Welcome Committee for President in SF

On February 16, 2012, the Bay Area Tea Party Movement protested outside the San Francisco Masonic Center as President Obama held a major fundraiser. Principal Tea Party organizer Sally Zelikovsky, of Bay Area Patriots, estimated 200 men and women in the group's designated protest area -- at full capacity with spillover.

In the adjacent protest area was a much smaller group, a mix of Occupy Wall Street activists from around the Bay Area and marijuana legalization advocates (smoking up a storm). OWS held a number of signs supporting Obama's national contraception/abortifacient insurance mandate. Legalization advocates held placards that said "Let States Regulate!" (marijuana). The groups protested together, oblivious to the contradiction of "Let States Regulate!" and a national healthcare insurance mandate which prohibits states from setting their own insurance standards.

According to sfgate.com, "Obama's San Francisco day was light on policy and heavy on fundraising: The president starred at a pair of $38,500-per-person fundraisers, including one with high-tech business leaders that reporters were not allowed to attend. More than 2,500 people were also at the Masonic event, where tickets started at $100. That was Obama's fourth fundraiser of the day. He began with a breakfast in Orange County. Proceeds from the events go to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee authorized by his presidential campaign, Obama for America, and the Democratic National Committee."

Tea Party Protests Obama in San Francisco

San Francisco's Nob Hill was home to many of the famous 19th century "robber barons," the crony capitalists of their day. So it is natural that Pres. Obama would hold fundraisers there. Thursday (yesterday) afternoon, he was at the Marc Hopkins Hotel, a luxury hotel named after a railroad robber baron. In the evening he moved to Nob Hill Masonic Center. The San Francisco Police allowed protesters to assemble along the opposite side of California Street with one section for the Tea Party and one for left-wingers. Hundreds arrived for the Tea Party, seen here standing in front of Grace Cathedral:

Here is another view of the Tea Partiers:

The nun, shown above checking text messages on her cell phone, was among those outraged by Obama's decision to require churches to provide abortifacients to their employees.

Good liberals were, of course, incensed that Gov. Brewer would have the audacity to wag her finger at Obama last month. At the San Francisco Weekly, one local reporter, Erin Sherbert, responded with a piece headlined:

Obama Coming to San Francisco, Where Nobody Will Wag Their Fingers in His Face

Naturally, the SF Bay Area Patriots responded by making the theme for this rally to be "wag your finger" at Obama. The red plastic fingers seen below were labeled "Nobama":

The crowd on the Tea Party side, as seen above, was packed shoulder-to-shoulder. The left/liberal/occupy side of the gates was less well attended:

There was a brief flurry of activity on the left side when the pro-marijuana protesters arrived:

By the smell of it, they had been partying before hand. They left not long after they arrived. One can only speculate that, suffering from a case of the munchies, they had to go in search of food.

The occupy group was represented, for example, by this man:
Lastly, this woman, from the Tea Party side, tells Obama to "keep your (lack of) morality off my church":
This protest was organized by the San Francisco Bay Area Patriots and supported by the North Bay Patriots (Marin County) and MyLiberty (San Mateo County).

For many more photos of this event, see Fund47.

Labels: California, Obama, Occupy, Tea Party

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