Palin Protest in Anchorage: A Taste of Things to Come?

::::::::

I hope that Saturday's anti-Palin demonstration in Anchorage will prove to be a taste of things to come for the Wacko from Wasilla. Organized by a local group known as "Alaska Women Reject Palin," the demonstration drew a crowd of around 1,500 - quite large for the sparsely-populated state, and in spite of attempts by local right-wingers to intimidate the organizers and preempt the event.

Following a press release by the organizers to Anchorage media outlets, local right-wing talk show host Eddie Burke broadcast their names and telephone numbers on the air. "They're a bunch of socialist maggots...," Burke told his listeners, "...a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots." After Burke's broadcast the organizers began receiving harassing and threatening phone calls (see KTUU TV, Alaska Public Radio). Another anonymous Palin supporter contacted local media on Friday posing as one of the anti-Palin organizers and told them the rally had been cancelled; and yet another faxed a forged document saying that the Secret Service had cancelled the permit for the demonstration. It seems there was nothing to which local Republicans wouldn't resort to silence their fellow Alaskans.

The protest went ahead as planned, however, drawing a crowd that may have been the largest ever in the state's history. Most of the demonstrators were women committed to making it clear to America that Sarah Palin does not speak for them. Signs carried by protesters included a host of highly uncomplimentary slogans directed at the Alaska governor: "Bush in a Skirt" ... "Hey Hockey Mom: Keep the Puck out of DC" ... "Pro-Woman, Anti-Palin" ... "Another Alaska Woman NOT for Sarah Palin" ... "Keep Your Church Outta My State" ... "Flip-Flop Sarah" ... "Great Performance, But We're Not That Stupid" ... "Don't Insult My Pit Bull" ... "Women: Vote Issues, Not Gender" ... "My Daughter Deserves Better" ... "Palin=G.W. Bush with Lipstick" ... "We Love Alaska, Not Palin" ... "Wrong Woman, Wrong Message" ... "McCain/Palin: Unstable/Unable" ... "Hockey Mama for Obama" .... Photos and video of the event are available at Mudflats, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, KTUU TV, and Photobucket. National and mainstream media coverage of the event has thus far been sparse, but the story has appeared in USA Today, at UPI, and on the Washington Post political blog in addition to the local Anchorage Daily News and KTUU TV. The story is circulating rapidly through the political blogosphere, meanwhile, and stands to gain more mainstream media attention as papers go to press Monday morning.

I hope to see many more such events as Palin travels the country attempting to convince voters that McSame is somehow McDifferent.