As I mentioned Wednesday, the Fire Pelosi Bus was scheduled to make a stop in Houston today. So, I thought I’d go down to the Harris County Republican Party headquarters and take a few pictures. I never, in a million years, expected to be threatened by thugs on the advance team for the bus. And yet, it happened.
First, the “rally” wasn’t a bus rally at all. They wanted everyone to cram into the offices on the second floor. And although the turnout was very small, those offices are even smaller, so it was very crowded. Take a look:
It was hot in there, so I decided to go wait for the bus outside, take a few pictures of the arrival, then go back inside to hear the cheers. Well, that isn’t what the advance team had in mind. They wanted everyone outside to gather in one spot on the sidewalk of the office building, and then Steele was going to pass by. That wasn’t the picture I wanted so I stood in the sun on the sidewalk. All of a sudden, a thug comes up to me and tells me that I have to move. I said no, this is a public sidewalk and the bus will be on a public street. He didn’t bother to ask me to move, he just repeated that I “had” to move. No, I told him.
The thug walks over to a couple of other thugs and tells them I will not move. Then, this black dude looks up at me and tells the other thugs, “One way or another, he’s moving. He’ll either move or get moved.” What this thug doesn’t realize is that I don’t get intimidated, so I remained right where I was.
Then, RNC Director of Regional Press Bill Riggs walks over to me, just as the bus was coming down the street, and said that I “had” to move. I also told him no and remained right where I was. Here is a picture of the bus as it pulls up: the black thug on the left is the one that threatened to move me:
Like I said, I don’t get intimidated. I got my shot of the “great” Michael Steele, a guy that I thought was okay until today:
Thugs.
UPDATE: Channel 2’s Mary Benton is “sort of disturbed“.
I guess you can’t please everyone. Ms. Benton says she is “sort of disturbed” that I would use the term “black” to describe one of the thugs in question. As I explained in the comments, it was easier than saying “the man on the left in the black shirt and tan pants”. But if that bothers her, how about this:
There were three thugs, two WHITE thugs and one black thug. One WHITE thug went over to where the other WHITE thug was standing with the black thug. The WHITE thug told the other two thugs, one WHITE and one black, that I would not move. The black thug then looks at me and says in a loud voice, “One way or another, he’s moving. He’ll either move or get moved.”. Here is a picture, with the black thug on the left and the WHITE thug on the right.
Always interesting to be criticized by someone that tweeted relentlessly from the National Association of BLACK Journalists meeting. Color me (can I say that?) not impressed.