anti-war events in DC, Sept 24-26

remember the pre-war demos with the "free mumia" speakers?

I'm assuming this weekend was picked due to the annual IMF/World Bank meeting, which means there'll be the usual black-clad 'anarchist' clowns.

dude, no shit. thanks for telling me that.

Having an "anti-war" message at this point is kind of like rounding up paper towels for a "don't spill the milk" rally.

wtf are you talking about? since when does "this thing we're doing today is about the war and the war only" automatically equate to "we're changing our position on the war"?

A single event on a single cause cannot lift the immense weight of moving all current leftist causes forward. Having folks talk about one issue will be a lot more effective/persuasive(b/c that is part of the game here) than having them talk about 15. I'm not saying that those events are worthwhile or very important, just that you focus on this one thing that's now the majority position(against the war). the other issues can be related, but discussion of nuanced connection is a bitch when you have a hundred thousand people milling about.

Going to that protest actually made me feel far more hopeless about the state of things - particuarly the potential to actually make an impact on policy decisions, because it pretty effectively dispelled my illusion that my "side" was any more intelligent/reasonable/focused than the other guys. Fuck those assholes, their drum circles, their eight million unrelated causes (debate the mumia shit all you want but it did not belong at a protest ostensibly focused on ONE specific event), their see and be seen, self-congratulatory atmosphere, and most of all their goddamn puppets.

oh, and good, the world bank thing too...fantastic. these d-bags better not fuck up my birthday. ted leo & wayne kramer might be worth seeing though.

also, d00d, blount, if yr. gonna invoke the opinion of the whole world here i mean you'd find elected leaders of most nations on earth who would be lots more vicious and strident about u.s. foriegn policy (among other things) than plenty of the foax organizing this demo to begin with.

also xpost but see blount that's exactly the point. iraq and pro-life and god and church and flag-burning and martha stewart secretly eating lesbian babies and anti-evolution are all packaged in one big bundle! they're not just each an "issue" -- they're a component of a whole way of being and thinking.

(also wtf about the early 60s and early 70s are you on about "civil rights was fine and good until those negroes got it into their skulls that they could begin to organize outside of the church and the kennedy clan")

but which bundle, aside from just "the conservative mindset"?

what's been the recent packaging for it(aside from say, "family values" or "Promise Keepers", both of which have not gotten much play since the clinton years)?

they're a component of a whole way of being and thinking.

no argument there.

right, get it?

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

gotcha. okay. i was confused by the "crusty scene vets Kramer and Jello Biafra" line in the pitchfork thing.

yup, and here it is on the main site: WAYNE KRAMER OF THE MC5 WITH THE BELLRAYS. This could be cool.

has anybody even seen Wayne Kramer solo, lately? i mean, apart from the MC5 thing that happened last summer? the Bellrays would be a band that could pull off the pseudo-MC5-backing-band thing, if i remember correctly...

Any mass demonstration is going to attract disparate elements. If you feel really, really strongly about the war, though, I don't think you should let the possibility of finding yourself standing alongside a few wingnuts keep you at home.

the ice cream trucks in portland play "just look for the union label" along with "turkey in the straw" as they go about their rounds

i think the demo should have a dress code -- no jeans, no sports logos, no wallet chains, no sneakers. also rsvp. and kronos should play the festival, along with wynton marsalis. don't let stanley crouch in though!

ding ding ding ding

and in this case its triply ridiculous coz the whole *point* of keeping demos "clean" is to remove "alienating" issues like, uh, race and class and cops and etc. precisely in *order* to make a bid for not the really rich (like forbes rich) but the upper middle class at the v. least.

"all us foax without trust funds can't *afford* not to keep our heads low so the upper middle class feels comfortable around us" wtf!!!?!

and you're buying right into Rove's strategy. you would have us recuse ourselves from exercising power? what is the alternative you envision?

and I said ARGH. Can't the anti-israel people shut up ever? fuckers

but what's possible or not depends on the choices individuals make -- history happens thru people, not through logic alone.

xpost ok now which they is that? there are a few when it comes to those negotiations

Wrong. They really aren't.

sterling otm

this is possibly interesting too (the dateline at least) - http://www.slate.com/id/2080735/

Why exactly should a new Iraq constitution be a goal? Obviously it will give the Bush administration cover to start drawing down troop levels, but what purpose would it really serve for Iraq? Isn't it probable that no matter what sort of cosmetic charter the Iraqi parliament approves and no matter when the U.S. military eventually departs, the country is going to Balkanize and/or be invaded by its neighbors? Indeed, isn't this already happening to a certain degree with the huge numbers of young foreign fighters who are streaming into Iraq daily?

If the Bush administration wanted to maintain a strategic bulwark between Iran and Israel, they could have just left Hussein in power. The U.S.-manufactured constitutional process is a farce.

Why should they?

see above, clouding the issue, etc.

No, we can't (tho I'd limit myself to anti-Zionist). Cuz the Bushies will soon turn us into a similar theocratic state that suffers regular suicide bombings.

this is a very unhelpful conflation. please stop it.

true. the problem is that folks on both sides are either confused by or just confused, and thus reinforce that.

Interesting change.

Also, the conservative groups plan to "line the parade route." Yeah, this'll go well.

ah fuck. ANSWER is organizing some of the anti-war events.

Who else is traveling for this?

yeah, a guy with these flyers was at the local al gore event last tuesday, too.

But they'll slowly begin to lower troop levels, running up into the election, no matter what the situation is...

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- In military communities across the United States, a debate over the Iraq war is being waged by reluctant, neophyte activists. Their microphones chirp and squeak, or don't pick up their quiet voices at all. Their signs are too small. They forget the banners.

