Protesting GOP convention (NSR, unless you can figure something out to make it SR)

[Dexter Rutecki]

Ideas? WWMD? I was going to dress as a pretzel with the slogan 'Save Bush, ban Pretzels', but I guess that's too obscure. Isn't there anything more fun to do than joining up with the anarchists and burning down McDonald's? I like the Billionaires for Bush, but they're a little played.

[schuss]

the ACT organizer for my area is going down there. Just hang around, there's gonna be TONS of different groups. Dress up as a whale and wear a sign that says "nuked gay whales for jesus"

[slim]

The anarchists are my favorite. The lefties come to peacefully protest the right and the anarchists come just to fuck shit up. The best is that the cops don't really care to distinguish between the two. Suddenly college kids, hippies, and the rest are all getting tear gassed and batoned like crazy. The WTO protests in Seattle were the anarchists at their best. Make sure you bring some saline to wash the pepper spray out of your eyes.

[Jumper Bones]

Originally posted by slim
Make sure you bring some saline to wash the pepper spray out of your eyes.

Or a gas mask.

Conveniently, I have one of those...

[fez]

yeah, have fun in your cage under the el.

[Dexter Rutecki]

No el in Manhattan.

[Vets]

I was sent the agenda for the convention. Hopefully this will help you.

Subject: Your convention schedule update

Republican National Convention Schedule

New York, NY

> 6:00 PM Opening Prayer, led by the Rev. Jerry Falwell
> 6:30 PM Pledge of Allegiance
> 6:35 PM Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding 2nd amendment)
> 6:45 PM Salute to the Coalition of the Willing
> 6:46 PM Seminar #1: Getting your kid a military deferment
> 7:30 PM First Presidential Beer Bong
> 7:35 PM Serve Freedom Fries
> 7:40 PM EPA Address #1: Mercury, it's what's for dinner
> 8:00 PM Vote on which country to invade next
> 8:10 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh
> 8:15 PM John Ashcroft Lecture: The Homos are after your children
> 8:30 PM Roundtable discussion on reproductive rights (MEN only)
> 8:50 PM Seminar #2: Corporations: the government of the future
> 9:00 PM Condi Rice sings "I Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"
> 9:05 PM Second Presidential Beer Bong
> 9:10 PM EPA Address #2 Trees: the real cause of forest fires
> 9:30 PM Break for secret meetings
> 10:00 PM Second prayer, led by Cal Thomas
> 10:15 PM Lecture by Karl Rove: Doublespeak made easy
> 10:30 PM Rumsfeld demonstration: How to squint and talk macho
> 10:35 PM Bush demonstration of trademark deer-in-headlights stare
> 10:40 PM John Ashcroft demonstrates new mandatory Kevlar chastity belt
> 10:45 PM Clarence Thomas reads list of black Republicans
> 10:46 PM Third Presidential Beer Bong
> 10:50 PM Seminar #3: Education: a drain on our nation's economy
> 11:10 PM Hilary Clinton Pinata
> 11:20 PM Second John Ashcroft Lecture: Evolutionists: the dangerous new cult
> 11:30 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh again
> 11:35 PM Blame Clinton
> 11:40 PM Laura serves milk and cookies
> 11:50 PM Closing Prayer, led by Jesus Himself
> 12:00 AM Nomination of George W. Bush as Holy Supreme Planetary Overlord

[fez]

Originally posted by Dexter Rutecki
No el in Manhattan.

you think the cops are going to let you into Manhattan? dressed as a pretzel?

a better response would have been 'No el in Newark.'

[shamrockpow]

Honestly I wouldn't mind protesting GWB. He's a dangerous man and I pray to god he doesn't get re-elected. But just the idea of being lumped with the anarchist/WTO style protestors and possibly being used by the media to show off "the loony left" sickens me.

I swear: if 600,000 people show up to protest and there's a couple incidents, 99% of the media coverage will be on the bad shit and 1% will focus on the fact that there are over half a million people willing to take time out of their lives to protest this asshole.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Originally posted by fez
you think the cops are going to let you into Manhattan? dressed as a pretzel?

a better response would have been 'No el in Newark.'

I think we might be talking about two different things, but I have no idea where you're going with this. And I'm not planning on leaving, so I don't think getting in will be an issue. Besides, someone dressed as a pretzel hardly merits a second glance, most days.
There's a monorail in Newark, if that helps (Monorail! Monorail! Monorail![/somewhat obscure Simpsons reference]).

[Greydon Clark]

Bitches, America, love it or leave it!

[TestyFrosticles]

Originally posted by Vets

> 11:10 PM Hilary Clinton Pinata

Funny stuff

[Will]

The village voice has some articles on groups planning basic civil disobedience (fuck 'free speech' zones!) and also some more theatrical stuff including, yes, Billionares for Bush.

If you're planning on making yourself heard keep in mind that multiple protestors wearing the same mask is illegal, and "signs carried on sticks or poles are considered potential weapons and will be confiscated". But if you're planning on getting tear-gassed anyway, you probably don't care.

And of course showing up at any of these places with a good banner might get you some camera time.
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/...gion/party.gif

[fez]

Sorry Dex,



there are all the winkies and smilies i should have put in my previous posts.

