Portland protest
Anti-Bush protests in Portland today! Bush is in town supporting a fundraiser for Sen. Gordon Smith, a horrific blight of a politician. I so wish now that I had headed down there; I am so proud that Portland turned out to speak up and against. As eloquently stated by a commentator:
The pea-packin’ jackass decided it would be a great idea to hold his fundraiser in Portland, and cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in police overtime while he poses with W and donors for photos at what, $25k per? That’s sick….Maybe those big money donors oughta donate their fat wallets to the Portland Public Schools, which are dying, or even the FOP pension fund, instead of Mr. Megabucks Smith.
Very good points indeed. The police opened up on the crowd with rubber bullets and pepper spray around 5 PM. Another protester:
I was there at the front of the police barricade when the cops told us they were declaring an emergency and if we didn’t leave, we’d be arrested. The crowd shouted so loud, it is doubtful that anyone beyond the first ten layers of people even heard the warning.
What emergency? We were protesting. We were standing behind the barricades. If they wanted the barricades in a different place, they should have set them up in a different place to begin with.
This boils my blood and breaks my heart. Apparently, this was the largest single fundraising event in Oregon history - $1 million for Smith and the GOP.