More than seventy five people gathered Monday morning at the Jefferson Hotel to protest a visit from vice war monger Dick Cheney, who was in Richmond to raise money for the GOP's $200 million reelection drive.

Citing the government's waterfall of lies and deceit that took the U.S. to war on Iraq and the profiting of various american corporations from the pillaging of Iraq, protesters denounced Cheney's presence in Richmond and his implication in the right-wing revolution that is occurring in the nation.

Cyndi Simpson, 47, stood with the protesters as people walked past into the hotel for the $1,000 a plate fundraiser luncheon. 'I'm here because I'm a middle-age, middle class taxpayer that opposes everything the administration does," she said. "Our country has been hijacked by fascist totalitarians."

Since its illegal induction, the Bush administration has been on a clear path of war against impoverished people on the globe. A litany of tragedies have befallen people of the world with the war on Iraq, Bush tax cuts that will hurt the poor but benefit the rich and leave the government bankrupt and the greedy profiteering of U.S. corporations from the U.S. military industrial complex and recent FCC deregulations.

Protesters called for the need to uneelect Bush to save the country from further destruction. Many could not think of viable alternatives, but some said anyone other than Bush would be the best.

"They don't make a clothespin large enough to fit up my nose to make me vote for Lieberman," said Simpson, a Green Party member.

A mix of Food Not Bombs people, Women in Black, Richmond ANSWER, high school students and everyday people gathered at first at the Main Street side of the Jefferson. After chanting for a while, police approached demonstrators and told them they would have to move to the other side of the hotel. The group refused to budge, stating the sidewalk they were on was public and they had every right to be there.

Police replied that the street was closed as cars whizzed by. Watching the cars pass, people still did not move; once the police threatened arrest, the protest begrudgingly transferred to the front of the hotel on Franklin Street.

Demonstrators hassled rich white people who filtered inside the hotel for lunch with chants of "Pigs at the trough!" and "Shame!" Other protesters shouted at Republicans, "Go back to the West End!" and "Go home you capitalist robbers!"

High schooler Cheryl Deutsch, 18, held a sign with a Bush-Cheney logo that read "Lies. Deceit. Graft." She said she modeled it after a bumper sticker with the same logo that read, "Values. Integrity. Morality."
"It's disgusting that they're trying to raise $20 million in two weeks, which is the amount the U.S. has spent on humanitarian aid in Afghanistan in the last year," Deutsch said.