Protest Flotsam. PLEASE NOTE: if you're interested in the video of the ANSWER protest and/or the Che pictures, etc., please scroll down to the previous posts. They're still up. OK, here are some other random lunacies I came across during my tour of duty with ANSWER this weekend. It ain't pretty. Hold the phone! ... Palestine? OK, leaving that off for the moment, let's begin. Take these two signs for instance. I won't critique the style ... at least not too much. In fact, we're starting on a high note here. These are actually fairly well done as far as home-made lefty protest signs go. If you look closely at the originals you'll see that the letters were penciled in before the permanent marker hit the pavement so to speak. In other words, these were planned beforehand. That's pretty unusual with this set. They tend to make signs the same way they ejaculate ... too quickly and without thought to consequences. The use of color is OK ... sort of enough to draw the eye without being too confusing with regard to the message. The change in typeface is acceptable and even adds to the message by highlighting the main players and points. Bravo. What really bugs me, though, is the syntax. These idiots thrive on a miniscule set of cliched words and phrases. "Long Live Solidarity and Friendship between the Peace-Loving Peoples of Soviet Russia and the Third Reich" etc. A funny problem for people who tout their supposed creativity and wear their specious brand of non-conformity and "intellectual independence" on their sleeve. Ugh. OK, this one's just plain ugly. The guy carrying it was ... oh, say late 50's, early 60's. He should know better by now. First ... the material. Styrofoam. Bad choice. It looked flimsy and I was always waiting for it to just fly away with the first breeze. It made me nervous. Anyway, pink doesn't do anything to further the message. It just ends up looking like something you'd get with a Protest Barbie outfit. Second ... give some time to planning. Not simply the placement of words and the use (or mis-use in this case) of type. I'm talking about simple grammar. Write it down first on paper. Follow your draft carefully. I've sorta gotta hand it to ANSWER in the way they tried to control the look and feel of this event. Not nearly as overwhelming as a Code Pink rally, but still they tried to keep the randomness to a minimum. Pre-printed signs abounded. This is one of them. Kinda reminds me of those old Soviet era posters with Uncle Joe Stalin seated among rapt, muscular children sporting hammers and the like. Heck, I like to remember collectivization as a state-run family weight-loss program for pudgy Ukrainians. I think Stalin thought of it that way too, the old bastard. Saddam Hussein liked to have his photos with kids too ... just before he dropped them and their parents into the industrial shredders. Actually, I never noticed this before. Chavez has something of the pedophile about him. Sorta sporting that far-off NAMBLA stare. The kids seem to know all about it. Ah yes, the inevitable kaffiyeh clutch. That must explain the "Palestine" in the first photo. Funny I didn't see any of these guys at the Darfur rally. Watch out, Che ... competition is on the way! Never mind that this pose makes Chavez look something like a kinda toadish asian gay bottom-man. Just never mind that. Never let it be said that lefties don't keep up with modern events and currents in contemporary thought. Now here's a sign that just reeks cutting-edge, early 21st Century convictions and moral philosophy. "Bolshevik". I just want to weep. Dot Org. If that isn't pathos, I don't know what is. Hit bedrock. Keep digging. OK, now I'm completely lost. "Tendency"?!? Now this guy was a classic. There's at least one of these types at every one of these lefty rallies. I suppose it's the Reality Based Community moniker that keeps them coming. Anyway, I actually interviewed this bloke on video. Sadly, there was something wrong with the audio on that portion so I had to dump it. It was late in the day anyway and I think he was kinda tired. His theory ... sorry, his Amendment ... is that Washington DC should be cleaned out and that everyone who opposed the Iraq war should be placed in government ... and that the chain-of-command should start, naturally, with that individual to whom the war is the most odious. That being Rick Hohensee. The guy in the window. I kid you not. Oh, and one last image ... just to remind us ... in case we ever forget ... just who we're dealing with here and just exactly what they want and which "reality" the "reality-based community" is based upon.

