Anti-Coronation Balloons. No Security Risk. Message Ideas?

[MadLinguist]

For those who plan to go to the anti-coronation parade on the 20th, there is a strong possibility that your careful creative signs will be confiscated in the name of security. If you want to get your message flying high, put it on a balloon, stick it in your pocket along with a few feet of ribbon, and presto! an under-the-radar message that just needs a little (hot;-)) air.

Google "Customized Balloons" and you'll find plenty of next-day delivery places that will print large numbers of balloons with a message of your choice for about 20 cents a pop; minimum order seems to be 25 for most of the places. I plan on making an order this weekend. I hope others of you who are going to DC will consider this tactic too. On the glorious day, you can hand out your pre-made messages to others. Tell 'em "Just pucker your lips and blow"

For those who cannot make it to DC, what messages would you like to see flying over DC on that day?

[complain jane]

1. VOTE OR DIEBOLD

PNAC!!!

AWOL!!!

Something about Dan Rather having lost his job after a distinguished career in truth and honesty vs. while that butthole Donald Rumsfeld's incompetency causes thousands of deaths and the piece of shit's still got a job in the upper echelon of government....

Is that too long?

[MadLinguist]

3. limited space on a balloon face

but i like the first two. "Rumsfeld: piece of shit" isn't bad. Maybe somebody will fly that.

[Dufaeth]

2. But they might contain poisonous gas!!!

eeek!

[MadLinguist]

5. No you have it in your pocket when you pass security thugs

[Cronus Protagonist]

32. Where would you keep the helium? Surely they would take the cannister

And blowing them up by mouth will not work - they won't be seen hanging downwards.

[Career Prole]

4. Caution: Contains Iraqi WMD stockpile!

[bobbieinok]

6. think they will be seen as possible weapons, shot down, carriers arrested

[MadLinguist]

7. Maybe you're right. Tie 'em to trees and bleachers and run

If they are shot down, it sho' will make some god-damn headlines. Got any message ideas, bobbieinok?

[bobbieinok]

8. Bush full of hot air; Bush/Cheney/Gonzales torture central

[MadLinguist]

10. OK, but there is no reason for the medium to be the message

It's just a surface. The second one i can work with, though. Thanks.

[whistle]

9. Inhale the gas in this balloon then laugh when Dubya is sworn in

[Democrat Dragon]

11. How about

Bush stole the election-AGAIN!
Bush=Hitler
Chimpeach
Kerry Won!
THE ELECTION WAS A FRAUD!
Bush is a Nazi
Bush will take over the world
God save America
God save the world from Bush
Bush=Osama

[imaginary girl]

12. What about ...

"Turn your back on Bush" to remind/inform people of the inauguration plans?

[MadLinguist]

28. It's a framing thing. I call the inauguration the "coronation"

Same event.

[Greybnk48]

13. Bloody red hand print.

Nothing to read makes it easy and only a dolt wouldn't get the reference to bloody hands.

Other ideas: President Irregularity
President Anomaly

or my favorite--President Glitch

[roenyc]

15. pResident Glitch - good one.

i like the reference to the stolen election.
bush/cheney
Diebold/sElection

Ohio left behind

blacks left behind

lol i am not very good at this.

[Beth in VT]

14. the balloons should be orange. n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. Don't Blame Me. I Voted for Democrats.

[mikelewis]

17. What about releasing 1,000 orange balloons that say FRAUD

I can't go to D.C. but I'll chip in for some balloons.

[imaginary girl]

21. That would be great, but I think the point was

bringing the balloons in your pocket. The kind with helium would need to be filled ahead of time ... unless anyone has a portable helium tank that doesn't look like a terrorist weapon ...

[MadLinguist]

29. both releasing balloons and flying them at the parade would be great

it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Filling them with helium somewhere might be tricky though.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

31. What you need are BIG balloons,....

May I suggest balloons called "three-foot giants"? Any good balloon shop will carry them. You can blow them up on site (warning--causes you to pass out if you dont go slow!). After they are inflated, use zip-ties to seal them (hardware store). Send them off into the crowd and hopefully, they'll keep it up and moving! Good attention getter. I've done this at Bowl games...

