On Location The H8 Protest in New York City

Last Saturday I went to City Hall for the H8 protest.  It was a pretty impressive size group.  I think I heard there over four thousand people there.  It was cool to be part of something that was nation wide.  My personal feelings about the atmosphere is mixed.  I got off the subway at the City Hall Station.  People were immediately corralled into sectioned off groups.  My section was way in the back. There were speakers set up so we got to hear everything.  Finally after a while the cops had pity on us and connected our section with the section in front of us.  I moved up as far as I could get and still couldn’t see anything.  I noticed the cops weren’t too worried about the level of dissent.  They were letting people out of their section to cross the street.  So I left my section.  I walked all the way up to where the stage was, noticed an opening in the first section and recrossed the street.  All the cops were like, “whatever, dude.”  So I did get to see the last few speakers.

I thought people were enjoying the event a little too much.  The subject at hand was a denial of basic civil/human rights to tax paying citizens of our country.  Everyone should be really pissed off!  Lots of people seemed preoccupied with the signs.  As I got closer, it seemed as though this was less and less the case, so I think it may have something to do with the proximity of the stage.  But, I say again, it shouldn’t have been that calm.  Their was no tension in that crowd.  No real sign of serious dissent.  The people simply were not pissed off enough.  I am not advocating violence at all, but for god sakes, how about a little civil disobedience.  The event was neat and proper and there were no mishaps and it ended on time.  I guess I don’t know what I was expecting.  Hopefully people there were moved to take an active role in politics.  Maybe someone saw this on the news and had a revelation.  I just thought people would be more angry.  It was nice and sunny for the first half.  Who can be angry on a nice sunny day in New York City.  And the signs were lovely.

Just Say No to Joe!

So this is what went through my mind when I heard Joe Lieberman was going to keep his chairman role in the homeland security committee. I’ll break it down by hundredths of a second.

0-.33: Enraged beyond belief. “WHAT THE HECK! WHY IS HE BEING REWARDED FOR SUCH TREACHERY THAT GOES WAY BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!!”

.34-.66: Attempt to understand. “Well done Democrats. Reach a hand out to Joe. We are one party of understanding compassion and love. It is right to keep Joe as a brother. Sure he messed up. But, don’t we all make mistakes?

.67-1sec: Realization of the situation at hand. “NO! This is bullshit! He’s burned us too many times!

I trust the Party to do the right thing, but come on, this guy needs to burn for what he has done. Not only is he not a Democrat anymore, (remember) looking at his views, he couldn’t possibly be considered a Democrat. Bad move Harry. I do not concur. Thank you Daily Kos for keeping things in perspective…

Democrats let Lieberman keep committee chair (AP)
Joe Lieberman Can Still Sit in His Favorite Chair (New York Magazine USA)
Democrats give it all to Lieberman (Salon)