Les said, the better II

Besides, since we’ve graduated from college, we’re looking around for something to do for the next few years . . ..
Kind of like dad.

Since he’s about to be out of office.

Take this. I know it’s hard to believe, but our parents’ favorite term of endearment for each other is actually “Bushy.”  . . .. And we had a hamster, too. Let’s just say ours didn’t make it.

I don’t know what this means, but I strongly suspect I should say ewwww. Heterosexuals are weird.

When you grow up as the daughters of George and Laura Bush, you develop a special appreciation for how blessed we are to live in this great country.

I love this silver spoon.
And the Kids for Kerry Speech was better than this one, and that kid was way younger.

Welcome to the capital of the World.

I make this claim, not just because Manhattanites are smug, but because this city is home to one of the world’s most important international institutions. If any place could be said to be the capital of the world, it would be the city where representatives of all the nations meet to arrive at international policies, set international law and promote international peace. In the UN buildings, just across town from here, the world comes together to resolve differences and avoid senselss war. I call New York the capital of the World because this party, this country, and all of us here are comitted to an international outlook, benefitting all people.
hahahaha. just kidding. USA rules! smug smug smug

So long as George Bush is President, is there any doubt they will continue to hear from us until we defeat global terrorism.

We will win our war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania

It makes a statement that New York City and America are open for business and stronger than ever.

It’s open for buisiness because it’s all for sale.

At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, “Thank God George Bush is our President.”

That cannot really have happened. I refuse to believe it. The guy who was on vacation and ignored memos entitled subtle things like, “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US,” and who sat and blinked confusedly for many minutes readin My Pet Goat and then fled in his airplane first one direction and then another, creating a power vacuum. I mean . . .
Personally, my first thought was wishing Clinton was back in office. I was standing in the subway in Barcellona, watching the towers fall on the TV screens there and thinking, “I bet Al Gore would have an idea what to do.” Seriously.

In 1985, terrorists attacked the Achille Lauro and murdered an American citizen who was in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer.

It is a terrible crime to attack a man in a wheelchair, especially with a missle, unless Israel does it . . .

Terrorist acts became a ticket to the international bargaining table.
How else to explain Yasser Arafat winning the Nobel Peace Prize when he was supporting a terrorist plague in the Middle East that undermined any chance of peace?

I mean, how else to explain it aside from, you know, distorting facts, ignoring data and just generally lying?

Before September 11, we were living with an unrealistic view of the world much like our observing Europe appease Hitler or trying to accommodate ourselves to peaceful co-existence with the Soviet Union through mutually assured destruction.

hitler hitler hitler hitler. this thread is done.

Ronald Reagan saw and described the Soviet Union as “the evil empire” while world opinion accepted it as inevitable and belittled Ronald Reagan’s intelligence.

Um. Is that a joke?

John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision.
This is not a personal criticism of John Kerry.

John Kerry smells funny and can’t get it up. This is not a personal criticism of Kerry. It’s the sad truth. Stinky and impotent.

But John Kerry has made it the rule to change his position, rather than the exception. In October, 2003, he told an Arab-American Institute in Detroit that a security barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian Territories was a “barrier to peace.”
A few months later, he took exactly the opposite position. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post he said, “Israel’s security fence is a legitimate act of self defense.”

Mr Giuliani, I’m afraid your pants are on fire.

Now New York construction workers are very special people. I’m sure this is true all over but I know the ones here the best. They were real heroes along with many others that day, volunteering immediately. And they’re big, real big. Their arms are bigger than my legs and their opinions are even bigger than their arms.

And now more than half of them have respiratory ailments from working on Ground Zero, which the EPA said was safe. The EPA knew it wasn’t safe. But re-opening the financial markets was more important than those guys.

Frankly, I believed then and I believe now that Saddam Hussein, who supported global terrorism, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his own people, permitted horrific atrocities against women, and used weapons of mass destruction, was himself a weapon of mass destruction.

We found the WMD!!!!