I was mostly talking about all the attempts that were being made to limit protestors to 'free speach' zones. One tv news clip i saw about it showed cages set up under the subway tracks to contain the demonstrators. (hence the cage under the el comment)

here is a pretty good article about it, but if you live in the city, you probably know all about it

[freshies]

Originally posted by Greydon Clark
Bitches, America, love it or leave!

or, excercise your democartic right as an American and protest all you like, vote, and make your views count.

you sound like Will Farell in his Bush parady: "some liberals and agitators are trying to get people to vote. that's bad"

vote this POS outta office, please. that is all, thank you.

[freshies]

Originally posted by freshies
or, excercise your democartic right as an American and protest all you like, vote, and make your views count.

you sound like Will Farell in his Bush parady: "some liberals and agitators are trying to get people to vote. that's bad"

vote this POS outta office, please. that is all, thank you.

er..that would be democratic, not democartic.....thx.

[Tavi]

Originally posted by shamrockpow

I swear: if 600,000 people show up to protest and there's a couple incidents, 99% of the media coverage will be on the bad shit and 1% will focus on the fact that there are over half a million people willing to take time out of their lives to protest this asshole.

Well, here is another way of looking at it: If 600,000 people show up to protest and there are no (0) "incidents," 99% of the media will not cover the pretests at all. From what I have seen about the media recently they do not cover, in any significant depth, any protest of our current administration, possible because they are afraid of being shut out of the rare and illusive GOP "media event."

I'm not saying to go out there and violate peoples rights, but if you don't make some noise at times like this don't expect the media to do you any favors.

[Sublime]

http://akamai.edeal.com/images/catal.../img387290.jpg

30 bucks and it beats getting tear gased.

I think it's cool that your going to protest be sure to take alot of pictures and have a cool TR.

[dipstik]

What exactly are you protesting? Bush? Republicans in general? Why? What are you going to do? You think Bush is magically going to get thrown out of office just because a half million people get together and chant "Bush sucks"?

Why not come up with something intelligent or useful that might actually get people to listen to you instead of just trying to gain respect from those already sympathetic to your cause?

Dressing up in a fucking pretzel costume for the day is not going to get anyone to vote for Kerry. All you're doing is pissing people off.

Why not write up a nice one page paper about why you think Bush sucks so much, go to Kinko's, print out 1,000 copies, and hand them out to people on the street. Maybe then you'll get a few people to listen to you, and some may actually change their minds about who they are going to vote for.


I'm sorry, but getting together in large numbers and whining about how much the president sucks isn't really going to change anyones mind.

[road trip]

Originally posted by dipstik
I'm sorry, but getting together in large numbers and whining about how much the president sucks isn't really going to change anyones mind.

Every cause in American history was, in part, won by "people getting together in large numbers."

Women's Suffrage
Civil Rights
That whole American Revolution thingy

The great men of America's past appreciated the power of getting together in large groups... that's way "the right to assemble" is one of your constitutional rights.

[noodles]

Originally posted by fez
Sorry Dex,



there are all the winkies and smilies i should have put in my previous posts.

I was mostly talking about all the attempts that were being made to limit protestors to 'free speach' zones. One tv news clip i saw about it showed cages set up under the subway tracks to contain the demonstrators. (hence the cage under the el comment)

here is a pretty good article about it, but if you live in the city, you probably know all about it

actually, fez, my friend who lives on the corner of 9th and 34th had to get a special pass just to be able to go home during the convention. and he doesn't even want to protest shit.

[mr_gyptian]

Please protest this. It always does so much for the "cause".

Best strategy I've seen was when the WTO had it's meeting in Chicago three years ago. Daley brought in officers from all over the state. The only requirement was the the officer was taller than 6'4". Incidentally, there wasn't a single problem during the whole meeting.

[Plakespear]

Originally posted by fez
I was mostly talking about all the attempts that were being made to limit protestors to 'free speach' zones.

Gee, I always thought the whole damn country was a "free speech zone".

[Will]

Originally posted by dipstik

I'm sorry, but getting together in large numbers and whining about how much the president sucks isn't really going to change anyones mind.

Yeah, you're right. Thousands upon thousands of people getting together in full view of the world to protest a politician and his policies is a stupid idea. Large scale protest has never worked and never will.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/163000...lly-ap-300.jpg

http://www.indybay.org/uploads/mass_protests.jpg

Besides, non-violent protest is unamerican!!!!
I really should just go hand out politely worded flyers to cynical New Yorkers who:
a) vote democratic by a large majority anyway
and
b) will crumple them up and not read them.

This isn't about convincing New Yorkers, this is about showing the country and the rest of the world that this man does not have our support (and reminding him of that too).

[watersnowdirt]

Here's some cool stuff that some of my friends/colleagues are up to....(greydon, I have a feeling you might know some of them too...) Just got this in my inbox this morning....



"We are deep in the dog days o' summer and quickly approaching the Fundamentalist Love-In . . . uh, I mean Republican National Convention scheduled for New York City next week. Ruckus has been busy working to support the voices of New Yorkers who are repulsed by the Republicans' naked attempt to capitalize on their pain. Crazy how a gaggle of conquistadors can bring the best out in New York isn't it?

I know that everyone with a brain is deeply concerned about what kind of images will come out of NYC during the convention. Let's be frank. It is almost inevitable that there will be some lefty goofballs in the streets doing their best to alienate everyone. And if they are only partially successful, there's sure to be right-wing psychos dressed as left-wing idiots out there to finish the job. But does that mean we stay away and cry about how unfair the world is and how Fox News is setting us up again? Or will we begin to act like the fully leveraged progressive movement we'd like to be someday and do something proactive?"

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...liberty150.jpg