Yesterday I took a quick ride down to NYC to march with the anti-occupation/anti-war protestors. It's amazing to see that so many people are concerned enough about their futures that they take an active hand in securing it.

Now, because I AM a New Yorker, I can't let such a great experience pass me by without a few complaints.

There were a lot of great causes being touted, one of which was the freedom of Palestine. There were tons of Palestinians and various cultured people calling for the end of Palestinian oppression. The problem was that they were so scattershot and disorganized it was comical. Stand in one place and every five minutes another lost-looking miniature Palestinian woman would walk by, screaming 'Flee Flee Palestine' (I think she meant 'free free Palestine, but the Babel Fish was on the fritz) while several younger Palestinian women echo her.

This was pretty indicative of the scene as well. Lots of little splinter groups, even as cloistered as 'The Northern Manhattan Neighbors' Association of Mothers Against War'. What's next? 'Guys Named Dave Who Were at 28th and 8th on Tuesday, July 7th, 1993 Who Are Usually On The Fence But Right Now are Antiwar'? If we're going to segregate ourselves so bloody religiously, how are we ever supposed to bring our diversity together to seriously affect change?

The other real complaint was about white people. I realize the majority of people on this website are white, as am I. I'm very, very white. Not WASPy white, but paler than a wedding dress in a snowstorm. We also know that rich white men are pretty much the cause of all the bureaucracy and horrendous capitalism we see around us. Apparently, only dirty white people in wrinkled, filthy (yet outrageously expensive) clothing will hold hands, skip in a circle, chanting such garbage as 'Kum Ba Ya' . Seriously. There never seems to be a shortage of dumpy white chicks with bongos at these things, either. Nearly ALL the non-white people were standing in the periphery just kind of watching these numerous spectacles with a bemused/amused look in their eyes. As was I.

The worst thing? I realized that it seems to be that hippies are traditionally rich white people escaping their money. THESE hippies had UGG boots on, which live up to their name by being positively hideous, and go for upwards of a couple of hundred dollars. The ones NOT wearing UGGs? That staple of hippie footwear that we all know someone who owns a pair.

I can only hope the CEO of Birkenstock is a capitalist swine.

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The giant three-phallused phallus of Uzbekistan will one day squirt the cosmic jizz of revenge all over Canada.

This is the problem with democrats as a bunch. Republicans can be so single minded in their grab for power, wealth and world destruction. But dems collect causes like knick knacks.

FOCUS PEOPLE!

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"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet

I was at the one in Portland(Oregon), and I must say the turnout was great. About 7,000 people. There was a pocket of pro-Bushites... but naturally they were morons. "We Love Bush + Our Troops! SHUT UP AND GO HOME!!" and of course, the ever logic-lacking, "Besides and Nazism and Communism, war has never done ANYTHING." Of course, the communists helped "end" Nazism, and Nazism and Communism are still around. :P

I was also at the one in Los Angeles last year(two years?), and that was huge.

Last "anti-war" demo I was at had them playing Give Peace a Chance, followed, with no intermittent pause, by a guy shouting "Victory to the intifada!"

Dude, all kidding aside, there were two white kids about six people to my left shouting the exact same thing.

I'm pretty sure they were joking, because their sign was spelled 'Intehfadda'.

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The giant three-phallused phallus of Uzbekistan will one day squirt the cosmic jizz of revenge all over Canada.

Intehfadda-da-vida, baby, don't you know that I'll AL-ways be true-ooh...

On a more serious note, as liberal, free-speech loving, and against the war as I am, there are these four guys who, every single day, stand on the same corner holding "War is not the answer!" signs. I just want to pull over and say, "Dudes, go home. The war ain't goin' anywhere at this point. There are more important things you could be doing right now. If you support Kerry, go canvass the neighborhood and build support for Kerry. If there are any pressing local issues, make some signs and protest them. But, come on now, stop with those same fucking signs you've had for almost a YEAR now. Get another cause, please!"

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I has a flavor!

My understanding is that protesters basically do not have jobs or families. If you're that bored go get a job. Or a puppy. Or if you're too much of a dingbat to take care of a puppy, get a plant. Jesus Christ.

It seems kind of an odd time to protest the war, when the Iraqi people would be most vulnerable if we pulled out. Where was all this commotion before the war? What about all these self-righteous Democrats in Congress who voted for the war? This is just election-year pandering, because if anyone was actually thinking about the Iraqi people they'd understand the vacuum left by an immediate U.S. pullout would be filled by a deadly civil war.

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Vote Jeb Bush 2008

Dude, all kidding aside, there were two white kids about six people to my left shouting the exact same thing.

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Yeah, but at the demo I was at, the guy was actually saying that from the platform! He was one of the official speakers! And later, there was a guy who said that Ariel Sharon was worse than Saddam Hussein and Hitler combined.

Uh. You didn't happen to notice the unprecedented anti-war demos all over the world for several months before it all kicked off?

I didn't notice an appreciable amount in the U.S.

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Vote Jeb Bush 2008

Mainstream media didn't cover it much but it was all over the place. You pay too much attention to CNN.

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"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet

Yeah I should read more of Totally_Real_Anti_Zionist_Conspiracy_Hidden_News_Stories.com like you.

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Vote Jeb Bush 2008

Or at the least crawl out from under your bed.

