Around three hundred protesters dwarfed and engulfed our small but valiant team. The mob filled the three open corners and sidewalks at the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards, site of The Regency Club where President George W. Bush was to be headlining a campaign fundraiser for California's next Governor, Bill Simon.
~~~
Diotima: I fear for my country.
To our left (no pun intended) lots of young, attractive, mostly white people, voluntarily burqha'd it seemed with sweatshirt hoods over their heads and bandanas obscuring their faces from the eyes down, carried signs proclaiming various forms of communist rhetoric and condemning harshly all things Bush -- truth need not always apply. Our other flank was the unions-and-their-lackeys stronghold. Same signs.
Diotima: They hate my sign.
One side of it read: HONK 4 SIMON. But it was the other side of it that she was referring to, the side she was holding aloft as she was walking up and down the sidewalk, holding it above the heads of the protesters: OSAMA FAN CLUB.
A Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP) approaches.
YMP: Hey, you know your sign's not fair. You shouldn't have that sign.
A FReeper: She's using her sharp and biting wit.
YMP: But she's misrepresenting us.
Diotima: No, I'm not. That's what you are.
A FReeper: What do you care, you outnumber us 30 to 1.
YMP: But she's misrepresenting our message. That's not what we're saying.
Diotima: But that's what I'm saying.
He shuffles off.
~~~
Another Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP2) approaches.
YMP2: You shouldn't have that sign.
Diotima: Yeah, well I still have my freedom of speech, buddy, you haven't taken that away. Yet.
~~~
Young, Pretty Tho' Misguided Protester: I don't know... I just don't think I like Bush but I think it's like really cool
that we all like have our freedom of speech.
She smiles.
~~~
Another Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP3) approaches, handing out flyers.
YMP3: Come see my show.
A FReeper: What is it advocating?
YMP3: A new State.
A FReeper: What kind of state?
YMP3: A better State.
A FReeper: Based on what... because if you can come up with something better than the US Constitution you win a
really big prize.
YMP3: The Communist Manifesto?
A FReeper: Bzzzzt. Wrong answer. Tried, failed, and the millions of corpses'll prove it to you.
He shuffles off.
~~~
The President's motorcade arrives. Chants begin. Bob J and DoughtyOne use bullhorns to mess with their intonements. Where were these people when we were bombing Yugoslavia?
About ten minutes or so later we decide to go for breakfast together and begin to walk past the crowd to Denny's.
~~~
AngryUnattractiveSpittlingVietnamProtestHoldover: Bee-atches for Bush!
~~~
Later, two men are in an idling station wagon in the parking lot as we are on our way out. They were seen earlier in the viewfinder of daviddennis' XL-1 at breakfast as we watched the replay of them repeatedly giving the camera the finger.
BlondeMale: Oh, it's "Luvya Dubya" girl.
OtherMale: Are you a native of California?
A FReeper: No, I'm a political refugee of the socialist democracy of Canada. I'm trying to save California from a
similar fate.
HangFire: I'm half Native American... I go back I don't know how many generations. And leftist liberal loser policies
are destroying this State.
OtherMale: You're a traitor to your own people. They used to worship the oil when it was in the ground, they
were thankful for it.
A FReeper: What the heck are you talking about?
BlondeMale: Yeah, and now you and Bush are pumping all that oil and spraying it in the air and causing all these
earthquakes.
A FReeper: What?!
HangFire: Uh huh. Well you just keep telling yourself that as you drive home in your car, okay?
They drive off, the BlondeMale repeatedly spitting through the passenger side window as they exit stage left.
We should never be that outnumbered. Where were the GOP people? The Simon people? An eighty-year old lady had joined us only because she had heard doug from upland on one of his many announcements on local AM radio yesterday.
FReepers do things that heretofore were solely the domain of the Left. Our side needs to learn. It's time for all of us to Network.
Pictures forthcoming.
Nice job!