September 2004 Archives

Zach from LFL mentioned a culture blog I hadn't heard of at the Echo Eggebrecht opening tonight: Scather. Add it to your list.

Current favorites:

• David Noonan at Foxy Production - see write-up from James
• Phoebe Washburn and Simone Shubuck at LFL - another James post
• "I've Met Someone Else" at Monya Rowe - ditto
• Pipilotti Rist at Luhring Augustine - beautiful imagery and soundtrack
• Echo Eggebrecht at Sixty Seven - new Chelsea location! I plan to write more about her show later.

Dan Rushton untitled 10 (2004) 40" × 30" gouache on panel

James has more info.

I've written about Eric Doeringer several times, and even appeared on a radio show talking about him.

Here is his latest project:

I'm seeking submissions of artwork, music, video, fiction, poetry, and games inspired by Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle for inclusion on a new web-based project. Please send jpegs, mp3s, text files, etc. to cremasterweb@yahoo.com.

Go send him some stuff if you've got it.

We have found ourselves in Williamsburg several times over the last month. My current picks for favorite shows there:

• Beth Bridea & Tucker Nichols at SOUTHFIRST - Tucker is also in the current show at The Drawing Center
• Janice Caswell at Schroeder Romero - beautiful use of pins, wall painting, and other media. I had seen her works on paper before, but they hadn't made me realize what she is capable of in a whole room installation.
• No Return at Momenta - a number of good works that come together as a brilliant group show.

I am expecting some images from Schroeder Romero of a young artist who has a solo show coming up. I will write about that later.

I should clarify a few things regarding my post yesterday about Peter Hort's campain for Congress.

1. I do not have a problem with anyone running against Jerrold Nadler. I would love to have a ballot with many possible candidates for each position when I vote.
2. I deplore the way the Democratic and Republican parties in New York State have created a complex election law system designed to keep qualified candidates off the ballot unless they are part of the machine. I have seen legal challenges kick many people off the ballot who deserved to be there
3. I still have a problem with Mr. Hort's campaign literature not stating that he is a Republican. I also believe that anyone running as a Republican these days in a place like New York City needs to explain why a vote for them is not a vote to keep Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay in power. I think it is the hurdle any Republican running for the House has to get over before they can be considered a candidate that any proponent of gay rights, abortion rights, or the health of urban centers like New York can support.

I probably should have used a kinder tone in my previous post, but I am outraged by what the GOP is doing to my city, to my country, and to the rest of the world. I fail to see how why any reasonable person is willing to begin a political career in that party.

I have been meaning to write about this subject for several weeks, but today's Newsday article on Peter Hort reminded me to do it. Peter Hort is running for Congress against Jerrold Nadler, the incumbent. Nadler is one of the most liberal members of Congress, and I rarely bother to contact him on any issue, because I agree with his position on nearly everything. The only disagreement is that I think he is a bit too ready to give Israel's government the benefit of the doubt when it comes to its behavior vis-a-vis the Occupied Territories.

Peter Hort is running as a stealth Republican. His campaign literature doesn't mention it, and barely appears on his web site unless you read fine print like the mention of his appearance on WNYC. He pretends to be an "independent." New Yorkers need to realize what happens when they vote for a Republican. I don't care if he marches in the annual gay pride parade. A vote for a Republican in the House is a vote for the House leadership, unless the candidate is promising to work to defeat the current leadership. That leadership includes:

• Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House
• Tom DeLay, Majority Leader

Mr. Hort's parents are contemporary art collectors, whose taste I respect, and who support very edgy artists, including ones that make sexually explicit art. How their son can be a member of a party that thinks those people should be in jail, if not worse, is beyond me. I have written to Mr. Hort's campaign to ask his position on the current GOP House leadership team.

Thanks to reBlog, I found an interview from November 2003 with brilliant geek artist John F. Simon, Jr. We have one of his pen plotter drawings, titled Bug, hanging in our entrance hallway.

I hadn't realized he sold works called Souvenirs for $50 and under from his website.

