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Post by Roughneck on Aug 25, 2004 18:43:58 GMT -5
Liberal New Yorkers welcome conservative Republicans - sort of From false directions to sassy T-shirts, residents greet conventioneers in authentic and irreverent ways. By Harry Bruinius | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK - When Peter Shankman was a smart-aleck teen carousing on the streets of Manhattan years ago, he and his buddies would sometimes make fun of the deer-in-the-headlight tourists gaping at maps, trying to find their way.
"Oh, you want to get to the Statue of Liberty?" they would snicker to themselves. "OK, easy. Get on the uptown No. 1 train, get off at 137th Street. Make sure you're wearing a lot of jewelry, then ask anyone there - and make sure you tell them you're a tourist!" (Hint: That's a stop in Harlem, a 40-minute subway ride from the Statue of Liberty.)
They never actually followed through, says Mr. Shankman, now a marketing executive in the city where he was born and raised. But as New Yorkers brace for an onslaught of Republican delegates this weekend, a handful are saying they just might take up such "disinformation campaigns" as the Republicans come to town. In fact, the former three-term mayor, Ed Koch, has been urging his notoriously liberal fellow citizens to "make nice" with their conservative GOP guests.
It's not just that 5 out of 6 registered voters here are Democrats. New York has long been a bastion of artistic libertines and avant-garde intellectuals, as well as workaday unionists, making it one of the most left-leaning regions in the country. Socialists still hand out pamphlets on college campuses - and are taken seriously - and anarchists aren't simply teens with body piercings and a fondness for punk.
Of course, such political eccentricity can make New Yorkers myopic and parochial, too. As film critic Pauline Kael said in bewilderment after Richard Nixon trounced George McGovern in 1972, "Nobody I knew voted for Nixon!"
Add to this political bent New Yorkers' infamous in-your-face demeanor, and some begin to worry. Philadelphia votes almost as Democratic as New York City, after all - as do most big cities - but no one had to urge the "City of Brotherly Love" to "make nice" when the Republicans held their convention there four years ago.
"New Yorkers, obviously, have a reputation for expressing their opinions," says Jonathan Tisch, chairman of NYC & Co., the city's convention and tourism bureau. "And so even though they may see some Republicans and tell them how they feel politically, my sense is that they'll do it with a smile, and they'll help find a restaurant or the Museum of Modern Art."
City boosters may have a reason to proclaim their confidence that New Yorkers will make nice next week, of course, but a significant number of residents are indeed planning to express their ire in a more civil way. And while much is being said about visiting protesters and fears of violence, most of the locals are looking for particularly New York ways to counter the Republican deluge.
"A lot of people are upset - it's like New Yorkers are being used for political gain," says Randy Anderson, a playwright who decided to organize "The Unconvention: An American Theater Festival," a series of politically charged plays and panel discussions that will be held three blocks from the convention.
"The big driving force is that we're choosing to respond to the Republicans choosing New York City as their convention site and moving it so close to Sept. 11," Mr. Anderson says. "Our main focus with these productions is to get people to think more politically and to become more actively engaged as citizens, so it's not as if we're bashing folks."
Indeed, this will be the first time the GOP will hold its convention in New York City, while the Democrats have held five conventions here, including 1976, 1980, and 1992. "The general feeling is, of all the cities you could pick, why New York?" asks Shankman. "If the World Trade Center had been in Akron, Ohio, the convention would be there right now. They come here, shut everything down, just for a political prop."
Yet, even as "Republicans Go Home" signs are displayed in apartment windows, thousands of residents have also volunteered to serve as "ambassadors" for the delegations coming in from around the country, says Mr. Tisch. And while out-of-towners may try to cause trouble, most New Yorkers plan to express their own displeasure in more benign ways.
"Our method of street protesting has gotten a little more peaceful, because we don't want to see the violence - that doesn't get anything accomplished," says Anderson. "I think people are little wiser to that, whereas the pranks and the off-the-wall stuff that a lot folks were doing in the '60's doesn't really apply to what's in our society today."
Alice Leeds, a communications director for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, is planning to march with her chow chow dog. She'll wear a white T-shirt emblazoned with a red, white, and blue elephant lying dead on its back. Her dog, too, will be wearing a shirt: one featuring a "W" slashed through with the red prohibition symbol.
