Bikers rally in Berkeley to support military

[Omaha Steve]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

As a "built in the womb" Marine who was born and raised on military bases, Robert Duke was hell-bent on attending a bikers' rally in Berkeley on Saturday outside the Marine Corps recruiting station that has been the focus of a municipal dustup for months.

"We're here to support the troops," said the 49-year-old Brentwood man who works as a pipe fitter and welder.

Often under siege during anti-war demonstrations, the Shattuck Avenue recruiting station was the focal point Saturday for scores of leather-clad, burly bikers - some of them smoking cigars or licking Popsicles amid the heat of the day - who said they wanted to patronize nearby businesses that support the troops. A similar rally was held in March at the same spot by about 400 bikers.



"There are many people who are silent - we've decided not to be silent," said Jim Hampton, 64, an Oakland resident who spent 26 years in the Marine Reserve. Like many other bikers at the rally, Hampton's choice of vehicles was a "made in America, man" Harley-Davidson.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/22/BACL11D7JV.DTL

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More photos and story at link.

[Captain Hilts]

1. "Assembled in America." nt

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. This reminds me of those moronic

"Rolling Thunder" jackasses who invade Washington, DC periodically to show off their cute little leather outfits and their great big penis substitutes. These idiots are the same ones who made it a point to endorse Fuckface In The Oval Office in the 2004 election, ignoring a true war hero, John Kerry.

With some really significant exceptions, it seems that you can either have a motorcycle or a brain.

[surf]

3. Wow, your really open minded.

I'm a democrat who wants nothing to do with the code pink crowd. So if code pink protests its a wonderful show of war opposition. If bikers support the troops, they are morons.

I have a motorcycle, but it seems you don't have the brain.

[devilgrrl]

5. Yeah, you gotta watch out for that Code Pink crowd, gawd forbid that they try to stop the war.

[surf]

24. Im not saying they cant try to stop the war, in fact I hope they do.

but making insulting remarks about bikers who want to counter protest isnt helpful. Its like saying "our protests are free speech but their protests mean nothing!"

[IsItJustMe]

29. USA USA USA. Screw em.

[proud2BlibKansan]

41. You need to go to one of these rallies and see the bikers for yourself

I have been at several where they try to run peace activists over. Their favorite trick is to ride up en masse and gun their engines so loud you can barely hear yourself much less have a conversation.

They come to DC for most of our marches and stand on the sides of the street yelling, calling us cowards and telling us to swim to Cuba. Last September they beat up a Gold Star Dad.

These guys are rude, obnoxious, violent and scary. You bet they abuse their rights to free speech. Last time I checked, free speech didn't include assaulting people you disagree with.

[liberal1973]

48. I disagree

These type of bikers are scum. The ones in this story appear to be from far right groups. Drugs and illegal firearms are throughout biker groups.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. Can you read?

I noted exceptions, so, if you want, feel free to put yourself in that category.

Your reasoning is so faulty, I can't take you seriously.

Best of luck.

[Royal Oak Rog]

8. The bottom line here is are you against an illegal

war that has killed possibly a half million people, or are you too endeared with the chaps and leather crowd? Seriously how many of these idiots have any clue to what the issues are in this war. The Bush administration gives no bid contracts to big oil proving that the war was truely all about oil this week and you're against the code pink crowd? I admit that not everyone with a motorcycle is an idiot, but your logic leads me to wonder about you.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. It's how you define supporting the troops. To fight and be maimed or die in

the quest for some else's oil, and keep getting sent back, when others should have taken your place? Or to pay for their medical treatment and invalidity benefits from the public purse, when they come back as broken and/or partially deranged husks? Open minds are supposed to close on the truth, Dumbo.

[Faygo Kid]

15. "Support the troops," my ass. If they support the troops, ride to bring them home.

They are there to kiss Bush's ass. What bullshit.

[New Dawn]

25. They are not "Supporting the troops"

They are supporting an illegal war of aggression that has killed over one million Iraqis and over 4000 Americans. It has only benefited a small number of giant corporations, all which have connections to Bush. That is what these fascist "bikers" are actually supporting.