Florentine "arts and crafts" in lower Manhattan. Before that phrase sends you running away, I'll point out that it includes an exhibit of Medici portraits from the Uffizi at the Federal Hall National Monument.

Here are a Newsday article and the official web site.

I can't find much about this other than this page from firstop. Doesn't anyone bother to update web pages anymore?

Saturday October 2nd and Sunday October 3rd , 2004
12 to 8 PM

The third annual open-studios and exhibitions event reveals what’s happening in design in this thriving Brooklyn neighborhood. Featuring the latest in fashion, architecture, graphics, interior, furniture and industrial design, the event reflects the current state of Williamsburg: its lifestyle, industrial past and new creative talent.

Maps listing participants and locations will be available during the days of the event at the Bedford Ave L stop or come back to our website for full listing, detailed event information and directions.

We saw a card for this when we walked by some graffiti artists working on big murals at a space just off Bedford on Grand Street, with a sign that said Bauplatz.

Ellie Covan, founder of Dixon Place at her apartment (which is also the home of Dixon Place)

Dixon Place is a great example of why so many of us moved to New York. It is "an artistic laboratory with an audience," a place where performing artists of all kinds try out work in progress before an audience. From the very beginning, Dixon Place has also made a commitment to pay the performers who appear there. For a space in NYC that hosts works in progress, that's pretty rare.

It is all the creation of Ellie Covan, one of the saints of the art world. I have been going to Dixon Place since it moved to the current (and past) loft on the Bowery. James has been going since it was in Ellie's apartment in the East Village. During that time, people were told to start singing Happy Birthday if the police arrived, as it was a rather irregular situation.

The New York Times Real Estate section has an article in its Habitats section on Ellie and Dixon Place. It also talks about Dixon Place's new space on Chrystie Street, which is currently being constructed. They are still raising money for it, and I can think of few organizations more worthy of your money, if you have any to spare. None of you who go out and buy $10 drinks every weekend can plead complete poverty!

[photo by Diane Bondareff for The New York Times]

I mentioned earlier that Donald Rumsfeld said "At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed." The Detroit Free Press reports that our military is killing more Iraqis than the insurgents, with many of those being civilians.

Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis -- most of them civilians -- as attacks by insurgents are, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

According to the ministry, which provided the Free Press with the figures Friday, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 -- when the ministry began compiling the data -- until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said.

While most of the dead are believed to be civilians, the data include an unknown number of police and Iraqi national guardsmen. Many Iraqi deaths, especially of insurgents, are never reported, so the actual number of Iraqis killed in fighting could be higher.

During the same period, 432 U.S. soldiers were killed.

Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. air strikes targeting insurgents also were killing large numbers of civilians. Some of the officials say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the U.S.-backed interim government.

...

The Health Ministry is the only organization that attempts to track deaths through government agencies. The U.S. military said it kept estimates, but refused to release them.

HARRY CALLAHAN
Collage, Chicago, 1957
gelatin silver print
signed in stylus (in the margin); signed and annotated 'same as one' in ink (on the verso)
7 5/8 × 9 5/8in. (19.3 × 24.4cm.)

We have one photograph by Harry Callahan (of trees). I was browsing Christie's web site to see if they had any works similar to ours when I came across this beautiful collage photograph. There's not much text, but I suspect it was made of cut-up film.

Feel free to buy it for me. It is one of the lots from Elton John's art collection being auctioned by them. He has some good stuff.

[Image from Christie's web site.]

A few days ago, I wrote about Sue Niederer, the mother of a young soldier killed in Iraq, who interrupted a speech by Laura Bush. The New York Times has a feature on her today. It's written by Chris Hedges, author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and who was booed off the stage when he tried to give an anti-war speech at a college graduation in May 2003.

As Mrs. Bush was lauding her husband's war on terror, Mrs. Niederer slipped on the shirt, which bore a photo of the lieutenant and the words "President Bush killed my son." Standing at the back of the crowd, she interrupted Mrs. Bush, shouting that if the war was warranted, "Why don't your children serve?"

