Protesters Blockade Federal Building In Response To Congressional Votes

This picture (when_pigs_attack3) perfectly captures the atmosphere of the blockout. It was a constant struggle between peaceful protesters and officers dressed in full riot gear with--what a surprise--no recollection of their badge numbers. The protest was extremely hectic. Almost all people involved were constantly asked to shift locations among 4 points of entrance to the Fed Building.

Sadly, this isn't even the most brutal of events that took place. A few protesters were ambushed by undercover officers who felt the need to inflict some damage to the "scum" ("We only talk to people, not scum." -US Marshall) before arrest. I personally witnessed one event in which a middle-aged woman received the long end of a baton after being shoved into the pigs. By the way, do those batons look enough like broomsticks?

Oddly, Medea was only visible when it was time to pass the bullhorn around. Hmmm. How strange.

On the other hand, Starhawk was always available for advice. We never would've had this kind of success without her. From the first march to the last, she really brought us all together.

My respects go to the B.L.O. who were always in the right place at the right time with the right music.

All in all, this CiDi was much more effective than I could have imagined. The planning was thorough, the communication was constant, the spirits were high, and the situation never escalated above isolated incidents of police brutality. The pigs were dicks, though. Stern, brutal, condescending dicks.

And to think, I once wanted to be a cop.

PS: Mucho props to the human blockades. That's some tough work and it was done well, especially considering how many of us had less than 2 hours of sleep the night before. I tip my hat.

Funny that you protestors who really don't believe in our democracy, who could give a damn that the rest of us voted for our elected officials, and who would much prefer to live in a utopian world unrelated to any form of democracy, get all prissy, whiny and upset when they don't like the consequences of breaking the law.

Gosh, most children grow up before they become adults. Too bad you don't get it, Token.

The majority of Americans probably don’t support the war anymore. The polls have the numbers near 50-50. As for respecting representatives, its our job to revoke their jobs if we don’t like what they are doing.

Arguing that one should support a war simply because a majority supports is a little weird. A majority of Germans may have supported Hitler but I for one would have found no moral qualms being part of the Resistance.

Standing up to Bush today is similar to standing up against a dictator like Hitler. US policy is becoming expansionist in a very similar way to German foreign policy at the start off WWII. Iraq may be better after Hussein is removed but the ends do not justify the means and since anti-American sentiment in the Middle East is already high I doubt the ends will be democratic either. After Iraq, where will the US invade next? Iran? N Korea? Saudi Arabia? Iraq is only the start of a long series of wars that is bound to end up in a confrontation between major powers. It will be like WWII all over again but this time the US will be the expansionist power.

I participated in the civil disobedience today, and I think this criticism of Medea is unwarranted. She has been arrested repeatedly in DC over the last several months, and she has an impending court date for disrupting the House of Representatives. This was the first time I've met her, and she was extremely helpful to me. I've never done CD before, and I found her to be extremely encouraging.

ANYWAY, great action today everybody! Those federal pigs were out of control, despite the coverage on KRON showing them "gently" removing protestors from the scene. Hopefully I will have the chance of facing those little men with sticks again sometime soon. It was an honor to be attacked by them.

To the loser-ass trolls who have nothing better to do than post on this site all day: Keep up the good work! It makes me feel great to know that we're pissing you off. It proves that we're doing something right.

If Little Georgey wants a war, then let's give him one!!!

So many older people came up to me and were so glad to see us doing what we did . . . .

And I'm so angry about all this that I don't need any courage - it was just like instinct to do this action, with so many good people. We called out to cars passing as we stood with locked arms and they honked and waved and smiled, gladly took hand-outs.

Amazing to be involved in something so wonderful, born from a nightmare.

Medea works her butt off - we all support her. She has single-handedly done more than anyone I know, or ever have known (aside from maybe Carol B. .. .) to make change happen.

> "As for respecting representatives, its our job to revoke their jobs if we don’t like what they are doing."

At the ballot box, bubba, not by whining like children and breaking the law.

That shows how little your care for democracy and are determined to bypass it to get what your way.

