Big Brother:
These things I learned from the Young Republicans I spoke to outside their gig at Tuscan Restaurant in Rockefeller Center:
* Greedy conglomerates like those run by Warren Buffet buy up small businesses because these businesses can't afford the "death tax."
* Deficits are okay, because they can easily be paid off in a year or two.
* Corporations shouldn't have to pay taxes, because they aren't individuals.
* Clinton's economic policies did not lead to a strong economy.
* Bush had enough money to, and did fund, the No Child Left Behind Act.
Just in case you needed a brief course in economics as understood by the next generation Republicans.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
The GOP and 9/11
Big Brother: (sorry for the weird A symbols - they appear when I blog from my mac...)
One of the emerging themes of the week has been the GOP fixation on 9/11. There was a front-page article in the Times this morning profiling servers at restaurants in midtown where a lot of the delegate receptions are being held. Many of these employees had worked at Windows on the World and have to put up with listening to endless talk about 9/11, while at the same time having to keep their mouths shut about the friends and families they lost at the World Trade Center.
On the subway on the way into the city today I had a chat with a guy who works in the Garden. He told us about how stifled any negative talk is and how they can tell their cell phone calls are all being monitored. They, too, have to hear the delegates talk about almost nothing else but 9/11.
And it's true that in every brief encounter I've had with a delegate or other GOP supporter this week, they invariably bring up 9/11 and how could I be so ungrateful to the president who defended this country against the people who attacked us. As if.
So, if you're wondering how it is that George Bush is commanding the support of so much of this country, just don't forget 9/11. All the propaganda is working. It doesn't matter that this administration has lied about education policy, Medicare "reform", who benefits from tax cuts, why we went into an unnecessary war in Iraq, that deficits are a good thing, and so on. All these people see in their minds' eye is "9/11" and their hero, George W. Bush.
One of the emerging themes of the week has been the GOP fixation on 9/11. There was a front-page article in the Times this morning profiling servers at restaurants in midtown where a lot of the delegate receptions are being held. Many of these employees had worked at Windows on the World and have to put up with listening to endless talk about 9/11, while at the same time having to keep their mouths shut about the friends and families they lost at the World Trade Center.
On the subway on the way into the city today I had a chat with a guy who works in the Garden. He told us about how stifled any negative talk is and how they can tell their cell phone calls are all being monitored. They, too, have to hear the delegates talk about almost nothing else but 9/11.
And it's true that in every brief encounter I've had with a delegate or other GOP supporter this week, they invariably bring up 9/11 and how could I be so ungrateful to the president who defended this country against the people who attacked us. As if.
So, if you're wondering how it is that George Bush is commanding the support of so much of this country, just don't forget 9/11. All the propaganda is working. It doesn't matter that this administration has lied about education policy, Medicare "reform", who benefits from tax cuts, why we went into an unnecessary war in Iraq, that deficits are a good thing, and so on. All these people see in their minds' eye is "9/11" and their hero, George W. Bush.
Things get nasty in NYC
After three days of relative calm and cooperation on the streets, things have started to get pretty nasty today. First I was cut off in a crosswalk by a guy who insisted he had the right-of-way because he had the green light. He seemed to be ignorant of the legal concept of pedestrian right-of-way. His true colors shone through when he yelled "Kerry's a pussy!" (I should start I guess by saying I go nowhere this week without my protest sign.)
Then I was walking east across 25th street from the labor union rally, which was large and rowdy, but pretty well organized. This guy slammed into me, I guess to make some brute point. 'Course, I didn't let him by with that and asked him if he had trouble seeing me with my huge sign. His response was to push me, grab my sign and then throw a lit cigarette at me. That was pretty bad except that I was kind of jonesing for a cigarette and the one he threw at me he had barely started to smoke. So I grabbed it and kept up with him demanding to know why he thought he had the right to assault me when all I was doing was walking down the street carrying a sign. He asked where I was from. I told him I lived in Brooklyn and had been living in New York for 20 years. Well, then, of course I wasn't born here, so apparently that means I have no right to be on the streets with a sign. By this time we were back on the avenue where the cops were all guarding the Garden. But they wouldn't lay a hand on the guy because they "hadn't seen him" attack me. It was all right, though, because I could tell the guy's asshole was tightening up at the thought of having to pay a price for his actions.
