Saturday, August 05, 2006

Moonbats on parade

Talk about shooting fish in a barrel! That is what I thought to myself as I approached - camera in hand - the gathering of fools at 16th and Broadway in Sacramento at around 7 o'clock on a beautiful Saturday evening. I had only found out about this protest today when I happened to check the goings on at the website for the Sacramento Area Peace Action. The announcement said, "Protest U.S. & Israeli aggression in the Middle East. Bring your friends, banners, flags, signs, art and instruments! 16th & Broadway, Sac." The moonbattery and sympathy for terrorism that was on display was to me, quite astonishing for a second tier city like Sacramento. The intersection at which this event went down is a rather famous location, as it is the home of the very first Tower Records... yes, that Tower Records. At the same location is the Tower Theatre. That is where I parked my car and made my way toward the action. As I got closer, I could hear the bongo drums and honking of horns from sympathetic drivers. Here is where the picture essay begins:

I first want to express my gratitude for the few, the brave, the outnumbered pro-Israel counterprotesters who turned out to be seen and heard. I didn't catch your names, but after going out into the sea of hostility, you guys were a welcome oasis to come back to and regroup before going back out again into the morass. G-d bless you for that.

Then it was time to get busy. This sign not only gives you an indication of the tenor of this demonstration, but the picture itself is a nice little panorama of the intersection that gives you an idea of the size and placement of the crowd. Hmmm, I am always a little mystified at the comparison of Nazis to the Jews. Didn't the Nazis kill... never mind, you already know where I am going with this.

Another crowd shot to get us oriented. I killed four with one blow, managing to get a Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iraqi flag, plus a moronic anti-Israel sign all in one frame.

I saw this goulish mannequin when I attended that pro-Israel rally at the Capitol a couple of weeks back; you remember - the one where I forgot my camera.

And then there was this guy. Quickly and simply dubbed "Suicide Bomber", he caused ire on both sides. The pro-Israel contingent was justifiably upset, but the funny part is that many in the pro-terrorist crowd thought this guy was some sort of agent provacateur trying to make their side look bad. Several protesters, including one woman in a hijab carrying a sign saying, "He is not with us" stood next to him and badmouthed him, and occasionally even shoved him. Either way, the guy was a wack job.

I saw a couple Code Pink ladies in the crowd. I had never actually seen any Code Pink members in person before, so I crossed the street to get a better look. That is when I had my first encounter with the seething hatred that these people harbor in their hearts. Take a look at...

This.... I was taking a picture of her sign, which says "Supporting Bush is un-American". As I was snapping the picture, I happened to look up and I saw her hand assume the position of attention. I didn't think her "bird" made it into the photo, so I said, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I didn't catch that." She was happy to oblige for a second shot. I told her, "Thank you very much", and moved on. She must have seen me talking to the pro-Israel crowd. Feel the love!

One thing about this protest that I found particularly troubling was the amount of children I saw holding signs and chanting agitprop. I took quite a few pictures of other children protesting, but I chose this one because their faces are not showing. I figure these kids have already been exploited enough.

Photos of a couple celebrities were on honored display. Here you have your obligatory photo of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah. Lebanese in origin, and kept alive by the financial and material backing of Syria and Iran, it is Hezbollah that has been raining about 100 rockets full of ball bearings every day on Israeli soil. There were quite a few photos of Nasrallah in the crowd.

Like right here for instance

And what kind of protest would it be without a photo of the patron saint of loons everywhere, Mama Moonbat herself, Cindy Sheehan. Look at that sanctimonious pose. I think I'm feeling a little queasy...

There were several political organizations that attended the festivities. I already mentioned Code Pink. Here is a banner from the Peace and Freedom party. There's an Orwellian name if I ever heard one. They are about neither peace or freedom. Here's a definition of irony: A group calling itself the Peace and Freedom Party coming out to support vicious and totalitarian terrorist organizations that are sponsored by some of the most vicious and totalitarian governments on earth.

