Comments on Photos from the Protest in Bellevue

This is totally going to fuck my commute. Like Bush hasn't fucked me over enough already goddammit. Heh.

That's great. Because the messages on those signs and shirts are really going to go a long way toward moving middle America back to the left. Good thinking folks...way to make the right look legit and the left look looney.

I have to agree, most of those protesters aren't going to convince anyone of anything. I don't think people have to wear suits and not carry signs, but this is not helpful.

Suits would help. At least they would look like they should be taken seriously.

And come on. Fuck Bush? Can we maybe protest without the vulgarity? Again, this does not help our cause. It provides more footage for the media to broadcast showing just how silly the liberals are.

@3 Well the republicans did take half of your non-prescription. why wear suits to a protest? to show you have money? that you are on a lunch break from your job?

A protester who has a serious point to make should wear suits to look responsible and knowledgeable. Yes, appearance matters at least as much as substance.

It is immature to debate using obscenities and vulgar language. No reasonable person will take your speech seriously. Moreover, you are offending the very people you seek to persuade. Those protesters are doing nothing but a disservice to their cause, not only now but in the future.

Hey kids, it's time to grow up and act like adults. The college and high school "student government" debates are over. You are not smart or clever, you are an embarrassment.

george bush is a bad human. the fact that he is still president of this country is a sin.

that said, signs with slogans like "shave ur bush pussy" and "bush can suck my cock" are ill-conceived, counterproductive, and childish.

grow the fuck up, protesters. no one takes you seriously when you use lowest common denominator tactics to get your message across.

Suits are unnecessary--it says a lot about the pathetic, WASP-wannabe nature of Eastside Republicans that they wear suits to protests.

Of course, the Democrats (if they're not the bat-shit crazy socialists that often turn up to these things) are simply stupid. "Bush Can Suck My Cock" doesn't really speak to the culturally conservative, ever-so-slightly-left-of-center electorate in the 8th district (insert "Duh!" here).

Just got back from checking it out. It's growing. A lot. Every 2 minutes another crowd appears with tons of those childish signs that Ms. Harrop acknowledged.

What a joke. Are you fucking serious? You need to wear a suit to protest? Have you ever seen what a successful protest looks like? It takes ALL KINDS in great numbers with conviction to make a statement, not prissy wishy-washy armchair activists shitting on anyone who actually gets out there and tries to make a difference.

You want to know what successful protesting looks like? Look at France. The government there is held accountable by its people who WILL protest if their needs are not met... and they don't wear suits.

agreed. a well-organized protest as a part of a larger plan should stick to a few key phrases to be used on signs. this, coupled with reasonable looking protesters, gets the message out.

Nobody's opinion is ever swayed one way or the other by a public protest, so why shouldn't people just say whatever the Hell they feel like saying?

I mean, it's not like they're standing on the floor of the Senate while telling someone to "go fuck yourself"...

Why wear suits? Because that's the costume of the Serious Person in modern society. Business leaders, politicians, journalists on TV -- they all wear suits. Anyone who wants to be taken seriously and expects to be taken seriously wears a suit.

Check out Stewart and Colbert. What do they wear on TV? They wear suits. Why? Because people who wear suits get taken seriously.

It's not about money or social station. It's about being taken seriously.

Look at pictures of the Civil Rights marches of the 1960s. What were those people wearing? Suits. With ties. And why did they do that? Because theirs was (and still is) a serious cause. Look at Al Sharpton. What does he wear on TV or anywhere else? A suit. What does anyone who wants to be taken seriously by the public and demonstrate that they are serious about what they are doing wear? A suit.

You might get the hose or a beat-down, so no need drop big dollars on a new suit that would be ruined. Go to Value Village or Goodwill or any second-hand clothing store and pick out a suit. It should be dark in color: grey, black, blue or brown -- doesn't matter as long as it's dark. Why? Because dark colors imply gravitas and seriousness. While you're there, pick up a white shirt and a serious tie, too.

As you can tell from the upstanding icons of humanity from Reichert's supporters in these latter pics, remember Dems, wear suits like they do when you protest. You want to blend in, like you're on the Rush Limbaugh show if politicians are going to listen to you. They would definitely not ignore you. Of course not. Right.

Yeah, maybe the liberals should present a more classy statement like Ted Nugent so they don't get portrayed as wacky in the media. Or we could stop caving in to the false meme that being a white male in a suit makes you worth listening to.

Conspiracy is hot!

I'm sure there are less sensationalistic signs out there, but The Stranger (like almost all media) have chosen to publish the most outlandish. Am I right, Eli?

