Angry Occupier at McPherson Square

During our visit to Occupy DC my Marine buddy and I walked through the square in and among the occupiers and then took a lap around the perimeter of the park.  We did meet a recently retired Marine (he was wearing his Federal badge on a “Marines” lanyard) who was looking on with undisguised amusement.  We shared a moment of Marine camaraderie and then moved back into the center of the square.   

One guy did stand out (with "Hey EPA . . . " sign).  He was trying to get the crowd motivated and they weren’t having any of it.  He was bellowing that he wanted everyone to come with him and picket at the EPA.  He bellowed “Clean coal is an oxymoron.”  His most colorful sign wished that his “girlfriend was as dirty as coal.”  No doubt if she was hanging around in this park for long - she was.  He seemed to have a thing about coal.    

  

Finally, he had enough.  He bellowed “Only six?  That’s all?  That’s disgusting!”  And the small party trudged off to the EPA.  I’m certain that some bureaucrat wrote yet another regulation on his behalf.  Everyone else might have been diverted by a delivery or release of baked goods as a number of his fellow occupiers appeared all of a sudden with an assortment of doughnuts and bagels. 

The hardest working guy at the McPherson Square was a guy with a push broom.  He was sweeping the leaves off the sidewalks that crisscrossed the park.  He was doing a good job and actually asked me politely to move as I hadn’t detected that I was in his way.  

The protest at the EPA had been listed on a whiteboard near the information booth that had a schedule of sorts for the day.  Something like “12:00 – Protest EPA” and then there was “12:30: Announcements.” My buddy and I waited on pins and needles.  One occupier came out with a bullhorn and it just squeaked.  I think he was testing it – no joy.  Many suggestions emanated from his fellow occupiers, but the final assessment was that all the batteries were dead.  There was one guy who emerged with a clip board – he might have been the mayor of Obamaville – but for the want of a battery, we may never know. 

More to come . . . . . . 

Occupy DC Vist (continued)

The biggest surprise that I got at the Occupy DC protest was that all of the occupiers that we encountered and gave pocket Constitutions to seemed pleased to get them.  I had assumed that many would be repelled by them or have been full of the “written by white slave-holders” crap.  However that wasn’t the case.  No doubt the only part of the Constitution that they thought they understood was the part about freedom of speech, but having the whole thing might enlighten a few.  They didn’t seem to be acquainted with the document. 

This young man sitting in his pajamas in the rain was almost giddy when I offered him the Constitution.  He informed me that it was the greatest thing that Abraham Lincoln had ever written.  He was on a roll so I didn’t stop and correct him.  He went on to express disappointment that the booklet didn’t contain the Articles of Confederation.  He asked me if I knew that technically we were still under those.  I just smiled.  No doubt another victim of the public school system. 

My first encounter with an occupier was a twenty something girl in front of the “library.”  I offered her a Constitution and she happily took it from me.  While that happened a much older woman walked over to us and asked us if we had been to Montpelier (I assume she was making the connection between Madison and the Constitution) and I acknowledged that I had.  The occupier cut back in asking me why I was there and I responded that I had grown up in the 60’s and 70’s and had witnessed those demonstrations.  She became more animated and asked me if I had participated and I told her I was on the other team, attending college on the NROTC program and being commissioned in the Marine Corps during that time.  She asked me if they [the occupiers] embodied the same spirit as the demonstrators of that time.  I opined that they did not but that they were motivated by the same people.  I didn’t get the opportunity to elaborate as the other lady chipped in that she was 71 (that was a surprise as she didn’t look it) and that she had been in DC when “350,000 marched” on the city to protest the Viet Nam War.  She seemed particularly proud that she had overcome her gentile up bringing and was able to shout “ . . . . we don’t want your F***ing war!”  A word that she said she had never uttered prior to that day but did use again in our conversation.  No doubt something to make one proud.  The first time I said “f***” in my father’s presence, he looked at me sternly and said “I know amateurs who can swear better than that.”  I was tempted to use that line, but I let the conversation roll.  

That appeared to be enough for the young occupier who excused herself – she was a part-time demonstrator and had to get back to Maryland she explained.  I don’t know what happened to the older lady, no doubt she drifted off to try and reconnect with her potty mouth years.  Proof that knuckleheads come in all ages.  

I talked to the guy in the blue slicker as it was labeled “Transport Workers Union; We move America.”  I asked him if he was a union member and he said “No, they just gave us these ponchos.  They let us take showers at the AFL-CIO headquarters down the street.”  I smiled. “That’s nice.”  I’m sure that all you union guys and gals are happy that a portion of your dues is sustaining this protest.  You might want to have a word with your leadership. 

There is more to come.  

My Visit to Occupy Washington, DC

 A Marine buddy and I went to the Occupy Washington, DC event in McPherson Square today.  I had considered taking a dozen bars of soap with me to hand out, but decided on a fistful of CATO Institute versions of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution instead.  I was surprised when I got to my buddy’s place that he had a backpack full of the same all individually wrapped in sandwich bags to ward off the rain.  Great minds . . . . .  So armed with our Constitutions we headed off to confront the Occupiers. 

This sign greeted us as we walked onto McPherson Square, apparently they don’t want to pay for anything:

 There were several flags on the square but no one seemed to be bothered by this:

 

In all fairness, after we pointed it out to one of the occupiers, he did fix it. 