[surf]

26. Then protest Bush Co. and congress which gives them the money to do it.

Dont take it out on the Marines who are just doing the job they would do under any president, Democrat or Republican. Remember, we do NEED a military, like it or not.

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. We DO protest Bush Co and Congress; where have YOU been?

Sheesh, talk about uninformed.

[ikojo]

46. I'm going to pull a Godwin...let's rephrase this

Picture yourself...1940...Poland...Jews are in the ghetto...there are some who do not support Hitler's war of aggression on a sovereign nation...

"then go protest Hitler Co and parliament which gives them the money to do it. Don't take it out on the SS who are just doing the job they would under any leader, Nazi or Weimar Remember we do NEED a military, like it or not."

Decades from now our great nieces and nephews and grandchildren will ask of us, "were you good Americans or did you stand up to Bush and his Democratic enablers?"

[surf]

49. WTF?!?!?! The Marines are NOT the SS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the spirit of good manners I will withhold the nasty insults I am thinking.

[proud2BlibKansan]

56. You don't get it

It's not the Marines. It's all of us - for not speaking out.

[proud2BlibKansan]

55. Then we asked where were the good Germans

Today we ask where are the good Americans.

Not in this biker gang.

[EFerrari]

33. This Code Pinker welcomes you to DU

while still opposing this illegal occupation and all the nationalist bullshit that is meant to browbeat us into supporting it and all the needless death and destruction.

Oh, and I have to wonder why all those "counter protesters" needed hogs to show up. lol

:evilgrin:

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. Yes those Code PInkers need to be stopped!

Imagine the nerve! Wanting to stop war and death and destruction!!

:sarcasm:

I take it you don't realize there are quite a few Code Pinkers and their supporters on DU.

[surf]

50. I do, but I prefer to focus on what we agree on

rather then fixate on what keeps us apart. I welcome other opinions and love spirited debate.

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. Hello?!?!

"I'm a democrat who wants nothing to do with the code pink crowd."

Um, that doesn't exactly indicate you welcome other opinions.

[saigon68]

65. Hey did you go to the EAA on Sat

For their kite fly in?

[Pastiche423]

44. This Code Pink member

is not as big a person as the other Code Pink member in this thread.

Kindly take your insults to another board that would welcome your rw bullshit.

[Sweet Pea]

58. Well Said!!! n/t

[Javaman]

64. Man, you got a lot to learn. You sound like a blue dog. nt

[Enthusiast]

9. No, you can have a Harley Davidson

Or a brain.

[Dr.Phool]

10. I tend to have both a brain, and a Harley.

And just for the record, John Kerry has a Hawg too.

[Enthusiast]

12. But the lemmings don't have a brain

I know a number of these guys. And they are far from being a nonconformist, being afraid to ride a Sportster because "it's a girl's bike." Face it, this crowd doesn't exactly represent thinking outside the box. I have nothing against the Harley Davidson products but the lifestyle is juvenile.

[Dr.Phool]

20. Well, call lemmings, lemmings, and don't put all of us in that box.

I've been a liberal activist my entire life, and a biker for over 30.

And I wouldn't ride a Sportster either, since the last one I had ('76) shook itself apart.

[Enthusiast]

22. Wouldn't you agree

That HD riders with a Liberal mindset are as rare as hen's teeth? I have never met a single one.

[Malidictus Maximus]

28. You ought to get out more often

Well, I'm as antiwar, pro union and pro national healthcare as you can get and ride a Harley (2004 Sportster). While wearing an IWW T-shirt no less.
50 MPG on an American Union made machine that looks and sounds cool.

IMHO, however, people who ascribe 'penis substitute' to bikes, guns, guitars amongst other things, usually strike me often as flaming jerks who have problems with other people having fun. Indeed I think that accusing someone of having or using a 'penis substitute' should be considered a corollary of Godwins law and pretty much identify the person using it as an unimaginative loser. As Freud said 'sometime a cigar is just a cigar.

