Off-topic: port in a storm

About the Port of Olympia, "one more special message to go / and then I'm done and I can go home":

I never got a call from an arrested protester. From a guy protesting his DUI, sure, but not from an anti-war protester. I drove past the docks after work last night to see the Pomeroy and some of the people gathering for the "die-in." Today the ship's set sail.

In the end, the Strykers got loaded thanks to ILWU Local 47, and my new town made the map as this year's hot destination for peace tourism. Viva Oly!

The Tacoma paper had a good wrap-up article on the protests:

Military use of Olympia’s port collides with its pacifists

Some people on my side of the political divide were uneasy with this particular bit of protest theater. As one non-violent blogger says in "The Price Of War Protesting":

Protesters are always quick to point out the collateral damage done by war... The problem is they don't seem to think about the collateral damage they are causing.

Others commented on Daily Kos:

We can't allow Kos or his readers to be associated in any way with this kind of action. Interfering with military operations or logistics is a good way to get good men and women serving in our military hurt or killed... Furthermore, we can't give knuckle-dragging RedStaters the opportunity to pin the "anti-troops" label on us. And if you really think it's a good idea to deny critical supplies to our forces...I'm not sure it's just a label.

These people have stepped across the line from criticism of the leadership of our nation's military to interfering in the operations of the military itself. ...(T)his act is so futile as to be effectively a symbolic effort. I don't think we should be shy about openly sharing the sentiment behind their action...but we would do ourselves a great disservice to support the action itself.

Let them starve, without ammunition, body armor and medical supplies. Great thinking!!!! This will win votes and stop the war!!! This sort of depravity makes us all look bad. Sick and stupid.

There. Now back to the public defender gossip (but not before giving the last word to my Pugetopolis neighbor E. Spat).