{"article":{"id":44072,"heading":""Thank God for Fox News" - Fun at the San Francisco Pro-War Rally","author":"Eric Wagner","created":"2003-03-31 09:22:23","modified":"2003-03-31 14:06:52","last_modified":"Mon, 31 Mar 2003 21:06:52","article":"\r\n \r\n
\r\n \r\n \r\n

\r\n \r\n The Red (White and Blue) Squad <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n

\"Thank God for Fox News\" \r\n Leo Lacayo, a writer for ChronWatch, \r\n pronounced. The assembled crowd, of maybe 500, gave a wild cheer. \"And \r\n God Bless CNN\" he continued, but the cheer was a bit more subdued \r\n the second time around.<\/p>\r\n

The rally had started around \r\n noon and was in full swing by 1:00, though using the word swing was a \r\n being a bit charitable as the music that had been playing was a dreadful \r\n combination of 80's power ballads and patriotic post-911 knockoffs of \r\n the same.<\/p>\r\n

It would have all been quite \r\n humorous if not for the fact that the SFPD seemed too be palling around \r\n with the crowd in a rather inappropriate way considering they were in \r\n uniform.<\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n


\r\n \r\n No Free Speech for You <\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/td>\r\n

 <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n


\r\n \r\n Shooing Away the Riffraff <\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/td>\r\n

\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n

The officers on hand, when \r\n not wearing flags on their head, shooed of various riffraff and antiwar \r\n protesters for exercising their free speech. I overheard them telling \r\n several of the pro-peace people that they should go to the counter-protest \r\n staging area (whatever that might mean.) As one of the signs put it \"Freedom \r\n isn't Free\", though I wasn't entirely sure what that meant.<\/p>\r\n

At one point, while a was taking \r\n pictures of a heated discussion between a pro-peace protester and a pro-war \r\n rally attendee, someone approached me at spat out \"How is it that \r\n the media always finds the one violent thing going on.\" It was a \r\n good question, really. <\/p>\r\n

At this point, someone else \r\n started to harangue me for something or other, but I stopped paying attention. \r\n They seemed to think I was with CNN (Apparently forgetting about the blessings \r\n given to the 24 news channel earlier.)<\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n


\r\n \r\n Jesus Will
\r\n Destroy \r\n the \r\n Left <\/p>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n

While most of the people seemed \r\n vaguely reasonable in their support for the war, some of the people were \r\n a bit nuts. My favorite was the Revelations spouting Les Erekson who proclaimed \r\n \" When Jesus comes back he is going to kill the Satan worshiping \r\n baby-killing leftists.\" Oddly, when he wasn't yelling, he seemed \r\n like a pretty nice guy, and would hug people good-bye (even people on \r\n the left) after giving them a rather large piece of his mind. <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n

\r\n \r\n The Prince of Bombs <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n

More disturbing was the somewhat \r\n ill-considered signs that people were carrying about such as the one to \r\n the left. I will let you judge this deeply compassionate and Christian \r\n insight on your own.<\/p>\r\n

There was only a small number \r\n of visibly pro-peace people at the rally. They had either prudently stayed \r\n away, had been escorted to the \"staging area\", or had been shouted \r\n down by various gaggles of pro-war types who would descend on anyone who \r\n audibly said anything antiwar. Some pro-peace messages got through, nonetheless...<\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n

\r\n \r\n Peace at the Pro-war Rally <\/div>\r\n <\/td>\r\n
\r\n

\r\n \r\n Peace for Iraq <\/div>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

  <\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

... still, a deeply distasteful \r\n feeling pervaded the whole event.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n

\r\n \r\n A Savage Nation <\/div>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

[more \r\n pro-war rally photos]<\/p>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n \n","contact":"eric@basetree.com","link":"http:\/\/www.basetree.com\/photography10.html#photos","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":""Thank God for Fox News" - Fun at the San Francisco Pro-War Rally","numcomment":2,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/03\/44072.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":44077,"heading":"p","article":"kids these days","author":"m","parent_id":44072,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-31 09:54:12","modified":"2003-03-31 09:54:12","fileurl":""},{"id":44101,"heading":"Who....who unlocked the doors of the asylum?","article":"Where the heck did they get the geeks at the pro-war rally in SF? It looks like they went to central casting somewhere and put in a call for total nerds. Or to a psych hospital and asked for those who had been taken off of their meds.\r\n\r\nWhat a bunch of total LOSERS!!! I loved the cops. Let's see: Does the term weenie Freeper come to mind. And they are the ones who were hired to serve and protect. Hahahahahaha!!!\r\n\r\nIt's like someone gave a pro-war rally and no one came!!!","author":"WoW","parent_id":44072,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-31 14:06:52","modified":"2003-03-31 14:06:52","fileurl":""}]}