Cindy Sheehan Goes on a Hunger Strike
In a blatant attempt to gain media attention, Cindy Sheehan ate her "last supper" today in front of the White House before she goes on a hunger strike to call attention to the war (or her, which is more the truth). Yours truely, along with about a dozen other intrepid FreeRepublic patriots, was there to counter-demonstrate and record the whole thing.
At about 3pm today the leftists arrived at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial outside of the Embassy of India on Massachusetts Avenue in northwest Washington DC. Unlucky for them, we were positioned across the street to greet them.
Here we are on the other side of the street. We had maybe a dozen people on our side. I estimated the lefties across the street to be about 100, maybe more.
In case the photo isn't clear it the banner says "Cindy Sheehan: Starving for Attention"
The Occasion
The point of the affair is that Cindy Sheehan, idol of the radical anti-war left and media whore, has decided to go on a hunger strike along with several other fellow moonbats.
Code Pink Women for Peace orgainzed this affair and the day's events. In an interview on their website, Dc Code Pinker Carrie Biggs-Adams says that it will last "a month or two." Asked why she is fasting, she replies that she is
There were plenty of police around, but by their relaxed attitude they obviously did not expect any trouble. Their job was to keep the lefties on their side of the street and us on ours. A couple of times a leftie or two tried to come over and try to debate us, and there were a few shouting matches, but nothing serious.
These guys are having trouble with their dates, or are too lazy to change their sign. Operation Iraqi Freedom started on April 2003, so it's more than 4 years and 1 day. We hollered that they were desacrating the flab, but of course they didn't care. That's one thing I've noticed about leftist demonstrators; they either don't have American flags at all, or they're all jazzed up with something. Rarely do they just have straight American flags.
Reporters were all over the place. They started out across the street with the lefties, but once they realized there was a counter-demonstration they swarmed over to our side to photograph and interview us. Here one from the Associated Press interviews Kristinn Taylor, the president of the DC chapter of FreeRepublic.com, and the organizer of our rally
Good Reporters and Bad Reporters
Many times during the rallys and protests that I've taken part in, I have been interviewed by reporters. I've come to notice that there are two types; the mainstream media, and independents.
By "mainstream media" I mean repoters from newspapers, radio stations, or the like, and I've been interviewed by reporters from the Washington Post, The Associated Press, Dutch Public Television, even "alternative" outlets like the Afro-American (who interviewed me during the big Sept 25 2005 protests). During these street interviews I have received nothing but straight and fair interviews from these reporters. They ask questions like "What is the message you are trying to get out?" and "What brings you to this rally?" They don't try to nitpick or catch you up, either, but just ask the question, accept whatever you say and move on.
Then there are the independents. You never know what you are going to get with them. Sometimes they do it straight, and then sometimes they have an obvious agenda and the "interview" turns into more of a debate.
This happened today with two guys who came to our side. One did the camera and mic, the other asked the questions (I didn't get a photo of them). He only asked me one or two fairly straight questions, then moved on. Settling on a lady in our group, he started in with "I've interviewed Iraq war veterans who say that they've received orders to shoot women and children. What do you say to that?" and "Female American soldiers are afraid to walk across American bases at night for fear that they will be raped (by American male soldiers. What do you say to that?" He went on like this, obviously looking for a reaction and an argument. We eventually told him to get the hell away from us.
On to Lafayette Park
After about 45 minutes or so of this nonsense the lefties gathered their things and marched down Massachusetts Avenue to Lafayette Park, which was about a mile away, maybe less. Lafayette Park is across the street from the north face of the White House. As the street is is only a short distance from the White House itself (maybe just over 100 ft?), for security reasons the street has been blocked off and is essentially now part of the park. This park is the traditional center of anti-government protests, and there is always one leftist group or another holding some sort of protest or vigil. Check it out the next time you're in Washington DC.
We too gathered our things, but instead of following the leftists we got in our cars and drove down. Once we saw where they were set up in the park we again organized our counter-demonstration.
Lafayette Park
After getting their crowd together, the lefties all went up to the White House fence where they chanted various slogans. Unfortunately I did not think to get a photo with the White House actuall in it. It is just off screen to the right.