Rather than trying to grant more freedom, create more income, improve education and basic health care, these governments deflect their own failures by pointing to America and Israel and other external scapegoats.

Rather than trying to grant more freedom, create more income, improve education and basic health care, Bush deflects his own failures by pointing to Iraq and other external scapegoats.

But blaming these scapegoats does not improve the life of a single person in the Arab world. It does not relieve the plight of even one woman in Iran.
It does not give a decent living to a single soul in Syria. It certainly does not stop the slaughter of African Christians in the Sudan.

There’s also an alarming and widespread genocide in the Sudan, but it’s against Black African Muslims, so who cares.

But we will know it. We’ll know it as accountable governments continue to develop in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pakistan – military dictator
Afghanistan – oil company apointee with no control outside of the capital city
Iraq – Guy who shot six prisoners in the head.

And behind the times convention blogging:

John McCain

After years of failed diplomacy and limited military pressure to restrain Saddam Hussein, President Bush made the difficult decision to liberate Iraq.

liberate verb – grant freedom to;
(slang) to steal

Whether or not Saddam possessed the terrible weapons he once had and used, freed from international pressure and the threat of military action, he would have acquired them again.

Wow! We acted just in the nick of time! The Sanctions were about to be lifted and the “no-fly-zones” were coming apart at the seams. If we had waited even one week longer there would have been no international pressure or threat of military action whatsoever! I mean, it’s not as if we were bombin Iraq weekly for the 11 years previous to the war! oh, no, wait . . . we did bomb them weekly for the last 11 years.
Let’s focus on what’s important here: Hussein’s evil desires and lusts. He lusts for weapons of mass desturction. Much as we hate the sin of homosexuality and hate the homosexual sinner for his lusts, we must hate Hussein for his lusts. It is a founding principle of America that we punish people not just for their deeds, but also for their desires.

We couldn’t afford the risk posed by an unconstrained Saddam in these dangerous times.

And remember, he was just minutes away from having no oversight whatsoever when we struck.

By destroying his regime we gave hope to people long oppressed that if they have the courage to fight for it, they may live in peace and freedom.

Bring ’em on!
oh, he didn’t mean fight US forces?

I said earlier that the sacrifices in this war will not be shared equally by all Americans. The President is the first to observe, most of the sacrifices fall, as they have before, to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. We may be good citizens, but make no mistake, they are the very best of us.

the poor will be paying for this war, but no worries. The trickle down effects of no-bid contracts to the vice president’s company will benefit all of the super wealthy and the very wealthy and maybe, eventually, the upper upper middle class.

It shook us from our complacency in the belief that the Cold War’s end had ushered in a time of global tranquility.

It turns out that the lack of a military super power enemy actually doesn’t mean that we can pillage the third world with impunity.

We are Americans first, Americans last, Americans always.

Would foreigners blease report to a special holding cell at the back of the center. thank you.

One thing I noticed during all the protests was the lack of a visible queer presence. There would occassionaly be somebody holding up a sign about gay marriage or something, but no group of out queers. The closest I saw was during the march from the WTC to MSG, a truck with a billboard on it drove by (I hate this advertising idea, btw) and the billboard was from the Human Rights Commission, which is a lobby for GLB rights.

All of that marching was tiring and the huge number of arrests was worrying, so the next day, we went to a small anti-war protest at Union Square Park and then to the MET and looked at thier Dangerous Laisons exhibit and their modern art wing. Then we walked towards the NOW rally. I stopped on the way and got in a looong coversation with some members of the Revolutionary Communist Party. They’re Maoists. They follow some guy named Bob Avakian. I told them that they seemed to messianic. Anyway, We went to the NOW rally, where the cops had put up a labrynthe of barricades. Some folks had to walk nine blocks out of the way to get to it. Alan pondered whether or not the cops had organized the rally, because it was so tame and mainstream, he thought, but they didn’t even want people to stand around listening to the NOW.
And the NOW is where I found the queer content. Almost ever speaker was a lesbian, although they rarely addressed queer issues, except to say that after thousands of jobs lost and thousands of people becoming uninsured, gay marriage doesn’t seem like an issue to focus on. Ok.
they left addressing queer issues to the performers, who included a baby boomer singing about Stonewall, some spoken word poets going on about sleeping with their girlfriends, and other songs. The baby boomer had a song about a woman named Rose who had died from a back alley abortiong before one could get a safe one. The refrain:

