right-aligned column - Republican Troops Invade NYC

1、Republican Troops Invade NYCWhat is to be Done?Aug. 23Perhaps youve already seen them: uncomfortable-looking people in bad suits and pastel leisurewear, fanny-packs on overlarge buttocks, shit-eating grins on pasty white faces, saying all the wrong things in all the wrong places. Yes, the Republican

2、 delegates and their camp-followers are arriving in New York City, ready to celebrate and re-nominate the most corrupt and incompetent presidential administration in American history. With 9/11 and the War on Terror as backdrop, the Bush Mob expects to make the most progressive city in the nation in

3、to a poster child for its campaign to demolish civil liberties, further enrich the rich, and turn the world into a military playground for the oil industry. Will New Yorkers stand idly by while stupid white men run rampant in our streets? We dont think so.What future has been foretold by the collaps

4、e of those World Trade Center towers? What larger wars do the skirmishes in Afghanistan and Iraq portend? To understand these events in any adequate way is to see frightening omens of the coming century. The “War on Terror” could not be more aptly namedbut it is not so much the suicidal hijacker or

5、bomber who terrorizes usthough they are real enoughrather, it is the repressed knowledge, the open secret, that the entire civilization has been hijacked by mechanisms internal to it and now careens towards its own self-destructive collision and collapse. Denying this knowledge is where the real War

6、 on Terror is being fought.As Bertolt Brecht wrote during the Nazi rise to power, “You cant write poems about trees if the forest is filled with policemen.” In the months prior to the coming election, business as usual will be out of the questionthe global crisis the Bush Administration is creating

7、threatens to any day spiral out of controlindeed, they are asking, hoping, praying, for another 9/11 andas some wags have it“Four More Wars.” What does it signify that the Federal Elections Commission has already begun talking about postponing the November elections in the event of terrorist activit

8、y? Will we see martial law imposed in this country if, indeed, there is another attack on U.S. soil? And will Americans stand for this blatant takeover?An Invitation to AgitationAmong the politically progressive, the insane and evil Bush Mob has catalyzed a groundswell of activity, and in this, our

9、emergency Anti-Convention Insurgency issue, The Williamsburg Observer features the images and words of some of the most vocal and committed of these fine, free people. Join us in a dinner-party smorgasbord of rising rebellion against the hatred, greed, and stupidity that has overtaken our land. If e

10、nough of us come together, as Patti Smith sings, “We can wrestle the Earth from fools!” Research suggests that deep inside every Republican is a genuine human being who just wants to be loved. With our help, perhaps these people can be restored to health. Ando ArikeEditortopAugust 2004 Anti-Conventi

11、on Insurgency Issuephoto: Nancy DonskojIn This Issue:Reverend Billy:Do the Right Thing, Do the Strange ThingBerit Anderson:BushWorse Than All of Them?Carl Watson:Drunk Call to Ted Not Made Tsaurah Litsky: The Plumber2 by Jill RapaportBen Williams:Growing Army of Have Nots Redefine Whats NeededLex Gr

12、ey:Last PatriotThe Bindlestiff Family CircusKinko the Clown:Peaceful ProtestingThe Axis of Eve:Mission: Expose and DeposeThe Republican NationalUn-Convention-alTourist GuideDownload PDF of Entire Print IssueWith work by:Ebon FisherAnita DiBancoTurk StudzelMona HardenEcume des Jours And more.Williams

13、burg Observer Homepagephoto: Nancy DonskojDo the Right Thing,Do the Strange ThingBy Reverend BillyThe farce of the political conventions is upon us. Many progressive Americans are seen sitting in chairs staring, as if overwhelmed by an erotic memory. There is a slight smile on the face, but an overw

14、helming sorrow too, and a paralysis that leaves us dreamers unable to rise and re-flesh the old days. We dance now to recall a time of dancing; we go to the political movies to refit our anger.John Kerry and John Edwards have dental work and surfy hair waves from the long-decaying oldie called JFK.

15、They are The Teeth and Hair Party. Like the other Kennedy-derivative, Bill Clinton, their centrist politics will take the word “liberal” hostage. Innocent people may be killed at a faster rate under Bush than one hopes would be killed from the Teeth and Hair Party. Or at least, more pictures of the

16、dying appear in the commerical media from the Iraqi War of Bush than were seen in their misery under Clintons globalized economy. Profuse bleeding and starving to death get much different amounts of air time. This is the dying difference that spurs some Americans to rise from that chair and work thi

17、s year in the Democracy of Money.Simply put: We are suffering from perspective distortions that in one person would be psychotic, in 300 million its the Land of the Free. We are so hypnotized with celebrities and Prozac that the fundamental system the world whose laws make all the chaos possible - e

18、scapes unnoticed. The system doesnt dare come out from behind its products. Why would it take that risk? We cant see the system and we arent allowed to talk about it in the corporate press. Corporate scandals are immediately produced as content selling more papers or air-time, as in the case of supe

19、r-cook Martha Stewart or billionaire-scam artist Ken Lay. But the real issue in this campaign of The Bush Thugs versus Teeth and Hair should be systemic. There is a deadly emergency - featuring war and poverty - which comes from the official policy of both parties.The systemic discussion that I woul

