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Anti-Empire
Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Lockdown Skeptics
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
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IMC IRL NYC RNC BLOG international |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
 Sunday August 29, 2004 23:56 by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland
 Please add relevant links with a short description for up-to-date information on the new york protests go to new york city indymedia *note* New York is 5 hours behind Irish time.
nyc grassroots media collective for various other news sources
Article on Friday 27th NYC Critical Mass from Alternet: "Things turned ominous as the ride continued south towards Madison Square Garden, site of the Convention. At 35th Street, just two blocks north of the Garden, bikers were greeted by rows of police in riot gear. Some of the riders came to a halt, while others continued made a turn heading westward. Police stopped the riders who tried to continue south, and promptly arrested them, confiscating some of the bikes. The rest of the bicycles were left abandoned on the side of the street, where legal observers tried to determine to whom they belonged.'
Village Voice on Echoes of Chicago 68 in RNC Buildup: It recalls the old philosopher's conundrum: When a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If resistance against Bush actually plays into Bush's hands, is it really resistance?
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Comments (81 of 81)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81Lots of charges - bet he gets jail just like the banner droppers. "Federal prosecutor John M. Hillebrecht said Frampton went through elaborate efforts to get close to Cheney, including going through training sessions with convention organizers, "all the while masquerading as a Republican supporter of the president."
Lots of charges - bet he gets jail just like the banner droppers. "Federal prosecutor John M. Hillebrecht said Frampton went through elaborate efforts to get close to Cheney, including going through training sessions with convention organizers, "all the while masquerading as a Republican supporter of the president."
Lots of charges - bet he gets jail just like the banner droppers. "Federal prosecutor John M. Hillebrecht said Frampton went through elaborate efforts to get close to Cheney, including going through training sessions with convention organizers, "all the while masquerading as a Republican supporter of the president."
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just for your info i have been listening to the two radio stations its good, they are using the smae info from the breaking updates from the myc imc, i guess more useful if your not already on the web... they get calls in from people its a bit chaotic but you can hear happening it all live
http://www.bionicsonics.com/ live 7 and 22nd
live web tv coverage http://www.c-span.org/watch/cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS
NYC DOT Webcams http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/106022 thousands gathering
Corporate News Video From This Morning http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/106055/index.php i think the worse coverage is that lack of coverage... even today sunday indo had little on it and it wasn't it usual hysteria, trying to play down all these people on the street...
Nyc indymedia running very slow from pressure of World looking on but their first estimate as the march takes off is more than 200,000. People still gathering at departure point in numbers.
if you having trouble with nyc imc go to Portland IMC its mirroring the coverage... or use the radio links
Portland IMC reporting that people are being stopped from accessing the departure area for the march - march stretches from Departure area to Destination - union square - Marchers now detouring to join in further down.
flyers being handed out throughout crowd - see u in the park 3pm -
sorry - back to NYC - Cops gathering at Park
i've been to two events in manhattan so far this week. i volunteered at and attended a forum on free speech on west 42nd st. it was good. tom hayden spoke. he was neat. he talked about the mexican protest model where there were recent mass protests and not a single person was arrested. by the time the forum was over, i decided that mike bloomberg was a bastard afterall for utterly ignroing numerous attempts by various groups to set up some parameters for treatment of protestors. the conclusion being that nyc benefits with funds from the govt. if things go badly at protests. after all, if there is no need to arrest people, why should the city receive extra money for security.
okay, and then me and my son went to the protest this morning for an hour. i gave him a disposable camera so he could "document" the event in and around union square. he wanted to know if it was okay to photograph the many many many cops and i told him that it absolutely was. we are going to have a lot of picutres of "chris p. carrot," a carrot who was running for presidency/promoting vegetarianism. my son found him very funny. i wanted to take a picture of a stuffed chimp sitting on a park bench, holding a sign that read, "hi. i'm bush jr." i found it to be hystericaly funny for some reason or maybe just beautiful in its simplicity, but the kid wouldn't give me the camera.
at one point near the start of the march, a shitload of cyclists went by and everyone clapped and cheered. it was good to see that they didn't let the (unjust) arrests stop them in their tracks.
overall, the protests felt very peaceful. my son had a great time and made me buy him an anti-bush button to go with his kerry/edwards button (sure wish i'd seen more of those). there were fewer families with children at this protest compared to the anti-war protest i attended in nyc last year. that kinda bummed me out cause i got the feeling that a lot of people succumbed to the rnc's scare tactics. fuckers. i hate them.
[Just heard a protestor say on CSPAN as she passed the camera: "You suck, ABC. Yes you do..." ]
.
Three thoughts about the protests:
1) These are people who want to be heard, and don't know how else to say what they have to say.
2) The protesters are a mix of protest fashionistas, pragmatic politicos, and identity politics people.
3) There is no clear focused political goal for the protests, and that's obvious.