I am going to go back down there in about an hour. There are some super studs missing some serious left-hand rings.

Why haven't any of the Reichert supporters enlisted?

Hmmm?

Yup. Cowards.

There's no puppets in the pictures Eli. Come on now, I want some pictures of puppets. I want to stop by on my way home from work, but I'm not wearing a suit ... guess I'll have to stop by Nordstrom first.

Reality Check:

First, most voters tend to give more credence to those who present themselves in a proper manner. The reality is that wearing suits moves the focus away from the individual and towards the message. Whether it is right or wrong is irrelevant. The time for debating the "false meme" of suits is in your college philosophy class.

Second, no one said you have to protest in a suit. What was said is that it would help one to better present their message. Dress up if you want, just realize that you are detracting from your message. The media will show your crazy costume and forget to state your message. Remember, the middle class 8th district voter only sees a crazy protester, they will not hear your message.

@ the suit-wearing crowd: this president and his ilk aren't going to take anyone that doesn't agree with them seriously anyway, so why bother with a fucking suit? The only defense in the face of being ignored is to be vulgar. To wit, fuck you Mr. President. There, I said it and I feel better.

Protests matter, why would the RNC spend so much time trying to contain and avoid them if they didn't. People who care what a protester is wearing are probably against any protest. On the other hand, if we're talking anti-war protest, I somehow think that people who look like they might have supported it at first or veterans are probably the most persuasive. If it appears that middle America, and not just the left-wing fringe, is in the street protesting, that's pretty hard to ignore (read Vietnam). I don't think that means being white or wearing a suit, but refraining from vulgarity on your protest sign would be better. I'm disgusted too, but 'Impeach Bush' seems like enough for a sign. We don't need to F#$# him or shave him, just need to force him out of office and change course from totalitarianism to democracy.

I do like 'King George, the Turd' for a sign though. Maybe I'll put it on a shirt.

good points. you should ask what is your goal? to annoy bush? dress how you want. to win support for your cause? dress in a convincing way. or don't -- but then you might not achieve your goal.

as for me? i like the "bush out of bellevue" protestor.

Show me some actual research that actually says that it actually makes a noticeable difference if a crowd of protestors is wearing suits, and I'd be convinced. Sure, in a business context, if you are a sales rep or a lawyer for example, a suit gets you taken more seriously. But this isn't business, it's social activism.

But changing the world? I can think of half a dozen people off the top of my head who made big differences in the world who did not wear suits, and you bet they were taken seriously. No, I'm not going to list them - use your own brain cells and do your own homework.

Secondly, profanity communicates extreme anger and it gets attention (otherwise you wouldn't be seeing the photos). You really think it doesn't work? Show me some hard data - exactly how and where this tactic backfires. Do you seriously think that policy decisions are made based on whether some idiot on the street dropped the f-bomb? Otherwise you are making baseless assertions again (aka "making shit up").

Would it help if the puppets wore suits?

@21 - It's nice to know that "Whether it is right or wrong is irrelevant" you condescending ass. Why don't you go get a job with the DLC, help Al Gore with his makeup and earth tones, tell Howard Dean to stop screaming, and lose a few more elections. The right is thrilled that people think politics is boring and stuffy and only for the elite. It's what helps them to hold onto power. Sure, it's great that Kos can go on Meet the Press in a suit and sound calm and thoughtful, but it's also nice that we have people to counteract Ted Nugent. Sorry to offend your very mature sensibilities, but there are a lot of Americans who like the idea of a rebel who stands in front of the powerful with middle finger raised and says "Fuck You!"

DOT website traffic cams show overpasses & entrances are blocked off by WSP. A friend saw the motorcade on NE 8th & 405 - it's updated now.

So Bush is likely in Bellevue now.

Squeedle, the people you're trying to convince are not Bush and his buddies in the limos -- it's the folks at home watching on TV. I don't think you need to be wearing suits necessarily, but it wouldn't hurt. What DOES hurt is the black facemask, and the upside-down flag, and the "SHAVE YOUR BUSH PUSSY" sign and the "SUCK MY COCK" sign. Those are costing Darcy Burner thousands of votes, right there. Darcy is seriously going to have people saying "she was waving the flag upside down on TV last night, I saw her".

Good protests are made by people who look as if they are headed back to a job afterwards.

