so....hundreds arrested in DC protesting the war...did you hear anything?

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/12/18/massive-civil-disobedience-in-dc-eye-witness-account/



135 Arrested For Civil Disobedience at White House
By Rob Kall – OpEdNews.com

Today, 131 rebels were arrested for civil disobedience at the snow covered gates of the White House, including Daniel Ellsberg, Ray McGovern, Chris Hedges, Margaret Flowers, Coleen Rowley, Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans and scores of veterans and supporters from WWII, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan… The message chanted in the freezing, 22 degree F snowy day was: “Obama, Troops Out. End the War.”

At the White House gate, one protester used a bicycle lock to lock himself to the gate. Another used a chain with links at least half an inch in diameter chained himself to a post. Apparently, the handcuffs many had intended to use to chain themselves to the fence were confiscated.
Protesters coordinated the protest with the DC police, discussing details and logistics.
The first to be arrested appeared the most elder and frail– a kindness by the police, considering that a lot of snow was coming down and it was a soggy 22 degrees F– after over three hours exposed the elements. Several protesters refused to walk, so they were dragged by the police to be photographed, put on a bus and later released.

I spoke to Ray McGovern, a bit before ten tonight, to find out what happened to the protesters. His report and comments on the protest are below:
We were put on a bus, then taken to the Park police depot, searched, groped more in depth than ever before.
Gave personal data, and had to choose whether to pay $100 and plead guilty or plead not guilty and go to court (later.) I chose the latter.
Commenting on the turnout and the number of people participating in civil disobedience, McGovern commented, “It’s more than anyone really expected. I was glad we did it.
I asked Ray about what he hoped to see come of the exercise in civil disobedience. He replied, “There’s a saying that hope is the twin. Augustin said that hope has two daughters– anger and courage.
What we have seen in our policy is a lot of anger, But anger is not enough, you’ve got to have courage.
The basic flaw in the body politic is that it is malnourished on genuine information, so the attitude that expresses itself by people saying Americans can’t handle the truth. Well that isn’t very clear because Americans haven’t been given the truth. So the jury is out on whether or not Americans can handle the truth. But the issue is now joined because there is a fifth estate, namely Wikileaks and sites like it that are making information available to US citizens.
Once the citizenry becomes informed, in an unbiased way, about what is really going on, perhaps they’ll do something.
Once the citizenry realized our military are being brutalized themselves.
There are more deaths from suicide than there are from war.
We want people to ask themselves what we’re doing out there.
Hoping to be faithful and bring attention to this and leave it in the hands of the higher power that people’s hearts will be touched, they will realize the one thing we’ve turned a blind eye to the thousands of other prisoners who have been tortured by other Iraqis. That we’ve killed at the very least 100,000 civilians… by the most stringent estimates.
Others who participated in the civil disobedience action expressed hope that the example set here would encourage others, across the country to take action at a time when elected officials are no longer accountable.


Sigh.

:hi:

NYT - nothing

Cnn had this. No idea where it appears in their site- probably buried.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/12/16/vo.dc.wh.protests.wikileaks.cnn?iref=allsearch

The problem is the corporate press didn't report on it, so in a larger sense, it is almost as if the event never happened.

Although they did do a good interview with Julian Assange.

135 arrested in front of the White House for protesting the war is a non-event, but get three teabaggers together waving a Gadsden flag and it's a fucking MOVEMENT!

Liberal media my ass!

No Wait, that was some 7 persons from the teaparty
protesting against their constitution.

Fox had a 7 hour news extravaganza on it.

The reality is people are in the streets all the time and the media refuses to cover it or if they do cover, it is to paint the protesters as loopy fringe.

Or bellyaching that we did not "counter" the Teabaggers during the long summer of health care rot.

Well, the reality is we were there but since there was no bill nor leadership from those who would write it, what were we supposed to do, hurl nonsense at the nonsense hurlers?

Plus, you know what happened when people just opposed the Teabaggers??? They just got lumped in with them or were just edit/deleted out of existence.
You know what happened at MOST town halls? Non of the crazy yelling.

Even considering equal coverage (yeah, fucking right), it is the FAR easier job to hop on a Freedomworks bus and arrive at a meeting and attempt to shut down the discussion and failing that, just yell absurd lies.

