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 | | From: | Dan Clore | | Subject: | Imperial Inauguration Protests | | Date: | Sat, 22 Jan 2005 07:23:36 -0800 |
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 | News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
*****
The (Portland) Oregonian
Eugene protesters disrupt Bush's inauguration
One of the three activists says an onlooker did not take
kindly to their shouting and tackled two of them
Saturday, January 22, 2005
by ALICE TALLMADGE
The only protesters who managed to disrupt, albeit briefly,
President George Bush's swearing-in ceremony Thursday were
three activists from -- no huge surprise -- Eugene.
Peter Chabarek, Carol Melia and Willow Rose waited until the
moment before Chief Justice William Rehnquist began to
administer the oath of office and then stood up from their
seats at the Capitol steps and yelled: "Stop the killing.
Stop the war in Iraq. Bring the troops home now."
Speaking by cell phone Friday from Washington, D.C., a
hoarse Chabarek said onlookers were unhappy with the trio's
outburst Thursday.
One man tackled Chabarek and his wife, Rose, and then poured
water over them. Another woman tried to wrestle a video
camera from Melia. The three were about 60 yards from the
podium.
After the three yelled their slogans for about a minute,
Capitol Police asked them to stop, Chabarek said. They then
agreed to be escorted from the area.
"We delivered a strong and clear message to the
administration that there is an active resistance to the war
and that we are willing to go to great lengths to oppose the
war," Chabarek said.
The three protesters obtained their inauguration tickets
through U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, according to the
Democracy Now Web site, the Internet version of a national,
daily news program.
DeFazio's office answered requests for inauguration tickets
"from lots of constituents," said Kristie Greco, a
spokeswoman for the Oregon Democrat. But she didn't handle
the requests and couldn't comment further.
Chabarek and Melia also disrupted a speech by Vice President
Dick Cheney at the Eugene Airport in September. Then in
October, they were ordered to leave the Jackson County
Fairgrounds when a security guard discovered they planned a
similar disruption during Bush's visit there.
In the late 1990s, Eugene became known nationally as the
home of a small but fervent band of youthful anarchists who
advocated property destruction as a response to social and
economic injustices. The demonstrators, who often wore black
hooded sweat shirts and kerchiefs covering their faces,
clashed with police in Eugene and were active during
protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.
Chabarek, an acupuncturist, and Melia, a psychiatric social
worker, make up the singing duet, Enemy Combatants. They
write and perform original satirical and political songs.
Rose is a mental health counselor.
The group's attorney, Brian Michaels, calls Chabarek and
Melia "musical activists."
"They are not violent agitators or saboteurs," he said.
"They are very gentle, singing people who do not by nature
agitate in any kind of physical way."
Alice Tallmadge: 541-741-6256; a.tallmadge@att.net
*****
Baltimore Chronicle
COMMENTARY:
Bush-Cheney Re-Crowned in Fortified Capital
"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its
institutions or its officeholders . . ."
--Mark Twain
by William Hughes
Washington, Jan. 20, 2005--Welcome to the quadrennial
circus: "The Presidential Inauguration." This was a $40
million show funded by fat cat contributors to the GOP.
Package deals for the four days of partying, including hotel
accommodations and tickets to one of the nine inauguration
balls, cost participants as much as $250,000. However, the
massive security operation for the re-crowning of George W.
Bush as President and Dick Cheney as V.P., also hit the
taxpayers with a $17.3 million bill.
After arriving early by train at Union Station, I made my
way to Pennsylvania Ave. & 4th Street, NW, on the north side
of the official parade route. The parade route ran for 1.7
miles from the Capitol to the White House. The ANSWER
coalition had secured a permit to stage a
counter-inauguration protest there. As an irony, the plaza
where they gathered to protest is named after John Marshall,
one of the greatest chief justices of the Supreme Court and
a champion of the US Constitution, who strongly believed in
the "sovereignty of the people."
Not since WWII has the nation's capital experienced such a
pervasive police/military presence, with over 13,000
cops/soldiers, from 60 different agencies, most in uniform,
and some armed with assault weapons.