"She did not answer," Mrs. Niederer said. "She looked stunned."

Suddenly, Mrs. Niederer recalled, she was surrounded by "men in dark suits with little earpieces" as well as angry Bush supporters. She was escorted from the hall, and as she tried to speak with reporters outside, she was arrested, handcuffed, taken to the Hamilton police station and charged with trespassing. She was released soon afterward, and prosecutors later dropped the charge.

...

"He had no training in bomb detection or in defusing bombs," she said. "He did not have proper equipment. When I complained in public about the inadequate training and lack of equipment, the Army changed the story. They told me he was not trying to defuse a bomb. I still don't know how he died. They won't let me speak to or contact members of his platoon."

Asked about her accusations, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum, said in a statement yesterday that Lieutenant Dvorin "was well trained and fully integrated into his unit," and that he "died leading his soldiers in combat."

Outside her office, Mrs. Niederer sat, swinging from anger to tears and back again, as low storm clouds cast a pall over the parking lot. "My goal is to bring the troops home as quickly as possible," she said. "This was Seth's wish. I can't save my son, but I can save someone else's son. Seth's mission is mine."

Number 41 is out.

If you're not looking at Wooster Collective : A Celebration of Street Art daily, you're missing out.

krupsjustsayin has a link to a great video of Bush's speech at the convention from Loop TV & Film. You only have to watch a 3-minute video, and you get all you need to know...

Jon Stewart showed clips of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on The Daily Show a few days ago to illustrate the fact that he seems to have really gone off the deep end.

Via Wider Angle, here is a an excerpt from a transcript of a recent "Media Availability" on the Defense Department's web site (emphasis mine):

I’m very encouraged about it. I think that the United States and the coalition countries, of course unlike, other countries we have no desire to stay there or to be there at all other than to help that country get on it’s feet. We’re in the processing of doing that and they’re making good progress politically. They’re making progress economically. The schools are open. The hospitals are open. They have a stock market functioning. They sent some teams to the Olympics. They have a symphony and at the same time, amidst all those good things that are happening, people are being killed. Iraqis are being killed, as they were yesterday and the day before. At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and we’ll have enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that country and we’ll be able to pare down the coalition security forces in the country.

I see the DOD has trouble with "it's vs. its" as well.

70 things about Leonard Cohen

Via Newsday/AP, from suburban New Jersey:

A woman wearing a T-shirt with the words "President Bush You Killed My Son" and a picture of a soldier killed in Iraq was detained after she interrupted Mrs. Bush's speech.

Police escorted Sue Niederer of Hopewell out of the rally after she demanded to know why her son, Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, was killed in Iraq. Dvorin died in February while trying to disarm a bomb. Niederer was later charged with defiant trespass and released.

As shouts of "Four More Years" subsided, Niederer, standing in the middle of the crowd of about 700, continued to shout about the killing of her son. Local police escorted her out of the event, handcuffed her and placed her in the back of a police van.

The first lady continued speaking, and several people shouted back at Niederer. One woman yelled, "Your son chose to fight in that war."

Here is an interview with Sue Niederer. She is a member of Military Families Speak Out.

The NY Times story tells us one of the things she yelled:

The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was arrested after interrupting a speech by Laura Bush in Hamilton, N.J. Mrs. Bush appeared before a crowd of more than 700 people at the Colonial Fire Hall, trumpeting President Bush's efforts to fight terrorism and stimulate the economy with tax cuts. When she made reference to the war in Iraq, she was interrupted by a spectator, Sue Niederer, who shouted, "Why don't your children serve?'' Mr. Bush's supporters quickly surrounded Ms. Niederer, who wore a shirt bearing a photo of her son, Seth Dvorin, an Army lieutenant killed in Iraq in February, and the words "President Bush, You Killed My Son." As Bush supporters shouted "Four more years!" and Mrs. Bush resumed her speech, security guards led Ms. Niederer from the auditorium. Later, as Ms. Niederer stood near the doorway to the fire hall being interviewed by reporters, she refused a request to leave the premises and was arrested on charges of trespassing.

