So it seems that Bush will be making his case for war against Iraq tonight on television. Unfortunately, I’ll be at work, and won’t be able to listen in. Bummer.
Any bets on how much actual content is in the speech?
Politics
Politically, I’m very liberal — about as far left as one can go without sliding into Libertarianism.
Not In Our Name rally
As mentioned in my previous post, today was the day for NION rallies across the country. Prairie was visiting for the weekend, and she and I decided to head up and participate. Something of a new experience for me — I’m fairly vocal with my friends and occasionally here on my site about my beliefs, but I’d yet to ever actually participate in anything like this. I figured it was time to ‘put my money where my mouth is’, so to speak, and so about 12:30pm we started walking up to Volunteer Park for the rally, in time to get there right about 1pm when it was scheduled to start.
Not really knowing what to expect, or how these things generally go, we just wandered into the park and found a spot on the grass to sit and listen to the various speakers they had. I didn’t have anything to write on with me, so I don’t remember who all spoke, but there was a lot of interesting stuff, if fairly predictable for the crowd and event (that sounds horribly cynical, but it’s not meant to be at all — forgive me, I’m tired and need to go to bed, but I wanted to get this in first). One thing I thought was really interesting was the broad spectrum of people there. There’s something of a preconceived notion of the people you’d ‘typically’ find at a political rally like this, usually leaning more towards the obviously leftist/radical side of the population. This rally seemed to attract a very wide range of the population, however — rather nice, it makes it seem like more and more people are starting to question where our government is taking us, rather than just accepting everything that comes down the line. Definitely neat to see.
At about 3pm, everyone started moving to begin the march portion of the day’s events (no small feat with an estimated 7,000 people gathered at the park). A giant inflated globe carried by a bunch of kids led the march, followed by a bunch of giant puppets, then all the rest of the gathered masses. We marched out of Volunteer Park down to Broadway, down the main drag of Broadway to Pike St., then hung a right and went down the hill into downtown Seattle, ending at the plaza in front of Westlake Center.
The entire event (rally and march) went quite well from what I saw. After reading things like the account of the march in Portland that ended up in conflicts with the police, I knew that it was possible for things to get a bit hairy, but thankfully enough, that didn’t happen. I did see a few people in the crowd that came prepared for conflict — dressed in black, with black stocking caps, black bandannas tied across their face, and goggles — which made me a little nervous, but apparently none of them actually felt like causing any problems.
I don’t entirely understand people who would take this approach to a protest. If they were just bringing along facemasks and such in case things did get out of hand, and they had them ready to wear if necessary, that would be one thing. However, coming to the event and spending the entire event ‘dressed for battle’, if you will, gives the definite impression that not only are they expecting conflict, but they might even welcome it — if not instigate it. Not very encouraging when the intent is for a peaceful protest, and when the protest is focused on crying for peace.
I was also rather pleasantly surprised that there didn’t seem to be an overbearing police force out (something that Seattle seems to have an issue with in recent history). They were definitely present, but didn’t at any point take an aggressive attitude — at least, not that I saw or heard of. About the only time I noticed tensions rising at all was as we passed one street in Downtown, where there was a line of riot troops blocking off the street about halfway down. This, unfortunately, did attract some amount of boos and catcalls from some of the marchers as we went by, however the troops did nothing except stand there, and march organizers made sure that noone broke ranks to actually try and directly confront any of the officers. I’m pretty sure that the only reason they were there (especially since it was only on that street) was that a protest last summer suddenly changed direction and blocked traffic on I-5 for a couple hours, and they were blocking off the access ramp to I-5 to ensure that this march didn’t try to do the same thing. Nobody went after them, though, and they left us alone, so aside from a few unnecessary taunts tossed their way, it was pretty uneventful.
Eventually we made it down to Westlake Plaza, where a post-march rally was being held. I saw one of my favorite rally signs being held up here by a guy probably in his late teens: “And I heard the Reagan administration was bad”. It made me laugh, at least. We hung around for a while longer and listened to a few of the speakers that were at this rally, then decided that we were hungry, it was a good time to duck out, and did just that. All in all, a very entertaining day, and it felt good to actually get involved and give some more visible, vocal support for the NION movement.
Some other reports on the march:
A crowd estimated by march organizers at 6,000 to 8,000 people registered their dissent yesterday, rallying and marching in a nearly mile-long procession from Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill to Westlake Center as part of a nationwide anti-war protest.