Brian Becker, a national coordinator for ANSWER, revealed
how the permit rally process had been rigged by the
President's Inaugural Committee and the Interior Department
to exclude from Pennsylvania Ave. individuals who weren't on
a Republican Party-donor list. He said the GOP wanted to
"sanitize the coronation," and create the false image that
Bush & Cheney have "a green light" from the people to run
the country for four more years. He said they had to "file a
lawsuit" to get to the bottom of the matter.
Not since WWII has the nation's capital experienced such a
pervasive police/military presence, with over 13,000
cops/soldiers, from 60 different agencies, most in uniform,
and some armed with assault weapons. They patrolled the
skies in helicopters, the Potomac River with Coast Guard
vessels, and the streets on foot. They blocked off
pedestrian traffic and designated seven areas as "Free
Speech Zones." To get close to the Capitol itself, where the
swearing-in ceremony was held, required an ID pass, going
through metal detectors, gated checkpoints, passing around
police dogs, and being subjected to uncounted surveillance
cameras and a body search, too.
Police blamed 9/11 for all the extraordinary security
measures, but not everyone attending this affair, with the
temperatures hovering just above freezing, bought that
dubious excuse. The parade route on Pennsylvania Ave. was
made practically inaccessible to most protesters, especially
if they had supports for their signs or posters. The plan of
some activists to turn their backs on Bush and Cheney, as
they passed by in their limousines, didn't fully materialize
either. Many were blocked, via barricades and police lines,
from any possible viewing point.
Ramsey Clark, a former US Attorney General, spoke at the
ANSWER rally. He called for the "impeachment of Bush and
Cheney for high crimes and misdemeanors committed while in
office." Clark argued that the Bush Administration has
conducted "a war of aggression against the people of Iraq
that has taken over 100,000 lives." He said that under
International Law, and the precedents set at Nuremberg, Bush
deserves to be indicted by an international tribunal, as a
"war criminal."
To get close to the Capitol itself, where the swearing-in
ceremony was held, required an ID pass, going through metal
detectors, gated checkpoints, passing around police dogs,
and being subjected to uncounted surveillance cameras and a
body search, too.
A regime that has approved torture, repeatedly deceived the
public, imposed assorted police state laws on its citizens,
polluted the environment, cut taxes for the elite, exported
jobs overseas, shredded the Bill of Rights and destroyed
Iraq was literally being protected from experiencing the
justified outrage of its own people for its four years of
reckless wrongdoing. Everything that happened in D.C.
today--from the wasting of the taxpayers' money, to the
shenanigans with the rally permit process, to the arbitrary
corralling of the protesters--is connected to the evil
mindset of the Bush-Cheney Gang that has spilled the blood
of thousands of Iraqis and 1370 U.S. troops. They were all
sent to their deaths for lies.
There were many other anti-Bush demonstrations held around
the city during the swearing-in ceremony and official
parade. Some of the other sponsoring groups were: DAWN,
Critical Mass, Anarchist Resistance, the Green Party, Turn
Your Back on Bush, the National Mourning Day Project,
Redefeat Bush and Billionaires for Bush. There were reports,
too, of some arrests and that the police had used pepper
spray against a few of the protesters.
Additionally, as a result of this administration's abysmal
record on Constitutional issues, and its recent appointment
of the crypto-Likudnik Michael Chertoff as Czar of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), civil liberties will
remain under siege. Chertoff authored the Patriot Act.
Putting him in charge of DHS is like placing the fox in
charge of the henhouse. Also, he was the Rasputin behind
many of A.G. John Ashcroft's madcap schemes. I suspect that
a copy of every file now held on Americans by DHS will end
up sooner or later in the database of Israel's Mossad.
Finally, Sara Powell spoke up for the Palestinian people at
the ANSWER rally. She is the PR director for the highly
respected Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Magazine
(http://wrmea.com ), one of the most authoritative journals
in that specialty. Powell demanded a "Free Palestine." She
also exposed the fact that many voters in the recent
disputed election for a new president in Israeli-Occupied
Palestine were "disenfranchised." She predicted that the
presidential winning candidate, Mahmoud Abbas, will probably
be "marginalized" by the ruling Zionist clique in Israel.
