http://www.truthout.org/rnc04.shtmlAll video links below are Windows Media. Quicktime available at the link above.
Michael Moore at the United for Peace RallyRepublican General McPeak Slams Bush and the WarTricia with William Pitt: GOP Supporter Doubting BushFather Bob Edgar, National Council of ChurchesThe Die-In and Arrests in Union SquareCodePink's Medea Benjamin, after her detention at the Fox News protest'The Sopranos' James Gandolfini blasts Bush's reaction to 9/11The 'Pink Slip' Unemployment Protest Line=====
t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Sunday 29 August 2004
12:15PM
The march has begun, and it is absolutely gigantic. The crowd is winding its way past MSG right now to a cacophany of whistles, drums and chants. Pro-Bush protesters are yowling "USA! USA!" At the passing marchers, but are being utterly overwhelmed by an avalanche of responding noise. It is a sea of humanity here.
One thing I have noticed: the protesters scattered through the city today and yesterday have been flying the anti-Bush flag with pride...shirts, signs, buttons, anything to make sure people know exactly where they stand. I have also seen many people who are delegates or conventioneers for the GOP confab. They wear nothing, nothing at all, that might tip you off about who they are. I did see one woman at Ground Zero yesterday with a Bush/Cheney sticker on her handbag. When she reached the protesters peacefully ringing their bells, she covered the sticker with her hand.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Sunday 29 August 2004
4:30PM
I just spoke to a police captain here on the Great Lawn, and asked him why the police were allowing the protest to take place here when the Mayor's office had denied permission?
"It's a public park," said the cop.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Monday 30 August 2004
12:30PM
When I was working the Democratic convention, I thought security was tight. Everything I just saw inside and outside the Republican convention, however, leaves what I saw in Boston in the deep shade. My cameraman Adam and I had to pass through ten different concentric circles of security - dogs sniffing bags, metal detectors, cops every five feet - and inside the building, there is a person to check your credentials every ten steps. They have organized the inside of the convention in a way that guarantees a good deal of confusion and slow movement.
My favorite part was the transition to the media center. They have built a covered sky bridge from MSG to the media center. Remember, now, that you have to get thoroughly scoped and scanned to get into MSG. We walked across the bridge to scout the media center, and then turned to return across the bridge to the convention center. No soap. You have to pass through yet another metal detector checkpoint to get back across the bridge. I can't imagine the journalists making the trip are going to enjoy the process.
The speakers inside the convention are happily flogging the 'compassionate conservatism' line, as they did in 2000. They were able to pull off that latant oxymoron because most people didn't know what they were getting into. Four years later, however, one wonders if the same rhetoric will fly again.
The conventioneers inside the hall were friendly enough, but had a very suspicious cast to their eyes. Possibly this was due to cameraman Adam, who stands well over six feet tall, is powerfully built, with a shaved head and many dramatic tattoos. He did not fit the mold, near as I could tell.
One interesting thing: Most of the cops and security outside the building are African American. You have to appreciate the wee irony of having so many Black people guarding the convocation of whitebread inside the hall.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Monday 30 August 2004
2:45PM
In the words of Moe from The Simpsons, "I'm choking on my own rage here."
It is very, very hot.
The area in a 20 block radius around the convention site is as disorganized a mess as I have ever seen anywhere, ever. Pedestrians - conventioneers, press and many regular New Yorkers - must wait 20 minutes in a huge crush of people before crossing a street. This happens every block.
The cops on the left corner do not know what the cops on the right corner are doing, and no one cop appears to be operating under the same set of orders as the others. We were sent back and forth from block to block, trying to reach a social justic rally at 30th and 8th. A ten minute walk took an hour, because no one bothered to make sure that this overwhelming security presence knows what is happening 30 feet away.
This is an effective metaphor for the Bush vision of America: Lots of guns, lots of fear, total disorganization and complete, sublime, epic stupidity.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Monday 30 August 2004
4:55PM
Do not ever again tell me that protests are merely exercises in 'preaching to the converted.'
I was down with Adam at the 'Still We Rise' protest, as reported earlier. In the crowd was a group of pretty young women dressed in red, white and blue costumes. Some of them were arguing vehemently with the protesters, which piqued my interest. I saw one of them standing off to the side, tapped her on the shoulder, and asked what her group was about.
"We're the GOP Jamboree, a singing group here to support George W. Bush," she said. I asked if I could get an interview, and she said yes.
Confession: I was planning on taking this young Republican apart at the seams, and all on camera. It didn't quite work out that way.
Once the interview was underway, I asked her what it was about Bush and the Republicans she supported. She hesitated, cast her eyes downward, and looked inexplicably sad.
"I don't know," she said.
She came all the way from California as part of an organized singing group whose whole purpose was to support Bush. An afternoon talking to the protesters, however, had filled her head with data that did not jibe with what she had been told.