"As a proud New York City resident and equally proud Democrat, I'm proud to show my stripes - in a gentle way," Ms. Leeds says. "At least I'm actually staying in town. Most of my friends are fleeing."
"But in the end, if one of the invading Republican throng were to ask me for directions or where to find a public john - el grande problemo - I know I'll be friendly and kind," she continues. "I have no choice: My dog has one of those dropped-jaw, perpetually smiling and inviting dog faces that fairly screams, 'Welcome.' "
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Roland
Full Member
Robert Johnson King of the Delta Blues
Posts: 235
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Post by Roland on Aug 26, 2004 21:50:41 GMT -5
I like the Iraq War clock ticking off the growing cost of the war I read they've just put up in Times Square. That should be a nice greeting for the conventioneers. ;D
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Post by LS on Aug 27, 2004 1:01:01 GMT -5
I like the Iraq War clock ticking off the growing cost of the war I read they've just put up in Times Square. That should be a nice greeting for the conventioneers. ;D Yeah that's a good one...and 'course it don't hurt that they have it sitting over a rather eyecatching billboard of a hot babe!! In case anyone's interested...I'm now accepting donations for the 'LS Bail Fund'... ;D
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Post by LS on Aug 27, 2004 1:02:55 GMT -5
The latest news from the frontline...
Residents OK With Park Protests
NEW YORK (AP) - Democrats, who outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 among registered voters here, want their city to welcome not only Republican convention delegates but also the protesters who plan to demonstrate against the GOP. A sizable local contingent plans to join the marchers.
Differing with their Republican-controlled city administration, 71 percent of the city's registered voters think protesters should be allowed to demonstrate in Central Park during the Republican National Convention. And 11 percent plan to go to a demonstration themselves, according to a poll released Thursday.
A state judge has rejected a bid by the group United for Peace and Justice to force the city to allow a rally in the park Sunday after a march past Madison Square Garden, the convention site. City officials have said such a rally, which could draw 250,000 people, might damage lawns in the park.
The Quinnipiac University poll found that most New Yorkers, 81 percent, approve of lawful demonstrations during the convention, and 68 percent approve of nonviolent civil disobedience. Nearly all disapprove of violent protests, according to the poll.
``The city is rolling out the red carpet for the Republican delegates, but most New Yorkers would roll out the green carpet of Central Park for the anti-Republican demonstrators,'' Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
``Lawful demonstrations - even nonviolent civil disobedience - are a time-honored tradition and still widely supported,'' he said. ``But 19 out of 20 New Yorkers draw the line at violence.''
Two-thirds think the convention and the protests surrounding it will cause major disruptions, but just 10 percent plan to leave during the event, the poll said. Half said they were worried about the convention being held in the city, and 31 percent said they thought a major terrorist attack during the convention is ``very likely'' or ``somewhat likely.''
As for President Bush, the star of the event, 70 percent disapproved of the job he is doing, compared with 25 percent who approved.
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Post by Roughneck on Aug 27, 2004 1:03:09 GMT -5
Yeah, I kinda have a feeling that if we know anyone who's gonna get pinched at the Gestopo convention... Although NYPD might be too busy causing a ruckus of its own to worry about you!
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Post by LS on Aug 27, 2004 1:03:56 GMT -5
Countdown To The GOP Convention
This story was reported by Graham Rayman, Glenn Thrush, Sean Gardiner, Lindsay Faber and Toshi Maeda, and written by Rayman
August 27, 2004
Naked in midtown.
Tents in Brooklyn.
Coffins in Williamsburg.
They're here.
Four days before the Republicans are to arrive for their national convention, protesters across the city made final preparations for the demonstrations that will begin this weekend.
Some groups got started early. Four people were arrested on assault and other charges yesterday for trying to hang a protest banner from the roof of the Plaza Hotel. The assault charge was filed because a police sergeant fell into a plywood-covered skylight and suffered a deep cut in his leg.
At noon, seven activists from the anti-AIDS group ACT UP strode into the middle of Eighth Avenue at 33rd Street, stripped down to their sneakers and sandals and began chanting "George Bush, drop the debt and stop AIDS now!"
The sudden nudity took police by surprise and created a stampede among reporters who were on Eighth Avenue to tour the convention press center with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and convention chief executive Bill Harris.
