Blogtown, PDX

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Politics Wyden: Appointments Only

Posted by The Unpaid Intern on Wed, Aug 29 at 4:35 PM

At noon today, protesters gathered in front of the Federal Building to protest the war on Iraq.

Sen. Ron Wyden is happy to hear your concerns about a little conflict in Iraq—but no more than five people at a time, please.

More after the jump.

The war on Iraq is an immense drain on the US's resources, yet members of Congress on both sides of the aisle still refuse to pull the troops out. Today's protest was the first of four Wednesday rallies where anti-war activists will try to pressure Portland congressmen into withdrawing funding for the Iraq war. In addition to the banners and the faux funeral procession, protesters were going to go meet with Sen. Wyden and try to persuade him to reverse his stance on Iraq war funding.

Wyden had no problem meeting with his constituents. He just had three teeny, tiny requests.

1. Only five people may come to his office. God forbid a Senator should have to listen to every one of his constituents.
2. No cameras or other recording equipment allowed.
It's easier to dodge responsibility when no one has evidence of promises-that-are-going-to-be-broken, after all.
3. No media can come along. No free, open and democratic government can remain democratic for long when the media gets involved. Gosh, how much better our government would be if the media had no chance to hold our politicians accountable!

A guard told an Indymedia reporter and me that we would be denied entry under Title 41 of the Code of Federal Regulations: Section 102, Subsection 74.420, Paragraph A, which states:

Sec. 102-74.420 What is the policy concerning photographs for news, advertising or commercial purposes?

Except where security regulations, rules, orders, or directives apply or a Federal court order or rule prohibits it, persons entering in or on Federal property may take photographs of--
(a) Space occupied by a tenant agency for non-commercial purposes only with the permission of the occupying agency concerned;

You'll notice nothing explicitly banning reporters in that paragraph. The section only prevents photographs and (presumably) video from being taken without prior consent. The two of us called up John Vickers, the property manager of the Federal Building, who agreed that there was nothing preventing us from joining the others. When I was about to have him tell the guards that, he backtracked and said that the guards could bar anyone they wanted from entering the building as long as they or another tenant felt like doing so. So, once again, laws are thrown out the window for the sake of making democracy stronger, safer, and freer.

This man, Dr. John Pearson of Physicians for Social Responsibility, was one of the lucky five that spoke with Sen. Wyden. He says Wyden told them he would refuse to not sign for Iraq war appropriations because it would cut money for troops and families. Which, as Pearson pointed out, doesn't make sense because those families would still be provided for under the usual defense budgets. (Feel free to correct me on this.)

"The issue," Pearson says,"is that he's not voting his conscience. He's voting the war."

I missed the detachment that went to Sen. Smith's office afterward, so if anyone has any info on that--leave a comment, please!

...

Oh, and one more thing:

THIS MAN IS NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT Anyone that wanted to protest the war was welcome to come to today's event. Just because one protester endorses a questionable conspiracy theory does not mean that everyone else agrees with him.

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Comments

Well what a (?) to the one man that spoke up about getting some real facts questioned around this country.

The man with the 911 sign.

So you single out one brave person who stated, in his sign "To Question 911"?

WOW.....

If you remember it was right after 9-11 that we went into a full scale and hasn't stopped in 6 years "lets kill the bad guys. Get the Terrorist"

So one guy with a sign steps up and you have to point him out to poo-paw him............

BOOOOOO !

Are you also part of trying to cover up the questions that need to be raised and the real truth of what happened on 9-11, most big corporate media does?

Don't question why all the video showing the the Pentagon being hit by a plane is confisgated..... and has never been shown .....WHY?????????

Is that man a "representative of the anti-war movement"? ....ummm probably not. All the same, how many of all those 'other' people who were there today also are ....NOT A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ANTI-WAR movement?

Did you take this guy picture ..."just to point out" "he endorses a questionable conspiracy theory" and then denounce him?

(To me) that tactic is off the mark of this events intentions if your article was about the event of funding the war.

I happen to endorse him and spoke to a few other there as well that feel the same.

I was going to comment on the point of this whole topic of the pledge cards and Not Funding The War

.....but when I read your comment at the end I have completely forgotten what I was going to say.

I do want to also say 3 buildings fell completely down on 9-11. All 3 fell at free-fall speed the same as "a controlled demolition" And weirdly enough ....it was only 2 of the three buildings, that were hit by planes.

Get this --- One was hit by nothing!?
And yet it too collapsed (building 7 at the world trade center)
....so don't question it ?.... or
..... ask HOW ?

Why did it (building 7) collapse just like the other two trade center towers?
FEMA cant even explain it in the 911 Commission Report? .... But the US just goes ahead and wages a war on Terrorism and other countries.

And its a conspiracy to even question or try to find out what happened?

Where was NORAD when all that happened ?
DicK Cheney had them all on a practice drill ..but don't question any of it?!

Ahhhhh don't question those building free-falling? Don't question that the only time "fire" has made a skyscraper building collapse was on 911 and then ..... it was three buildings! That has never happened anywhere in the world cept in NY on Sept 11..... ya don't question that?

In fact just because "you consider it to be questionable" don't considered all of us to have our heads in the conspiracy sandbox like you seemed (to me)to be inferring!

signed Joe-Anybody

ps Thanks for the "other article" and covering the story on Not Funding War, I do appreciate that part of your article and you reporting about it to the public!

I do appreciate it much more than it may seem (after I ranted about the 9-11 picture comment)
Thanks!

Posted by Joe Anybody | August 30, 2007 10:33 PM

I think the point was that the 9-11 message and the conflict that it creates wasn't beneficial to keeping the anti-war message that the protest was there for. It was sort of crashing their event for another agenda, however valid their concern might be.

That aside, its nice to see people involved, but if people really want to do something they should help defeat Gordon Smith. I suggest spending a couple minutes looking at StopGordonSmith.com and reading up on his record, it's a great site and the people who work on it are serious about stopping this guy.

Posted by 3113nepdx | September 4, 2007 11:21 AM

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