What an evening. I have to say I really felt like I completely wasted an afternoon. I could have come home and done something important, like go to the bathroom or something. Ah well. Here's the report from the scene.

I found out Tuesday morning that Sheehan was supposed to be at a local park at 5:00pm. I decided I'd head over with the camera. Just before it was time I found out the morning host at WBT 1110, one Keith Larson had found out that Cindy's "people" didn't reserve the park. He quickly tried to reserve the park, but Mecklenburg Parks and Rec would not allow him to reserve it. Since they wouldn't let him, he invited all his listeners out for a pick-up baseball game at about 4:00pm.

I arrived just after 4:00, and indeed, there was a good-sized group out on the baseball field where Cindy was supposed to speak:

I talked to Mike from Mecklenburg Parks and Rec and got the real story. Cindy's supporters applied to the City of Charlotte police for a noise permit to allow them to use an amplifier for their rally. The police were supposed to refer them to the Parks and Rec people to make the reservation, but the person who approved the noise permit didn't recognize the name of the park. Therefore there were now three groups that were planning to use the park at the same time -- and none had it reserved.

Oh, the third group? The Gathering of Eagles:

And yes, Charlotte's finest had quite a strong presence there:

I counted at least 12 officers there in various positions around the crowd.

There were plenty who joined the Gathering of Eagles folks around. They settled in for a long afternoon. It was always rather simple to tell which ones were with the Eagles -- they all had American flags:

The first "incident" of the afternoon was between Keith Larson and the local men in blue:

Larson had a megaphone and was using it to invite Cindy's supporters to play America's Game. It seems in Charlotte, you're not allowed to use a megaphone unless you ask government permission. The police were nice and Mr. Larson quickly complied with their instructions and put his megaphone away. I think next time he'll have a "permit."

So how about those protesters? Here's the philosophical one:

Why do I hear Ty Webb saying, "Be the Ball..." This woman was also strangely delusional. Every time the Gathering of Eagles broke into a cheer or a chant, she joined them rather enthusiastically. I think maybe she just liked to yell a lot, I'm not sure.

I liked this guy's sign:

In case you can't read it, it says, "Cindy, your son would be so ashamed of you."

One sign of a professional protester: they bring their own chair to sit in during the "protest:"

This was a bunch of the Eagles making evil plans:

The guy in the red shirt with his back to me is the guy in charge and organized what went on, as much as things were organized.

Now here's someone who REALLY had too much time on her hands:

Yes, she is actually putting on a costume of a peach that says, "impeach" on it. You just can't make this stuff up.

Oh, and remember the baseball-playing guys? All this time they were still playing:

(That's Keith Larson himself)

This move really bothered the Sheehanites:

They had their nice little wall set up with various banners and the Gathering of Eagles folks walked behind their line and held up their own signs. There was much yelling.

See the little bell in this guy's hand?

It's amazing how well a cow bell will penetrate noise. When this bell was ringing, I couldn't hear the moonbats, even with their amplifier.

Here's a general shot of the crowd gathering. There were lots of press people there -- about 20 that I counted. Oh, and note the two guys in the background -- the game just kept going.

There were a few people wearing Muslim garb at the rally:

And yes, they were with the Sheehan supporters.

Here's a wider angle shot of pretty much everyone:

See the guy in the middle?

He caught the ball with his eye. Notice everyone laughing at him. At this point these guys had been playing softball for an hour and a half or more. Cindy was already over 30 minutes late, so the pickup game mostly broke up at this point.

Here's one of the professional protesters:

See, now if you can be Republican and against the war and Republican and for the war; or Democrat and for the war or Democrat and against the war -- someone tell me again the difference between Democrats and Republicans?

I finally sat down after walking around for almost 2 hours. Eventually a woman showed up and claimed that she was Cindy Sheehan's spokesperson. She was addressing a group of us that were clearly the press. She said that Cindy wasn't going to be coming to the rally because the situation was "too tense." In other words, the Gathering of Eagles scared her away. Word quickly spread to the Eagles, and a great cheer arose:

It was hot and I was hungry. As I headed for the exit, I noticed this fellow, WAY on the other side of the field:

I guess he was watching for snipers.

Other notes about the gathering:

I counted people. At the highest count, there were about 30 Gathering of Eagles folks, about 40-50 pro-Cindy professionals, about 20 press or people with cameras, and about 10 baseball players.

When Cindy's entourage arrived (without Cindy), it appeared very, very rehearsed. A group made a long walk around with banners and took up a certain position. Then the hippie sang a song while the entourage sang along. Then a very, very angry man recited a poem. Then there was more singing, then another poem. A muslim spoke. Then more talking.

The group was very odd because they were only addressing themselves. Charlotte has a population of about 630,000 people. It seemed that almost none of them showed up -- listening to the interviews, many people said they were from places other than Charlotte.

In fact, as I was heading out, I decided to check out the cars in the parking lot (which apparently rather bothered the local police). Here's what I could tell from obvious signs on cars:
Peace hat on dashboard -- NY plates.
Peace symbol painted on windows -- CA plates.
Peace bumper stickers -- SC plates.
Impeach Bush sticker -- FL plates.
IM4PEACE license plate -- NC plates.
Peace bumper sticker -- NC plates.

Retired USAF -- NC plates.
Veterans against Kerry -- SC Plates.
Don't tread on me sticker -- NC plates.
These colors don't run sticker -- NC plates.
Vietnam Vet plate -- NC plates.

While I was looking at cars and writing this down, one of Charlotte's finest approached me. She was not very happy. She demanded to know why I was writing down license plate numbers. I paused for a moment. It was hot, so I didn't feel like being a pain. I bit my tongue and did NOT say, "Because I want to, now bite me." It was, however, rather irritating that she had already concluded I was doing something wrong when I was not. Instead, I was nice, even when she wasn't -- I explained I was checking the location of plates with pro- and anti-war slogans. She asked a few other questions to see if I was drunk or something, then went on her way, but she did keep a close watch on me after that.

Folks, Cindy doesn't have any support in Charlotte (except from maybe one or two smelly hippies). I actually feel bad I wasted my afternoon waiting for such a person. I suppose the best thing to do with Cindy is just to ignore her and hope she goes away -- because at least here in Charlotte, no one really cares.