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| Salt Lake City Mayor calls for anti-Bush protests |
| 2005-08-20 |
| Rocky's call to protest Bush makes vets see red Mayor's e-mail: 'Nothing radical,' supporters say By Glen Warchol The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen" to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a national veterans convention. "This administration has been disastrous to the country," Anderson said Friday. "If people could organize and speak out in an effective manner from the reddest state in the country, that would garner a lot of attention." In an e-mail Wednesday to about 10 activist leaders, the maverick mayor of Utah's capital called for a diverse demonstration to greet Bush when he speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The mayor plans to join the protesters. "There should be a collaboration of health-care-provision advocates, seniors, the [gay, lesbian and bisexual and transsexual] community, anti-Patriot Act advocates and other civil libertarians, anti-war folks, pro-Social Security advocates, environmental advocates, anti-nuclear-testing advocates, and anti-nuclear-waste-shipment-and-storage advocates," the mayor wrote in the e-mail. The mayor's message drew a howl of outrage from Mike Parkin, senior vice commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Atomic Post 4355 in Salt Lake City. A co-conspirator perhaps? ''Excuse my French, but - that son of a bitch!'' he said. "It makes the mayor look very, very unpatriotic. It makes him look despicable." Parkin said such demonstrations, particularly against the Iraq war, give comfort to America's enemies and will be particularly offensive to the 13,000 to 14,000 veterans gathering at the convention. "I voted for the son of a bitch and I'll never vote for him again," said the Vietnam War veteran. Anderson disagrees with that measure of patriotism. "Patriotism," the mayor said, "demands that people speak out when we see our government officials acting in such anti-democratic and deceitful ways to the people of our country." ....which is why left-conformity ridicules the very notion of patritotism, and lefty trend-setters themselves support the return of Saddam Hussein, praise the head-choppers, burn the flag, incite mutiny in the armed forces, etc. He also said: "I don't understand people simply blindly going along with the sort of deceit and utter cruelty of this administration." Pathetically obvious strawman. He doesn't understand why his own lies are contrary to reason and evidence? Imagine that. "It's not just we have the right to speak out, but we have the obligation to speak out when we see misconduct on the part of the government. The most patriotic thing we can do is stand up against the misuse of governmental power." ...which is why I stand up against lying left-conformists like this authoritarian anus. Craig Axford, co-chairman of the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus, said Anderson's encouragement of demonstrations is appropriate. What a surprise. "I don't think there's anything untoward or radical about that," said Axford, an organizer of a peace rally planned for Pioneer Park, three blocks from the convention center. By Axford's standards this might in fact be pretty mild."For people who appreciate the mayor and appreciate his politics, obviously it will boost our event." But Joe Cannon, chairman of the Utah Republican Party, said Anderson's encouragement of protests against the president was improper, though typical of the mayor. "What do you expect? It's Rocky. Clearly it's intended to smack the president. As the mayor of the host city, it's at best untoward." No surprise there either, I guess. Cannon thinks the e-mail will only help the Utah Republican Party. Bingo "It's not the worst thing that can happen to remind the people of Utah the kind of things Democrats nationally stand for." Salt Lake City Councilman Dave Buhler, a Republican, also said the mayor's action was in poor taste. ''I'm disappointed he would do this and use his office to promote his political views, which do not involve the city directly.'' Other city officials can do little, Buhler said, except "apologize for him again, as we are getting pretty good at doing." Anderson, who is scheduled to make welcoming remarks to the conventioneers, says veterans will understand. "The veterans of foreign wars are heroes in my view. To stand up against government misconduct is in no way expressing a lack of support for those who defend our country." We have your word for that, asshat, it must be true. The voice of authority has spoken, never mind the transparently obvious contradiction: such statements directly and provably incite the head-choppers to believe that their atrocities will influence American opinion enough to force a US withdrawal. Even though Utah gave Bush his largest margin of victory of any state in the 2000 and 2004 elections, Anderson, a Democrat, wrote in this e-mail: "Don't let him come to Utah and not see huge opposition, even in the reddest state! This would send such an important message." "A tepid response will just send a message of apathy and resignation. Let the Bush administration - and the world - hear from Salt Lake City!" Meanwhile, peace activists already were gearing up for the president's visit. Erin Davis, a veteran who opposes the war in Iraq, predicted at least 1,000 anti-war activists would begin gathering in Pioneer Park early Monday. The demonstration will be joined by a national group of military families who oppose the war. Anderson plans to participate at Pioneer Park demonstration against the war and is scheduled to speak. Axford described the rally at Pioneer Park, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., as a "pro-peace rally." It isn't being held near the Salt