get your laws off me
i’m not your property
don’t plan my family
i’ll plan my own
 
I don’t want to be
in your theocracy
remember liberty
remember Rose

Despite some reports to the contrary, none of her songs were to the tune of America the Beautiful.
The NYC chapter of NOW s the founding chapter. Speakers included their president, the national president, some Air America contributors, somebody from the NYCLU (arrests at demonstrations have been increasing nationwide over the last few years, despite peacefulness) and others. They were funny (“there is so much mercury in water now, under the bush administartion, that you can actually take your temperature just by drinking it”), up with women, up with lesbians (i heard the word “bi” exactly once and in a song. NYC = SF ten or more years ago). It was the sort of instutional feminism that I remember from my undergrad days. It was low key, but inspiring. We must go and take active steps after the convention to defeat Bush.

Last day

And the last day of the convention, after more than 1500 arrests by the NYPD and more than 987 dead US soldiers in Iraq, we went to Washington Square Park and hung out at the Vetrans for Peace Rally. There was a side event there, invloving Ring Out and the folks that have been doing Paul Revere’s Ride stuff around the convention. the day before it started, they rode their bikes around NYC shouting “The Republicans are Coming.” One if by jet and two if by SUV, apparently. They needed folks to ring bells so they could read a list of their grievances against Bush and topple a “statue” of him. Cola and I participated as bell ringers. Mostly we stood for a long time holding bells over our heads. Bells are heavy. Then, after the statue was toppeled, people signed the “declaration of independance.” their demands were very mainstream. They were partiots, who beleive in the system. Ok. I was happy to help.
some media website published a picture of the event, which our hosts stumbled upon. Rebbie sent out a very braggy email about how her activists had gotten into the media. She was very pleased. I’m glad for this, as I was worried about imposing by staying in her teeeny apartment for so many days.
After ringing bells, we went to look at the UN. I really like the UN. I think internationalism is a great idea. A UN body, UNESCO, has specifically endorsed Esperanto. I’m thinking of flying a UN flag outside my house. If only we listened to the UN more often!
So I went to look at the UN buildings and saw across the street, a demonstration to end the genocide in Dafur. I took their picture and said “right on.” One interresting thing about the demonstration was that it included absolutely no women. They were chanting something about stopping rape. I have no idea why it was all male. Anyway, I was pleased as punch to find out that tourists were allowed inside the UN. A cop stopped me. No protest of any kind is allowed in the UN. I didn’t buy any ant-bush clothing, so my clothes were permissable, but all my srtickers and buttons had to come off. I was trying to get through security and had fogotten that I had a sticker on my back. they made a huge deal out of it. What is that?! What am I trying to pull?! A bunch of them came over and shook their heads about how I was trying to get a sticvker inside. The UN is great, but cops are cops. I really hate them now. I’ve had good experience with some in the past, but I’m really tired of being treated like a suspect because I want to fly in an airplane or go into a public building or exercize my first amendment rights. And, since the UN is not US territory, those rights didn’t even exist. I was worried about being arrested. What would happen if I were arrested inside the UN for wearing a sticker? Where would they send me?
We hung around the lobby a little while, but the tour was expensive, so we went back to Washington Square Park and held up our “No” signs. Instead of hanging around the UFPJ rally, we decided to be mroe badass and go down to Madison Square Gardens. We knew that the sound weapons, the 150 decibel “megaphones” were out so we took earplugs. The rally turned out to be so loud that the cops wouldn’t even need to use the sound weapons. Extremely loud speakers, folks with drums and whistels. Somebody right behind me had built a trumpet out of a rubber hose and a funnel. It was insanely loud. I put in earplugs.
