Blogging from CPAC

I’m at the Conservative Political Action Conference today and tomorrow. It’s two days of red meat speechifying interspersed between and among forums on immigration reform, tax policy, the war, you name it.

Today’s highlights:

Rep. Sam Johnson, TX, Vietnam veteran and former POW, brought tears to everyone’s eyes as he related his experiences as a downed and captured pilot abandoned by Congress at the end of Vietnam. His life is an object lesson in heroism, duty and sacrifice.

Lt Col Oliver North gave a rousing speech about the men and women serving in Iraq. Highlights were his DVD presentation/slide show of pictures he has taken in the field in Fallujah and elsewhere in the combat zone.

I’m off to chase show chum and the ideas that will save the future. More later.

LATER: We find an illegal protest!

Outside the swank hotel hosting CPAC, a pair of vans with a big trailer sign betwixt them are parked. The occupants of the vans—two men in the front van and one in the back—were sleeping. Which didn’t hinder getting their message out. It was obvious where these fellows stood on the issues of the day:

Yes, yes, Bush and his illegal war that Congress supported by a vote of 98-0 in the Senate and 422-1 or something like that in the House.

But here’s the funny thing. It turns out the Sleeping Three may have been breaking a law themselves. Here’s a wide shot of their protest. Note the small yellow circle to the left.

The larger circle on the right is there to orient you to the scene, and highlights the trailer sign. The smaller circle to the left denotes a traffic sign that faces the street. Here’s what’s on the facing side:

Can you get a permit to protest in No Parking Anytime zone? Of course, this being the nation’s capital, the law will go unenforced.