The Scoop - http://www.bobharris.com/ Hi folks -- And now, as to the Democrats... I'll do a separate piece on the Reforms and Greens later on when there's time. Spent some time down in Long Beach this last week. Much to tell. Thanks... bh THE SCOOP for August 14, 2000 ___________________________ Democratic Convention -- Night Of The Full Moon � 2000 Bob Harris http://www.bobharris.com mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * = italics Bomb threats. Evacuations. Riot police surrounding us on all sides. Welcome to the outside of the Democratic National Convention. ___________________________ This morning, I began the day by checking the Democratic National Committee's website, www.democrats.org. If you followed my pieces from the GOP shindig, you'll notice an almost perfect symmetry in the DNC's headline: DNC CHAIRS APPLAUD AL GORE AND JOE LIEBERMAN No kidding? The Democratic chairmen are actually applauding their own candidates? Imagine that! As valuable information, this is right up there with TEENAGE BOY ENJOYS SWIMSUIT ISSUE KATHY LEE GIFFORD TALKS ABOUT SELF or CAT LICKS OWN ASS for starting your day on the cutting edge. ___________________________ Sunday night was spent at a gala fundraiser held at the Beverly Hilton, rubbing elbows with delegates, Congresspeople, and various luminaries from LA and DC. Actual scene: Norman Lear, TV producer and People For the American Way poobah, has been trapped in conversation by an aggressive Congressman from Texas. After some awkward preliminaries, the Texan cuts to the chase, pulls out a campaign donation envelope, and shoves it brazenly into Norman's hand. Norman graciously smiles, folds the envelope, and disposes of it in his pocket. Not a flinch. Not even an eyelash. Apparently this happens all the time. ___________________________ Anagrams of joy: DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER Democracies run adrift APATHETIC VOTERS Others captivate GORE/LIEBERMAN Me? Labored grin? LA CONVENTION CENTER Le rotten connivance JOSEPH LIEBERMAN Jabs mere pinhole SHADOW CONVENTION Oh sad innocent vow ME, I NEED MORE SLEEP Enemies deplore me ___________________________ One of my guests this morning was a Gore campaign spokesman. Who, I add, was lame. Asked about how Al Gore would improve the lot of minority Americans, all he could come up with was a reference to Bush's record on capital punishment. Which, given that the Texas criminal justice system is about as racially fair-minded as Sickle Cell Anemia, isn't entirely off the point. But Al Gore and Joe Lieberman also support the death penalty, I pointed out. Spokesboy swam for a moment. Laying a trap, I helpfully suggested that Bush's recent execution of a mentally disabled prisoner was widely considered an outrage. Eager agreement from the Goreling. But Bill Clinton made a point of executing Ricky Ray Rector in 1992, returning to Arkansas from the campaign trail specifically to throw the switch on a man so incompetent he saved the dessert from his last meal "for later." Al Gore has yet to denounce this act, which certainly equals any of Bush's death warrants for sheer grandstanding belligerence. Even so, Mr. Gore Spokesman still refused to concede the point, eventually insisting -- and I quote -- that candidate Gore has a more "nuanced" policy regarding the death penalty. That's right: a "nuanced" execution policy. I'm sure such subtleties are not lost on the recipients themselves. ___________________________ Speaking of which, my colleage Dan Perkins points out that between Gore and Lieberman, the Democrats are now running candidates who favor: The death penalty Increased drug enforcement and imprisonment The re-birth of "Star Wars" missiles and increased military spending Fast-track trade decisions on and expansion of NAFTA, the WTO, etc. The China trade bill Federal funding of bioengineered crops and trade pressure to compel their export School vouchers Privatization of Social Security No national health care Current Federal Reserve policy on interest rates, inflation, and jobs Welfare "reform" Continued military aid to Turkey, Colombia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, etc. And the mass media wonders why progressives might vote for Nader... ___________________________ The layout here in L.A. is vastly more accessible than Philadelphia was: the main convention area, the Independent Media Center, the Shadow Convention, and the protest areas are all within a 20-minute walk from each other. The Indy Media Center and the Shadow Convention even occupy the same building: Patriotic Hall, located five blocks south of the Staples Center, at 18th and Figueroa. Patriotic Hall, incidentally, defines patriotism, typically enough, with large displays in tribute to virtually every military adventure in American history. Which means activists are now hanging peace posters next to glass cases containing Desert Storm gear. This is cool. On Monday, as the Democrats celebrated Progress And Prosperity, the Shadow Convention was devoted to the people left behind, on the wrong side of the Wealth Gap. Speakers included Michael Lerner of Tikkun magazine, Cong. