Move America Forward: Victory Tour-Recap of Day 1

Cross Posted from Wake up America

[Updates from people at the rallies below]


Yesterday we brought you updates as they came out about the Victory Tour, sponsored by Move America Forward. It started in Carson City, Nevada in front of Harry "Baghdad" Reid's office and moved to Sacramento and San Francisco on Day one.

Move America Forward's Victory Tour started on Sept. 3 and ends on Sept. 15th at the capitol, 27 stops in between.

A recap of yesterdays rallies was written by a Move America Forward Staffer- Danny and can be found here with wonderful pictures of the day and the rally.

Excerpts:

Anyways when Buzz was finished, Melanie introduced Debbie Lee who told the story of her son’s sacrifice. I can’t believe how dedicated that man was. He put himself in the line of fire three times in one day to defend his brothers in arms as well as the Iraqi civilians whom it was his mission to train and protect. He worked with and helped train the new Iraqi army which has burgeoned to great proportions since Debbie’s Son and dedicated Special Forces like him began their work in Iraq.

[...]

After Debbie Lee talked about her son’s story and how he was KIA, Deborah Johns took the stage and told her son’s story, that he has served four tours in the military and volunteered for deployment in Iraq THREE TIMES. What bravery. What stalwart commitment to a cause which one believes in. This boy reminds me of what a young Winston Churchill must have been like. And Deborah has also served four tours of duty, as she has been on every MAF caravan. That’s four tours of duty educating people on the difference between the mass media and the defeatism of liberal legislators in stark contrast to the reality on the ground in Iraq. That reality being, that we are winning the war, stopping Al Queda, and spreading democracy and liberty to the hungry souls of Iraqis who have spent decades under oppression. Deborah’s speech was indeed very moving.

Duncan Hunter spoke next, and there were massive number of people there! Duncan was an amazing speaker. I have never personally seen him address a crowd before, nor had I met the gentleman before today, but I must say I was very, VERY impressed. The most touching thing about Congressman Hunter’s speech was a story he reiterated to us from the wisdom of one of history’s greatest leaders: President Ronald Reagan. According to Duncan, Reagan had once spoken of a soldier who was infantry in Vietnam and was KIA. When his buddies found his body they discovered something they did not know before; he had kept a diary. When reviewing the man’s last entry they were particularly moved by one short passage. I do not have a direct quotation, but it basically said that despite the horrors of that war, despite the mud, the setbacks, and the vicious cycle of advance, retreat, taking and giving ground nightly, despite the seemingly endless assault of nightly shelling and mortar fire, this soldier was still deeply committed to his cause. He wrote that I “must fight this war as though the future of the whole United States of America depended on me and me alone.” That was the nature of his resolve. Hearing that from Congressman Hunter ALMOST made me tear up in the eyes. How could one man, knowing that his death could come at any time or any day, and that his commanders would likely only see him as another KIA on the daily list of KIAs. Knowing full well that the public at home would likely spit on him in thank for all his efforts and risks. And yet he was still so committed to his mission and he took it so seriously that we would defend it as if the fate of the nation relied on his performance alone. That is a lot of weight to put on your shoulders, and he was willing to die for it. And in the end he made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. Would anyone doubt that he did it with nothing but love and compassion in his heart?

Go read the rest, Danny has plenty to say.

More photos and reactions from some of the attendees can be found at Debbi's Dribble and Marooned in Marin.

[Update] I REALLY should read my emails before hitting publish here.

Email from Melanie Morgan:

Susan,
Please feel free to post ---Mel Morgan

Smelly Hippies, Patriots and I-80
Written by Melanie Morgan
Monday, 03 September 2007

Folks,
I've just returned from the grueling first 24-hours of our Fight For Victory tour, which launched in Carson City, Nevada, stopping in Sacramento, continuing onto San Francisco (the belly of the liberal beast) and then onto Modesto, California.

I BURNED out the differential of my big Honkin' SUV, we were BUMMED out by the "Burning Man" Smelly Hippies Weirdos on parade (200,000 returning from the Nevada desert to hog up our freeways while we caravaned from stop-to-stop) and we were BUSTIN' with pride by the patriotic response of ordinary Americans who stopped what they were doing on their Labor Day holiday to greet us.

Our two 'Debbies' Deborah Johns (Blue Star Mom) and Debbie Lee (Gold Star Mom) were terrificly eloquent and amazingly effective at each rally stop. Lt. Colonel "Buzz" Patterson was also a BIG hit, as well.

We had VERY nice crowds numbering in the hundreds at each stop! Despite the Labor Day traffic and hour late appearances in Sacramento and San Francisco.

We were counter-protested at Senator Reid's office in Carson City by, oh, lemme see--a couple dozen anti-war leftists (some of whom heckled us at our rallies.) Not one single counter-protestor in Sacramento and, get this, SAN FRANCISCO.

While the National, State and local Democratic party sent out MILLIONS of e-mails to counter our PRO-TROOP message, the best the wingnuts could muster was a couple of dozen? Lame, really lame. Thought this was the Hot Summer of Protest against the neo-cons. NOT.

In Carson City, we had two TV cameras, and local newspaper coverage. Sorry I can't forward all the coverage, our tech people are working overtime. (Most of our staff is on the tour.)

We had six to eight television hits (complete 3 minute packages) in the Reno-Carson City market, all of which was extremely positive. As in LITTLE BIAS, much pro-troop coverage, favorable discussion of General Petraeus upcoming report, and GOE, VFF, Eagles Up big D.C. event. This has got to be irritating to the notoriously thin-skinned Senator Harry Reid. At each stop, we pushed Victory Caucus for signing the petition for Congress.

