A far healthier turnout than I'd expected was on hand on Capitol Hill yesterday to mark the 12th anniversary of the Patriot Act with a protest against NSA abuse of citizens' privacy under the Obama Administration.
A coalition of groups ranging from Code Pink and ThinkProgress to the Libertarian Party and FreedomWorks came together for an event that was "not about Left or Right, but about Right and Wrong". Now, that's bipartisanship.
Hey, there, US news media consumers! Interested in finding out what else is going on in the world besides the government shutdown? Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hah, tough shit. Curious about what's up in Greece, the Sudan, or Palestine? Too goddamn' bad, all they've got for you is government shutdown news. Like it or lump it, chumps.
For the past day or two, pretty much every US "news" network has been nothing but wall-to-wall government shutdown babble, and MSDNC... uhh, MSNBC has been the worst of the lot, with continuous Obamacare pimping overlaid with 24/7 government shutdown hysterics, taking a break only to allow one of their resident windbags, Chris "Baby Eater" Matthews, to plug his new book about his days as a flunkie for Tip O'Neill -- at one point, being interviewed by his wife, f'crissake.
September 27, 2002: the first day of "Peoples' Strike" weekend, three days of mobilizations against the policies of the IMF and World Bank, and George W. Bush's war in Afghanistan. It was 7am when I showed up at Franklin Square in downtown DC -- way too early for a guy my age to be up, even back then. A loose confederation of anarchists and affinity groups was gathering at the Square, planning to stage an unpermitted "wildcat" march downtown to the IMF.
As it turned out, the march got as far as Vermont Avenue and L Streets NW before being trapped by police and scooped up. At least 400 protesters and bystanders were arrested en masse that day downtown, at Franklin Square and Pershing Park. I somehow managed to avoid being nabbed by noticing the police line forming up early at Vermont and K, seizing a moment of opportunity and slipping through before more police arrived there. It was all over by about 8am -- and I still had a whole fun-filled day ahead.
Good morning, boys'n'girls! Hanging out and drumming at Franklin Square while waiting for folks to show up for the ill-fated wildcat march.
Whose streets? The march heads out of Franklin Square, taking the street at 14th and K Streets NW. After turning north on Vermont Avenue, they encountered a police motorcycle blockade at L Street. Anyone who didn't notice the first cops appearing back at the other end of the block quickly enough would find themselves in a world o'trouble.
Are you ready for some football? While it probably seems dull to most of you, to me this is a memorable and iconic image -- the moment I realized the cop at my left was distracted by some action to his right (out of the frame), stepped away and left a huge gap for me to dash through. Up until this moment, I was worried that I was nabbed for sure -- and suddenly, daylight! He who hesitates is lost, as the old poet wrote.
All she wrote... Some moments later, more cops arrived, the line firmed up, and people trying to sneak through the gaps were being collared and shoved back into the crowd.
It's a gas! Yep, that's tear gas drifting through the foreground, there. By this time, there was nothing left for the people trapped on that block to do but wait around for the buses to arrive to haul them to the lockup.
Political cartoonist. Information terrorist. Old Indymedia dude. Dirtbag Leftist. Spaceflight geek, MSTie, Deadhead. Find me at flugennock at sinkers dot org.
