Friday, 23 February 2007...

SARASOTA, FL (NS/AP) -

It was billed as a 'Code Pink' demonstration that was being held outside Congressman Vern Buchanan's office on North Orange Avenue and Fruitville Road on Friday...

However the timing was idential to the Anti-War Democrats in the Senate announcing their intent to 'undeclare' the War in Iraq by attempting to limit the powers of the President given under the War Powers Act...

Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Cal) has introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate which would do exactly that. However this legislation faces many uncertainties because of the previous attempt to pass a non-binding Resolution last week that failed because it couldn't get the 60 votes in the Senate to pass it...

Removing the President's war-making authority has only been done once before and had little effect and accomplished nothing...

By my count, which I did 3 times, there were '38' people lining Fruitville Road in front of the 235 North Orange Avenue Office of 13th Florida Congressional District Representative Vern Buchanan today...

The same people you've seen around Sarasota and Manatee County representing Coalition of Concerned Patriots, Veterans for Common Sense and Code Pink were there with their usual cast of 'characters'...

At the same time I was watching 2 Sarasota Police Officer's watching the Demonstrators in front of the Congressman's Office from about a half block away...

Another thing I witnessed was Dan Furtado, who usually shows up for these demonstrations, driving his older model Ford pickup pulling his little tow behind trailer with an 'Impeach Bush' and 'Stop The War' signs...

The only question I had was how many miles per gallon was he getting while he was driving around the block???

The demonstrators were peaceful and not that noisy, although there was a bullhorn being used, while I did hear a few car horns blowing, I also saw several '1 finger' salutes issued to them as well from passing motorist's...

If they were trying to get noticed by the Media, that did NOT happen. Besides myself, the only other Reporter who showed up was Jeremy Wallace of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune...

Jeremy and I also had an interesting conversation while upstairs in Congressman Vern Buchanan's Office. He saw a small group of Vietnam Veterans who had met with the 13th Congressional District Veterans Constituent, Joni Hansen, in the office and some of the 5 Vietnam Veterans from American Legion - China Post #1 who were present. They told him that we supported our Troops and their mission and we did not support the demonstration going on outside in ANY way...

What was also interesting to note was the majority of the people on the street just happened to be members of the same group that had previously demonstrated numerous times for the loser in the 13th Congressional District, Christine Jennings...

I was really surprised that we did not see Ms. Jennings show up...

It should also be mentioned that the Vice Chairman of the Manatee County Democratic Party, Mitch Mallett, was also present but he remained behind most of the demonstrators speaking with the 'Code Pink' ladies quite a bit of the time...

This showed the obvious 'political nature' of the demonstration and the involvement of the Manatee County Democratic Party...

Though it was called a 'Code Pink' Demonstration, it had the support of numerous members of the Manatee County Democratic Party who just happened to be amongst the demonstrators holding signs and chanting "Stop The War"...

As the Anti-War demonstrations continue, there's an old statement that comes to mind, "if you keep saying the same thing over and over whether it's true or not, sooner or later people start accepting it as fact."

The only problem is sometimes the statement or statements being made are not the 'facts' to begin with...

Also present on the Street were Francis and Peter Rice, both retired Military Officers, who were 'counter protesting' the Code Pink group, showing their support for our Troops and their mission. The Rice's also made reference to the obvious 'political tone' and support being shown from the Manatee County Democratic Party members participating in the demonstration...

So we'll just watch and see how all of this plays out as we get closer to the 2008 Presidential Election. I guarantee you it will get a lot more interesting...

Reporting from 235 N. Orange Avenue, that's all for now...

Matt Bruce
Managing Editor
News Sarasota.com