Common Dreams has an image of her protesting at a Colin Powell appearance in February.

I already put this on the arts calendar, but I wanted to put it here too to make sure people don't miss it.

New Museum will have space in the Chelsea Art Museum on West 22nd Street (west of Dia) while their new building is being constructed on The Bowery. There will be an open house on Saturday, September 18, from 12-6 PM with free admission. I see one of the things on view is a video by the Turkish artist Fikret Atay that I mentioned before when we saw it at Apex.

Two young suits, probably Wall Streeters, walking down my street. One points behind him at the Hotel Chelsea.

Chelsea Hotel? Serena's, downstairs? Fuckin' sorority party!

John Bruneau Interviews Cory Arcangel

Yeah! A new show from The Civilians at P.S.122, titled Nobody's Lunch. I've written about them many times before, as this Google search will show.

Obie-winning theater company The Civilians premiere their latest project Nobody's Lunch. Delving into the politics of information, the company conducted extensive interviews to look at the problematic subject of how we gain knowledge and form beliefs in the current climate. With interviewees ranging from the Head of Policy at Homeland Security to every Jessica Lynch in the phone book (who was willing to talk), Nobody's Lunch is a dark and eccentric ride through the landscape of American public culture.

We saw some excerpts from it at their fundraiser earlier this year. I can't wait.

Bloomberg says:

You can't arrest 1,800 people without having somebody in the middle who shouldn't have been arrested. That's what the courts are there to find out afterward.

Apparently they're there to sort out the journalists too if necessary.

Editor and Publisher has an article today titled Reporters' Legal Hotline Drew Nine Calls During GOP Convention

A special legal support hotline for reporters covering the Republican National Convention, set up by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, received at least nine calls for help from journalists who were arrested or detained at the event, the RCFP said Tuesday.

Although that may be considered low, since nearly 2,000 protesters were arrested during the week, RCFP leaders contend it is significant, since a similar hotline set up for the Democratic National Convention in Boston prompted no calls.

Go read the whole article. They have a list of people detained by the police. Some of them were held for well over 24 hours.

Via Crain's New York:

Broadway was hit hard last week when the Republican National Convention was in town.

Attendance for the week ending Sept. 5 dropped 18% to 163,977 compared with the same week last year. Box-office grosses plummeted 20%, to $10.9 million, despite the League of American Theatres and Producers' "Unconventional Wisdom" discount ticket program. That promotion sold $215,000 worth of tickets.

An image of Dewitt Godfrey's installation at Black and White Gallery, from the gallery web site:

The ones you see in the back are in the gallery's outdoor patio space.

In the New York Times Magazine.

Via Tom Tomorrow.

It's not him, it's a female protestor, for those confused by jumping right to his post.

U.S. Route 66, Tucumcari, New Mexico, June, 2000
Copyright © 2000 Robert L. Jones.

While googling for something else, I stumbled across Robert Jones's gallery of sign photographs. Check it out.

Christopher Ryan sent me a link to his account of being arrested during Critical Mass.

While I cringed a bit at his use of "flamer", his politics seem to be in the right place generally, and I'm not quite sure what a straight ska-punk musician should call a homo these days...

If I were in Berlin, I would not miss this show by Stefan Saffer at müllerdechiara. We saw his work at the Whitney ISP and loved it. The work in the above photo is made of cut paper. They look like they might be metal, but they are incredibly delicate.

We love the GLAMericans, and marched with them in one of the anti-war demos in early 2003.

Here is a nice album of photos from them on August 29.

Hurrah! An art post!

This looks like an interesting show from M.Y. Art Prospects:

The Secret Forest of Princess Knight:
Fantastic Landscapes from Japan

September 9 - October 16, 2004
Reception: Thursday, Sept. 9, 6-8pm

Our exciting fall exhibition, curated by Taro Chiezo - the Tokyo & New York-based artist whose "neo-pop" work shaped Japan's 1990's art scene along with Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, sheds new light on Japanese landscape art. The exhibition will present works by six individual artists and two collaborative groups. International stars and up-and-coming artists, they all share a sensitivity influenced by the manga/animation subculture widely known as "Japanimation."

