The Stench of Elitism Hung Heavy in the Air
The Kook Zone
At the far edge of the protest was a small unofficial “kook zone” where the more fringe-y elements congregated. These are the people that many in the media want to conflate with the Tea Party, but which in reality have their own outside-the-mainstream beliefs.
The actual, official Tea Party contingent did not show up until about halfway through the protest, so in the early minutes of the event there was a higher percentage of kooky types mingling amongst the freelance Tea Partiers and and fiscal conservatives.
For example, the LaRouchites, who have showed up recently at both left-wing rallies and at Tea Parties (though, as the linked picture shows, they were less welcome at the Tea Parties), positioned themselves at the far edge of the protest with their now-notorious Obama-Hitler signs. Interesting side note: the LaRouche crew have taken to sending out African-American members to display the Obama-Hitler pictures as a way to defuse any accusations of racism.
The Alex Jones InfoWars kooks were scattered up and down the block; the ones who doubted the reality of 9/11 tended to hang out in the left-wing zone, whereas…
…the anti-tax InfoWars-ites hung out with the more sane fiscal conservatives.
There were a surprisingly large number of them. This Jonesian walked up and down the block filming everyone all day long. Is it acceptable to be paranoid about the paranoiacs?
And for the first time in my life I encountered an honest-to-goodness “birther” — someone who thinks Obama wasn’t born in the US. Note how on this side of the guy’s sign, everything is spelled correctly. Hold that thought as we move to the next theme:
Misspellings
I resist using the term “Teabonics,” coined by the Left to mock misspelled signs at Tea Parties, mainly because the term itself is insulting…toward blacks. The presumption embedded in the word “Teabonics,” a riff on “Ebonics,” is that Ebonics is just misspelled English. But the whole point behind the push for “Ebonics” in education was not that black people can’t spell correctly, but rather that “Black English Vernacular” (as it was called in my schooldays) is a legitimate full-fledged dialect of English with its own spelling conventions.
Furthermore, the misspellings at these protests (including at this one) are not always by Tea Partiers themselves but often by fringe kooks. For example…in the previous photo the Birther’s sign was spelled correctly, but when he flipped it around to show the other side…
…he left the “h” out of “White House.” Why???
One of the Alex Jones-ite anti-Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists also left an “h” out of “nothing.” Yawn.
And someone — I couldn’t tell what side they were on — left an “e” out of “foreclose.”
But far and away the single most embarrassing sign was an apparent Tea Party sympathizer who misspelled “socialist” as “solialist.” Not a big deal in the slightest, I understand, but on such trivialities does the Left thrive these days. Taking into account the vastly greater percentage of misspellings at left-wing rallies over the last several years, I’d say the Tea Party was actually doing pretty well.
I couldn’t hang around this particular event all day, as I had other spots to visit on the Obama protest itinerary! So I give you one final funny juxtapostion before heading off to the next stop….
Immigration Rights Anti-Obama Protest
Just one block away, on the steps of Grace Cathedral, there was yet another protest directed at Obama, but apparently situated here because there was no room at the inn Fairmont. This one lambasted Obama for failing to live up to his promises on immigration (i.e. his promise to grant amnesty to all illegal immigrants and to loosen immigration rules). You can see the Fairmont in the distance behind the reddish building.
This event was more carefully choreographed and stage-managed. A procession of left-leaning religious leaders took the microphone and denounced federal immigration laws and any attempts to enforce them. Here, someone whom I presumed was a rabbi spoke about the Jews’ long history of progressive activism, while behind him an imam and some priests and ministers awaited their turns.
Next to the speakers was an Aztec dance troupe — now a standard feature at many immigration rallies.
Obama Returns to Billionaires’ Row
Back in April of 2008, before Obama had even won the Democratic nomination for president, I documented his visit to “Billionaires’ Row, a stretch of Broadway in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood that is legendary for having more billionaires than any other neighborhood in the country.
Well, I got the scoop that, after this Fairmont fundraiser, Obama would return to the Getty mansion on Billionaires’ Row for yet another fundraiser, this one with the astonishing price of $35,200 per couple, which works out to $17,600 person. In sum, Obama and Boxer raked in $1.7 million for a few hours’ work, to be allocated among the Democrats according to this complicated formula:
Contributions to California Senate 2010 will be allocated as follows: The first $4,800 of each contribution from a person will be allocated to the Friends of Barbara Boxer. The first $2,400 of each contribution will be considered designated for the primary election; the second $2,400 will be considered designated for the general election. The next $30,400 of each contribution from a person will be allocated to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Inc. The next $10,000 of each contribution from a person will be allocated to the Democratic State Central Committee of California-Federal.
Of course, $35,200 is just the minimum; you can shell out more if you want to. They just publish the cookie-jar waiting-list so you know where your inherited dollars are going.
