Austin's "Freep the Creep" After Action Report

HOT Chapter of FreeRepublic | 02-12-03 | TXBubba

[TXBubba]

Just starting an after action report. Here are a few highlights of the evening so far. I'm sure there will be more additions tonight and tomorrow but most of our folks are still socializing at an undisclosed location...with beer.

[TXBubba]

I'm turning this thread over to my hubby Blastus for the first report. Just saw his handsome face on our local Fox news station. Gotta monitor the other news stations as they come on.

[AGreatPer]

"Blustis"...........report in sir. We are waiting.

neet name Blustis, shouds like he can blast through a wall of something.

[ValerieUSA]

I am so curious!

[keithtoo]

First ever Freep for me and it was great!

What a great bunch of folks. Freepers, Young GOP'ers, Libertarians and others were there to show support for Dubya and to try to awaken the sheeple walking in to hear the Big Creep cry for attention.

Great time at a great event.

[Paleo Conservative]

What a great bunch of folks.

How many? Did anyone get any pictures? I'm a little bit envious; there's hardly ever a chance to Freep anyone in Corpus

[basil]

I'm so sad! I got all ready-signs made, etc and ran out to jump in the car, only to see that I had a flat tire! Hubby in Dallas in the other car, no neighbors around, and I can't get the lug nuts to loosen. Couldn't get a service guy out for at least 2 hours, so I missed the whole thing. BWaaaaa!

[keithtoo]

Between all of the groups on our side, I'd say there were about 30-40 folks, maybe more. Pix are coming. There were a bunch taken. I came straight home, but a lot of folks were going out to eat afterwards.

I just saw the 10:00 local newscasts and we were on all 3 of the broadcasts.

[hispanarepublicana]

there's hardly ever a chance to Freep anyone in Corpus

Even less of a chance to FReep in conservative W. Texas. My in-laws in Austin (who I could FReep through vicariously if they cared enough)are sympathetic but inactive conservatives. "That's just Austin," they say with a smile, when I ask, "How in the h*ll can you stand to live there with all those liberals?!?"

[Aarchaeus]

Hubby in Dallas in the other car, no neighbors around, and I can't get the lug nuts to loosen.

FYI, for future use. You can put the lug wrench firmly onto a lug, with the handle sticking out to the side so that it needs to go up to loosen the lug. Then place the jack under the end of the handle and start jacking it up. This will put enough pressure on the handle to loosen the tightest of lug nuts. Slow and tedious, and each nut will need same treatment, so it takes a while, but it will work. Good to know for emergency use.

[RonDog]

For those who may have missed it, here is the pre-FReep thread:

FREEPERS JOINING CLINTON PROTEST AT UT-AUSTIN WED.
[49,000 UT Students Do NOT Join Anti-war Protest
Heart of Texas Chapter of FreeRepublic.com | 02-08-03 | TXBubba
Posted on 02/08/2003 5:13 PM PST by TXBubba

February 8, 2003 For Immediate Release Contact: Brendan Steinhauser

NEWS ADVISORY - DRAFT FORM

YCT, UT College Republicans to Lead Protest of Bill Clinton UT-Austin Lecture on Wednesday.

Austin, TX - Today, the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) and the UT College Republicans announced they will protest a lecture by former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The lecture, which is cosponsored by the UT College of Liberal Arts, will be held at the Frank C. Erwin Center, 1701 Red River St. at 6:45 p.m. Community groups such as the local chapter of Free Republic and activists in the Williamson County Republican Party will also participate in the protest.

YCT officer Brendan Steinhauser stated, "There are many good reasons to protest President Clinton, but clearly the most compelling is his administration's dereliction of its duty to protect U.S. national security...

CLICK HERE for more

[dagnabbit]

Good job.

[dsc]

"I missed the whole thing. BWaaaaa!"

That's a darned shame.

I'm afraid, though, that your note pushed my busybody button.

If it had been an emergency and you couldn't get the lug nuts off, there could have been consequences.

Why don't you get a big tire tool that will give you the leverage you need, and keep it either in the garage or in the trunk?

(Secure from busybody stations. Set the normal underway watch.)

[Quix]

EAGER FOR UPDATES.

THANKS TO ONE AND ALL WHO EVEN TRIED TO GET THERE!

BLESSINGS,

[tarawa]

Today was my first day back at work. I got stuck in Dallas for an extra day, due to an emergency. Didn't get home from work until almost 7:30. I could access my home computer from Dallas, but unfortunately, not my work computer.

[TheSarce]

Relate your stories here, gang.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Excellent work. I am jealous, would have loved to have been down in Austin for that.

[TheSarce]

Just a quick report that we had a really good turnout, quite a few FReepers plus a GREAT job by the UT chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas who spearheaded the whole effort. Also there were folks from the Travis County Republican Party and a lot of new faces from the Williamson County Republicans, plus quite a few just generally outraged citizens who were eager to come protest the Impeached One.