This is Ms. Che (my name for her) as she seemed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.  She was manning the Information Booth and I suspect that she knew exactly what we were up to.  She was wary when I spoke to her:

This is the Library.  When I asked the proprietor if he had a copy of the Constitution he said that he thought he did.  He seemed pleased when I offered him one.  He said he would take all that I had.  When asked if he had read it, he said “only parts” of it:

That was when I had one of several verbal exchanges with an occupier.  Another man had watched the exchange at the Library and I gave him a Constitution as well.  He asked me if I had heard about the Baltimore occupiers protest against Karl Rove Monday night.  He seemed proud that they had confronted Rove.  I told the grinning man that I had heard and I was disappointed in them.  He was speechless.  I pointed out that all of us had rights but his rights didn’t trump my rights.  He looked confused.  I explained that even Karl Rove had a right to be heard, just as he assumed that the Occupy movement had a right to be heard.  I think . . . I’m not sure . . .that I saw a light come on.  He clutched his Constitution and walked off. 

This caught our eye.  My Marine buddy dubbed it the “Cosmic Burger.”  Your guess is as good as mine. 

This sign proclaimed that the Occupiers were “Emissaries of Light.” I don’t know what that means. 

 We were only there for a few hours, but I have more to tell you . . . . .tomorrow.  

Who will pay us more

Virginia just had an historic election and I am still mulling over the experience.  I have written about this campaign season before and I will continue to relate stories from my time on the porches or on the telephone with my fellow citizens. 

I knocked on a door the other day in a pleasant community of single-family detached homes.  A nice looking young lady answered the door.  She was probably 28 and she was struggling to hold back a puppy.  I was walking for our Republican candidate for the State Senate.  I went into a short pitch and ended with “ . . . can we count on your support?”  She frowned a bit and responded “My husband and I are both teachers and we have to vote for . . . . . “ I filled in the name of the democrat opponent for her.  “Yeah, we have to vote for the person who will pay us more” she said.    

I was floored.  This should put to rest the ridiculous claim that “It’s all about the children” from the union thugs that control our public school system.  Of course the odd thing is that Republicans have repeatedly floated plans to reverse the tide of straphangers and excess bureaucrats that school systems have hired exploding school budgets.  The Republican candidate that she probably voted against had floated a plan to make sure that 65% of the school budget would be spent in the classroom which would directly benefit teachers.  Right now our school system operates a huge fleet of vehicles and they have the fanciest building in the county to house bureaucrats – no student ever need enter that building.  We have 81,000 students and 10,000 school employees a ratio of 8.1:1.  Of those 10,000 employees roughly 5,700 are teachers or teaching assistants – or slightly more than half of the employees are actually teaching. 

She and her husband probably voted to maintain a lopsided system that focuses on everything but teachers and students.  Very sad.  The union will steer our teachers wrong every single time. 

Happy Birthday United States Marine Corps

Who else has Go Daddy! making birthday videos for them? 

The official 236th Marine Corps Birthday Message:

God Bless the United States and success to the Marines. 

Murphy’s Law Applied to Campaigning

I am still sorting through the results from our election yesterday in Virginia.  We did move the ball further down the field.  The people of Virginia will be freer and wealthier for the success that we enjoyed.  I thought you might enjoy the reflections of a campaigner below.   

Walking neighborhoods for candidates in our recent election gave me time to think about how Murphy’s Law applies to such activity.  You know Murphy, he said “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”  Having that in the back of my head gave rise to these Murphyisms applied to door knocking:

1.  If you only have to visit one house on a cul-de-sac, it will be the one farthest from the entrance to that street. 

2.  The hotter the day, the longer the driveways and longer the distances between houses.

3.  If you turn onto a street and one house has an entrance at ground level and the other has fifteen stairs to the front door, you’re gonna climb stairs.

4.  A dog that is tethered in the yard has enough slack to get to where you have to go. 

5.  Even if that dog looks old, he’s still faster than you. 

6.  That stuff about dogs that wag their tails being friendly is BS, he will bite you. 

7.  Having six cars in the driveway doesn’t guarantee that anyone is home. 

8.  If they are flying the American Flag, they might not be delighted to see you, but they won’t be rude. 

9.  If two guys are sitting in the driveway drinking beer, they’ll vote for our Republican. 

10.  If there is a bunch of squirrely crap on the door, you’re going to find out why when the door opens. 

11.  When my wife knocks on the door and I stand back with the clipboard, more doors are opened. 

12.  Don’t underestimate the ability of the guy at headquarters to give you a bogus list.  

13.  If you are carrying campaign flyers you will be exactly three pieces short or you’ll have at least 57 pieces left over. 

If none of that means anything to you, call up your local Republican and give walking your neighborhood a try – we have an election to win.  

At the Dentist

I started off Wednesday at the dentist.  After that your day can only go up – right? 

The lady who tortures my gums and teeth for 45 minutes knows I’m a Republican as does my Dentist.  We generally talk about whatever topic is in the news.  Yesterday with my mouth wide open and the television on the news, my hygienist remarked about the news that Bank of America had backed away from the plan to charge debit card holders a flat fee.  Scrape, scrape, scrape, “You know my bank, Sun Trust tried to do that too and it made me angry” she said, scrape, scrape, rinse.

That’s when it hit me just how evil and diabolical democrats (socialists, progressives, liberals, whatever) really are.  Here is an educated woman probably a few years younger than I who is mad at Sun Trust bank for something that Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and in particular Dick Durbin did to her and everyone else in the nation. 

I explained the outrages of Frank-Dodd to her and in particular how Dick Durbin had fundamentally changed the relationship between the consumer, the bank, and the retailer.  She said “Now that you have explained that, everything that Sun Trust is doing makes sense.”  She related that the bank was offering a “free” debit card and “free” checking as long as she maintained a balance of $3,000.00 in her checking account.  What a deal. 

Thanks Barney, Chris and Dick I hope you all burn in hell.  At least now you have one pissed off dental hygienist to deal with.  I’m going to find someone else tomorrow, I promise.