I respect and admire Code Pink; they are good people doing what they think best. As with a certain former pastor of a presidential candidate we all hope wins, action, and words, that are appropriately dramatic in their original context look pretty silly to many people NOT in a big, liberal city, when 'taken out of context' (another phrase that means nothing except for displaying the volume of whining and lack of brainpower of the person using it, IMHO), so I, too wish Code Pink could be a bit less strident and garish. But they are right; we have to stop this Damned war, ASAP and by any means necessary.

[Enthusiast]

30. I don't regard HDs as penis substitutes

But Rolling Thunder kissed Bush's butt and always glorify war, any war. The bikers I know still think Viet Nam was a righteous cause.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

63. Sometimes a motorcycle is just a motorcycle,

and sometimes it's a penis substitute. Sometimes it's both, Freud thought, as he threw out his pithy observation, lighting it carefully and drawing long and hard on it.

There are exceptions, as I noted in my post, but you obviously missed that part. Pity. You do seem like a fine fellow, but your defensiveness undercuts your attempt to minimize what we all know about men and their between-the-legs toys.

[Malidictus Maximus]

84. Whew!

At least you don't make generalizations!

If I ever need a penis substitute (which I don't) I'll look at Good Vibrations, not Harley Davidson, :-)

[lumberjack_jeff]

83. The exceptions are actually the rule.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=393

[tom_paine]

4. The truly sad, ironic thing here is that these cyclists see themselves as American Mavericks.

Clearly they are nothing of the sort.

They see themselves as American Patriots, but what kind of patriot rallies for the Bushies, arguably the most criminal unAmerican tyrants to ever rule this land?

I have nothing against motorcycles or motorcyclists, and certainly this group does not speak for ALL motorcyclists, thu I am speaking about this group, and those like them.

It's sad. Like watching Thomas Jefferson march down the street with a swastika on his arm and a pointy German Kaiser-era helmet. It's just backwards. It's just wrong.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Clueless

They want it both ways, and they fail to understand that the people who support this invasion, the people who bulk up the Republican party, would not hesitate to put them out of business.

Sad.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. They wouldn't give them the time of day. Maverick boot-lickers sounds like

an oxymoron to me.

[daleo]

14. Criminal bike gangs have a symbiotic relationship with Conservatives

The war on drugs provides the economic underpinning for the black market in drugs from which criminal gangs benefit. Conversely, criminal gangs provide the law and order panic from which conservatives benefit. They need each other.

P.S. - I realize that all bikers don't belong to criminal gangs.

[EFerrari]

34. You need a gas hog to go toe to toe with a bunch of women dressed in pink!

Right?

lol

[Robb]

59. Well, let's be clear

The "worst" motorcycle still gets 45+ mpg. "Gas hog" is inaccurate.

[EFerrari]

74. You're right. I conflated two phrases and didn't edit properly. n/t

[yardwork]

37. How much does a Harley cost?

[pasto76]

16. As a "built in the womb" Marine ......

sounds like _another_ person trying to ride military coat tails. "I was raised on a marine base!" OK, did you actually serve? I did.

I just gotta tell you, at this point, if you havent served, your opinion is fucking worthless. Something else too, a hard learned lesson I experienced is that there is a WORLD of difference between peacetime service, and wartime service.

I also question what "supporting the troops" means from organizations such as this.

Be Cool
SGT PASTO

[Dr.Phool]

18. These guys aren't supporting the troops.

They're supporting the chimp.

Witness Lara Logan on "The Daily Show" the other night. They feel forgotten and abandoned after deployment after deployment.

[Enthusiast]

23. Marine said,

"I just gotta tell you, at this point, if you haven't served, your opinion is fucking worthless."

If I haven't served my opinion is worthless? You are dead wrong! Show me where this is written into the constitution. My opinion is worth as much as any veteran. Being a veteran doesn't give extra value to your opinion. And it sure as hell doesn't make you more informed. Where do you come off?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. "I just gotta tell you, at this point, if you haven't thought, your opinion is fucking worthless."

[IsItJustMe]

32. Spot on. I am sick and tired of hearing this shit.

[yardwork]

36. Reread his post. The guy's on our side.

[Throd]

69. My opinion is worthless?

I am very much opposed to the war in Iraq. But since I haven't served a day in the military I guess I'll just keep my worthless opinion to myself.

