An eventful day here in Charlotte. For me, it started with a Planned Parenthood rally at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Yes, this is probably the first time in history that those two organizations were mentioned in the same sentence. A human pillpack led the proceedings:
Rush Limbaugh’s favorite slut Sandra Fluke was on hand to slut things up:
As the event came to a close, another storm ensued, and PP began passing out pink ponchos. Always have protection!
I caught wind on Twitter of a standoff between police and Occupy Wall Street protesters just a couple blocks away, and wound up walking right into the middle it. The protesters wanted to march toward the convention, and as I arrived, the police allowed them to do so as long as they stayed on the sidewalk. I followed along behind this guy:
Marchers chanted “Free Bradley Manning, arrest Barack Obama!” Along the way, they encountered and several Obama supporters. At the Convention Center, a Gulf War vet got into a heated exchange with an Occupy protester in a pig-snout hat who was criticizing U.S. drone strikes:
A number of Obama supporters, mostly African-American, began chanting “Four more years!” while the protesters yelled about civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Then it began to pour again. I snapped this pic, then headed inside to dry off.
Inside the Convention Center, I spotted these delegates from San Antonio. They were making posters for Mayor Julian Castro’s keynote.
Castro’s speech was well-received here, as was Lilly Ledbetter’s, Deval Patrick’s and Michelle Obama’s. I have a lot to say about night one of the convention, but for now I’ll have to refer you to my Twitter feed. I still need to catch a taxi home. Hope it’s not raining.