[MadLinguist]

30. That's great. You can chip in with the ANSWER protest organizers

[e-mail]

[OKthatsIT]

18. +Antichrist Coronation+

that oughta hurt

[Straight Shooter]

19. How about a white balloon with a huge black FW?

Or maybe this one: Following up on prior posters, orange balloons with blood-red hand prints.

edit: just in case someone doesn't get the "FW," it stands for "f*ck W"

[NationalEnquirer]

20. How about just "HOT AIR". n/t

[seemunkee]

22. Any evidence this will happen

I wouldn't put it past them but do you have any evidence that they will try to confiscate signs if they are attached to cardboard tubes? I've been trying to think of what to bring and have pretty much settled on a picture of the hooded prisoner from Abu Ghraib with the words "Is this MORAL Values"

[JoMama49]

23. Also ...

"REAL Americans Don't Believe in Torture"

[propagandafreegal]

24. You STOLE that shit AGAIN! We know! nm

[StephanieMarie]

25. Orange balloon. "Stolen Again" as the message.

[Vinca]

26. Put the puke smilie on a balloon .

:puke: That says it all.

[Duncan]

27. Here is a variation

Hang vertical strips of paper with message of choice (I'm thinking "CRIME SCENE" "POISONER" and "SHAME") on plain (orange or black perhaps) helium baloons. This will stand out more and be easier to read than message on baloon itself. Experiment a little to get the weight right. Start off with a little extra weight so that when the time comes the weight can be adjusted by simply ripping off bits of paper until it just floats. Go up wind of the evil idiots motorcade and release. Some may go too high, some too low, but some will float right over the motorcade, unless they are shot down by the SS.

Also, you can tie small weights to baloon strings and toss them up onto hard to get places like the tops of awnings, window ledges, and bus shelters.

As far as security risk, stay on outskirts and use wind to carry your message closer to action.

[DearAbby]

33. May be snipers on buildings to shoot anything threatening.

http://www.news-herald.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd...

01/11/2005
Y o u ' r e i n v i t e d ?
By: Joan Lowy
Scripps Howard

-snips-

Parade performers said they also have been warned to expect unprecedented security. "They've told us right out that it's going to be very, very tight," said Peter LaFlamme, executive director of the Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps in Nashua, N.H. LaFlamme said he has been receiving almost daily phone calls from inaugural organizers to apprise him of new security procedures.

Thousands of performers - marching bands, color guards, pompon dancers, hand bell-ringers, drill teams on horseback and Civil War re-enactors - will be bused early in the morning to the Pentagon parking lot across the Potomac in Virginia. While performers disembark and go through metal detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs will search the buses.

Then everybody will get back on the buses for a trip to the National Mall, where they will spend most of the day in heavily guarded warming tents. Participants have been warned that they will not be allowed to leave the tents except to go to portable toilets accompanied by a security escort.

Other instructions given performers include a warning not to look directly at Bush while passing the presidential reviewing stand, not to look to either side and not to make any sudden movements. "They want you to just look straight ahead," said Danielle Adam, co-director of the Mid American Pompon All Star Team from Michigan, which also performed in the 2001 inaugural parade.

"Last time we went security was really tight," Adam said. "This time we got almost like a book of things we needed to fill out beforehand."

______________________________________________________

Guys please be careful > DearAbby

[Pooka Fey]

34. Mike Malloy says to expect to be patted down by hand -just FYI. n/t

[BamaBecky]

35. "Exit Polls", "Vote Fraud", "Stolen Election-Twice", "Fascism Ahead"

"WMD Lies, Thousands Died", "Democracy cries, Voting Rights denied", "Dollar Value falls, Bush attends Billion Dollar Balls", "Untold National Debt, Scrap metal for the vets", "Poverty and empty tummies, Republicans shout, "We're in the money!", "Right-wingers spread FEAR, in everybody's ear", "Tolerance is a value too!", "Vote scandal fraud, will expose All", "Dominionist clear the way, and traded Democracy today", "Evangelicals were fooled, Roe VS Wade will rule!", Conspiracy Theory: "WMD's in Iraq",

This is fun!

Put some lead in those balloons - so they can catch them and read them! I'll keep thinking of some.


:kick: :hi:

[lostnfound]

36. How about (with a big "W"): W The Fraud.

Written like the W The President stickers.

[glitch]

39. that's what I like too - very simple and effective: fraWd nt

[Doremus]

37. BUCK FUSH n/t

[katamaran]

38. Here's a huge problem with this scenario....

Okay, say you get some balloons past security. Say you can get them blow up and begin passing them around the crowd like at a concert. The first freeper that reads the message on it and gets pissed will grab the balloon and pop it. Secret Service snipers hear "gunshots" and see people in the vicinity looking startled....

...Kent State times twenty people. Itchy trigger fingers plus "gunshot" pops leads to mistakes.

[BamaBecky]

41. That's a real scary thought! eom

[justiceischeap]

42. Mental Note to Self

Stay away from groups with balloons at the coronation... Got it!

[hootinholler]

43. Occurred to me too, but as long as they're freepers...

:evilgrin: NO! he didn't just say that, did he?

I like fraWd

-Hoot

[KerryReallyWon]

40. No W (sign circle) got fraud?