The protest spanned more than 4 blocks. It just kept growing until it was rodered to disperse. The speakers were not exciting at all, except for someone from the national lawyers guild. Those folks were working as leagal observers. The wore bright green baseball caps and were at every single event, even more than the NYCLU. They passed out little pamphelts explaining rights and what to do if arrrested (or if the cops come to your door asking questions). They were at everything that I went to. They’re awesome. 13 of them were arrested during the protests. Two of them got beaten. They were watching, they were not participating. they were clearly identified as legal observers. the cops got them anyway. an undercover cop offered one of them forty dollars for the hat. S/he wanted to pose as a lawyer and offer folks legal advice. Is that even constitutional? The NLGF person did not sell.
the NLGF is awesome. They’ve done a lot of good work on a lot of issues. They rule.
At some point in the protest, a bunch of cops came out in full riot gear. Shields. Huge batons. Helmets. I was freaked out by them and also by the possibility that they would blast us with sound. But there were cops on the other side of the protest not wearing helmets or any visible ear protection. For that kind of volume, people have to wear the big headsets like they were around jet engines. I couldn’t beleive they would blast their own guys. Later I found out that they had actually turned the thing on. Maybe they would have blasted their own guys. Or maybe they sould have just relied on the snipers in the blimp overhead.
They ordered us to leave, so we walked blocks and blocks down 8th ave, the open street, while a helicopter buzzed right overhead. BUZZZZZ. A bunch of cops on unmarked motorcycles came riding around. They were “undercover,” but they were all wearing body armor and helmets and riding in formation the wrong way around a one way street. They followed us for a while, while vans full of cops went back and forth. And the damn helicopter, still loud and overhead. All that weaponry: snipers, sound weapons, batons, tear gas, rifles, guns, vans, scooters (some cop ran his scooter into a bunch of protesters earlier in the week. the vans and scooters are weapons), the wearing sounds of the multiple military helicopters overhead, all just for us. A bunch of people on foot with cardboard signs. I didn’t even have my pocket knife on me. Nor my self defense weapon. Cardboard signs supported by carboard tubes (wooden dowels will get confiscated) and they had the power to kill all of us and were buisly flexing muscles and demonstrating that power. They did not want people to forget that they could be killed or arrested at the whim of the police.
somebody I know spent two days in jail, in a bus garage. That garage has motor oil on the floor of it. battery acid. the junk that leaks out of busses. And it’s not cleaned up and there are no chairs. Alan said that Liz has bruises on her arms from where they very tight plastic handcuffs were left on her for hours. Liz is not a violent person. I doubt she was doing anything wrong, not even blocking the sidewalk (i don’t know the details of her case). Like the hundreds of people arrested at ground zero, she was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
some folks that violating civil liberties is ok, because protesters make a choice to be out in the streets. But passersby, shopkeepers and folks just trying to get home from work didn’t chose to protest and didn’t chose to be arrested. You know, and people who are not christian fundamentalists make a choice not to go to those churches, but so far, the first amendment also protects those rights. Losing freedom of religion and losing freedom of the press and losing the freedom to peaceably asssemble would be a disaster. These freedoms are in danger.
some communists feel like that if we had the right system in place, with the right laws and the right people in charge (them. errr… the proletariat), we wouldn’t need to protest because everything would be ok. But we have laws now protecting our freedoms and they’re not followed. We need governments because we need schools and roads and firefighters and healthcare and other services that should be garunteed. But any government must be questioned. Even a government of laws and not men (as they say) can go wrong if not questioned by the populace. We will always need the freedom to protest, to peaceably assemble and to petition for the redress of greivances. Zell Miller says that we owe these rights to soldiers. I say we owe them to case law. to folks like the National Lawyers Guild. And to protesters who know their rights would nto be respected, but went out anyway and were hit with batons and tear gas and high pressure water. the ACLU, the NLG, the NAACP LDF more than any other cop with a gun or somebody shooting kids in Iraq, the good lawyers protect our freedom.