.
8
critical mass - tick.
gardening - tick
any real purpose / agenda - no tick
the trick is to let both Geiger's Alien and the Predator know you don't give a poo poo popadum which one wins.
The Alien seeks out neurological processes, and the Predator is a time travelling hunter.
But remember my jedi, when the crunch comes, the predator is a good example of "civism". That modern tippy toppy condition of leftwing social democracy that pays graphic designers a living wage to show people how to discard their cigarette butts yet complains that people see politics as irrelevant.
the sky news report was far better then the rte version... rte said "tens" of thousands gathered brief report from carole... surprised at numbers and peacfullness.... i dunno not much coverage, downplaying up to 400,000 protesting in the new york an amazing thing... so does that mean they can say it was going so well then a few wll ruin it? skynews said 1/4 million ,had good interview with person from notinourname, said had problme with bushes _policies_ and briefly indicated wit ha pic the issues health education etc? so on the face of it...?
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talking about various indymedia , radio announcers spoke of visiting lots of different indymedias... kenyan etc.. mentioned indymedia ireland visit it regulararily... "amazing people" knew somebody there wanted to shout out to kev :) mentioned belfast squatting story... ? :)
IMC IRELAND VIDEO SCREENED IN NYC RNC.
The indymedia videos of the Bush visit to Ireland are being played to an audience of thousands over the next weekend in NYC.
Well done to all those involved
For those of us in Ireland -
The Irish Premier will be on FRIDAY 3rd at 7:30 at the IFI Temble Bar
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=66327
Also showing will be a new edit from mayday with a new audio trax -
Stay tuned, and dont drink from the mainstream...
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/livestream.html some people say their watching on this but i can't see anything at the mo
"Right wing scum, your time has come" and other clear messages ring out from the assembled masses. Despite the spin from Democrats (who want to pretend that their warmonger is simulataneously not involved with the protests but also that they are the harbinger of Democratic power) the message is clear from the assembled hundreds of thousands near the site of the 9/11 tragedy: Fuck Off Bush and the rest of the Warmongers.
Stop the torture - NYC 2004 anti RNC march
QUOTE from the timeline at NYC-IMC: "11:02 PM Sun Aug 29th
The National Lawyers Guild, New York City Chapter, is holding an emergency press conference on Monday, August 30, 2004, at 10:00 am at the Criminal Courthouse at 100 Center Street regarding arrested protestors being held in jail for up to 34 hours, only to be released on a desk appearance ticket, arrestees being held for as long as 20 hours, only to be released without charges, and the NYPD refusing attorneys who have asked to see their clients. There have also been reports of failure to provide necessary medical attention to those arrestees needing it."
This is an example of two things: 1. actions with a chilling effect on the 1st Amedment; 2. selective enforcement of laws.
There is no need to keep these people in jail for so long. They can do so for up to 48 hours, but there are strong grounds for these people to sue the asses off the NYPD or whoever arrested and held them. Precedent is that the NY taxpayers will have some a little less money to put towards schools, street cleaning and hospitals.
Keep the cops in line citizens or else YOU will pay for it.
Freedom of assembly is one of the key elements of democratic society. This is fundamental right for all political groups, left or right.
All attempts to harass or even stop Republican party convention in New york are anti-democratic and anti-freedom acts.
Right place for these people to show their dissatisfaction to president Bush and his Republican government is presidential election later this year. Let American people make their decicion. Election will be fair and leagal.
Republican party in USA, like it or not, does have the right to hold their meeting in NY and they have right to appoint George W Bush as their candidate for presidential election. This is democracy.
Excellent Mon Aug 30th show including in the street interviews with soldiers marching in uniform against the RNC. Interview with a female soldier about Abu Ghraib and a section on police tactics. There are serious estimates of half a million people on the march.
It's a protest _against_ the RNC. Not a protest that stops the RNC. There are even counter-demonstrators against the protestors. All of these groups are allowed to assemble to petition the government for a redress of the grievances.
There is no codicil or exemption in the Constitution which says "freedom of assembly EXCEPT when the Republicans or Democrats are holding a convention".
And, GG, presumably the US courts also have the right to appoint the president like they did last time, rather than having him properly elected.
Subpoena Seeks Records About Delegate Lists on Web
The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation and is demanding records regarding Internet postings by critics of the Bush administration that list the names of Republican delegates and urge protesters to give them an unwelcome reception in New York City.
Federal prosecutors said in a grand jury subpoena that the information was needed as part of an investigation into possible voter intimidation. Protesters and civil rights advocates argued that the Web postings were legitimate political dissent, not threats or intimidation.
[....]
The Justice Department issued the subpoena on Aug. 19 to Calyx Internet Access, an Internet service provider in New York City, after a Secret Service agent asked the company to turn over information about postings on a client's site, nyc.indymedia.org. Calyx refused to turn over the information, citing privacy concerns, and a subpoena was issued.