I find it hard to believe that there are Americans who still believe the old narrative that the Democratic Party is somehow the party of the “common folk,” the poor and the middle class — whereas the Republican Party is the party of the rich. In California, at least, it tends to be the other way around: the super-rich elites, as well as the Hollywood elites, tend to position themselves as “liberals” and donate money to liberal politicians; whereas the hardscrabble lower-middle class who tend to live in the low-value inland areas away from the overpriced coast tend to vote Republican and have conservative values. Of course there are exceptions to this rule (there are conservative California millionaires too), but overall it seems to be generally true.
So, if anything, in California at least (and I suspect elsewhere in the country as well), the Republicans now have more of a right to be called “the party of the common folk” than the Democrats do.
Nowhere is this more in evidence than on Billionaires’ Row and adjacent neighborhoods in Nancy Pelosi’s district, where insanely rich people fancy themselves to be “liberals” and donate wheelbarrows of cash to Obama, Boxer and other liberal candidates. Are they hypocrites, or do they just like betting on what they assume will be the winning horse?
Now that Obama is in office, it has become quite apparent that the “pay-for-play” system of political influence has not gone away in the slightest; all Obama’s rhetoric was nothing more than (to borrow a phrase I once saw on a blimp) hot air.
Which brings us back to the photo at the beginning of this report. After I left Nob Hill and arrived in Pacific Heights, I found that the police and the Secret Service had completely blocked off access to the Getty mansion. At the barricades I found the first and only two “average folk” Obama supporters of the day, clutching a “We Believe in You!!!” sign and hoping to see his motorcade pass by.
Yes: Hard as it may be to imagine, there are still people in this country who support Obama. They’re not extinct yet!
One by one, the police let the limousines and Lincoln Town Cars in through the barricades to the passengers’ appointments with The One. Interestingly, each chauffeur gained access by displaying to the police guards a secret text-message that each paid guest was sent; one by one, the drivers were asked “Do you have the text?” and cell-phones were extended out the windows as proof, at which point they were waved through. I wonder what the texts said: “Congratulations: You are an oligarch!”
Frustrated, I went up to the next intersection, only to discover that it too was blocked off with a police barricade. I was told, “You can’t go down there.” Hmmmm. (Notice the blue porta-potty on the right.)
Never one to take “No” for an answer, and having an insider’s knowledge of the local landscape, I knew that there was a secret footpath which led through the Presidio to the back end of Billionaires’ Row. So I walked down to the Presidio entrance gate, and down to the path, and up through the bushes to…
…a much closer vantage point. The tent you see in the distance turned out to be the Presidential Limousine Tent, as I later discovered.
I passed through the metal gates and looked to my right — I was now down at the bottom of the block which I had just been informed was off-limits. (Notice the blue porta-potty again.)
I was now just a few hundred feet from the Getty mansion with nothing but an open road in front of me. But I knew that any further approach would invite trouble (quite unlike the first time Obama visited here, when we bystanders were allowed to come right up to the mansion, and he even came over and shook our hands). So instead I asked the cops if I could hang around and rubberneck with the two neighbor ladies standing nearby. The cops agreed.
Down at the end of the block was a white tent in front of the Getty mansion, which from this angle is only barely visible behind the trees. The streets surrounding the tent were barricaded for two blocks in every direction. Even here in the richest neighborhood in America, security was ultra-tight.
Just as in Obama’s 2008 visit, car-parking valets pelted up and down the street after finding open parking spots in the surrounding area for the chauffeured limousines; this time, however, they wore yellow jackets, either for protection from the rain or to identify them as having security clearance.
Finally, Obama’s motorcade arrived. Turns out the tent had been erected so that his limousine could enter it while he was still aboard, and then once inside the curtains were pulled so that he could disembark and walk down a covered tent-tunnel directly into the Getty mansion without ever being outside.
From my reverse angle, I couldn’t get a decent view of the action, but an enterprising cameraman for Channel 5 used a telephoto video camera to capture the moment of the O’s arrival; you can see the video here. The two images above are screenshots from the video.
And so another Obama visit to the Ruling Class of San Francisco came to an end. And least as far as we hoi polloi could tell.
Meet the new boss: same as, if not worse than, the old boss.
Obama should have been at the Gulf coast doing something constructive instead of San Francisco preening. Yeah pipe dreams, the mas is a lost cause.
@annie: What would you have liked him to do? Get a bucket full of soapy water and start cleaning off birds? Obama can’t do anything useful for the oil-spill and he knows it. Put the people in who know what they are doing in charge of getting it done and move on to your next task… It’s basic management.
Yeah, I don’t much like the dufus Obama, but people are whining that he hasn’t made empty gestures.
/Agreed that they would indeed be empty gestures. My only complaint is how many people were equally complaining about Bush during Katrina when the same rule applies. In emergency situations like these Presidents can only really do one thing: Authorize emergency supplies/funding/resources such as the military, FEMA, Etc.