"You can't get that in Tampa," said Kevin Sheekey, head of the city's host committee, referring to the other city that bid for the convention.
Bloomberg, at the Marriott New York Hotel, said: "This is New York. Of course we'd have seven naked people on Eighth Avenue."
In Williamsburg, television producer Mike de Seve and interior designer John Lake feverishly made coffins out of cardboard late Wednesday night, then draped them with homemade American flags.
About 1,000 ersatz coffins are being made to represent dead American military personell during Sunday's march past Madison Square Garden.
"We're trying to show the real human cost of the war," said de Seve, 41, who has credits on "Beavis and Butt-head" and "Father of the Pride."
"This is a battle for the swing voter, and we're trying to get that grim image out to them," he said.
"They can't justify the war," said Lake, 45, who has a brother in the Navy and said he hasn't protested since college. "If they could, then they would allow us to see the cost in lives."
Meanwhile, organizers with Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, which lost its bid to use Central Park for a protest, said it will distribute thousands of fliers detailing park rules to people who intend to go there Saturday afternoon. The flyer notes, "You do not need a permit to go to Central Park."
"We have no interest in sparking a confrontation," said Bill Massey, a lead organizer with the group. "People are going there anyway. The mayor has made Central Park a civil-rights question in the way the city has conducted itself."
Alex Vitale, a Brooklyn College sociologist, said the city's refusal to allow the weekend protests to end in Central Park adds a new level of unpredictability. It is better, he said, from a crowd-control perspective for a large crowd to disperse from a single location, rather than random locations.
"You're leaving the response entirely to the police," he said. "Based on history, I would expect the worst."
In what was billed as the first test of an unpermitted march, 300 people joined DNC2RNC, whose members walked from Boston, as they made their way to Union Square from Columbus Circle without incident.
"Because we were in close contact with the police, we are OK," said organizer Kim Chinh, 28, of Queens.
On the steps of City Hall, lawyer Martin Stolar said police have violated the Handschu agreement, which governs monitoring of political organizations. He cited instances of officers photographing and videotaping individuals at a police union protest as well as members of the Yippies — Youth International Party — when they tried to hand out doughnuts to officers at Gracie Mansion.
Under Handschu, which stems from a 33-year-old court case, images can only be recorded if police believe a crime is taking place, he said.
Inspector Michael Coan, a police spokesman, said officers videotaping in a public place is not a violation of Handschu.
On Myrtle Street in Brooklyn, participants in Monday's Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign march were receiving instructions on nonviolent civil disobedience, said Cheri Honkala, whose group set up a tent city in Central Park before moving to Brooklyn.
The march, which will include veterans and church groups and does not have a permit, will travel from the United Nations to Madison Square Garden. "We need a day, just one day, for poor people to talk about the last four years," she said.
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Post by LS on Aug 27, 2004 1:05:05 GMT -5
Celebs Plan Response to Party Conventions
By VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK -- Thousands of people waving pink slips will line Broadway for three miles, their jobless-in-America protest stretching from the site of the Republican National Convention to Wall Street.
Near the Brooklyn Bridge, a mammoth red megaphone will amplify election-year opinions from a variety of people 24 hours a day.
While the Republicans meet at Madison Square Garden, America's biggest city will offer edgy spectacles in its streets, squares, parks and stages, featuring such people as Lauren Bacall, Robert Altman, Margaret Cho, Spike Lee, John Sayles, Marisa Tomei and Slick Rick.
On Saturday -- two days before the GOP convention starts -- the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas comes alive with about 200 performances that organizers call a "response" to official party politics. The lively lineup has no official link to either party, but serves largely as counterprogramming to the convention nominating President Bush for a second term.
"We're raising the level of public discourse above the soundbites of the politicians," said Chris Wangro, an executive producer of the festival that ends Sept. 2, along with the convention.
"We believe the political parties are dividing people to get votes, whether they're Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals or whatever," said Wangro. "This is an opportunity for people to speak out on human issues -- on jobs, health care, freedom of expression."
Venues throughout New York's five boroughs will host actors, musicians, painters, scientists, photographers, comedians, writers, poets, filmmakers, spiritual leaders -- and just ordinary citizens.