The subpoena seeks subscriber information, and contacts and billing records for the Indy Media site. It says the information is needed to investigate possible violations of the federal criminal code barring efforts to intimidate, threaten or coerce voters.
The Indy Media site is run by the NYC Independent Media Center, which describes itself as a grass-roots group committed to using media tools "for promoting social and economic justice in the New York City area." The site includes several lists containing the names of many delegates to the Republican convention, along with e-mail addresses, phone numbers and the hotels where some were expected to stay, as well as links to a site called rncdelegates.com. Most of the lists were posted anonymously or by demonstrators calling themselves the RNC Delegates Working Group. One list includes more than 2,200 delegates, or nearly half the expected total. In publicizing the information, organizers said in a posting that they were trying to supply groups opposed to the Republican National Committee "with data on the delegates to use in whatever way they see fit."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/30/politics/campaign/30delegates.html
username: freenyt password: freenyt
BikesAgainstBush [ http://bikesagainstbush.com/
] creator Joshua Kinberg was arrested while taping an interview with MSNBC's Ron Reagan in Manhattan Saturday afternoon.
Kinberg was stopped by police while demonstrating the bicycle for the television interview. His bicycle is a high-tech graffiti writer, using chalk to print anti-Bush political messages sent by people via the internet. Apparently there was a question of whether or not the sprayed messages were a defacement of property.
When Kinberg showed the police sergeant how the bicycle used a non-permanent spray chalk, the sergeant seemed to agree that it wasn't defacement, at which point Kinberg asked, "am I free to go?" After conferring about it, officers decided to call superiors, then came back moments later to place Kinberg under arrest and confiscate the bicycle.
Kinberg cooperated fully with the officers as he was being handcuffed, only asking, "can I ask what I'm being arrested for?" to which no one provided an answer. As of 11:00 PM, he was still in custody without being charged with anything.
Link:
http://demandmedia.net/?op=displaystory;sid=2004/8/30/065/37531
20meg Video:
http://demandmedia.net/metagen?vurl=http://kottke.org/plus/video/20040828_kinberg.mov
in english -
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/115551/index.php
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/111732.shtml
A little over a week ago, several servers went funny on the imc network, including those that serve NYC, Barcelona and Switzerland.
NYC went off line for a few hours, BCN stayed off the longest and the Swiss were off about 14 hours.
The NSA are known to have a "back door" encryption key so they can read anything they want, but because they officially dont exist, no-one can use what they read in court.
The FBI have in the past hassled Quebec along with the US SS (who guard the president and worry about forged dollars), and that's basically coz they like the attention and getting in the newspapers.
For all you paranoid types, the ISPs of contributors are well encrypted and supposedly untraceable (except to the NSA who dont exist) - "indymedia will not assist the government in monitoring free speech and the exercise of rights".
Please note that Mossad or SIS MI6 or the CIA or FIB or any other spooky entity of the usual paranoia weren't mentioned.
After taking some pictures of Critical Mass riders getting arrested, I turned to walk away and suddenly was in cuffs, one of the 264 cyclists and random passers-by arrested Friday night. Rather than writing us summonses for the offenses we were charged with, which were violations (on par with a traffic ticket or an open container), not even misdemeanors, the cops decided to teach us a lesson by hauling us over to a bus depot-turned-holding cell where we got to sleep in cages on diesel-sludge-covered concrete. (Many people reported chemical burns from contact with the floor.) I got to spend 16 hours there, then ride a corrections bus downtown to Central Booking for the full handcuff/search/mugshot/prints treatment, in shackles all the way, and spent another 14 hours there while the cops, who were either intentionally stalling on Bloomberg's orders or staggeringly incompetent, took 14 more hours to write us all the same desk-appearance tickets they could have given out at the scene. There were still at least 50 people in there when I got out at 2:30 a.m. Monday (and spent another hour waiting on line to get my keys, phone, camera, and pen from the property clerk; I don't get my bike back until the trial).
Thanks to this week's protests of the Republican convention, the streets of Manhattan have become an outdoor gallery for the latest trends in the fusion of art and digital technology.
A loose network of tech-savvy activists has been working for months—in some cases years—to construct intriguingly bizarre electronic contraptions for creative resistance. This new breed of wireless activists is moving the Internet's power off the screen and into the streets....
"Marchers -- at least those I talked with -- almost uniformly felt that their presence was a statement in favor of the very existence of civil liberties. I was struck as well by how many people made the decision to come in the face of a sense of intimidation and how many were willing to travel sometimes surprising distances to attend. In the course of perhaps six hours on my feet (from the first gathering moments downtown until I peeled off at 34th street and Broadway and headed for Central Park), I did my best to talk to as many people as possibly in a crowd that, though predominantly white and young, was nothing if not varied. "
Possible Actual News Alert: Is the Republican Party in violation of the US military’s rules on the participation in party politics by active duty military?