Exactly right! All Obowma and the gov.(limited powers per the Constitution) is suppose to do is provide emergency support-just ask Jindahl if he got the help he requested. BUT instead the pols play politics—and try to figure out how they can gain politically from the crisis! BP is trying (and will) take care of the problem. Humans aren’t perfect-there have been spills before (and mother nature worked through them) and there will be spills again (and mother nature will work through them)–BUT WHAT WE WON’T WORK THROUGH- is a government that grows larger (unlimited) and more oppressive at every turn. History is crystal clear–the real threats throughtout history is not due to any single corporation (like BP)-THE REAL THREAT IS BHO AND HIS GAGGLE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL FREAKS. The Jews weren’t pulled out of their homes and put on rail cars and shipped to concentration camps by the likes of a B.P. or Exxon Mobile or Wal-Mart or Apple Computer–IT WAS DICTATORIAL GOVERNMENT RUN AMOK THAT DID THAT. —In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the
Constitution.” THOMAS JEFFERSON 1798.
I can’t believe you are so thick. Socilist? fucking jews? think about what you are saying you single minded prick. Just because the president isnt texan dosnt make him a “socialist” you fucking spaz
Dead-on right, Will !
Obama is the only person that could have sent help to the coast. He has not. There is no way for the people to clean up the oil. There was no plan A..much less a plan B. The clean up is mired in red tape. The governor is having to take things into his hands that the president should have seen were authorized.
The BOP blew, someone authorized to continue drilling…No plan A, no plan B
Obama just needed to give the authorization to give the people what they needed. The people around here can clean up better than any agency with all their red tape..but no authorization was forth coming. No one expects him to get his hands dirty, it would spoil a photo op..like when the MMS was fired..he knew nothing about it..too busy.. A damned important job was vacated and he was unaware. It is evident that Obama is out of his element in making decisions that require knowledge and thought. Agree or disagree, the Gulf is a mess and there is no help.
sorry this got so off subject.
Discussing the BP problem: you have a “leader” in charge who has never led anything but discussion groups and community agitators; a man who has spent his whole life in academe and knows nothing about practical things and how to get them done or fix them when they go off kilter;
and why are we drilling out in the middle of the ocean anyway when we have plenty of oil near the coasts, in the shale sands and ANWR except he and his eco-loons won’t allow it so of course it is “hard . . . difficult . . . an impossibility” as he complained at his news conference.
What does any president really ever do (physically) besides rhetoric. He could be putting a better plan in place or using his authority to inspire, mobilize, and unite our society into doing something about it. But hey, his “wait around and see” seems to be working so well, maybe your right and he should just stay on vacation.
Ah yes – San Fransicko. The last time I visited SF (2000) was the last time I’ll ever visit there. I’ll pass through if I have to. I went for a week and ended up riding (motorcycle trip) up the coast on highway one most days (wow – beautiful coastline!). Visiting the the downtown area one has to dodge the panhandlers – some of whom are quite aggressive and it seems their personal lexicon lack the word ‘no’.
Everything from a hotel to Big Macs cost much more there than pretty much anywhere else I’ve visited in the past few years. Service is surly – it would seem the young workers even at Mickey D’s feel their position is beneath them. Everywhere I went most of people were unfriendly – almost to the point of being hostile. Can they really spot a tourist like the French do?
Must be something to that study from a year or so ago that found conservative minded people are happier than liberals. Had it not been for a pre-paid hotel stay (way overpriced!) I’d have moved on up the coast where I found the people to be friendlier – and it seems – do not tolerate panhandlers.
KT– I’m from Vegas –and Vegas (off the strip) is somewhat the same– hostile. Did you ever wonder if the vices- trying to constantly justify disregard for the rule of law (man) and the love of God (licentiousness)does not a happy camper make.
I had not thought of it like that. You have a very good point. I live in a very small town in central Washington State. Very quiet – and everyone is friendly. Californians stand out like a white tick on a black dog.
After living in San Fransicko for fifteen years, yaa… it’s really easy to spot the tourist. You have to understand that people who live in San Francisco, don’t have enough money to travel anywhere else. So anyone who visits the city from more than thirty minutes away appears as an oddity.
Anyway, the tourist are usually:
A.) wearing shorts in July
B.) looking up at the buildings
C.) clean and groomed
D.) have manners
E.) are happy
F.) and wearing white socks
Note: I no longer live there. So I’d be the tourist now.
I must confess to having a 35mm Nikon draped around my neck.
Wow. Very, very extensive.
I’m a bit surprised that Obama is still getting invitations to campaign for other people since his touch appears to have a whiff of the kiss of death on it at the moment.
I’m sure they don’t mind him campaigning if it’s not well publicized.
Two words: Obama’s toast.
I have actually been wondering how 2012 will play out. It’s entirely possible that the election will be close in many states but equal a George McGovern style electoral blowout. He won my home state of NC last time. The chances of this happening again are indeed quite slim.
