A crowd of about 200 people gathered Wednesday afternoon outside the Troy Marriott hotel on Big Beaver Road to rally in protest of visiting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Romney is in Troy for a private.
Protesters carried signs and waved at motorists along Big Beaver, many of whom were honking as they passed by.
"We're here to support Barack Obama," said Jeff Klayo of Mt. Clemens, who attended the rally with two fellow UAW members. "He stands for the little guys... The working class."
Liz Ratzloff of Ann Arbor attended the rally and wore the official "Pillamina" mascot costume for Planned Parenthood.
"I'm here sporting Pillamina because Romney doesn't support low-cost birth control for women," she said, adding that the suit is warm. She and other Planned Parenthood supporters are taking turns wearing the suit.
"With the recent attacks on women in Michigan, its just a blueprint for what Mitt Romney would do across the country."
Protesters took turns retreating to a shaded area during the rally as temperatures soared in the mid-90s.
Romney was last in Troy on Feb. 25, when he . During the rally, Romney played to the home crowd, saying, "It's good to be back in the place we called home for the first 19 years of my life."
Check back often as Patch posts continuous updates of the rally. Are you there, too? Add your photos to our gallery. Have thoughts on the rally or on Romney? Add them in the comments.
TPTB may well laugh at me or Reinhold, too -- but it would be separate, smaller groups, and for different reasons. I can live with that.
From the factcheck article: "The law merely updates a measure that has been on the books since it was signed by then-President Richard Nixon in 1971, making it a federal crime to trespass on grounds secured by the Secret Service. No new penalties were added, and the bill was not signed “secretly” as some claim. The White House announced the signing publicly just as it does for other such routine measures." - http://factcheck.org/2012/05/obama-criminalize-free-speech/ The article debunks lies being passed along referring to this issue. Her response? Might as well have been "don't go citing facts here buster - I live in a fact free world, signified by hatred, fear, and affinity to ignorance".
Another question one might ask is, given what you know about Romney's "policies", had he been President since 2009, do you think you would have been better or worse off, and why?
In 2004, U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama was vetted by George W. Bush's FBI, at a time when 9/11 was still fresh, the Iraq war was at its peak of violence and mayhem, and the feds were were flipping every rock for "secret" Muslims and other ne'er-do-wells. Had they found anything, you can be sure we'd've never heard from him again. In 2007-2008, candidate for President Barack Obama was the subject of vast, well-funded "opposition research" from all sides -- Hillary Clinton's campaign, John McCain's campaign, the Republican Party, not to mention every conservative blogger, right-wing radio talker and Fox News host you'd care to name. Oh, and George W. Bush's Secret Service, too. All told, it adds up thousands of people spending a couple million dollars-plus -- most of them VERY MOTIVATED to find ANYTHING to sink Obama's candidacy. Most of what they managed to dig up is sufficient to rile up the fringes and the extremists, and allowed whackjobs like Orly Taitz and cynical opportunists like Jerome Corsi to make lots of money and grab headlines -- even Donald Trump, with not one new thing to offer, has managed to hoodwink the gullible into watching his rancid mummer's show. Bottom line: They all failed then. And there is nothing new now. If President Obama loses, it will be because of Europe and/or the GOP deliberately tanking the recovery just to hurt the President. Not warmed-over tripe about Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright or Kenya or whatever.
On the other hand, the driver of Romney's bus that on two recent occasions drove around the site where President Obama was speaking blaring its horn in a juvenile effort to heckle the President was indeed someone paid by the Romney campaign.
I would LOVE to see you try to think rather than blurt out one-line responses full of mediocre mockery. Put a couple of paragraphs together -- FORM AN ARGUMENT. Please. It'll do you good.
(I'd add "you know who you are", but that would be wrong, and by wrong I mean incorrect. A group including posters who insist President Obama has done nothing since Jan 20, 2009 has elected to live on the Bizarro World of Htrae, where Reagan raised no taxes, Clinton's era was marked by vast unemployment, GW's election to be a "war president" kicked off an era of international respect and balanced budgets and had him give up golf, and President Obama did nothing but play golf while all the rich folk went broke. Bizarre indeed.)
If the problems with the economy today should be placed on the shoulders of Bush II, should the successes of the Clinton economy be credited to Bush I or Reagan before him? Second, why is it when a conservative questions the policies of President Obama it's attributed to racism, but when liberals smeared Justice Clarence Thomas it was because of his views? Thanks!
