Dean draws over 800 tonight in PA....5 foolish Repubs scream outside.

[madfloridian]

Stupid is as Stupid does. 800 inside listening to an intelligent man speak. 5 outside screaming like fools.


Jasmine Gehris/Tribune-Review


http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/s_355202.htm...

"Billson was declared the winner of the contest after five people belted out increasingly high-pitched Dean imitations."

"In a speech before about 800 people who paid $25 a person for the DNC benefit, Dean said he would make no apologies for recent controversial remarks about Republicans.

"It's easy to say where we disagree with President Bush, but we also have to have a positive agenda, and that's what I'm here to talk about," Dean said."

[Jim Sagle]

1. That guy on the right looks like he was Photoshop®ped.

[madfloridian]

2. Looks like it, but same pic at two papers. Pathetic, isn't it?

Only a mother could love it.

[evlbstrd]

6. Wha?

What makes you think that?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. He looks like he was Photoconceived.

[KingFlorez]

3. What's the point?

They can't offer anything productive, so they stand outside screaming like idiots because they are no match for Dean.

[zulchzulu]

4. Nothing like watching 5 unemployed Repug Chickenhawks being twits

Like in Madison...and they are somehow the "story"...

[madfloridian]

5. One story from there had a great headline.....

"Lowering the discourse by raising their voices"

That is just about right. They make themselves look bad.

[Guaranteed]

7. LOL beautiful.

Gee...who's the joke, now?

[SerpentX]

8. I look at that dude holding up the sign on the right and I hear banjos.

Man, that Deliverance kid sure gets around.

[madfloridian]

9. I call them part of the Hannity/Limbaugh/Coulter culture of humiliation.

That is exactly how they act. And they think they are cute.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. That's so ridiculous and pathetic

LOL. I bet they really looked like fools. I'm all for someone protesting if they want to, but goodness. Go Dean!

[DemInDistress]

12. What struck me funny

was the lack of a real crowd..where are the bush war supporters? how come just 5 showed up? were they paid in beer to imitate dean? when gopers appear for a demonstration you can count them on your fingers.When democrats appear at a rally,bring out the S.W.A.T. teams,riot police,and calvary because you can expect thousands..i was happy to hear dean wont cower to gopers and apologize...didn't dean say,Tom Delay belongs in prison? of course he does..and,their are crooks and liars in the Whitehouse? most definitely...so where's the beef about Dean

[Carla in Ca]

13. I decided to have a little fun yesterday

with the reporter who filed the report on Dean's speech, and the scream contest. This is the email I sent him:

Great Article! I think Howard Dean is fabulous. He has a wonderful sense of humor so maybe he can show them how to do it right. The last attempts were pretty pathetic. Go Howard!

I got a reply today: "Thanks for the note." D. Brown


I guess they didn't get the 'buzz' they had hoped for. HAHA

[madfloridian]

15. I love it. Good for you.

[Carla in Ca]

17. Thanks...Instead of getting all upset

it was a lot more fun doing that. Sometimes humor serves a better purpose than anger.

[madfloridian]

20. I called the SC GOP site when they did this.

I asked them if they knew how foolish it looked. I asked why those healthy looking guys were not serving their country. I got mostly stammers, as there was not much they could say.

[Carla in Ca]

21. And I think they have even less to say now

don't you think? Geez, only 5 people this time LOL
Keep asking that question, it's a good one.

[blondeatlast]

27. Excellent tactic. They want to push our buttons. If we don't allow

it, they'll stop even trying.

Kudos for a thoughtful response!

[madfloridian]

14. A group of Anarchists confronts them, saying they want to talk issues.

The headline tells that the reporter really gets it.

Lowering the discourse at the top of their lungs

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05201/540552.stm

"Members of a local group called Anti-Racist Action unfurled a blue tarp spray-painted with the words "We Bash Back" and argued with the roughly 16 GOP activists, taking pains to say they weren't Dean supporters.

"We would like to talk about serious issues, like war, racism, poverty, reproductive rights," Jules Bonnot, 21, of Bloomfield, told a reporter.