They chanted “Drop Bush, not bombs,” carried origami birds on long poles, wore Uncle Sam costumes on stilts and sported signs that said “Save us From Mad King George.”
There were the occasional whiffs of patchouli, John Lennon buttons and refrains of “we ain’t gonna study war no more.” But this wasn’t a repeat of the 1960s.
Mennonites mixed with anarchists. There were groups of Vietnam veterans, social workers and blue-haired teenagers — all opposed to a brewing war.
Strollers got stuck in potholes and baby boomers in Dead Kennedys T-shirts carried camcorders.
— Seattle P-I: Thousands walk for peace
Yesterday’s march attracted a broad collection of protesters — young and old, students and professionals, and many who said they rarely, if ever, attended rallies.
Tracey Marsh, a graduate student at the University of Washington, had begun to wonder if anybody paid attention to demonstrations anymore. Taking a break from the procession, she said she now feels a new urgency to be in the streets.
“It does give me a sense of hope,” she said as the people flowed by. “It’s really important to let Congress know we don’t support (an invasion).”
— Seattle Times: Thousands hit Seattle’s streets to protest war
After rallying in the park for several hours, the group moved en masse towards Westlake Park, bringing their message of peace to the downtown streets of Seattle.
Speakers included Congressman Jim McDermott, who recently traveled to Iraq; Rev. Jeffrey of New Hope Baptist Church; Peggi Thompson, mother of Seattle political prisoner James Ujaama; and Mark Kolner of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“If theres a problem well work through the United Nations, we cannot go alone,” McDermott told KING 5 News. “If we go alone we lose the whole world.”
— King-5 News: Thousands rally for peace in Seattle
Civil Disobedience
Lots of Not In Our Name rallies this Sunday, including one here in Seattle, one in Anchorage, and many other cities.
Death penalty unconstitutional
Rock on — I’m a couple days late hearing about this, but on Tuesday U.S. District Judge William Sessions declared the federal death penalty to be unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions said the law does not adequately protect defendants’ rights.”If the death penalty is to be part of our system of justice, due process of law and the fair trial guarantees of the Sixth Amendment require that standards and safeguards governing the kinds of evidence juries may consider must be rigorous, and constitutional rights and liberties scrupulously protected,” he said.
According to the article, this won’t affect individual states’ death penalty statutes, and he’s actually the second judge to make this ruling.
For me, the death penalty has never been something I’ve supported. I fully realize that there are some amazingly heinous crimes committed, and I can sympathise with those who feel that the death penalty is the only recourse (it’s entirely possible that I’d feel the same way if I was faced with the violent death of a loved one), but I’ve never seen anything to convince me that it’s an actual deterrent.
Hrm. This should probably get more thought and exploration than I’ve got time to give it this morning. Maybe I’ll come back to this post later on.
Why can’t Bush speak?
Mark Miller comments on Bush’s recent “Fool me once…” flub:
Bush actually believes that he can do no wrong. This fixed conviction of his own infallibility has come out often, in remarks not laughably sub-literate or confused. He’s boasted that he knows what he believes, and that he never changes his position, or his mind, and that he sees the world in black and white, and so on. He’s made it clear repeatedly: George W. Bush is always right, George W. Bush can do no wrong. And now he’s accidentally made the point again, by showing himself incapable — psychologically, and therefore physically — of saying “Shame on me.”
Without really knowing anything about Mr. Miller’s credentials, I’m tempted to chalk this little bit of armchair psychoanalysis up to being just another off-the-wall theory by someone unimpressed with Bush. However, it does make me wonder if this really could be the case? It seems a bit far-fetched for me to jump into believing right off the bat, but it doesn’t seem to be an unthinkable premise. A fairly frightening premise, also, especially for the President of our country, and moreso given the current state of the world. It’s worth thinking about, at least.
Also, ‘Quiddity Quack’ posits this theory:
While plenty of folks chuckle at the Presidents verbal stumbling, we think that it’s more serious. It appears that Bush’s inability to handle complex thoughts may have led him over time to forsake rationalistic approaches, and instead, make decisions based on his feelings. This may explain why he disdains nuance (as he’s said), and why he has simple solutions for everything. E.g.
- Tax cuts always help.
- Good people will make any controversial program (like drilling in ANWR) come out all right.
- American military power is benevolent. (Again, Americans are “good people”).
- Evil is the reason for misfortunes.