It sure looks that way. The RNC convention week is boasting that it has 144 active duty military delegates at the convention or three percent of the total. That information can be found here [ http://www.gopconvention.com/contents/newsroom/articles/081604.shtml ]
Meanwhile, according to DOD Directive 1344.10, which can be found here [ http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html2/d134410x.htm ] this is a violation of the code of military conduct. It explicitly says:
---
A member on active duty shall not
...
Participate in partisan political management, campaigns, or conventions (unless attending a convention as a spectator when not in uniform).
---
But the Republican Party itself is claiming that the active duty personnel are not spectators but delegates. What’s going on here? Why are the Republicans encouraging our soldiers to violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice and its stated rules of political engagement? And why for goodness sakes, aren’t these rules being enforced? Hey MSNBC.com, can we put a reporter or two on this story please?
Hello above - Post links not cut and paste text -
This is a republican mocking Kerry War Record with a band aid with a purple heart on it. They hate him and his ilk cos the anti-war vets and ppl on the home front didn't let them proceed to full on genocide - the only the way the US could have won the dirty war in Vietnam. Kerry campaign is playing it marine-tough on the 'war in iraq' front to placate these people - they are looking like losers. If they were straightforward 'we will get the troops out' and got a real debate on what is going on in Iraq they might have a better chance.
'"Support President Bush. Trust Jesus." In and of itself, the anti-anti-Bush placard wasn't such a big deal. But given that the accompanying artwork featured renderings of a .45 pistol, an M16 rifle, a jet fighter, a Black Hawk helicopter, a bomb and a couple of other pieces of military hardware, it's no surprise that many of the protesters on Sunday were flipping out as they passed by. "
Photos from:
http://www.basetree.com/photos/no-rnc/republican-three-ring-circus.html
http://www.basetree.com/photos/no-rnc/ny-says-no-to-bush.html
President of Vice
Protestor explains to cop that though masks are illegal in NYC, cardboard is not *really* a mask
Wielding metal barriers and orange netting, police struggled to contain swarms of anti-GOP protesters on the second day of the Republican National Convention, eventually arresting nearly 1,000 demonstrators with their sights set on a fortress-like Madison Square Garden.
[....]
Police said a total of 970 people were arrested on Tuesday alone, and more than 1,500 people have been arrested in convention-related protests since late last week. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the city's police officers "have shown great restraint in the face of relentless provocation."
Protests flared Tuesday outside the New York Public Library, near the site of the fallen World Trade Center and in the historic Herald and Union squares.
"People are trying to question the policies of a corrupt government. They take to the streets and don't ask permission," said protester Gan Golan, 30, a graduate student from Boston, who was arrested hours later after he sat in the street and refused to get up.
George W Bush
August 30 2004
"I don't think you can win it," Bush said in the interview on NBC's "Today" show. "But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."
White House Spokesman, Scott McClellan clarifies President Bush's statement: "We will prevail in the war on terrorism."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0408310260aug31,1,3297435.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
. . . . . . .
George W Bush
April 13, 2004
''One of the interesting things people ask me, now that we're asking questions, is, can you ever win the war on terror? Of course, you can.''
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040413-20.html
http://jebba.blagblagblag.org/index.php?p=100
Following is a transcript of John Kerry's statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, in which he criticized the Vietnam War....
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3875422
.
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"Bush out of NYC. Cash hated prisons and so do we."
Dear Friends,
...
The Cash family has NOT approved the usage of the name or likeness of Johnny Cash for the purposes of the Republican Party, or any political agenda or event. Sotheby's, who is auctioning the estate of Johnny and June Cash on September 14th, 15th and 16th, is not affiliated with any political organization and has no political agenda. The Republican Party and/or convention cannot and has not co-opted the name or likeness of Johnny Cash for their purposes.
What HAS happened is that Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, an old family friend of Dad and June, has asked to have a private party at Sotheby's for some members of the Tennessee delegation. Sotheby's rents out space for parties to many, many diverse groups, and this was approved by both Sotheby's and the estate lawyers for my father, based on the personal relationship between our family and the Senator, NOT as a show of support for the Republican agenda.
What was a little more murky was a second party, unrelated to the Senator, and whose intent was somewhat confusing, which seemed to play rather fast and loose with the image of my Dad on their invitations and party plan. As soon as we found out about this, it was stopped. With a resounding thud.
Multiple reports confirm that the police have been caging protestors and riding scooters into the crowd. Journalists are being attacked and arrested. A brief report from IMC-LA journalists is below. They conclude with the sobering reflection that all that is being learnt is never to enter a caged-protest situation and never to follow a cop's directions
LA Times:
Beginning today, RNC protesters plan to use wireless phones to call in live, in-the-trenches reports that will be streamed over the Internet and picked up for rebroadcast nationwide on community-based micro radio stations — some licensed, most illegal.