(Powell told me that the next issue of the WRMEA will
spotlight the "disenfranchisement" issue.)
I sensed at this inauguration that a sea change has taken
place. Instead of the government being a servant of the
people, I see it emerging as a tyrant. And, representing all
of that collective evil are the prime subverters of the US
Constitution--George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
William Hughes, a Baltimore attorney, is the author of
Saying "No" to the War Party, which is available online. He
can be reached at mailto:liamhughes@comcast.net
*****
Al-Jazeerah
Mock Coffins and Jeers as Bush Sworn In
Fri Jan21 ,12 2005 : 21AM ET
By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Flag-draped coffins
and jeering anti-war protesters competed with pomp and
circumstance on Thursday at the inauguration of President
Bush along the snow-dusted, barricaded streets of central
Washington.
As the president's motorcade made its way down Pennsylvania
Avenue from the Capitol to the White House amid the tightest
security in inaugural history, thousands of protesters along
the parade route and nearby downtown streets booed, chanted
slogans and carried placards condemning Bush's policies at
home and abroad.
Some turned their back as the president drove slowly past.
Others yelled, "George Bush, you can't hide. We charge you
with genocide." Among the forest of protest signs, some read
"Blood is on your hands" and "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam."
Others called for electoral reform, rights, abortion
rights and the use of renewable energy.
"There are a lot of people dying overseas for nothing and
I'm here to get my voice heard," said Bill Coffelt, 40, an
engineer from Fairfax, Va.
Protesters also traded insults with the more numerous,
cheering Bush supporters, many of whom wore fur coats and
paid for the best viewing spots at the first inaugural
parade since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In one area, police briefly sought to disperse with pepper
spray demonstrators who hurled bottles, trash and snowballs
at officers while trying to break through a security fence
holding them back from the parade.
At least one snowball hit Vice President Dick Cheney's
limousine, and Bush's limousine sped up to get past the
commotion.
One group of protesters carried hundreds of mock coffins
along16 th Street, a downtown thoroughfare leading to the
White House, to remind Americans of the mounting casualties
in Iraq.
And an American flag was set alight just outside a security
checkpoint at13 th and Pennsylvania.
"It's beyond comprehension the damage this man has done,"
said Meredith Lair, 32, who just completed a doctorate in
history at Pennsylvania State University. "I think it's
horrifying what we're doing to Iraq," said Lair, who was
carrying a sign that read, "Mr. Bush, under my mittens I'm
giving you the finger."
ISOLATED ISSUES
Police said there were at least 13 arrests, two for
assaulting an officer and the rest for disorderly conduct or
other violations. One was a man who embarrassed police four
years ago by sneaking past security to get a handshake from
Bush. He did not get a chance for another grip this
inauguration. Police also scuffled with about 30 protesters
two streets away from the parade route, using pepper spray
and batons to disperse the group of self-styled anarchists,
who wore bandannas to hide their faces.
"He (Bush) says he's bringing freedom to the world, and
we're getting pepper-sprayed for our First Amendment rights.
That's kind of ironic," said 22-year-old Dustin, who works
for the National Institutes of Health and did not want to
give his full name.
Just outside the White House grounds, 17 protesters staged a
"die-in." After shouting a chant of "Stop the killing, stop
the war," they dropped to the pavement one by one as one of
them began reading a list of those killed in Iraq.
One spectator apparently found the act so credible that he
began administering CPR. Others were less sympathetic.
"I hope you don't get up. I hope you freeze your ass off,"
said another, who was among a group heading toward the
parade-viewing grandstands nearest the White House.
Throughout the city, thousands of police and military troops
were on patrol with bomb-sniffing dogs, and spectators had
to pass through metal detectors before attending any
inaugural events or heading to the parade.
Police sealed off 100 blocks around the White House and
parade route, barring all traffic except official security
and police cars.
Demonstration organizers had complained they were not being
given adequate access to protest, while Bush supporters were
granted prime locations along the parade route.
