BUSH IN L.A.



Driving into the fray of downtown rush hour traffic late after leaving my day job, I first came upon activists on a street corner a block or so away from the Shrine. There they were, aiming signs at the traffic that made their dissatisfaction with the policies of the current administration clear. The first sign I saw said, “Drop Bush not Bombs,” and I knew I was in the right place.

Wednesday, March 3, 2004. The Internet is burning with news of the Haitian Coup while the New York and L.A. Times scream the lie that there was no coup in the face of a world that knows the truth, the Venezuelan government has just accused the U.S. Government of spending unmentionable amounts of money to overthrow it’s Democratically elected government, Afghanistan is a shambles, Iraq is in utter chaos, people are suffering and living in misery all over the world to support the excesses of the United States, and Bush is in L.A. campaigning for a presidency slash emperorship he feels entitled to.

I am in awe of the blatant denial. Is it conscious? Does this guy know what he’s doing? Is there any awareness at all? It’s hard to believe anybody can be so clueless. Does he really think, in true ostrich tradition, that if he acts like it’s not happening nobody else will really notice? Does he think he can pull it off?

The several hundred people I see standing on the sidewalk chanting and wielding signs protesting the current policies don’t think so. And neither do the people driving by honking their support. I have to smile as I realize that people are getting it; people are catching on, and I feel hopeful. I love the spirit here. Yeah, there’s a battle to be fought; and people know it, having come here after hard workdays to stand in the street. But the spirit is high and festive. People are smiling and even the beat cops keeping an eye on things seem to have more a spirit of cooperation than of aggression towards the crowd, smiling and helping me out with parking advice.

This perception of the friendly neighborhood beat cop wasn’t to last long however; changing abruptly when the crowd marched around the block, supposedly to intercept the Pres’s motorcade and was met with a gaggle of soldier/coplets, complete in militia style riot gear with real scary looking weapons at the ready. There they were, standing in an intimidating geometric pattern in the middle of the street looking fierce and full of testosterone. You have to wonder what they’re thinking; standing there looking more like action figures than humans.

The activists, used by now to these displays were not in the least daunted and maintained their upbeat spirits; flashing peace signs at the automatons. Who knows; maybe one or two of them will get it. One can only hope.

If there were any limocades I didn’t see them; the pres probably left from a different exit. So the crowd marched back to the original space after listening to a few announcements from the organizers. Spirits were good and there was a sense of making a mark.

The next major worldwide demo will be on March 20; check with ANSWER and the Indymedia calendar at this site for more info about that and other ongoing vigils and demos.

Chavez Calls Bush Asshole


http://www.rebelion.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=Cecilia_Areito&id=Fumigaciones_del_plan_Colombia


March 02, 2004
By: David Coleman
http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16178

Venezuela stops all further training at the School of the Americas terrorist college

(School of the Americas) SOA Watch is reporting that the Venezuelan government has announced that it is going to cease all training of Venezuelan soldiers at the School of the Americas (now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the controversial US military combat training school for Latin American soldiers, based in Fort Benning (Georgia).

The official announcement was made by Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel in an address to the National Assembly (AN) while in an earlier meeting with a delegation of US human rights activists, Rangel stated that the SOA/WHISC is "a training school for dictators, torturers and terrorists" and a country such as the USA ... which considers itself to be a democracy ... should not have such a school on it's soil.

During a visit of religious leaders from the United States to Venezuela in January, President Hugo Chavez Frias also spoke out against the SOA: "this school (the SOA/WHISC) deformed the minds of many Latin American soldiers, who from there went on to become dictators."

Venezuelan Army C-i-C Efrain Vasquez Velasco and General Ramirez Poveda were both SOA graduates and were key players in the April 2002 coup d'etat against democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez Frias. Another SOA graduate, Lieutenant German Rudolfo Varela, is currently in INS detention in Miami (Forida) awaiting extradition to Venezuela for his involvement in embassy bombings in Caracas in February 2003.

Over 58 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counter-insurgency techniques, sniper skills, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own peoples. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, unionists, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the SOA.

Thank you for the excellent report Anna. I wanted to let you know that there were a few of us outside the LA convention center earlier that day -where Bush was meeting with religious groups.

There were people who showed up to protest Bush because they were concerned about the anti-gay marriage amendment, people like myself -so I am glad that you mentioned it in your article -about the Haiti Coup, and people that in general want Bush out of office. There was also a man dressed as Bush with a mask with a sign that read "Stop Me!" and "Anyone but Bush" sticker on it. I would shout "Impeach Bush!" & Bush You're fired!" There were several cheers from people on their way to the careerbuilder fair that was taking place at the same time. There were also blank stares from religious conservatives coming from their meeting with Bush.
I overheard a discussion about a conversation somebody had with somebody from the conference who is actually a Democrat who works for a religious organization about the importance of separating church & state public funds.

On the way home, there was an officer in the street stopping traffic in all directions & pedestrian traffic for about 10 minutes. Suddenly a Chips moto-cop whizzed by at about 90 mph, then another, then some SUVs, then a limo with flags on it. I honked & yelled "Impeach Bush!" out the window & other cars honled too. Yippee!

Thanks again for the report.

p.s. I did actually drive by the Shrine Aud. just to see what was going on. I saw a group of Iranians for Bush. I was curious what that was about. Do you know?

I hope people post photos, it was a good turnout and people had some great signs.

The People shitcanned Gay Davis. Now we have to clean up a decade's worth of liberal mafia/ sacramento syndicate crime.

Isn't more appropos to call the neo-cons around mini-Shrub the "ASS-holes of Evil"?

Especially because the White House Village Idiot has LIED shamelessly in order to drag the nation into his "Woe-ful wits" War of Aggression/Invasion-turned-Occupation/Iraquagmire! And all because he has relied on dirty tricks from his "slimy Halliburton Dick."