'Patriots Against Pelosi' -- Hundreds Protest House Speaker at Orange County Tea Party!

Well, good thing I'm not on deadline! But it's worth the wait!

As promised, here's my report on today's anti-PelosiCare protest at the Irvine Hilton/Orange County Airport. The background information is at my earlier entry, "Orange County Tea Party Patriots to Protest Nancy Pelosi at Democrats' 15th Annual Harry S. Truman Awards Dinner!"

Okay, here's the scene along MacArthur Boulevard when I arrived a little after 4:00pm. Just a few tea partiers are lined up along the east side of the street, and I'm facing north. That first sign on the right captures the spirit of the day:

You can see the geography of the tea party at the protest map event organizers sent me. Early in the evening, the main protest is taking place at the little red-lined elbow at left -- at the intersection of MacArthur and Douglas. Later on, some of the more intense demonstrations took place at the driveway entrance to the hotel parking lot, just left of the service entrance marked below. Lots of police units were on hand:

I walked over by the hotel driveway and Planned Parenthood activists were setting up. I'll have more on these folks below. Just hidden behind the folks with the "Health Care Reform Now" sign is Pauline Merry, the former provost of the Pacific Coast Campus at my school, Long Beach City College. Pauline retired in 2007. She asked me, "What are you doing here"? I pointed back over to MacArthur and said, "I'm with the tea partiers." And she looked at me and said, "You're with them? Why?" And I told her: "I'm not happy with the Democrats." She said, well you're in political science, right? That explains it." Actually, President Hussein "Infanticide" Obama and his PelosiCare monstrosity explain it, but I said my farewells, in any case:

That's Pauline here, holding that "Stupak Never!" sign:

Okay, back over at the tea party section. I said hello to these two lovely activists. They were boasting awesome signs, reversible for added impact:

I stopped to say hello to a tea party mom:

Here's the scene walking back over to MacArthur Boulevard. A few more people were setting up:

Some long-time readers might recall this gentleman, who also hoisted a big-flag protest sign at the Adam Schiff town hall in August:

A couple of more lovelies, featuring the AARP sign on the left (the American Association of Repulsive Politics).

Walking back over to the intersection, more lovelies, even more excited to have their picture taken. Notice that sign on the left: "Obama-Care CAIR" -- for the unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, the Council on American-Islamic Relations:

This is my old friend Michael Fell. I saw him again for the first time in years at the Westwood 9-12 Tea Party West in September:

You can see the crowd's filling out by now. I counted 200 people before sundown:

Walking back over to the driveway, I had to post the obligatory SEIU open-borders demonstration picture:

A purple-shirt janitor amigo is here -- JUSTICIA!:

Here's our big-flag patriot speaking with the Planned Parenthood activists. My good friend Megan Barth suggested I get a picture -- too good to pass up, you know? -- of this PREGNANT PRO-ABORTION ACTIVIST protesting the Stupak amendment. Something just doesn't compute there, you think?:

Checking back with the tea partiers, I had to chase this guy down the sidewalk to get a picture. He was cruising up and down with that bullhorn. My bet is this guy's a LaRouchie (the other side of his sign was an Obama-Nazi poster, not my favorite). He didn't seem to be with the grassroots folks I've been highlighting, and there were more extreme-o types on the south side of Douglas street, including some 9/11 truthers. I didn't take any more photos of them:

At the video, provided by W.C. Varones, you can hear the big chanting along the front driveway when protesters started getting really fired up:

Although the protest was in high gear, I was cruising around to see if I could find Nancy Pelosi inside the hotel. I heard mixed reports on her arrival, and never did see her pull up. Here's the scene in the hotel bar/lobby area. Everyone had to check in to receive nametags, so it's not like I could snake into the main hall to take pictures:

I'm borrowing this shot below from the Orange County Register's report, "House speaker Pelosi attracts fans and foes." Be sure to check out the huge photo-slideshow at the article:

Walking out to my car (which was up MacArthur past the next hotel), I saw one more sign:

Home safe and sound, my wife took a picture of yours truly:

I actually have more pictures. Look for a follow-up post sometime tomorrow.

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UPDATE: The Astute Blogger links, "PELOSI WELCOMED BY TEA PARTIERS IN CALIFORNIA."

Also, linked at Doug Ross, Nice Deb, and Pat in Shreveport.

ADDED: Also, Reaganite Republican and Lonely Conservative.

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UPDATE II: My follow up entry is here, "Tea Party America's Christmas Wish List: 'Kiss My Astroturf' - STOP Health-Care Take-Over, and More!!" And that includes an apology to Robert Ogden, the Meetup Organizer of the San Diego Tea Party.