The Vice President was in town tonight, to attend a fundraiser for Arlen Specter. Word on Twitter spread there was going to be some protesting across the street at our local supermarket, so we hopped in the car and drove on down.
Bitter was carrying a sign, and I was documenting the whole thing on Twitter. I am not much of a protester, and don’t particularly enjoy attracting attention to myself, so I mostly lurked in the background taking pictures, and tweeted the event. Midway through, I wished I had a giant inflatable pig, because really, what protest is complete without a giant inflatable pig? Just think of the possibilities!
This was an easy affair for the Vice President. Pop in, stick your foot in your mouth, and pop out. 
What was amusing for us was that the venue for this Dem fundraising shindig is at the local caterers that Bitter and I constantly make fun of when we go to the supermarket. It is straight out of the 1970s, and I don’t think has seen much renovation since. Certainly not a place you’d expect a fancy Dem fundraiser. I think they had to clear out to make way for Spinal Tap, which was playing the venue after Joe.
I am pleased to mention that anti-administration protesters outnumbered pro-administration protesters by a ratio of about 10 to 1 at the height of the protest. 
That was our 10, to their one. I can’t even say their one had a sign that was all that pro-administration, since Obama seems to want both healthcare and warfare. He hasn’t exactly left Iraq and Afghanistan in a hurry, lady. Though perhaps he’s about to change that. She was very nice and cordial, and I was friendly, waved, and smiled. Her beef was that she had to pay 1000 dollars a month for health care for her and her daughter. I am sympathetic. I have to pay 1600 dollars a month for a mortgage for a house to put a roof over Bitter and I. Affordable housing is a right, isn’t it? So naturally the solution is for taxpayers to make my mortgage payments for me, right? I mean, it’s the fair thing to do.
At the end of the day, Bitter was happy that Biden, on his way out, was looking at her, and her sign. Granted it was through several layers of ballistic glass, but it was definitely him. For the curious, I did not attend the protest armed. I know, I know. Some people will suggest I am the Brady Campaign’s bitch by leaving my guns at home, but did not know, being just across the street from the Vice President, what the Secret Service reaction would be if they made me. I figured between the Secret Service, the State Police, and three local police departments, there were plenty of guns around to protect everybody. If the S was going to HTF, I don’t think they would have appreciating me trying to play a starring role in that drama.
Bitter was happy to feel like she stuck it to the man, or at least the Joe, just a little. I was sad I did not have an inflatable pig. Maybe next time.
I had to do a double take at these photos for a minute because they looked familiar to me somehow.
This is all because this “King’s Caterer’s” place just happens to be where there have been some gun shows in the very recent past. I can say this because I came to the realization that I attended a gun at this very location last Memorial Day Weekend, and there was another one by the same promoter just last August, one which I could not attend.
I can’t help but to feel the irony that in all likelihood, Joe Biden, the speech plagiarist, gaffe-maker, and “original author of the assault weapon ban,” was actually in the very same room where at other times, it was completely filled with tables and tables full of firearms, ammunition, and firearms paraphernalia.
Yes, they do host gun shows!
In fact, at the “King’s Caterer’s” gun show of which I am referring to, I saw that there was at least one lapel button in a vendor’s display case which had Obama’s photo upon it. The caption below the photo read, “Gun Salesman Of The Year.”
Joe Biden should be honored in a similar way by gun show vendors. He deserves some credit too, right?
Fair and balanced recognition to be sure…
=)
Free giant inflatable pigs for all!!!!!
Love Bitter’s sign! I may have to “borrow” it.
I was never much of a protester either, nor do I like attention. However, all the “behinds the scenes” stuff like writing and calling is all well and good, but it doesn’t raise public awareness. There are lots of people out there who believe the same way we do, but feel their one lone voice has no effect. They need to see they are not alone, that they are not the lone voice if they call or write.
I never publically protested a thing in my life before this year. April Tea Party I did like you; no sign, just photgraph and observe. July 4th Tea Party I carried a small American flag and a small Gadsden Flag. Then I found a group of people organizing weekly “mini tea parties”; turned out there was one 2 blocks from me! Walked over to that one, again more like you, just to observe, and someone offered me an extra sign. Well, that just felt good. The people honking in support, even the people cursing me out or flipping the bird. At least I was getting a reaction. Now, my 3×5 Gadsden flag stays in my truck, not my closet, and there is a collection of signs on the back seat so I have extras to offer other newbies who stop. I don’t think I’ve converted any hard-nosed lib by holding a sign, but I’ve had some good discussions with people who were willing to ask questions and are now a little more informed about facts the media tends not to cover. The biggest problem is this is truly a grassroots thing, despite what Plastic Pelosi says. There is no central place of organization. The weekly protests 2 blocks from me were going on for 5-6 weeks before I knew about them, You need to search a dozen various tea party websites, facebook, twitter, and meetup.com to find out what’s going on.
Check out this youtube channel lot’s of vid of our state level efforts: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PALINSMITH&view=videos
They need to see they are not alone, that they are not the lone voice if they call or write.
