As advertised, I attended the "Pro-America" rally in downtown Houston today. As I predicted, the turnout was much larger than the peace march of a few weeks ago. The organizers, two local talk radio stations, claim eight to ten thousand folks attended. That frankly, seems a bit high. I asked a mounted cop what he thought, and he guesstimated five or six thousand. The peace march folks claimed three thousand, real world observers put it at 1500, tops.

The rally today might have been even bigger, but they quit letting folks into Jones Plaza, as it was just too crowded. I got there right at noon, and almost didn't get in. They were, as we used to say in the Corps, packed asshole to bellybutton.

The crowd was predominantly middle to upper middle class, well-behaved, and unabashedly patriotic. I saw several folks literally wearing the flag. Lots of Viet vets in their old uniforms. Uniformly well-behaved, and lot of families with young kids.

You can see pics here, here, here, and here.

I had to choose between carrying a camera, or my signs, so opted for the signs. I had three, the most popular of which was this one...

I must have seen dozens of folks bust out laughing when they saw it, and had many requests to hold it up so people could take a pic of it.

Another one that people also liked was this one...

But I think you had to be old enough to remember the Viet Nam War protests to really get that one.

Finally, I had this one, though as it turns out I barely used it...

All I can draw is a line in the sand and hasty conclusions, so I had Cookoff Girl make them for me. She gets all the props. :-)

The signs look much better than these pics, which are actually vidcaps, as my digital is on the blink - for some unknown reason, when you press the shutter button, nothing happens.

Anyway, back to the rally...

I have two major observations. First, the speakers sucked. It seem that the art of addressing a live audience is a dying art. Some lady from the DAR started off by saying she wouldn't be speaking long. In case you've never heard, speakers that begin by saying they'll be brief never are. Brief speakers just get on with it without that announcement - that's part of the reason they're brief.

Chris Baker and Pat Gray were the best speakers of a bad lot. They are the morning and evening talk radio hosts for the station KPRC that organized the event.

Infamously conservative Congressman Tom Delay spoke, and while the crowd seemed to like it, I thought his speech was rather bland. Given the size and ideological enthusiasm of the crowd, he coulda/shoulda had them going like holy rollers listening to Billy Sunday. I don't know what got him to where he is, but it sure wasn't rhetoric.

And then there was Sheila...

Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of the house from the Houston area, has been one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush and GWII. She voted against the resolution to use force last fall, and introduced a measure to repeal that resolution a few monsth ago. She was a staunch defender of Clinton during his impeachment.

The radio station, billing this as a "Rally For America" had invited both ends of the spectrum to attend. Lee, well-known as publicity hound, (Bush pointedly ignored her oustretched hand as he made his way down the aisle at the last SOTU) chose to attend, arriving late, with a escort of HPD officers to trundle her through the crowd and up onto the stage. As one of the other speakers was running late, the organizers offered her a chance to speak.

Heh.

In it's official account of the rally, the Houston Chronicle said she was "was greeted with some boos."

Yeah. And King Kong was a monkey.

Why'd she get booed so harshly? Well, it's one thing to be a liberal, it's another to be one like this, and her reputation does precede her.

I have to give her credit for moxie, though. She stood up there for maybe five minutes, spitting out her speech into the storm of defiance that rose up from the crowd, drowning out her words despite the best efforts of the PA system. Between the boos, hisses, and chants of "USA!" and "BUSH!BUSH!BUSH!" I couldn't hear anything she had to say. I read later it was some standard palaver about how she loved the country, and respected our opinions even though we disagree, blah-blah-blah.

Despite that, though, I did not hear a single obscenity or insult directed at her, or any threats of violence. A few of the local media made hay by mentioning that she was escorted out by Houston police, the implication being she was in danger.

Well, of course she was escorted out, as she was in. So was Tom Delay - it's SOP for politicos at big functions like that.

I've no doubt that had anyone even looked like they were about to harm her, any bystanders would have taken the idiot down.

That didn't keep her from getting an earful, though. :-)

Not that it seems to have changed her mind. The very next day, while speechifying in a local church, she was quoted as saying:

"We have lost if we go to war."

Heh. Wanna bet?

For another blogger's version of the rally, go read Laurence Simon's account over at Amish Tech Support.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention this yesterday - after her speech, SJL headed off to the side to get some camera time with the local news crews. As soon as the cameras snapped off, she bustled off into her chauffeur-driven vehicle, a, you guessed it, big black SUV.