(additional reporting by Deborah Zabarenko, Randy Fabi,
Susan Heavey and JoAnne Allen)
*****
Late Protest Shattered Event's Relative Calm
78 Arrested After Adams Morgan Vandalism
By Manny Fernandez and Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 22, 2005; Page B01
An impromptu demonstration by a crowd spilling from a
"counter-inaugural ball" in Adams Morgan late Thursday
turned into one of the biggest Inauguration Day
disturbances, leaving windows smashed and nearly 80 people
arrested.
Self-described anarchists, fans who had attended the
punk-rock ball and passersby joined in a melee in the area
of 18th Street and Columbia Road NW, where police said they
spray-painted buildings with the red "A" anarchists use as
their symbol, threw a brick through the windshield of a
police vehicle and smashed out glass windows and doors at a
police substation and at Riggs Bank and Citibank branches.
"It is just ridiculous how some people conducted
themselves," Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said yesterday.
"It's not a reflection on all demonstrators. But a hard-core
group came to town and caused damage to property. . . . You
can't let them destroy the city. Nobody has a right to do that.
"They are just thugs and hoodlums who did that," Ramsey said.
Of 72 people arrested on misdemeanor charges of parading
without a license, 67 were released after paying a $50 fine,
and two were released but are required to appear in court
later. Three others were released yesterday after spending
the night in jail. Police said six juveniles also were
charged with curfew violations.
Damage resulting from the incident was estimated at $15,000,
police said.
The crowd of a couple hundred people was made up of
anarchists who had attended the ball and several inaugural
demonstrations earlier in the day, as well as people who
decided on a whim to join the noisy, late-night procession.
Police said the demonstrators were mostly in their early- to
mid-twenties and largely came from out of town.
Nathan Bladh, 21, a jeweler from Escondido, Calif., in town
to protest the inauguration, was outside the 18th Street NW
hostel where he was staying when the protesters streamed by.
"We thought it would fun to join in," he said.
A few minutes later, Bladh was kneeling in the snow, having
been arrested by police who surrounded the demonstration.
Bladh later paid a $50 fine. He also went to Superior Court
yesterday to support a friend who had been arrested, one of
the three people who appeared before Magistrate Judge
Richard H. Ringell.
Protesters said that police were aggressive and that some
officers used pepper spray on protesters who already had
been restrained. Police officials said they received no
reports of misconduct or internal affairs complaints. Police
Cmdr. Cathy Lanier, who supervises the department's special
operations division, said she had no choice but to make
arrests because the crowd had become rowdy and violent.
"This was a group of a couple hundred that wanted to rampage
through the streets of the city," Lanier said.
The incident was the last of at least three confrontations
between police and demonstrators Thursday.
They were provoked in large part by demonstrators who
identified themselves as anarchists. Throughout rallies and
marches protesting Bush's second swearing-in, the anarchists
were more aggressive than their mostly peaceful antiwar peers.
The late-night vandalism occurred in an ethnic and cultural
hub of Washington far removed from the downtown symbols of
government. But one marcher said the property destruction,
particularly at Citibank and the police substation, was done
for political purposes to protest businesses and
institutions responsible for exploitation and oppression.
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) criticized
protesters for damaging property in an area of town that is
largely liberal and diverse.
"Adams Morgan is not associated with the Republican Party,"
he said. "We are not the home of George W. Bush."
The trouble began shortly after 11 p.m., after the ball
ended. The show, a benefit concert at Calvary Methodist
Church at 1459 Columbia Rd. NW organized by Washington area
activist group Positive Force DC, featured Anti-Flag and
other acts.
The demonstrators marched from the church. A participant
said they were heading for the Constitution Ball at the
Washington Hilton Hotel on Connecticut Avenue NW, scheduled
to end at 1 a.m. Some of the marchers carried tin-can
torches, and they held banners with such slogans as, "The
people of the world say no to war."
Protesters unfurled a large banner reading, "From D.C. to
Iraq, with occupation comes resistance," from a building
with a Starbucks on the ground floor.