"It has become sort of a thing that whenever there's a big protest like this, someone sets up a pirate radio station the same as someone setting up the food truck or the sound system," said Pete Tridish, a longtime activist and founder of the Philadelphia-based Prometheus Radio Project, an advocacy group for legal, noncommercial micro-radio broadcasters. "Someone knows how to start a radio station, and so someone does it."
more links and info:
Why We Protest
http://www.marchonthemedia.org/
For the past few years, the mainstream media have marched in lockstep with the Bush administration. Now it's time to march on the media.
Whether the issue is corporate abuse, the 2000 Florida recount, the Patriot Act or post- 9/11 detentions, the mainstream media have behaved more like lapdogs than watchdogs. When the Bush administration pursued a plan to attack Iraq, the media amplified the charges of the Bush partisans and ignored or downplayed dissenting views.
[....]
The network newscasts are still the most popular source of news for Americans. But what kind of news are we getting? A study of all the sources appearing on the newscasts in 2001 by the group Media Tenor found that the networks tilted heavily in favor of white, male Republican sources. Women and people of color were scarce; women made up between 14 and 18 percent of those appearing on the newscasts, while Arab-Americans and Latinos each were less than one percent of the sources on the network newscasts.
The media giants are granted licenses to broadcast on the public airwaves; in return, the public has the right to hold these companies accountable for their collective failure to present a wide range of viewpoint and perspectives.
What If Bush Wins
Predictions on the likely consequences of a second term for President Bush.
By a panel of 16 writers
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.bushforum.html
Counterpunch.org has run a series of very useful articles on the war-criminal Kerry. While the "left" falls over itself to condemn Bush and jump on board the Kerry election campaign some people have been looking at Kerry's history and Kerry's stated campaign goals: The Vietnam neither Kerry nor Bush talk about
The Left takes a dive for Kerry
Zombies for Kerry
John Kerry: the Warchurian candidate
Shattering Illusions - Sonali Kolkhatkar
No 'Anti-Globalisation' activists on the floor of GOP. Act-UP (Aids Activists) Code Pink (Anti War activists) and the father of a dead son pictured at the link above.
And Arnie S himself - the real one - not any cartoon character representation of him - coined the phrase/insult 'Girlie Men' for his democratic opponents.
Judges ruled that the people that have been arrested this weekend and held for longer than the maximum 48 hours (without charge or bail) should be released. The city has failed to do so twice. Crowds of angry relatives and supporters assembled outside the courtrooms. The city has now failed for the THIRD time to act on instructions from the judiciary according to the NYC-IMC newswire:
02:29 PM
The court just reconvened to check the City's compliance with the writ. As of 2:40, ony 27 of the 117 people who were supposed to be released by 1:30 have been released. The judge ordered that those not in court or the feeder pen must be released immedately. For the 3rd time in 24 hours the city is directly disobeying a court order.
Organised presentation of photo information documenting the massive violations of rights in New York during the Republican National Convention.
Protestors are being held in "Pier 57" a Bus Authority building which has been disused since there was a fire in it several years ago and the asbestos clean-up was too expensive to complete. Many of the political prisoners have reported that they have burns and rashes as a result of unknown chemical contaminants.
Guantanamo on the Hudson. USA political prison.
"The detainees anthem, "We All Live In A Military State," lifted our spirits Tuesday evening. After more than 24 hours in detention without being formally charged by the police, the song acquires a sinister Ashcroftian ambiance."
"CUARTO: It has come to our attention that the New York City authorities, and possibly federal authorities with the U.S. Secret Service, among possible other agencies, in blatant violation of the 2001 New York Supreme Court decision, refused to recognize Indymedia.org press passes as proof that those journalists are legitimate press in New York State, and that various credential-carrying Indymedia reporters, videographers, radio journalists, and online journalists, have also been detained tonight and this week.
This is an absolute violation of the will of the New York Supreme Court, which extended rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the 14th Amendment of the New York State constitution to Internet journalists.
QUINTO: We plead to any legal observers or future arrestees who can get word inside the pier where our reporter Jennifer Whitney and members of the Infernal Noise Brigade, are illegally detained, that the entire international Narco News team, and our attorneys, will not rest until they are released.
SEXTO: We will exercise our rights under New York law to the ultimate consequences, including, if necessary, an expensive Civil Lawsuit, to gain the freedom of our reporter, and will join in coalition with Indymedia or any other media organization that wishes to do the same on behalf of its reporters, who were all detained, and many arrested, in violation of New York case law."
Extracts from Sept. 2nd Breaking news at NYC-IMC:
(IMC editor note: NLG below (with reference to the writ of _Habeas corpus_) refers to the National Lawyers Guild.
