Are we still living in The United States of America? Is it still the land of the free? I’m a bit confused. Since when do we raid homes of possible protesters, before they even have a chance to protest? Is it just me…Or is there something seriously wrong with this? Here is some commentary, raw video, and news clips…Let me know what you think about all of this in comments.
Sunday marked the beginning of many protests planned in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. A group called Recreate 68, attracted about 1,000 people to its anti-establishment protest.
Here is a video clip of Cindy Sheehan speaking at the Recreate 68 protest…
—
From The New York Times…
The Denver National Convention saw its first major protest today, and it ended peacefully with no immediate reports of arrests.
About 1,000 people organized by the group Recreate 68 gathered on the steps of Denver’s capitol on Sunday morning, carrying colorful signs and shouting anti-establishment chants that railed against such targets as corporate influences on U.S. politics, the war in Iraq and big oil.
“We’re here to call the Democrats out, to let them hear our voices,” said Laurie Hunter, 55, of Denver, who said she was an Obama supporter but still felt the protesters needed to be heard.
From Wake-up America…
The protesters involved include the Re-create 68 group (named for the massive rioting protests actions at the Chicago 1968 Democratic Convention), Cindy Sheehan, and even the Green Party’s presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and her vice presidential running mate, Rosa Clemente, were in the crowd.
From Crooks and Liars…
I’m of two minds about these protesters, but the coverage of them on FOX is hi-damn-larious. It is to seriously giggle. They clearly did not expect to see the vitriol towards
Pravda, er…FOX News from the “far left” protesters (why are all Democrats “far left” in FNC’s eyes? Do they think that moderates stay home or just don’t exist?), or they wouldn’t have sent relative newbie Griff Jenkins (gawd, if that doesn’t sound like a frat boy, I don’t know what does) out amongst the riff-raff to ask them if they believe in freedom (of speech). Dude, they’re protesting. That IS exercising their freedom of speech. That they choose not to validate the Republican Party’s official propaganda arm isn’t exactly ignoring freedom of speech.—
In Denver, during the Democratic National Convention, there will be a special location for protesters. That’s good, right? This area is being called the “Free Speech Zone.” But, how “free” will this zone be? I guess that depends on how free people will feel being in “caged” locations. Is it just me? Or does it seem odd to have the “free speech area” caged in? Let me know what you think in comments.
Apparently, there is also a warehouse being setup arresting protesters.
Here is an interesting behind the scenes look, at the caged free speech location, and the secret detention center.
—
If there’s one thing the United States stands for, it’s unfettered free speech. It is vital to a functioning democracy. Unfortunately, the increasing use by government and law enforcement officials of “free speech zones” and other stifling tactics to purge dissent has largely undermined the First Amendment’s safeguards for political free speech.For example, President Bush’s Presidential Advance Manual outlines the specific strategies his administration has used to “minimize the demonstrator’s effect.” It includes such Orwellian tactics as selling tickets exclusively to presidential supporters and creating “rally squads” of supporters who will surround and drown out protesters with pro-Bush chants. The manual also discusses the strategy of asking local law enforcement to create a designated protest zone, “preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.”
Free speech zones have been employed by both Democrats and Republicans at past political conventions. This year, however, Democrats face the embarrassing possibility that they will be the only party actually caging dissenters. Protesters at the upcoming Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver in late August will be corralled into caged “free speech zones” made of chicken wire and chain link fences which are located more than two football fields from the delegates’ entrance. Those who attempt to exercise their First Amendment rights outside this makeshift cage, which is partially obscured by trees and sculptures, will be arrested.
The Death of Free Speech at the Democratic National Convention
Surprise, surprise– the “party of change” is afraid of the potential of “free speech.” Protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver late August will be relegated to “free speech zones,” because security supersedes freedom in this Orwellian, post 9/11 world. Those not happy with keeping their voices confined to zones where their speech is contained and neutralized will find a newly built home at “Gitmo on Platte,” complete with stun guns and barb wire fences…
—
So…What do you think about this? Is this any way for a country that prides itself on freedom, to treat it’s own people? It seems the presumption here, is that protesters are nothing short of criminals. I think this is a very sad commentary on the state of our “so called” free country. What do you think?
We are continuing to Celebrate Women Political Bloggers.
All week we are celebrating women political bloggers. Yesterday, I posted on the first 100 women blogging politics, from our list of over 500. Today, I have the next 100.
One of my goals for this site, is that women will use each other’s sites, to link to in their own blogs, and promote each other.
You can help promote women political bloggers, by linking to them on your own blog. And, if you know someone not on the list, please send me their link, and I would be happy to add them. 
