| About 100 protestors gathered from
all over Central Washington to protest Dick Cheney's speech in Yakima, July 30,
2004.
Click here for pictures from protest
Article from Yakima
Herald-Republic
Published on Saturday,
July 31, 2004
VP's Appearance Draws
Anti-Bush Protesters By CHRIS
BRISTOL YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
|
GORDON KING/Yakima
Herald-Republic Protester Allen Lint vents
his anger at Yakima Police Department Lt. Gary Belles outside Eisenhower
High School following Vice-President Dick Cheney's speech there Friday
afternoon. Lint, who's from Yakima, was protesting that he wasn't allowed
to walk along a portion of 40th Avenue which had been closed for security
reasons. | The word on the
street outside Eisenhower High School was not kind for President Bush and the
featured attraction of the day, Vice President Dick Cheney.
Written in patriotic red, white and blue and adorned with a
peace symbol, a sign reading "Smush Bush" pretty much summed up the feelings of
dozens of protesters who braved the 100-degree heat for hours Friday afternoon
along busy South 40th Avenue.
"Obviously it's anybody but Bush at this point," explained
Elaine Anderson, a 24-year-old Yakima resident whose sign, "Go home, Dick," was
one of the few in the crowd actually aimed at the vice president.
Organized by a loose-knit coalition of labor groups, peace
activists and elements of the Kerry campaign, the demonstrators kept it above
the belt for the most part — even if some passers-by didn't.
"No war, kill commies!" yelled a motorist passing by in a green
SUV while a passenger added his thoughts on the subject with aid of his middle
finger. Minutes earlier a young man in a red Chevy Blazer did the same thing,
echoing Cheney's now famous directive to Sen. Patrick Leahy.
Other motorists had more complimentary things to say, tooting
their horns and giving the demonstrators the more digit-friendly thumbs-up sign
as they drove by.
Teamsters organizer Brad Taylor of Pasco said he was pleased
with the turnout, saying the Bush administration has been responsible for an
economic recovery that has mainly benefited corporations and rich Americans at
the expense of the middle class.
"This area has always been pretty conservative," he said. "Any
time you can get anybody out to protest is a good thing."
It was difficult to estimate the size of the protest. At the
scene, Yakima police Lt. Gary Belles said he did not take a head count but
agreed it topped out at about 75 to 80 people.
Signs were the main weapons of the protesters until a group of
more militant young people showed up just before Cheney's motorcade arrived.
Incensed by the shutdown of 40th Avenue while Cheney was speaking, they chanted
anti-Bush slogans and taunted police until the vice president's motorcade zipped
back to the airport.
All of which was a little too much for Ciria Ochoa, 23, and her
sister, Cynthia, 20, who live across the street and had front-row seats to the
spectacle.
In so many words, they described themselves as undecided swing
voters. They also said the demonstration did little to make up their minds
either way.
"If anything it actually kind of made me mad, the way they
acted," Cynthia Ochoa said. "It even kind of made me want to vote the other
way."
Published on Saturday,
July 31, 2004
Cheney Fires Up Faithful at
Rally By LEAH BETH WARD YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
|
JEFF HALLER/Yakima
Herald-Republic Vice President Dick Cheney
shakes hands with some of the hundreds gathered after he spoke at
Eisenhower High School in Yakima Friday. Also speaking at the event were
Congressmen Doc Hastings and George Nethercutt and former Senator Alan
Simpson. | Vice President
Dick Cheney rallied thousands of diehard Republicans in Yakima on Friday by
painting the newly minted Kerry-Edwards team as a one-way ticket to bigger
government, a weak defense and anti-business policies.
"Their big idea is to raise our taxes. What we're hearing is the
failed thinking of the past and we're not going back," Cheney said to a sweaty
but appreciative crowd packing the gym at Eisenhower High School.
He suggested that Democrats want to appease the enemies of the
United States, saying "Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength.