If you want examples, I'm going to ask you for examples of protests that accomplished ANYTHING good. I seem to remember some, a long, long time ago, in the south, when a bunch of black men IN SUITS marched with dignity. I also remember some stupid hippies running amok in Chicago in '68, who handed the election to Richard Nixon, and several years of non-stop dipshittery after that that handed Nixon ANOTHER election. And so on.

We all know how effective the riots in Seattle were in shutting down the WTO for good and electing Nader in 2000, right?

Honestly, that blonde in the "FUCK BUSH" shirt? She looks like a Republican to me. Agent provocateurs? I wouldn't be surprised. Liberals will unfortunately too often embrace any kind of idiocy if they think it agrees with them.

I like the "Alberto Out" guy though, and the white girl with the "Reichert Out" sign isn't embarrassing.

Ma stockings! Lip them!

Holy crap, Fnarf's making sense. In light of the Larry Craig story that Dan's posted, I'm not sure if that kid with the Conspiracy shirt is an RNC agent or just hoping to make $25. Then again, it could be both - Karl Rove isn't that far ought of the White House.

Interesting posts, @29 and @31.

Maybe that's what Rove's plan is.

@31 - The mirror sunglasses, the Marine haircut ... Conspiracy is RNC all the way. Even his t-shirt is a Rovian twist of reverse-psychology.

Well, I'm happy to say that I did NOT see the more offensive signs between 2:00-3:00 p.m. today and that the crowd was acting responsibly.

Liberals are a bunch of self-important wanks who in their fantasy world believe this protest actually accomplished something.

Bush didn't notice your protest and even on the off chance he caught a glance of it, he didn't care.

I guess I have to cave on this one. This worked. This didn't. Sigh. I guess we do need better outfits.

You're a self-important wank and I didn't notice what a loser you are McLovin.

Okay, to all you suit-infested whores out there who can't see beyond your white bred patriarchal asses I will give you one word to sum up someone protesting WITHOUT a suit. Okay, are you ready boys and girls? Do you think your little pea brains can handle it? GANDHI! I seem to remember that he *might* have accomplished *a tiny bit* in his three piece SUIT!! No wait! What? You tell me he WASN'T wearing a suit? Well, then he surely couldn't have accomplished anything, because you KNOW that clothes make the man, right? Okay, I won't prolong your loserness much longer, but really people try thinking OUTSIDE the box someday! So LAME!!! And, if you really feel like you need to protest while in a suit, why don't you get off the computer and get into the streets yourself. Yah, again, you are soooo lame!

Suits? Um, I think not.

Protesters need to look sexy, that's all. If you look like someone middle America would feel privileged to fuck, I guarantee they'll get behind you, so to speak.

Where are you, hot liberal women? Your country needs you!

FUCKING AWESOME. That's my friend with the upside down flag!

This is all so hillarious. wearing suits is a dumb idea, but dressing up as non-comformist freaks is even dumber. The only way you'll make your message mean anything is to allow normal people to relate to you. You think people in Bellevue can relate to demonstrators wearing masks, carrying coffins and playing drums? How about the "organizer" guy I met flipping people of left and right? It's so funny to hear you people talk about others as sheep when half of the people down there wouldn't be able to say the alphabet without stuttering at least a couple of the letters. Oh, and one last piece of advice, stay off the drugs while you're protesting. Or at least don't talk like you just walked off the set of "How High".

A bunch of really hateful people out there. Kind of sad actually that these are the same people who are supposed to be open-minded and care about others. Gives the dems a bad image. Mark this too - the extremity and outrageousness of this faction of the liberal movement will ultimately be its downfall, just like it was in the 60's.

I can't believe this is still going.

I've read through all the comments and I'm taken aback by two things: first the advocation that the liberal movement of the 60s was somehow unsuccessful. What the fuck? The amount of social change and advancement that took place in and because of that decade is so great that historians and sociologists are still trying to sort it all out. The entire Right Wing Evangelical Movement was started and is maintained specifically to counter those advancements. So I call bullshit on the 60s liberal movement being a failure.

Next, I'm taken aback by the number of well-meaning folks on here rebelling against the idea of dressing up nicely for a protest. It's such a simple thing. How do you dress for a job interview? You dress as you would on your dressiest day at work at that job. If you were to appear on television to speak about something very important to you, how would you dress? If you were invited to meet the governor to discuss an important topic, how would you dress?

If your answer to these questions is, "Whatever the fuck I feel like!" Then think about how the people who listen to you speak are going to recieve what you have to say. By your appearance you're making the statement, "Fuck you. I do what I want." That does not sway people to your side of an issue. It actively works against the message you're trying to convey.