It is clearly Autumn in Connecticut. As I was driving back from droping Cola off at the airport to go home, I noticed many yellow trees with piles of leaves collecting bellow them. And trees with red sections, like wounds, where the leaves are dying but the rest of the tree is still fine. The insects are chirping, but dying like the leaves. It gets cold at night and it will get colder. way way way colder.

Everyone is back in town here. Classes start tomorrow. “Labor day” i guess is a holiday for the help, or blue collar types and not the independant ivy. Jess’ boyfriend says that labor day was foinded to de-internationalize labor, because their old holiday, the one the rest of the world celebrates, is May Day, a remebrance of the Haymarket Massacre. Maybe we get May Day off.
Aaron, my housemate, has broken up with his long term gf, within the last week or so. I think it’s ok to post this, as he’s been telling everyone.
Jess has moved into India House.
I can’t remember my way around Hartford. Like all the returning grads, I needed to get my car jumpstarted. People with jumper cables are in high demand. My bank account was depleted by my time in NYC. alas. I should draw up a budjet. It’s the in thing to do. I need notebooks and pencils and a bookshelf.
My room continues to get more livable. Between you and me, I’m really dreading school. It’s only 8 more months. Only 8 more months. It won’t freeze right away. The weather is still lovely. I have no pappers to write yet. Only 8 more months to get through.

As is probably obvious, I’ve been auditioning NYC as a possible future residence. Rebbie, my host, says that it seems to wear down Californians after a few years, but it’s worth doing for a while for the adventure. Indeed. I already feel worn down. The city has been so weird recently it wouldn’t be fair to even count my experiences. All the sound arts spaces I know of were closed for August, so I didn’t see/ hear them. And the town has been a police state. And errily empty. I was at Times Square at 1:30 or 2:00 AM several days ago and it was nearly deserted! The Republicans want to capitalize on 9/11 and ironically, their presence is recreating the kind of odd emptiness and economic lull that 9/11 caused. If nobody wants to go out, nobody is shopping. Buisinesses are loding money (except in the Hamptons) and everything feels strange.

My freind Allen thinks that this might be just the beginning and they want to continue this kind of police presence, but there’s no way the city can afford it. The cops, who have been out for sixteen hour and longer days in the newly invented “orange plus” security alert level are working without a contract. They had a little protest about this and were put into a protest pen. The irony.
I went to many demonstartions, of which I will post details later (but check out Ethnically Ambiguous for Cola’s account). Last night, Cola and I were riding the subway home late last night. I was holding a “Stop Racism NOW” sign, of the kind clearly made by the National Organization for Women. Very mainstream. I was being a bit less radical for the evening, as fear of arrest is too much for me after a while. And NOW-NYC is awesome. Anyway, I was holding a very mainstream sign and walking to a transfer point under Times Square. These three fat, old white men in suits, carrying red schwag leer at us (especially Cola) and say “Fuck Bush. huh huh” like Beavis and Butthead. I was momentarily confused. Then they leered and said “Fuck Bush” again and laughed like they were much smarter than anyone on earth and were entiteled to own the entire world. Have you seen that video of the kids dressed as republican gangsters, saying “fuck new york. when we want something, we take it.”? yeah. I know some republicans and they’re good people. But they should know that that the delegates, bigwigs and schwag- infested billionaries they send out to do the work of democracy are smug bastards who feel entitled to hassle any woman they see. I felt dirty afterwards. I wanted to break their kneecaps or take a shower.
and then, when I got the platform, theere was another Republican, but he was by himself and didn’t have any of his rush-limbuagh-says-women-enjoy-sexiual-harassment-so-we’re-doing-them-a-favor (true claim!) friends with him and was obviously extremely nervous and frightened. He had a police escort. But he was scared to be on the platform. Not so touch wihtout yer friends, are you? Except for the 20 or so cops in the station and the sageant following you around to make sure you’re ok. Maybe he’s a girlie-man?
The more I think of those smug, self-satisfied, overly-entitled bastards drawing out the words “fuck bush,” sexualizing it, at me, the more angry I get. And if I had ylled at them, I think I would have been arrested.