It has been demonstrated that we can get hundreds of thousands and even millions out and the media can ignore the shit out of it. It is funny that the people who bitch the most about the state of the media still have the ability to pretend that if we get out that it would be covered like the industry astroturf movement.

If we want attention then some of it will have to be very negative.

Or at least ADD something to the tactics. For every protest at the WH there needs to be a coordinated protest at the media centers. If you get 150 people at the WH, you need to send 25 or 30 of them to the biggest media outlet in town. Chain ourselves to the doors of the local Faux Noise outlet and DISRUPT, DISRUPT, DISRUPT!

Coordinated tactical disruption, INCLUDING media centers.

it's that simple

FORCE recognition. Nonviolently of course. At least at first.

:). J/K.

However the point I was trying to get across is that the ORGANIZERS of these types of demonstrations and protests HAVE to slightly change the tactics. The tactics that worked in the 60s obviously don't work today, at least not in the same way BECAUSE OF THE CORPORATE CONTROL OF THE MEDIA. Ergo, send a contingent of demonstrators/protestors to the local media outlets and disrupt there. If you're planning on getting arrested ANYWAY, then chain yourself to the doors of the local Faux outlet.

Mr. Obama's government seems to really LOVE secret police and "Patriot Act" facism...


mark

in solidarity.

get off your duffs, kiddies. Quit relying on the elders.

Be like Europe........ protest.

Not that I am finished...

No matter where I am. at this age... I'm still there on what is right
and what is wrong.....

Funny, about age, experice and wisdom.



I thought I would mellow out......LOL

But I'm getting even more radical..... or should I say
a realist, that understands what hugh powers the people face
and the REAL ANGER THAT NEEDS TO RAGED.

Just where they want me (US) to be... it is up to the youth to take their shift now!

It is unkind I think, to say otherwise. It may be that the vast majority of the young are not doing as much as they could or should - but that is true of people of all ages, is it not?

It may be true that we look to our elders for guidance, but should YOU lead, I will follow. I find that many of my elders on my side of the political fence treat me with a certain amount of contempt due to my youth. I have gotten up off my duff many, many times, in spite of facing overwhelming illness and unemployment and a lack of health insurance. So I politely request that you do not lump us all together and I politely request that you reconsider your condescending manner in regards to us. Many of us are going far above and beyond the call of duty, and your attitude will do far more to discourage than to encourage any of us. I respect your efforts on our behalf, I politely request that you respect mine.

I figured my comment would get a rise, and I WANT it to, but no offense intended toward you who are trying. I base my statement on observation - the crowds in the protests I have taken part in over the past 10 years have been overwhelmingly made up of people in their 40's on up. And many of them have been right here in Madison Wisconsin, a university town that has had a reputation for activism for decades. Where were the college students?? It has been extremely disappointing.

It gets to the point when the torch has to be passed to the next generation. The young will have to be the leaders...

Peace, and thank you for all you are doing.

I too wish that more people my age would stand up and do something. A big part of the problem is a lack of information and a lack of education. Those who get their news from Fox - well, we can't expect them to be well informed, sadly that does make up a large number. There's also an overwhelming number of our youth who are simply apathetic, numb after the many shocks of the last ten years. It is my personal opinion that the youth of America faces chronic illness, particularly depression and anxiety issues, on a scale that in previous generations could not have been even imagined. This makes simply making breakfast in the morning seem like climbing a mountain.

We turned out in great numbers for Obama - and a large number of us are overwhelmingly disappointed and depressed at how things turned out after what we believed was a great struggle and a great victory.

Honestly, I believe the greatest issue is a lack of leadership - we had looked to Obama to provide it. Youth and inexperience is hardly synonymous with great leadership, after all. Unless you're someone like Alexander the Great. :) Perhaps we need to do more to lead, perhaps we should do more to organize. But know that some of us are doing what we can, even though we feel overwhelmed.

Peace, and thank you for all you are doing as well.

PAINT = Peace Activists IN Training.

Around 25 of them showed up at a rally the evening before the 16-day 230-mile trek began. About 15 of them walked the first day from Farmington to Skowhegen (sp?). These young adults are committed.

Blackout City.

Meanwhile ..... 4 teaparteriers ...... said something.

Really? We're being called rebels now? Are we officially declaring ourselves to no longer be subject to the United States government just by civil disobedience?

Getting media to pay fair attention to protests has always been a challenge.