{"id":934,"date":"2004-09-27T01:48:46","date_gmt":"2004-09-27T08:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/?p=934"},"modified":"2004-09-27T01:48:46","modified_gmt":"2004-09-27T08:48:46","slug":"protest-of-august-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/2004\/09\/27\/protest-of-august-2002\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest of August 2002"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>August 2002. Remarked on in the national media, front page in the Portland Tribune, somewhere in the back of the Oregonian…<\/p>\n

It was the type of protest that gives the governorship to Ronald Reagan and the presidency to Richard Nixon. And gives the name “Little Beirut” to Portland, as Bush’s father named the city.<\/p>\n

“Makes you long for banners with ‘Socialist Workers Party’ and ‘International ANSWER’, eh?”<\/p>\n

With equal amounts of inspiration and dreadfulness. Not so much depressing, as all the other post – 9\/11 protests had been — what, with a collection of 30 or so neo-hippies and\/or “gutter-punk” anarchists.<\/p>\n

Feel free to do that. I believe the conversation I overheard at the bust-stop as a routine Friday-evening (and slightly more mainstream) drum-line went by was “Yeah. I outgrew that 30 years ago.”<\/i><\/p>\n

But, if you get a thousand or more people to gather… people will notice. Even if it doesn’t play in Peyoria very well, as the case with that September protest (though later protests would play<\/i> better in Peyoria).<\/p>\n

What gathers a thousand people?<\/p>\n

In this case: George W Bush was in town, in a downtown hotel, raising funds for Gordon Smith’s campaign war-chest. Gordon Smith is that curious Republican Senator: depending on the audience, he’s conservative, moderate, liberal. If my memory serves right, the Cheney appearance for the same effect a couple months prior only drew a hundred. I probably walked through the crowd enough to be considered part of the Bush crowd; I can’t say the same thing for the Cheney one. That may<\/i> represent the natural flow of opposition as we transitioned to the war-drums into Iraq. (A later Cheney appearance would present itself with the new “free speech area” contraption: WIRE FENCING<\/i>. I didn’t see it first-hand, but I heard about it. I eye aiiie.)<\/p>\n

The common chant was a bit different from “Give Peace a Chance”: “George Bush is a son of a bitch!”<\/p>\n

There’s a charm therein. It at least works as an umbrella that sits the porpouri of left-wing causes being paraded around. They were being yelled out by a young woman, standing atop a fire hydrant, shouting “Stand Up! Stand up for (fill in the blank!) Stand Up! Stand Up Against (—-)!” Etc. Etc. Etc. Some I like more than others.<\/p>\n

I cringed at the sign saying “Forget Israel! Free Palestine!” And, while there are style-points in delaying the SUVs for a few red-lights and not doing the same for more fuel efficient cars, the fact is: the drivers of the fuel efficient car hates being delayed as much as the SUV… and they’re right behind them. <\/p>\n

Ari Fleischer said this of it: “We did not have any inkling”<\/a> that such protest would occur, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.<\/i> Confusing, considering Bush’s father gave it that nickname. And, considering that the Portland Police Department said that this was what they were expecting.<\/p>\n

There were clues the demonstration could get nasty on the Web sites of groups involved.<\/p>\n

Preparations for the protest were posted on the Internet as early as Aug. 7 and continued constantly under such headings as “Tear gas canisters cause severe thermal burns,” “Bush to visit beautiful Portland in August, you should too,” and “What happens if you’re arrested for civil disobedience?”<\/i><\/p>\n

Well, considering that the police sprayed tear gas at the crowd, I have to wonder what’s wrong with helpful suggestions about the severe thermal burns that tear gas produces. It seems to me like helpful advice.<\/p>\n

Some weird man held a sign saying “Band bugs from being inserted in me”. I assume “band” was a mis-spelling of “ban”. I assume it’s some form of schizerophrenia. (Though, to be frank, these are schizophrenic times.) At any rate, if someone wanted to do “wacky protest footage” (I recall a Fox News segment during one of the two 2000 Political Conventions that by-passed the batch of WTO<\/i>-types and the “Shadow Conventions” held by Ariana Huffington and went to the odd woman shouting “Remember Lyme Disease!”. The voice-over saying “There are protesters promoting obscure causes.” Which begs the question: What’s so wrong with Lyme Disease Research?<\/i>)<\/p>\n

Local media coverage is interesting. Basically, flipping through the four news broadcasts: UPN’s was the most sympathetic to the protestors. It seems to be because their reporters were hit the hardest with gas-spray, and thus were able to captur footage of police in riot gear tossing rubber bullets right at their camera — footage that puts whatever appeared at the local indymedia site to shame. Either ABC’s or NBC’s — I don’t remember which– seemed to describe the protests entirely from the viewpoint of police-officers’ eyes. This network was lucky enough not to be hit by the rubber bullets, I guess. <\/p>\n

One of them, I think CBS, did the most annoying and egregious ass-licking of Bush I’ve ever seen, going to weather saying “Bush, if you’re watching, this is how the weather’s going to look when you leave tomorrow morning…” <\/p>\n

And try the front cover of the Oregon compared to the Portland Tribune. Unfortunately, the format for the Oregonian’s online is such that I can’t find a reliable mock-example, but the Page 1 headline was something like “Bush’s Environmental Policy to Provide Oregon Jobs”! (a classic spit-take was my reaction…) Yippee- cayak! Other features on the front page essentially how great his trip was, and the import it shows that Gordon Smith’s re-election chances are for the Senate races. Nothing on the front page about the demonstrations… probably pushed to page 2 The Portland Tribune, (honestly, a sort of sad-sack freebie): Bush Protest Turns Angry and Ugly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two different universes, The Oregonian and the Portland Tribune. No matter how you cover the story, The story of the protests is more significant than the Bush fund-raiser.<\/p>\n

But, regarding the Oregonian and the local media’s fawning over Bush: that was what everything in the media looked like from roughly September 12, 2001 to the middle of Spring 2003.<\/i> Still does in certain sectors and to a certain degree.<\/p>\n

The late news cast leaves with the media person standing before some graffiti, marked there at the end of the day, sometime after the pepper-spray and rubber bullets spurred the worst of the lot, with the words “Bush Knew”. I have to groan. It makes for gripping footage for a later”Mad as Hell TV” show. (public access.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 2002. Remarked on in the national media, front page in the Portland Tribune, somewhere in the back of the Oregonian… It was the type of protest that gives the governorship to Ronald Reagan and the presidency to Richard Nixon. And gives the name “Little Beirut” to Portland, as Bush’s father named the city. “Makes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-the-ground"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}