"This is my community. I don't want to offend people here. But my husband is a soldier; he can't say anything. So it's my duty as a citizen to speak up," Kara Hollingsworth, a D.C. native and Army wife at Fort Bragg whose husband served two tours in Iraq, said as she took a seat on a panel of antiwar activists last week.

A few hours earlier, another Army spouse stood in the red-brick village square near the base and held up a handmade sign supporting the war. She threw it together after she heard that an antiwar caravan was coming to town.

"I've never done this before. I'm usually a quiet military wife. But I can't take this anymore," said Marlene Lowrey, whose husband also served in Iraq. "This isn't right, coming into a town like this with that antiwar stuff. Those people don't realize this brings down morale."

Military families, stoic and tight-lipped during most of the nation's wars, have become a powerful voice on both sides of the bitter argument over U.S. involvement in Iraq. And their growing prominence will add a poignant note to Saturday's antiwar march and rally near the White House.

Organizers of the protest, who anticipate a crowd of about 100,000, estimate that thousands of military families and veterans will join in the demonstration. Three busloads of military families have been touring the country since Aug. 31 and will converge on Washington today to promote Saturday's rally.

In recent weeks, war supporters have been countering those bus stops, rallies and vigils with demonstrations of their own. They've got their own bus touring the country and are planning three days of counter-protests in Washington this weekend.

Both sides embrace the slogan "Support our troops." They just disagree on how to do it. They also were inspired by the same person: Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in combat and kept a vigil near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., through most of August.

Because of Sheehan, "military families across the country are stepping forward to speak out" in support of U.S. policy, said Iowa state Sen. Charles W. Larson Jr., who recently served a year in Iraq with the Army. "You don't normally see people like this do that. They are angry and frustrated, and that is why they have become engaged in the debate."

Sheehan also galvanized Phil and Linda Waste, who were riding one of the "Bring Them Home Now" buses through the hills of North Carolina last week. Their three sons, grandson and granddaughter are all in the military and have served a total of 58 months in Iraq, and the Wastes have white-knuckled their way through each of those tours of duty.

They sat in their Hinesville, Ga., living room for months, cursing at the television reports from Iraq.

"Then we saw Cindy in Texas," said Linda Waste, holding tight to the table's edge on the bumping bus. Her husband picked up her thought: "And then we heard people call her unpatriotic. And that was it."

The Wastes finish each other's sentences and kiss each time they say "bring them home now" in unison. The people on the bus have started to call them Philinda.

"It's something I've got to do. Otherwise, I can't live with the guilt of what I did to my sons," Phil Waste said. He served in the Navy and has the blurry, sagging tattoos to prove it. He never fought in a war and used the mechanical skills he learned in the military to earn a decent living repairing elevators. "I told them the military was a good place to start out, a good place to learn a skill." He shakes his head and begins to cry.

The three buses have stopped in small towns and state capitals, the riders helping one another step onto makeshift stages to tell their stories and assure other folks that being antiwar doesn't mean being anti-soldier.

"You wouldn't believe how many people in the military are relieved to hear us speak. It's like they have permission to be angry now," said Julie Cuniglio of Dallas, who comes from a large military family. She joined the bus tour in Crawford, mourning the death of her nephew, Staff Sgt. Aaron Dean White, who was killed in May 2003 in Iraq.

The antiwar tours have hit 51 cities in 28 states, covering the South, Midwest and North.

Sheehan has met up with each tour at various times, flying from one city to the next, making quick speaking appearances and signing a few autographs.

Some families have joined the tour for a few days. Others, such as Philinda, are in it for the long haul -- from Crawford to Washington in 24 days.

Last week, the riders on the southern tour had been wearing the same clothes for days and were begging their chain-smoking, ex-Navy driver, who goes only by "Chito," to stop for a bite to eat. In some cities, like-minded families served them fried chicken and potato salad dinners and sometimes put them up for the night. Other nights, they slept on the bus or occasionally splurged for a cheap hotel.

Sometimes, the mere threat of the tour barreling through town spurred people on the other side into action. In downtown Raleigh, N.C., a group of veterans quickly assembled a small rally to counter Sheehan's message. The antiwar tour never showed up at that spot, but Matthew Delk did.

"I'm really not into going to protests. That's not me," said Delk, a beefy Iraq war veteran who spent weeks recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from burns on his hands and chest. A National Guardsman, he is the manager for Halifax County in North Carolina, and he was sweating in a charcoal suit far different from his desert fatigues. "As a soldier, I'm not supposed to get involved in this stuff. But I believe that our mission is a noble mission. And I feel like I had to come here and say my piece."

Carolyn Culbreth, whose father is a retired Special Forces soldier, came to downtown Fayetteville on her lunch hour to meet the antiwar bus. "What they're doing is unpatriotic," Culbreth said, spangled head to toe in red, white and blue. "And in a place like this, it's just like a slap in the face."

When Chito parked the Bring Them Home Now bus in the center of Fayetteville the next day, cars whizzing by it honked and drivers barked at the slogans all over the windows and sides.

A woman in a silver Mercedes leaned out and shouted, "Go home!" A man in a red muscle car gave members of the group an obscene gesture. A soldier in a beat-up Olds Cutlass gave them a peace sign.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

then what?

undercover/plainclothes Feds will be everywhere, due the interesting timing of the beginning:

"GRANITE SHADOW", a massive Pentagon exercise simulating the declaration of a martial law in Washington, DC.

Off to dash thru Warhol @Corcoran cuz you couldn't get near it yesterday and it's closed Mon, dammit.