[1Hippiechick]

17. What is wrong with this picture: Premise:Motorcyclists ride to support troops; supporting troops is

stupid. Conclusion: motorcyclists are stupid."

My husband are anti-war and have been since VietNam. However, this article does not fully explain exactly HOW these cyclists support the military. Maybe these retailers support the troops but not the war. There IS a difference.

My husband and I support Give 2 the Troops which is about providing care packages from home while the troops are there. Is that considered supporting the military? I don't think so. If I can do my part to help boost troop morale, I conclude that they stand a better chance of getting home alive. Some of those troops were duped into enlisting.

http://www.give2thetroops.org/

[olddad56]

19. Good to see that we have a few proud Americans supporting Genocide.

[L0oniX]

21. I am against war ...period. Unless another country attacks this country, I am against war.

I am sick of war and its effects on society. Can't we have one or two generations with out interfering with other countries problems? Why do we have to be the world police? Why doesn't some other jackass country to the policing for a fucking change? Can't we for once have a society where no one has participated in killing others in other countries? Geeze ...fucking macho butch bull shit mussel meat head knee jerk reacting rambo wanna be asscarrots can't stop the fucking killing. Why does everyone love war and killing? I must be a alien here because I don't fit in with these people at all. Fuck war and fuck killing.

[Enthusiast]

27. LOoniX, I agree with you.

What is the possible justification for the level of military spending by the U.S.A.? What navy will we battle? What air force can match our own or even come close? At this point it looks like our military planers are preparing to go to war with the entire rest of the world. Actually they are only lining the pockets of the influential and well connected know as the military industrial complex.

[KG]

35. um, whats that thing with 3 wheels?

how badass can you be on one of those?

[Monk06]

38. He 's ridin the chrome three wheeler on the way to Fire Lake. Dipshit has a hardon for Bob Seger.

[DRoseDARs]

39. So, instead of sending care pakages or volunteering at/donating to the local VA hospital...

...they burn more gas and stuff their craws with McDonald's triple-bypass burgers and Popsicles?

*sigh*

[proud2BlibKansan]

43. Here's a troop who needs support

Tomas Young
St Luke's Hospital
4401 Wornall
Kansas City, MO 64111

Tomas was paralyzed from the waist down in Iraq in 2004. Complications forced him back into the hospital a month ago. He is facing a long rehab. You can support him by sending a card. It sure beats wasting gas to intimidate a bunch of women dressed in pink.

[olddad56]

45. thank you for your post.

I support the troops, but not the genocide. I especialy feel for the young kids that joined because they love their country. Those brave men and woman got conned by a ruthless regime. I guess we all did, but to varying degrees.

[1Hippiechick]

54. Wonderful post, and I agree wholeheartedly. I would add that many of these young kids were "conned"

by recruiters who misrepresented what the military would "do" for the enlistee. Hubby and I sat in on the spiel to our younger son back in early 1990s.

Since you support the troops, you may find this site interesting: www.give2thetroops.org

Peace.

[liberal1973]

47. These bikers are scum

They're also un-American right wing fascist.

[Zorro]

51. Au contraire

Sounds to me as if they're patriots that love their country and love the Corps.

That's a commendable sentiment.

[proud2BlibKansan]

57. And hate peace activists

Don't forget that part.

[pegleg]

60. I don't think they hate peace activists, but they are defending the

military. I am vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq, but I would never support protesting outside a recruiting office. I have to ask this question. If an attack or a natural disaster happened to the San Francisco area, should the military intervene? There is my answer. The military is only a tool and nothing more. The ones using that tool are the ones to protest.

[proud2BlibKansan]

61. Do they assault people they like?

Somehow I doubt it.

[pegleg]

62. These guys don't appear to be assaulting anyone.

the ones that do are guilty of assault - simple as that.

[proud2BlibKansan]

67. This group has assaulted peace activists at national marches

A DUer was a witness to an assault last September.

Sure there is a chance there were OTHER members of this group responsible for the assaults. But if DUers had a violent reputation, I would not belong to this organization.

