From: (withheld)

Subject:  protesting, et al

Hey BC,

This Saturday I decided to check out the countercoup in Washington, DC
http://www.geocities.com/countercoup/

I got there a little early and caught a bit of the March for the Homeless in DC
(I didn't realize it was happening and at first mistook it for the countercoup...
too bad really as there were thousands of people in that March).

So, I get to Lafayette Park across from the White House and all
I see are Freepers and Pro-Bush people, who are obnoxiously
standing at the exit gate for the Official White House Tour
shouting at the ordinary people there to visit the White House.
These poor people take the tour, then walk across the North
Lawn and exit through the gate and get 40-50 middle aged,
middle classed, nitwits with "Sore Loserman" placards shouting,
um, "Sore Loserman!!!" at them. There were no Pro-Gore people
to be found, so I heckled the Bushies by myself for a few minutes.
Some idjit went on and on about how the Democrats were against
black people (there were MANY blacks in the march for the homeless,
as you'd expect in a city that's 70% black and many of them from
out of state walked by to get their pics taken in front of The
White House, and this gaggle of Angry White Men were the ones
REALLY fighting for the rights of blacks. One of my 'heckles' was:
"then how come there isn't a single black, brown, yellow or red
person in your group?". I was told: "shut up, liberal loser!".

I stood by with my wife for a few more minutes, and then a crowd gathered across
the street in the park. The Gore-ites finally had arrived. We assembled in one corner
of the park, made signs, heard a few 'speeches', some of which more resembled
Beat Poetry than political speeches. I was concerned about my crack to the Bushies
earlier because most of 'our' crowd was middle-aged ex-hippies, and middle-classed
white college kids, but when we were finally at full-strength this crowd more resembled
'America' (there were asians, blacks, latinos, whites, old and young).

One interesting thing was that as we discussed our 'strategy', a beardy old guy came
over and videotaped all of us. One of the 'veterans' identified him as a 'freeper', and I
guess he was trying for mild intimidation, sort of "we know who you are" Freepers,
being for 'freedom' and such, will no doubt use these tapes during a Bush Junta to
round up 'subversives' like me, attending my first 'protest' since I showed up to
watch passively the anti-Gulf War protests in '90.

Most of the placards people made were of the 'Trust the People, Count the Vote' and
'Recount now!". Some were asking to abolish the Electoral College and 'Free DC'
(give them representation in Congress). Mine said

"Democracy REQUIRES a Fair Count -- www.bartcop.com"

on one side and

"There is TIME to get a fair count".

on the other.

I suspect there would have been more people there if the 'state of affairs' Saturday
wasn't "limbo". Depending on today's court rulings, things could get more intense next Saturday.

So, the crowd walked through Lafayette Park (around it actually as in the middle they're
doing construction for the Inaugeration), then, as 16th Street in front of the North Face of the
White House is 'pedestrian' (due to the Tim McVeighs of the world), we went in a big circle
in the middle of 16th for about 15 minutes. As we were then about 50 yards from the
Freeper/Bushies, they came closer and chanted at us as we chanted. One thing that
struck me was their utter childishness. The pro-Gore (or should I say pro-DEMOCRACY)
people were chanting 'Trust the People', 'We just want a fair recount', 'Count every Vote',
all the Freeper/Bushies could manage was belittling voters with chants about what MORONS
old people, minorities, jews, etc in Florida were. They sang a silly little song to the tune of
'The Hokey Pokey' about chads, and chanted 'Sore Loserman' over and over and over and over.
They reminded me of those Noriega thugs that went around beating and intimidating people
in Panama before we invaded. Or Brownshirts from 1930's Germany. Their 'message' was,
as is usual for Republicans, "Screw you, I've got mine", very darwinistic, very cro-magnon.
We shout: "let's be fair!", and they shout: 'shut up', 'go home loser', and act like 8 yr old bullies
whose emotional development ended years ago when they discovered they could always get
what they wanted if they just ranted until normal thinking people were worn out and exasperated.

So, we stayed until about 3:30, then, since we had another engagement we left, but if you go to
the web page, you'll see that they carried the protest around the White House.
I also note that when the March for the Homeless ended about 2-2:30, and some of them came
to take pics, several of them joined our protest. I wish I had a picture of the large black man with
(probably) his little son on his shoulders. They came from the other march and joined ours.
The kid waved an American Flag and chanted 'Count Every Vote'.

The Bushies should keep up their rhetoric about blacks. I'm certain every black person wants to
hear they are stooopid and naive for voting for/believing in the message of Democrats.
Maybe with that 'strategy', they can get a perfect 0% of the minority vote in 2002....

On another note, there is a bar/pool hall in the Adams Morgan section of DC called 'Kokopoolis'
(a play on the Hopi/Zuni Indian 'trickster' myth of Kokopelli). They have 65 tequilas,
including 3 different Chinacos. I tried the Anejo for the first time (and I'm not a big tequila person,
but your powers of suggestion are amazing). It was $8 a shot, but I told the bartender that was too
expensive, so he let me have one for $5! I have to say I am very impressed. It it absolutely nothing
like J*** C*****. It was smooth, a little sweet (but not like a liquor sweet), with such a subtle
'spice' of the agave coming through almost like an afterthought I wondered how the HELL could
anyone associate real agave tequila with stuff that's probably grain neutral spirits, caramel coloring,
half a shot of tabasco sauce and STP Gas Treatment.

BP

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