August 2008 Archives

It's been three years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and, improbably, the city is bracing itself for the possibility that Tropical Storm Gustav will become a hurricane again and swing their way.

This time, the city is better prepared. Plans are in place to evacuate sick, elderly and poor residents as soon as today if Gustav stays on course for the Gulf Coast. (The Saints have already marched out.) The Army Corps of Engineers is testing the Harvey Floodgate and Pump Station to make sure it's ready for the storm surge, although experts are still worried about the levees.

For those who decide to evacuate, there is more help. The National Guard is in place to help coordinate, hopefully keeping the highways from becoming as clogged as they did in 2005, and A technologically adept couple took the state's contraflow maps and created an online version using Googlemaps. And KGLA-TV, New Orleans' Telemundo affiliate, will broadcast storm updates in Spanish to make sure the large influx of Latinos who moved to the area to help with Katrina recovery.

Three years on, a lot of good has happened in New Orleans, but Hurricane Katrina's effects are still evident on the city, and recovery continues even as most of the country has forgotten about it. Let's hope Gustav doesn't add further injury to that insult.

With all the political news coming from the mile-high city this week, plenty of newsworthy topics have fallen through the cracks. Among them is MyClyns (pronounced "My Cleanse"), a disinfectant spray that Denver purchased in bulk for its 10,000-strong police force for the DNC, much of which was imported from around the state for this week alone.

The spray, which can be sprayed directly in the eyes and mouth, as well as on open wounds, is said to produce a 99.99% reduction in HIV, hepatitis-C, staph, and several other pathogens, making it a useful tool if you get caught in a violent riot with a bunch of protesters with infectious diseases.

"As the only personal-protection spray that can be used directly in the eyes, nose and mouth, we are proud that MyClyns can play a part in keeping officers safe," said Joel Ivers, CEO of Union Springs Pharmaceuticals, the company that makes MyClyns, in a release.

It's nice to know that Denver's finest are protected against such an unfortunate prospect, but I wonder: would they share their rations with mere citizens bloodied in battle?

At this point, St. Paul is unprotected by MyClyns, though the company is still trying to convince officials in that city to stock up before the Republican National Convention there next week.

We'll be in St. Paul covering the events from the ground, so we'll be sure to let you know if we see any cans of MyClyns.

(I'm not holding my breath, but I'm also not particularly worried about it.)

[Image: A can of MyClyns from the company's website]

The anger came out in force yesterday at the Denver Coliseum at a free concert sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against War. Headlining the event was Rage Against the Machine, a band whose name does double duty as an order. The concert began at 11:00 in the morning, and featured State Radio, The Coup and the Flobots as opening acts. In between sets, Iraq Veterans Against the War were introduced to the crowd and Jello Biafra (formerly of the Dead Kennedys, who he described as being all-but Republicans) was the event's MC. Ron Kovic of Born on the Fourth of July fame also made an appearance.

While it can't be denied that the frenzied crowd was there for the music, the intention of the event was to lay the ground for a protest march from the Coliseum to the Pepsi Center. In between The Coup and Flobots, the attendees were trained in how to march peacefully. With one person on stage playing cop (and booed), the organizers showed how the marchers that were willing to get arrested should act in the event that the march was shut down. In the event that happened, a veteran would play taps, which would be the signal for marchers so inclined to sit and await their arrest. The rest of the marchers would then follow folks bearing banners and vacate the disputed premises.

Nonviolence was stressed to the degree that attendees were asked to wrap their arms around anyone about to get violent. And this stress on nonviolence felt pretty warranted, considering the frenzy that Rage Against the Machine was able to create in the crowd. Once they hit the stage, the floor of the coliseum erupted, and remained an undulating mass of individuals jumping up and down, fists in the air. Following an encore capped off by Rage and the crowd yelling "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" (from "Killing in the Name"), the crowd streamed out. Some got in their cars and drove away. Others started marching.

As we walked from the Coliseum, the marchers were kept on one side of the street, with the other half reserved for police on bicycles, motorcycles and in vans. March organizers made sure that the protesters stayed on their side and didn't impede the police's progress.