My own view is that Obama won’t run in 2012. He’s a pathological narcissist; he can’t handle criticism and can’t deal with any sense that he’s not able to control YOU. He lives in a ‘virtual world’ that he himself writes as its author; he can’t deal in the facts and hard reality that are outside of his control.
The 2008 campaign was a walk-in for him, based primarily on anti-Bush sentiment. All that Obama offered was the emotional and virtual realm of ‘hope and change’. Reality was not involved.
The next campaign will have to be grounded in facts not fiction. Furthermore, Obama will be asked to justify his behavior and policies; and there isn’t any Other President’s behavior and policies to campaign against (Bush). Obama has, all his life, managed his lifestyle such that he’s never had to justify his actions. He can’t handle accountability. His entire mode of life is based around HIS control over you.
So, I think he won’t run again; instead, they’ll have to find him some World Government type of job to ship him off to. Democrats are starting to distance themselves from him; they are starting to feel that they can’t rely on him for assistance and also, are aware that more and more people are turning against Obama.
I disagree. I think Obama’s ego and lack of connection to reality will cause him to continue to believe that he will win. Right up to the last minute. I fear what might happen on the morning after the election, especially if he loses badly.
I agree with you, Mark, about Obama’s ego and disconnection to reality. However, I think it will be the Democratic Party that removes Obama from running; they will realize that he will drag them to defeat.
Therefore, they will arrange an ‘international offer’ where Obama can actually live in his virtual world…as head of some international group of whatever. They’ll set up the role for him to step into, and it will be presented as a step-up from being US President. After all, Obama has nothing but disdain for the US.
I don’t know if the Democratic Party can afford to retain Obama for a second term.
Thar be dangerous waters.
If the Democrats are seen as being too active in trying to force Obama out of the race, they risk alienating black voters for at least a generation.
Not only will Obama run and win in 2012. The Republicans won’t reclaim power in the House or the Senate in 2010. The right wing extremists have fallen in love with their own celebrity. If you remember, you people were also predicting victory in 2006 and 2008. You predicted victory for McCain Palin. You predicted the demise of healthcare reform, and the rejection of Sonya Sotomeyor, and the sustaining of DADT. The average American citizen is smarter than Steve Doocy. And as long as “The Anointed Two” Sarah Palin keeps endorsing plagiarists and adulterers, s long as Glenn Beck keeps calling Obama a racist, as long as Rush Limbaugh keeps calling Democrats Nazis, as long as Sean Hannity continues o welch on his promise to be waterboarded for charity, and Tea party heroes keep suggesting bartering with chickens is the best health care policy, I think we’ll do just fine. in other words, keep up the good work.
And you guys predicted victory for Gore and Kerry.
Your desperation is beginning to show.
Gore DID win. Conservatives and Tea Baggers are their own worst enemy. A congressman making an abstinence video with his mistress? Priceless.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/rep-mark-souder-resigns-due-to-affair-with-woman-with-whom-hed-taped-video-praising-abstinence/
You’ve lost even that last shred of pretense on family values. Proven to be incompetent on the economy. Codified the trashing of our Constitution through the ideological yammerings of John Yoo. Embarked on what President GHW Bush called reason by outing Valerie Plame. As much as guaranteed the Gulf spill by preemptively exonerating oil companies courtesy of The Penguin and his secret energy policy meetings. Reaffirmed your alienation of any and all minorities. Adopted a fully obstructionist approach to legislating. And handed over your philosophical leadership to rodeo clowns, drug addled gasbags, phone sex harrassers, and brain dead half-term governors who never quit. But hey, you love you some three-cornered hats. You want onions?
Hail Rush! Go Sarah!
What is it about liberals and their refusal to give up on disproven myths.
Gore did not win. The news media did several full recounts in the years following, and not a single re-count that followed the laws of the state of Florida resulted in Gore winning.
I love the double standard shown by liberals.
A single conservative fails to live up to the standards he professes, and this is proof positive that all conservatives are hypocrites.
Not a single liberal lives up to the standards that they profess, and they find excuse after excuse as to why this doesn’t matter.
(For what it’s worth, I’ve never met a tolerant liberal.)
“A single conservative fails to live up to the standards he professes . . . ”
Really? One? How many examples would you like?
Skeeziks,
A lot can happpen in 5+ months, but your seriously deluded if you think your lefty Democrat party isn’t going to take a serious beating in November. Every national poll shows the Dems trailing in many of the purple races and Republicans likely ahead in vulnerable seats taken by Dems in traditionally Republican districts in 2006 and 2008. The opposition is likely to pick up at least 7 seats in the Senate and likely more.
Meanwhile, Obama has demonstrated himself to be the man we, ho bothered to research him, new him to be, namely a narcisist with a reed thin resume, who had only one executive position outside of academia which predictably ended in disaster. The one thing he did have was an abundant education in Marxism and radical black liberation theology, and a plethora of far left radical associations.