Brandon from the YCT did a terrific job, he was all over the local radio newsbreaks during the day -- that certainly helped get the word out. We made all the local television news (that's five stations, folks!), good coverage of our many signs and some interviews. I'm waiting for the rebroadcasts of the 10:00 news since I couldn't tape them all at the same time. Will have a little better synopsis of the media coverage later, but first impression is that we made a HUGE (or maybe a hugh!) impact: of course the main media focus was understandably primarily on Clinton, but we made it into a somewhat "controversial" appearance. Without our organized opposition, the coverage of XXX42 would doubtless have been quite sugary and MUCH less balanced.

Some of the best sound bites that made it on TV were from a couple of the ladies from Williamson County who had never protested before, they really let Bubba have it! Paraphrasing from memory: "If Clinton had done his duty at some point in his eight years, we wouldn't be in such danger now." or something along those lines, and said in really classy tones. Way to go, Williamson County! More on that later after I can review the tapes better.

I did lose one of my big US flags on the fold-up sticks with the bolts/wingnuts (those are RIGHTwingnuts, of course!), if anyone knows where it walked off to, I'd sure love to get it back.

FReepers are Fabulous, everyone did such a great job!

[razorback-bert]

A Texan without WD-40 in her purse?

[Tall_Texan]

Media coverage thread and comments...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/842181/posts?page=1

[tgslTakoma]

I know how you feel, basil. I found out on Wednesday that Bubba had spoken to an audience of students and such at Georgetown, on Tuesday! And I missed my chance to FReep him. Grrr!

The guy won't go away, so I'm sure you'll get another chance.

[nicmarlo]

"If Clinton had done his duty at some point in his eight years, we wouldn't be in such danger now."

!!!! Ain't that the truth. Thanks for your report and to you and all the FReepers for standing in our steads.

[strela]

Hubby in Dallas in the other car, no neighbors around, and I can't get the lug nuts to loosen.

Everybody else has been weighing in on this one, so I guess I will too. Go to Chief Auto or Wal Mart today and buy a small bottle of penetrating oil. Then stick it in your trunk. Stuff works great (and not only for stuck lug nuts). Another piece of advice - throw that cheap little aluminum lug wrench that came with the car into the nearest trash can and buy a proper steel breaker bar, then stick it in the trunk too.

(Been there done that - I almost froze to death in the parking lot at work a few years ago when I couldn't get one recalcitrant lug nut off of a flat tire. It was sleeting. It was colder than a welldigger's ... heart. Everybody else had already gone home. My cell phone's battery was dead and I didn't have the car adapter. A rotten day all around.).

[humblegunner]

Way to go, Austin!

[TXBubba]

I'm so sorry about last night. It never showed the post going through on this end. So we turned out the lights and went to bed. Here is my hubbie's post:

Had a good turn out of students from UT and A&M, Freepers, NRA members, etc. Gracy has all the names 50-75 folks.

Good media coverage, KLBJ AM recorded our comments, Local Fox news and KEYE covered us, UT actually allows one (1) student to host a conservative evening talk show! My note: Blastus was on Fox 7 and they replayed his comments over and over again in KLBJ 590 this morning. Now he is getting a big head! LOL

The Clinton faithful were led into the Erwin Center. We heckled them with chants of "free pardons for terrorists", "Wellstone memorial is now on Tour here in Austin", as well as the cops cheer.

A fair number of limousines cruised in front of the Erwin Center - full of Liberals of course!

Scalpers were applying capitalistic principle to make $20/ head off the Clinton supporters too lazy to get in line for the free tickets.

The anti war guys behind us, (who were ignored by everyone), packed up their propaganda and loaded it into a petroleum swilling, non-hybrid, General Motors sedan. I asked them why they were wearing 'no war for oil' t shirts, yet burning up valuable petroleum. They claimed the USA were fighting this war solely to control the oil markets so we could lower the prices for our co-conspirators. I had never thought of that angle, the USA was trying to lower oil prices for our friends in China and Japan. I guess we are benevolent imperialists!

[TXBubba]

Updates finally up.

[maxwell]

Why couldn't y'all have waited 'til March when I could be there... WHY WHY WHY!

Anybody up for a FRe-peat? Okay, maybe just the beer part? :)

[TXBubba]

Blastus also told me something I think all Freepers should be aware of. One reporter (I think it was the radio station) approached him BECAUSE his signs did not emphasize the SEX angle with x42. They were focused on his failure in the policy areas. Keep that in mind. They saw him as "being different" from the usual sex stuff.

[TXBubba]

Bummer basil. Sorry to hear that. Are we all still on for March 1st?