--->We called out to cars passing ... and they honked and waved and smiled, gladly took hand-outs.<--


I've done the same thing whenever I've had to walk by protests. Someone hands me something, I take it, and once I round the corner I promply rip it to shreads and throw it in the trash where I've also noticed dozens of other people have done the same thing. I found out early on it's easier to take it and trash it than to say "No, thank you" and have one of these protesters follow you for a block threatening you and trying to force you to listen to their opinion. Sometimes you honk too if you go by in your car. I've seen people being prompted to honk by protesters and when they didn't they would throw stuff at the car or kick out your lights or dent your door with metal pipes. Many of these protesters are militants and have weapons. Better to politely nod, take their stuff or otherwise acknowledge them, keep moving, and let the police take care of them.

You're right, they are spoiled children always used to getting their way - usually a sign of bad parenting - who can't stand the democratic process.

They all need a good spanking to disabuse them of their abhorent behavior.

After the congress (again) passed legislation
contrary to the public's DEMANDS I think you
can drop the "democratic" part of your spoiled
children crap. The spoiled children are running
this world.

At the time of the American Revolution England was a partial Democracy but people in the US had no say. Today the US is a partial democracy where many people in the US and msot people effected by US policy have no say.

Taking to the streets has always been a part of democracy. Illegal acts of civil disobedience have always been a part of democracy. If one were to stick to solely legal actions to protest the acts of ones government how would one protest an elected tyrant? Germany and Italy are examples of countries that went fascist with a majority support of the dictatorship. Would you call the Resistance in Germany whiners?

The fall of the Roman Republic serves as a better example of where we are heading. As people came to see represntatives as corrupt, the public fell into worship of military conquest. When a general finally marched on Rome, he had the publics support.

While the process of representative democracy requires voting, democracy can only be maintained if the public remains vigilant. Protesters in the US are engaging in too LITTLE illegal action and dont yet represent a force that can hold back the growing tyrany. If one looks at many European countries where labor groups can shut down the country for days during protests, one sees an example of democracies where those effected by policies can have a say in the direction of policy proportional to how they are effected. Acts of civil unrest truely are the thin line black line that prevents countries from falling into fascism.

The difference between fighting for independence and a democracy during the American Revolution and fighting AGAINST those values, as you both wish to do today, is pretty damn obvious to those of us with our eyes wide open.

So stop the nonsense, ok?

Activists are fighting FOR democracy, a democracy which simply does not exist in the US. Democracy in the US is an absolute joke, and is a clear two party dictatorship serving the needs of a rich elite. We have a population who is generally completely ignorant of world affairs, or even domestic policies, because of media spin and brain washing. We have a corporate sponsored rat race called the election, where third party choices who do no whore themselves to corporate interests are denied the freedom to debate on TV. Really, it's total bullshit. Do you think your vote makes a difference in anyway? Is there a difference between bush and gore? Hell no.

> "Activists are fighting FOR democracy, a democracy..."

Wrong. All you have to do is read the childish nonsense and advocacy against democracy right here on these very pages, look at the pictures and signs, and read the delight with which the Children of the Street get from acting undemocratically.

Where have you been, bubba?

And those who advocate they are being brainwashed are those who will always believe they are controlled by someone else. It's a psychological problem, well documented, and characteristic of people who take to the street against freedom and democracy like you guys.

what's unfortunate is that most of this country seems to be asleep and posts comments like sam b's here.

bush's family supported hitler. the first white men to come to america stole the land from the natives and killed them and raped them. anyone living on american soil today lives with a legacy of bad karma that is almost impossible to turn around.

here in america, you must openly discuss what democracy is in order to establish and continue to have it and live within the constructs it offers- and sometimes, in order to live in it, you must physically fight for it. sometimes that means walking endlessly around in protests and acts of civil disobedience. these are people who do not wish to live in fear, and openly subject themselves to the consequences.

some of these consequences consist of reading through and listening to voices who speak from ignorance and try to discuss things openly with them (which is mostly a losing battle because most of these people do not know how to openly discuss things in a rational, intelligent way, and instead like to bash words and type ignorant comments meant to hurt people with). i suppose this, also, is part of democracy, but it's one of the unfortunate sides of it.

If it were not for people willing to disobey the law we would never had Civil Rights Legislation, women would never have gotten the right to vote and there would be no labour laws in this country.

Its pointless arguing with a right wing zealot who sees any political action as undemocratic.At the same time its good to realize that many Americans think like he does. In many recent polls a majorty of Americans seem to disagree with the Bill of Rights. But, a majority of Americans rejected Civil Rights laws too yet the public has changed its opinion DUE to the actions of those willing to make their beliefs known.