There was a whole slew of people afflicted with BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome)in the crowd. BDS is an industry unto itself. I don't like a lot of his policies and accomplishments either. The difference is that they think he is a right wing devil, while I don't think he is nearly conservative enough!

You also had your capitalist socialists. While espousing the evils of capitalism, these people have no problem taking your money.

Things finally started to get interesting (ha, ha) when this guy showed up wearing a U.S. Marine Corps t-shirt and carrying that sign, which I would say speaks for itself. You can probably guess that his sign went over like a turd in the punchbowl. I was working the crowd, taking my pictures, when I heard someone yelling, "There's your peace! There's your peace!" Some more, shall we say, militant protestors had zeroed in on this guy and in no time flat were surrounding and shoving him, so he was verbally pointing out their actions rather than their words. Nuke Iran Guy made no effort to fight back, but he continued to get shoved and forced into traffic on adjacent Broadway. In this picture, he had just broken free from being surrounded and is participating in a shouting match with an older Hezbollah supporter of Arabic descent. I never was able to get a picture of this Hezbollah supporter, because every time I pointed my camera at him, this other guy with a Palestinian flag kept putting his flag in front of my camera. So the Hezbollah supporter was calling Nuke Iran Guy a baby killer, and this picture catches Nuke Iran Guy yelling back, "You are the baby killers! You are the terrorists!"

There was another pro-terrorist protester (on the left), who followed Nuke Iran Guy and tried to intimidate him by staring him down with his arms crossed. At the same time, the intimidator tried to engage Nuke Iran Guy in debate, but the best thing he could come up with was to call Nuke Iran Guy a "dipshit". Wow! That really convinced me to change my position.

This guy here also did quite his share of shoving and intimidation toward Nuke Iran Guy. I managed to snap his picture, but by this time, I had gotten swallowed up by the melee, so my photo is rather blurry from being jostled around.

In the meantime, while all this is going on with the Nuke Iran Guy, these two guys are having their own little confrontation. It seems that the pro-terrorist guy in the hat didn't like how Suicide Bomber was reflecting the crowd's true colors a little too well, so he walked over and began having words with him. Pretty soon, the two were bumping hips with each other in an attempt to knock each other off the sidewalk and onto Broadway. Eventually, they must have come to a mutual understanding, because after awhile, they continued to talk and not play bump-ass.

Now this guy - I don't know what to make of this guy, who was a walking definition of cognitive dissonance. He was wearing a yarmulke, but he was wearing a shirt that said "Free Palestine". I tried to take a picture of the shirt, but he was facing the setting sun, and my frontal image was flooded so badly with sunlight, you can't see anything. He was also holding this sign:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought Jews don't believe in Hell. On the other side of this sign was this:

Rachel Corrie was a student at the radical Evergreen State College in Washington state. She traveled to Israel as a member of the International Solidarity Movement to show her support for the Palestinians. In 2002, she played chicken with an Israeli bulldozer that was about to demolish a Palestinian home that was covering a tunnel used for weapons transfers. Rachel lost. The bulldozer operator didn't see her, and she was crushed to death. You play, you pay. Hilariously enough, Rachel's parents recently filed a lawsuit againt the Caterpillar company who manufactured the bulldozer. Give me a break. Here is a charming picture of Rachel Corrie being Rachel Corrie:

Nothing much going on here: Just Rachel Corrie teaching some Palestinian children how to burn the flag of the United States. And doesn't she look like such the peace activist. She has love and compassion written all over that face. Hat tip to inhonor.net for the use of the photo.

Finally, we wrap up with this guy. There were lots of cars passing through the intersection of 16th and Broadway on a Saturday evening. Many of them were honking their horns in a show of support for the terrorist sympathizers. This guy in the picture must not have had a horn on his Harley, because instead of honking, he revved his engine and pumped his fist in the air as he slowly creeped through the intersection. After he had cleared the crowd, he took off down Broadway, and I stopped watching him to return to the action. That is when I heard some kind of commotion behind me. I turned to see that Harley Guy had been so enthusiastically in tune with the protestors, that he didn't watch what the heck he was doing, and rear ended a car in front of him, dumping his motorcycle in the middle of Broadway. He tried to save face from what had to be the most embarassing moment of his life by popping to his feet with both arms raised in the air like he had just scored a perfect 10 in the motorcycle crash event of the Moonbat Olympics. The funny thing is that within about 10 seconds of his wreck, Sacramento's finest seemed to appear out of nowhere. Up to this point, police presence had been very subdued, but all of a sudden, black and whites seemed to materialize out of thin air. It turns out that there were cops all over the place at this protest, they just did a great job of being invisible.