There'll be singing, dancing, joking and even just standing and waving symbolic pink slips -- for The Unemployment Line.
"The Bush team has done a terrible job with unemployment, and in New York, it's 30 percent higher than the national average," said Robert Lah, a 31-year-old Wall Street lawyer with a six-figure salary who was a registered Republican until four months ago, when he became a Democrat.
On Sept. 1 just after 8 a.m., Lah will join about 5,000 people filling Broadway sidewalks from 31st Street near the Garden to Wall Street. They'll raise the pink slips above their heads for 15 silent minutes, giving protesters with jobs time to get to work.
People for the American Way, a Washington-based organization running The Line, will make room for anyone who just shows up for the silent protest.
At least a third of the festival events are free, and tickets to the rest cost an average of $15.
On opening night, Korean-American comedian Margaret Cho is kicking off her "State of Emergency World Tour" at Harlem's Apollo Theater, delivering what she calls "a raw interpretation of what's happening daily in our ever-evolving or devolving state of the union."
The show has an extra, offstage bite to it: Cho's controversial, off-color lines were "banned" in Boston by hosts of a nightclub show linked to the Democratic convention who canceled her appearance.
"Bring It On!" -- Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry's slogan -- is the title of a show satirizing the Republicans in sketches and songs by writers including E.L. Doctorow, Calvin Trillin and Mary Gordon. It'll be presented on Sept. 2, the night of Bush's nomination speech, at Symphony Space on Broadway -- along with a live broadcast of the convention.
"The Republicans wouldn't be in New York if it weren't for 9/11," said Trillin. "So for the convention, they'll try to turn a few acres of lower Manhattan -- ground zero -- into their New York."
The giant megaphone -- the Freedom of Expression National Monument -- will carry people's voices toward ground zero from Foley Square, a walk from the Brooklyn Bridge.
"We're all offering whatever gifts we have to the gods," said actress Kathleen Chalfant, who will star with Marisa Tomei in a Lincoln Center reading of Sophocles' Greek tragedy "Electra," followed by a discussion on violence, retribution and compassion.
Added Chalfant: "We all honestly believe that if we don't stop, or mediate, the direction in which our country is moving, there will be a disaster."
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Post by LS on Aug 27, 2004 1:06:45 GMT -5
Schedule Of Protests At RNC Convention
Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on New York City for the Republican National Convention, which is set for Aug. 30 through Sept. 2. Here is a tentative schedule of many of the expected protests:
August 22, 2004:
The Yippies will host the Yippie Tea Party outside of Mayor Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse beginning at 8 p.m. to protest his bringing the GOP convention to New York City. Entertainment will be provided and tea, coffee, juice, donuts and pies will be served for both protestors and police.
Direct Action Democracy, march and rally protesting exportation of American jobs, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Church Street from the Battery to Broadway and Park Place
August 23, 2004
Under the auspices of the John Lennon-Abbie Hoffman Memorial Camporee, the Yippies are scheduled to open their 'Welcome Center' at Tompkins Square Park, despite having been denied a permit. Protestors are expected to camp at either Tompkins Square Park or East River Park. Members of The Rainbow Family are expected to arrive in a car caravan from California. Food Not Bombs will run a soup kitchen in the park during the convention.
August 24, 2004
Greene Dragon and Time's Up! will host Paul Revere's Ride at 7 p.m. beginning at the Sherman Statue in the southeast corner of Central Park. Participants will then ride their "horse-cycles" down Lexington Avenue, warning New Yorkers that "The Republicans are coming!" and terminate at Madison Square Garden.
August 26, 2004
The Artists Network of Refuse and Resist is sponsoring Un-Conventional Heroes: An Evening of Performance Honoring Courageous Resisters 7 p.m. at the New York University Skirball Theatre Center. Recipients include Aaron Lebowitz, a high school student from Darby, Montana who resisted a resolution to make creationism part of the public school curriculum, and Juanita Young, a leader of the movement against police brutality in New York City.
The Anti-Convention, 7 p.m. at the Warsaw in Greenpoint. Live Music Research is holding two evenings of music and RNC protesting. The group which professes to promote social awareness and responsibility through live music will donate all proceeds from the $20 a ticket show to Not in Our Name.