Maybe you can even do a post on women political bloggers for your own site, and link to some of the women on this list.
So, here is the next 100 on our list…
Cynthia Samuels — Don’t Gel Too SoonHelp celebrate women political bloggers. If you do a post on our list of over 500 women blogging about politics, leave me a link in comments…I’ll be mentioning these posts as friends of The Political Voices of Women in a future post.
Celebrating Women Political Bloggers!
CONGRATULATIONS to all of the 500+ women who are blogging about politics. Women are playing a powerful role in politics, and women bloggers are helping to lead the way. Our list of women blogging about politics, has just reached over 500!!!
To celebrate, I will be posting links to 100 women today, and then again each day, for the rest of the week.
One of my goals for this site, is that women will use each other’s sites, to link to in their own blogs, and promote each other.
So…If you have some time today, check out the first 100. Have you discovered some blogs you like? Let me know in comments, or in a post.
You can help promote women political bloggers. And, if you know someone not on the list, please send me their link, and I would be happy to add them.
Maybe you can even do a post on women political bloggers for your own site, and link to some of the women on this list.
Here are the first 100 from the list (in alphabetical order)…
Nikki — According To Nikki
Sandy Renshaw — Around Des Moines
A. M. Reynolds — Backyard Beacon — The Backyard Beacon is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan citizen-based watchblog that sheds light on underreported stories, particularly those in minority communities. The Beacon is a Newstex.com licensed Weblog distributed through the LexisNexis services.Help celebrate women political bloggers. If you do a post on our list of over 500 women blogging about politics, leave me a link in comments…I’ll be mentioning these posts as friends of The Political Voices of Women in a future post.
The rapper Ludacris has just put out a video (supposedly) in support of Barack Obama. However, this hate filled video will surely hurt Obama, not help, especially with women. This rap/video is in support of one person, and one person only…Ludacris himself. The title should have been called - My Ego Is Bigger Than The Presidency. In his hate filled lyrics, are disgusting and denigrating words towards all women (with an emphasis on Hillary Clinton). This video might as well be an attack ad by the McCain campaign.
Below is the video…It is purposely small, to represent the smallness of this man (and I use the term man lightly).
Here is some of what others are saying. What do you think? Let me know in comments.
This is from a post at BlogHer by Erika Alexandera - Stop The Silence On Sexism…
In your song, “Politics,” you refer to Senator Hillary Clinton as an irrelevant bitch. Okay, you have a First Amendment right to your opinion - no matter how ignorant - and I have a right to beat that opinion down with the truth. I served as a national surrogate for Hillary, but now I am speaking for all of the women you address by calling one of the greatest avatars of “hope in action” - a former candidate for President, former first lady and current U.S. Senator - a dog. Have you no decency? What did Hillary ever do to you? Let’s see. For the past three decades, just fight on the behalf of and get health care for America’s poorest children, educate young black brothers in Harlem, advocate for foster children, provide benefits for soldiers, and support black single mothers. And that’s the just the first few lines of her resume.
This is from an open letter from Urban Thought Collection to Ludacris…
You are a three-time Grammy award winning artist. No one can dispute that you are one of the leading rappers in the industry. You have the first amendment right to record music of your own choosing. But I feel that the recent release of your song attacking Jesse Jackson and Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain only hurts Senator Obama. Obama, who you have stated is a friend of yours and offered your support to. But with friends like you, Obama doesn’t need enemies.
This is from NPR…
Ludacris also attacks politicians who he thinks have “hated on” Obama — including Hillary Clinton, whom he discribes as an “irrelevant b*tch” and John McCain (”McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed”), as well as Jesse Jackson and President Bush.
To put it mildly: heads are exploding in Chicago and the right-wing blogs are having a field day.
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton issued this rapid-fire response:
As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to. This song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics.
From The Swamp…
As if Barack Obama, presumed Democratic nominee, weren’t popular enough with the kids.
A loyal Swamp reader points out that Illinois-born rapper Ludacris has just released a new song about Barack Obama, his favorite politician and maybe Best Friend Forever based on the lyrics.
The Obama campaign said Ludacris should be ashamed of the lyrics, which they called offensive, not only to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and likely Republican nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.), but also ‘all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear.’
A former Clinton aide also quickly got in on the act, calling on Obama to denounce the song. Ludacris’ rep. would not return repeated calls for comment.
Also See:
Pamela Lyn’s post - The Ludicrous Treatment of Military Women
Now that independent bloggers have become a viable and influential source of political news and commentary it appears that the mainstream media has declared all out war.
