OBAMA!

So, I saw Obama's motorcade. I'm pretty awesome like that.

The Battalion put up this youtube video interviewing some students about the protest:



You can see in one of those shots, that, like the Washington protest, large numbers were estimated and reported, but only a fraction actually showed up. The early estimates were somewhere from 6,000 to 10,000. And The Eagle reported there were 1,000 and The Batt that there were around 1,500, which makes me wonder if we went to the same protest. No way were there more than 500 people there, and my actual estimate is more like 300. Most of the protesters, like they say in The Eagle article, were clearly not A&M students.

Anyway, pictures! Some of these I took, one is from The Batt's website, one is from The Eagle's website, and some are Jim Harner's from Facebook:

Nothing says "I'm a douche" like a professionally-made Obama=Hitler sign.

I wish I knew this guy.





This is one of my professors, Dr. Jim Harner, and his wife.





Our pictures are less dramatic, because I have the oldest digital camera ever. It's about as awesome as the camera in my phone. You can click the pictures for a larger view, though.

This one is a guy arguing about trans fats with these girls. I only caught the part of the conversation where he was talking about how doctors get sued all the time and how poor insurance companies have to pay money for frivolous lawsuits. Or something. Don't worry, though, those underdog insurance companies live happily ever after on their billion-dollar profits.









We got handed this card while milling around the protest by a loud, old, crazy guy.





My favorite of the signs. This woman would be appalled if I told her what I thought her sign meant.





This one was a joke, by the way.










The Batt had a lot of articles about the protests and the speech, but this one stuck out to me. Cole Allen really wants to be a good person, and not a Republican dickbag. Really, he does. But he can't help but suspect that Obama is using community service to send subliminal messages. All that talk about empathy is just...suspicious, you know?

Through the speech I felt, however, there were possible subliminal messages as the president spoke.

He said, "Through community services creates an experience that makes it a little harder not to care about others." As he said this and began to talk about how we should care about others, I began to think maybe this was a way to try and push his healthcare ideas through a conservative school.

Contradicting to that, he later said, "There's a lot that the government can't or shouldn't do, and that's where citizens come in to help and service those needs."

Which could potentially confuse the conservative party, because he is admitting government involvement should be limited in certain aspects.

Due to his great rhetoric and possible persuasion skills, one might ask, is this a political ploy and tactic from him?

The way I see it, no. While it could be a great way to do so, there was just not that many people there to really worry about changing views. This seemed as a heart-felt topic of which was important to him.

This really makes me wonder why Allen would do community service, if not because he cares about people? And since when was "caring about people" a Democrat-only activity? Is Allen suggesting that Republicans don't care about other human beings? And since you can tell that he is himself a Republican, that suggestion feels even more damning.