20、d shout about, if my teeth and hair were to let me speak, would be the corporatization of the Commons.” Now in the United States, the Commons is defined as the park, street and sidewalk public property where free speech is guaranteed by the Constitution. In another sense, the commons is electronic -

21、 the radio and television waves and the Internet, places where we can freely meet, which come into our homes and businesses. European citizens who have visited this country have gone through the surprise of discovering that the Commons has been stolen by the US corporations and by the militarized wi

22、ng of the government which responds to the business agenda. What has happened here resembles a post-modern expansion of a 3rd world dictatorship. It is more and more difficult to speak to fellow citizens out of doors. The television is nearly all commercial now, with sliver-thin free speech ghettoes

23、 on Sunday mornings or distant cable channels. Radio is nearly monopolized by the right-wing pro-war Clear Channel, a Texas company. The Web remains safe for open discussion, although all progressive folks who go on the Net from that chair know they are surveilled by our cross-eyed terrorist fighter

24、 John Ashcroft, a Christian who covers up the breasts on female statues that stand in government buildings.Thus the creation of points of view, or original culture, of language itself, is under attack. This has proved dangerous in such a violent and powerful country, with a $400 billion defense budg

25、et every year. After 9/11, there was very little dissent to the colonial wars published or broadcast anywhere in the United States. People who criticized the Afghani bombing were fired. Peace workers were portrayed as eccentric hippie grandmothers. Generally, the foundational documents such as the U

26、. S. Constitution and standing court interpretations of it, were swamped in a sea of sentimental patriotism, that is to say, fascism of the glee-club American variety.Here in our neighborhoods and towns, the transnational big box stores are buying all the space around us and when we finally rise out

27、 of our chair to shout Peace! or Healthcare Now! - we are told that we are standing on private property and do not enjoy the rights of the First Amendment anymore. If we say we are sorry and move to a street or a park, we are met by Permit World, a kafkaeque series of long waits. We wend our way thr

28、ough this world led by policemen who may work for the city or the country, but may work for Wal-Mart or Disney or Ikea. We now have subways running through K-Mart basements. We even have trout streams running through supermalls. Whos in charge? Mysterious jurisdictions now drift across the land, fol

29、lowing the progress of the products that seem to have cornered freedom of expression. Products themselves are sacrosanct; any pose or shout from a 5-story-high supermodel is protected, while living citizens are bamboozled if they hope to go public with Peace.Last month, I was privileged to address t

30、he California Labor Federation conference in San Diego. There were about 600 delegates, gathered from communities where Wal-Mart and Target and Home Depot are carving up public space. Free of commercial media censorship you could feel their conversations about actual life cross beyond such rhetorica

31、l cyclone fences as Al Gores “urban sprawl.” Mostly, these people are engaged in a desperate rearguard action, trying to get health protection for working families. 14,000 people each week in California lose basic health insurance, and the total of the uncovered is at about 7 million. This is an ext

32、raordinary situation, within the borders of the United States. McDonalds and Wal- Mart, minimum wage employers, are fueling the disinformation campaign, the advertising flood. For the performance, I adopted my character Reverend Billy, preaching in the style that parodies the hard right icon, the te

33、levangelist. Perhaps most of the audience was intrigued, and some straightforwardly delighted with my proposal that we walk back into, across, over the area the renta-cops are calling “Private Property.” Preach this: We should have as much chutzpah as their products. This is one idea of how progress

34、ive people will get back up out of that chair. We need more activist solutions that arent in evidence now, for the conventions and beyond. Ask, Emma Goldman, Rosa Parks, Walter Reuther, the Memphis garbage collectors and Dr. King; ask Cesar Chavez, Marian Anderson, Abbie Hoffman, Vaclav Havel ask th

35、e people who got up out of their chairs and walked across some line that was described as “Private Club,” “Communist Party,” “White Race.” each of their moves was fabulously creative. And they had the guts to endure that strange moment when they put their bodies at risk. We havent baffled the Right

36、in a long time. They have watched how cowed we are by the bells and whistles of their products. They have counted on a misplaced civility and outside of a Michael Moore or Noam Chomsky, we have stayed polite. Or, put more accurately we have remained Consumers. But now we must be willing to be strang

37、e. Do the right thing; do the strange thing. Strange-a-lujah! Now we absolutely must become radicals, not just because Bush and Kerry are so similar, but also because the most basic exercise of democracy is now defined as “radical.” If we invite the ordinary awkwardness of getting up out of our chai

38、r and sharing information with citizens in a loud voice we may find that people now congregate in a privatized Main Street. Open your mouth here and you are “making trouble,” “radical,” and if a politicians sees a few votes or dollars you are a “terrorist.” Ive been in supermall holding tanks. The w

39、alls are painted yellows and pastels different than the detention facility in New York City, which is called The Tombs, but horrifically the same.We see the vision, we have the memory, of our heroic teachers of old. They weathered the strangeness, the counter-intuitive feelings that one must suffer

