The Denver papers are discussing plans for violence at the DNC?

I was sitting on the side of my chaise lounge "sipping on a lemon phosphate," crunching on some "Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju Beads," and watching The Cheap Detective on my personal DVD player. The movie’s setting was San Francisco during WWII, and the fog had rolled in. Then out of the mouth of French expatriate Paul DuChard, played by Fernando Lamas, comes, with exaggerated conviction, "We must open a two star restaurant in Oakland where all free Frenchmen can gather around the radio to listen to the war."

Prior to the firestorm over Tibet, the Beijing Olympic Games was just another thing. No big deal. There were critics who thought it was a waste of the country's time and money. There were cynics who saw it as just another way for the rich to get richer. There were a lot of ordinary people chaffing at the impending disruptions to their lives. I was - still am - one of them. The ubiquitous countdown clocks were a painful reminder of how long it would be until things got back to normal. Popular support was tepid and national pride was tempered by worries about whether the games would be a success.

Not any more.

Now, in the wake of the protests following a beleaguered Olympic torch around the world, many more Chinese are enthusiastically behind the games. Never, at least not since my China life began in 1984, have I sensed more solidarity in a country Sun Yatsen - modern China's founding father - once described as a "loose sheet of sand".

Events have conspired to make the Beijing Olympics the defining moment that it would not have been otherwise, Chinese Communist Party aspirations not withstanding.

Somewhere a few weeks back I filled in one of those ready made reply e-mails with a long and impassioned plea to keep the National Mall - that open strip from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial - open and available for demonstrations. I dislike sending in the canned pleas for whatever the subject at hand is so I try to send a well-reasoned plea for sanity instead. They most likely would have sent the same response to a GFY e-mail but I got my two cents in anyway. It's the thoughts that count.

Below the fold I'll post The National Park Service's (NPS) canned feedback e-mail. It just came in today. I live south of Boston and I'd hate to see demonstration pens set up the way Boston did. With this Cheney-Bush administration you never know just what nefarious plan they may devise. So give it a read if you're so inclined. And by all means, attend demonstrations on the Mall if you can. Hell, attend them anywhere and any time you can. If you can't find one then start one. The numbers count as much or more than actual votes. Good street theater gets extra bonus points - sort of like super-delegates except they're only on YouTube.

Five years ago today the war in Iraq began.  Babies born five years ago have been weaned from bottle and breast, inoculated, potty trained and this year were sent off to Kindergarten.  Teenagers just starting high school five years ago, today are close to finishing their first year of college.  And in that time, in Iraq, there have been the deaths of countless numbers of Iraqi civilians and 3,990 American troops.  Five years ago, we first heard the terms "Shock and Awe" and "Pre-emptive Strike", and now five years later I still stand in shock that this war goes on and am still in awesome wonderment as to what was being pre-empted.

Let us actually DO SOMETHING about the Ferraro/Clinton racism strategy.

I know that I feel that I need to distance myself from this sort of stuff if I'm to feel comfortable voting Democratic.

More below fold:

This is stark, and it is maddening. A NY Times  article says it succinctly:

Imagine all the people at a huge Anti-WAR rally singing the sweet Peace and Patriotic songs we all know, in perfect unison and on key.  Songs like 'Give Peace a Chance', 'We Shall Overcome', 'Imagine', 'Yesterday', 'Blowin' In The Wind', 'This Land Is My Land', Brother Can You Spare A Dime', 'God Bless America' and 'America The Beautiful'.  Did I miss any?  You can think of others that bring tears, especially in these tragic times and especially if well-sung by a chorus of thousands.  Please give me titles or links.

I'm sure you're thinking, 'How are you going to keep it from sounding like your typical 'Happy Birthday' at Farrells Ice Cream Parlor or even worse, the drunken concert and soccer game sing-alongs?...Out-of-sync and way off-key?

Well I'll tell you how below the fold:

Have you, too, become cynical about government and our ability to demonstrate freely, to protest government in the open? Are you tired of the administration's taking away our rights, of making protesters stay in certain staging areas? Are you tired of protesters being arrested?

Today's demonstration in the capitol took place right outside the halls of power, the home of the legislature. At this rare event people were allowed to convene freely, right on the spot---not diverted to holding pens, fenced areas off the main roads. No out of sight locations to dilute the power of the people.

Yes, sir, it was just like the old days here in the USA.

