So, who were the protesters hauled out of Madison Square Garden during last night's Bush speech? It's as if the media almost completely blacked out the event. Most stories may have mentioned the protests in passing, but didn't provide any details about what sort of people would have the balls to shout their disapproval amidst a sea of red-meat Republicans.
I thought Bush looked a little shaken up after each of the demonstrations. They put him off his game, which was probably at least part of their goal.
Here's a story from the Code Pink website:
As George W. Bush gave his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, Jodie Evans of CODEPINK: Women for Peace revealed a pink slip underneath her dress which read, "Fire Bush! Women Say Bring the Troops Home Now!" She was dragged out of the RNC.[Snip]
Evans is a 50-year-old peace activist from Los Angeles who co-founded CODEPINK and has traveled to Iraq several times during the last year, including with a delegation of women in February 2004. She wonders how CODEPINK managed to get inside the RNC three nights in a row: "Their entire emphasis during the convention has been on stirring up people's fears by reminding them of the Sept. 11 attacks and claiming that they're doing a good job securing the country. But how can they secure this country if they can't even secure their own convention during the President's acceptance speech?"
Several Code Pink demonstrators made it inside the convention hall this week, mocking not only the Republicans, but the overzealous security efforts. "If they can't secure their own convention, how can they secure this country?" asked Medea Benjamin, a Code Pink co-founder. Code Pink sneaked demonstrators into the Garden three nights in a row.
The other Bush speech protester last night was June Brashares, also of Code Pink. Here's a newspaper column about her action:
It was more than a shock to end up on the floor of Madison Square Garden, five rows from the president, with a protester on top of me -- and security guards struggling to contain her.
But that happened Thursday night at the front of the California delegation section when -- in the middle of Bush's speech -- June Brashares, 40, of San Francisco, an activist with Code Pink, stood up on her chair and unfurled a banner that read, "Bush lies, people die.''
Just minutes before, the blue-suited Brashares had been in the crunch of delegates and press in the aisle when former Gov. Pete Wilson graciously offered his seat with a prime sight line to President Bush. Brashares was wearing an alternate delegate pass, and I stepped aside to let her sit down.
It was 50 feet from the president and three rows behind Gerald Parsky, the chairman of the California delegation and chairman of the UC Board of Regents.
Brashares looked grateful and said her feet were killing her. During the speech, she started to stand up on her seat numerous times, holding onto cardboard signs of support for the president. She waved a tiny American flag.
Just more than 40 minutes into Bush's speech of longer than an hour, Brashares jumped on the chair, yelling "Bush lies," and holding up her homemade banner.
Within seconds, she was overcome by half a dozen burly security men who wrestled her into the crowd as the crowd, sensing a disturbance, yelled "four more years" to drown her out. She sent me sprawling into KCBS radio reporter Doug Sovern. They hustled her out in a matter of moments.
The president paused, briefly looked confused by the cheering during a serious moment of his speech, then continued.
I found only three stories on Google News that mentioned Brashares' name, but about 66 that mentioned Evans.