Macacas to former presidential hopeful George Allen: Virginians Protest

[kaygore]

Last night George "macacas" Allen held a free event in Norfolk, Virginia, with McCain. Touted as a Veterans for Allen event, there were more veterans protesting outside than attending inside. In fact, for this free event with two very visible Republicans as the draw, only about 100 people showed up (and many of them, by the account of someone who did attend, were Democrats hoping to be able to question Allen on his record regarding veterans if there was a QA period).

Here's is an eyewitness report:

The demonstration was great. We got no hassle from anyone (Allen's supporters are too scared to bother us right now, and our message about how Allen is no friend of veterans freaked out the young people standing outside whose job it seemed to be to hold pro-Allen signs and look Republican.)

All together just over 20 people showed up for our gathering (not bad with an announcement that went out at around 6:00 yesterday evening.) Unfortunately most of the people attending Allen's event entered through the parking garage, so we didn't get to hand out as much literature about Allen's voting record as we would have liked to. Some of us stood with our signs on the corner by Allen's shills. Most of us stood across the street.

Two news channels got us on video, and the Virginian Pilot took numerous pictures. The news crews actually asked us to stand in a row behind the reporter so that they could make sure to have us in the background.

We all had signs:

Allen is
NO FRIEND
to VETS

RETIRED
ENLISTED
ASS'N
gives
ALLEN
a ZERO (with big red letters on the ZERO)

ALLEN'S VOTES:
V.A. - UNDERFUNDED (red letters on the underfunded)
Halliburton- OVER FUNDED (red letters again)

VETS,
DON'T BET
on ALLEN-
CHECK HIS
VOTING RECORD

A guy showed up with a Veterans for Peace Banner

Another guy showed up with a poster with a yellow ribbon that said to support the troops, not Halliburton.

Another guy showed up with a sign about no war, no occupation, and something else.

Allen had about 10 people out there on the street in front of the Marriott holding Veterans for Allen signs. As I mentioned, they were pretty young, and they didn't look like veterans, so I yelled out to them, "Hey are ANY of you veterans?" No response until "Well, I'm going to be a veteran some day." To which I responded, "Well our bunch is filled with veterans." There was an older Allen staffer guy there who said "What. Are YOU a veteran?" really sarcastically. I said "No. My husband is a veteran. And she's a veteran . And he's a veteran. And he's a veteran. And they are veterans..." The Allen staffer didn't like that answer and got really mad. In my opinion, the young people seemed a little freaked out that veterans were staging a demonstration about Allen's voting record on veterans issues.

And then the "Wow" moment happened. A 20-something East Indian American man showed up with a sign that said:

Allen is a RACIST.
"Macacas"
4
Webb

With him was another 20-something man who had a sign that read

Hey Allen, remember Vietnam?
McCain and Webb can
tell you all about it.

Then a 70-year-old East Indian American woman showed up and held a sign that read

SIDARTH is
NOT a MONKEY.
HE is a
HUMAN BEING

The TV crews didn't get pictures of those signs because they arrived too late, but the Virginian Pilot did.

The people driving by were totally for our message. People kept honking and giving us the thumbs up. Nobody, literally nobody, honked or waved at Allen's people. We had the right message with hitting Allen on his veterans votes since this was a Veterans for Allen event.

It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, shows up on the news. In any case, all of us felt very positive about what attention we did get for the cause. And, we had a blast. I don't think the same can be said about Allen's people. It must be hard to be an Allen supporter today.

I heard that Allen's event was boring, BTW.

Final note, I still have about 375 copies of information about Allen's voting record on vets issues. I am going to make sure that every single one of them is put to good use and that people get the word. Veterans should not support George Allen. It's as simple as that.
-----

The local newspaper, The Virginian-Pilot, in its front page article this morning chose to focus on how the Internet is influencing politics rather than on the issues: "Allen’s gaffe shows politics to be Internet feeding ground" (headline)

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=109357&ran=126594&tref=po

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

1. Kicked and Recommended!

Thanks for representing!



In Norfolk on Wednesday, Jagdish A. Singh, left, and Gogol Ganguli express opposition toward Sen. George Allen over a remark about an Indian-American member of his rival’s campaign. Singh, a community leader, said, ''I’m so mad!'' VICKI CRONIS/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

[kaygore]

3. Thanks for posting the picture

I tried to paste it in but failed! Good work!!!

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

5. No problem.

[Love Bug]

11. Those are brilliant!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Kudos!

Excellent job! :)

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

4. Snipped from the article posted:

Local Indian leaders were shocked by Allen's comments and suggested that his remarks could affect their vote.

"I'm so mad! Is he crazy, or what?" said Jagdish A. Singh, president of Asian Indians of Hampton Roads. "It was not a slip-up. He knew exactly what he was saying. It was totally irresponsible on his part to disrespect a young man who was there to cover his event."

She referred to Sidarth, a 20-year-old University of Virginia senior of Indian descent who was born and raised in Fairfax County.

"I was shocked. There were over 100 white people, and he was the only brown person " at the event, said Dr. Dilip K. Sarkar of Norfolk, a member of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's Virginia Asian Advisory Board. "This was definitely a racially charged, insensitive statement."

[IndyOp]

6. Hey!

:yourock:

[Midlodemocrat]

7. YAY!!! My Webb for Senate t0shirt just arrived today!

Gonna wear it all the fucking time (with changes for laundry of course) until November.

George Felix Allen, Jr. is a racist POS.

[kaygore]

9. I met Webb at a Democratic Woman's luncheon a couple of

weeks ago. He is very impressive!

Where the voters know what both Allen and Webb stand for, Webb is ahead by 11%!!!!

We are working very hard here in Hampton Roads to get him name recognition. I wear a hand-made "button" that says, "Ask me about Jim Webb."

We all need to get out there and let the Virginia voters know about Jim Webb and we need to support him financiallY. He needs $1 million before Labor Day to counter Swift Boat ads that will be coming out over the weekend.

Give up your coffee for a week. Eat one less meal out. Give the $ to the Webb campaign.

Webb is accepting NO PAC or special interest money so it is up to each of us!!!!

http://www.webforsenate.com/home.php

[DesertRat]

12. The URL is wrong

it's: http://www.webbforsenate.com/home.php

[kaygore]

13. Thank you for correction

[young_at_heart]

8. Maybe your paper ought to focus more on Allen's personality problems

His "gaffe" isn't just a polical no-no.....it shows that under all the spin is a bully.

[kaygore]

10. The papers here are VERRRRY conservative as is the area--Tidewater, VA