05:21 PM
There are currently a large number of police at 100 Center St. We also have confirmation that the NYPD continues to defy the court order to release the 400+ detainees at central booking.
04:34 PM
Norman Siegel, NLG: The city of New York attempted to 'lose' the people currently held in central booking until after Bush gave his speech tonight, after which they would miraculously be 'found.'
On the newswire: PDF - Writ of Habeas Corpus filed by NLG 9/1/04
04:25 PM
The judge has just ruled that 470 people are to be released from Central Booking immediately. The crowd outside 100 Center St. is chanting: "470, let them go!"
04:07 PM
Update from Central Booking: According to Rick Best with the NLG and imcistas, the number of people still in jail are actually going UP as they "discover" new people. There are hundreds more people still in jail as of 4:10, than there were a few hours ago-- new detainees have been "found."
AMY GOODMAN: In an unusual situation, you heard a Democrat, Georgia senator Zell Miller, as well as Republicans, because they invited him to this convention. What were you thoughts about what he had to say?
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, you know, apart from the sort of the theatrics of betrayal and so on, you know, the cheap drama of that, I wasn't -- I’m not -- I’m not somebody who is astounded by that since politicians do that all the time. I have seen it happen time and again. Everywhere, not just here. But I think what is important about that speech was that it really shows you how -- how the exits are being sealed in this -- in the rhetoric of democracy today. You know, that it's come -- it's come to a space where it is really interesting that, the democrats are in a space where they have to eventually, whether they lose or win the election, they are going to have to prove that they are more vicious, more war mongering, more hard than the Republicans. They don't even have as much space to maneuver as the Republicans do. It's really very, very interesting thing, and say in India on the issue of Kashmir, which is an occupied territory, the fact is that the equivalent of the Democrats, the congress, have much less room to maneuver because the BJP will always overturn them on that by being really right wing. So, in terms of analysis of power, I think the simple thing about the Democrats are slightly better or the lesser evil and things, is quite dangerous because you saw that speech, and it just closes the space for any kind of softness. Kerry is going to have to prove himself to be, in my terms, worse than Bush.
And then, of course, the talk about now what is soft imperialism? That you’re going to have the support of the u.n and Europe to rape Iraq some more and to take on some other countries? Is that better or worse for us in the Third world? I don't know. I don't know what the answer to that is, but I think it was quite a wonderful display of how little space is left in this kind of electoral democracy now. That's the issue that all of us have to face – that how much expediency can we afford? When are we going to say that we actually, this is not a debate -- actually, this is not where public power will be exercised, or the power of a dissenting public.
Quicktime Video from the Comedy Channel....
http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/dsbush.html
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/twintowers56k.mov
from http://www.anarchogeek.com
But the other, and perhaps bigger part of what we are doing is we are constructing a spectacle. Something people can follow. A protest which isn't a march followed by ten boring speeches. The radio, breaking news, sms, and phone line updates all create a larger event which imparts the energy of the protest around the world. Maybe the whole world isn't actually watching, but somebody everywhere is. From Quito to Capetown, Seoul to SoHo, we've created a way for people to follow and identify with the protests. This is an essential aspect to the globalization of social movements and the 'anti-globalization movement.'
The project i was personally involved in this time was an automated information line. People could call 212-400-7458 to hear breaking news from indymedia, the day's events from counterconvention.org, get important contact numbers, and listen to radio from the anoise indymedia radio collective, and pacifica's wbai. It was a last minute project project which showed how using free software and about $10, we could create quality phone based information systems. The system is based on a software package called Asterisk which uses VOIP (Voice Over IP) internet telephony to read information from websites, convert the text to speech, and provide it to people over a phone line.
With little pre-publicity we've received over 2000 phone calls over the last 4 days. From a cell phone or a pay phone, it's an easy way for protesters to get an update. Before the indymedia radio and breaking news were mostly useful people at home. Now this kind of information is available for the protesters.
NEW YORK -- A year and a half ago, Robert Sarra was a Marine sergeant in Iraq, where, he says, he once fired his M-16 at a black-cloaked old woman who failed to stop when she was told. Instead of a suicide bomb, the bundle she carried to her death held only bread, tea, and a white flag.
From that day in a tiny town called Ash Shatra, Sarra says, he journeyed through dark territory -- heavy drinking, violent outbursts, therapy -- and finally from his temporary job in Chicago to the Republican National Convention this week. It is in New York that he embraced his new role -- peace activist. "I became opposed to the war when I saw we had no point in what was going on over there," said Sarra, 32, who spent nine years in the Marines and left in April. "We are all trying to make sure that the next time the US goes to war, it's for a good reason."
