Scientology's big win. The gold base folks didn't get me there out there today, but all the effort and influence they used to get a court order for me to stay away got them a *record* number of picketers and observers. But I will let the people who were there write their own reports. Instead, I spent part of the morning making more signs. Graham is taking some of them back to LA. He now has a *bunch* of signs that make little or no sense even to someone (like me) who has been in this business for a long time. The new signs take advantage of a scientologist's particular psychological weaknesses. We should have signs enough to support pickets of ten or more in both places. After I finished signs and shipped them off to the picket (about 10 a.m.) I went over to State and Florida and picketed there. If anyone else wants to do that, the southwest corner is the best--there is good shade besides good access to the cars. This might not be the busiest corner in Hemet, but it comes close. I was able to go through roughly 50 flyers an hour. That is not so many for an area with a lot of foot traffic, but not bad for handing them to people who ask for them from cars. At least a dozen people asked if I was the guy in the paper or mentioned the story. The support was strong, not as strong as CW, but before the two women died out at gold base, scientology had been doing a fair job of keeping a low local profile. Several who got flyers asked what they could do. I put a number in contact with ARSCC ops command. Picketing in town is very different in terms of the human interaction you get. I got snippets of stories, such as one woman saying the cult got her brother put in jail for 6 years when he was 16. There must be thousands of such stories if someone had resources to collect them. Having run out of my first batch of flyers, I checked with Ida's Entheta Café about 11:30 and found that the rest of the crew were getting ready for lunch. So I broke off too. The lunch was excellent and the conversation was *most* interesting! If the cult was listening in on it (very likely) and sharing it with certain officials (very unlikely), those officials might be considering Bulgravia. After lunch Fred Rice, his kids and I had fun playing shoot the PI (with a camera). We got Edwin Richardson (to the East) on film once, (he gave a good natured wave) but failed on another one (to the West) and didn't even try on Frank Petty (to the North). These PIs are the wonder of the neighborhood, sitting out in cars melting in the hot sun. At least they got rid of the black car. Mid afternoon, Graham decided to have another go at gold. The rest of the picketers were on other missions or taking naps so Graham and I set off. He dropped me near State and Florida at a copy shop I have used before. When I went in, the guy who runs it had a tale to tell me. He said the PIs came in and wanted to know what connection he had with me. He told them (just making copies for me!) but the experience sure left an impression. He had taken my stories of the PIs with just a grain of salt, but now says if anything I understate the matter. I told him how he could get his very own set of PIs. While he turned me down, people are sure not reacting with anything like the fear they used to have about the cult. I mean, if they *worst* they can do is whine to the DA about fearing some guy who pickets them, because he posts on the net, well, the cult is just not something to fear (unless you are a member). On the way out of the copy shop I met a very important local contact. The contact recognized me from the photo in the paper this morning. The group this person is with has been reading extensively on the net, is *highly*concerned about the clam infestation and is determined to do something about it, but had no idea of what could be done. Well, this group will shortly know. I picketed the State and Florida corner doing a good business in flyers for about 45 minutes. Graham came back from gold where Ed Richardson had shadowed him for a short time and then gave up. We worked two corners for a while and then came on back to Ida's. *********** This is the end of my report for the moment. There should be more from a picket this evening but I wanted to comment a bit about the interaction of legal proceedings, pickets, and the clam's foot bullets. I have previously concluded that fighting the clams in courts is a waste of time because they can pour lawyers and money on till it breaks anyone short of Bob and strains even him. But I have changed my mind about this some. The court cases such as Lisa criminal and mine in Hemet are useful as bad PR for the cult and good opportunities for the cult to foot **** (deleted by counsel) themselves. Of course, more bad PR, results in offending more people, which causes more pickets, which results in more stupid legal moves, more bad PR, and round and round we go! So some level of legal cases in combination with picketing works well, especially if you can catch the other side making really stupid errors. Keith Henson Reporting from Occupied Hemet.