Yesterday was very exciting. I took part in an unpermitted march against the School of the Americas, which started from Ground Zero and was set to go to Madison Square Gardens. A bunch of cops, wearing polo shirts that said “TARU” on the back were busy videotaping everyone. TARU stands for Technical Assistance Responce Unit. Their cameras were right in people’s faces and clearly meant to be intiomidating. I had read on indy media that morning that cops were overheard talking about deploying “sound weapons.” That could only mean the 150 decibel “megaphones.” I had earplugs in my pocket. We lined up for the march. Delegates were going past in busses, getting a “tour” of ground zero. Every car on the jammed street was a cop car or a delegate bus. Right as we were about to start, the police arrested the first one or two hundred people for standing wider than 2 by 2 and thus blocking the side walk. We stayed lined up, in a pretty long line, waiting for instructions. They were confusing. Finally, some guy said we were going to do the die-in right there, so everyone broke ranks, but then re-lined up to march. Some black-clad anarchist was getting agitated. He wanted to do something for the people being arrested. I asked him what and he spun into an impassioned story about how he had been stopped by the police somehwre (Maybe a checkpoint in Israel??) and the woman in front of him had started giving birth and he cut the umbillical cord with a rock! And so we had to do something. Wow. Ok.
We walked in a 2 by 2 line spanning four blocks, towards Union Square, our new destination. The kids behind me were too radical for this march. We had to stop at stoplights and stuff. So boring. But you know, I’d rather march someplace than get arrested at the first stop light. Then we ran into a nother march or maybe another part of the same march, and lined up behind them and started towards Madison Square Gardens.