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Katrina Vanden Heuvel of The Nation, former Senator Gary Hart, and dozens of other thoughtful, intelligent people. Like all Shadow Convention events, the day's conversations were all free and open to the public, and direct participation was encouraged. Upstairs, the Indy Media Center (IMC) hummed away, pooling resources and helping to produce reports from virtually every media outlet not rich or powerful enough to receive credentials from Democratic Party organizers. Via radio, the Internet, and satellite dish, interested voters everywhere could receive news and information produced by, for, and focused on America's working class. This was actual democracy. Up the street, an entire square mile was fenced off and barricaded, protected by a line of riot police often three deep or more. The Democratic convention, with its numerous corporate sponsors (many of whom also bought into the GOP confab), was held in an arena named for yet another corporation and owned largely by Rupert Murdoch. Uncredentialed public were restrained from attending by concrete barriers and twelve vertical feet of chain-link fence. This was not actual democracy. ___________________________ Around dinner time, I saw hundreds -- no exaggeration, hundreds, I swear -- of black-clad LAPD members running double-time toward the Staples Center. Not one to miss a story, I pulled out my video camera and jogged along behind. A free concert from Rage Against The Machine was scheduled for the designated protest area -- a concept, incidentally, not mentioned by Jefferson -- on the other side of the chain link fence. Nine thousand American citizens, who have the right to peacefully speak and assemble, were here to express their disdain for the corporatization of the electoral process and enjoy some music. This was, of course, a menace to public order. Why, they had big signs and a mosh pit and everything. And so literally hundreds of cops lined up, batons at the ready, between the concert-goers and the Staples Center, as if the protesters were about to attack the arena itself at any moment. This requires a lunatic level of paranoia. Keep in mind the cement barricades, 12-foot high chain link fence, and Black Hawk helicopters circling overhead. The chance that any bastille might be stormed tonight was essentially zero. More police arrived, eventually forming a line three, four, and even five deep, for as far as the eye could see. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) was on the big outdoor screen, apparently exhorting the audience to revel in traditional democratic bromides. A larger non-sequitur I cannot imagine. To my left, protesters -- more than twice as many, incidentally, as there were delegates in the convention hall itself -- were expressing their political views through music. Behind and framing the protesters (as part of an Apple ad on the side of a building) loomed enormous portraits of Cesar Chavez, Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Cesar, Bobby, Martin, and the protesters were only visible through the layers of cops and chain link fence. In front of me were cops, cops, more cops, and more cops still. Maybe 400. Maybe more. Tear gas canisters and masks were being readied. The 40-foot pixelated head of Barbara Mikulski railed onward. To my right and above, on the concourse patios of the ritzy convention itself, stood dozens of puzzled, amused, and otherwise time-killing delegates, dining in comfort as they looked on from above the fray. I was reminded of the first battle of Bull Run, when the Washington elite rode out to a nearby hillside as rival armies approached, hoping to enjoy a bit of warfare to entertain a lazy afternoon. ___________________________ This was roughly the arrangement, north to south: Mural of Cesar Chavez, RFK, and Dr. King 9000 protesters enjoying Rage Against The Machine Cement barriers and 12 feet of chain link fence Cops Cops Cops Myself and a few other media people Cops Cops Staples security people 4000 delegates trying to figure out how to pronounce "Mikulski" ___________________________ Soon, I and the few other media people who wandered into the police lines were removed from the area. Shortly thereafter, a few rocks reportedly thrown by a few malcontents -- certainly fewer than a fraction of one percent of the concertgoers -- led to an hour of pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, beatings with batons, random arrests, and the clearing of the area of 9000 people by policemen on horseback. The protesters couldn't retreat as fast as the cops wanted because there was only one exit. 9000 people were supposed to squeeze through an area only a few feet wide. Paramedics treated dozens of injured bystanders. As of this writing, the violence was plainly indiscriminate enough that at least two newsmen from CBS alone were caught in the fray, one coughing from the pepper spray as he tried to call in his live report. That's what was going on right outside while Hillary was thanking us all for "giving her space to grow." ___________________________ Meanwhile, down the street, at about 5 p.m., police claimed to have received information of a bomb threat to Patriotic Hall. A van belonging to two members of the IMC was the target of the investigation. Virtually everyone in the entire building was convinced that the threat was complete bullshit. The parking lot was cordoned off, the bomb squad arrived, and soon the building was emptied. The IMC was shut down. Free Speech TV was off the air. The Shadow Convention was forced into the street. As Bill Clinton strode to the podium, the voices of almost all independent