- …and so on…
I’ve got to admit, this theory sounds a bit more sound to me than a psychological disorder so severe that Bush physically cannot utter any self-deprecating remark, no matter the context. Now, neither of them are qualities that I’d really like my President to have, but, in a ‘lesser of two evils’ situation, I’ll take the latter over the former.
If I had my druthers, though, I’d like a third option.
Found via Anger Management Course
Violence in the media
I was browsing through /. tonight when someone mentioned an interview with Joss Whedon over at The Onion from last year (oh, except I’m not supposed to link directly to articles inside The Onion…I guess I better just link to the /. post that has the entire interview copied into it — so, which is the greater copyright breach? Anyway…). It’s a good interview on its own, but this quote is as a followup /. post said, “I think that’s just about the most intelligent and responsible thing I’ve ever read about the influence of culture on behaviour.”
People say, “After Columbine, do you feel a responsibility about the way you portray violence?” And I’m like, “No, I felt a responsibility about the way I portrayed violence the first time I picked up a pen.”
Wag the dog, Bushie
I know Dick Cheney finds it “reprehensible” that anyone could think the White House’s timing on Iraq is politically inspired, but the administration has exhibited a pattern of behavior that (as Cheney rightly warns with Saddam) creates a context that raises extra concerns. What else should reasonable people make of these facts?
- In June a floppy disk found in Lafayette Park across from the White House turned out to contain a Powerpoint presentation used by Karl Rove to detail the White House’s strategy for the midterm elections. “Focus on war” was a key point in a talk that centered on the White House’s desire to “maintain a positive issue environment.”
Around this time Rove was upbraided (at least for PR reasons) after he told a Republican gathering that the war and terror themes and the associated military buildup could and should play to the Republicans’ advantage in the midterm elections.
When White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was asked why the administration waited until after Labor Day to launch its campaign to convince the American people that military action against Iraq was necessary, Card replied: “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”
— Matthew Miller, My ‘reprehensible’ suspicions on Iraq
(via Kirsten — hopefully she won’t mind that I snarfed her idea for the title!)
So it’s been a year
I’d like to come up with something amazingly deep and profound to say, but for one reason or another, it’s just not in me. Besides, plenty of other people have worthwhile things to say.
I think part of my little bout of writer’s block is just that the entire situation is frustrating. One year ago, something huge and immensely terrifying happened. In the year since then, however, a multitude of other, smaller, less immediately noticeable things have happened (usually in the name of ‘patriotism’), that added up scare me as much as (and quite possibly more than) the attacks themselves. It’s a different kind of scare, but it’s a scare, nothenless. Awareness of this side of things does seem to be growing, though, which is good.
I guess, most of what I’d really want to say I’ve said already, either in some of my rants over the past year or in the links I’ve chosen to highlight in this blog (the majority of which, unfortunately, still reside in limbo).
I dunno. I’m rambling. Caught between wanting to say something, and not really having anything of real import to say.
Portland protest
An interesting and nicely even-handed writeup of an anti-Bush protest in Portland that went wrong — from a peaceful protest march to conflicts with the police, including pepper spray and rubber bullets. What happened? Murphy’s law…
…I felt that the police and the protestors were, behaviorally, mirrors of each other. The police officers were mostly acting within decent bounds, and the protestors were mostly peacefully making their views known. However, just as the police had a few unprofessional punks who felt compelled to spray and shoot at protestors, so did our side have its share of adolescent morons who thought it was a good idea to spit at the cops, throw things at them, try and force their way past them, and generally try to provoke violence. As some of the asinine “kill a cop” “they are subhuman” sentiments one hears clearly show, our side cannot claim to be free of infantile, violent cretins, much as we might like to believe it.
It is time to be serious-minded, friends. All the best things about this nation are under assault, and we have lost a great deal of ground already. We have mostly lost it through shortsightedness, internal bickering, and an annoying habit of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. We need to stop acting as though “smash the state, stick it to the Man” is anything other than a child’s point of view. We need to take actions that will have a real effect, supporting candidates who can win even if they’re not 100% ideologically perfect, forming alliances with people who might not share every one of our pet issues, and generally approaching this problem as adults in the real world approach problems. Our freedoms will not be won back in the streets by dashing young revolutionaries. Get that image out of your mind. Our freedoms will be won back by dull people at city council meetings, by policy wonks in congressional office buildings, by months and years of painful, uninteresting, and EFFECTIVE work.
(via Boing Boing)