For those of you who don’t know Manhattan geography, that is a long long walk. They formation we were in made it hard to do chants, cuz we’d get out of synch. So we walked and chatted. The mother daughter team in front of me had an argument about a yoga class conflicting with violin lessons. The duo behind me congratulated each other the entire way about how radical they were. somebody a few rows ahead was wailing away on a little drum. BOOM boom boom boom BOOM boom boom boom BOOM boom boom boom. Um, yeah, long, tedious march. I kept hoping that we would pass a donut shop.
Despite the arrests, the march more than doubled over the course of it’s length. People we passed were generally supportive. Several people explained they wished they could march, but were at work. One guy who was partially disabled thanked us for marchng. We passed Washington Square Park and there were Quakers also demonstrating for peace.
We headed up fifth av. Around 11th street, word went down the line that folks who wanted to do the die-in should move to the front of the march. We were joined by a bunch of green-hatted observers from the National Lawyers Guild. This is a great group. They pass out information about what to do if you’re arrested. The observe marches. They negotiate with the police. In other fronts, they’re fighting corporate personhood and they’re the folks who sued to get California to revoke Union 76’s corporate charter because of their human rights and environmental abuses. Micheal Savage, conservative nutjob, calls them “a commie front organization.” They’re awesome.
We got all the way to 25th or 27th and apparently the cops said we couldn’t go farther, so all the folks who werre going to lie down in the street did so. Somebody was standing on top of some trash, leading the croud in chanting “NYPD listen up!” followed by the text of the first amendment. Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion…. I think I now have the first amendment memorized.
The organizers were telling us not to block the sidewalks, but were widely ignored and then gave up. There was a huge crowd of press and bystanders and gawkers and protesters, all blocking everything. The bike cops all hopped on their bikes and headed out. Were they leaving? No! Cola and I ran to the end of the block and jumped over a bike in a gap to escape. They closed the gap right behind me. Standing with bikes lined up like that is a very effective way to block in non-violent protesters. They can’t really get over the bikes and they don’t want to fight with cops. It looked like everyone on the block would be arrested. A bunch of people were lined up, trying to get out. Then the cops got the order to move and just block the people who hadn’t tried to leave.
It was late, so I left. Cola and I ran into a Billionare for Bush, putting on is costume. He had bling on, including a rinestone encrusted dollar sign to wear around his neck. There were tuxedo shirts for sale cheap donw the block, but id din’t get one. My pants were filthy. I could never pass as a Billionare.
Cola and I decided to hop on the subway and go to the Metropolitan Museum, but then it was swarmed with cops. Drumk republicans carrying bags marked with the Pepsi logo were emerging from the Museum. Apparently pepsi threw them a party. They were exceedingly well dressed. Cola speculated that they were donors and bigwigs and not lowly delegated. The party did have an exclusive air. The bigwigs or whatever, seemed to have no nervousness about hailing cabs, maybe it was because it was the upper east side. There was but a single protester. We did not join him.
we took off for the Second Ave Deli to meet with Jess’ friends. Right across the street, at St Mark’s church, the bike block was playing drums and dancing and giving away free food. We hung out for a bit and then went to the deli to meet Jess and Co. Her boyfriend is a socialist. a couple don’t talk politics. One is a adamant zionist. One is a republican. The loud zionist critized the demonstartaers. If they’re out in the streets not even listening to Bush’s speech, how can they criticize him? indeed.
Cola, Jess’ boyfriend and I walked over to Un ion Square where there was a huge croud of people and a bunch of cops. Then it got near time for the delegates to leave, so the cops all left us to our own devices and… everything stayed exactly like before. The speaker was still shouting. People were still handing out pamphlets. Folks were still sitting on the shteps. All being leftists and radicals without being watched, and my, everything was fine. Imagine that.
Before all the cops left, a bike cops was in the middle of the croud talking to people about how tired he was and how cops have to keep the peace and when they had a prtest for higher wages, they were put in a pen too and they didn’t like it, but they knew it was for public safety and it’s true that some cops are dicks. Heck, he’s worked with dicks and . . . then a supervisor appeared and told him to stop talking to people. He’d been out since 8:00 that morning and it was nearly midnight by then. The cops are getting tired, which is really not good. I was exhausted, and I’d only started at 3:00 pm and I didn’t have to worry about terrorists or whatever the cops are freaked about.
after a bit, we walked back to Rebbie’s apartment and stole her Cynar bottle and headed up to her roof with it and sat and sipped some cynar, decompressing. NYC makes me tired. Protesting makes me tired. Protesting in NYC makes me completely exhausted.
I took like a hundred pictures of all of this, but then my camera did something weird to the formatting on both of my memory sticks. I’ve reformatted them, but I fear they will be eaten again, sicne it did it to both. alas. I’ve only had this camera for 5 months.

1. No hills!
2. Few cars!
3. Taxis are less clueless than SUVs
4. Excitement!
5. Faster than subway or busses
6. free
7. get to see the sights

I was riding uptown. Cola was following me. We went past a bunch of the convetion hotels. Police had closed many of the side streets. Cabs were darting around, but the busses weren’t stopping. I was going the same speed as the slow lane. Cars cutting around. A cab stopped in front of me but the doors didn’t open in my path. It’s scary and fun. Coming back, we went through an empty Times Square. Garbage trucks were scooting around. There was goo in the streets from where sidewalks had been hosed off. I got a drop of something sour and foul in my mouth and was spitting on the way back. Semi trucks rumbling around. Traffic was moving faster, since there was no hold up. Scarier. But I felt safer than I would in San Francisco. The drivers are professionals. They’re paying attention, even if many of them are on speed.

Things I love about NYC

Every street is famous. Every corner had a famous event, a famous club, a famous person some piece of history, dripping from every location like water from the air conditioners. I love the subway. I love that I can hear the insects in Central Park when biking by. I love the teeny galleries, the little parks, the nighborhoods. I love that there are a billion extremely talented muscians all over the darn place and a billion venues and some of them even seem to have funding.

on the other hand

the city is cooking. It’s being steamed. My skin is sticky. The urine on the sidewalk is heating and rising. The particulate matter is sticking to my skin. The rents are insane. I have to be on all the time, dealing with strangers, navigating a downtown, being aware of my surroundings. The city is overwhelming huge. How long would it take to bike away?

