Michael Moore Directs New ‘System Of A Down’ War Protest Video
2 Replies
Democracy Defended And Eventually Silenced On Fox News
Here’s NY Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (D) sticking up for protesters’ rights to express themselves — while being overpowered — literally, a la microphone levels and camera angles — against one of the many nameless ranting talking heads on the FOX network.
(If anyone can identify this guy from Fox, I’ll be happy to cite him accordingly. It’s just that he didn’t seem to care about telling us who he was, and Fox didn’t seem to care about giving us his name during over 10 minutes of programming from the guy, so I figured, “why should I care? He’s just making it up as he goes along, without any regard to accuracy or the thoughts and feelings of anyone else.” Not much of a “news” man. Not sure what else I expected from Fox…)
Meeks also brings up that the protesters are largely rising up against a policy of pre-emption, and uses the situation in Northern Iraq with the Kurds and the Turks as an example of why this policy is not one we want other countries to start following. The talking head calls this scenario “fantasy-land” and accuses Meeks of going off of the subject.
Notice how Meeks is quickly replaced with Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) as soon as touchy material like what a “democracy” means enters the conversation.
Audio – Gregory Meeks Sticking Up For Democracy On Fox (MP3 – 6 MB)
Gregory Meeks Sticking Up For Democracy On Fox (Small – 11 MB)
CNN Interviews Patriotic Protester Yesterday In New York
CNN and Maria Hinojosa really came through yesterday with a slice of truth from the NY Protests that went on all day yesterday.
CNN seems particularly sensitive to accusations of the “popular media” not covering the protests properly. As a result, CNN seems to be making an extra effort to get a little real news in between the talking heads that don’t say anythiing being constantly rebroadcast on all of the other news channels.
Thanks CNN. Thank you, Maria Hinojosa! Keep up the good work!
Can this be the same CNN that put a stop to Kevin Sites’ War Blog!
CNN’s Maria Hinojosa Interviews Harriet — Complete Clip (Small – 12 MB)
CNN’s Maria Hinojosa Interviews Harriet — Complete Clip (Hi-res – 78 MB)
Audio – CNN’s Maria Hinojosa Interviews Harriet — All (MP3 – 4 MB)
Interview with Harriet (Only) (Small – 8 MB)
Audio Of Harriet (Only) (MP3- 2 MB)
Maria Hinojosa: “Your 75 years old. Why are you taking to the streets even though the War is well under way.”
Harriet: “It’s not a “War” that’s under way. It’s a “massacre” that’s under way. An “invasion” that’s under way…They’ve already given out contracts for the reconstruction to companies like Halliburton…”
Maria Hinojosa: “Do you think that the politicians in Washington will be moved by the tens of thousands of people that have come out into the streets here in New York and in other cities around the world?
Harriet: “King Bush. The resident of the White House, says he doesn’t listen to anybody. And it’s true. He may not. But we’ve got to keep coming out. And it may slow them down a little, but not much. That doesn’t matter. We’re going to get America back — for the people.”
Protesting Continues Around The World
Tens of Thousands of Antiwar Demonstrators March in Manhattan
Anti-War Rallies Ricochet Across World (look’s like this link may have already gone bad. click here and go to the bottom half of the page) to see the article that was posted earlier on ABC. Looks like it’s already been reprinted in Malaysia, for instance.)
In a third straight day of protest, hundreds of thousands massed in front of US embassies and in city centres, branding US President George W Bush and his allies, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “terrorists” and “war criminals” for sending troops to fight the Baghdad regime.
Europe at midday picked up speed in protests that reportedly drew several hundred thousand people in London; 30,000 in Berlin; 20,000 in Amsterdam; and thousands in Athens, Copenhagen, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna, including a record-breaking 20,000 in the Finnish capital Helsinki.
Asian rallies drew outraged outbursts from militants, chants for peace by Buddhist monks and several groups who burned a Bush effigy.
In the Middle East tens of thousands wished “Death to America and Great Britain” and denounced Arab leaders for not defending Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from attack.
In Jakarta, the capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation, 3,000 protesters picketed in front of the US embassy before moving on to the nearby British embassy.
The crowd, which included many women, carried a coffin to symbolise the death of the United Nations.
How Technology Helped The Protesters Organize
This is wireless technologies (and, ideally community wireless networks) are so important. They help us to organize and communicate with each other.
This time it was to organize the protest. Next time it might be to discuss an important issue or to provide eye witness accounts of some other event that has just taken place. To let loved ones know that you’re okay — or to tell friends and neighbors where not to go when there’s an emergency.
Wireless can help us get organized — which is what it’s all about right now.
Power To The People! 🙂
Protesters relying on wireless, Web tools
By Jessie Seyfer for the Mercury News.
Sent from the thick of Thursday’s massive demonstrations, these messages are an example of how protesters are using the latest technology to communicate and coordinate their activities.
Over the past three days, activists created pirate radio broadcasts that streamed live on the Web and were rebroadcast at numerous sites across the world. They uploaded live video of marches to the Internet and sent hundreds of digital images of clashes with police to the Web. And they communicated on those cell phones to keep close track of one another’s whereabouts.
Instant communications helped the protesters stay ahead of events and solidify their community…
“Every desktop is a publishing station now, and so is every telephone, every PDA, every laptop with a wireless connection,” said Howard Rheingold, author of the book “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.”
Police officers have used walkie-talkies and wireless radio communications for decades. Now, the digital revolution has put mobile technology in just about everyone’s hands, he said. Thursday, demonstrators used it to play a cat-and-mouse game with police. Once protesters were forced out of one intersection, they coordinated by cell phone and swarmed another intersection, Rheingold said.