[pegleg]

70. You're stretching it. Like saying all bikers are violent. That's ridiculous

[proud2BlibKansan]

71. You need to talk to the people in SF and find out what these bikers have been doing there

[pegleg]

72. The article mentions nothing about violence. These are peaceful

people doing what they think is right.

[proud2BlibKansan]

73. And we can ALWAYS depend on newspaper articles to tell us the whole story

:sarcasm:

Reminds me of the guy at the march in Jan 07. He was a vet who stood by the side of the road with a bullhorn and cursed us as we walked by. He was in a roped off area, a good distance from the street where we were marching. We walked by him and heard his insults. About a half a block later, my friend and I were stopped by a NY Times reporter who asked what we thought about marchers spitting at this vet. We said we hadn't seen anyone spit at him and we didn't think that was possible anyway, because the guy was in a roped off area too far from the marchers for spit to reach him. I told the reporter only spit on steroids could travel that distance. The reporter laughed, took our names and gave us her card.

Next day, front page of NY Times - a story about our march and a paragraph stating that a pro-war vet on the sidewalk had been spit on. I called the NY Times and was assured yes, it was the same vet. I asked if any reporter had actually seen the spitting incident and the guy at the Times said they had reason to believe this reporter because she had proven to be credible over the years. So I told him about our conversation, that it was obvious this reporter had merely heard a rumor but had not actually witnessed the spitting. And I asked for a retraction or a correction to the story. I later found several videos of the march on youtube showing this vet with his bullhorn which proved there was too much distance between him and the marchers for any spit to have reached him.

The NY Times stuck to their story.

That vet later went on Hannity and O'Reilly and the FOX morning news show claiming he had been spit on.

We posted the whole story here and several DUers contacted the NY Times and FOX and sent them pictures and videos proving he had to be lying.

We also uncovered 2 other stories about this vet. While a patient at Walter Reed, he claimed to have received the only death threat in a batch of several thousand get well cards distributed to wounded vets. And a few months later, he claimed to have been denied permission to go through airport security because his wheelchair didn't fit through the metal detector. He also claimed people in the airport had ridiculed him and called him a "baby killer" and said it served him right to be denied entry into the gate at the airport. His dad, a longtime member of free republic, had posted the story on his blog and of course also at FR.

All of this was sent to the NY Times, to both reporters who had written about the march and their editors. No response, nothing in the paper and not even a thank you for the emails.

So you can believe what you read in the newspapers. I know better.

[EFerrari]

81. Yeah -- peaceful bullies who need big machines to confront

a bunch of women in pink clothes. lol

[EFerrari]

75. The answer to your question is very simple.

Our military is not being used to protect or defend this country. It is being used illegitimately to facilitate empire. It is the duty of an informed citizenry to protest that abuse.

[pegleg]

79. Then protest the government not the troops.

[EFerrari]

80. Recruiters represent the Defense Department.

And recruiting offices ARE a government project. They are not the USO and people don't eat cookies there. They catch kids to send into a meatgrinder.

You bet I support protesting recruiting offices.

[EFerrari]

77. I don't find mindless nationalism in service of an illegal war

commendable in the least. People who actually "love their country" cannot support the misuse of our military that makes the world more dangerous for everyone, including Americans.

[pegleg]

82. How can you pretend to speak for other people?

And questioning whether or not people love their country is wrong.

[EFerrari]

85. Um, logic?

[pegleg]

52. Huge diff between supporting the troops and supporting the war. NT

[The Stranger]

68. The only difference is the War mongers use one to accomplish the other.

[EFerrari]

76. Supporting a Defense Department that sends our people to die

in service of Big Oil is not supporting the troops but complicity in crime.

[The Stranger]

66. Those stupid fucking rubes.

They don't know that they have been had.

And boy have they.

[galledgoblin]

78. misguided

I'm uncomfortable with protests outside of recruiting offices, unless it's to hand out pamphlets for alternatives like peace corp/americorp or local businesses hiring. still, these guys strike me as jingoistic, likely making statements as idiotic as some of the code pink people make. WHOOO USA USA USA :eyes:

Harley's still all assembled in the US? what about the parts?

[AlphaCentauri]

86. Support our troops donate and send your bike to Iraq

They would make a good transit patrol vehicles