The video of this will be up soon. Watch it. The crowd educated a dedicated Republican, and did so in a way that made her think instead of making her defensive.
I raise a glass too her for having the courage to wade vocally into a liberal crowd while flying the Republican flag, but I offer a toast to her for having the courage to doubt her own beliefs in the face of facts. To many won't, or can't, do that.
Cheers.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Wednesday 01 September 2004
1:10PM
OK, now I get it. Cheney just came roaring by in a massive caravan that dove inside Pier 60. A bunch of regular New Yorkers standing on the street here gave him the finger as he went by.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Wednesday 01 September 2004
6:30PM
If you are reading this and you are in New York, you should head down to an Irish bar called Rocky Sullivan's tonight. They have been having a show each night called Satire for Sanity. Last night featured several comedians and speakers, including Jimmy Tingle and Jello Biafra. Barry Crimmins is the MC each night. I am told tonight and Thursday night will also have a great lineup.
The place is between Lexington Avenue and 28th. I give it five stars.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Thursday 02 September 2004
12:00PM
One of the most important protests of the week is taking place here in Union Square Park, right now. Veterans for Peace is standing with several veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom, and those veterans are denouncing the war. Arrayed across the Square are pairs and pairs of boots, to symbolize the fallen in Iraq
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Thursday 02 September 2004
10:18PM
Here comes the resurrection of the Reagasm. Reagan "will always define our party." Good to hear anti-intellectualism, privatization, incredibly over-extended militarization and the gutting of every social program within reach is still at the heart of the GOP.
Flogging No Child Left Behind, the emptiest education legislation in history, as a success.
Flogging his defense of Social Security and Medicare, now tattered and gone, as a success.
Flogging his support of workers, who have taken a horrible beating these last four years, as a success.
Flogging the economy, which is still trailing smoke from every engine, as a success.
And O goody, compassionate conservatism is back as the hood ornament for this chassis.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Thursday 02 September 2004
10:30PM
Zell Miller has been thrown under the bus, according to MSNBC:
"After gauging the harsh reaction from Democrats and Republicans alike to Sen. Zell Miller’s keynote address at the Republican National Convention, the Bush campaign — led by the first lady — backed away Thursday from Miller’s savage attack on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, insisting that the estranged Democrat was speaking only for himself. Late Thursday, Miller’s name was removed from the list of dignitaries who would be sitting in the first family’s box during the president’s acceptance speech later in the evening. No explanation was immediately offered, but the change was made only a few hours after Laura Bush, asked about Miller’s deeply personal denunciation of his own party’s nominee, said in an interview with NBC News that “I don’t know that we share that point of view.""
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Thursday 02 September 2004
10:31PM
To reiterate, THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR THE 2004 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION has been thrown under the bus by the Republicans. Paging Pat Buchanan...your table is ready. Mr. Miller will see you now.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Thursday 02 September 2004
10:38PM
The Kerry campaign has already released their response to the attacks from Cheney and under-the-bus Zell. Kerry's own words:
We all saw the anger and distortion of the Republican Convention. For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as Commander-in-chief. We'll, here's my answer. I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq. The Vice President even called me unfit for office last night. I guess I'll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty.
Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without healthcare makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi Royal Family control our energy costs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Handing out billions of government contracts to Halliburton while you're still on their payroll makes you unfit. That's the record of George Bush and Dick Cheney. And it's not going to change. I believe it's time to move America in a new direction; I believe it's time to set a new course for America.
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Thursday 02 September 2004
11:13PM
The Associated Press has zapped this speech already:
"Bush Leaves Out Complex Facts in Speech: President Bush's boast of a 30-member-strong coalition in Iraq (news - web sites) masked the reality that the United States is bearing the overwhelming share of costs, in lives and troop commitments. And in claiming to have routed most al-Qaida leaders, he did not mention that the big one got away. He took some license in telling Americans that Democratic opponent John Kerry "is running on a platform of increasing taxes." Kerry would, in fact, raise taxes on the richest 2 percent of Americans as part of a plan to keep the Bush tax cuts for everyone else and even cut some of them more. That's not exactly a tax-increase platform. And on education, Bush voiced an inherent contradiction, dating back to his 2000 campaign, in stating his stout support for local control of education, yet promising to toughen federal standards that override local decision-making."
Did he just say our calling for freedom is "from beyond the stars" Who's calling? The Romulans?
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t r u t h o u t | Republican Convention Coverage
By William Rivers Pitt
Thursday 02 September 2004
11:15PM
It's over.
Despite the gross fabrications, total lack of policy substance, glossing-over of catastrophic truths and complete avoidance of several very hard topics, it was a well-delivered speech. He only muffed the one word - 'nucular' - but, honestly, he'll get that one right when they're handing out ice skates in Hades.
This is William Rivers Pitt, signing off from New York City. 60 days until November 2nd. Here we go, yo.
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