Notice the big UN flag. Yeah, they'll solve the world's problems. Just like they did in Rwanda
I almost forgot to have someone take my picture. This time I decided to go with a "pro" message rather than an "anti" one. The Freeper under her sign at my left doesn't want her photo on the Internet (if she can help it), something about her work, I think.
The lefties then walked back about a hundred feet and set up camp on the other side of the street. We walked back to about where they had been, and I took this photo with us in the forground and them in the background. The White House is to my right.
Here's one of the lefties taken from where we stood
"Thank You For Doing This"
During all this tourists passed by, wondering I suppose if they'd wandered into an alternate universe. Must just snapped photos of the two groups and went on their way, but several times people came up to us, shook all of our hands, and said "thank you for doing this!" At least three were Iraqi war veterans home on leave.
Again, a few times a leftie or two would come over and try to engage us, but the police kept them away. Both at the Gandhi Memorial and at Lafayette Park we spoke with several of the officers, most of them seemed either bored or amused by the entire spectacle. No doubt they've seen hundreds of these sorts of things, and unlike during the '60s, rarely does violence or trouble break out at the smaller ones (the big ones are another story. I've seen the DC police in action, like at the big Sept 25 1005 anti-war protests, and they are out in force and are dead serious in their work.
All of this went on for about an hour. They had a portable loudspeaker system and several of them gave fierly yet boringly predictable speaches. I've heard it all before.
The Main Event
Code Pink had set down a long pink cloth maybe three feet wide and 50 feet long on which they would hold their last supper before the fast (everything is pink at their damn events, it seems).
They had a food preparation table nearby, and most of them then sat down to have their last meal. At this point I left my post and went forward to take some photos.
Here's Cindy, you can see her sitting down in the middle of the photo. I think that the woman standing right above her in a pink shirt is Medea Benjamin, one of the leaders of Code Pink and a commie if there ever was one.
Here you can see a cameraman in the forground. Right across from Cindy were a whole bunch of photographers from the media, which you'll see in the second and third photos
Ok enough.
At about 6:30 I decided enough was enough and headed for home.
All in all, I find it hard to take these people seriously. Yes Cindy Sheehan will garner some media attention with her stunt. But her and Code Pink are so whacked out of their minds that rational discourse with them is impossible. Their arguments, such as they are, are not to be taken seriously.
What is of concern is how more mainstream leftist groups like Moveon.org and the Daily Kos are affecting the Democrat Party. That is a subject for another post, but suffice it to say for now that I think these things run downhill: Code Pink/Cindy Sheehan affects Moveon.org and the Daily Kos, and they in turn affect the Democrat Party. None of this can be good for our country, because we have a war to win, and the lefties of Code Pink are rooting for our enemies.
Tuesday Update - News Coverage
A Reuters story in The Washington Post is a reasonably fair account, their reporter estimating 150 demonstrators at the event. The story adds that most of the protesters will only fast for 24 hours, while Sheehan will carry on through the summer at President Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas. The story on the Reuters site is can be found here.
Fox News also covered the event, calling it a "rolling fast". Their reporter also noticed our group:
From noon to 1:00, Kristinn and some Freepers held a protest outside the New York Times office in Washington DC. I didn't make it for that one, but Michelle Malkin has the story and photos.
Yahoo News has a photo of Sheehan and Susan Sarandon from the event.
As of this update there's nothing on CNN or MSNBC that I can find.
National Review's The Corner blog seems to be ignoring the story as well.
Dittos for the British newspapers The Guardian, Sunday Times of London, and the Telegraph. Nothing on the BBC site either.
I saw several AP reporters there, but can't find anything on the Associated Press site about the event.
They're not a news outlet, but Little Green Footballs, of course, doesn't miss the event. As always, the comments section is just about the best part of the post.
Other than that, I can't find much of anything out there about Sheehan's stunt. Most people and news outlets are sensibly concentrating on Independence Day. We'll see what happens in the weeks ahead. But the sooner Sheehan disappears from the news the better.
At about 3pm today the leftists arrived at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial outside of the Embassy of India on Massachusetts Avenue in northwest Washington DC. Unlucky for them, we were positioned across the street to greet them.