Violent street protests have helped to protect democratic rights since the time of the ancient Greeks. In many cases movement have not started with a majority support but as the case is made opinions are swayed.

> "what's unfortunate is that most of this country seems to be asleep and posts comments like sam b's here. "

On the contrary, what is important that people like me are here to wake people up like you to the fact that they are not fighting for democracy, but for totalitarinism, using the very same books, methods, propaganda of long-since discredited Marxists. Helllloooooo!

And, thank God, the majority of Americans know that and are happy to give you the wake-up call too.

You're living in the clouds in a deep sleep. Wake up and smell the facts.

And how long have you been a student
of The pot calling the kettle black school.
No wait the, I'm lost can you tell me
where I am school of inverted, blaming the
victim logic?
For your information, totalitarinism is EXACTLY
what is being fought against and you're on the side
of the opperssors.
YOU wake up.

No, Sheepy, it's you that is having a hard time facing reality.

Maybe if would just TRY removing your blinders.

It sounds to me like you just want to hear yourself talk.
You don't really have much to say. All I hear is "wine, wine, wine". Because your comments have no depth, I imagine that your focus is not really on world isssues, but on yourself and how right you are. Well, keep up your self-righteous bitching. I am entertained.

What a joke! "Many of these protesters are militants and have weapons." Really? Is that why so many people have been convicted of weapons possession at recent demos in SF? And at all the demos I've been to, I've yet to see someone attacking a car at ALL (let alone with a metal pipe!) for not honking.

And if you don't take a flyer, people leave it at that. It's not worth hassling someone. Following someone for a block to take a flyer just does not happen.

Perhaps this person is resident of some other "SF". :)

Back in the good old days people didn't have to apologize for declaring war. It did'nt matter what the reasons for war were. If you wanted to get rich, or were just afraid your enemies, you would go out and invade them, (rape and pillage). I don't understand this ceaseless poor, white, trash moralizing. Greed is what turned bacteria into who we are today, and greed will take us beyond ourselves in the future. However, if it should happen, that our greed destroys us, so be it. Basically, we're not much more than an advanced form of virus sucking on a dying host. All good things come to an end, we've had a pretty good run. And if George Bush and his oil buddies are the next link on Darwin's ladder, (I know that a lot of people think he's stupid, but I think he's just pretending so as to disarm people), if they are the next co-evolutionary life form, then so be it. Anything is better than the TV watching, beer guzzling, energy wasting, herd, who are every bit as responsible for the state we are in. Those of you who are intelligent enough should try to grab a piece of the pie before it's all gone. We'll all the buying our oxygen pretty soon. It's nothing you can protest, Pol Pot was mistaken, we could destroy every institution, kill every wealthy person, as well as the educated, but it wouldn't change anything, the greed is in our bones, it's what makes us human. Trying to run away from it is like trying to run away from your own legs. If we were perfect, we wouldn't exist. I don't judge a lion for eating a lamb, and likewise I don't judge the oil barons for invading Afghanistan or Iraq.

> "HEY Sam B.
by Robin • Saturday October 12, 2002 at 04:29 PM"

> "It sounds to me like you just want to hear yourself talk."

Actually, Robin, I enjoy exposing the hypocrisy of the Left, the aimlessness of childish protestors claiming to exercise their democratic rights while advocating the very destruction of democracy and breaking the law by preventing normal people from exercising their rights and on and on.

You'll note that not one of those I criticize has been able to intelligently deny their hypocrisy..

This is book camp and school for flaming leftist hypocrites. You may attend or not.

sam do you have anything better to do with your time but sit on this board and criticize everything discussed in regards to the recent action, that you did not partipate in and know nothing about? I have very little respect for message board tyrants, it's pathetic that you are trying to sit on a pedastal of power over the goddamn internet. i am laughing at you.

1. Regime change is against the UN charter. This is a stated goal of the current administration regarding U.S. intentions in Iraq. (Additionally, the UN is not a military body and can't take any military action, as the United States is requesting.)

2. In public letters to the current administration, CIA director George J. Tenet has explicitly stated that invading Iraq will make matters worse and increase the probability of terrorist incidents in the United States.