media in Los Angeles were compelled by the police to fall silent. The area was *not* evacuated, however. We were merely told to go stand in the street, still quite obviously in harm's way from any bomb in the adjacent parking lot. This in itself was disturbing. Keep in mind that the bomb in the van, if it existed, could have been sizable. A single small truck, remember, is said to have caused all of the damage at Oklahoma City. Yet security precautions were almost non-existent. The building wasn't fully cleared for over an hour. I personally had time to run all the way upstairs and find LAPD bomb squad members working the roof, several of whom I had the chance to speak with during the operation. Is it remotely possible that if an actual bomb was genuinely suspected, the bomb squad would have allowed a schmo like me to stand there, right in the middle of everything, yakking with them endlessly? It's not like anyone even escorted me back downstairs. Other media showed up. Time passed. We stood around. I simply got bored after a while and left. What I found when I came back downstairs was nothing short of bizarre: rather than cancel the program, the evening's speakers -- a world-class lineup including Gore Vidal, Jonathan Kozol, Christopher Hitchens, and several others -- had decided to continue the program from a makeshift stage on the back of an independent film company's truck, parked on the street in front of the building. Vidal, Hitchens, et al denounced what to them was an obvious case of police intimidation of activists in the strongest terms. Shortly, riot police arrived. Riot police, responding to a gathering of pacifists and intellectuals, unarmed and peaceably assembled. A gathering which is itself allegedly threatened by a bomb. Riot police. Riot police... now physically lining up in the streets around us, blocking every exit. At virtually the same moment we were finally given the all-clear to re-enter the building -- too late to continue more than a tiny vestige of the evening's events -- dozens of black-clad police formed lines on all three sides of us. There was literally nowhere to go. And then they started to converge. I was in the middle of the street, shooting video, when it dawned on me that dozens of very large men in riot gear were approaching from all directions. Pretty much everybody decided this was a good time to go back inside, myself included. (Again, I had my video camera running throughout. When I get a chance, I'll put some frames up on the www.bobharris.com website so you can see this really happened.) A cop later told me that the entire neighborhood has been on a hair-trigger since the property violence after the Lakers won the NBA Finals. He personally thought perhaps some area commander or another had misunderstood what was happening and sent in the guys with the gas at the ready. I don't know if I buy it. Supposedly, sending riot police after Gore Vidal and friends was just a mistaken overreaction. Gee. Ya think? ___________________________ This was just the first day of the convention. Bill Clinton concluded his speech tonight in his usual good taste, quoting Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. I won't. ___________________________ Bob Harris is a political humorist whose morning radio show can be heard online from 8-11 am EST at http://www.radioforchange.com. To receive a free email subscription to The Scoop, just send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________ Bob�s Big Plug-O-Rama� (updated 7/29/00): *Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole* was recently nominated for a Firecracker Alternative Book Award as one of the five best political books of the year. Also, the American Booksellers Association recently made *Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole* a Recommended choice. The book can be ordered directly from http://www.commoncouragepress.com/steal.html at 25% off retail. You can read some ridiculously kind reviews at http://www.bobharris.com/book.htm. The morning show on www.RadioForChange.com airs from 8-11 each morning. Recent interviewees include Ralph Nader, Winona LaDuke, Doris "Granny D" Haddock, Cong. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Katha Pollitt, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Ken Silverstein, Arianna Huffington, Kate Clinton, and Howard Zinn. The show is a total blast. The Hollywood Reporter has recently dubbed yours truly as an heir to the radio legacies of Howard Stern, Dr. Laura, and Rush Limbaugh. (They apparently meant it as a compliment.) Check out http://www.radioforchange.com from 8-11 am Eastern, 5-8 am Pacific. The pilot of "Twisted," my new online game show, is almost finished. Wirebreak.com is producing it in Flash animation, and you'll probably be able to see a short preview on their site. We're in negotiation with other websites and even some TV people about producing a series. More soon... Syndication of "This Is Bob Harris," the daily 60-second radio commentary, is rolling along. Call your favorite station and ask for the feature. They pay attention, honest. The one-minute commentaries are now also rebroadcast four times daily to over 140 countries by Armed Forces Radio. You can also hear an audio version of my commentaries online at Soapbox, which is at http://www.webactive.com/webactive/soapbox/monday.html. 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