Obama is ill equiped to handle a recession as his Keynesian bromides will only worsen the longterm economy. His ideology combined with his lack of experience will accelerate his coming challenges. This man and our nation, unfortunately, have yet to see the worst. The oil spill will soon be the least of his problems, and ours. The international economic and and geo political scene are about to engulf him and, unfortunatelly, us. Obama is a weak personality. He is about to be tested like never before. He represents the vacumn that nature abhors.
but your seriously deluded if you think
–
Therein lies skeezik’s problem. Or should I say problems.
If polls really mattered, you’d agree with the 80% of Americans who think we should repeal DADT.
Something more specific to your political revenge fantasies? Here you go:
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/itw2010052701/
As for the rest of your post, pure opinion.
What I find interesting about many liberals -is not only how angry they are –but how every coup is somehow a reason for celebration. Kinda reminds me of someone on the Titanic-toasting their own demise as the water slips over the hull of the huge ship.. So toast your 9th century socialism–which by the way has never worked in the entire history of man and always leads-in the end- to a failed nation state-through confiscation of other peoples private property, redistribution of wealth, dependency, bitterness, lower standard of living, job losses as the private sector shrinks (like we see now), debt, and more and more government control over people’s lives(loss of their choices and freedom). So raise you glass high brother-but don’t come swimming for my life raft as you and your brethern sink right along with the rest of us into another failed attempt at liberal utopianism. As Benjamin Franklin (one of our disgusting and dumb founding fathers)once said -those who are willing to give up a little of their liberty for safety (or welfare) -deserve neither (and we’ll lose both).
From Reagan’s election in 1980 to the Republican Revolution of 1994 through 2008, it has been largely a conservative agenda shaping our domestic and international policy. I think that last 30 years has had more of an effect than the last 15 months. But that doesn’t fit your Fox News narrative . . . “socialist utopia” . . . “distribution of wealth” . . . “confiscation of property.”
Rhetoric is no substitute for history.
When you are to the left of Mao, everything looks conservative to you.
We know that the Republicans are a long shot at at retaking the Senate this fall. After all, the Republicans can only afford to lose one race and still retake the Senate. Way to set the bar high.
“The right wing extremists have fallen in love with their own celebrity.”
That’s funny. It’s pretty clear that Obama is the type of person who masturbates in front of a mirror surrounded by press clippings from “Dreams of My Father” while listening to his “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for speech” pumped over the White House intercom at full volume.
I’ve noticed something about your incessant ad hominem attacks though. You love to make jokes about the intelligence of others (though we’ve already established you can’t handle being less educated than any of us “unwarshed hillbillies”), but you don’t really seem to understand that there may be a lot of people who don’t like Obama but don’t fit your stereotype. The truth is, Obama is not doing well at all despite the lack of critical reporting in the mainstream media. Some of this was to be expected; after all, no one could be the person that all of these people were waiting for. In order to survive, he is going to have to adapt after the drubbing he is going to take in November. A lot can happen between now and 2010 (not to mention 2012), but his agenda is far outside of the mainstream. He has already lost a lot of the die hard lefty base and with it a lot of independents as well. His only success is a bill that the majority of Americans still don’t like. (They’ll like it even less when they get the bill for it.) You represent his base quite well. You rarely have anything of value to add to the conversation; you are just angry at Bush and want to spew bile on people you consider less pristine that you are. Your posts are a “bubble and squeak” of ad hominem, straw men, and drive by lefty blurbs that are about as connected to reality as the Herby the Love Bug franchise.
I have a suggestion; read at least one article on here and post something in relation to it. Then, move to France le Grouche. Expand your horizons. In 6 months you’ll be getting a tattoo of Reagan holding hands with Margaret Thatcher riding on a unicorn flying off into the sunset.
That is so funny. I thought I was the only one who thought so perversely! My Democratic Mom, Step Dad and Step Grandma get so mad at me when I say stuff like that.
From your lips to God’s ears!
Don’t any of these people have real jobs?
anyone else think that the Imam looks none-too-pleased while listening to the Jew speak of his peoples history of oppression?
Once again Zombie you do us a great service in your photo reports. I thank you and look forward to more reports in the future.
Great job, Zombie. Obama is the Great Unifier. Almost everyone now hates him.
I knew there was a reason I moved from San Francisco a couple decades ago – and have refused job offers to return over the years since.
SF and California should be allowed to continue down the path they have chosen – so long as they don’t ask for any of my tax dollars to support their idiocy.
I know Obama campaigned on being bi-partisan. I just did not realize that he ment he would equally piss off both the right AND the left.
You gotta give the lefty protesters credit though — that really is a nice-looking polar bear suit.
It was never about the $5.00 schmoes. That was just another fabrication that the media bought and sold to the public. It was always the big money contributions and untraceable foreign credit cards that got him to the WH.
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Native American Indians welcoming the immigrants?
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I guess they forgot what happened when they welcomed the White eyes with forked tongues.
