Ray D. Goes Undercover in the Big Apple
Ah, Paris, who could forget Paris! This past D-Day anniversary, a few thousand "peace" protestors upset that George W. Bush was in town and determined to vent their ire got the surprise of their life when one courageous French blogger, Erik S. of No Pasaran! whipped out a sign and an American flag right in front of their love carnival and proceeded to sing America the Beautiful as Ray D. of Medienkritik snapped away photos. The two bloggers were escorted away for expressing unacceptable pro-American sentiments and temporarily detained by the French police for disturbing the "peace." An American group named ProtestWarrior.com admiringly noted the D-Day disturbance and promptly linked to Medienkritik's account of the episode.
Fast-forward to this weekend: With hundreds-of-thousands of lefties in NYC to demonstrate against the Republican National Convention, Ray D. and Joe N., a regular from the comments section, couldn't pass up a prime new opportunity to disturb the "peace." So the two accompanied a counter-demonstration organized by ProtestWarrior. And once again, Medienkritik went deep into hostile territory to bring you the exclusive photos and accounts of the arrests, the mayhem and the stunned protestors, appalled that anyone might dare interfere with their benign, magnanimous and loving attempts to rescue the world from the clutches of the neo-con world-conspiracy. Here are the first photos to whet your appetites:
Peace protesters in action...can't you just feel the love?
Give peace a chance! And if that doesn't work, riot, punch, spit and spray mace at anyone who disagrees!
Enjoy! More soon, stay tuned for part 2...
UPDATE: Part 2, featuring lots more pics, is now online, don't miss it! And here's another posting on Ray's NYC visit: "What's a Hungry Anti-Globalization Protestor to Do?"
(Photos by Ray D.)
From this day to the ending of the world,
but you in it shall be remembered —
You few, you happy few, you band of brothers...
And gentlemen in Europe now abed
shall think themselves accurst they were not here...
Posted by: Erik S | August 30, 2004 at 09:55 AM
Hallo Ray D.
übertreibst Du nicht ein wenig, wenn Du die Anti-Bush Demonstranten in NYC mit generell "lefties" bezeichnest?
Posted by: nur so | August 30, 2004 at 01:11 PM
@ Nur so
"übertreibst Du nicht ein wenig, wenn Du die Anti-Bush Demonstranten in NYC mit generell "lefties" bezeichnest?"
Aber das sind sie: lefties! Es spielt keine Rolle ob sie ehmalige Rockstars sind (Springsteen) oder vorsitzende der Deutsche Gruene Partei. Ihre Aufgabe ist klar: Nieder mit den USA und einer kompetative Weltwirtschaft.
Posted by: George M | August 30, 2004 at 02:29 PM
Lefties ?
Wahrscheinlich ähnlich wie hier. Allerlei linke Gruppen sowie meist auch die Gewerkschaften rufen zur Demo auf und organisieren sie. Sonst käme kaum einer. Natürlich sind das " lefties " , wobei ein guter Anteil aus Nichtsahnenden , Kindern und Schülern bis 18 Jahre besteht.
Posted by: Wolfgang | August 30, 2004 at 03:02 PM
Wolfgang:
The also had perhaps a hundred press releases that they called 'a call to action' - they have their own language for most of that stuff too! Even the journalists who follow them have become so used to it, that they use the same words!
The lefties auch möglicherweise gehabt hundert Pressekommuniqué, die sie 'einen Anruf zur Tätigkeit' nannten - sie haben ihre eigene Sprache für die meisten dieses Sachen auch!
Die Journalisten, die ihnen folgen, also verwendet zu ihm, das geworden, das sie die gleichen Wörter verwenden!
Posted by: Joe N. | August 30, 2004 at 03:15 PM
Lefties?
Das waren ganz normale Familien, die teilweise bei der letzten Wahl Replublican gestimmt haben. Mein Bruder war auch dabei (mit Kind). Der ist bestimmt kein Leftie.
-Vic
Posted by: Vic | August 30, 2004 at 03:21 PM
Pssst Vic - Du störst sonst den Frieden!
Posted by: Bernd Lohmi | August 30, 2004 at 03:34 PM
Vic - Some folks there were entirely sincere and not 'pros' - but MANY MANY MANY of them do protest for a living. Every issue you can dream of had a sign and some college kid in a whacky costume.
If you were there, you would see immediately how much they're against free speech, and really are terminally angry. They advocate things that they wouldn't have dreamt of a few years ago, but since the US is doing them, they demand a rapid reversal - nation building, afghan war, blaming Bush for affairs with Europeans, Bush believing in God, a whole panaple of things. It was far starker than you might think. 'End the 9/11 cover up' and 'Bush knew' was all over the place. A lot of them seem to have given up on the 'illegitimate election' rant, but i'm sure it will return on November 2nd.