Haven't seen the media coverage for Sacramento or San Francisco yet. San Francisco was wall-to-wall Bay Bridge 'opening early' coverage, drowning out our very uplifting rally in front of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office.

Okay, I am officially out of activist go-juice. Must.Go.To.Bed.

Please see our Daily Blog File at www.moveamericaforward.org for more details. We will be updating from the road. PLEASE keep pushing our rallies and get some boots on the ground in each location.
Melanie Morgan
MAF Chairman
KSFO Radio

P.S. When I got home tonight I found YouTube video from a woman I don't know, Jenny Hatch, but I would sure love to meet her!
Must WATCH --funny, and moving, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vi1QfkPGRI



[End Update]

[Updates with emails from attendees, with pictures] Pictures from Dean. (Thanks to Take Our Country Back for sending them to me)

(Deb Lee, Duncan Hunter and Deb Johnson, Sept.3,2007)

(Message to Harry, Sept.3,2007)

(Protesters, Sept.3,2007)

(Dean, email one)---Well I'm a little late with this but here goes.

Long drive up and physically taxing. I arrived early and reconnoitered the area to locate enemy encampments and patrols. None sighted at 07:00. Moved position to locate the main body of friendly forces at Holiday Inn Express. They were there so after a short break and head call for me and the dog I returned to the area of operations at Mills Park. Another recon revealed no enemy activity at 07:45. Two groups of friendlies were found so I mustered them to roll call and helped with planning.
Assisted these people setting up a couple of booths, flags, tents, and established a perimeter. Another recon indicated enemy activity was light and well away form our camp.

08:30 many friendly forces begin arriving. Reconned the perimeter once more and picked up one lone moonbat carrying a sign that read, "End The War - Out of Iraq Now". He attempted to infiltrate the camp but was stopped before he could do damage by me. I confronted the aging hippie who, by the way, smelled of goats, ganja, and feces. Yellow teeth too. He made several attempts to go around my confrontation but I countered moving swiftly to head him off each time. He was told by me that he was not welcome here and was not invited to this party.
He screamed I was infringing on his 1st Amendment rights to which I responded "Get your sorry smelly ass out of here". He made one more attempt to get by me by getting in my face using his sign as a shield. Once again I stopped him with a stern warning, "Get the sign out of my face and go away before I take "that" sign and shove it up your ass." He began frothing at the mouth screaming more unintelligible raves about 1st Amendment rights and being threatened.
For some reason he suddenly turned away and exited the area in much haste. Thinking I had won a major firefight all by my lonesome, I turned to go back to camp and was immediately met by 8 or 9 friendlies all laughing their asses off. They congratulated me laughing, shaking hands stating "We had your back bro." The enemy infiltrator never returned.
This ends military after action report.

Let the festivities begin.

(Dean, email two)

Man what a day! All major players showed up at the scheduled time 09:00 including Duncan Hunter who was apparently on his way east. Perhaps pictures will show more than I can say, see attached.

I had the honor to meet Debbie Lee, Duncan Hunter, Debborah Johns, Col. "Buzz" Patterson and was able to speak with them for a brief period. Amazing people and well motivated! After a few minutes of friendly chat I once again returned to the perimeter to check enemy positions. See attached.

According to some reports there were over 200 friendlies and around 40 or so protesters. My assessment was at least 170 friendlies and 12 enemy counted. All in front of hairy "dickweeds" office on our side of the road. If there were more enemies they remained in the shadows and undetected. We had them outnumbered at least 14 to 1. And it goes without saying outclassed.

I am always impressed by the conduct of our people. They are clean, well groomed, well spoken and fired up. Lots of happy faces and lots of Red, White, and Blue. HOOYAH! My kind of people...PATRIOTS everyone of them.

(Dean--email three)

The return trip was delayed by at least an hour due to heavy traffic...bumper to bumper for at least 100 miles.
No major incidents to report in Sacramento as the caravan arrived and continued with the festivities.

Moonbats had vandalized and defaced the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Capitol grounds. Volunteers were busy cleaning up the mess and today I am headed back there to help. Apparently the damage was done in the wee hours or late night and went undetected by police patrolling the grounds. Coffee break perhaps? The dribbling little creeps aren't stupid so they probably had lookouts. From the looks of the damage it was done quickly with no method to the madness. Damage was minor but ugly. I didn't take pictures mainly because I don't want to be reminded of the incident. The news stations have it recorded.

Returned home checked e-mail and visited your blog and Spree's to make sure that she was able to live blog the event. I checked in with Deb Johns and another lady to make sure Spree was on the list for live updates and pictures. Could not enlist any additional volunteers to aid in the effort but didn't spend alot of time at it considering I was just a little bit busy with perimeter control. LOL.

Thanks Dean...now THAT is live reporting.




Today starts Day #2:

DAY 2 - Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Rally start 7:00 AM
Courtyard By Marriot
1720 Sisk Road
Modesto, CA 95350

Fresno, CA Rally Start 10:00 AM 45 MINS
Fresno Convention Center
848 M St,
Fresno CA

Los Angeles, CA Rally Start 3:15 PM 2 HR
Griffith Park
4730 Crystal Springs Dr
Los Angeles, CA

If you are near any of these rallies, go, join them.

As updates come in from them, we will, of course, bring them to you.

Remember to stop in tomorrow here for my exclusive interview with Melanie Morgan, Chairman of Move America Forward. I will be posting the transcript.

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