The first half of the 3.3 miles from the Coliseum wound through a pretty desolate stretch of Denver, whose primary businesses were auto repair and parts shops. As we walked by with banners flung, stereo in a shopping cart pumping out NWA's "F*ck the Police," and chants reverberating through the crowd, employees stood outside to watch. Some of them held up their grease-black hands in a peace sign. Others opened their doors to protestors to get much-needed water. One woman came out of her house with a garden hose to spray and cool down appreciative marchers. At one point, Latino workers came out of their shops with signs and banners advocating open immigration, which was greeted by sympathy chants from the marchers (in Spanish).

The only heckler I saw was a large topless man waving a McCain t-shirt from his balcony. Marchers responded with shouts of "Put on your shirt" and "Jump!"

Crowds were larger as the march hit downtown, and our escort of cops on bicycles and motorcycles was supplemented by cops in riot gear. Some holding three- or four-foot long batons over an inch in diameter, others holding machine guns with what I assume (and hope) had plastic bullets. Still others had what I guess were tear gas guns, with a barrel the diameter of an aerosol can. And yes, there were also police with video cameras at various spots along the route (a detail certainly not lost on the marchers who hid their faces with bandannas and masks). As the concentration of police in riot gear increased the marchers broke into the Darth Vader and Stormtroopers' theme music from Star Wars.

And how big was this protest? Depends who you ask. Ten thousand according to Iraq Veterans Against War. The Denver Post describes "as many as 3,500" and leads with its article describing "hundreds of marchers." The AP estimates "generally around 2,000."

What it meant visually was between two and three blocks of protestors (when they were tightly packed) on one side of the street, with more loosely spaced police in the other lane. Finally -- after walking past vans filled with riot squad shields as the march neared its end -- the crowd arrived at the barrier of the Pepsi Center to present a letter from Iraq Veterans Against War to Democratic and Obama campaign officials. The events that transpired then can be read about at the Iraq Veterans Against War web site.

This account was written by Bobble, whose previous post on the geography of the DNC and its implications can be read here.

She was really nice and extremely gracious. Very excited like everybody else to be there and witness history.

When she found out my t-shirt was from Kenneth Cole Productions, she told me to give him a shout out. In like two minutes she told me how much she loved the Kenneth Cole for the company's ad campaigns and the man's work with amfAR.

So Kenneth Cole peeps, here's your Gayle King shout-out.

Forty-five years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech that went into the American canon as I Have a Dream.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'[...]

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Doctor King's fight isn't won by any means, and it's naive to believe that a political act, the nomination of Barack Obama, will exorcise the demons of racism in their entirety. Political acts can do many things, but they do not, as a rule, in an instant enlighten or transform complex societies.

Barack Obama could very well lose this election. But today, even as many Americans still stand in disbeliief and wonder at history unfolding before our eyes, America will do something new. And if he wins, as polls consistently indicate he will, my little 4-year-old niece, and children across America, will grow up in a world where it is unremarkable and normal that a black man is President.

Will that in itself be revolutionary? Maybe, maybe not. But if revolutions are defined as abolishing one perception of normalcy and replacing it with another, then the true revolution in our nation will only begin today. Where it will actually happen is in the living rooms of the nation, as night after night, a President Obama will speak to us, and for us, and it will be the most perfectly normal thing in the world.

This isn't trash, but compostable waste that can -- and presumably will -- be given back to the earth and used in small-scale farming.

Even the plastic cups and utensils.

That's because these products were specially produced from organic materials, making the Big Tent at the Democratic National Convention, aka blogging HQ, a revolution in not just politics and the media, but for the environmental cause as well.

I've used these plates, cups, and forks for several meals during my time in Denver, and I assure you: they work, and they're guilt-free.

The natural beauty and spiritual history of the Laksman Jhula/Tapovan area of Rishikesh make it a popular destination for pilgrimage. As a result, the so-called "Foothills of the Himalayas" sees thousands of tourists a year, and also sees its fair share of plastic and non-degradable waste sometimes thoughtlessly thrown right into the sacred Ganges. The rapid development of shops and hotels catering to the pilgrims heightens the environmental problem. Enter "Clean Himilaya," which spontaneously arose roughly eight years ago to protect that delicate eco-system from pollution. From Asia Times Online:

"..."The Clean Himalaya campaign started as a hobby,' said Susan Eilers, one of the project leaders, who left her home in Vancouver 28 years ago to work in India as a nun. 'We were concerned about the amount of garbage being dumped in the streets, in the Ganges and in the [Himalayan] ravines and decided to do something about it."'