The exhibition's title "The Secret Forest of Princess Knight" originated from the popular manga series "Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight)" by Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989). His work, like Walt Disney's, has made a profound impact on pop culture and contemporary art even outside Japan.

From Smart Mobs, via Eyebeam reBlog, currently guest-edited by Tom Moody.

I like Tom's editor's comment at the end:

[Speaking of the risks of city-funded wifi... --TM]

Last night we went to The Tank to drink liberally with bloggers and others. We shook the hand of Markos of Daily Kos! We spotted Mrs. Atrios, but we didn't meet Mr. Atrios. We also met Julia of Sisyphus Shrugged.

We also met Andrea Fraser -- we are huge fans of her work, especially the video we saw at the Hammer at UCLA recently. I would have to say if someone asked me to guess where I would eventually meet her and talk with her, a blogger/RNC-related event at The Tank would not have been my first guess.

Madge the Manicurist (of the Church Ladies for Choice) dancing with Florent staff, with fabulous signs behind them

Afterward we went to the pro-choice night of Florent's RNC-related evenings. It's hard to take photos inside at night there, but here are a few.

His account.

Fuck the election. How do we impeach him?

From the NY Times:

"It is true that a handful of people have tried to destroy our city by going up and yelling at visitors here because they don't agree with their views," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Think about what that says. This is America, New York, cradle of liberty, the city for free speech if there ever was one and some people think that we shouldn't allow people to express themselves. That's exactly what the terrorists did, if you think about it, on 9/11. Now this is not the same kind of terrorism but there's no question that these anarchists are afraid to let people speak out."

The city was fined for contempt of court for violating habeas corpus. Here is a picture inside the pier for holding protestors, from Indy Media.

More from the NY Times:

A state judge in Manhattan yesterday angrily ordered the city to release more than 550 protesters who had been detained without seeing a judge - some for as long as 60 hours - after they were arrested at demonstrations against the Republican National Convention. When not all the protesters had been released by 6 p.m., he held the city in contempt and ordered a fine of $1,000 for each person still held, without setting a time frame.

The judge, John Cataldo of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, demanded during a noon hearing that the city immediately process the demonstrators. Throughout the afternoon, knots of exhausted but relieved-looking protesters with disheveled clothing and grime-covered hands and arms emerged onto Centre Street from the Criminal Courts Building.

Many raised their hands in triumph and were greeted with boisterous cheers, whistles and sometimes even flowers from hundreds of onlookers who had gathered. Others looked on nervously, waiting to hear news of relatives and friends.

...

Yesterday's abrupt release of the detainees and the threat of tens of thousands of dollars in fines capped a dramatic episode surrounding the convention, as more than 1,000 protesters who were swept off the streets Tuesday night were sent in handcuffs into the city's criminal justice system.

The city said it had cleared court dockets and opened additional courtrooms to handle the expected flood of protesters, but on Wednesday only a trickle of those arrested the night before appeared in court.

Judge Cataldo held another hearing at 7 p.m. to check on the city's progress and was not satisfied. "We're coming back again until this is settled," he said. "Once again, the order is, release these people."

Defense lawyers and protesters said something was amiss in the Police Department's detention process. City officials had maintained that those arrested were not being held for longer than 24 hours - the legal limit - without seeing a judge and that they were being given access to lawyers.

The defense lawyers and protesters claimed the police were using long detentions as a tactic to keep the streets clear until the convention was over.

Yesterday, during the noon hearing in Judge Cataldo's courtroom, the city conceded that some protesters were held too long. "We couldn't get everyone processed as quickly as we liked," Mr. Cardozo said.