At Herald Square Matt, Hamilton and I were interviewed by a guy from Voice of America. The cops made us move. It seemed they were getting very antsy about anything happening around the Garden. I found out about an hour later from niece Jessica that some protestors had gotten into the Garden. That would explain why the cops back on 7th Ave had checked the cardboard tubes holding our signs.
At the NE corner of Macy's some guy challenged me to support something and not just be hateful and against something. I told him that I was supporting Kerry and the Democrats but at the moment my concern was protesting George Bush. He told me that he's my president and I should respect him. So naturally I went off on him about why should I respect a man who's lied for the last four years and run his administration in unprecedented secrecy, to which he responded "Oh go ahead! We'll get bombed again”. So I said, well as long as you mention being bombed Bush led us into a wrong war against the wrong enemy, at which point a cop came up and pulled me away because "One-on-one isn't protest, it's harassment." 'Course it doesn't matter that the other guy started it, or that the cops wouldn't do anything when I was physically attacked.
When we got back around to 8th Ave and nearer the Garden, some other protest folks were walking up the avenue and saying to proceed with caution because the cops were being pretty rough on demonstrators up a block ahead. Well, we're not interested in being arrested so we continued across 35th St to walk down 9th Ave. At this point Jessica called to say that what she was seeing on TV was concerning her and she thought it would be better if we took the evening off.
As it happens, our main plan for the evening was to drive around the Pants on Fire mobile (pantsonfire.com). But this morning the mobile was impounded by the NYPD with a host of tickets about wrong lighting, hidden back windows, a lot of trumped up stuff.
So we're back at Matt's catching up on the Newshour and basically licking our wounds. It's gotten nasty on the streets. We're going to save our energy for the protest at the Garden tomorrow night during Bush's acceptance speech.
That's the report for now.
Then I was walking east across 25th street from the labor union rally, which was large and rowdy, but pretty well organized. This guy slammed into me, I guess to make some brute point. 'Course, I didn't let him by with that and asked him if he had trouble seeing me with my huge sign. His response was to push me, grab my sign and then throw a lit cigarette at me. That was pretty bad except that I was kind of jonesing for a cigarette and the one he threw at me he had barely started to smoke. So I grabbed it and kept up with him demanding to know why he thought he had the right to assault me when all I was doing was walking down the street carrying a sign. He asked where I was from. I told him I lived in Brooklyn and had been living in New York for 20 years. Well, then, of course I wasn't born here, so apparently that means I have no right to be on the streets with a sign. By this time we were back on the avenue where the cops were all guarding the Garden. But they wouldn't lay a hand on the guy because they "hadn't seen him" attack me. It was all right, though, because I could tell the guy's asshole was tightening up at the thought of having to pay a price for his actions.
At Herald Square Matt, Hamilton and I were interviewed by a guy from Voice of America. The cops made us move. It seemed they were getting very antsy about anything happening around the Garden. I found out about an hour later from niece Jessica that some protestors had gotten into the Garden. That would explain why the cops back on 7th Ave had checked the cardboard tubes holding our signs.
At the NE corner of Macy's some guy challenged me to support something and not just be hateful and against something. I told him that I was supporting Kerry and the Democrats but at the moment my concern was protesting George Bush. He told me that he's my president and I should respect him. So naturally I went off on him about why should I respect a man who's lied for the last four years and run his administration in unprecedented secrecy, to which he responded "Oh go ahead! We'll get bombed again”. So I said, well as long as you mention being bombed Bush led us into a wrong war against the wrong enemy, at which point a cop came up and pulled me away because "One-on-one isn't protest, it's harassment." 'Course it doesn't matter that the other guy started it, or that the cops wouldn't do anything when I was physically attacked.
When we got back around to 8th Ave and nearer the Garden, some other protest folks were walking up the avenue and saying to proceed with caution because the cops were being pretty rough on demonstrators up a block ahead. Well, we're not interested in being arrested so we continued across 35th St to walk down 9th Ave. At this point Jessica called to say that what she was seeing on TV was concerning her and she thought it would be better if we took the evening off.
As it happens, our main plan for the evening was to drive around the Pants on Fire mobile (pantsonfire.com). But this morning the mobile was impounded by the NYPD with a host of tickets about wrong lighting, hidden back windows, a lot of trumped up stuff.
So we're back at Matt's catching up on the Newshour and basically licking our wounds. It's gotten nasty on the streets. We're going to save our energy for the protest at the Garden tomorrow night during Bush's acceptance speech.