The crash of Harley Guy seemed to me to be a fitting end to my work at this protest, so I decided to hang it up. I bid farewell and good luck to the pro-Israel protesters, then went to my car. To get back on the freeway to go home, I would have to pass through the intersection of 16th and Broadway. As I drove through the intersection, I rolled down both front windows, raised my fist out my window and yelled for everything I was worth, "Long live Israel!!!" I could hear some retorts from the crowd, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. The best part is that I didn't crash my car.

Good Day to You, Sir, and Long live Israel!

5 comments:

Miroslav said...

The sign that reads: "Stop Isreal's Ethnic Cleansing Campaign" gets me every time...

If they are making an attempt at an ethnic cleansing, they sure are doing a lousy job of it. :(

Darren said...

From your description it doesn't sound like a very organized, well-attended protest. I'm glad that you and other anti-terrorist protesters were there to give those self-satisfied schmucks some heartache.

I'm always impressed (not!) by the peaceful antics of so-called peace protesters. Here's a related story about a "peace" officer:
http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2005/05/bad-cop-no-donut-story-from-rally.html

I guess I shouldn't be startled by hypocrisy anymore, but perhaps it's good that I haven't grown inured to it.

The last rally I attended was last year's anti-Schwarzenegger, anti-Bush, anti-capitalist Day of Action Rally put on by several unions. If you go to my May 2005 archives starting at May 25th and just scroll upwards from there, you'll get the stories and the pictures.

Thanks for a great post!

Anonymous said...

We few. We happy few. We band of brothers (and sisters)

Great meeting you yesterday- great photos, too

I wanted to remind you of a major event happening next week- if you can make to to San Francisco, I can guarentee lots of great photo-ops!

Counter Protest the Anti-Israel demonstration at San Francisco Civic Center Plaza

Saturday August 12th, 10:30AM

Polk Street between McAllister and Grove, San Francisco



San Francisco Voice for Israel is organizing a counter-protest to what promises to be a large and virulently anti-Israel demonstration.
The main organizers of the rally are International A.N.S.W.E.R., the National Council of Arab Americans, and the Muslim American Society. All three groups are militantly anti-Israel, openly call for Israel’s destruction, and support terrorism against Israeli civilians – what they euphemistically call “resistance.” They are billing their rally as being “anti-war.” However, given these groups’ positions, their rally is in fact pro-violence, pro-war and pro-terrorism.

This rally is being coordinated nationally in Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. The organizers are trying to make the San Francisco rally the largest of all of these.

At recent protests in San Francisco organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R., rally organizers led chants explicitly calling for support of Hezbollah and Hamas; for Israel’s destruction; and – in Arabic – overtly stating anti-Semitic slogans. Amazingly, when the local media has reported on these rallies, these overt expressions of violence and hate were not reported.

The August 12 anti-Israel demonstration promises to be similar in tone and content to the recent anti- Israel demonstrations.
. We expect significant local media coverage of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s rally; the more supporters of Israel who show up, the more we will be able to successfully get a fairer hearing of the pro-Israel perspective in the media.

Anonymous said...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/06/18295172.php


Indymedia (gag) take on the event, along with photos and commentary

Anonymous said...

The lunatics with the Nasrallah signs and Hezbollah flags are attorneys Stephen Pearcy and his Wife Virgina Pearcy, (she works at the prestigous San francisco law firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe) The Lunatic with the Jewish Skullcap is jay Colbe, who only pretends to be Jewish when its politically expedient