Requires Windows Media Player OK, here's the Video from the ANSWER "Hands-off Cuba, Hands-off Venezuela" protest rally. See more below in previous post. I'll be posting the "Che" gallery below as an update tomorrow. I'm bloody tired. **** ANOTHER UPDATE **** Just in case there was any doubt, the DC Councilman you see shouting "Viva Cuba" in the above video ... Jim Graham ... is, indeed, a Democrat. Just so we know. **** UPDATE **** My Che Gallery is finally up! As I said in the video, "Che" was, er, ubiquitous. At one point during the "speeches" I decided that the only way to save what was left of my desperate sanity was to troll the crowd and collect "Che"s. That I did and kept doing throughout the march. What you see here is not exhaustive of the Che phenomenon. There were many duplicates, for instance. I was also unable to get good photos of some. Still, I think I have a nice array here, fully indicative of the hero-worship this murderous, half-shaven, beret-wearing bastard induces in these morons and fellow-travelers. We'll start off with my favorite. I mean ... just look at this guy. A bar-bell mustache?!? And check the beret. And the pens. What was this guy doing ... signing autographs? Or were the pens there just in case he got that opportunity to collect a phone-number? Lord knows he's missed so many other opportunities ... can't let another one get away after all. Can you be more of a poseur? Then there's this one. This was more or less the "official" Che of the march ... endorsed by none other than ANSWER itself. A pretty standard Che, actually. I was a bit disappointed. Here we have the rare quadruple-Che. Here's a close-up on that sign. A happy, smiling Che. Maybe he just executed another family. He loved that kinda stuff. What a guy. The hard to catch flapping-Che ... The Floating-Che-Head-of-Death consumes South America. Little did we know that Che has his own fashion line ... ... complete with accessories. Rainbow Che, of course. There's something just really goofy about this one. Can't put my finger on it, though. That's all folks. I'll probably do another blog entry on this march pretty soon ... some more random insanity, etc. Maybe not. We'll see.

OMG what a crock. What a pathetic crock. I attended ANSWER's "Hands-off-Cuba! Hands-off-Venezuela!" protest today. I did it because I swore, I SWORE, to keep you people up to date on the goings-on of this sort in DC (where else would you get it if not here?). And this is what I get ... six (6) freaking hours of guys and chicks like this. Two (2) hours of that marching (!!!) from Malcomb (or is it Malcom ... I've seen it both ways) X Park to the White House by a most circuitous route which took us past the "Cuban Interests" delegation or whatever, a short harangue at the Washington Post offices (they need to tell the TRUTH about Cuba!) and thence to Lafayette Park for some stunningly boring speeches. I'm exhausted. I needed two Manhattans before I could even think of approaching this. Was it worth it? Just look: "1917". Priceless. Freaking priceless. He even posed ... twice ... the first one he had his eyes closed. He and his buddies spent most of the time debating "dialetic materialism" or some other BS Victorian crock orthodoxy off in the bushes, trying (I think) to impress some equally geeky chick contingent (or committee ... whatever) with their commitment to scientific socialism. PFFFFTH. Actually, that's pretty much what EVERYONE at this protest was doing whenever they got the chance ... you never saw so many talkative idiots so willing to share their particular moronic epiphanies in bladder-wrenching monologues. It's like ... OK ... I think I smoked THAT joint circa 1974. And yes, this was another geriatric wasteland. Go figure. I do have about an hour's worth of video I need to sift through, so I won't have any of that up until ... er ... tomorrow I think. Please check back for updates. Don't get me started on the signage. At least there weren't any puppets. This was the worst of the bunch ... let's just get that over with. What happened here? Left-over Home Depot spray-paint on extra middle-school-project poster board? Some of the stuff was of this variety, although most of it was pre-printed. I think these guys are starting to wise-up. This guy came with a group of other Grizzly Adams "do-it-yourselfers". I'll include the other posters in the update. That little blob at the bottom-right is like a baseball-card sized photo of Bush with some text. How bloody superfluous. I'm just trying to get on the board here, folks. More to come. About an hour into this disaster I started collecting "Che" images. You wouldn't believe how many different ways there are to visually honor this murderous half-shaven bastard. I'll put my collection up as an update later on ... this is just to whet the appetite... Please check back. I even caught a sitting DC Councilman in the throes of "Viva Cuba" ... what a town. Statehood. Yeah.

Sorry about the no-to-slow blogging lately. We moved in late April from around Alexandria VA to around Potomac MD, and are only now getting out of boxes and settled. As you can see, things are still somewhat of a mess. Plus Comcast in it's lightning speed and efficiency has yet to fix the high-speed connection issues that existed from the moment we moved in. Jeez, it's not like the work I do (outside of blogging, but blogging counts too) isn't dependent on my having high-speed internet. No ... I'll just put my life and work on hold until you can "get around" to my issue. Thanks Comcast.