I've been busy making calls for Gary Trauner for two days but a search has failed to turn up any evidence that dkos has gotten a diary about the wonderful protest against Dick Cheney yesterday in Laramie.
If it has been posted, I'll delete this diary but the people who did this definitely deserve to have their efforts recorded here.
My apologies that I cannot post some great photos of this event but I haven't bothered to register with any of kos's approved image hosts yet and don't have the energy to deal with that at this point.
More on the flip...
We learned about a week ago that Dick Cheney would be coming to Laramie to try to boost the turn-out for Barbara Cubin. This left little time to organize but Laramie has some experience with protesting Dick Cheney. In fact, in September 2002, Cheney appeared in Laramie to sell his little war in Iraq and a number of people managed to get into the venue and, in the midst of his "conversation" with former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-WY, strip off their overshirts to reveal the message "No Iraq War."
That protest led to the formation of a group called Stand Up for Peace, of which I am a proud member, that has been protesting the war every Friday afternoon -- even once when the temps dropped to 32 below. So, despite the short planning time, we had the infrastructure and Stand Up for Peace immediately set a planning meeting for Wednesday (Nov 1). Luckily for us, the announcement came about a week earlier, just before a big rally with Trauner and the other statewide Dems the previous Thursday so we were able to get out information about the planning meeting at the rally. (I was at the rally eating my chili when one of our semi-regulars sidled up to me and said, "Just tell me where to be and when." I knew immediately, of course, to what she was referring.)
A few people (not me!) did an enormous amount of work to pull this off, against some stiff odds since some of our natural allies were taken out of the game because no one wanted any political overtones to come back and bite the Trauner campaign. I got a couple of panicked phone calls from Dem headquarters wanting to ensure there would be no Trauner signs and that we would be certain to emphasize the non-partisan nature of our group and the protest. I handled that end while others got the rally organized.
And the rally was an enormous success! Friday night, after a big turnout for our last pre-election weekly stand up, we commandeered a garage to paint signs and it was great to see a lot of new faces show up for that.
On Saturday, we awoke to mention of the planned protest in our local paper which rarely ever covers our events. At 8AM, we began gathering in a park about 6 blocks from the venue and people just kept coming and coming! Our count was 100 but the Laramie Boomerang claims more than that so I'll let them take over the story from there:
More than 100 people gathered outside Laramie High School on Saturday to protest the war in Iraq during a Republican campaign rally.
Members of Laramie's nonpartisan anti-war group, Stand up for Peace Wyoming, as well as non-members, turned out at 9 a.m. to demonstrate against a $340 billion war that, according to the Associated Press, has claimed the lives of more than 3,068 Coalition troops (2,829 Americans) and 655,000 Iraqi civilians while wounding 21,419 American troops.
Those are the first two paragraphs! Great start.
The protestors stood in a line facing the Republican supporters as they filed into the LHS gymnasium for a rally featuring Vice President Dick Cheney. The protestors held signs that read, "Change the Course," "Secret Prisons are Un-American" and "Dick: How many Bodies for a Gallon of Gasoline?"
There are then a number of great quotes from SUFP members and non-members, emphasizing all the costs of the war and what that could be paying for, before they close out with this:
While most of the protestors chose to remain outside, several were able to get tickets to attend the GOP rally in the LHS gymnasium.
According to eye witnesses, three people were removed from the gymnasium by Secret Service agents for heckling Cheney during his speech.
I don't know what happened inside. I do know I was the contact person if anyone needed to be bailed out of jail and no one called me so I have to assume that that wasn't a problem.
Unfortunately, the Casper Star-Tribune saw fit to downplay the demonstration. They included a good photo but then captioned it with something about "a few" protesters. Even in their close-up shot, however, you could see that there were more than the usual definition of "a few." Their story online doesn't include the photo and does not mention the protest at all. I guess they figured they were already out on a limb, endorsing Trauner today:
Wyoming should thank Cubin for her service in Washington, but it's time for her to come home. On Tuesday, voters should give Democrat Gary Trauner an opportunity to be what Cubin no longer is: an effective representative for Wyoming.
Why Trauner?
We think Trauner has the potential to be an excellent representative. He is an intelligent, articulate and hard-working candidate, who spent the past 10 months knocking on more than 15,000 doors. That much listening requires genuine enthusiasm for the job.
Contrary to a fusillade of television attack ads, nothing about Trauner is at odds with "Wyoming values." He recognizes the importance of recreational opportunities and public access to public lands. He has, in fact, demonstrated a stronger commitment to this issue than Cubin.
This little gem for loyal Repubs:
Loyal Wyoming Republicans are understandably reluctant to abandon a GOP incumbent. But their long-term interest lies in sending a stronger Republican to Congress.
They can't achieve that goal as long as Cubin ties up the seat. Letting Trauner occupy the chair for two years may be a cheap price to create a GOP opportunity in 2008.