[Destructor]

"That's just Austin," they say with a smile, when I ask, "How in the h*ll can you stand to live there with all those liberals?!?"

Sometimes it gets real hard to stay here in the midst of all of these idiotic Liberals! It's kinda of good in one way, though. The Liberals have insulated themselves here, and they don't realize that the rest of the State doesn't agree with them. It was funny as hell to see their faces after the last two elections!

[AGreatPer]

Great job Texas Freepers.

basil.......that'll teach ya not to have 3 cars.

[DrewsDad]

My photos are here in case the thumbnails don't show up.

What's up with FR? I am just now seeing these posts.

banner

ladies

batfam

billterm

blastus

clintleg

aggies

dompol

[TXBubba]

Weird. I put up the post last night when Bubba got home. But it kept putting the "Post" page back up like I had left something out. So I started over and tried again. Same thing. Went to bed. Checked this morning to see if someone else had started the thread and saw my post right there!

[TXBubba]

Just dawned on me I never changed the tag line from my earlier post. That's okay, you ALL are sweeties also. I figure it is close enough to Valentine's Day it won't hurt.

[DrewsDad]

You had a list of signs. Can you type them in?

[DrewsDad]

More pics uploaded:

confrontation

crowd

signs3

signs2

kurdsnw

signs1

signs4

signs5

tcchair

[DrewsDad]

I thought it was a pretty good turnout. We had 10-20 freepers(including one recovering from a heart attack last week). There were lots of YCT students, the TC Rep Chairman, and several others from various other groups(Williamson Cty?). My guess is 50+ patriots.

We made all the newscasts and were mentioned in several articles. I think KVRX(91.7FM) might have something on tonight at 7:00PM.

We had several discussions with X42 supporters and lots of fun.

We even ended it up with the Cops Cheer.

[TXBubba]

I didn't add all those keywords to my post. Where did they come from?

[Gracey]

You almost had a chance to freep Al Sharpton. I believe he's in your city tonight or tomorrow.

[Gracey]

Don't know if anyone let you know about this Jim. We had a blast protesting the "I can't wait to listen to Clinton" crowd. You would have been right at home. You would have been proud of the young college Republicans/Conservatives/and Libertarians. We had several people who happened to know that Clinton was in town, decided to make a sign and show up. Several vets were there.

Interesting but we had pony tailed men, muslim students, several ex Democrats, 6-7 Aggies who drove from A & M, protesting Clinton. One young man came from a college in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. I only wish we could have met everyone in our team.

Also, I must have written 20 checks for the best creative signs. (Donation from a neighbor) Not one of our protesters wanted to take money for making creative signs. I almost had to force the money on them... and the Democrats put out a press release that we were paying people to come protest.... but... we don't play their game. We give money for performance and skill and output. LOL

[Gracey]

Don't know if anyone let you know about this Jim. We had a blast protesting the "I can't wait to listen to Clinton" crowd. You would have been right at home. You would have been proud of the young college Republicans/Conservatives/and Libertarians. We had several people who happened to know that Clinton was in town, decided to make a sign and show up. Several vets were there.

Interesting but we had pony tailed men, muslim students, several ex Democrats, 6-7 Aggies who drove from A & M, protesting Clinton. One young man came from a college in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. I only wish we could have met everyone in our team.

Also, I must have written 20 checks for the best creative signs. (Donation from a neighbor) Not one of our protesters wanted to take money for making creative signs. I almost had to force the money on them... and the Democrats put out a press release that we were paying people to come protest.... but... we don't play their game. We give money for performance and skill and output. LOL

[Gracey]

The theme of our protest was "ClINTON'S LEGACY: NATIONAL INSECURITY.

[basil]

Yes--we're still on for Mar 1--at least I won't need a car for this one--LOL!

[I got the rope]

Excellent...I wish I was home.

[Jim Robinson]

Outstanding! Great FReep!!!

[anymouse]

Don't worry Basil, the leftists are giving you a second chance to FReep them tomorrow, Saturday. Go to the Texas locale page to get the link to where the details are.

[Bad~Rodeo]

I asked everyone about Freep'n the Anti-War Rally's March on the Capital on Saturday. Seems I'll be the only one.

No Problema.

Here's My Newest Slogan.....SUPERIOR MILITARY + SUPERIOR WEAPONARY = PEACE!!!

[Gracey]

There is a slight difference in the crowd. Tomorrow's crowd will be the Socialist/Communists/leftist fascists/Greenies/Environmental wackos/grease monkeys/UnAmericans/Sadam lovers.

The crowd listening to Clinton were more a bunch of uninformed, mostly Americans who are misguided Democrats.

[Gracey]

Perfect slogan, B~R

[Gracey]

Let's meet tomorrow around 1:00 PM (?) on the west side of the Capitol steps. Is this OK?

[Bad~Rodeo]

Sounds like a plan