Dozens of Saddam supporters were arrested Friday in what the San Francisco Chronicle calls "nonviolent civil disobedience actions" that knotted up morning rush-hour traffic in the Financial District. I would not use the term "non-violent" to describe those who use physical force to unlawfully detain people from going about their daily business.
Where else but San Francisco would you find people who are so full of blind hatred of the United States that they would serve as unpaid shills for Jacques Chiraq and his oil and weapons franchise with Saddam Hussein? KQED radio, the local NPR affiliate, was reporting (not online) that another group of Saddam supporters has started "French Frydays", where they patronize French cafe Cafe de la Presse every Friday to drink French wine and eat French cheeses.
UPDATE The San Francisco Chronicle has the story of the San Francisco Chiraquistas here
"A toast!" Lenoir said. "To the French people, for pushing their government to support peace. Vive la France!"I have no doubt that Lenoir would have said the exact same thing back in 1938.
On a saner note, KQED was also reporting that several dozen Iraqi immigrants were demonstrating in front of the Federal Building to support the war against Saddam. "The Iraqi people can't do this by themselves" one of them said on the air, "they need America's help".
I hope to be there when the pro-American Iraqi immigrants stop by to visit with the pro-Saddam demonstrators...
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 14, 2003 06:34 PMThe jerks who deliberately blockade traffic are detaining drivers against their will - that's called kidnapping in less enlightened circles. It works (as Gandhi's protests did) because of the essential decency of the detainees, who are constrained against physically removing the obstacles by lack of organization, and by unwillingness to bust through the blockade. One of the yowling darlings might be hurt, and the legal system (blind so far to the harm done to the law-abiding traffic)would hold that against the victim of the kidnapping, instead of the perpetrators of it.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on March 15, 2003 12:00 PMDissent is the duty of every American, and does not come out of blind hatred. Being against a war (a war which break numerous international laws, not to mention the charter of the UN) does not mean being in support of Saddam. It might be nice if the world were as black and white as you portray it, but unfortunately it's not.
Posted by: Mb. on March 21, 2003 05:23 AM