Palace, where the president will speak, because organizers didn't want to make the convention attendees feel unwelcome, the mayor said. "We didn't want to invite any kind of confrontation. We wanted to focus on our positive message." That message, Axford says, is: "We'd just like [the president] to explain and justify this war in light of the fact so much of what we were told we were fighting for clearly we weren't fighting for." --- Reporter Heather May contributed to this story. Salt Lake City itself is actually just the small urban core of a huge metropolitan complex. The 2000 population of SLC was just 181,000 compared to 1.3 million for the metropolitan area. It is that urban core; infested with drug addicts, metrosexual do-gooders, loft artists, and ultra-hip yuppies; of which Rocky is mayor. This has as much to do with Utah as the two block wide retail zone next to Texas Tech would have to do with Lubbock. |
| Posted by:Glaique Hupinert9616 |
| #14 Bet most of the attendees will be from out of town. Can't imagine most of Mormonville going for this. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-08-20 23:56 |
| #13 Frank We need people to put the videos on the web and then there is no way the MSM can continue to avoid it. Just make sure you show up with enough muscle to make sure your videotaping is uninterupted. These freaks also don't like non-biased reporting on their activites even ones then happen on public property. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-08-20 20:34 |
| #12 even better is to bring big media attention to teh freak-show parades they have. Notice it's always editted to avoid showing the flaky and freaky acts that constitute a base for the Donks |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-20 20:15 |
| #11 urban core = "diversity" = Dems on grants in all their individual needy groups. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-20 19:35 |
| #10 I saw the name Salt Lake City and did a double-take, since it was practically a given, in my mind, that SLC was solidly Republican. Thanks for clearing that up for me. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-08-20 19:30 |
| #9 incite mutiny in the armed forces, etc. This is straight out of Stalin's playbook during the early months of WWII. The NKVD propoganda sections would harangue German troops with leaflets and local loudspeaker broadcasts with the slogan "Turn your guns around." |
| Posted by: badanov 2005-08-20 18:54 |
| #8 Salt Lake City itself is actually just the small urban core of a huge metropolitan complex. The 2000 population of SLC was just 181,000 compared to 1.3 million for the metropolitan area. It is that urban core; infested with drug addicts, metrosexual do-gooders, loft artists, and ultra-hip yuppies; of which Rocky is mayor. Sounds like a mini-SFO. Fruits and nuts in the land of LDS. Who woulda thuk? |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-20 18:52 |
| #7 perhaps the Vets can let "Rocky" know what they think during his opening address? Too polite? Show your anger, boys |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-20 18:27 |
| #6 "#2 This is too much. At what point will people say "Enough of this bullshit!" and wade on into that crowd, breaking noses? I would just love to see the left whining about "The Salt Lake City Massacre", 20 years from now." Anonymoose: Did you read my prediction about what would happen to these seditious scum if say a single nuke went off in one of our cities? If there were 400,000 Americans killed in an instance? The government will have to move the leftists into some form of protective detention or internment camps not only to weed out Fifth Columnists, but just as important, to safeguard them from the wrath of angry private citizens. You're right, the left has to be careful here, this isn't Vietnam. We lose or walk away from Iraq, and it will have a direct and deadly impact on our security in a way that Vietnam never did or could ever. |
| Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen 2005-08-20 18:23 |
| #5 It is no coincidence that the Mayor is bi-sexual and his sympathetic associates on the fringe certainly have a hand in his anti-American proclamation. |
| Posted by: Fun Dung Poo 2005-08-20 17:34 |
| #4 Yes, TW, the counter protesters are called the Protest Warriors. Good group of people. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-08-20 17:34 |
| #3 I wonder if the anti-antiwar protestors plan to be there, too? (I think they call themselves Protest Warriors.) Does anybody know? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-08-20 17:06 |
| #2 This is too much. At what point will people say "Enough of this bullshit!" and wade on into that crowd, breaking noses? I would just love to see the left whining about "The Salt Lake City Massacre", 20 years from now. Many of the anti-war riots of the 1960s happened because nobody wanted to counter the agitator violence with violence. 20 "hardhats" with axe handles could break up a "demonstration" of 200 or more, as was proven a time or two. But when the majority of people gave the rioters a pass, it just encouraged more riots. And now the agitators are fully funded by the left. Do not let their protestations of "non-violence" sway you; these people are more than willing to use violence to get what they want. But cowards, only if they think they can get away with it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-08-20 16:58 |
| #1 In Utah? SLC may have an enclave of pseudo-elite Moonbats, there seem to be little globs of stupidity in all cities of any size where they only talk to each other and believe their circle-jerk world-view is all there is, lol, but there's no way this Twinkie is in the majority. He's toast. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-08-20 15:14 |