EXCEPT FOR ONE SMALL THING.

Well, I couldn't attend (I'm babysitting), but am interested to know what happened with the supposedly BIG demonstrations against the Iraq war yesterday.

It poured in New England, but the Boston Globe reports over 10,000 participants...I had to search for the info as it was not on the front page of their paper...appeared on pg. B6!!

My friend Katie is a remarkable woman and a pillar of society here in northwestern Pennsylvania.  She is the mother of ten children and has, in recent years, become a grandmother.  She is a minister in the American Baptist Church.  One of her sons is a veteran of the Iraq War and another is an active duty Marine who has served in Afghanistan.  She is an Evangelical Christian and a registered Republican.  She is also the most reliable alto in the local shape-note hymn singings that I host in my home every month.

My friend Katie is spending the next five days in jail.  To find out why, follow me over the fold.

Important news this weekend consisted of reporting the criticism of Representative Stark’s SCHIP speech on the floor of the house, the regurgitation of the same Iraq "facts" and the outing of Dumbledore.   Yes, Dumbledore’s gay and if there is anyone in the USA who doesn’t know who Dumbledore is I don’t know how you missed it because it was widely reported and seemed to edge out less important news, like the big demonstration in Washington, D. C. October 20, 2007.  

What are you, yes, you, going to do to end the War, to express your disapproval of the Iraq War, to support our troops and to bring them home today, Friday, 9/21/07?

The Government just doesn't seem care what we say or think, so we, the people, must help end the Iraq War by direct action.  This is a brief diary about just that: how we the people can end the Iraq War.  It focuses on today, 9/21/07, the Iraq Moratorium Day.

Join me in bed.

Many factors are playing into my personal decision today to acquire and advocate the carrying of Sudecon decontamination wipes and distribute them to my Code Pink sistahs this coming week - everything from the hairs on the back o' my neckio to my military training. However the primary factor in this decision is yesterday's extremely ugly, violent arrest of Rev. Lennox Yearwood. When the cops are sufficiently let off their leashes to the point where they are allowed to break the bones of a man of God, especially when it comes on the heels of the use of mounted police and SWAT teams to intimidate and arrest people who are legally putting up posters, it's time to be proactive about other potential such threats.

There's been alot of talk lately about protest.  I know, because I've been doing some of the talking.  Most people I've talked to seem to be for it, at least in a theoretical way.  Many are supportive of protests, but they have a life, after all, with jobs and kids and previously planned activities that must take precedence.  And in every discussion there are always a few naysayers who say that protest is old hat, its time has passed.  They don't like one group or another, even though that group may be a very small portion of any protest.  Or it's just too damned much work, not enough bang for the buck or they don't see protest as having much effect.  

I've been doing some research to try to debunk the arguments presented against protest.  I won't go into what I've found now, that's for another day.  But what I did find while examining this issue is a group that is wholeheartedly, resoundingly in favor of protest - The Freepers.  Join me over the fold to take a peek into the heart of darkness, won't you?

On September 15, the International ANSWER coalition is leading an anti-war demo in DC.  Reading the comments on other diaries, it seems that many people are reluctant to attend because of ANSWER itself, their leadership style, and the politics of other potential attendees.  Frankly I don't care for ANSWER -- (I had a Trotskyist phase about 3 years ago and it's done now.)  But there is no excuse, moral or practical, to skip out on these events.  And here's why:

 As I read Unbelievable by Maccabee, I was angered but not surprised by our current administration.  However, when I got to the comments, I noticed Maccabee stated that this was the saddest diary he or she had ever posted.  If it is the saddest diary you have ever posted then I do not think you are paying enough attention.  This is not meant to be attacking, however, I believe that you have gone overboard in your anger.  This is minor compared to the crap that this president pulls.  Harassing demonstrators is unacceptable, but not nearly as deplorable as the number of people that die directly because of our failing healthcare system.  If this truly is the saddest diary you have posted then I strongly urge you to look a little harder at the world.

Wes Clark Jr's post titled "Had Enough?" from Tuesday has struck a nerve in my head.  The idea of people coming out ever Sunday at noon just to form a presence moves me for some reason.  It's a start.

If anyone else is interested in coming out this Sunday (and future Sundays), please let me know and please provide some suggestions for where we should meet.

I haven't been to a rally or made a sign for decades, but I'll do this.  I guess I've had enough.