Good job Zombie girl,
but how do you tolerate the
smellproximity of those old hair headed hippies?Unlike the natives who lived farther north, many Mexicans are descendants of the Natives, even if they’re not pure blood.
That depends on what part of Mexico you are talking about.
Here’s something I have a hard time getting over. What is with these super expensive wingdings that make it look like a politician is most definately bought? It’s too bad those people with the big money don’t think about donating some of it to the State of California to help bring it out of debt. When you think of the budget deficit of California and all this money being squandered, doesn’t it just about make you want to puke? It just boggles the mind when you try and use logic thought process. Or is logic thought one of those nostalgic things of the past? Thanks for having the news the regular news outlets seem to be so chickenpoop to show. And one more thing. Was Obama actually paid off to be the prez? Was the real truth that votes didn’t matter, that if you can get enough financial aid, votes don’t really matter? Isn’t that sort of a form of totalitarianism?
“the wealthy aristocrats one by one were ushered into the hotel’s inner sanctum ” . . . I believe you mean “the have’s and the have more’s . . . Obama’s base”
WOW.. You didn’t see this ANYWHERE on the news….
Unfortunately, the USA press and news media are now famous for what they don’t report. They are largely a vacuous realm of petty nothingness, devoted to endless hours of detailed coverage to people and events who mean next to nothing (Lindsey Lohan, anyone) and no coverage of anything that has any long term significance to any of our daily lives. In that sense, they (along with Academia) have successfully implemented their long term strategy of creating a largely uninformed populace. I used to think that this was coincidence, but now I am convinced it is by design. Fie on them.
I miss San Francisco. Lived there during the “Montana” years of the early 80′s. It was great. Now in Chicago, ( God help me ) it’s just great to see that the whacko’s still run the city. It’s gotten so much worse out there, it’s the constant sunshine – no real seasons, these dopes have nothing better to do. And anyway, don’t they realize it’s all Bush’s fault?
Great job as usual Zombie!
The local news as usual has marginalized this to nothing – but these goofs across the street saw it, and that’s what matters.
Hey skeeziks!
You’re still looking for that guy with aviators and a compound?
I vote against incumbents! I don’t care if they are fascist Republicans OR communist Democrats!
Jason the Fed
Jason,
Republicans, for all their faults, are rarely definable as fascist. Fascism is a LEFT wing offshoot of Marxism.
There are a few RINO’s who might be lefty enough to be facist, but not many. Lots of Democrats could qualify, Maxine Waters comes to mind as do Tom Friedman and Woody Allen who both this week advocated for some form of an Obama dictatorship.
Both Woody Allen and Tom Friedman, both lefties to the core recently stated that they wished Obama could be given dictatorial powers.
“Republicans, for all their faults, are rarely definable as fascist. Fascism is a LEFT wing offshoot of Marxism.”
Where, in God’s name, did you learn that? That is just completely factually inaccurate. Like, completely the opposite…. Heck, after WW1 the Russian fascists campaigned as anti-Marxists, which is how they went from Lenin to Stalin.
OK, a quick primer for you: Fascism is for class collaboration (separate classes – e.g. lower/middle/upper); Marxism says classes cause conflict (hence, they want “one class”). Fascism is all about business and capitalism; Marxism is all about socialism and the state “business”. Fascism is all about nationalism; Marxism is all about multi-nation cooperation (internationalism). The contrasts go on and on and on…. Just do a simple google search and you’ll find TONS of info. Please educate yourself before spewing here.
I’ll even cite a couple references, but I’m sure you can find even more things with a quick search:
http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/history/staff/griffin/coreoffascism.pdf
http://books.google.com/books?id=tP2wXl5nzboC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hey, Justin (S.), ET. Al. I’m a little tired of people saying stuff like “What do you want? For Obama (I call him “aitch.” If Bush could be called Dubbaya for his middle name…) to grab a mop…?” Or, “Do we expect Obama to dive down and plug the well himself? Friends, those are cop-outs!
What aitch SHOULD have done was gather all the environmentalists, marine biologists, geophysicists, oceanographers etc. ect. — along with experts from ALL the oil companies — he could lay his hands on, gather them together in the Situation Room of the White House and not leave there until they resolved the problem – THIRTY-EIGHT DAYS AGO! Instead? He says, “Plug the damn hole” (Wow! Who ELSE but the annointed one would have thought of THAT?!) and trots off to SF to try and save Boxer’s sorry a$$!
THAT’S what the POTUS is supposed to do! Not “resolve” problems but amass the people who can and oversee the process! I’ll tell you what we have now and had 18 months ago. With Bush we had a leader who didn’t understand politics. With Obama we have a politician who doesn’t understand leadership. That’s MY story and I’m sticking with it. Ghostbuster.
