I drew the short straw yesterday and was assigned to stay with the protestors (and non-wealthy Bush supporters) outside. Protester detail is sometimes fun - like when everything goes to hell with the police. I guess that sounds bad, but it's true. I'd rather be running for 15 blocks dodging riot cops and pepper spray, rather than have to sit there for 4 hours with smelly, anti-everything-even-slightly-corporate protesters. And, although they despise most large corporations they have no problem buying tons of cigarettes and tobacco.

With that in mind, I decided to remove all my corporate media logos. Since I work for a FOX affiliate, I get about 400x the hassle that any other field crew would.



I'm gonna get hassled anyway, but at least this cuts down on their reaction time - kinda like that stuff that hunters put on so deer don't know they're coming to shoot them.



This might've been going too far, but I removed the logo from my water bottle, as well. Can't protest what appears to be tap water, right?

Now that I'm all prepared, we arrive outside the (invite only) Bush rally, and walk up to the barricade to check stuff out. Here's what we saw:

Plenty of riot cops keeping things safe for Beaverton.



The anti-Bush protestors show up and mix with the Bush supporters. There's lots of repetitive drumming and people chanting opposing stuff at each other.



There were some clever anti-Bush signs. The pro-Bush people were friendly, but not very creative.



The two sides clash. There was a bit of yelling, but sometimes there was a touching little heart-to-heart conversation.
"I like freedom of speech."
"Oh my god! I like freedom of speech too!"



After my Dasani tap water ran out, I frequented the nearby kool-aid stand.



Eventually our hours of live news reports, and standing around listening people tell us, "what's really going on" was over. And, we rewarded ourselves with Molten Chocolate Cakes as Chili's.



All in a day's work.