Denying the Troops a Secret Ballot
NY Times Editorial
http://nytimes.com/2004/09/03/opinion/03fri2.html
username: freenyt password: freenyt
Members of the military will be allowed to vote this year by faxing or e-mailing their ballots - after waiving their right to a secret ballot. Beyond this fundamentally undemocratic requirement, the Electronic Transmission Service, as it's known, has far too many problems to make it reliable, starting with the political partisanship of the contractor running it. The Defense Department is making matters worse by withholding basic information about the service, and should suspend it immediately.
The Defense Department is encouraging soldiers to use absentee ballots or fax votes directly to local officials, when possible.
[....]
The Defense Department has taken a "trust us" attitude. Soldiers have to trust that military higher-ups will not try to learn their political choices and hold it against them, and that local elections officials at home will not reveal those choices. The voters have to trust that no one at the contractor or the Pentagon will make errors, or intentionally alter ballots. In a democracy, matters like these should not have to be taken on faith.
At a press conference on Wednesday morning on the West Side Highway—just opposite the warehouse detention center that activists have dubbed "Guantanamo on the Hudson"—activists simultaneously denounced and exulted at the extraordinary number of people who have been arrested protesting the Republican Convention: 1200 on Tuesday, nearly 1800 over the week.
That's the largest number of arrests in the history of party conventions, they noted, and coming on the heals of the hundreds of thousands who marched on Sunday, the strongest show of dissent ever mounted against a president.
But now comes the familiar litany of stories of abuse in jail, people denied access to lawyers, locked up for no reason or held for unnecessarily long stays. Bails have gone as high as $200,000 (for the kid nabbed during Sunday's puppet burning incident), while protesters are being taken to the hospital for skin reactions and asthma attacks from the chemicals and diesel soaked into the concrete floor at the Pier 57 detention center, a former bus depot, where reports are that as many as 40 protesters at a time had been crammed into the 10' by 20' pens covered in wire mesh.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said yesterday that President Bush views America as a ''10-year-old child" in need of the sort of protection provided by a parent.
[....]
''It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child," Card said. ''I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children."
To Indymedia centers around the world
Written 08/31/04 in NYC as police surround peaceful protesters in front of Fox News.
-ZDLR
Eyes Upon The Eyes....
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/110361/index.php
Sustaining, still gaining
This last week has been intense for Indymedia, we've survived three slashdottings in a week: the bikes-against-bush creator getting arrested, the Secret Service after our logs, on florida IMC's P2P radio covering the hurricane, two boingboing'ings: one on the secret service situation, and one on the LRAD I mentioned before the RNC had started; a mention in Wired about the SS story, AP picked it up and it was in the New York Times and Washington Post. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there was also the RNC protest which had people glued to their monitors hitting reload to see the latest breaking news. We also had some suspicions of right-wing protestwarrior hackers trying their darn-tootinest to subject us to a Denial of Service attack which had us smirking at their puny efforts.
The traffic analysis still has to be done, and it wont be accurate, but we had probably a week where we sustained between 9 and 20 megabits/second, thats a LOT of traffic, literally millions of hits per day (at one point we did some rough caluclations and came up with between 1 and 5 million a day).
more info and links at...
.
Simply put, it is a well carried out plan all around. Everyone did their job well. Organizers followed police instructions to proceed down a specific sidewalk. Cops methodically took up positions for the coming ambush. A “warning” was issued, and the arrest announcement was given. Police troop movements seemingly prevented any possibility of escape.
A frightening document was posted to kuro5hin [ http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/9/3/162335/9285 ] today. It details how Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz quietly modified a key Department of Defense Directive to allow military to attend and participate in political conventions such as the RNC when they were expressly forbidden from doing so before.
And the Republicans used it according to AP [ http://www.wjla.com/headlines/0804/166470.html ]:
"About 15 percent of the 4,800-plus delegates and alternates to the convention in New York are veterans, organizers said Monday. An additional 3 percent are active military personnel."
What is just as disturbing is that when this AP story came out, the RNC website which promonantly promoted the number of delegates that are military personnel on the front page of their website, yanked it immediately. And here is the kicker... the news media yanked the story also.
more at....
I've heard of at least one Irish person arrested over in NYC. A J1er one had gone along to take photographs and ended up spending two days in an awful holding facility by Chelsea Pier.
His J1 is up so he is coming home but he has to return to the states in a month for his hearing. Pretty shitty.
Any other info on Irish heads returning home from NYC that might need some help/advice/solidarity?
Some people apparently think awful incursions on Americans' civil liberties began after 9/11 and that things were paradise beforehand during the reign of Clinton the Beloved. The Federation, as usual, has no choice but to inject integrity into the foul deluded minds of liberal rot.