I was reading an article this morning. Apparently about a week ago (5 weeks too late), obama did gather together 5 experts to advise him. One of the experts was quickly dismissed when it was discovered that he had a blog, and on this blog he was very vocal in his opposition to Obama’s gays in the military stand.
I guess nothing has changed in Hanoi by the bay including the looks of the lefties. Ugly faces, ugly behavior.
Amen
Sooo…. can we stop with the Obama is a commie garbage. Clearly the commies are pissed at him as well for not delivering on their commie agenda. I think having the fringe (duck and cover) from the left and the right protesting this fella suggests he is more of a centrist that we are lead to believe.
i am just sayin.
He’s still a commie. The other commies are just complaining because he’s not sending them goodies fast enough.
+ eleventy! The Left thinks he is now a sellout.
I have never seen such a wide array of protests. We all need vote every last person out and put term limits in congress.
It is amazing to me the misinformation I see with those signs. These people are so ignorant except the ones that know big government is always corrupt. Excellent article and title. The Polar bear sign is amusing since the polar bears have increased in numbers. The drilling in Alaska would enable our nation to be free of chains from foreign entities. new drilling procedures would have little impact. If they don’t think accidents happen every once in awhile they are zombies. O received foreign money not just the commoners $5 donations. He is a danger to this country like none other. The elite have taken over and they will be the ones to profit in the transformations of this country. These people standing holding signs would do better to read Atlas Shrugged and understand the real danger looming here and it isn’t the disappearance of the Polar Bears. Our main stream media have become useless and the are aiding the enemies.
Wow! A whole block of protesters in S.F.! Everyone hates Obama! Hooray!
Really??? Get a grip. If this proves something to you, you’ve got a very tiny brain.
The fact that Obama is unpopular with people on the left, the people who are supposed to be his base, is a non-issue with you?
Besides your very amateurish attempt at provocation your post has little to no relevance of provoting deep thought or contemplation. The emphasis of this article lies not in the location, or the amount of people involved, but instead the wide array of people involved. If people from the “left”, the “right”, and the “others” are all complaining about the President, then who exactly does he represent? That is the real problem with this scenario.
People with excessive money essentially went to bid on the President’s influence and time. He used his position to help fill the coffers of his fellow Democrat. While the President wined and dined with the Rich and Famous, where were the common folk?
…..
Oh yeah. They were outside on the street trying to get their elected official’s attention. In the rain, which he did not deign to be in himself, hence the tent for his limousine. The people who’s commonality lie in their income were lumped together, regardless of creed, race, religion, or political beliefs. They don’t make enough money to interest him.
When conservatives began giving up on Bush, it was widely recognized, by pundits of all stripes, that he was in serious trouble politically.
Conservatives only began “giving up” on Bush when it became clear that they, like Bush, would be held accountable for the impact of his last seven years of his policy, which conservatives all supported.
It was not a stand on principle, it was a desperate strategy for survival.
Can you document that you have ever been right about anything?
Refute it. Perhaps a poll.
Whatever you mean by “made to account” for Bush, we have more than paid it back by having the present stumble bum in the office.
This is great on-the-street journalism! Thank you!
Best sign of the day: “Please call me Bitch. I worked very hard to earn that title.”
Brilliant, exhaustive work as usual, Zombie.
I am fuming mad, this impostor, Obama, it Bush three, he is another big government, Globalist Elitist. The rich get richer, saying things that the poor suck up like sponges, the reality is these guys are playing us for fools. I am waking up to the fact that government programs are making more poor people not helping them much. I see the corrupt rich getting richer, like Boxer, she is not poor, Bush, they are rich. You can only be rich and run for president, to rule over the masses, give a good speech and make them think that you are helping them. I am now seeing more clearly, Obama is nothing but an empty suit.
I’ve encountered many left liberals, like you, who are upset with this president.
I wish you peace. Now you know how many on the right felt when GWB began the Wall Street Bailout.
Presidents do what they think is least evil while pushing the agendas that got them elected. Frankly, I don’t understand this president either. I have significant doubts about his grasp on the last century of Middle Eastern Politics.
Nevertheless, for better or for worse, he is our president. I look forward to having better choices to vote for in 2012.
I have to wonder what effect the protesters calling for “amenstia” in Spanish think they’re going to have?
Sure, chanting in Spanish in support of illegals is going to have a huge effect on the public. Just not the one you want.
Wonderful job of reporting, o great Zombie. Many thanks.
About those misspelled protest signs: Such misspellings were a common occurrence in the days of hand drafting. In the engineering offices, there was even a saying – “a draftsman can’t spell”.
What happens is that the person making the sign gets so focused on the size and shape and placement of the individual letters (call ‘em ‘trees’), one after another after another, that he blanks out on the sequence in constructing the actual words (the ‘forest’), and sooner or later just mechanically starts off on the wrong letter. Crisis! She owns just one placard in the first place, and is already grumpy at the time already invested. Screw it, just finish it and let it be misspelled, it looks more proletarian anyway.
Great reporting! Thank yo!