Carniel Klirs, 19, a sophomore at American University who
was among those arrested, said marchers switched directions
several times to thwart police. "When we saw cops to the
left, we turned right," said Klirs, who paid $50 and was
released. "When they were ahead of us, we turned back."
Staff writer Henri Cauvin and staff researcher Bobbye Pratt
contributed to this report.
*****
Weekly Standard
Freewheeling Protesters
From the January 31, 2005 issue: Critical Mass comes to the
inauguration.
by Matt Labash
01/31/2005, Volume 010, Issue 19
YOU'VE GOT TO HAND IT to our political players. Even with
the onset of second-term ho-hums, everyone did his part to
convey the momentousness of what some wags call the
"peaceful non-transfer of power." Republicans turned out for
the inauguration in cashmere-swaddled, mink-stoled finery,
dutifully forcing smiles as the president they returned to
office cast doubt on their good judgment by showcasing a
Lawrence-Welk singer crooning the John Ashcroft-penned "Let
the Eagle Soar."
Then there were those pesky protesters. During every
convention or inauguration or political-pageant-of-the-day,
they go at it once more, as though anyone besides their
group-housemates cares. It's as if each side sits down for a
quadrennial poker game, the protesters saying to the
establishment parties, "I'll see your hollow ceremony, and
raise you a gesture of futility."
There's a rote, Groundhog Day quality to it all. It can
leave you itching for something more: "the untamed fire of
freedom," in the words of our president. And to a bourgeois
reporter in a buttoned-down town, there is no greater symbol
of freedom than the bike messenger. What respectable citizen
among us hasn't wanted to know the feeling of weaving around
cars, barreling down sidewalks, wearing fingerless gloves,
and shooting heroin in the park?
Happily, the inaugural protests provided a way to combine my
aspirations with my obligations. I signed up with the
Critical Mass bike protest team. Originating in San
Francisco in the early '90s, they are a loose confederation
of cyclists who commandeer city streets and generally wreak
havoc with traffic. Critical Mass's founding fathers
conceived this action as an environmental rebuke to the
automobile. But it's become another all-purpose wrench in
the grievance-group toolbox. As Nani Wepaste, my
Critical-Mass rabbi, puts it, "People are so individualistic
these days. Critical Mass is whatever you want it to be."
A few days before the inauguration, I meet Wepaste during
Media Day at the protesters' convergence center, a decrepit
warehouse where demonstrations are plotted by everyone from
the anarchists to the Radical Cheerleaders to the Keys of
Resistance (a group that dresses like 1940s-era secretaries
and bangs out dictated letters of dissent to elected
officials on antique typewriters). While protesters
invariably bemoan the nefarious influence of corporate
media, they tend to be media whores themselves, going so far
as to throw media open houses, complete with refreshments.
The fiftysomething Wepaste looks the part of the
revolutionary, with her Che beret and hemp messenger bag.
But in reality, Wepaste (real name: Nancy Shia) is a lapsed
Republican who spends her days poring over
government-hearing transcripts for the Federal News Service.
Such a gig affords her occasional proximity to the
president, whom she dislikes for hijacking what was once her
party, the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower, the latter of
whom warned against the ascent of the military-industrial
complex. As a photographer, she takes full advantage of her
proximity, incorporating Bush photos into her protest artwork.
As we stand in the convergence center's art space, she shows
me some. "Look at this one," she says, pointing to a photo
of Bush blinking with one eye at half-mast, the eyelid
fluttering over a rolling pupil. "He looks like he's high on
crack; took it at the National Press Club," she boasts.
Before our ride, I tell her I think we need a team name. I
try out the Unicorns, the very symbol of priapic virility,
which she doesn't like, then the Fuzzbusters, which she
thinks is "too confrontational." She doesn't want to get
arrested, as many of her cohorts did two years ago, when
D.C. police, in a rare display of cunning, provided
bike-protesters an escort, then herded many of them into a
park, arresting several. "Let's stick with Critical Mass,"
she says. She's the boss. But since she had said the group
was whatever I wanted it to be, I stick with the Unicorns.