'sunday bloody sunday'
free MP3 of the war president singing U2's sunday bloody sunday
http://www.audiostreet.net/artists/006/407/song_sunday_bloody_sunday.html
by rx
http://audiostreet.net/rx
Excerpt:
"And authorities at the highest level of government seem to be paying attention. Just as the week of protests was kicking off, the Justice Department announced it had opened a criminal investigation into the New York City Indymedia center. The Department is demanding Indymedia's internet service provider hand over records regarding posts on the site that listed the names of Republican delegates. The federal government is claiming the posting of the delegates' names may constitute a form of voter intimidation. "The subpoena shows they view us as a threat," says Gupta. "It is McCarthyite, Nixonian political harassment."
The hope on the part of many who organized the Indymedia operation in New York is that activists will apply the tactics and technology more broadly in future protests. "Frankly, Indymedia has evolved faster than the protest movement," says Breitbart. "The next step is for people to learn how to use the information effectively." Still, Gupta says, "Technology can't substitute for good organizing."
describes being told to go one place then another by cops then shows mass arrests and describe little gitmo
WIRED: I understand that the DOJ contacted the ACLU today and told them that you did not have to testify in front of the grand jury.
NYC Indymedia: This is correct.
WIRED: What is your response to this decision? Do you expect that they might ask you to come back
later and testify?
NYC Indymedia: The decision is not surprising. Basically, the Secret Service requested two general kinds of information, the identities of the indymedia.org webmasters; and the web logs that relate to a certain post to the site. In the first case, any savvy Internet user can learn the identities of the webmasters by performing a WHOIS lookup on the domain name. In the second case, the stated policy of indymedia.org has been to not retain any web logs. Since they maintain administrative control over their own servers, this decision is solely in their hands. Thus, I did not have any information concerning the post in question, and I do not have any additional information that I know to be of value to the investigation, so I do not expect to be called.
It is strange, though, that the USSS chose to contact me informally to request the above information, as I am bound by legal and ethical obligations to protect the privacy of my clients. For me to release that information without a subpoena or warrant would have been unacceptable, but if they had researched it on their own (or asked another knowledgable person) they could have found the answers they were looking for rather easily. Or, failing that, making the request for information in conjunction with an authorized legal document from the start would have allowed me to respond in a different manner.
WIRED: The fact that the subpoena finally materialized from a grand jury seems like overkill-- perhaps to make up for the initial shortcut in process?
NYC Indymedia: As an Internet Service Provider it is critical that I act in compliance with all laws regarding the privacy of my clients when cooperating with law enforcement. As a side note, I find it disappointing that huge companies such as JetBlue are so sloppy with their customers' personal information. Although I do not have the resources of a mega-corporation, I still protect the rights of my clients to privacy from data mining and unwarranted snooping of all types.
The ACLU provides legal counsel to Calyx, their advice consistently holds us to the highest standard on behalf of our clients. Perhaps JetBlue needs to find a new law firm?
JetBlue? http://www.jetblue.com/
source info found at
http://machination.org/index.php?p=12
full transcript at
Indymedia's Independence: From Activist Media to Free Software
http://journal.planetwork.net/article.php?lab=coleman0704&page=1
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
http://www.democracynow.org/static/ny_model.shtml
also check out http://www.txtmob.com/
links found at
http://www.anarchogeek.com/archives/000438.html
Mapping the speeches: RNC vs DNC
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/09/02/politics/campaign/nat_02WORDS.gif
In the first jury trial stemming from the mass arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, video and photographic evidence showed that police testimony in the case appeared to have been entirely fabricated. Judge Gerald Harris granted a motion to dismiss all charges against Dennis Kyne on December 16th, 2004, after the defendant’s attorneys produced the evidence contradicting statements made by NYPD officer Matthew Wohl while under oath.
[....]
The motion to dismiss the charges came not from the defense attorneys, but from the office of New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, after Officer Wohl had testified and the defense then played a videotape for the prosecutors. Apparently shocked by the contents of the tape, prosecutors had Officer Wohl view the tape as well, and the next morning the DA’s office made the motion for dismissal. Sources now say that the DA’s office has launched an official investigation into the matters.
really great conference on the eve of the RNC
Life After Capitalism conference in New York City, Friday 20 August. Full 1.5 hours. In mp3 and ogg for your convienience. Recorded by the A-Noise NoRNC Sound Coalition.
found here:
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2004/08/2286.php
listen to audio:
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/lifeaftercapitalism.mp3
vijay prashad gives a belter on how the US system is a fascist system but also how participative democratic systems within civil society are growing to beat it
micheal albert makes a very important point about the "stickiness"; howcome the movement has not won, what has to be done to make that happen so that revolution comes about
robin kelly finishes off
theres also this bit from democracy now, the usual game of over the top fear stories from mainstream media:
As NYC Braces for RNC, Anarchists Blast Media Coverage as Scare Tactics
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/24/2111236
another good audio piece is an interview with David_Graeber ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Graeber )
and he has 2 good essays, coming from his anthropological background
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=program-info&prog...nav=&
.... only begining the century of anarchy