A Duquesne University student named Dan, holding a poster that said "I the GOP," stepped up to resume the contest. "Howard Dean is gay," he said, and was immediately surrounded and lectured by the anarchists."

I rather admire one of the Republican protestors who sort of had some common sense.

Swanke, of Shaler, said he cut his performance short to avoid a confrontation. He said that in the spirit of free speech, he respected the counter-protesters for what they were doing.

"Four years at Pitt make you realize it's not worth getting into fights and yelling at people."

Neal Andrus, left, a member of the Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania and a South Sider, engages in a high-volume exchange of political discourse with Alex Bradley, of Bloomfield.

[snowbear]

16. Oh mannNN, I would've loved to take a huge hose to them..

Just soak their sorry asses with a massive hose from a fire truck or something..

[Larkspur]

28. A better strategy is to hand them military enlistment applications

that will force them to eat "Crow."

[bklyncowgirl]

24. Let 'em make fools of themselves.

Tiny groups of GOP Youth acting like assholes in public is a good thing.

The "Dean is a nut" thing works to his advantage because once anyone hears the guy speak for a few minutes realizes very quickly that the opposite is true.

He also has the advantage of making rightwingnuts foam at the mouth and when they foam at the mouth they say and do stupid things--even guys like Dick Cheney.

I don't know if the anarchist counter protest was planned in any way but it worked out rather nicely. Maybe the next gang of Young Republicans could be met by unionists or civil rights activists--all of course with no connection to the DNC.

[Carolab]

18. What a crappy story.

To think this "journalist" thought it was more important to give coverage to five screaming ninnies who support a traitorous liar instead of discussing 800 intelligent people inside listening to a statesman talk about fixing what's wrong with this country.

I gave her a piece of MY mind about her hatchet job.

[Hippo_Tron]

19. Every Republican protest I've ever seen is usually like that

Mary Landrieu was speaking at a Loyola graduation and a few bible thumping wingnuts showed up and protested accross the street. Notice I mention a FEW, because there were about 7 of them. They had also left by the time the event started.

Another time, there were a 5 or 6 Republicans waving flip-flops outside of a Kerry fundraiser. They had also left by the time the event had started.

[pgh_dem]

31. When Kerry had a rally at CMU last fall, it was similar, but funny...

While we were all in line, some asshole held up a sign saying Kerry, got some cheers, then unfolded rest of sign so it said Kerry kills babies for fun! (and got the BOOOOOs he was looking for, so he could feel like an effective disruptor)

Then could see he was among the only 6 or 7 * supporters, surrounded by THOUSANDS of Kerry supporters.

Later the gates opened up and everyone got into the rally area. I noticed the asshole and his friend go through and in...as they started in, they had little s.e. grins on their faces, like they were getting away with something, but a couple minutes later I caught a real weird expression on the one guy's face. Like it suddenly occurred to him that they just viciously insulted our presidential candidate, just walked into a hugely successful rally for him...and nobody kicked the crap out of him...nobody sicced the Secret Service (or even 'enthusiastic staffers' dressed up as SS) on them...

Maybe he had (as Samuel Jackson said in Pulp Fiction) what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity, when he realized that his own party's paranoid, zero tolerance for dissent attitude was the exact opposite of democracy, and that he was watching the real thing in action.

...maybe...

[hootinholler]

22. Where are the police...

Keeping them 500 feet away from the entrance, like they did for town hall meetings?

The south side Polka:
"Where do I work?"
"Where do I get my pay?"
"South Side Pitts-burgh, Pensyl-van-I-A!"

I love the burgh, man.

-Hoot

[tanyev]

23. Ernest goes to the protest.

[Evergreen Emerald]

25. hahahaha!

That was funny!

[OnionPatch]

26. What a bunch of losers

As if someone screaming at a rally was something to be ashamed about. Add this with their purple band-aids and they look like a bunch of second-graders.

[msongs]

29. "are you the press agent for the republican party in your location?"

wrote the writer and asked her if she was reprinting talking points from the republican national committee.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[Javaman]

30. One way to shut them up, give them enlistment applications....

Most of them look about draft age. If they support chimpy monkeypants* so much, they won't mind laying their lives down on the line for his fucked up war.