So at dawn on Inauguration Day, two dozen or so Unicorns
mount up at Union Station. "Let's roll," someone says, Todd
Beamer-esquely. I am comfortable on my steed, having dragged
my own Trek Navigator hybrid mountain bike in from the
suburbs. But when we reach the first intersection, I make
the foolish mistake of stopping at a red light, and am
nearly plowed through by another rider. "Why'd you stop?"
she says. "We're not supposed to?" I ask, so innocent.
Another Unicorn yells, with Zen-master calm, "You don't
stop. It's an uninterrupted flow of bodies, beautiful,
unfolding, and natural."
We make a pass at an armed services recruiting station,
where Wepaste chants a spirited "Hell no / We won't go / We
won't fight for Texaco." But it falls on deaf ears. Or no
ears, more accurately. It's too early, and the recruiting
station is closed. So we roll on through the badlands of
northeast D.C. We're not in the saddle 10 minutes before
Wepaste bellows out another war cry: "Hot chocolate on New
York Avenue!" The Unicorns look like a marauding band of
bike messengers, but it's not packages we're delivering,
it's a list of demands. Foremost among them: What do we
want? Hot cocoa! When do we want it? Now!
Sated from the Swiss Miss with marshmallows, we call the
morning-ride quits after stopping at a Malcolm X Park
protest featuring flag-draped coffins and the D.C. Labor
Chorus, as pleasing to the ear as their name suggests. I
meet Sketch, who's part of our crew, and whom I mistake for
an anarchist, since he wears a bandanna over his face. But
he's not one. He simply attends a lot of these rides and
wants to maintain anonymity and not risk overexposure. He
doesn't want to be known as the Lindsay Lohan of the protest
movement. I offer to take Sketch and Wepaste to Starbucks,
but Sketch will only drink "fair-trade coffee," preferably
shade-grown, though he's not quite sure what it means. We go
to Caribou instead--the trendy chain of coffee houses
unfairly rumored to have terror links (First Islamic Bank of
Bahrain is its majority owner).
I point out to Nani that we seem mainly to be hitting
friendly spots. "Don't worry," she says. "We'll get to you
guys." (Indeed, one of the protesters cheerily tells me
they've scheduled a future action targeting my neocon
war-mongering colleagues at The Weekly Standard. She even
offers a sneak-preview of the chant: "Hey Bill Kristol you
can't hide / We charge you with genocide.")
We go our separate ways for a few hours, then meet up again
for an afternoon ride, this time, down to the inaugural
parade route. Wepaste is still nominally in charge--though
nobody's ever really in charge of Critical Mass. I've spent
the afternoon reading CM theory on the Internet, so when
fellow Unicorn Jack throws up his hand to halt traffic, I'm
wowed. "Awesome corking, Jack. Really textbook," I say.
"What's that?" he asks. I explain it's the official term for
intersection-blocking maneuvers. He nods appreciatively,
explaining how he puts a little sugar on top by shooting a
thumbs-up to motorists afterwards. "You're like a goodwill
ambassador," I suggest. "We're all ambassadors," he says,
modestly.
Everything's not sweetness and light, however. As we swerve
around cars and ride median strips, some cops don't seem to
appreciate it. I'm a law-and-order guy ordinarily, but after
suffering too many automated-camera tickets at the hands of
the glorified meter-maids that staff the D.C. police, I have
only one thing to say to them: Let's dance, bulls. An SUV
pulls up behind me, and starts blipping his siren, causing
me to cry out, "I've got a Smokey on my tail." But as we
lose him in a gridlock slalom, nobody raises an
eyebrow--perhaps they just don't understand the '70s CB
radio argot I picked up from too many BJ and the Bear episodes.
Ride with the CM'ers long enough, and you'll inevitably get
a chance to lead, since they tend to be guided only by
instinct, like a herd of feral cats. My shot came toward the
end of the parade route. Hanging a Louie onto 18th Street,
heading down a hill toward Pennsylvania Avenue, I yell to
Wepaste that there's no cops blocking the tributary feeding
into the parade route. "Matt's leading us!" she yells,
providing my proudest moment as a Unicorn.