He said the police had been overwhelmed by the number of arrests within a four-hour period on Tuesday, when about 1,200 people were taken into custody at different locations in Manhattan for offenses that ranged from disorderly conduct to resisting arrest to various degrees of assault. "We're doing our best" to move people through the system, he said.

Judge Cataldo replied, "I'm ordering that."

At one point, clearly exasperated, the judge told Mr. Cardozo, "These people have already been the victims of a process. I can no longer accept your statement that you are trying to comply."

Judge Cataldo referred to a list produced by the court at 8 a.m. indicating that 120 people had been in police custody for more than 38 hours, and that 440 others had been in jail for a day and a half without having had an arraignment - the hearing at which charges are brought and bail is set. The State Court of Appeals ruled in 1991 that anyone arrested in New York who is not arraigned within 24 hours is eligible for immediate release.

The city and police officials said they could not pinpoint the cause of the delays. "I'm presuming it's volume," said Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. "What I'm assuming is that the volume caused some delay. I'm not prepared to say where in the process the delays were."

He denied that the long holding time was a deliberate tactic to keep protesters behind bars until the convention ends.

...

During the hearing, Norman Siegel, a veteran civil rights lawyer, told the court that one client, a 17-year-old Trinity School student, had been in jail for 42 hours. "There is no reason, I submit, that this process had to take this long," Mr. Siegel said. The charge against the student was not known.

Mr. Siegel, along with lawyers from the Legal Aid Society and the National Lawyers Guild, filed writs of habeas corpus and began arguing in court on Wednesday that some protesters must be released. They said the vast majority of protesters were being held not for felonies but for misdemeanors like disorderly conduct that should have been processed in a few hours.

Mr. Siegel complained to Judge Cataldo that the protesters were being treated worse than criminals. "The only people being disadvantaged here are the protesters," he said. "We're arraigning robbers who have only been in 10 hours."

One lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, contended in court that some protesters in custody were wrongfully arrested in the first place. Accounts from people who said they were going about their business on the streets when they got caught in mass arrests seemed to back up her claim.

...

The center [the pier pictured above] has been a focus of steady complaints; many detainees said they were covered in oily grime from the floors. Without conceding conditions were poor, city officials said yesterday that the holding area was carpeted on Wednesday.

Ms. Ingber said the officers told them the process would not take long. In her account, as they sat outside the detention center in the bus, several of the men complained that their handcuffs were too tight; one was yelling that he could not feel his hands, which another man said looked blue. Two officers came aboard. "What do you want me to do?" said one, "I'm not a doctor." The other one said, "You were the ones who had to riot. This is what you get."

As I read about the conventions and the presidential campaign, I was struck by something. We have reached the point where the debate seems to be how to use the military to achieve our goals. Even Prussia at its most warlike understood that the military was only one part of effective statecraft.

Are we really saying the only tool that this diverse, rich, and creative country has is war?

Our corporations are capable of putting refrigerated Coke and Disney products into some pretty remote parts of the world. It's a shame that we can't put any ideas other than our ability to threaten people out there as well.

Todd Gibson, of From the Floor fame, sent me some of his photos from the August 29 anti-GOP march. Here is a nice one, showing Scooter Goons (undercover cops). They are now using paramedic vehicles for NYPD business, including transporting support people.

I put up a gallery, including a sub-gallery for the great signs he spotted.

The New York Press isn't exactly a left-wing paper, but here is what they have to say about the barbed wire holding pens on the pier on the Hudson:

By the time we hit the streets with this issue, we're sure it will be common knowledge, but it wasn't until late last week that the NYPD announced their plans to turn Pier 57, at 11th Ave. and 15th St., into a giant holding pen. It was originally intended, of course, for the thousands of protestors they're intent on rounding up during the convention.

...

The message sent by all the security preparations prior to the convention was clear, but never so perfectly encapsulated as this makes it. What the NYPD and the GOP are saying to protestors of every stripe (and New Yorkers in general) is this: "If you don't agree with us, we look at you as enemy combatants, security threats and would-be terrorists. And we're going to treat you like the diseased cattle you are."

...

