500 + Anti Obama Protesters in Mesa, AZ

Here's something the far left wing, Liberal media never told us about.

Article from the East Valley Tribune:

Presidential protesters made their voices heard in chants and signs Wednesday outside Dobson High School.

The protesters, about 500 to 600 strong and growing, began arriving as ticket holders walked in.

Mesa police set up a protest area along Guadalupe Road.

They held their signs up high: “Don’t tread on me,” “Spend all you want, I’ll pick up the tab,” “I’ll keep my freedom! You keep the change!” “Free fertility drugs now.” And “B.O. smells and so does Socialism.”

A Gilbert woman, with a sign that said, “Fund bikini wax now,” said she is entitled to the beauty treatment.

“It’s a self-esteem issue and hygiene issue, which makes it a health care issue. I think we’re all entitled,” said the woman in jest. She only gave the name JoAnne, because she is skipping work.

Critics of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio showed up in force, as well.

At one point about 15 members of Somos America, in striped jail garb and linked by chains, marched passed the presidential protesters. Those protesters responded with chants: “We love Joe!”

Rob McElwain, spokesman for Somos, said they want an end to laws that allow local police to enforce immigration laws, an end to Arpaio’s immigration sweeps and a federal investigation into Arpaio.

The Mesa Police Department stationed four neutral observers outside the school, including Phil Austin, former president of the Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens.

Austin said things went smoothly, except for a few vendors trying to sell goods without a permit.

As protesters held their signs high, they exchanged cheers with the honking cars that passed.

The general message of the protesters was that Obama’s policies would lead the country toward socialism.

“I’m out here to exercise my First Amendment rights while I still have them,” said Tim Guiney, 52, a Phoenix sales manager. “Everything that man stands for is the antithesis of what this country was founded on. He’s a Marxist, fascist.”

Lee Bauer, 53, a social and fiscal conservative, said she doesn’t believe in the $787 billion stimulus package signed by Obama Tuesday in Denver.

“Obama’s stimulus package has only mobilized the opposition,” she said.

Former Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona also was in attendance.

He called the bill a “trillion-dollar boondoggle.”

A man shouted over a megaphone, “I want to see if the president is driving a (Toyota) Prius or an electric car.”

Here’s another article from AZCentral.com.

As President Barack Obama’s motorcade rolled onto the campus of Dobson High School in Mesa at 10 a.m. today, police quickly ushered protestors on both sides of Guadalupe Road at least 200 feet away from the long line of official automobiles and police motorcycles.

Nore than 90 minutes earlier, Guadalupe Road became a dividing line between protestors as they awaited Obama’s arrival for a town hall meeting on his plan to ease the nation’s foreclosure crisis.

A crowd of about 300 to 400 people stretched along the sidewalk on the south side of Guadalupe Road, closer to the high school, chanting pro-Obama slogans or railing against Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

And right across the four-lane road was another crowd of about 150 chanting protestors against Obama. They were led for a few minutes by former Arizona Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth, who briefly commanded a loudspeaker to lead the protest against the president.

Loud and dotted with numerous signs, both crowds remained peaceful under the watchful eye of scores of uniformed Mesa police officers.

On the south side of Guadalupe between Alma School and Dobson roads, chanters were equally vocal in their praise for the President and their disdain for Arpaio.

One sign said, “Apaches with AIDS,” calling attention to the plight of American Indians with the disease.But across the street, the crowd seemed largely unified in their opposition to the President.

David Crause, 70, Phoenix, held up a sign scrawled with writing that was too difficult to make out quickly. But he left no doubt where he stood as he criticized Obama’s stimulus plan.

“We can’t borrow and spend our way out of a crisis that that got us into,” Crause said.”Free markets work.”Crause said he wasn’t there to see Obama, but to register a protest, saying, “I can see him on TV, and I can shut it off.”

Jack Clark, 50, Gilbert, held a sign taller than he is that protested the stimulus. It read: “Personal Responsibility: RIP 2009.”

Wearing a T-shirt with a picture of the late President Ronald Reagan that said “Right,” Clark said he wanted to give the president a piece of his mind.

“I’m somewhat disgusted by the reaction of the country,” he said of economic stimulus efforts. “A lot of what’s happening here is people being irresponsible.”

Phil Austin former president of the Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens, and four other people were on the scene as neutral observers in case of any conflicts among protesters. Austin said he and the others had been asked by Mesa police to monitor crowd conduct.