To The Shrub, With Love (From Michael Moore)
A Letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush on the Eve of War
By Micheal Moore.
2. The majority of Americans — the ones who never elected you — are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction. We know what the real issues are that affect our daily lives — and none of them begin with I or end in Q. Here’s what threatens us: two and a half million jobs lost since you took office, the stock market having become a cruel joke, no one knowing if their retirement funds are going to be there, gas now costs almost two dollars — the list goes on and on. Bombing Iraq will not make any of this go away. Only you need to go away for things to improve.
3. As Bill Maher said last week, how bad do you have to suck to lose a popularity contest with Saddam Hussein? The whole world is against you, Mr. Bush. Count your fellow Americans among them.
4. The Pope has said this war is wrong, that it is a SIN. The Pope! But even worse, the Dixie Chicks have now come out against you! How bad does it have to get before you realize that you are an army of one on this war? Of course, this is a war you personally won’t have to fight. Just like when you went AWOL while the poor were shipped to Vietnam in your place.
5. Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want to stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait right now and let them don their chemical warfare suits. And let’s see every member of Congress with a child of military age also sacrifice their kids for this war effort. What’s that you say? You don’t THINK so? Well, hey, guess what — we don’t think so either!
…Well, cheer up — there IS good news. If you do go through with this war, more than likely it will be over soon because I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of Iraqis willing to lay down their lives to protect Saddam Hussein. After you “win” the war, you will enjoy a huge bump in the popularity polls as everyone loves a winner — and who doesn’t like to see a good ass-whoopin’ every now and then (especially when it ‘s some third world ass!). So try your best to ride this victory all the way to next year’s election. Of course, that’s still a long ways away, so we’ll all get to have a good hardy-har-har while we watch the economy sink even further down the toilet!
Repubs Trade Vet Benefits For Tax Cuts For The Rich
GOP plan trims vets’ benefits to fund tax cut
From Tusconcitizen.com
With hundreds of thousands of American troops poised for combat in Iraq, veterans groups are criticizing a budget plan expected on the House floor this week that would slash Veterans Affairs money by $15 billion in the next decade to help make room for President Bush’s proposed tax cuts.
“Cutting already underfunded veterans’ programs to offset the costs of tax cuts is indefensible and callous,” said Edward R. Heath, national commander of the Disabled American Veterans. “It is unconscionable to cut benefits and services for disabled veterans at a time when we have thousands of our service members in harm’s way.”
The Republican plan, which the House Budget Committee adopted last week on a party-line vote, would chop $467 billion – 1 percent – from mandatory spending programs including the Veterans Affairs Department, Medicare and Medicaid in the next 10 years to offset $1.5 trillion in tax cuts the president proposes in the same period…
The VA cuts would take place in disability compensation, education benefits, pensions and health care, according to veterans advocacy groups…
Ray Sisk, commander in chief of Veterans of Foreign Wars, said cutting the VA budget even 1 percent would worsen many of the agency’s problems such as a backlog of 200,000 veterans waiting more than six months to see a doctor.
“We cannot expect sick and disabled veterans to wait months for earned health care,” he said. “Equally troubling is that further cuts in funding would cause VA to curb further enrollment or to remove certain veterans from the health-care system altogether.”
Oil Is Outdated Technology
This is a great article on why Hydrogen cells can work, and what we need to get started doing technologically and regulatory/legislative-wise so we can get the show on the road. (Thanks Joi.)
How Hydrogen Can Save America
By Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall for Wired.
There’s only one way to insulate the US from the corrosive power of oil, and that’s to develop an alternative energy resource that’s readily available domestically. Looking at the options – coal, natural gas, wind, water, solar, and nuclear – there’s only one thing that can provide a wholesale substitute for foreign oil within a decade: hydrogen. Hydrogen stores energy more effectively than current batteries, burns twice as efficiently in a fuel cell as gasoline does in an internal combustion engine (more than making up for the energy required to produce it), and leaves only water behind. It’s plentiful, clean, and – critically – capable of powering cars. Like manned space flight in 1961, hydrogen power is proven but primitive, a technology ripe for acceleration and then deployment. (For that, thank the Apollo program itself, which spurred the development of early fuel cells.)…
How Hydrogen Can Save America:
1. Solve the hydrogen fuel-tank problem.
2. Encourage mass production of fuel cell vehicles.
3. Convert the nation’s fueling infrastructure to hydrogen.
4. Ramp up hydrogen production.
5. Mount a public campaign to sell the hydrogen economy.
By pursuing all five at once, the government can create a self-sustaining cycle of supply and demand that gains momentum over the coming decade and supplants the existing energy market in the decades that follow. Rather than waiting to build a hydrogen infrastructure from scratch, the US can start building the new fuel economy immediately by piggybacking on existing petroleum-based industries. Once customers are demanding and producers are supplying, there will be time to create a cleaner, more efficient hydrogen-centric infrastructure that runs on market forces alone.
Kevin Burton’s Pictures From Today’s Protest – March 22, 2003
Back From Today’s Rally – Saturday, March 22, 2003
Today was a wonderful, completely peaceful and non-violent protest.
I’ll have a brief movie or two up soon so you can get a feel for it.
(But first…the rest of my footage from Thursday…)
I hear Monday is the next big gathering. Not sure if I’ll be able to make that one or not yet.
It would appear that weekends are OK to protest, but the cops don’t like it on weekdays.
(It would also appear that, when the cops don’t start trouble, there isn’t any 🙂
Also, today’s protest was sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. — and, to date, those people have been really organized about their events — so maybe that’s another reason today went so well.