3. One cannot take the moral highground in saying that Saddam kills his own people (the kurds in Northern Iraq) and we must stop him. The United States has outwardly supported (financially and militarily) the Turkish government in fighting the same groups of Kurdish Nationalists in Southeastern Turkey since shortly after the end of WWII.

jth

> "okay...and
by claire • Monday October 14, 2002 at 04:48 PM"

>" sam do you have anything better to do with your time but sit on this board and criticize everything discussed in regards to the recent action, that you did not partipate in and know nothing about?"

How arrogant you are, Claire. What can be more important than pointing out that you are ignorant, self-important, and wrong? Is it that you refuse to come out of from you fortress of anti-democratic illusions, hurling insults to our intelligence while proclaiming yours is the way, the ONLY way?

The fact that this board does little but talk about Leftist nonsense means I know what you have to offer (and I knew it long before). So if you don't like the fact that I exercise my right to free speech, you can stop reading my posts.

> "I have very little respect for message board tyrants, it's pathetic that you are trying to sit on a pedastal of power over the goddamn internet. i am laughing at you."

There is only one answer for those like you: look in the mirror, hypocrite.

Sam, B. keep up the good work.

One sure piece of evidence to illustrate their weaknesses is that they find it necessary to attempt to refute everything those on the 'right' say. Not one of us can write something in the comment section of indybay without them feeling they must reply. We must be saying something that shatters their little world or they wouldn't find any reason to feel they must reply.

But, this type of behavior leads to something else, something that has been noted by others as the need to get in "The Last Word". They just have to have the last say. It's as if when they do they get some kind of brownie points Anytime I see them do this it just re-emphasizes to me just how weak their positions are.

Girls, Keep tooting your horns for peace. Dad and I are proud of you. Don't stop!

that's right. screw off. how weak of a person i am. hooray for you sam.

i did look at myself in the mirror and yah i look pretty great. i wake up in the morning and am proud of my accomplishments and the person i have become to be. it's useless to argue about things like this, so i just wanted to say, no i don't know you either, but i just overall don't like your know-it-all attitude sam. i'm not on this board for an education by you so i won't read your posts anymore.

another person awakens to the idiocy of sam b. - welcome!

that dont mean a lot coming from a minimum 3 time LOU-SA!!

Don't read this, Claire:

Next time you want to tell me what I do or do not know,
expect to get an earful.

*1. Regime change is against the UN charter. This is a stated goal of the current administration regarding U.S. intentions in Iraq. (Additionally, the UN is not a military body and can't take any military action, as the United States is requesting.)*

BFD. Who gives a crap about the UN? It is nothing more than a sham and a huge waste of American money.
You'd be interested in knowing that regime change (in Iraq) has been official US law since 1998. That's right - the savior of the left (William the Impeached) signed public law 105-338 - a law calling for regime change in Iraq. POOF!

*2. In public letters to the current administration, CIA director George J. Tenet has explicitly stated that invading Iraq will make matters worse and increase the probability of terrorist incidents in the United States. *

BFD again. Tenet has an agenda and an opinion. Neither are particularily important.

*3. One cannot take the moral highground in saying that Saddam kills his own people (the kurds in Northern Iraq) and we must stop him. The United States has outwardly supported (financially and militarily) the Turkish government in fighting the same groups of Kurdish Nationalists in Southeastern Turkey since shortly after the end of WWII. *

So you're claiming that since we've sided with a nation friendly to our interests, we cannot side against a nation decidedly unfriendly towards our interests?

The fact that Saddam has killed Kurds in Iraq (lots of them) isn't the reason we (the US) must take Saddam (and Iraq) as a serious threat. The fact that Saddam has used chemical weapons against those Kurds is one example of the threat he (Saddam) poses. That threat (along with a plethora of other examples) is why the US cannot afford to continue the previous administrations foolish tactics of appeasement.

Let's not forget that when Saddam used chemical weapons against Iranians and Kurds in the 1980's, he did so with the full support of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. They not only sold him the weapons and the means to deliver them, but the CIA gave him logistical support as well. After he used these weapons, was he rebuked? No. Reagan and Bush (and Defense Secretaries Casper Weinberger and Dick Cheney) sold him some more. 14 years later, we're citing this as a reason to invade Iraq? Would any right-wingers out there care to explain why Saddam's atrocities were okay at the time? If he had the means to attack the U.S., wouldn't he have done so at some point in the last decade? And if we're all about expanding human rights and democracy, why is Bush allied with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other brutal regimes? We're not invading them -- we're selling them weapons. Talk about hipocrisy...