Frequent visitors to the blogosphere are familiar with the fact that news agency, The Associated Press (AP) sent DMCA notices to the Drudge Report, citing that DR’s use of excerpts from AP articles infringes on their copyrights.
You’re also probably familiar with Viacom’s lawsuit against Google over Youtube’s use of their content. A federal judge is now ordering YouTube to turn over information on its users’ viewing history.
And the latest salvo has targeted Redlasso, the video search and clipping service that many bloggers have come to rely upon.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
NBC Universal and Fox filed suit Wednesday against RedLasso Inc., saying the video provider copies and distributes the companies’ content without authorization.
In the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, NBC Universal, Fox News Channel and Fox Television Stations Group said RedLasso had been engaging in the “wholly unauthorized” copying and distribution of its content. It isn’t clear how much in damages the companies are seeking from RedLasso.
Informal talks had been going on between RedLasso and NBC, Fox and other networks since the companies sent a cease and desist order in May. It wasn’t immediately clear why the other companies, which included CBS Corp. and Allbritton Communications Co., did not join in the lawsuit.
Is anyone surprised that FOX is involved in this?
Redlasso executives issued the following press release this afternoon:
REDLASSO TO SUSPEND ACCESS TO BETA SITE
COMPANY TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SERVICES FOR
BUSINESS AND RADIO TO WEB CLIENTSKing of Prussia, PA – July 25, 2008 – In light of recent legal actions by two networks, Redlasso(www.redlasso.com) announced today that it has no alternative but to suspend blogger access to its video search and clipping Beta site for the immediate future. The company will continue to operate and provide services to its business and Radio To Web clients such as Greater Media and XMSatellite Radio.
The now-suspended Beta site provides bloggers with online broadcast content tools that enables them to exercise their first amendment rights to comment on newsworthy events, by searching blogger-selected TV and radio segments and creating limited duration clips for usage in blog posts.
In addition to the Beta site, Redlasso also offers two other services which will continue.
The first is a solution for businesses that allows them to track and clip content for internal use. The second service, Radio To Web, is an on-line platform that allows each radio station client to search, clip, and upload its content to its own web site and share that content online.
“We are very disappointed in the actions of select networks. We believe we have always acted within the law and have been respectful of the networks’ rights. Unfortunately, they have forced our hand and are denying the blogging community access to the Redlasso platform that beneficially tracks the usage of newsworthy clips across the Web,” said Ken Hayward, CEO of Redlasso.
“Redlasso’s goal is to develop a platform that provides content owners and bloggers a viable solution to tracking and monetizing content online, not to engage in lawsuits. In the eight months the Beta site has been in operation, we have built wide brand awareness and equity amongst the blogger and media communities. The wide spread use of our tools and platform demonstrates that the Redlasso model is a simple and elegant solution for all content owners to track and monetize content usage on the Web; content that would otherwise be untraceably spread across the Internet and used
for free.”
What is really at the heart of these legal actions?
Could it be that the political power brokers are realizing that if Americans aren’t limited to getting their news from mainstream media sources that they won’t be as easily lead?
The following videos address just how powerful the blogosphere has become and why forces like the Rupert Murdochs and the Washington insiders might want to see it stifled. View them while you can.
In the following video Sherine Tadros of AlJazeeraEnglish reports on how internet technology has changed the face of politics and political coverage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz7zx2M6FWE
—
In this video, TheRealNews interviews Joe Trippi, author of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” about the social shift from TV to the Internet will affect politics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxWJ7NQgaqQ
Here is a guest post by Cynthia Samuels from Don’t Gel Too Soon.
OK. What do we think about this? I can tell you one thing. It hurts to look at it, even though I guess I understand what the artist, Barry Blitt, says he was trying to do. Rachel Sklar’s Huffington Post interview with the magazine’s gifted editor David Remnick explains further.
Obviously I wouldn’t have run a cover just to get attention — I ran the cover because I thought it had something to say. What I think it does is hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imaginings about Barack Obama’s — both Obamas’ — past, and their politics. I can’t speak for anyone else’s interpretations, all I can say is that it combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama’s supposed “lack of patriotism” or his being “soft on terrorism” or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or most violent Black Panthers. That somehow all this is going to come to the Oval Office.
The free speech and marketplace of ideas concepts that I’ve treasured all my life clash with my reaction to all of this; I know that. The Constitutional protection of freedom of speech exists to guarantee the right both to speak and to hear not only popular, but also unpopular ideas. We don’t need to protect the popular ones; it’s the ideas that enrage people that need the protection. And I’m all for that.