DNC2RNC Democracy Uprising participants are scheduled to arrive in New York City after walking 258 miles from Boston, the site of the Democratic National Convention, in a trek that was begun on July 31. As they near NYC marchers will be accompanied by a bike bloc of Time's Up members.
August 27, 2004
Critical Mass Ride at 7 p.m. at Union Square hosted by Time's Up. An international event, where bike riders come together to ride the ordinarily car-clogged streets of New York City.
The National Immigrant Solidarity Network is holding an Immigrant Worker Solidarity Day of Action from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. throughout the City to call attention for the need for more immigrant rights and an end to attacks against them.
The Anti-Convention to begin at 7 p.m. at the Warsaw in Greenpoint. Live Music Research is holding two evenings of music and RNC protesting. The group which professes to promote social awareness and responsibility through live music will donate all proceeds to Not in Our Name.
August 28, 2004
Planned Parenthood in conjunction with Not In Our Name will host the March for Woman's Lives NYC from Cadman Plaza across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Park for a demonstration. It is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. in Brooklyn.
The Green Party Office Committee in Manhattan will host a 'Green World is Possible' festival from 11 a.m. -6 p.m. in Washington Sq. Park, Greenwich Village.
Christian Defense Coalition will hold an evening Pro-Life prayer vigil on Seventh Avenue across from Madison Square Garden.
Middle East Peace Coalition will demonstrate on the southeast triangle of Union Square at a yet to be determined time.
Not in Our Name in conjunction with United for Peace and Justice and RNCNot Welcome.org hold a Million in the Streets protest before the official start of the RNC. There is no set location for this protest and organizers expect demonstrations to "spontaneously erupt" in all neighborhoods of the five boroughs and surrounding communities.
Ring Out will hold a protest at Ground Zero at 5:30 p.m. where participants will use bells to symbolically ring out the Republicans.
Books Not Bombs Youth Convergence Groups of student and youth organizations from around the country are to converge on the City for a series of spontaneous protests and demonstrations.
Free For All Wet anti-Bush T-shirt Contest Billed as an all day protest event to be held on Sheep Meadow Pasture in Central Park.
August 29, 2004
United for Peace and Justice will hold a march that will begin around 10 a.m. between 14th and 23rd streets. Marchers will head north on Seventh Avenue past Madison Square Garden, where the GOP will meet, before turning west on 34th Street for the walk down the West Side Highway.
Greene Dragon will travel from Fresh Kills across New York Harbor on the Staten Island Ferry in the morning, staging a liberation of Manhattan from the Republicans and eventually joining with the UFPJ march.
Return the Light to America Walk: A Suffolk Progressive Vision sponsored walk from Orient and Montauk Points beginning on August 20 and ending at the Brooklyn Bridge where participants will join the UFPJ march.
Code Pink Women for Peace will rally in the Eleanor Roosevelt Corner of Riverside Park at 11 a.m..
Billionaire's for Bush hosts the Million Billionaire March at a Manhattan location and time that has yet to be announced.
Christian Defense Coalition demonstration, Church Street between Liberty and Vesey Streets
Bush Bash in Brooklyn at Cafe 111 a day of music, comedy, spoken word and political thoughts beginning at 3 p.m.
August 30, 2004
The Hip Hop Action Network, Still We Rise the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign will hold the March For Our Lives: Stop the War at Home. The SWR will begin with a rally at Union Square at noon they will be joined by PPEHRC who will first come together at the United Nations. Both groups will then continue through midtown Manhattan and meet up with the HHAN at a site near Madison Square Garden.
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship will hold a sitting meditation for peace all day in Bryant Park.
The Christian Defense Coalition will hold an evening prayer vigil at Ground Zero to call for an end to abortion in the United States.
Disabled American Veterans rally, 10 a.m., Eighth Avenue and 31st Street
August 31, 2004
The Shout Heard Around the World, at 11 a.m. a wide-ranging group of protestors will gather across the City to shout NO to the re-nomination of President Bush as the Republican candidate for president.
