March for Justice II After Action Report and Photo Thread

Saturday, April 9, 2005 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

First, I want to thank all the FReepers who were able to attend and to all who contributed to the March for Justice II. It wouldn't have happened without you. I also want to thank our cosponsor, the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary. Our speakers were excellent and I thank them for standing with us. Most of all, thanks to Jim Robinson for all he does.

The March for Justice II was a success, even though we didn't accomplish our goal for attendance. We thought 100 to 200 people would attend, in fact there were between 40 and 50--almost all of them FReepers.

The purpose of the rally was to urge the Senate to employ the constitutional option with regard to the filibusters of judicial nominees and to call on the judiciary to respect the Constitution.

We had four goals for the day: hold a modest sized rally on Capitol Hill on a work day, get other like-minded conservative leaders and groups involved, lobby senators to support the constitutional option and to get media coverage of our efforts.

We had varying degrees of success for each goal. As I said, we wish more people were able to attend but we don't have the financial resources to bus people in like the left. However, everyone I spoke to afterward who attended was very enthusiastic about the day.

The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary helped with getting other like-minded conservative groups to send speakers. Most of our speakers came through their efforts. Hopefully we can build on relationships founded and renewed to help with our efforts on the judiciary and other areas where we have common ground.

All of our announced speakers appeared at the rally, except for Roy Innis who was unable to attend due to illness.

The speakers all gave great speeches. The prepared text of Congressman Billybob's speech was posted on FR Thursday night. Most of the other speakers, if I recall correctly, spoke extemporaneously.

After the rally, Niger Innis led a delegation to three senators' offices to lobby in support of the constitutional option. The offices were those of Sen. Warner, Sen. McCain and Sen. Allen.

FReepers also visited their home state senators' offices. At least one was able to speak to a senator in person as they walked down a hallway. I stayed behind at the rally site to supervise the loadout of equipment, so I hope those FReepers will tell the stories of their adventures.

The response from the media was modest, but we did as well as could be expected. There were four news cameras and one documentary crew that covered the rally (Fox News, WBAL-TV and a West Virginia station); one domestic print reporter (Roll Call); and one reporter from the Ukraine were present. A reporter for Family News in Focus called to get information on the rally and ran a story mentioning it.

I did two radio interviews that afternoon. One was Blanquita Cullum's show on Radio America where the main subject was the rally. The other was on WWRL-AM 1600 in New York City on a different topic where I got in a mention of the rally.

An unintended bonus for us was that the liberals were so scared about our little gathering they sent a group of counter-protesters over to march and chant on the perimeter of the rally. The counter-protesters outnumbered us by a few dozen, but we weren't bothered. We were standing up for the Constitution while they were supporting rule by judicial fiat.

I'll close by thanking and listing the speakers who gave impassioned and very informative speeches at the rally. In order of scheduled appearance, they were:

Ken Connor, Chairman, Center for a Just Society
The Honorable Tom Parker, Justice, Alabama Supreme Court
Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Dr. Gary Cass, Center for Reclaiming America
Manuel Miranda, National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters
Jeff Ballabon, Center for Jewish Values
William Greene, Founder and President, RightMarch.com
John Armor, Esq.
George Landrith, President, Frontiers of Freedom
Kay Daly, President, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
Niger Innis, National Spokesman, Congress of Racial Equality
Roy Innis, National Chairman and CEO, Congress of Racial Equality (canceled due to illness)
Rep. Steve King (Iowa)

[sauropod]

"What clearly is not conjecture is her extremely large butt. I'd never noticed or heard about that feature, but she must be extremely comfortable sitting down."

You've gotta be kidding me. I always refer to Her Heinous as My Favorite Fat Bottomed Girl.

[Marylander]

Well, it was a bit of a downer to see the crowd so sparse, but you would never be able to tell that from the spirit of the speakers. They were forceful and passionate. It was a great experience and got me charged up. I was disappointed enough by the size of the group to almost decide not to go over to the Senate office buidlings. Fortunately, JimRob's patriotic presence and CongressmanBillyBob's speech gave me the courage and will to do it.

We few from PA got together me, owleagle, Dr John Tetzel, DJT's wife and three children all milled around, got letters signed and marched off with a will to see our senators.

Just think. If I had remained lily-livered and spineless, I would never have been in the basement of the Hart Building to be elbowed aside by Hillary's guards as HRC sailed down the hall wind thankfully to the back of Old Crusty, to the back exit. I was in fact elbowed but one of the agents apologized to me. She walked double time down the hall and out the door, while we were going at tourist time, "Is that the exit?" sort of speed.

All the while I was kicking myself for being unable to think of anything clever to say. Itold everyone over and again if Doctor Raoul were here, he would think of something on the spot. Sure enough when I told him about it later he said I should have said, "Who the Devil is that?"

Now I want to tell everyone it was a great thing to go past those egomaniacal structures of art and architecture, into the Senator's office and say, "We're from Pennsylvania."

[robg3]

Some photos:

[Exit148]

Altho, there were few of us, the speakers did attract the attention of those walking by. Not so much the office workers, but I saw tourists, stop and listen. Not always out of curiosity. Some would listen to the speaker until he finished, before moving on.

[NautiNurse]

Tell us more about your killer coke party.

[SoVaDPJ]

Come on though, that pic of the "protesters" could make for good Photoshop material.

Mr. SoVa and I were talking about how we could dress as bunnies, put pancakes on our heads, and join the protesters next time, carrying signs that say "Me Too!" I think it's Meek One who does the Photoshop pancakes, but I could be wrong. Couldn't we put a few pancakes on this?

[Askel5]

=== You have the cart before the horse. First you win the victory then go to D.C. to show the world you have won.