Here we are on the other side of the street. We had maybe a dozen people on our side. I estimated the lefties across the street to be about 100, maybe more.
In case the photo isn't clear it the banner says "Cindy Sheehan: Starving for Attention"
The Occasion
The point of the affair is that Cindy Sheehan, idol of the radical anti-war left and media whore, has decided to go on a hunger strike along with several other fellow moonbats.
Code Pink Women for Peace orgainzed this affair and the day's events. In an interview on their website, Dc Code Pinker Carrie Biggs-Adams says that it will last "a month or two." Asked why she is fasting, she replies that she is
...committed to fast during this hunger strike because it's time to raise the visibility and the ante. While I spend every day with pink fingernails and a button to publicize my opposition to this war and my call for peace, it's essential that we get more serious and raise the ante and the visibility, and get more people participating in our opposition to the war.
There were plenty of police around, but by their relaxed attitude they obviously did not expect any trouble. Their job was to keep the lefties on their side of the street and us on ours. A couple of times a leftie or two tried to come over and try to debate us, and there were a few shouting matches, but nothing serious.
These guys are having trouble with their dates, or are too lazy to change their sign. Operation Iraqi Freedom started on April 2003, so it's more than 4 years and 1 day. We hollered that they were desacrating the flab, but of course they didn't care. That's one thing I've noticed about leftist demonstrators; they either don't have American flags at all, or they're all jazzed up with something. Rarely do they just have straight American flags.
Reporters were all over the place. They started out across the street with the lefties, but once they realized there was a counter-demonstration they swarmed over to our side to photograph and interview us. Here one from the Associated Press interviews Kristinn Taylor, the president of the DC chapter of FreeRepublic.com, and the organizer of our rally
Good Reporters and Bad Reporters
Many times during the rallys and protests that I've taken part in, I have been interviewed by reporters. I've come to notice that there are two types; the mainstream media, and independents.
By "mainstream media" I mean repoters from newspapers, radio stations, or the like, and I've been interviewed by reporters from the Washington Post, The Associated Press, Dutch Public Television, even "alternative" outlets like the Afro-American (who interviewed me during the big Sept 25 2005 protests). During these street interviews I have received nothing but straight and fair interviews from these reporters. They ask questions like "What is the message you are trying to get out?" and "What brings you to this rally?" They don't try to nitpick or catch you up, either, but just ask the question, accept whatever you say and move on.
Then there are the independents. You never know what you are going to get with them. Sometimes they do it straight, and then sometimes they have an obvious agenda and the "interview" turns into more of a debate.
This happened today with two guys who came to our side. One did the camera and mic, the other asked the questions (I didn't get a photo of them). He only asked me one or two fairly straight questions, then moved on. Settling on a lady in our group, he started in with "I've interviewed Iraq war veterans who say that they've received orders to shoot women and children. What do you say to that?" and "Female American soldiers are afraid to walk across American bases at night for fear that they will be raped (by American male soldiers. What do you say to that?" He went on like this, obviously looking for a reaction and an argument. We eventually told him to get the hell away from us.
On to Lafayette Park
After about 45 minutes or so of this nonsense the lefties gathered their things and marched down Massachusetts Avenue to Lafayette Park, which was about a mile away, maybe less. Lafayette Park is across the street from the north face of the White House. As the street is is only a short distance from the White House itself (maybe just over 100 ft?), for security reasons the street has been blocked off and is essentially now part of the park. This park is the traditional center of anti-government protests, and there is always one leftist group or another holding some sort of protest or vigil. Check it out the next time you're in Washington DC.
We too gathered our things, but instead of following the leftists we got in our cars and drove down. Once we saw where they were set up in the park we again organized our counter-demonstration.
Lafayette Park
After getting their crowd together, the lefties all went up to the White House fence where they chanted various slogans. Unfortunately I did not think to get a photo with the White House actuall in it. It is just off screen to the right.
Notice the big UN flag. Yeah, they'll solve the world's problems. Just like they did in Rwanda
I almost forgot to have someone take my picture. This time I decided to go with a "pro" message rather than an "anti" one. The Freeper under her sign at my left doesn't want her photo on the Internet (if she can help it), something about her work, I think.