The A31 Coalition plans gatherings at barricades and spontaneous free-speech zones as well as no-permit direct actions:
9:30 a.m. At Bank of America financial roundtable, Tavern on the Green
All day. Actions at offices of corporations with Republican ties or those involved with the Iraq war, including:
-- Carlyle Group, Fifth Avenue at 58th Street
-- The RAND Corp., 342 Madison Avenue
-- Chevron, 230 Park Ave. 49th to 50th streets
-- General Motors, 767 Fifth Ave., 58th to 59th streets; and a showroom, 599 Lexington Ave. 52nd to 53rd streets
-- Global Crossing, 435 W. 50th St., Ninth to 10th avenues.
-- Hummer of Manhattan, 55th Street and 11th Avenue.
The War Resisters League plans to gather at Ground Zero and at 4 p.m. march in a funeral procession to Madison Square Garden for a 7 p.m. "die-in."
New York Metro Area Postal Unions demonstration, 2 p.m., Eighth Avenue at 31st Street
NARAL Pro-Choice America will demonstrate for reproductive rights in the North Plaza of Union Square Park, at a yet-to-be-released time.
People for the American Way will read the U.S. Constitution from the Central Park Band Shell.
September 1, 2004
The Line, a coalition of individuals from local arts and labor organizations will stand along Broadway from Wall Street to West 31st holding mock pink slips beginning at 4 p.m..
The Code Red Protest for Women's Rights hosted by the NYC chapter of the National Organization of Women and other local groups such as Not In Our Name. It is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at the East Meadow of Central Park. A permit has not yet been granted by the City.
Activist Ellen Reudenheim will host an anti-gun violence display all day in Union Square Park.
DEMO: A Demonstration in Words poetry reading on the RNC, President Bush and the war in Iraq will take place at St. Mark's Church at 8 p.m.
September 2, 2004
Boston-to-New York Stonewalk arrives in New York City. Hosted by September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, participants pulled a 1,400 pound granite slab from Boston to New York.
Not In Our Name is slated to hold an evening rally at a yet to be announced location.
One Peoples Project to hold a party in the evening at Tompkins Square Park.
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snizz
Full Member
I'm sure I'd be more upset if I weren't quite so heavily sedated
Posts: 322
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Post by snizz on Aug 27, 2004 1:11:52 GMT -5
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Roland
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Robert Johnson King of the Delta Blues
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Post by Roland on Aug 29, 2004 22:07:50 GMT -5
I just finished reading this one and it had me in hysterics! GOP desperation isn't a pretty sight. GOP: Protests Are Kerry's Fault BY TIMOTHY M. PHELPS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF August 29, 2004 The protests have hardly begun, but already the Republican party is blaming John Kerry for the mischief, if not the mayhem, of the days to come. Whether it is the communists, the anarchists or some more traditional liberal group that causes trouble, they all represent the face of the Democratic party, Republican officials maintain. "Look, the AFL-CIO and others have been organizing Democrats to go to New York to protest," Karl Rove, the senior White House political tactician, told Fox News last week. "That's their right. If that's the face of their party that they want to portray, that's fine. But look, that's democracy." The Republican party is taking out ads in New York papers this week in which Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie says, "Many of Sen. Kerry's supporters in the government employee unions and radical environmental movement, and abortion activists and anti-war protesters who support him, will be out in full force." The Democrats are doing their best to fight back. "Ed Gillespie is cynically trying to make the connection, but the fact is we want people to watch the convention so they understand how Bush-Cheney have failed America," said David Chai, a Democratic Party spokesman in New York. "We can't control thousands of people who want to protest the Bush administration," Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe said last week somewhat plaintively. But academic experts on politics and dissent say that if there is serious trouble in New York, or even if there is limited trouble that is closely followed by a press bored by proceedings inside Madison Square Garden, the Kerry campaign could suffer. "If they get headlines about New York City and violent demonstrations against Bush and pictures of radical hippies and yippies, he [Bush] wins and the scheduling of New York City looks like counterintuitive brilliance," said Jeremy Mayer, a public policy professor at George Mason University in Virginia. "George Bush would much rather run against a mob of demonstrators than John Kerry the Vietnam veteran." "There is a possibility that it could cause a real blow against Kerry if it is perceived that he has encouraged radical demonstrations or somehow supports lawbreaking," Mayer said. Kerry obviously will not do so, but "the Republicans will try and spin it if there is a disruptive presence, and I expect there will be. The question is, how large?" "If people take to the streets and start a rioting situation in New York City, the Bush people will blame the Kerry campaign for orchestrating this," said John Orman, a professor of politics at Fairfield University in Connecticut. With a small number of undecided voters in a position to decide the outcome, offending even a few could damage the Kerry campaign, Orman said. On the other hand, huge, peaceful demonstrations could help Kerry, Orman and Mayer agreed. But "the larger they are, the more likely it is that a fringe group will take one step too far," Mayer said. "The problem for Kerry is there is such passion against Bush right now that it might get out of control." While some comparisons are being drawn in advance to the riots in Chicago during the Democratic convention in 1968, a more apt comparison may be the Republican convention in Miami in 1972, when Richard Nixon made a big, profitable issue out of rioting there. Any impression that "Kerry supporters are wide-eyed fanatic demons will not play well in battleground states," Mayer said.
