The Dean refused to hire extra security guards, which irritated me, but the Dean turned out to be right. WHen the protesters arrived, I am glad the Dean sort of prepared me for how to deal with them. They came carrying big fighting sticks and weird medieval hand weapons; they were wearing all black and sunglasses, and several were taking people’s pictures up close with a camera, trying to provoke some kind of conflict. One professor from Chicano Studies started flinging flyers around the chairs, and when I asked taht she not make a mess, she told me “You’re trying to take away my civil liberties!”

The trick with these kinds of protesters is NOT TO ESCALATE — which is where the veteran went wrong. They thrive and flourish when they can force others to go on the attack. My event turned out okay because I told all the military personnel and intelligence people to ignore the protesters. Eventually they got bored and didn’t want to sit through all the lectures, and went away.

Obviously these protesters piss me off to no end, but the key is not to feed their modus operandi. It is hard — so hard that I can understand why the vet confronted Sheehan — but the best and most successful way to defeat them is to ignore them and offer them a chance to engage in a reasonable debate. They won’t enter into a reasonable debate, because they know they don’t have logic on their side.

Bobby

What went wrong:

1) Sheehan sticking the bullhorn in the veteran’s face. Some states that count as assault but is probably not the case in CA. Unless a white guy did it to a mexican/black/woman/furry animal.

2) Veteran using profanity. Not a big deal but could’ve been handled a different way

3) The irony is that Sheehan, after getting taken completely off-balance (more than she already is) wants very much for the police to protect her and this, after she was told that she was protesting on federal property….yes, the property the base sign is located is federal property, but she probably didn’t check into that before she unloaded her fugly brigade.

4) When the judge reviews the bullhorn-in-the-face, I am fairly certain that he/she will determine that Ms. Sheehan did something wrong. But, not without consequence to the veteran who will also probably get some charges thrown at him. But because it happened on federal property….this may go to federal court, not civil. Hm.

Any legal beagles out there?

I don’t disagree with the veteran. However, why give slugs like her ammunition? Why not stand there calmly with your hands at your sides and ask her questions that she cannot answer? Having her look like a fool on tape is a great way to undermine her “mission”. Listening to her opening diatribe, it’s clear the veteran is correct: That she DOESN’T know what she’s talking about. That’s no surprise in and of itself but I had hoped the veteran chose a different path than a shouting match. Not that I would’ve done any better, honestly. However, with all that said, my hat’s off to him for shaking her up and letting her know that she’s full of it.

Looking like Sheehan has jumped the shark…but this may put her back on the front row for a short bit.

Code Pink and this leather faced douche bag with ears are losing publicity quickly, and since Iraq has not gone their way, they will concentrate on Afghanistan instead….even though the scumbags they are rooting for would kill them outright at a distance.

I have yet to see such a mind numbingly ignorant self loathing puddle of used hippo food run back to the cameras time and time again, only to be regulated to the dog crap pile of obscurity where she has resided for the past few years.

While I would enjoy seeing the code pink group and the two followers of Cindy Sheehan get beaten into the sidewalk by a large group of fed up veterans…but I cant have everything. Suffice to say, just watching them self destruct like they do time and time again is reasonably satisfying.

They are like fleas….they are social parasites who need to feed on the attention of others negative or not….and then run back to their flop house and sniff glue while they giggle uncontrollably because they were touched by a man for the first time in sixteen years

And if there’s any permanent damage at all, he needs to see a lawyer. Let ‘em do some good for once.