Will there be a massive anti-Bush Protest at the '04 Republican lovefest?

[JanMichael]

Poll question: Will there be a massive anti-Bush Protest at the '04 Republican lovefest?

ie. The Bush Convention. http://www.nycvisit.com/content/index.cfm?pagePkey=872

"Nearly 50,000 people are expected to attend the convention including over 15,000 members of the media."

Oh, here's an early "counter convention" site: http://www.counterconvention.org/

Sure hope it isn't sponsered by...Well you know who...

[Cha]

1. I'll be there! I've read there are already a few

organizations sponsoring it!

[HawkerHurricane]

2. Yes, but...

They will be forced into 'Free Speech'(sic and sick) zones so far from the convention site (like, New Jersey. South New Jersey) that no one will see it. Any media attention given at all to the anti Bush protestors will cover the most outlandish group they can find as part of the maginilization campaign.

[La_Serpiente]

3. I know they are already planning it

I don't have any websites, but they said it might be upwards to 250,000 people.

[mikehiggins]

4. I hope I don't get in trouble for this

I posted this on another thread but it really fits in here also. I hope it doesn't violate some rule I'm not aware of, but it is important that somebody argue this position.

Holding demonstrations in NYC during the GOP convention is as stupid and self destructive an idea as anyone could ever come up with.

Stay home.

If you want to protest the GOP convention, do something at home. Hold
memorial services for the men and women who have died in Bush's War. Visit a VA hospital, organize a blood drive, do voter registration, hold a concert or ten, but under no circumstances be stupid enough to put yourself in harm's way and in the video cameras of the media and Rove. You will be doing the GOP's work for them. How dumb is that?

There will be little more than two months between the GOP convention and the election, and the images from that event will be all over the press, all over the world, and in every US television set that can pull in a signal.

What do you think the message will be?

Is it possible that anyone could be blind enough to ignore what has gone on with the media in this country over the last decade? Does anyone really think any newsreader is going to go out in the street to learn the truth and take a chance on getting hit? Does anyone really think any media type is going to try and raise a ruckus on the Convention floor? What is wrong with you people? Is it conviction or ego?

And what kind of moron looks forward to something like what happened in Chicago? Some protest leaders are bragging that people are going to die; that there'll be blood in the street. If someone looks forward to that, just how can they claim to be any different from the Bush League?

Does anyone think the world doesn't know there are lots of people who don't like King George? Watch BBC news if you have any doubts. So what are exactly you going to prove by confronting the NYPD and the Secret Service except your ability to get hit?

Spokespeople on the left are doing what the old style generals always do, fighting the last war.

2004 is not the 60's and 70's. This administration already knows a huge number of americans are in opposition to them and their putsch. They don't care. All that will happen that week in September will be spun as proof that only terrorists and protestors are against Bush.

Pictures of protestors "desecrating" the 911 site will play round the clock across the nation, even if the Bush League has to use its 200 million to pay for the airtime. Mass arrests will follow and lots of those arrested will be charged with terrorism under the Patriot Act. Others around the US will be dealt with the same way and no one can count on some brave newsperson standing up for the victims.

You must know this is likely.

Avoid NYC like the plague next September. If there was someone or some group out there with the resources to do it, concerts could be set up to take place that whole period, stealing some of the attention from the GOP convention and focusing it on what would be much better for all concerned.

My vision is of empty streets, lined with GOP agitators without crowds of dupes surrounding them, facing rows of bored NYPD cops standing around drinking coffee and eating donuts.

On overtime.

Stay home and do something constructive where it will make a difference, where the people who are going to vote are.

[JanMichael]

6. Bad boy!

Trouble? NO!

Actually you've brought up some very valid (current) concerns.

All I will say is that the next 11 months will determine whether or not they're valid.

We're in a serious period of time now and events that are entirely out of our control will either make or break us.

Fighting the last war? Perhaps. Fighting a new war? Perhaps. Fighting for life as we know it? Who knows...

That's a sad state to be in.

[rocktivity]

9. I agree that the next 11 months will make or break us

But they won't break us if we can do what that Al Franken character did and make being anti-Bush "OKAY." We just have to let the public know that it's "okay" to feel the way they do, if only because there are more of us than there are of them. We need to hit on Bush's corruption and general incompetence, and to expose the mainstream media's aiding and abetting them.

Rush Limbaugh has been successful because he's made his listeners feel "okay" about being bigoted, ignorant, and discriminatory. But he betrays them by making them believe that they're in the majority. A GOP convention protest would mean a lot more if people understand that things are only going to get worse under more of Bush, and that the mainstream media is worthless.


rocknation

[maggrwaggr]

7. you are so dead wrong

We need to shut the place down. We need so many people crowding the streets that nobody can move.