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"Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!" Janice the Muppet

interestingly enough, i was just reading from Chomsky's Understanding Power, and it says:

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The fact that [dissidence] doesn't have a center, and doesn't have a source, and doesn't have an organizational structure, that has both strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses are that people get the sense that they're alone-- because you don't see things happening down the street. And it's possible to maintain the illusion that there's no activism going on, because there's nothing dramatically visible, like huge demonstrations or something; occasionally there are, but not most of the time. And there's very little in the way of inter-communication, so all sorts of organizing can be happening in parallel, but it doesn't feed into itself and move on from there. Those are weaknesses. On the other hand, the strength is, it's very hard to crush-- because there's nothing to cut off: if one thing gets eliminated, something else just comes up to take its place. (3)

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so, for what it's worth, while you/i/we may feel that this disunity in contesting "The Republicans" (i put that in quotes since i'm a republican; i just happen to be against this administration as well as the two-party system in general-- but that's another story) is self-defeating, perhaps it has a strength to it that signs for kerry wouldn't necessarily have. the disunified gestures can't end with an election or the flaws of its leadership.

Mainstream media didn't cover it much but it was all over the place. You pay too much attention to CNN.

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from another Chomsky book i've started, Manufacturing Consent (i've never read chomsky before, it's just a coincidence i've started these two books at this time, and no, i don't believe everything i read by him), it says:

if we were to take this into consideration, then it would be pretty safe to assume that the withdrawl of Western occupation in the reorganization of Iraqui economy and governance would go against the business interests of major media corporations who look at Iraq as a potential market. this book coincidentally also goes on to say that a good number of protests and marches frequently go overlooked or misrepresented by the mainstream media because of how mainstream media's economic concerns frequently unconsciously govern its consideration of what's important or ideologically "right"/legitimate. (by the way, Manufacturing Consent builds an interesting and well-documented-- albeit, admittedly at times flawed-- case for its claims with extensive details and documentations, for those that are interested in such reading.)

in any case, reuters (where cnn gets its news from) did cover at least the NY protests, and i live in Oxford, MS, and there were protests even here in this ultra-conservative town of 10,000 inhabitants. so, i have to imagine that the US had quite a bit of its own protests against the occupation in Iraq, despite the insignificant numbers indicated (i don't think any news attempted to report actual or even potential numbers in the greater US, just the "thousands" in NY) in mainstream news.

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i want to piss on you

So you're saying there wasn't a marked lack of protests in the United States preceding the war, and you can offer tangible evidence of this?

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Vote Jeb Bush 2008

Great people you guys have on your side by the way.

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Vote Jeb Bush 2008

http://themoderntribune.com/seatle_anti-war_protests_2003.htm

http://www.jcphome.com/images/sfprotest/SFprotest.htm

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A16FB3A5E0C758DDDAB0894DB404482

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_protests_against_war_on_Iraq_(pre-war)

this last link appears more comprehensive. last year, i was in charlottesville, VA (very small university town), and there were multiple protest marches there prior to the war. my family was in ft. lauderdale, FL, and they witnesses it both there and in miami.

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i want to piss on you

quote:

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So you're saying there wasn't a marked lack of protests in the United States preceding the war, and you can offer tangible evidence of this?

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On the eve of the war, between 40,000 and 100,000 protesters marched in DC ("Optimistic War Protesters Keep Pressure on Bush; Diplomatic Setbacks For Military Strike Lift Crowd's Hopes." Washington Post, 16 March 2003, pg A11.) At the same time, rallies were happening in US cities all over the country ("Protesters in U.S. Cities Join Antiwar Voices Heard Round the World." Same page.)

On the preceding January 18, the largest war protest since the Vietnam war drew "an awful lot of people" according to District police ("Crowd Estimates: 30,000 to 500,000; But Who's Counting? No One Officially." WashPost, 19 January 2003, p. A15).

On the preceding October 26, that is, of 2002, DC hosted another rally of some note ("100,000 Rally, March Against War in Iraq." WashPost, 27 October 2002, front page).

And so on. 10s or 100s of thousands marched on several occasions in the Nation's Capital, in the largest such demonstrations in decades, and you didn't notice?

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What others say about boorite!

Typical of you just to throw out a dismissive argument like that. But the truth is, the WTC didn't do much for NYC. Those buildings were kind of ugly and without character (not to mention a good distance off Midtown). The Empire State Building was a far more charismatic skyline-topper, with a lot more personality, and was a lot more tourist-friendly. So even if that sign was a bit coarse and off-topic, it does hold more than a grain of truth. New York was the greatest city in the universe before the twin towers went up, and it still is.

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ken.kaufman@gmail.com

Kaufman, whether you want it or not, you've now got my eternal respect.

The World Trade Center, for all it 'did' for the landscape, was exactly what the terrorists who attacked it thought it was: A symbol of American capitalism. It was just another marker of New York City, really. It became a symbol of 'freedom' after it was destroyed, but in essence it was much the symbol of the opposite before it became a 'martyr building'.

We've never NEEDED symbols to identify this city, even though we've had countless, and without that particular one New York is still a hell of a place. We've got capitalist, gaudy, themed restaurants and we've got gay high schools. Gay St. Patricks's Day parades and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Liberal and conservative, yuppies and hippies, Palestinians and Jews, we've got it all together in NYC. Fuck you if you don't like it.

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The giant three-phallused phallus of Uzbekistan will one day squirt the cosmic jizz of revenge all over Canada.

Nobody is interested in New York and nobody cares.

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What others say about boorite!

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What others say about boorite!

Start spreadin' the news!....

Spoken like a true New Yorker.

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Please replace the handset, and try again.

Nope! I guess they don't matter, like the protests this weekend (which no one will remember since it broke news on Saturday). Ha ha.

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Vote Jeb Bush 2008

OMG they killed Saruman!

Jack Straw, our foreign secretary, described Israel's action as "unacceptable and unjust". Which is a bit rich coming from him.