The lefties then walked back about a hundred feet and set up camp on the other side of the street. We walked back to about where they had been, and I took this photo with us in the forground and them in the background. The White House is to my right.
Here's one of the lefties taken from where we stood
"Thank You For Doing This"
During all this tourists passed by, wondering I suppose if they'd wandered into an alternate universe. Must just snapped photos of the two groups and went on their way, but several times people came up to us, shook all of our hands, and said "thank you for doing this!" At least three were Iraqi war veterans home on leave.
Again, a few times a leftie or two would come over and try to engage us, but the police kept them away. Both at the Gandhi Memorial and at Lafayette Park we spoke with several of the officers, most of them seemed either bored or amused by the entire spectacle. No doubt they've seen hundreds of these sorts of things, and unlike during the '60s, rarely does violence or trouble break out at the smaller ones (the big ones are another story. I've seen the DC police in action, like at the big Sept 25 1005 anti-war protests, and they are out in force and are dead serious in their work.
All of this went on for about an hour. They had a portable loudspeaker system and several of them gave fierly yet boringly predictable speaches. I've heard it all before.
The Main Event
Code Pink had set down a long pink cloth maybe three feet wide and 50 feet long on which they would hold their last supper before the fast (everything is pink at their damn events, it seems).
They had a food preparation table nearby, and most of them then sat down to have their last meal. At this point I left my post and went forward to take some photos.
Here's Cindy, you can see her sitting down in the middle of the photo. I think that the woman standing right above her in a pink shirt is Medea Benjamin, one of the leaders of Code Pink and a commie if there ever was one.
Here you can see a cameraman in the forground. Right across from Cindy were a whole bunch of photographers from the media, which you'll see in the second and third photos
Ok enough.
At about 6:30 I decided enough was enough and headed for home.
All in all, I find it hard to take these people seriously. Yes Cindy Sheehan will garner some media attention with her stunt. But her and Code Pink are so whacked out of their minds that rational discourse with them is impossible. Their arguments, such as they are, are not to be taken seriously.
What is of concern is how more mainstream leftist groups like Moveon.org and the Daily Kos are affecting the Democrat Party. That is a subject for another post, but suffice it to say for now that I think these things run downhill: Code Pink/Cindy Sheehan affects Moveon.org and the Daily Kos, and they in turn affect the Democrat Party. None of this can be good for our country, because we have a war to win, and the lefties of Code Pink are rooting for our enemies.
Tuesday Update - News Coverage
A Reuters story in The Washington Post is a reasonably fair account, their reporter estimating 150 demonstrators at the event. The story adds that most of the protesters will only fast for 24 hours, while Sheehan will carry on through the summer at President Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas. The story on the Reuters site is can be found here.
Fox News also covered the event, calling it a "rolling fast". Their reporter also noticed our group:
About 20 supporters of the Washington-based group Free Republic gathered under a banner that read "Cindy Sheehan's starving for attention," near the Ghandi statue while some held American flags.
"She's been a publicity hound for the past year with her so-called antiwar efforts," said Kristinn Taylor, a spokesman for the group.
From noon to 1:00, Kristinn and some Freepers held a protest outside the New York Times office in Washington DC. I didn't make it for that one, but Michelle Malkin has the story and photos.
Yahoo News has a photo of Sheehan and Susan Sarandon from the event.
As of this update there's nothing on CNN or MSNBC that I can find.
National Review's The Corner blog seems to be ignoring the story as well.
Dittos for the British newspapers The Guardian, Sunday Times of London, and the Telegraph. Nothing on the BBC site either.
I saw several AP reporters there, but can't find anything on the Associated Press site about the event.
They're not a news outlet, but Little Green Footballs, of course, doesn't miss the event. As always, the comments section is just about the best part of the post.
Other than that, I can't find much of anything out there about Sheehan's stunt. Most people and news outlets are sensibly concentrating on Independence Day. We'll see what happens in the weeks ahead. But the sooner Sheehan disappears from the news the better.
posted by Tom the Redhunter at 7/03/2006 06:57:00 PM
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