Talking with Soldiers

Susan and I attended a great event last Thursday at the Commonwealth Club. Four soldiers fresh from the front shared news and views with the group. Look for it on that most popular of stations, CSPAN! Now for my furious commentary that was written for another audience immediately after watching a local television station spin the event:

"I attended an event in SF tonight that featured 4 panelists fresh from duty in Iraq. You know what they all said (including the woman who runs Veterans Against the War!)? They said that the relentless negative spin from the press has a negative impact on troop morale and only encourages the insurgents. The Veterans Against War woman admitted that watching CNN was the worst possible thing for troop morale and that it painted a very innaccurate picture.

No different than most of our modern day Democrats who couldn't give a flying f#ck so long as they can score political points. And wouldn't you know it...tonight, watching the local TV news, the station focused on the most negative topic of the discussion (poor equipment), interviewed an anti-war veteran who wasn't even on the panel and closed with a theme of defeatism - quite the opposite of the tone the panelists set. But you wouldn't know it unless you were there.

I saw the bias with my own eyes. Courageous soliders - women, men, blacks and hispanics who believe in their mission and know that they are doing good work. But the Left and their allies are clearly trying their best to undermine morale, whether they know it or admit to it. It makes me damn furious!" 

September 24: "Anti-War" Protest in San Francisco

One of the benefits of living in San Francisco, is we get to watch moonbats of every stripe as they supposedly protest for peace. Heck, this is almost as good as taking in a Giants game on a Saturday afternoon!

One of about 20 communist/socialist booths at the "peace" protest.

Marx, Lenin, Mao. Countless millions dead at their hands. But who cares? We're celebrating peace here! 

You won't see any press coverage of the good showing of the Communist Party at the protest. 

A Gallery of Heroes. In celebration of capitalism, this Socialist booth is selling books and CD's of Ward Churchill, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rachel Corrie, and George Galloway. 

Geez, and here I thought that the Left was complaining about Bush not bringing in enough federal support! Maybe they think Sean Penn would be of more help? 

An "anarchist" and Palestinian supporter verbally accost a little old lady with an Israeli flag. Susan and I both noted that the only people yelling and pointing fingers in faces were the "anti-war" protesters. For fun, I had dialogue with the anarchist in this picture. (see below) 

As with every protest, I try to engage with at least one protester for good sport. I got into an entertaining coversation with the anarchist in the picture above. As he began to lecture to the little old lady how Bush funded the terrorists, I interjected and the conversation (oh so typical at an event like this) went something like this:

Me: You know, the terrorists were Wahabbis, not Bush supporters.

Anarchist: Wahbi...? I've never heard of that

Me: It's a radical sect of Islam...a creation of the British to help overthrow the Sultan...(at this point his friends scamper off, apparently facts might threaten their emotionally driven beliefs)

Anarchist: Well, so what? I saw this movie called Fahrenheit 911 and it says how Bush funded the terrorists.

Me: (trying to stop from laughing as he refers to Michael Moore's movie as a solid reference) Actually, you're probably talking about the movie's mention of the Carlyle Group. And while I'll be the first to say that both Bush and Clinton are overly friendly to a Saudi regime which funds radical Islam, it's not fair to say Bush funded the 9/11 hijackers.

Anarchist: Well, you know, it's not the guys that flew the planes that I'm angry at. I'm angry at the guys that built the planes and the airlines. (he's dying to say that he's really angry at "The Man")

Me: (fully entertained at this point) Wait a minute, you're telling me you don't have a problem with what those guys (pilots) did?!

Anarchist: Everything can have a justifiable cause and I understand why they did it.

Me: OK, so you're telling me that right here, right now, if a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed all of you friends that you wouldn't be angry at him because he was justified?!

Anarchist : Everything has a justifiable cause...

Me: Come on, come straight...

Anarchist: I'm just saying... (as he walks away)

This little girl's dress says "Stop Killing Kids". Maybe it's a plea for Palestinian terrorists to stop targeting children?  

I know the Left likes to say that the Iraq War is creating more terrorists, but really...?  

Here we have some Code Pink women for peace. Susan took this picture, I just couldn't stomach it. 

My favorite picture of cognitive dissonance in action. This "Dyke from Hell" apparently refuses to consider that the popular parties of Palestine, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would sooner behead her than "say no to war". Yes, that's a Bushitler sign far left. 

Some people can keep dreaming I guess... 

Here we have the folks that the media continues to downplay, the organizers of the event, International ANSWER, a Stalinist group. That's Susan's chihuaha smelling the boot of a Stalinist. 

No protest is complete without some street "theatre". 

I shadowed this Channel 7 reporter and her camerman for a while. An interesting pattern emerged. They shied away from the tell-tale nutjob elements of the protest and instead focused on little blonde-haired children and self-proclaimed Republicans. Gee, you'd almost think Channel 7 was on a mission to show the protest in the most positive light possible.  

And there you have it, 2nd line down. It's really all about the fight against capitalism, not peace or "saving our troops". 

A protester's shirt referring to the "Bush Hates Black People" speech by that rapper of towering intellect, Kanye West. 

Any caption here would only add insult to injury. 

Ah yes, a "Dissent is Patriotic" protest wouldn't be complete without the requisite conspiracy nutjobs. 

GoKart Racing with Boston Acoustics

Indianapolis, 5 hours, 200 laps, 40+mph Gokarts, 10 teams, steak dinner, and good company! Boston Acoustics treated their dealers and reps tonight at (and in) the races. After this, I won't let anyone tell me racing isn't a sport - GoKarts included! Whiplashed necks, numb arms, blown out backs were all part of the fun.

Click on the picture above to download a video compilation of the race. You'll be rewarded with a crash or two. ;) It's 11MB so you may need to give it a minute or two to download.

Here's kind of a cool action shot. 

An action shot. Notice this race track has two killer levels. 

Here's one of the more fun turns where the crowd is treated to lots of crashes. 

That's me before the second heat. I was racing car #2.

That's my team after winning the Silver. Thank the blur to the random guy that took the shot.