Good work zombie. I am in the bay area and this is the first I hear about this. The white tent is a security measure as well as rain protection. My cousin lived next to the German embassy in NYC near the UN and when people of importance came and went they would set up a white tent/tunnel to the limo. You would have no clue as to the movement of people at all and then the limo would just take off. Makes shooting someone from a rooftop or window almost impossible and you don’t have to have control of the high ground for security.
A free package of Tofu Weenies and some KY, to the first one who calls me by my nic.<;-}
Terrific photo essay! The ironies are hilarious.
The “$5 donations” tag line was put to sleep long ago – it was events such as this that put him into power (as well as most democrats).
I apologize in advance for OT remark.
Assume the R’s win control of the House in November.
Instead of doing the coventional thing and electing Boehner (the douche) as Speaker suppose the R’s selected Sarah Palin! (Allowed by the Constitution).
There is a finite probability that both Obama’s and Biden’s heads would explode…leaving us with Palin as Predident!
In the alternative, she would be setting the legislative agenda and I personally don’t see that as a bad thing!
To the OP:
You obviously have no idea how economics work properly, otherwise you wouldn’t be ranting about how he’s “giving money away” to companies that make money. It’s an incentive, the company in question wouldn’t have built the solar panel factory because it’s too risky and might not make money etc etc. The grant is a “get it done” grant to help lower the cost of solar panels by introducing a competitor that can lower the overall market price and make clean energy more available to millions of people that might have said no before. Think about the bigger picture for fuck sake, so many of you look at what is happening to you or compare things to your values. $35 million sounds like alot but in business terms (and indeed government terms) it’s fuck all. If Obama didn’t spend that money then overall in 10 years time solar power might still be one of the most expensive forms of clean energy that people don’t use. It could be this company makes some money off the panels and contributes more than $100 dollars a year in tax. You don’t think of the bigger picture here and you need to get your head out of the sand. Obamas decisions are good, solid choices that need to be made and everyone is annoyed at him because he has the balls to make them. Thanks to Obama the US has a national healthcare system, and the insurance companies have been railed in. Thanks to Obama, the USA has not pulled out of an unstable nation that are too pussy to deal with the taliban. You need to realise that Obama did not start these wars, and he can’t pull troops out whilst american lives are still being threatened by idiots that are so backwards they think they need to kill everyone. Can’t honestly believe the crap i’m hearing from people that had balls but have lost them now obama is making the changes he said he would.
Great work, as always.
Just wanted to weigh in on an angle of particular interest to me. I work for a tent company, and when the President (Clinton and W) has visited our City, we’ve been contracted by the Secret Service to provide marquee (walkway) tents with sidewalls to conceal the President as he exited his vehicle and entered the venue. These were sitting Presidents, not candidates (as Obama was in the previous visit to Billionaire’s Row), so there is apparently a greater security factor in play.
Anyways, I do love these SF posts…cannot imagine living there, I am not one to suffer fools (radical Lefties) gladly.
Oh I could not agree with Matt more. For crying out loud, everyone thinks that Obama should have everything that has been fucked up for so long fixed in a years time. He has made great progress, just give him a damn break. I voted for him and would do so again in a minute. He is doing just what he said he would, at least he is trying. No one else has had the guts to do anything. I am an Obama supporter and will continue to be one. All you Obama opposers think you could do better? Then run for office next time, Lets see you fix all the problems of this country in such a short time.
This just furthers my thoughts that it’s NOT truly anti-Obama etc, but the rise of this pro-protest type movement. People just want to protest and complain anything and everything it seems.
If people want some stuff to get done in the country do your research and see what conflicts are going on right now. NOT EVERYONE IS GETTING WHAT HE/SHE WANTS no matter what. There will always be opposition to ANYTHING the president does because people these days can’t get satisfied with anything. For example, where’s the money going to come from to clean the oil spill. People complain by the abundance of government spending yet they still want MORE AND MORE. To change the world COSTS MONEY! The president doesn’t even have the power to do many things that are asked of him. If you want major change in the country, start caring about who is voted into CONGRESS, that’s where the power to get what you really want comes from.
still 10000x better than bush, no matter how many people complain about him.
Frost-Paw! I was wondering what he was up to now that Lost is over.
I can’t believe that there was only ONE protest sign about the illegal occupation and the massacre of the Palestinian people by the filthy IDF and the Jews in Israel. Despite a healthy economy, Israel still receives over 3 BILLION dollars in direct American Taxpayer donations and another 10 – 15 BILLION per year in military support from the suckers in the United States. I wonder how much longer it will take for the average American to realize how much damage the relationship with the terrorist state of Israel has caused to their credibility around the world and how soon they will take to the streets and demand that we stop supporting them financially as we are now officially broke and can’t afford to donate $500.00 to every man, woman and child in the terrorist state of Israel. We should have let Hitler finish the job..he got so close..so very close.
DAMN.