Democracy in action

I don't have any new pictures to show you because I dropped my camera, and it died and  went to Camera Heaven.  But because I know you enjoy pictures, here are some for you, an amateur (like, very amateur) photo essay from an Obama rally I attended in October of 2008.  Held on Frankford Avenue in the Northeast section of the City of Bothersome Love, it featured the man himself.  I heard, but never saw him, because there were approximately 72,894,500 people there. 

See how many you can count!

There was heavy security because in the City of Bothersome Love, we're known to use articles of our famed junk food culture as weapons.  (Honest.  A buddy of my brother's, who became a cop, was working a demonstration, and was assaulted by a nun brandishing a hoagie.  True story.)  

I was not armed with a hoagie, a cheesesteak, a soft pretzel, water ice, or a buttercake, but what I did have was a Victorinox penknife attached to my housekeys.  I had never used the knife, except for nail emergencies, and yet it was seized.  Like, yeah, I was gonna have no problem getting through all those bodies, and at 5'8" and 150 would have no trouble overpowering the Secret Service, and going all Chechen widow on Mr. Obama.

More outrageous than the fact that they seized it was that when the rally was over, and Mr. O. was safely in the vehicle that would take him to his next appointment, they wouldn't give me my penknife back.  For that, I cursed each and every one of them to the tenth generation.

Here's the demographic breakdown of the attendees:

Irish-Catholic mom-moms...

hipsters...  (Note that these had to have been bussed in from Northern Liberties.)

Jewish nerd boys...

Non-Jewish nerd boys tend to vote Libertarian.

Former customers of mine... 

I don't recall actually selling this lady anything, but I used to see her shopping at the Golden Nugget Flea Market.  For a long while I had a beautiful cabinet card photo of a lady, circa 1880.  This wasn't one where the gal is just sitting in a chair, looking stone-faced.  It was really exceptional.  And every time the above lady came to my table, she would ask the price of the photo.  I wanted $10 for it, and this was one of the rare instances where I refused to take less.  She would make offer after offer, and I would decline and decline.  I finally sold it online for around $30.

black folk singers...

This gentleman above was singing some song he came up with himself about how and why Obama should be president.  It was very catchy.

Local pols...

I forget this guy's name, but he's still a big wheel in the city.