Instead they are caused by the perception of weakness."
|
JEFF HALLER/Yakima
Herald-Republic Vice President Dick Cheney
speaks as supporters raise their signs and rally at Eisenhower High School
in Yakima Friday. | The
Bush-Cheney campaign said 2,500 tickets were handed out in Central Washington,
including about 900 in Yakima. Attendees waited in a long line outside the gym
before passing through a metal detector and getting "wanded" by security
personnel. Secret Service agents were plentiful.
It was Cheney's second visit to Central Washington this week. On
Monday, he spoke at a fund-raiser in Kennewick for GOP gubernatorial hopeful
Dino Rossi, a former state senator from Sammamish.
|
JEFF HALLER/Yakima
Herald-Republic Vice President Dick Cheney
speaks to hundreds gathered at Eisenhower High School in Yakima
Friday. | Cheney was
introduced by his wife, Lynne Cheney, after former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson
warmed up the crowd with his folksy humor.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, and Rep. George Nethercutt,
R-Spokane, also gave brief remarks. Nethercutt is running an energetic campaign
against incumbent U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat.
"Yakima looks like Bush country," Cheney said to rousing
applause. He predicted that Washington, which went for Al Gore in 2000, would
send its 11 electoral votes this time to re-elect the Republican ticket.
Cheney hit familiar Republican themes: Congress needs to stop
what he called "lawsuit abuse" by limiting jury awards and curbing frivolous
claims, and it should extend the Bush tax cuts that have put the economy back on
track.
|
GORDON KING/Yakima
Herald-Republic Vice President Dick Cheney
and his wife Lynn wave to a small crowd, composed mainly of media, law
enforcement and fire personnel, after they emerged from Air Force Two
after landing in Yakima Friday afternoon. Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson
is behind Cheney. | He
promised the administration would continue supporting "a culture of life" by
fighting partial-birth abortion. He did not address stem-cell research, the use
of embryonic cells to create treatments or cures for debilitating diseases such
as multiple sclerosis, diabetes and Alzheimer's. Democratic nominee John Kerry
said in his acceptance speech that he would fund such research as president.
Cheney's strongest words came on the military and terrorism. The
crowd hushed when he warned the nation is at a crucial crossroads. Terrorists,
he said, "are every bit as intent on destroying us as the Axis was in World War
II and the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
"This is an enemy we must vanquish, and with George Bush as your
commander-in-chief, that is exactly what we will do," Cheney said.
As senators, Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards,
authorized the war against Iraq but voted against an $87 billion military
spending bill, Cheney noted. He mocked Kerry's explanation that the vote was a
"complicated" issue.
"Funding troops in combat should never be a complicated matter,"
he said.
Washington state Democrats defended Kerry's vote as a statement
on Bush economic policies.
"The American people are smart enough to know we live in a
complex world. What Senator Kerry wanted to do at that particular time was to
reverse the $20 trillion tax cut on the richest Americans," said Robert Perez, a
spokesman for the state Democratic party.
Kim Scacco-Morten didn't attend the Cheney rally, but she
teaches in the Cadet Alternative Program at Eisenhower, which gives
individualized attention to kids who struggle to keep up with school work.
Scacco-Morten is angry that the Bush administration has cut
Yakima schools' funding for the No Child Left Behind Act by 37 percent. In an
interview before the rally, she said the cuts make it impossible to meet
expectations under the act.
"When you don't fully fund it, many of the kids are going to get
left behind," she said. "We just can't do it without manpower and money."
Cheney didn't address No Child Left Behind specifically in his
half-hour speech, but he did say every child deserves an education.
Everything the vice president said pleased Earl Pearson, who
waved a "Viva Bush" sign from the middle of the gym floor. "It was all true," he
said.
Jose Orozco, 18, liked Cheney's directness.
"What he says is what he means. He gets to the point. He's got
my vote," Orozco said.
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