To hell with compassion. If some mob of crazed lunatics start banging on
the windows of a person's house, they should be shot by the owner...not just
yelled at.




"Harry Krause" wrote in message
news:c3dhc2g=.b0dd42d61f7d87beccb467738f5fe97f@108 0564906.nulluser.com...
Demonstrators Swarm Around Rove's Home

By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 29, 2004; Page B01

Several hundred people stormed the small yard of President Bush's chief
political strategist, Karl Rove, yesterday afternoon, pounding on his
windows, shoving signs at others and challenging Rove to talk to them
about a bill that deals with educational opportunities for immigrants.

Protesters poured out of one school bus after another, piercing an
otherwise quiet, peaceful Sunday in Rove's Palisades neighborhood in
Northwest, chanting, "Karl, Karl, come on out! See what the DREAM Act is
all about!"

Rove obliged their first request and opened his door long enough to say,
"Get off my property."

"Seems like he doesn't want to invite us in for tea," Emira Palacios
quipped to the crowd.

Others chanted, "Karl Rove ain't got no soul."

The crowd then grew more aggressive, fanning around the three accessible
sides of Rove's house, tracking him through the many windows, waving
signs that read "Say Yes to DREAM" and pounding on the glass. At one
point, Rove rushed to a window, pointed a finger and yelled something
inaudible.

Shortly thereafter, sirens shot through the neighborhood and Secret
Service agents and D.C. police joined the crowd on the lawn. Rove opened
his door long enough to talk to an officer, and the crowd serenaded them
with a stanza of "America the Beautiful."

The protest was organized by National People's Action, a coalition of
neighborhood advocacy groups based in Chicago.

Leaders said they want Bush to advocate for the Development, Relief and
Education for Alien Minors Act, a bill that would permit immigrants who
have lived in the United States for at least five years to apply for
legal resident status once they graduate from high school. The measure
would eliminate provisions of current federal law that discourage states
from providing in-state tuition to undocumented student immigrants.

Immigrant activists say that 50,000 to 65,000 undocumented students
graduate from U.S. high school each year and that many students can
afford college only at the reduced, in-state rates given to legal
residents.

The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in the fall but has not
been brought before the full Senate for a vote.

Asked for Bush's position on the bill, spokesman Jim Morrell said, "The
president has laid out the principles he believes should guide
immigration discussion, and he is willing to work with Congress."

When pressed to state Bush's specific position on the DREAM legislation,
Morrell repeated his statement.

The coalition's leaders, who converge on Washington each year to
advocate for various issues, said they targeted Rove because they could
not get as close to the White House as they could to his house. Rove
also is one of Bush's main advisers, and he did not reply to their
requests for a meeting, leaders said.

"We want the DREAM Act, and Karl Rove is sitting on it," said Brenda
LaBlanc, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.

Coalition leaders said the demonstrators were to protest other policies
at the houses of two Cabinet secretaries, Elaine L. Chao of Labor and
Ann M. Veneman of Agriculture.

But what the group really wanted was a conversation with Rove, who
declined to comment to a reporter through a Secret Service agent.

And after about 30 minutes of goading by protesters in English and
Spanish, Rove agreed to meet with two members of the coalition on the
condition that the rest of the protesters board their buses and leave
his street. The group obliged.

Rove opened his garage door and allowed Palacios and Inez Killingsworth
to enter. The meeting lasted two minutes and ended with Rove closing the
garage door on Palacios while she was still talking.

Palacios said that Rove was "very upset" and was "yelling in our faces"
and that Rove told them "he hoped we were proud to make his 14-year-old
and 10-year-old cry."

A White House spokesman said one of the children was a neighbor.

Palacios, trembling and in tears herself, said, "He is very offended
because we dared to come here. We dared to come here because he dared to
ignore us. I'm sorry we disturbed his children, but our children are
disturbed every day.

"He also said, 'Don't ever dare to come back,' " Palacios said. "We
will, if he continues to ignore us."