremonies are as aired on C-SPAN. 29.95 + shipping, etc. Here.

[nutmeg]

The intersection has four "segments", if you will. South 7th, North 7th, East D and West D. The security checkpoint was at South D. I saw the anarchist flags and the snowballs flying from West D. Most pedestrian traffic was coming from the direction of the capitol, East D. The motorcycle cops came in from North 7th. My wife and I were square in the middle of the intersection and had to get our of the way of the first police car to arrive.

My wife and I decided that the crowd was too large to get through the checkpoint (it was around 1:30 or so) so we headed up North 7th to E street, where we came across a couple of dozen police donning their riot gear. It was at that point that we decided to head back to our hotel.

Ol' Sox... darn, you were down there this weekend and we didn't get a chance to meet you? Hopefully another time.

Excellent report in post 56 - you've provided some great details. To me, the crowd looked like a MIX of "anarchists", Bush-haters, anti-war activists, general unwashed, etc. Some *looked* somewhat dangerous, some like they had just jumped on the bandwagon, a FEW actually looked like "normal people", all looked vacant and clueless.

My husband (FReeper "zelig") thinks we were at that same checkpoint at around 1pm. Sounds like we just missed all of the 'action'. My husband was so intent on finding a Metro station once we made the decision to head back to the hotel, that I didn't notice as many details of the crowd as you did. I was racing to keep up with him - didn't want to get separated.

[nutmeg]

If we could get more FReepers and patriots showing up to counter-protest ANSWER than ANSWER has people in attendance, we could totally destroy the viability of those apologists for Saddam, fans of Stalin and Kim il-Jong.

Unfortunately, many (most?) FReepers are too conservative (referring to tactics, not ideology)to demonstrate.

I hear ya... it's too true. If only we lived closer to DC... *sigh*

[Ol' Sox]

Ol' Sox... darn, you were down there this weekend and we didn't get a chance to meet you? Hopefully another time.

I know - we didn't get much of an opportunity to "mix" at the ball. We had a Marine Colonel and Army Lt. Colonel and their wives at our dinner table and enjoyed excellent conversation with them. Both were stationed with the Joint Chiefs, and the LtC (a Bronze Star recipient)was an apt historian, and regaled us with tales of the rise and fall of the Muslim Caliphates over the past thousand years. After that we danced (with three kids, we rarely get the opportunity!). Maybe we'll see you next time!

[nutmeg]

I ain't afraid of no protesters, I just want to go to one of these FR Mega events. I have been a member or a lurker since 1997 and have lots of vacation time, but I generally have to work, a piss poor excuse. CPAC is coming up.

I know you're not afraid, Little Bill! :-)

We weren't afraid of them either. We unfortunately mingled with the leftists (not by choice!) a good part of the day on Thursday. There were several sign-carrying leftists on our Metro train also - from as far away as the Vienna, VA station.

We gave up trying to join the FReepers (and gave up trying to get into the swearing-in ceremony earlier) because we never would have made it through the huge "blocks" of protestors clogging up the works AND the normal folks ahead of us at the security checkpoints in time for the Inaugural and parade. It would've taken several hours. As it got to be early afternoon, we realized we needed to get back to our hotel (far from DC) and get ready for the Ball, which was our main reason for being in DC. The trains were running extra-slow that day, at least the Orange line we were on was - according to some DC-area natives we met on the trains. We stayed far from DC only because we found a hotel where we could use Holiday Inn points, so our stay was free.

We plan to be at CPAC... hope to see you there!

[nutmeg]

We had a Marine Colonel and Army Lt. Colonel and their wives at our dinner table and enjoyed excellent conversation with them. Both were stationed with the Joint Chiefs, and the LtC (a Bronze Star recipient)was an apt historian, and regaled us with tales of the rise and fall of the Muslim Caliphates over the past thousand years.

Fascinating!

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BillF]

Thanks for the great first hand account.

bmwcyle and I were at the pub at 9th and F, two blocks north and two blocks west of the security gate when the anarchists went by.

Wasn't the security checkpoint at South 7th as you've identified the segments? South D is not one of the segments that you identified, but maybe I'm missing something.

At any rate, your account confirms my belief that the long line of police cars and motorcycles, passing by my location shortly after the anarchists, but going a different way, went to head off the anarchists at the 7th and D location.

Were the anarchists throwing the broken PVC and snowballs mainly at the regular (i.e., non-leftists) people waiting at the gate or at the police?

Did the PVC hit anyone and injure them, as far as you could tell?

[Ol' Sox]

Here are a couple of pics from the disturbance at 7th and D. I have better pictures on film that hasn't been developed yet. Hotlinking doesn't seem to be working...

The Cavalry arrives:
http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs13&d=05041&f=inauguration036.jpg

Suiting up:
http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs13&d=05041&f=inauguration042.jpg

[Ol' Sox]

Wasn't the security checkpoint at South 7th as you've identified the segments? South D is not one of the segments that you identified, but maybe I'm missing something.

Yes, sorry. South 7th is where the security checkpoint was. (I should always have coffee before posting!)

[nutmeg]

THANK YOU for that link for the C-SPAN Inauguration 2005 DVD/VHS in #70. I've been looking for that... just bought the DVD.