"... Combining an eclectic workforce of spirituality students, Mumbai-based media professional Amit Bhatnagar, long-term tourists and local businessmen, the 'Clean Himalaya' project reflects the diverse population living in Rishikesh, which means 'Lord of the senses' in Sanskrit.

"The project was launched in 2000 in the busy Laksman Jhula-Tapovan area of the town, with local Jitendra Kumar as the founder-manager, and although it began more as a 'devotional response' rather than environmental activism, it has since grown into a more professional operation, said Eilers.

Last year "Clean Himilaya" won a World Bank, India Development Marketplace Award of $20,000 towards funding the projects continued expansion. The rise of Himalayan eco-tourism also augurs well for the furture of Rishikesh. More information here.

[Image: Clean Himalaya]

Members of Recreate '68, The Troops Out Now Coalition, Unconventional Action, and the People's Law Collective give a press conference informing the public of the previous day's actions and abuse perpetrated by the police, as well as the Denver Police Department's refusal to honor the lawful permit held by Recreate '68. Pepper spray was used by the police, and according to the spokesperson featured in this video footage, so was unwarranted violence.

After Hillary Clinton's hugely successful speech last night, it's hard to imagine that any earnest Hillary supporter would still be trumpeting her "rightful" place as the official Democratic nominee. She said exactly what Obama supporters, and many Democrats in general, have been wanting her to say for months: Don't support me, support our party; and for God's sake, don't let John McCain become president.

And yet, this morning, I came upon this group of women apparently keeping hope alive. But when a man next to me started shouting, "Go McCain!!! YEAH!!!" the alleged Clintonites started cheering, shaking maracas, and generally betraying themselves as McCain supporters in disguise.

In politics, especially circus politics like this, things aren't always what they seem.

Yesterday started as the day from Hell-ay but by the time I took this photograph, it was all worth it.

It was AWESOME!

Everybody and their mother who had a pass to the Pepsi Center was there. I had gotten a pass to go to the floor during her speech but every singe delegate and somebody who could be there was there. So people like me were completely blocked and turned away from seeing the Senator up close and personal.

I ran from the floor to the rafters and the nobodies like me had packed every single aisle and standing area they could get to. I pleading with one of the fire marshalls to let me get a peek into the podium and it was literally from outside in the hall and looking into the center that I took this photograph. And it wasn't even with a conventional camera. I took this with my camcorder.

I did everything I could to get into the arena center but failed miserably. So I ran back down to the bowels of the center, the basement area they had set up for independent media and bloggers. Ironic that you come from so far away to cover live a convention and you end up in a room with a TV set.

Still, for us bloggers the advantage of being all together in one room is that we can do face to face what we normally do through our blogs : We get to have a conversation and a discussion of what's happening right there and at right that time.

The big question last night was not "What does Hillary want?" but "What is Hillary Going To Do?"

If you have been following the traditional media's narrative about the Democratic Party, you'd be hard pressed not to stumble upon one article or another stocking the fabled millions of disgruntled "Clintonistas" and their alleged anti-Obama campaign. You know the one? The plot that Hillary allegedly had approved tacitly? The plan to hijack the convention and wrest the nomination away from Obama?

Well, Hillary put that one to sleep with "The Speech."

Oh.

My.

Blog.

It was amazing. She hit all the right notes and impress a whole contingency of bloggers who were against her nomination, myself included.

The moment that did it for me was when she asked whether her supporters were there for her or wether they were there for the country. 

WOW.

That summed up everything I had been writing on my blog and commenting with people for weeks. Do you want to vote for a man who will continue the war, deny health care for the people who need it most and who has vowed to wrest reproductive rights away from women; or do you want to vote for the candidate that can bring change to the country not by himself but with the political might of a renewed Democratic Party?

Hillary won every single moment on that podium.

She also won back this one New Yorker who had been disheartened by the tone and the rhetoric of her primary campaign.

Kudos to Hillary Clinton.

As we say in the blogosphere, the PWNED the night.