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Roland
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Robert Johnson King of the Delta Blues
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Post by Roland on Aug 29, 2004 22:19:32 GMT -5
In case anyone's interested...I'm now accepting donations for the 'LS Bail Fund'... ;D I see she hasn't been around in a couple of days. Is it time to start sending in the donations? I saw the footage of the UPJ march that took place today. The sheer magnitude was amazing! I applaud all those who peacefully stood up to let their voices be heard.
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Post by Mr._Shooter on Aug 30, 2004 8:39:23 GMT -5
In case anyone's interested...I'm now accepting donations for the 'LS Bail Fund'... ;D Oh, I'll bail you out, LS. ;D And at your arraignment, I'll make sure you're, ahem, very well represented. ;D
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Post by Mr._Shooter on Aug 30, 2004 8:43:26 GMT -5
I saw the footage of the UPJ march that took place today. The sheer magnitude was amazing! I applaud all those who peacefully stood up to let their voices be heard. Roland, I was amazed that it went so smoothly. Although I too applaud the protestors for doing their thing peacefully, my hat's really off to the NYPD for acting with restraint and dignity. The potential was there for an unmitigated fracas and public relations nightmare; the end result was something everyone should be proud of.
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snizz
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I'm sure I'd be more upset if I weren't quite so heavily sedated
Posts: 322
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Post by snizz on Aug 30, 2004 16:04:42 GMT -5
I see she hasn't been around in a couple of days. Is it time to start sending in the donations? I saw the footage of the UPJ march that took place today. The sheer magnitude was amazing! I applaud all those who peacefully stood up to let their voices be heard. I lost track of her on Saturday. And we were supposed to meet up for the UPJ march yesterday, but there were just too many people and I had enough trouble trying not to get seperated from the family. She's been living for this chance to vent and she's not out to cause trouble, but if she gets pushed she's going to push back. My bet's she's just fine and is out there holding her own giving them hell. ;D My hat's off the the NYPD too, they handled the UPJ march well. They got a little over zealous on Friday and it looks like they learned from it. I think there's been more tolerance on their end since they've been staging their own protests for weeks now and they're planning another one of their own this week.
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Post by LS on Aug 30, 2004 22:59:23 GMT -5
I see she hasn't been around in a couple of days. Is it time to start sending in the donations? LS don't need no stinkin' bail!! ;D snizz got that one right...I've been livin' for just two things for the past 4 years- the invasion of the GOP- and election day so I can cast my re-vote to re-defeat this court appointed idiot-in-chief...so I had plenty to keep me very busy. GOP: Protests Are Kerry's Fault?? They are sooooo out of touch with the real world it ain't funny!! In the words of Richards/Jagger..."I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of abuse, singin' we're gonna vent our frustration, if we don't we're gonna blow a 50 amp fuse..." The majority of the protests are not pro-Kerry...they are anti-Bush and cover the full spectrum of all of his policies. So many Americans have been waiting a long time for their day to speak out against what he's been doing the last 4 years. Trying to break it down to 'Republican' and 'Democrat' is childishly simplistic. There are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Green Party, Libertarians and people from every other party here protesting. Old people, young people, children, veterans (including many who've been to Afghanistan and Iraq), mothers, fathers, cops, firefighters, teachers- people from all walks of life from all over this country. They really shouldn't make such generalized statements by lumping everyone protesting as being 'the face of the Democratic party' because most aren't- it's simply the face of the large portion of Americans that the DuHbya and his administration do not represent. 'Twas a true thing of beauty though!!
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