October 13, 2008

Pittsburgh Palin Fundraiser Becomes Big Obama Rally

As I first blogged about here, Republican VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin was in downtown Pittsburgh Friday night for a private fundraiser. It cost $1,000 just to get in the door, $10,000 for a photo with Palin, and $25,000 to sit at a table with her.

There's three minutes of video of the event at YouTube here (embedding now disabled). While local pols including State Rep. Mike Turzai, former US Rep and current congresscritter wannabe Melissa Hart, Congressman Tim Murphy, and Allegheny County Republican Party Chair Jim Roddey attended, even the arch conservative Richard Mellon Scaife-owned Tribune Review admitted that there were more folks outside protesting Palin than inside the fundraiser.

The real noise was made on Friday by the hundreds who showed up to greet the Governor with cheers for Barack Obama.

I'll quote Joy a Democracy for Pittsburgh member:

About 400 people helped keep the number of protesters constantly above 200 for several hours....The numbers included at least two official (and I believe permit-holding) groups, plus a groundswell of...just...people.

It was the perfect protest. We did not try to silence Palin in any way. No roads or sidewalks were blocked. We just testified, with a wide range of signs, that she does not speak for hockey moms, for soccer moms, for working moms, for working people, for middle class people, for fair-minded rich people, for people who care about the environment or animals, for people who care about affordable healthcare, and for people who care about the health and the future of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers. And, in the case of DFP, that putting lipstick on George Bush and Dick Cheney does not make 4 more years of the same witless policies more attractive...that pit-bull-headedness is more of the same current bull-headedness.
I counted four McCain/Palin supporters in the crowd.

Here's a video from Keystone Progress (they also made this video of Palin's visit to an Irish Pub in Philadelphia):


(You can see me at about 1:05 in behind the "Bubba" sign)

Another video from Schultz at technology + politics:



I swiped a couple of pictures off of Schultz, including one of the signs I made:



And, here I am behind my Bubba sign next to a couple of other Democracy for Pittsburgh members in Bush and Cheney with lipstick masks:


Here's a few more pics I found at flickr (view more here):




More photos at flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenngrover
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=PALIN+PROTEST+IN+PITTSBURGH&m=text

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Media Coverage:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Story, Video
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
KDKA
WTAE
WPXI

technology + politics
The Burgh Report
The Pittsburgh Comet
2 Political Junkies: Here and Here

UPDATE: Crossposted at Daily Kos and now a recommended diary there. :-)
.

14 comments:

  1. John K: Well it gave the homeless and union thugs something to do. What all 25 of them. LOL LOL

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  2. john, can you be any more childish and insulting??

    yeah, you probably can!


    maria, i would have loved to have been there. you and the others really go under the republican's skin.

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  3. New standard from the progressives.
    You can call any female you disagree with a c*nt.
    ANGRY LEFT Protest C*nt Sarah Palin in Philly
    Bet you are proud of them Maria and Sherry.

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  4. John K: What, you are now telling me those are not union thugs out there with those signs. LOL LOL LMAO Thugs who block parking garages and stall traffic and deny access to business because they have a gripe. LOL LOL LOL LMAO I am sure they also had a few feminazis in that bunch also.

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  5. My wife, a "Union Thug?" Or is it just women that scare you, johnk?

    LOL!

    Note to "heir:" I haven't seen you condemning the shouts of "terrorist!" or "kill him!" at McCain or rallies. Let me guess-- it's ok to shout words that promote violence.....But, you draw the line at sexual vulgarity.

    Yeah. And I'll bet that makes sense to you, too.

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  6. as to the c, word. i don't use it but mccain publicly called his wife that.

    union thugs? well, i'm not going to respond other than to say you don't know very much about the history of western pa.

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  7. and yes john. i AM a union baby, born and bred. my father(construction truckdriver/cement mixer/lowboys etc.) and his father(machinist), my mother's father(steelworker), my father-in-law(operating engineers)all passed on now ,and me,(typographical/bookbinders)

    and so, you know exactly what i'm thinking you can do, don't you? you whiny little.....)

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  8. From what I heard the comments "terrorist!" and "kill him!" were directed at Bill Ayers. But I like the Mccain campaign, will condemn them if they were directed at Obama.
    As for the C word, I am sure the left will not condemn calling Palin one.

    Remember the democrats saying Hilary forgave Bill for cheating so the matter is personal and we should move on.
    Can the same be said for Cindy forgiving John?

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  9. heir,

    You are surely the only person, of any persuasion, that I've come across, who found the "terrorist" and "kill him" comments to be directed at Bill Ayers, who was not mentioned by name.

    It is interesting that you bring up Mrs. Clinton's forgiveness of her husband's infidelity, and then wonder if "Cindy," the 2nd wife, and "other woman," will forgive John.

    I'll assume that you were referring to the obscenity used by McCain,...but, still, is that the best "moral equivilent" you could come up with?

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  10. I love it! Thank you for posting this.

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  11. I heard a,not confirmed,roomer Tim Murphy was not received well by the folks inside the hall, as well as outside. I just found this website that may explain a few reasons why, therealtimmurphy.com

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  12. i was right across the street from you for most of the rally!

    i kept looking at you thinking... is that her???

    and i only saw ONE person there with a mccain sign, and she was a PUMA.

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  13. I was there between 3:15 and 5:30 but I did move around a lot in the last hour. Sorry I didn't see you/realize you were you! LOL

    There were four McCain supporters. Two left pretty early.

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  14. Heir,

    Those people in the link you posted with the T-shirts are disgusting. I can't imagine why anyone would want to follow the example that John McCain set when he called his own wife that disgusting word! I can only hope that they were making a statement against what he did. Even if that's what they were doing, they should not have.

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