Over 5000 People attended
(Welcome Daily Page readers!)
Clad in my Moonbat t-shirt, with my notepad and camera in hand, I boarded the bus to Baraboo, WI for Fighting Bobfest. Why a Bob Fest? --to bring people together to reinforce their hope that they can take back our government from the powers of the monied interests, just as Bob LaFollette and his Progressives did more than 100 years ago. So here are the speakers and some quotes, just the highlights. Hopefully they are all completely accurate. I was taking notes furiously.
The moving force behind Bob Fest is Ed Garvey:
The first speaker was none other than Rep. John Conyers.
He spoke of the problems in the Ohio election in '04:
"Instead of making voting easier and more efficient, they tried to discourage people. We need honest people taking care of the voting process."
On the media:
"Stop reading the junk media. Whoever invented this myth that liberals run the media?"
He spoke of the on terrorism and war:
"You can't stop terrorism with violence. We need to use more than that. We aren't decreasing terrorism we are spreading it."
SNIP
To much Applause: "Pre-Emptive war is not in the Constitution."
And.....
"It's time we call these folks out and I'm calling President Bush out on everything I don't agree with. Bob LaFolette taught me the time to protest is the time your country is doing wrong. That is the highest form of patriotism."
Senator Russ Feingold followed :
"President Bush didn't have his best August vacation. Now everyone deserves a vacation, including President Bush. But it's based on doing your job the rest of the year. It wasn't Cindy Sheehan or Hurricane Katrina, it was a...
lack of Vision,
a lack of Leadership
and a lack of Candor
that made it not one of his best vacations."
Snip
"Our strongest supporters are tired of the timidity of the Democratic Party. Consultants in Washington D.C. say be Republican-light, but after 9/11 no party will win without a clear vision. Too many voters see us without a message at best or spineless at worst. ......People elect us to take a position and argue for it vigorously and even if it is unpopular at first."
SNIP
'When we go back to Washington we can not ignore 2 issues:
We need to challenge the US Patriot Act and challenge the war in Iraq."
(standing ovation from crowd)
Feingold laid out 5 Myths of war in Iraq and the need to challenge them.
He finished with...
"I want to say this as sensitively as I can. Everything you are doing for Katrina is wonderful and we're doing everything we can such as we'll work to exempt the people hit by Kartrina from the Bankruptcy Bill. And I know you are doing all you can too. But as you do it don't let George Bush off the hook on Iraq."
The crowd rose in applause and chants of "Russ '08"
Rep.Bernie Sanders (I) Vermont:
In all it was a fiery speech.
Speaking on economic disparities and poverty in the US.
"I see a great middle class being destroyed."
SNIP
"Obviously President Bush and his mother are not too familiar with poverty and what it's like to be poor....SNIP.... They don't know that not everyone can get in a limousine, go to a hotel and ride out the storm.....And Mr. President though you haven't mentioned it, 5 million more Americans are living in poverty since you became president."
SNIP
"The true greatness of a country is not in the number of Billionaires or nuclear weapons we flaunt. It is one in which justice, equality and dignity prevail. We honor Bob Lafollette when we end the Culture of Greed which Bush and his friends are pushing....These people are like desperate and sick heroin addicts. They need more and more and more millions. When does it end?
When is their greed enough?"
SNIP
"Let us be very clear. I have conservative friends, Everyone has a right to their views but when people do not tell the truth, that is different. When this president travels the country, telling people that Social Security is going bankrupt, that it won't be there for young people, this President is lying and there is no other way to describe it."
SNIP
"We are fighting for our country, for the world,we have alot to do. Let's go out and do it.
(standing ovation)
Peter Leidy sings:
"Oh Where, Oh where, Oh where is Dick (cheney)?
Was very funny
Rep. Gwen Moore from Milwaukee:
Rep. Moore was great. Watch out for this woman!!!
She was funny, brave and the most genuine spoken pol I have heard in some time.
She shared her meeting with Bush at the White House as an incoming freshman rep.
"When I met George Bush in the White House he said.....You, You, You're the reason I lost WI. and I said YEAH!"
She spoke of how Bush tried and failed to get the black vote:
"They tried to convince black people to come to the dark side but they wouldn't do it."
She spoke of the many efforts to disenfranchise voters in WI calling it "ground zero for disenfranchising voters."
She also spoke of the hideous flyers that Republicans had distributed in black neiborhoods in Milwaukee in '04 to suppress the black vote. I know of these and they were bad.
She endede with:
"Katrina gave us a glimpse of what the ownership society will look like. We are all on our own unless we stick together."
She really was great. Great energy. I hope you'll get a chance to hear her sometime.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin:
The people love Tammy Baldwin. You just feel it. I felt she sort of sneaks up on you as a speaker. She had the people on their feet more, the more she spoke.
She laid out her Progressive Manifesto which included:
Enactment of Universal Health Care
Restore economic justice, the pension systen and end corporate corruption
Raise the federal minimum wage
Retain the Estate Tax
Protect privacy by fully supporting equal rights for all Americans
Take control of the Defense Budget
"Great movements are not spontaneous."
She spoke of the need to work and hold the belief we can do it. She cited Gaylord Nelson to whom this Bob Fest was dedicated.
"Gaylord Nelson didn't start with his 99 colleages in the Senate. He started with the people."
Some Strong Women....Baldwin & Moore on the ends
The event ended with some funny material by Jim Hightower. Forgive me for no quotes as by this time I just wanted to sit back and be entertained. I was.
Many groups were there offering information....
Lots of different food but the Ice Cream line was SOOO Long.....
It was a great day. We need events like this all over the country. We must be better organized, focused and work harder than they do if we are to take back this country before it is too late. Bob Fests move us in that direction.
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