SLC Rally & Senator Interview

SLC rally-blogging plus an interview with Senator Orin Hatch... kind of.

Before any of this started, I was surprised to learn that kicking off the morning protests was going to be a group called "Death to Israel." One may wonder what kind of ideological folks make up that group, it could be anybody, but we probably only need one guess.

Originally, I hoped to cover the moonbats, but plans changed and I attented the Pro-Bush rally at the City-County center, and was soon made aware that the moonbats were protesting at the other park. We did however, encounter a few disrupters (shown later). Here's how it looked:



Indeed we do, the reddest state in the Union.


Mayor Rocky Anderson, Democrat, thought it would be wise to lower the flags to half-mast in honor of fallen soldiers. That is fine with me, except these were the only half-mast flying flags in the town, precisely where the Pro-Bush rally was. Is honor the only motive here?


Of course you couldn't miss the many paid, low-paid, and unpaid journalists present.


These three kids were among the first disrupters, masked and armed with cardboard, they were quickly run off by the cavalry.


The rally was not in short supply of tasteful signs and good people.


Yet, here we have Mr. "F-word." Who just could'nt contain his mastery of the F-word followed by the word Bush. After confronted, Mr. "F-word" felt his proficiency with the phrase F--ck Bush could be better appreciated elsewhere.


Arguably tasteful, but accurate nonetheless.


Notice the newscaster to the left, giving me the eye. Perhaps I deserve it, took this shot right after he took the same photo.


Could've been about 500 or so people maybe more.


Meet Baldy.


At the rally there were several speakers, including this guy. I had the honor of shaking hands with Senator Hatch (and no, that is not my big head and beard there), I asked him a few questions later. I'll get to that.


Here we have the cavalry taking care of Baldy, the Bush Derangment Syndrome sufferer, with Utah's attorney general speaking in the background. This was shortly after Baldy played sign war with a few Bush supporters.


And not to forget Senator Bob Bennet. Prior to Bennet's speech was House Representative Chris Cannon, and though I'm not too fond of him, he was a very good speaker.

All in all the rally went well, no violence (well, little. Baldy may have pushed a guy), no nudity, so not much news.

As for my uprepared and very brief impromptu interview with Senator Hatch, I managed to spit out two questions, the first being completely unimportant now since Sen. Ted Stevens was fingered, nevertheless:

Stan: The bill to bring more transparency to government spending has had a secret-hold put on it by another Senator, do you know who... are you aware of this?

Hatch: I am not familiar with that, but to understand the federal budget, which is so complex, you practically have to be a budgeteer. I can tell you that I do stand for transparency in government.

Stan: One more question.

Hatch: [nods]

Stan: There have been over 20,000 gun laws passed since 1938. Do you think that constitutes an infringement of our Second Amendment right?

Hatch: I am against gun laws. The Second Amendment is a valuable right that all Americans should enjoy (I am paraphrasing here, there was some noise and I didn't catch every word, but I assure you that is the gist of it).

Stan: Thank you.

I know not too many bloggers have interviewed Senators, but now I can be put on that list!

Hat tip to Cabe, for taking much of the photos. Unfortunately we didn't have enough battery power for video (my fault), but there is next time.

And heard a re-run of Michael Reagan's radio show, and sure enough, Death to Israel was really here.

And of course, more coverage over at Michelle Malkin's.