But as I let off the brake and aim my bike full-tilt in the
direction of some oblivious drum majors, I feel suddenly
abandoned. I swivel my head, and see my teammates holding
back, circling warily. "What's wrong?" I scream. "We made
it--we're in!" Wepaste shakes her head as slow-to-react
mounted police close the gap, and start pushing us back.
"It's a trap," she says, ever the seasoned veteran.
We take off for the end of the parade route, passing a
parked Texaco float, which fires everyone up again (oil is
bad). A high school marching band from West Monroe, La., is
so close we could touch the marchers, but instead of
throwing things or hurling invectives, some CM'ers, who've
now stopped their bikes, take their cameras out, and start
clicking photos. Earlier, Wepaste had reprimanded me when I
asked their term for the scrambling maneuver we'd executed:
"You look for too much order," she says, "You have to live
with the chaos. Enjoy it."
But perhaps there is something to be said for formality,
ceremony, squareness. For one thing is clear as I watch my
fellow Unicorns grow tame and saucer-eyed the closer they
get to the inaugural spectacle: Everyone loves a parade.
Matt Labash is senior writer at The Weekly Standard.
*****
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608
|
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| | From: | archaeopteryx | | Subject: | Report from the Choir | | Date: | Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:10:04 -0500 |
|
|
| (from a mailing list....)
A friend shared this blog. The author is anonymous, although it is
apparently a choral musician. The pseudonym at the end, plus some of the
specific remarks, suggests that the person is female.
Friday, January 21, 2005
I, Witless to History
As promised, here is my on-the-spot report of The Fifty-Fifth Presidential
Inaugural Prayer Service, held this morning at The Washington National
Cathedral.
First, my assessment of security. The choir had to arrive at 7:45, so that
we could be safely escorted through in plenty of time to eat our muffins,
warm up, and get to our places. Once we were all gathered at the College of
Preachers, a separate building from the main Cathedral, we marched up the
hill to a side entrance, where we were to stow any bags or packages that we
had brought. Then we had to march back outside, aaaalllllll the way around
the building to the main West entrance, where we could be magnetometized
and wanded before entering the building. Then we were allowed to proceed to
the choir room, where our muffins were waiting.
The choir room, which is just inside the entrance where we had first stowed
our bags.
Our bags, which we still had free access to, with NO ONE WAITING TO WAND OR
MAGNETOMETIZE US.
Should any one of us taken it upon ourselves to hide, say, an atomic weapon
in our Hello Kitty lunch pail, it would have been a pretty simple thing, I
should think.
Otherwise, the SS (Secret Service) took every opportunity they could to
make us stand erect with our arms outstretched so they could rub their
wands all over our bodies. Yes, it's JUST as homoerotic as it sounds.
Several of the choir men commented that they had had many fantasies that
began just that way.
Fun Fact for the day: The leading health complaint of Secret Service
officers is bladder infections, because once they're on duty they're not
even allowed to take pee breaks!
We took our places in the Great Choir shortly before 10'clock. For those
unfamiliar with the National Cathedral, the Great Choir is a little
cordoned-off section nearest the altar, separate from the main church,
which is where most of today's action took place. Fortunately, I was
positioned in just such a way that I had a perfect view of the front rows
of the nave, which is where the President's family was seated.
George H.W. and Bar were already in place when the choir arrived. Of
course, I've already sung for THEM, in 1998 at the University of Miami. I'm
certain they would have remembered, had I been able to chat them up a bit.
Bar was wearing a black dress with a black-and-white houndstooth jacket,
and of course her signature pearls. HW wore the Republican uniform of the
day, a dark suit, though he spiced it up with a pale blue shirt and red
tie. My 1998 assessment still holds true: she looks great in person, he
looks like the Cryptkeeper.