And Ghandi? He wore traditional clothing. Traditional garb for his country so that the people of that country would relate to him and take him seriously. So yes, Ghandi wore a damn suit, too.

If you want to be taken seriously, wear a suit.

The question is not what's wrong with the protests, the question is where were YOU that day?

It doesnt make any sense that the people who are most critical are the ones who are complicit with Bush and his War Crimes.

Our government is openly torturing people, defying international law and the top story is on profanity?

FUCK YOU!

I don't care about what they look like, at least they're out there protesting, not typing comments on a blog while the world burns.

I don't care about what they look like, at least they're out there protesting, not typing comments on a blog while the world burns.

Signs like "Bush can suck my dick" or "Shave your Bush pussy" are not obscene. What is obscene is a government that kills civilians, illegally wiretaps citizens, openly tortures, and the list goes on and on. It is also obscene to be complacent with such.

Tom, sorry you didn't like our coffin. It is carried with great dignity by veterans and friends of veterans as a reminder that there are people dying in this war. The administration won't allow us to see the REAL coffins coming home so we've been taking it around for awhile now. The folks who built it have even taken it to Washington DC to the capitol building. If you are offended by the sight of it, maybe you need to do more to stop the war! Criticizing people who don't wear suits and ties is just absurd. Not everyone has a job where that is appropriate attire. Have you ever worked on a farm or orchard or most any place but some fancy highrise office building? I bet not...

Did you even read my post? Did I mention how I was personally offended? Lol. This is a very good example of what I was trying to get across - you people just don't get it. You put on these huge productions with props and instruments and costumes and in reality it's not for a cause or a political belief; it's all only about you. And then you wonder why people don't take action? That wasn't a demonstration, it was a show!

You're not going to get the average American to do anything with or for you becausee they don't associate with you. "Shave your Bush pussy"? What in the hell does that even mean? And why face masks? Can anyone here tell me what other recognizable modern group trollops around with masks on? Uhhhh...terrorists maybe? Wake up people - acting and dressing and screaming like that only makes people view you all as extremists - i.e "out there and unlike me." I can't believe you don't understand that.

Oh, and how in the world do you suppose to know anything about me? Something is wrong with people who work in highrises and wear suits (both of which I do not do by the way)? Wow - great message. "If you're not just like me you're not as good as I am." Get real. I pity how angry and small and dark your world is.

Your name makes me laugh too - very ironic. : )

The face masks were to hide our faces from the police cameras.
I gotta ask though Tom, how often do you wear a suit? When I think of people wearing suits I think of people I can't relate to at all. Either wage slaves, corporate big shots, or politicians. How many people can relate to those? not many. And then if you wear something like that, how to you relate to the 'extremists' who are not present?
Right, I'm done generalizing people, you can continue if you want.

Once again, read my original post. I said suits are a dumb idea. I don't wear suits except to weddings. You can read, right? ; )

Hiding from the police cameras? Please tell me that's a joke. Do you really think you're so important that "the man" watches what you do? Like someone actually cares what some Seattle kids are doing and saying at a protest in downtown Bellevue? I have some tough news for you: you're not that important. I realize it sucks, but grow up and join the rest of us that already know it. Sorry. If you want people to watch you do something that deserves it - don't yell at others from behind a mask and costume.

"Wage slaves"? What exactly is that? A person who works for a living? And somehow that is a negative thing to you? How is a person who holds a voluntary job and gets paid for it a slave? What do you do for a living? Apparently you're not a slave but others are? I don't get it.

The hate and spite in you is out of control. You're so focused on yourself that you don't see anything wrong with tearing down everyone else around you. Take a good hard look in the mirror my friend.

Once again, read my original post. I said suits are a dumb idea. I don't wear suits except to weddings. You can read, right? ; )

Hiding from the police cameras? Please tell me that's a joke. Do you really think you're so important that "the man" watches what you do? Like someone actually cares what some Seattle kids are doing and saying at a protest in downtown Bellevue? I have some tough news for you: you're not that important. I realize it sucks, but grow up and join the rest of us that already know it. Sorry. If you want people to watch you do something that deserves it - don't yell at others from behind a mask and costume.

"Wage slaves"? What exactly is that? A person who works for a living? And somehow that is a negative thing to you? How is a person who holds a voluntary job and gets paid for it a slave? What do you do for a living? Apparently you're not a slave but others are? I don't get it.

The hate and spite in you is out of control. You're so focused on yourself that you don't see anything wrong with tearing down everyone else around you. Take a good hard look in the mirror my friend.