• Al-Jazeera welcomed by liberals, protested by conservatives

Al Jazeera English broadcast today from the Buffalo Rose, an Old West biker bar in downtown Golden, a small city near Denver.

Golden is a charming place. Clear Creek runs through it, and supplies the gigantic Coors Brewery with the water it turns into Colorado’s most famous beer. Golden is also known as the home of the Colorado School of Mines. Their athletic teams’ symbol is a miner’s donkey. This donkey would be a great symbol for the Democratic Convention of 2008. The stick of dynamite in the stubborn baggage-laden donkey’s mouth could symbolize a party that won’t let go of a destructive philosophy of collectivism and partisanship that could well destroy it.

In a local shop window, a nod to the Convention in nearby Denver.

On the right, the Buffalo Rose. The establishment is over 150 years old.

It’s a fun place. One band that plays there regularly is the Clam Daddys. The guy on the left plays a mean harmonica.

The bar is popular with bikers. A couple of ladies arrived on their Harleys right after I got there.

I was surprised to see all of the staff wearing T-shirts with this symbol:

One of the employees told me they were wearing these T-shirts all week, to make their dislike of Al Jazeera known.

Many residents of Golden do not like the idea of their city laying down the welcome mat to Al Jazeera.

The Qatar based Arab news network’s level of anti-American (and anti-Israel) propaganda is notorious. A few weeks ago Al Jazeera’s Beirut bureau threw a welcome home party for brutal child-killer Samir Kuntar.

Golden’s mayor backed out of his invitation to host a BBQ at his home for Al Jazeera. Some locals produced these shirts, which say “No Al Jazeera in Golden” on the back. The bar’s owner had more of the shirts made up (without the words on the back) as an “ironic sort of joke”; apparently the Arabic says Buffalo Rose.

The patio out back. The aroma of toasting and brewing grain often envelopes the town of Golden. The Buffalo Rose is just down the street from the gigantic Coors brewery. Coors draft is excellent, fresh and very inexpensive.

Police temporarily sealed off the street for the Fire Department to come in.

The Golden Fire Department got their ladders up to the roof of the building across the street. I guess there is no other roof access. They put a lot of equipment up there for the police who were also posted on top of another building on the other side of the Buffalo Rose.

Inside the bar, Al Jazeera journalists set up underneath large photos of Native Americans toting guns c. 1890.

Business went on as usual, with the journalists and equipment concentrated in one corner.

It is my opinion that this corner of the Buffalo Rose was chosen because of these iconic, “heroic” photos of gun toting indigenous Americans from the late 1800s. This is an attempt to draw a not so subtle parallel between the Palestinians and the war on terror in general and the American Indian Wars of more than a century ago. This is an old and effective propaganda device used by the Muslim Brotherhood since its conception by Sayyid Qutb in Greeley, Colorado.

Comparing American settlers of European descent to Jews returning to their homeland from their Roman imposed exile is absurd and racist at its root. Why aren’t the Jews able to claim “indigenous peoples” status in their struggle against the Moslem Arab invader from far off Arabia? The Jewish presence in “The Holy Land” preceded that of the Arab invader by thousands of years. The beautiful thing about racist Arab propaganda is how simple it is to understand if you are simple minded.

The picture above al Jazeera’s table: Grey Eagle, son of Chief Douglass of the White River Utes, eloped with Pi-Av (Honey Dew of the Mountains), daughter of a Uinta Ute chief. Because Pi-Av had been promised to another warrior, they were armed and running for their lives. Not sure where to go, or how to survive, they sought out and were given refuge by the crew of the Powell Geographical Survey Team. Photo by Edward O. Beaman, Powell Survey, near Green and Uinta Rivers, Utah, August 1, 1871. This incident occurred thirteen years after the Buffalo Rose was established in 1858.

The Al Jazeera reporter on the left is Josh Rushing. Last year, a liberal American reporter quit Al Jazeera because although he’d expected a certain bias, it was far beyond what he could tolerate on an ongoing basis.

Al Jazeera reporters step outside the bar for a smoke

Behind the back patio, an abstract sculpture raises a crescent over the satellite truck servicing the Islamic news network.

The network’s presence brought several fans. The girl in the knit cap, whose mother is a journalist, came “out of profound respect for Al Jazeera”.

Kyle Caskey, president of School of Mines College Democrats, came down to the Buffalo Rose today. He says that Al Jazeera is misinterpreted by a lot of people, and he’s come to show support for them, as a Democrat. Beyond that, he wants them to report that the Democratic party is about more than politics, it’s about volunteering, doing good things in neighborhoods.

The backpack of another Al Jazeera supporter from the School of Mines College Democrats

A group of locals, mainly veterans and military families, assembled across the street from the bar to voice their dislike for Al Jazeera. A few brought signs which were not politically correct; mostly they brought flags.

A middle aged couple, plastered with Obama buttons, walked by the protesters as I stood with them. They asked “Don’t you believe in the First Amendment?” When it was pointed out to them that nobody was obstructing any free speech, in fact none of the protesters were even close to the Buffalo Rose, they went on to say that they like Al Jazeera, gave the flag wavers dirty looks and left.

This fellow had just ridden in from countering the anti-war protesters in Denver, as part of a group of Bikers for McCain. He hadn’t known about Al-Jazeera being there. He went in to get a beer, sitting as far away as possible from the journalists.

An assortment of vehicles including bikes, trucks and cars circled the area, to big cheers from the growing anti-al Jazeera crowd.

Several reporters interviewed the protesters. This one from Denver kept saying “Al Qaeda” instead of Al Jazeera, as in “So, why do you object to Al Qaeda coming to your town?” and then apologizing meekly, “I’m sorry, I meant Al Jazeera.” I heard her make that mistake twice. I think it’s her daughter that came out of profound respect for Al Qaeda, oops, I mean Al Jazeera.

Obama supporters arrived on unicycles, enthusiastically asking “Where’s Al Jazeera?” They then performed tricks for the self identified Al Jazeera cameraman, who was posted out front to cover the street action.

Here is a shot I took last year during Golden’s famous Buffalo Bill Days. The owner of the bar, on horseback, had just ridden his horse through the bar, robbed it, and proceeded out the front door. Next came a big gun fight between our hero and the Sheriff’s posse.

Murray Martinez, owner of the Buffalo Rose

This was one of the posse. He had five loaded vintage weapons and shot them all in quick succession in an impressive display of skill.

On my way home, I passed this Obama supporter at my exit ramp about sixty miles away from Denver. Earlier today, the DNC organized Delegate Service Day. For two hours this morning delegates from every state went to clean up graffiti and litter, and toil in the hot sun picking weeds in city parks. If Denver had sugar plantations they would gladly have cut cane for the greater good. Besides the fact that two hours of such an activity contributes nothing other than making the participants feel good, this reeks of Soviet style volunteerism, when comrades were forced to volunteer to clean the streets.