Very thought-provoking posts, Common Tator.

[Mudboy Slim]

"I Pity Would-Be Immigrants!!"
(To be sung to Bob Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant")

I pity would-be immigrants...
Who follow our laws and stay home.
They are dreamin' of bein' U.S. citizens...
While law-breakers ignore our borders and roam.
Good men whose honor won't let'em cheat...
Good life's what they want best.
They wait patiently all their lives...
Law-breakers queer their quest!!

I chide those scofflaw immigrants...
Who sneak accross our plains!!
They break our laws and that ain't Right...
Borders are Left's bane!!
We'll FReep 'til we are satisfied...
They won't get amnesty!!
Truth haunts the folks who live in stealth...
'Cuz FReedom is not FRee!!

I blame the greedy bus'nessman...
Who use folks' sweat and blood!!
They fail our youth by cheating...
But cheap labor's not enough!!
What message does lawlessness send?
We trample laws en masse!!
I pity would-be immigrants...
When the scofflaws get a pass!!

Mudboy Slim (3 February 2005)

[Republic]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I kinda wish you had shouted out..."Oh...it's only her heinous!"

[BufordP]

Thanks, Mud! As one of the few to show in person as opposed to "in spirit", it's good to finally get pinged to the thread.
[Harumph!] :-P

[Just A Nobody]

Yeah, what BufordP said in post 130.

Thanks for the ping!

[Mudboy Slim]

My bad...I reckon I just figgered y'all had already been pinged. But I'm sure it was just an unintentional oversight 'cuz we are all psyched that you were able to make this historic event!!

FReegards...MUD

[staytrue]

right now there are 3 groups, center, right and left.

What you need to do is to win the center and right and freeze out the left and we have done that.

If you think you are upset the US is not more conservative, just imagine being a lefty. Most of them are nearly suicidal.

[Common Tator]

If you think you are upset the US is not more conservative, just imagine being a lefty.

Yes the problem on the left is they are losing supporters. The problem for the right is many of us believe we are a majority.

People on the right get angry with politicians. But everyone elected to office knows it takes 51 percent of the votes to win. Politicians do not run to get defeated.

It is a fact. The right makes up about 35 percent of the voters and there is no way 35 percent of the voters can produce 51 percent of the votes.

Click here for a 'tator take on a major Democratic problem as defined by Howard Dean.

[Bellflower]

I think you are right about everything you said except we need more then one front to win a war. Marches and rallies are the PR front and also serve to stir up the troops. There is something about making a public stand that solidifies and motivates one in their cause. The media wants conservative people to feel that they are isolated. It is heart fulfilling to see others take a stand and not be ashamed of the truth. It helps people feel that they are not alone and encourages them. People say the same thing as you do about picketing at abortion clinics all the time. The moms who at the last minute decide to keep their babies I am sure disagree. I do hope that more decent people will run for the lesser elected offices too. They seem too often to be overrun with liberals. They know what it means to work from the bottom up. All decent, intelligent people that can should run for offices rather than just voting for someone else, especially those who know lots of people. Too often the liberals have elections sewed up because the unions stir up teachers etc. to vote for their candidates. We need to work to return freedom of speech to the churches too. They should be the moral front that encourages decent people to vote for the right candidates. When churches lost their freedom of voice to the tax exempt status it was a sad day for our country.

[Common Tator]

Marches and rallies are the PR front and also serve to stir up the troops. There is something about making a public stand that solidifies and motivates one in their cause.

Oh I agree. But first you have to get some troops. It is hard to stir up troops when you only have a handful.

Perhaps you know that poltical signs put in peoples yards only serve one purpose. They insure that the people who live in the house will vote for the candidate whose name is on the sign in the front yard. The rule is , a person who puts up signs will vote for the persons whose names are on the signs. The Bush campaign in 2000 was short of money. The first thing Karl Rove cut to the bone was the budget for yard signs. This year the Bush rallies gave everyone who attended a Bush sign. A person who waves a sign in public, will vote for the candidate on that sign.

I used the term American People... but your term of troops is fine. There are many similarities to politics and war. Rule one of Politics and rule one on making war are the same.

NEVER FIGHT A BATTLE BEFORE RECRUITING ENOUGH TROOPS TO ENSURE VICTORY.

Do you know many organizations know exactly how many active, committed supporters they must have to produce one Washington Marcher? They also know exactly how much advance time to allocate to organize the most effective Washington March. Other conservative organizations who have learned what it takes the hard way, will share that information with us. Some of it is even published.

I do know it takes thousands of national supporters to produce one Washington Marcher. I also know it takes a lot of lead time to ensure attendance. I don't know exactly how much.. But the number is learnable. To succeed it is best to learn exactly what it takes to succeed before trying. Trial and error is so expensive.

I have been trying to make the point that our side should not attend the school of hard knocks more than once for each lesson.

Learn the learnable so you can do the doable.

Politics is a Science .... Political science. A lot of us are not aware of all the information available to politcal activists. If we do not learn what is known and then make use of it, we will often repeat other's failures.

Harry Truman said it in 1948 and proved it to be true. "The only thing new under the political sun is the history you don't know."

Rule NUMBER Two. Always try learn all that his known about how to do something before trying to do it.

Or as Daddy used to say... "Before Jumping out of an airplane, it is a good idea to learn to use a parachute."

For some reason all of us tend to think that we were born with the skills to win political battles. Perhaps because we are free to elect and influence our political leaders, we believe we know how to do it. But the right to influence does not give one the knowledge of how to influence. It takes a lifetime of hard work and study to be good at politics. The landscape is littered with those who have tried and failed.

I don't know a lot. But I do know a little. I post it because I don't like for the people I admire and support to be less than totally successful.