This is so true. There was a woman there last night who has become a mini “star” of the movement without a name. She’s in quite a few of the more popular tea party videos online, she’s been interviewed by the Inquirer, interviewed on tv, and she didn’t intend for any of that to happen. She said she was just so frustrated because she was upset by everything happening, but she couldn’t talk about it because everyone around her was a liberal. Then she stumbled upon tea party information and she just started coming out and is apparently not afraid to ask hard questions of politicians – which is what got her the attention.
We had so many more honks of support than the one lone big government/anti-war supporter. (As a note, she wasn’t even from Pennsylvania, she was from Trenton.) Though she was generally polite to us, when one person vocally disagreed with her in a passing car, she screamed “Bite Me” at them. This has definitely made me want to honk at the random tea partiers I sometimes see – like a group that was randomly out at the King of Prussia mall when I needed to pick something up. If anything, I want any leftists around to know that we’re getting organized, we’re getting vocal, and we will be heard.
You know, I never realized just how “local” you are. (That is my local Grocery store as well.)
Unfortunately, I was busy working or I would have been there with a sign next to you guys.
I’m personally fond of the big inflatable rat. But that’s a union thing…
I like the rat too, but politicians have traditionally been portrayed as pigs.
AJD,
We sometimes go there. Sometimes to the Genaurdis up at Flowers Mill. Sometimes all the way to Warrington to the Wegmans, because Wegmans always has everything we’re looking for.
” like a group that was randomly out at the King of Prussia mall”
See, that’s the problem. Even someone like you who is way more tied into the local political scene then most sees it as a random protest. It’s not random, just total grassroots by everyday people who may not have much in the way of event organizational or social networking skills. In your KoP Mall example, it looks like it’s a weekly thing that gathers every Saturday at 12 noon at “The corner of Mall Boulevard and Route 202 (where you turn off 202 to drive between the old and newer malls) – Look for Healthcare signs” . I found that info on a “Valley Forge Patriots” meetup group, but even though it appears to be a weekly thing, nobody has bothered to update the calender there so it isn’t listed as a current event. http://www.meetup.com/VFP-TeaParty09/calendar/11214782/
Good point on the “random” thing, Mopar. What I meant by random in that instance was that there was no event to protest or anything. It wasn’t like a town hall meeting, a Congressional office, a fundraiser, or anything else. It’s just an effort to get the word out.
I think from the grassroots angle, having so many people so impassioned to try and plan these things on their own is incredible. But, I also agree, it’s hard to figure out who is doing what, where, and when. I’m not sure in a really grassroots movement like this that there is a great way of handling it. We do have a group around here who we follow on Twitter and on their blog that has been great about getting word out on events. I should probably attend one of their meetings to actually get a little more action information.
Though, I admit, I’m trying to think up whether or not to focus some grassroots attention right now on the Mayors thing. We’re at a sticking point in PA, and there’s a gun show right next door to a mayor against guns town in a few weeks. I’m just not sure what I can do to grab people’s attention and try to embarrass the mayor at the same time.
” . . . but did not know, being just across the street from the Vice President, what the Secret Service reaction would be if they made me.”
C’mon! You’ve been hosed down with an MP5K before, haven’t you? It’s no big deal. Most of the bullets miss anyway. The Secret Service is fun to play with. So far, they’ve only shot me forty-two times and I’ve only died twice.
I figure the reaction would have been to question me, and ask me to leave the area after determining I wasn’t a threat. But considering I was there with Bitter, that would have been unpleasant.
On re-reading my last post, I hit send before really finishing my thoughts. There really needs to be some better coordination with all these local grassroots groups to help get their message out. I’m not sure what the solution is though. I considered putting up a regional or state-level site myself, to try and make a one stop shop for info, at least in my own area. But there are already plenty of those out there, and they obviously are not suceeding. Constantly scouring dozens of fragmented websites, meetup groups, and facebook groups for up to date info is a daunting task. In the end, my wife and I decided to at least try and work with a few of the larger local resources (a regional level meetup group and a state level facebook group) to try and help them keep their sites up to date.
I’d not be concerned about the Secret Service, ever since their reaction to folks carrying openly around His Imperial Majesty Barack Hussein Obama was to shrug and say “They weren’t violating any laws.”
I would be concerned with the local PD, however.
(OTOH, folks were carrying openly at Tea Party Protests in Seattle, and the cops were cool with it.)
Found another meetup group that does list the weekly KOP mall rally today: http://www.meetup.com/912-PA/
And what looks like an active PA group here: http://www.pennsylvaniarevolution.com
Sebastian,
That Wegmans store scares me. I only shopped there once, and it was a HUGE mistake.
(I remember thinking as I walked in that I hadn’t eaten at all that day, which always ends up causing me to buy some of the oddest foods, and in greater than normal quantities! But, I convinced myself that it would be OK, since I had just gotten paid. Oops, I live alone in a 1-bedroom apartment, and still spent ALMOST $250!!! I ran out of CABINET SPACE! But I ate very well for almost a month.)
;-)
I actually find that we save money by going to Wegman’s. We bought a giant pack of MexiCoke (a big expense at $28) and then not only food for ourselves, but also for a giant group. Our total came to $140. Considering how much we bought, that was really kind of amazing. I should also add that we also had a couple of pricey cheeses in that purchase, too.
But the protest was in front of Giant. That store scares me, but mostly because of the wannabe gang bangers who go there in the evenings. :)