That's the report for now.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
From the Trenches
Big Brother actually took the week off from work to fight the good fight in NYC this week. He sent me this yesterday:
Very weary from marching out in the heat and humidity, so pardon the typos and probable incoherence.
First things yesterday, had church, as I'm a soloist in a fairly liberal Lutheran church off Times Square. Had two GOP delegates from W. Va visiting. Pastor's sermon was on moral etiquette (inviting the homeless and poor to your banquets, as they cannot repay you), so he let everybody know that we had delegates visiting and that coupled with the soloist being there with his protest placard at the ready to leave early for the protest would be an opportunity to practice some etiquette. The sign of peace at offertory was a model of Christian love and acceptance. I hope.
The big protest march was very satisfying. Lots of people - "freaks" one radio commentator called us (probably some Clear Channel outlet). But half a million of us couldn't all be freaks. Only incident I saw was a counter demonstrator attacking a protestor on 34th St, then diving into Macy's with protestors and police in hot pursuit. That must've livened things up at the cosmetic counters! My "LIAR" signs were a big hit. The three of us carrying them - friend Matthew, Andrea from church, and I - had a lot of media fotogs shooting us. Haven't seen us in print or on line yet though.
Took a break afterwards, recuped on pepperoni pizza and beer, then headed up to Times Square for the Broadway protest. Missed the Minnesota delegation going into Phantom, but got a good interview in with some outlet from Maryland. A lot of arrests around Times Square though as the protestors were blocking a coupla the big hotels' driveways.
Noon today, Monday, arrived in Union Square just as the "Still We Rise" protest march set off. Was officially there with PantsOnFire.com/truemajority.org, passing out Pants on Fire matchbooks to the media and the protestors. Had a good interview with the Jersey Journal and a vid interview with some other guy. Ran out of matchbooks, so had a quieter time of it until I came across a guy preaching Jesus Christ through his megaphone. Kind of lost it on him, shouting him down that he had no business equating support for Bush with faith in Jesus Christ. Lost count of the folks with press creds asking for the spelling of my name and gave two or three (four? five?) vid interviews, some more official than others.
Things're overall pretty peaceful. The police have been very well behaved. In fact, I keep saying that something's definitely being run wrong in this country, if the cops are on the side of the protestors. Even went by some firemen in Brooklyn today who voiced their support. Firemen!
Big Brother
Very weary from marching out in the heat and humidity, so pardon the typos and probable incoherence.
First things yesterday, had church, as I'm a soloist in a fairly liberal Lutheran church off Times Square. Had two GOP delegates from W. Va visiting. Pastor's sermon was on moral etiquette (inviting the homeless and poor to your banquets, as they cannot repay you), so he let everybody know that we had delegates visiting and that coupled with the soloist being there with his protest placard at the ready to leave early for the protest would be an opportunity to practice some etiquette. The sign of peace at offertory was a model of Christian love and acceptance. I hope.
The big protest march was very satisfying. Lots of people - "freaks" one radio commentator called us (probably some Clear Channel outlet). But half a million of us couldn't all be freaks. Only incident I saw was a counter demonstrator attacking a protestor on 34th St, then diving into Macy's with protestors and police in hot pursuit. That must've livened things up at the cosmetic counters! My "LIAR" signs were a big hit. The three of us carrying them - friend Matthew, Andrea from church, and I - had a lot of media fotogs shooting us. Haven't seen us in print or on line yet though.
Took a break afterwards, recuped on pepperoni pizza and beer, then headed up to Times Square for the Broadway protest. Missed the Minnesota delegation going into Phantom, but got a good interview in with some outlet from Maryland. A lot of arrests around Times Square though as the protestors were blocking a coupla the big hotels' driveways.
Noon today, Monday, arrived in Union Square just as the "Still We Rise" protest march set off. Was officially there with PantsOnFire.com/truemajority.org, passing out Pants on Fire matchbooks to the media and the protestors. Had a good interview with the Jersey Journal and a vid interview with some other guy. Ran out of matchbooks, so had a quieter time of it until I came across a guy preaching Jesus Christ through his megaphone. Kind of lost it on him, shouting him down that he had no business equating support for Bush with faith in Jesus Christ. Lost count of the folks with press creds asking for the spelling of my name and gave two or three (four? five?) vid interviews, some more official than others.
Things're overall pretty peaceful. The police have been very well behaved. In fact, I keep saying that something's definitely being run wrong in this country, if the cops are on the side of the protestors. Even went by some firemen in Brooklyn today who voiced their support. Firemen!
Big Brother
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