Yesterday's protest

Thanks to everyone that came out yesterday and braved the very heavy handed (and arrest-happy) police cordon to picket Bush Senior's fundraising dinner for Dubya. I know it was an inconvenient time to have to come show support, but it was very much appreciated - and worth it.

Thanks also to everyone that chimed in with the press, as we got some good coverage from the AP, The Guardian, and, bizarrely, I believe I'm going to be on Iranian television news tonight. We also got namechecked by the Stop the War folks and by, er, George Galloway MP (is that a good or a bad thing?).

I was unimpressed by the fact that we got herded into a "free speech zone" - I'm sure it was partly to keep order as it was right outside the entrance to Marylebone Station, but you can't help but get the impression that this is business as usual where visiting (and controversial) US presidents are concerned. A man was arrested right in front of me for "breach of the peace" for refusing to protest inside the barricades, which was outright unnecessary and can only fan the flames of anger from the other protesters.

I've put up some pictures from the event here.

Comments

[alexandra_citron@hotmail.com]

Well done you guys - I'm really sorry I couldn't make it - work and visiting family commitments precluded that. And great work on the coverage - nice to know the faces behind the names in the paper! Congrats on getting the message out articulately and sanely - as ever!

[Jim]

Congrats on practicing your right to free speech. Iranian tv eh? Now there's some unbiased, uncensored, non-state-run coverage for you. There's a country that knows some things about human rights, too.

"I may not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
-Voltaire

[j.j.]

Iranian TV vs. FoxNews - not much of a difference.

[Jim]

Actually the difference is one is paid for by the state and the other is Fox News. I won't argue that Fox has it's bias. It sticks out because most news organizations are biased the other way. It's funny that the only news organization we have that gets any state funding (NPR) is pretty anti Bush. So I guess he's not doing a good job of controlling the press.

[Maryann]

Just out of curiousity, how DID you end up on Iranian TV Luke? That sounds particularly random...

[Jim]

Regarding the photo of the bloke wearing the flag upside down with writing on it. How again does that fit in with "Proud of my country, ashamed of my President"? It doesn't mention Bush at all.

[j.j.]

fact:

3 months after the war ended, a study was conducted in the US, involving several thousand interviewees. It asked 3 questions:
1. was Saddam involved in 9/11?
2. were WMDs used against US forces during the war?
3. have WMDs been discovered in Iraq by US forces since invasion?
The correct answer to all three questions was "no."
A whopping 70% of people who said they get their news primarily from Fox missed at least one question and and amazing 41% answered all 3 questions wrong. Of all news organizations listed, this was by far the worst group, followed by MSNBC.
On the other extreme, only 13% of NPR listeners missed at least one question and only 4% missed all 3 questions.
Such blatant discrepancies by FoxNews can mean one of 2 things: either Fox purposefully deceives its audience or it categorically fails in reporting news. Either way, a terrible affront to news organizations everywhere. And they complain about al-Jazeera! FoxNews, fair and balanced.
If being biased against Bush (as you claim NPR is) means telling the truth, then I am all for it. Interesting, so many US warmongers complained that the BBC was biased against Blair, but the truth is that all they did was pay a bit of attention to what he was saying and realized that it just didn´t add up. Is the reporting of inconsistencies a bias? Then again, why am I asking this of people who still believe Bush even to this day?

[Jim]

I have never heard anybody on Fox News say Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. I won't dispute that there are people who believe he had something to do with it. (I'm not one of those people). I won't deny that there are a lot of people who watch Fox who wanted to believe that Saddam had something to do with 9/11.
You have to consider the audience and the question. I could get the same innacurate answers if I asked the listeners of NPR or the views of CNN who had the most votes in Florida 2000. The fact is that two independant newspapers conducted recounts and both found that Bush won. My point is, people on both sides want to believe what they want to believe. It has nothing to do with Fox's reporting.

[Carrie]

Hi there. Just wanted to let people know that there were two protests at the hotel. Around 80 of us refused to go to what the police openly referred to as 'the protest pen'(!) and stayed at the side entrance, heckling guests to the dinner. We hoisted two life-size effigies of the Bush murderers to the top of some scaffolding and were roughed up by the police, but no formal arrests.

[Sarah Forrester]

I was so chuffed to be quoted in my most favourite British paper, The Guardian...my boss saw it and says she will be forever quoting me as saying republicans are "not normal". I think I said a lot more that would have sounded more eloquent, but oh well--point made anyhow!