40、through on the journey to real change. We admire them, but we must share that strangeness to really honor themIm sure that, for instance, Dorothy Day wouldnt want our memory of her to be full of respect but somehow inactive. She wants us out of that chair and into the action. THAT is the gift of the

41、se remarkable lives. As for me - I put my hand on the Wal-Mart cash register while the cop drops his jaw. Yes officer, we must Exorcise the Evil from this machine! Amen!Reverend Billy aka Bill Talen is a writer and activist. See /topBushWorse Than All of Them?By Berit B.H. Anderson

42、Recently watching Bill Clinton on television, I, who hated the man for almost everything he did except cigar-fucking Monica Lewinsky, felt shivers of love run through my entire being. Maybe Im just thinking in broader strokes these days. Since September 11th, instead of feeling like a citizen strugg

43、ling to stay informed, I just struggle to close my jaw so the flies buzzing in dont interrupt my uttering things like, “Holy Shit, thats fucked up right?Shouldnt he know how to pronounce that word? Wow, thats a big boom Isnt there a law about not putting leashes on people?” Instead of political issu

44、es, what we have is more like zen koans. Questions like, “How does Iraq govern itself if its not allowed to pass laws?” Or, “What is a non-enemy combatant?” And instead of answers, we have justifiable get out the vote hysteria. Even Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, people who spent years advocating vot

45、ing third party if you must vote at all, are now endorsing Kerry in swing states. “.though differences are not very large,” said Chomsky, “they do exist. The current incumbents may do severe, perhaps irreparable, damage if given another hold on power.In a very powerful state, small differences may t

46、ranslate into very substantial effects on the victims.” It is the point in the horror movie where you find out the calls are coming from inside the house. Who is this man were supposed to rally behind?Hes supposed to remind us of Clinton, but not as charismatic. And that isgood? Clinton began his qu

47、est for the presidency by signing the execution papers to put Ricky Ray Rector, a retarded man, to death. By June, Clinton had authorized the bombing of Baghdad because there were whispers of a conspiracy to assassinate George Bush. The three-strikes-youre-out sentencing guidelines flooded the priso

48、ns with minorities. Recipients of welfare were given a two-year time limit, something that would have made Reagan proud. He signed the Defense of Marriage Act. The Clintonites were either to gutless or too heartless or both to dismantle sanctions against Iraq, sanctions resulting in the deaths of pe

49、rhaps 500,000 Iraqi children, maybe more. And lets not forget Nafta and GATT and WTO. Werent we all jumping up and down in the streets with big puppets we were so upset over them? But what the hell. After four years of W., I admit to getting a little misty-eyed when Reagan “passed,” no doubt into th

50、e third ring of hell. I joked recently that at least Regan had been smarter than Bush, causing an acquaintance of mine to spasm with accusations that I had forgotten him. But who could forget him? We remember catsup as a vegetable. We remember bombing Libya. We remember cutting food stamps. We remem

51、ber that he answered “I cant remember” one hundred and thirty times when asked about arms sold to Iran in exchange for hostages. The one who fired the air traffic control guys? As in 70,000-Salvadorans-killed-by U.S.-trained-and-funded-death-squads Ronald Reagan? Yeah, I remember that guy. He was sm

52、arter than Bush. “Cruel dangerous and savage,” Chomsky has called Bush and cronies, and its no doubt true. More so than Kerry? Who can say? The worst of Bushs offenses revisited: leading us into war in Afghanistan (with Kerrys support) and in Iraq (with Kerrys support) and the Patriot Act (with Kerr

53、ys support) and “the No Child Left Behind” education act (with Kerrys support). We are hoping hell end the war even as he talks about winning it. The twin pillars of evil in the Bush Regime are his National Secuity Policy and The Patriot Act. His Security Policy states that U.S. has the right to wag

54、e preemptive war against any country which poses a potential risk to us. Its evil domestic twin, The Patriot Act, says you no longer need to wait to charge someone with a crime before you hold them in custody. Has Kerry come out categorically against either of them? No, but were hoping hard, the way

55、 you route for a basketball team, thinking that if you leave the couch, it will affect the outcome of the game. Our hopes for Kerry are not, however, founded on phantasmagoric nonsense. He does favor scaling back some of the more invasive measures in the Patriot Act and he favors using more diplomac

56、y, and for these concessions to morality and sanity and the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention, I for one, am dancing for joy. The other problem? Now it seems that new “black box” voting booths will be employed. These computers are easily hacked and do not as of now, leave a paper trail,. They

57、 are produced by the likes of “Republican-identified company Diebold”, and Hart Inter Civic of Austin, TX (one of the main investors, Tom Hicks, helped turn W. into a millionaire). An article in the August 16 issue of The Nation Magazine details the potential for fraud in frightening detail. So even

58、 if we are willing to do the “hold your nose and vote” shuffle, we still cant go home and sleep easy. Unless weve done some effective organizing against these potential vote-erasers or changers, it might not do us any good.Our protests at the convention are just practice for the protests that must continue after, and in the years to come, if Kerry does defeat Bush. We need to demonstrate and petition and lobby and