Five minutes AFTER the service was to supposed to begin, the JennaBarbaras
traipsed in. JennaBarbara One (the brunette) looked lovely and poised, and
a sweet little teal Audrey Hepburn-esque number. JennaBarbara Two (the
other one), in winter white, looked, as she always does, a bit...well,
dirty. She certainly showed too much cleavage for church, and that's a
fact. At least her hair was brushed, not like at yesterday's swearing in
ceremony when it was secured by a RUBBER BAND and looked all kookity. The
JennaBarbaras weren't hungover THAT I COULD TELL, but I imagine by now
they're pretty good at spritzing a bit of perfume in their mouths, pinching
their cheeks and sallying forth to meet the world.
The JennaBarbaras were followed in by the Cheneys. Dick wore a dark suit
with dark mauve tie. Lynn wore a Norwegian Blue suit accompanied,
unfortunately, by MATCHING EYE SHADOW. Dick, as always, lurched along like
the Hunchback of Notre Dame and looked as if he begrudged every breath he
took.
G.W. and Laura were the last to enter, he in a dark suit with puce tie, and
she in a lovely pale pink suit. She really CAN look elegant when she wants
to, and I have to tell you that the camera doesn't do her justice. I always
think she has a plump face when I see her on tv or in photographs, but she
really has quite strong cheek bones and a nicely defined jawline.
The service began with the singing of "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee"" (all
sang except Dick), followed by Reverend Billy Graham's opening Prayer. He
is on a walker, and had to be helped to the podium, but he still has a
fierce, Charlton-Heston-in-the-second-half-of-The-Ten-Commandments look
about him. His hair is so white it glows, his voice is strong, and I do
believe he could whup some ass if he really had to. (I do wish he'd whup
some sense into that son of his, but that's a topic for another time). The
National Anthem was then sung, and then we all sat down for the parade of
multiculturalism:
The first lesson, read in Hebrew by Rabbi Mort Yolkut (A Jew!)
A prayer by Bishop G.E. Patterson of the Church of God (An African-American!)
A Psalm led by Reverend Luis Cortes, President of Nueva Esperanza, Inc. (A
Latino!)
A reading by the Metropolitan Herman, Orthodox Archbishop of Washington (A
Greek!)
A reading by Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore (A Catholic!)
Prayers by all of the above, plus Cardinal McCarrick of Washington,
(another Catholic!), Archbishop Demetrios of New York (another Greek!) ,
and Imam Yahya Hendi of Georgetown University (gasp! A Muslim!).
The sermon, by Rev. Mark Craig of Highland Park United Methodist Church in
Dallas, was some claptrap about living every day to the fullest, and then
degenerated into a coy re-wording of Bush's speech yesterday, you know,
spreading freedom throughout the world, yadda yadda yadda.
The choir then sang "The King of Love My Shepherd Is," the fifth verse of
which was my solo verse, written just for me, and JennaBarbara talked ALL
THE WAY THROUGH. I can tell you one thing, if we chilluns ever acted up in
church, Mother Rubble would have had us outside getting spanked so fast, it
would've made your head spin! Seems to me a good whack every now and again
might do those girls a world of good.
Shortly thereafter, one of the boy choristers lost his muffins in a most
ungainly way (apparently, he had eaten lots of cherry Danish). Bless his
heart, he had no sooner retched than he was right back up, ready to sing.
But THAT SOUND, and the SMELL, it's a wonder the lot of us didn't have one
of those chain-reaction vomit-offs you're always hearing about.
So then we sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (overlooking a pile of fresh vomit).
The only other dignitaries I was able to pick out were Ruth Bader Ginsberg,
who I see EVERYWHERE, and John Ashcroft, who practically fell over himself
trying to shake Billy Graham's hand.
Most hopeful portent of the day: Reverend Craig, amidst the claptrap and
political shilling, managed to let us know that God actually DOES love
Hindus and Moslems and Buddhists and Jews, right in line with the Gospel
reading, Matthew 5:43-48:
You have heard it said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be children of your Father in Heaven; for he makes his sun
rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on
the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you
have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only
your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even
the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect , therefore, as your heavenly Father
is perfect.
Most troubling portent: The singing of the obscure second verse of the
National Anthem, which reads, in part (emphasis mine): "Then conquer we
must, when our cause it is just."
Spreading freedom, indeed!
posted by Teenage Bamm-Bamm @ 3:21 PM 0 comments
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