Did everyone see "Billionaires for Bush," a sarcastic protest group that makes its mark by "Staging swanky protests in which they enthusiastically defend tax loopholes for the rich and war contracts for friends of the president." at the Bush dinner last night?
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/03/26/billionaires_for_bush_well_yes_and_no/PROTESTERS
Billionaires for Bush? Well, yes and no
By Donovan Slack, Globe Correspondent, 3/26/2004
<snip>Some of the protesters turned, stunned. But then someone pointed to the signs the fancy-dresssed group was carrying -- "Free the Enron Seven" and "Corporations are People Too!" -- and the crowd erupted with shouts of approval. "We should let them get up front," somebody shouted, telling the crowd to part and let them pass toward the hotel.
The group is, in fact, part of a well-organized, liberal-leaning protest machine calling itself Billionaires for Bush. With founding members in Massachusetts and New York, it plans to dog the Bush campaign through November, using satire as its gimmick. Staging swanky protests in which they enthusiastically defend tax loopholes for the rich and war contracts for friends of the president, they claim to be winning a loyal following -- donors and members at 25 chapters in several states. And they say they're making a more lasting impression with their anti-Bush message.
"If that can be burned into people's minds, then we're successful," said Matthew Skomarovsky of Cambridge, an organizer of yesterday's billionaire protest. "It's been a lot more successful in drawing attention than traditional protesting."
The group did stick out at last night's anti-Bush demonstration, in which protesters estimated by police to number about 500 marched, chanted, and carried signs in a more traditional vein. Near the Arlington T stop, where many protesters gathered, there were signs saying "Where are the jobs, George" and "Hail to the thief." A few dozen Bush supporters shouting "Four more years!" met with rebuttals of "Blood for oil" and "Down with Bush."<snip>
The Billionaires for Bush group is among several activist organizations sprouting up in recent years whose main tactics include humor and irony. "Reverend Billy" and his "Church of Stop Shopping," an anticonsumerism organization, stages church-revival-type rallies with a preacher. Then there is a group that purports to be made up of "housewives" from Bush's hometown of Crawford, Texas, with proverbs such as "A bomb, in time, saves 9" and "A country bribed is an ally earned." The "housewives" have made appearances at Times Square in New York, where they dressed up in red, white, and blue, and straddled plastic missiles.<snip>
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