If we don't, they're gonna spin this thing so it looks like the fucking Macy's parade.

We need to be in their face 24 hours a day. We need to make sure they can't even speak.

We have to shut down the lies from these liars.

We will not be ignored.

[mikehiggins]

11. WHY?

"We need to shut the place down. We need so many people crowding the streets that nobody can move."

If we don't, they're gonna spin this thing so it looks like the fucking Macy's parade.

We need to be in their face 24 hours a day. We need to make sure they can't even speak.

We have to shut down the lies from these liars.

We will not be ignored."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Well, yeah. You will most certainly not be ignored. Have you ever personally been on the wrong side of the NYPD?

You will be beaten, arrested, thrown into a nearby sports arena, held without bail, denied counsel and maybe even get a trip to Guantanamo (well, that last one is probably over the top---or maybe not. You could legally vanish for months while Ashcroft and company worked on charges to hit you with). Some will be killed.

Shut down the lies from these liars? Not that way, pal. All you will accomplish is to validate their lies, and give them the video images to back up their claims.

There are only two months or less between the end of the GOP convention and election day. All that will be seen on tv during that period will be pictures of riots and chaos (and if they don't start of themselves, there will be agitators available courtesy of the GOP to get them started for you) and people pouring pig's blood at the WTC site.

And you will help George Bush and the boys get back into office.

How dumb is that?

The smart move is to show them they are beneath contempt by doing something else, somewhere else.

Stay home.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Good points.

I'm sure that the media could distort the message to fit the Republican meme.

That said, 250,000 people participating in a candlelight/silent protest would be a very powerful image.

[tedoll78]

18. Yes.

It's what I've been advocating all along. Everyone holding a sign: "stop exploiting the deaths of 3000 for political benefit."

Everyone totally silent.

Imagine what kind of a visual that would be.

Imagine how much more difficult it would be to spin negatively against us.

[Silverhair]

12. Excellent post. In the words of my generation: Right on!! n/t

[prolesunited]

5. I am!

Already have the week off at work. So, who can I stay with? :D

[Silverhair]

10. Yes. We have to keep it peaceful at all costs.

Some of our more emotional confrontational types will want to go violent. That will be a PR disaster for us. We need to set up training and some sort of enforcement of our own to keep it organized and peaceful. A riot will play into their hands by creating a backlash.

[mikehiggins]

13. After the fact we can explain, if anyone is listening

After all the training and practice and pledges of non-violence, one or two folks with an agenda (or maybe just too many beers on board) will blow all of your planning out of the water.

There is NO reason to doubt the GOP will have people on site ready, willing and able to light up a confrontation, and what do you do then? Lay down in the streets? Go limp as you're carted off to the buses and driven to Yankee Stadium?

A bottle tossed, a shot fired, and you have a bloodbath on the national networks.

And for what? Everyone knows we hate Bush and Co. Its no secret. Have your organizers hold a press conference and announce that the Republicans are beneath contempt, and you aren't going to be bothered even protesting their coronation. (Don't do it too soon--I really want to see all those cops doing nothing on overtime). With all the energy and talent the resistance has, couldn't you instead put together a monster concert, like in Tampa? I'm pretty sure Jeb will be out of the state at the time ;^) and it's pretty nice around here just then.

Or do something else.

Just don't do the kind of thing we used to do, because they know you're coming, and they're ready.

If Custer had known what he was up against, he still would have gone after the Indians. There's no reason we have to be that stupid, is there?

Stay home

[Silverhair]

14. Total agreement. n/t

[prolesunited]

16. Fine

Stay home. We have hundreds willing to go in your place. We are in the fight of our lives — the fate of our nation and the world is literally in our hands. I'm not sitting home and pulling down the shades.

The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.
— Molly Ivins

This is what democracy looks like!

[Kinkistyle]

15. They will divide and corral us like they did last time.

I remember the huge protest we had in NYC last winter (in bitter cold) where the police at first closed off the streets, then corraled all the protestors into designated "pens" (like cows) effectively dividing the protest into tiny sections.

We can't let this happen again. The streets belong to us, the New Yorkers, not those corrupt thug pukes who dare to try and invade our territory. New York belongs to liberals, and if the cops dare try that crap again, we need to take the streets back. That means crossing over those stupid "pens" and refusing to be corraled like so much cattle.

[Supply Side Jesus]

17. hell ya

fuck that"stay at home" shit.
we protest, we protest loud and we get in their face.
I plan on being there.