I was part of the protestors as Bush sped by in his limosine. Then when I got home I saw the last part of what was transpiring inside the Qwest Center.
The chickenshit had a panel of supporters to help him out since he obviously can't handle questions from the audience. From what I heard of it Bush either doesn't understand his own privatization plan or was lying about it. Probably a little of both.
Some of the things he told people was in direct contradiction of what the Senior Adm. official now identified as Dan Bartlett told the press the other day. For one he's telling them they can pass on their private accounts to their named beneficiaries. That is not exactly true according to what Bartlett had said. He didn't even mention the part about annuities.
Also, the local network that ran this event on TV were pretty obvious about their support of Bush's plan. I didn't feel like they even tried to hide it. It was pro Bush plan all the way. Plus they said there were only about 30 protestors.
The number of protestors was probably closer to 200 or 300. However, since he was running late and we weren't aware of that some gave up & started walking down to the Qwest Center. When it got to be around 8:20 with his speech scheduled to start at 8:30 they decided he may have come in from another way plus some decided it would be more effect outside the Qwest Center since the people inside could see them.
That had the effect of splitting up our much larger group because some of us stayed behind where Bush did indeed pass while the others had walked down to the Center. (The group estimated at 30 people.) Therefore, it could be that the Ch. 6 reporter didn't realize there were far more of us. However, all 4 local channels were there where I was so they might show it on the 6 p.m. news, but it will appear like it was a much smaller group than there actually was.
I'm sure they will take delight in continuiing reporting only a handful of protestors. The reporter at the Qwest Center just mentioned the 30 protestors in passing, never interviewed any of them.
("k ols" gets the ASZ Way Cool Award for the day; turning out on a cold, heartland day to let Dubya know what the real deal is out there in 'murica.)
Update, 1:40PM EST - Steve Soto @ Left Coaster notes that both the online and traditional organization against BushCo's social insecurity proposal is making a huge difference. As long as AARP continues to remain on the anti-reform bandwagon, Social Security remains a "3rd rail" for any congressman or senator that desires re-election in the future.
To "k ols" and all the rest of you who have written your representatives, attended events (or will be in the near future) -- you have made a difference. The key is not giving an inch, and not giving up.