But for a responsible and respected publication like The New Yorker to abuse that freedom by offering such blatant stereotypes to make its point, particularly when the subjects are the first African American Presidential (Columbia and Harvard-educated) candidate and his (Princeton and Harvard-educated) wife, an accomplished attorney — each of whose life trajectory suggests two stars who did everything expected of them to grow into exciting, productive citizens — seems to me abusive and dangerous. In an effort to make a point about the hate that’s being distributed concerning these two, they’re feeding it.
It will be interesting to see how many right wing websites and publications make use of this image. There’s been plenty of reaction so far and most of it is far more sophisticated than I could dream of being. I’m having too much trouble with my emotional, gut sense of right and wrong to be very thoughtful; this just feels wrong - perhaps even more so because of who printed it. I’ve been a New Yorker groupie since I was a high school kid in Pittsburgh wishing I was in Greenwich Village living the life of Susie Rotolo. Like this - walking through the Village with Bob Dylan.
—
So it’s particularly disturbing to me that something so terribly offensive was pubished by this beloved icon.
The stereotypes don’t fit the Obamas, obviously. That’s what the New Yorker is trying to demonstrate by feeding these stereotypes out there in such a naked way. But even if they did, how many of us who ever cared about anything is willing to stand by every position we adopted in our younger days?
Congressman Bobby Rush was a Black Panther. Now he’s chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, serves on the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and is a co-chairman of the Congressional Biotech Caucus. Isn’t that what we want? Growth.Even if the Obama’s were flamers back then (and I don’t think they were, by a long shot), isn’t the American way for young activists to rebel, maybe the wrong way, early in their lives then “grow up” to ultimately help to make change from inside? Justice Hugo Black, one of the great justices of the 20th century, started out as a member of the Ku Klux Klan - then went on to be a staunch defender of civil liberties for all. If we deny our future leaders the capacity to grow and question while they’re young, we will end up with leaders who may be what we deserve, but not who we need, by a long shot.I guess what I’m saying is that this effort to force Americans to confront political trash talk by offering up a visual representation of it all is, to me, a terrible mistake. An image that casts a shadow over the remarkable symbolic gift of this landmark candidacy - an image that lingers like a scar.
[cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog]
Also See:
McCain, Obama campaigns agree: New Yorker cover is not satire.
A 61 year old woman was threatened with arrest at a McCain event yesterday, and you won’t believe why. You can see the video of this altercation here…
—
Pamela Lyn from Pam’s Coffee Conversation wrote…
If you’ve followed the Presidency of George W. Bush you know that he very seldom speaks at a “public event” that doesn’t have a hand-picked audience. Well GOP Presidential Candidate John McCain seems to have adopted the same practice.
ProgressNowAction has reported:
“On orders from Senator John McCain’s security detail, Denver police escorted a 61-year-old woman away who was waiting in line to attend a so-called town hall meeting with McCain that was billed as open to the public. Carol Kreck, who works as a librarian in Denver, held a homemade sign reading “McCain = Bush.” On orders from McCain’s security detail, police cited her for trespassing and escorted her to the sidewalk. She was told if she returned she would be arrested.
“And all I did was carry a sign that said McCain = Bush,” Kreck said. “And for everyone who voted for Bush, I don’t see why it’s offensive to say McCain = Bush.”
This episode by McCain’s Secret Service appears to be a rerun of McCain’s 2005 town hall in Denver with President Bush in which the Secret Service had three Denver citizens removed from an “open” event where McCain was campaigning with Pres. Bush for his plan to privatize social security.
It appears that McCain’s Secret Service and staff have proved Ms. Kreck’s point. At least when he comes to freedom of speech, McCain=Bush
A 61-year-old librarian was ejected from an ostensibly public McCain campaign event at the Denver Center of Performing Arts in Denver, CO on June 7 because she was brandishing a deadly memetic weapon: a hand-lettered sign that read “McCain=Bush.”
Here is a post by Maria Niles from BlogHer…
Jazz Singer Rene Marie was booked to sing the national anthem at the annual Denver mayoral state of the city speech (click to read more of Amy Gahran’s take on the reporting of the event).
—
Marie has said that she was engaging in both art and protest.As Barack Obama was stopping in the state of Colorado the day after, the Democratic convention will be held in Denver and Obama is black, he was asked to make a statement about Marie’s performance despite the fact that he was in no way associated with Marie or the event.
Answering the question, Where are all the women political bloggers? Well, if you are here, you have found them. We are dedicated to giving women bloggers a voice, starting with our list of over 500 women political bloggers. And now, in addition to guest bloggers, and our growing community, we will also feature regular contributing editors.
The Political Voices of Women