ok, so the convention hasn’t started yet, but the protests have. First let me say that I haven’t talked to a single New Yoker who is happy about the Republicans coming. Quite the opposite. Several businesses have signs that say something about welcoming peaceful protesters. One hotel is welcoming republicans. Actually, probably many hotels, but not that many have posted signs. Bloomberg, NYC’s venerable mayor has floated a proposal where out of town protesters can sign up on a special list with the police and in exchange, they get a peaceful protester sticker that they can use to get discounts at many Manhhttan buisinesses, such as Starbucks!. Wow! I was going to break their window, but now I think I’ll just get a discounted crappiccino! The only drawback is that I have to give my name to the police. Shockingly, I have not seen anyone wearing these stickers.

Nicole arrived on Friday. She came in the JFK and hopped on a bus to Grand Central Station. I met her there and we went down to SOHO, where we’re staying with her friends Creighton and Rebbie. They lent us bikes and we went right away to Critical Mass. This ride has been happening for ten years, but this time, the cops announced that it was time to start enforcing traffic laws. Whatever. Indymedia was reporting 10,000 bicyclists, down 45 city blocks. It was peaceful, but it did stop up traffic. Maria sais that she had never seen midtown so empty.
The next morning, we went with Nicole’s friends Wendy and Pinky to the pro-choice march across the Brooklyn Bridge. That was very peaceful and actually very hot and dehydrating and dull. the cops all had croud control handcufs and riot helmets and body armor, but they were all wilting in the direct sunlight, none of them wearing their helmets. They didn’t want to arrest us any more than we wanted to be arrested. Then, that afternoon, we went to the Ring Out. It was lovely sounding actually, hearing the sounds of bells ringing circling ground zero. Organizers were expecting 3000 people. I don’t know how many came, because the WTC took up such a large space and people were all around it. It seemed like there were more media than ringers. Several wire services snapped my picture and then asked for my name, but A google news search seems to indicate that my image didn’t go out. A San Francisco chronicle reporter told Nicole she would likely be on the front page, but her image didn’t show up anyplace on the web site. It’s not the first time I’ve been outnumbered by press while protesting, but it’s still odd. I ran into Aaron, my Wesleyan housemate while there. He rang a bell with us for a while.
That evening, Creighton and Rebbie hosted a rooftop party. They have a tiny apartment, but they have roof access. There’s a lovely deck up there.
this morning, I went to the gigantic United for Peace and Justice March and no-rally.( pictures will be forthcoming) They couldn’t get a permit for the rally in Central Park, so immeditaly as the march ended, we had to board a subway and leave or risk arrest. Despite the hostility of the police department, the organizers estimated 400,000 participants. It was very very large, certainly the largest demonstartion I’ve attended. Someone there remarked that it would have been larger, except that the RNC was scheduled for the same time as Burning Man. We have our priorities on the West Coast.
However, aside from marchers, midtown was again eerily empty. Rebbie speculated that many locals have just left town. It’s hot and sticky as hell anyway in Manhattan in August.
Obviously, I feel like all this protesting is useful. I don’t think it will change the mind of Bush on anything. He already has ignored the world’s largest organized mass protests (the around the world demonstrations against the Iraq War that happened before the war started). And I don’t think it’s going to change the minds of swing voters, although I don’t discount the possibility. I think that Kerry will be the next president. And I think that these protests will influence his actions. Unlike our insane current misleader, it seems likely that Kerry, like any sane president, would be swayed by the overwhelming will of the people. Nixon bowed to pressure from protests and Kerry likely would too. The signs I saw were not pro-Kerry. They were anti-Bush. We’re going to vote for Kerry, but if he wants us on his side after the election, he had better remember us. We’re organized, we’ve got PACs and we’re ready to hit the streets. We will continue to demand peace at home and abroad. No justice, no peace. If he’s screwing the country and waging wars, we won’t hestiate to call him out. We demand peace and prosperity and equality and justice and human rights and those things that ought to be the core principles of the Democratic Party.
More protests later this week. Stay tuned as I fight the forces of reactionarism and McKinley-ism.