Everyone's left oriented pet cause was there as "'such and such' AND 'lick bush'" - no factory farming, 'testing is not teaching', 'charter schools are segregation'... you name it.
It was an unitelligable circus of anger and hatred. You also had the usual hatred of authority stuff about the police, one of whole was knocked out rescuing a protester who got stuck rapelling off of the Plaza Hotel.
Posted by: Joe N. | August 30, 2004 at 03:49 PM
I would say the overwhelming majority of the protesters were left-wing, especially the ones who punched, spit on, sprayed mace at, insulted, shouted-down and ripped signs away from members of ProtestWarrior no more than a few feet from me. (Now that is what I call tolerance and respect for others freedom of speech!)
If you are trying to convince yourself that the protestors represented mainstream America, you are living in a fantasy world.
---Ray D.
Posted by: Ray D. | August 30, 2004 at 03:52 PM
But there were 'hundreds of thousands' of them, Ray! How can that many be wrong.
BTW, thak you for the photo gallery, particularly the one with the swastika. It wouldn't be a proper protest rally without a Bush swastika poster carried by one of the tolerant. It also wouldn't be the same without pacifists beating up conservatives.....
Posted by: Don | August 30, 2004 at 03:56 PM
Das ist der Beweis, das auch Amerikaner (US) auch antiamerikanisch sein können.
Posted by: Jan | August 30, 2004 at 04:25 PM
Berndt - Vic is free to disturb the peace, he knows that well enough that he's among people who might disagree with him, but not mistreat him personally for making a sincere comment, unlike say, this guy yesterday who was yelling at me an inch from my face carrying a sign saying 'stop the draft'.
He appeared to be in his mid 40's, and maybe he was worried about being drafted, who knows...
(By the way, there IS NO draft!) It was a printed sign, and there were quite a few marchers them. I wonder how they rationalized that.
One very disgraceful sight was the way they treated the occasional lone veteran, some of who were carrying small hand-made signs. From across the march, a protester would come up with what seemed like 'prepackaged' rants, knowing that a few of these guys would be there. The two that I heard were just to strange to remember. Both had 'what did YOU do for your country?' and 'those dead people are YOUR fault'. Both of the rants I saw were pointed at men who looked old enough to be Vietnam War veterans.
Posted by: Joe N. | August 30, 2004 at 04:41 PM
Ray & Joe N
Oh come on....you two are being kind. You act as if these people have brains and can think..
The one comment I enjoyed this morning was reading about the question asked to some women carrying one of the flag drapped coffins. They were asked if one of the coffins were for the 3,000 who died on 9 11.
Their reply was they were not sure. Someone from the organization who asked them carry it would have to answer that question.
I have to love the left. It is too bad trans-atlantic airline prices are still so high. If they were not. think of the money one could make say in Berlin and paris in booking "a fun weekend of protest in NYC'. Of course, as I am sure a lot of these citizens could not actually afford this on their unemployment checks, the SPD would have funded it under some for of culture exchange program.
Something called spreading German utopia of social justice and the welfare state to the land of the great satan..
Posted by: Joe | August 30, 2004 at 05:51 PM
No thanks - historically, being American means shovelling up after "Utopias"...
Posted by: Joe N. | August 30, 2004 at 07:03 PM
Cool pics! A great article in Frontpagemagazine:
A Peace Group’s War Plans
By Michael P. Tremoglie
The "peace" group Not In Our Name is making its violent plans for the Republican Party convention.
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14856
Posted by: Downer | August 30, 2004 at 07:19 PM
Niko:
It gets worse. If these people help you get elected, they will think that you owe them something.
Picture that. Don't think about it too hard, because the blood vessels in your eyes might never heal, but picture Michael Moore quietly lobbying for a Cabinet position, or to be director of the national endowment for the arts, "or else"...
Posted by: Joe N. | August 30, 2004 at 09:15 PM
Joe N
Where is your sense of trans-Atlantic friendshiip with our "true allies", the Germans and the french.
They surely could help us with all that is wrong in America.
Don't you think??????
Posted by: Joe | August 30, 2004 at 09:54 PM
Oddly enough, the less 'unconventional' looking protestors (the kind that use soap) raised the trans-atlantic lovefest issue with us quite a bit. They didn't seem stupid, but none among us didn't agree on that matter. The German and French governments certainly would not have supported us, or even simply not-opposed us, even if they did have the manpower.
I think we changed some minds with those folks, becuase it's quite hard to hide behind platitudes and the fakeness of bizarre thought constructs. If we didn't change a few minds, then something that we said may cause someone to question their own views in the future.
Posted by: Joe N. | August 30, 2004 at 10:32 PM