The most disturbing bit of information concerning the West Side holding pen, however, was buried in the Post's account. Just a brief mention:

"Cops fear some protesters might hang around after the convention to disrupt other events, like the U.S. Open, so the pen will remain open indefinitely."

The U.S. Open? Other events? Like what, the 3rd Ave. Street Fair? The grand opening celebration at a new Payless Shoe Source in Queens?

In other words, a year-round internment camp is now part of the ongoing West Side development project. Does the Olympic Committee know about this?

--

UPDATED: NYC Indymedia has photos of the internment pier. More to follow.

Tom Tomorrow provides us with a link to a non-mac friendly video from local ABC affiliate of a young GOPer kicking an AIDS activist during ACT UP's action inside MSG.

'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."

Boston Globe

AIDS activists protest in New York's Grand Central Station Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004, on the final day of the Republican National Convention. About 100 well-organized protesters gathered on a pre-arranged signal for a short, noisy demonstration during the morning rush hour, calling on the president to do more in the fight against AIDS. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson)

Click on the image for the rest.

Wietold Riedel is well aware of the history of the part of the world where he was born. Read tonight's post.

Scooter Goons.

Also, can someone explain why I still have helicopters flying low over my apartment building at 23rd and 8th at 12:10am?

The NY Daily News, not exactly a left-wing paper -- they talk about Bush's hard-knuckled approach after 9/11 rather than mention his hiding out all day -- has this today:

Demonstrators also complained about the use of plainclothes cops on scooters during a Monday protest on Eighth Ave. Video shot by legal observers shows several scooters driving directly into the crowd and running into people.

A detective on one of the scooters was pulled off and badly beaten.

Last night, cops on bicycles plowed into demonstrators at W. 28th St. and Broadway, and at Herald Square, hitting people as they went. A News reporter was jabbed in the ribs with a handlebar at Herald Square. The officers then used the bikes as barricades.

Mayor Bloomberg defended the aggressive tactics yesterday.

"This isn't something like it's supposed to be a fair fight. We have laws," he fumed. "You break the law [and] you're going to find yourself arrested. Period. End of story."

I can't find a better description of this, so I'm stretching fair use a bit to give you the whole blog post from Salon. You can click on a day pass to see it on their site.

Fernando Suarez del Solar wasn't very political before his son, a 20-year-old marine named Jesus, was killed in Iraq last year. Since then, though, the 48-year-old has left his job to spend all his time agitating against the war, and last night, he took his message to Madison Square Garden.

A friend lent him a media pass, and at around 9 p.m., as Arnold Schwarzenegger began speaking, he unfurled a three-foot-wide sign with his son's picture and the words "Bush lied, my son died."

A group of delegates immediately called security, which ushered him into Madison Square Garden's lobby. There, he says, he gave a few interviews while some passing Republicans jeered, saying, "Get out of here. You're unpatriotic." More security showed up, including members of the FBI and the Secret Service. "I say to them, 'I pay with my son's life for my freedom of speech, but you can arrest me, it's OK.' The police said, 'no sir.'"

"The surprise for me," says del Solar, "is some people, Republican people, say to me, 'I'm sorry for your loss, you are right.' About seven, eight persons say, 'I am Republican, but you are correct, this war is not necessary.'"

Here is another article about the same protest. When people filed out after watching Schwartzenegger's speech, he was still in the lobby with his sign.

As delegates, fresh from Schwartzenegger's pro-Bush speech, marched into the comparatively fresh air, they were greeted by Fernando Suarez del Solar, who silently held a pink sign showing a young man's face and the reading, "Bush Lied, My Son Died," Suarez's son Jesus was killed in battle on March 27, 2003, at the age of 20. His was one of the first fighting deaths of the war. Fernando Suarez, who traveled from San Diego to protest the war in Iraq, encountered few problems while making his statement. "Most people don't say nothing. Some people say, 'I'm sorry.' Only one person has said 'Get Out of Here.' People give me respect." Suarez and his pink-clad protest partner Nancy Mancias eventually attracted the attention of security, who circled the two and began questioning them on the specifics of their press credentials. At that moment, a member of a Spanish language television network claimed the two as part of their network and escorted them upstairs to be interviewed. After the interview, security escorted Suarez and Mancias out of Madison Square Garden.

