:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 3.12.2003 ::
:: Enemy of the State ::
From nbc4.com:
Surveillance Cameras To Watch Antiwar Rally
Police To Activate Security Cameras This Weekend
WASHINGTON -- Police in the District of Columbia said they plan to activate their surveillance cameras along the route of this weekend's planned antiwar rally.
In addition to using their network of 14 permanent cameras, police officials said they will use as many as nine more cameras along the route.
During the Gulf War, I travelled to DC with a couple of friends to check things out and pick up some decent alternative media publications. The week before, there had been a huge march. The Saturday that we showed up, however -- standing in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House -- we joined a mere handful of others. The funniest thing about it, I thought @ the time, was that this just made it easier for someone to get a clear photo of our ugly mugs. I in fact spied someone taking our pictures. Could have been media. Who knows.
A couple of recollections of the day:
My friends and I parked near the mall, and as we walked toward the White House, I noticed how calm the place was and remarked: "this is the capitol of a nation at war?" My friends -- Marc & Ben -- found this quite amusing. Laughing at,not with, me. But, I take what I can get. ;)
Also, I was accosted by a "patriotic American" on Pennsylvania Avenue for no apparent reason (I didn't wear any kind of unfiorm identifying me as a "peacenik."). Somehow taken off-guard, I was a bit flummoxed, and finally just screamed: "you fucking neandertal!" My friend Andrew gently whispered to me, as I was red-faced: "Cro-Magnon would have been more appropriate."
Thinking back, I'm also reminded of just how much the Internet is taken for granted these days. A big reason for my trip to DC was the fact that I was STARVING for non-mainstream information (I found The Newsroom, near Dupont Circle, to be an invaluable resource). Subsequently, this could explain why I'm obsessed with pasting media links to war-related information whenever I have a spare moment. I was so desperate, in fact, to obtain the text of a great Iraq-related piece run in The UK's Observer (as I recall), that I had to resort to transcribing it from an SF bay area radio broadcast (Dave Emory's One Step Beyond show, then @ KFJC. Recent shows are available online).
posted by me
:: 9:22:00 PM [+] ::
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