Mensa takes no stand on politics, religion or social issues. Mensa has members from so many different countries and cultures with differing points of view, that for Mensa to espouse a particular point of view would go against its role as a forum for all points of view. Of course, individual Mensa members often have strong opinions--and several of them. It is said that in a room with 12 Mensans you will find at least 13 differing opinions on any given subject! Just my two cents.
Should that ever happen, "mike smith," THEN I might be inspired to "holler racism" -- in the sense that I'd be point out examples of ACTUAL racist statements.
Hey Mike, Us 50+ had local unemployment around here approaching 25% numbers during the economic collapse from 1978 to about 1982. Yes I had it great. I fixed cars at K-Mart, killed weeds for Chemlawn, moved to Texas for $8. hour, and returned to pump septic tanks. I filed 13 W-2 forms in one tax return due to all the jobs I was laid off from. Then I got in with a big car company, worked 31 years so far, lost half my 401k and most of my pension. Too young to stop working and too old to be a desireable new hire Angry? Yes. Bitter? No. FYI Dude! I didn't get to vote on any bailout. And I'm not pointing any fingers. We all have crosses t obear.
You end your argument with 'stop pointing the finger' and then you point your finger? When you're feeling sorry for yourself, or when life is just plain hard, remember - there will always be people out there that have it worse and there will always be people that have it better. No matter what age, generation or circumstance there are hard knocks and life is not fair. Your generation will do much better if you focus on what you are going to do for yourselves. Don't worry about what others are doing or what others have. If you’re not happy with your situation - don't complain, rationalize or get caught up in the blame game - what's the point? Is it going to solve anything? Is it a solution to the problem? No. Don't expect anyone to hand you anything. Use your talents. Be kind to yourself and others. Go out there and make something happen - anything. Always try. If something doesn’t work, try something else. You have the freedom to be the person you want to be and do what you want to do.
Naturally, even in a financial crisis of such epic proportions -- with the potential to rapidly drag the U.S. economy into full-on Depression (taking the rest of the world's economies down with us) -- some lawmakers chose to vote against TARP solely so they could campaign on their ideological purity. In 2010 those anti-TARP Republicans were patting themselves on the back, while their colleagues -- who'd chosen the long-term national good over partisanship -- were punished by the Tea Party movement. In the 2010 cycle, far more Republican incumbents were defeated in PRIMARIES by challengers with "clean hands" regarding TARP, than lost to Democrats that November. Oh, and congrats to Marty and Terry for living such virtuous lives in a very different era, when a diploma and gumption could still lead to a career and middle-class lifestyle, colleges were far cheaper and our globalization threats were very specific -- the USSR, Japan and OPEC. Of course, the Soviets didn't threaten us economically, the Japanese didn't threaten us militarily, and while OPEC hurt us twice, inevitably their need to sell oil trumped their desire to punish us over Israel or Iran.
The "economy" is a vast, lumbering contraption with millions of moving parts -- many of which are inefficient, while many others function in direct opposition to each other. Lots of sparks, grinding gears and horrible sounds that cause the "shade-tree mechanics" among us to argue what might be wrong or how to make it work better, but overall the contraption moves, consumes, and grows over time. Turning the contraption to avoid an approaching obstacle or switch to a smoother road takes time. Years pass before orders from the bridge reach the wheels. all the while, we are buffeted by winds and travel on terrain not entirely of our choosing, and an unforseen or neglected obstacle can dump us all into a ditch with no warning. Metaphor aside, all Presidents inherit the economy from their predecessor. Barack Obama worked to get us out of the ditch we fell into during the Bush years (but doesn't deserve 100% of the credit); Bush largely squandered what he was given and took us into two wars (but doesn't deserve 100% of the blame). George H.W. Bush got a very raw deal between Ross Perot and the backlash from the tax increase he signed; and in many ways we are all still affected by Ronald Reagan's orders from the bridge (some beneficial, others harmful over the long haul). Second: Conservatives are free to question the policies of President Obama; but when the question refers to "YALLS BOY" and "PEEPS"...what should I conclude?
I'll take the hit for continuing the Mensa conversation, but I was tired of Reinhold wielding his membership as if it gave him some sort of "edge" in the arguments. I actually agree with both Mark and Terry about the impact of Mensa membership in isolation. My mother's late cousin was someone with "numbers up in the 180's" -- and he was a conservative of the William F. Buckley mold. I miss him.
now that the supreme court has said Obamacare is in what is your;s and Herb's expert opinion on it.