They are promoting a book (on Islam) by the spokesman for Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic. Yes, the one who is being tried for genocide of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia.

James and I have seen the level of discourse the National Review provides. Perhaps they're preparing to drop the "crypto" prefix from crypto-fascists.

Via Laura Rozen.

I bet the security people are embarrassed...

AP story with video.

Watch ACT UP's site for further updates. It should appear at the bottom soon.

Speaking of the First Amendment, Newsday says the police are losing it. A woman was arrested for holding a sign up at a Hummer dealer.

Did the NYPD finally lose its cool yesterday?

Protesters thought so when police made 200 arrests at Ground Zero and at least three more at the New York Public Library, their actions both times seemingly contradicting verbal directions to the protesters just moments before.

And, in perhaps the day's most unusual occurrence, a lone protester -- a woman carrying a sign -- was arrested at the Hummer showroom on 11th Avenue for "parading without a permit," an officer at the scene said.

...

Several miles north, as 200 demonstrators gathered on the steps of the main library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, police warned those carrying a black and pink banner that they would be taken into custody if they hung it outside the library.

The two protesters carrying the banner obeyed the order, witnesses said, but police arrested them, sparking a series of scuffles.

"It was unbelievable," said Cyndy Bruce, 26, of Chicago. "The officer said you can't hang it but you can hold it. As soon as they held it up, the officers swarmed in. They incited this violence. Not us.

"This was supposed to be peaceful. What they are doing is not acceptable," she said.

Police had no immediate explanation for the arrests at the library, though a police source said officers can detain demonstrators if they are interfering with others' right of way.

Newsday is great. Meanwhile the New York Times has a more mixed record, dating back to the anti-war demos of 2003. I love the phrase "pre-empt disorder" being allowed without comment.

Many of those protesting yesterday had purposefully avoided seeking permits for their rallies but had publicized their plans well in advance, leading hordes of police officers in cars, bikes, scooters and vans to flood various parts of the city primed to pre-empt disorder before it could occur.

...

"Today a number of anti-R.N.C. activities failed to materialize, including a takeover of the lobby of the Warwick Hotel, perhaps because of the police presence there," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told reporters at an early evening news conference.

Protesters and civil liberties lawyers expressed concerns over what they said had been unfair and overzealous tactics in dealing with demonstrators who may not have had permits but were not violent.

"It's an example of the police suckering the protesters," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to the arrest of some 200 protesters who said they thought they were abiding by an agreement they had negotiated with the police as they marched from ground zero on Fulton Street.

"It was a bait-and-switch tactic," she added, "where they approved a demonstration and the protesters kept up their end of the bargain. They undermined people's confidence in the police, and that's a serious problem as we go forward."

...

Responding to word that anarchists planned to somehow disrupt the morning's trading, hundreds of police officers flooded the blocks surrounding the New York Stock Exchange before 8 a.m.

Roughly an hour later, dozens of officers responded to an obscure corner near the exchange at South William Street and Mill Lane, where protesters had stretched a ball of yarn across the street.

Within minutes, 14 young people sat handcuffed and seated with their backs to a wall near the short pedestrian mall, surrounded by three or four times as many police officers. Several balls of red and yellow yarn were strewn about the street, and a boom box sat nearby with a sign on a bedsheet reading "Celebrate the Power of Money." One of the protesters wore a pinstriped suit and a beret.

...

Later in the afternoon, a clash erupted on the steps of the New York Public Library after two women tried to hang a protest banner over one of the lions atop the library steps. After the police pinned the women to the ground, a crowd of protesters struggled with police, answering requests to move with chants of "Oink, oink, oink."

People coming off the subways were thrown to the ground and the steps of the library were left littered with chairs and debris.