Who knew about the Washington protests before seeing F 9/11?

[joanne]

Not to mention the SHAMEFUL fact that not a SINGLE SOLITARY DEMOCRATIC Senator would stand behind a Democratic House member regarding the disputed Supreme Court decision.

I am a political junkie and did not know either of these facts before seeing Michael Moore's movie.

Bet I am not the only one. :(

[greenbriar]

1. I didn't know about

either as well

[demgurl]

2. Nope, I had never heard of this either.

Imagine what other things they have managed to keep hidden. Scares you, doesn't it?

[joanne]

3. Sure does

I hope Michael is working on a sequel.

[bossfish]

4. And that is not one of the "factual errors" being whined about.

I didn't know either. I saw the movie again today, 2nd time. I think I liked it better this time around. It is powerful, even though most of the assertions are familiar.

(also, have to admit I went to the threatre in the later afternoon to get into some air conditioning)

[gauguin57]

5. Didn't know extent of protests, knew about Black Caucus ...

A few days before the 2001 inauguration, I saw all these liberal/Dem message boards filled with posts about protests that were being organized for Washington. Then, when I watched the inaugural on TV, I hardly saw any protesters at ALL. My friends who have seen the movie with me (I've seen it three times) say they didn't know there were all those protesters, either, or that eggs were thrown at Baby Doc Bush's limo.

As for the African-Americans in Congress ... I watched every minute of that horrible proceeding, live, back in 2000 ... watching Al Gore preside over his own destruction.

What Michael Moore didn't show was that members of the Black Caucus WALKED OUT OF THE CHAMBER after being told their protest didn't matter. I remember watching Maxine Waters walk up the aisle, and me bursting into tears! But I cried all over again when I saw F-9/11.

[Vadem]

6. C-Span is the ONLY TV channel that showed the demonstrations...

I taped it all day long and kept clicking back and forth to the networks to see if they were showing it--nope, not a bit, the SOBs! As to the CBC begging the Senate to sign for them, I was outside on the Capitol grounds with David Litell of Democrats.com and others protesting. We were listening to it on C-Span radio. I also taped that fiasco later when C-Span repeated it.

[grasswire]

7. I knew about both.

I watched c-span during the inauguration and saw what footage they showed of the protests. I monitored freerepublic.com that day and saw them livid with anger about the protests. I interacted on a couple of message boards and saw some photos that may have been foreign press.

And then I watched the proceedings on the day when the CBC begged for one Senator to step forward. It is the day democracy died, for me. I cried all the way through it. Those brave descendants of slaves, who waited so many generations to be able to vote, now begging the White Men to sign a piece of paper that would send a message to generations unborn that it was WRONG to steal an election. No one would lay down that marker for history. No one. It still makes me ill to remember.

[bobbieinok]

16. knewn abt CBC ---followed salontabletalk about protests +

would then go to TV,,,,,,,,did not realize protests were so large

it was a gloomy day in Tulsa and in DC

watched the NAACP protest at Tallahasee.......that was awesome

didn't much like the talking heads 'reporting' DC events

they spent a lot of time on the Clintons leaving from a DC airport....contrast of isolated W and 'in the crowd' Bill was mind-boggling

it was weird....the TV media people kept complaining about how Bill always wants the spotlight.....couldn't let W have his day.......BUT THEY KEPT SHOWING THE CLINTONS' DEPARTURE......weird

[Sterling]

19. Everyone knows it was Nader's fault.

I wish people would quit whining about a few thousand black people losing their votes.

(sarcasm intended)

It is not a credit to our fellow DUers that this is the general attitude about the 2k selection here. It shows we have a very long way to go before we can truly take on the RW.

[Catt03]

28. I saw the protests on CSpan also

I don't think any they were televised on any other.

What I didn't see is the egg throwing and the limousine speed up to get away.

[Cleita]

8. I didn't see much that I didn't have to look for diligently through

cable like BBC and NWI as well as C-Span. I can because I am stuck at home all day. I feel bad for all of you at work who can't, or even if you duck into a place with a TV that you have to watch Fox non-news.

[alphafemale]

9. I Knew. I was grieving. I knew it would be bad.

The rainy, gloomy scene seemed to forebode evil. Something in nature was rejecting this man, it seemed.

My wildest, most paranoid nightmares did not foresee THIS bad as we got.

[Arugula Latte]

10. A friend was there, so I knew they'd happened

However, I will never forget my fury at the media whitewash of the inauguration. I could tell they were zooming in on the limo to avoid showing the crowds. I could not believe how they were all whoring and covering up for BushCo. That was the day that truly radicalized me down to my toes. I've never been the same.

[joanne]

11. That one of the things I love about Michael Moore

He goes after DEMOCRATS who enable this criminal adminstration.

Like Daschle voting for the war and encouraging others to do the same.

Shame on him.

And shame on the media for so poorly reporting what really went on.

Not a single Senator would come forward and support the House members who so courageously came forward.

In many ways that was the worst part of the movie.

And how Al Gore got through that I will never know.

[Lisa]

15. I remember that the one time when Al Gore made a gesture to his supporters

... pumping his fist when the electoral votes for California (which went to him) were certified -- the right-wingers jumped all over him for being partisan.

It was difficult to watch the event -- not just because of all the black Congresspeople being called to order, but because it was Gore himself who had to do this, by law. At the time, part of me wished that Gore would break the rules and allow them to speak, even though I could understand why he was bound to follow the procedures -- and another part was certain that Bush would not have been as dignified if the positions had been reversed.

[nomatrix]

12. After watching all the court proceedings

from Seminole county, Palm Beach recount, Fl supreme court, etc,
Gore asked them not to object it had been decided by the highest court in the land and he had conceded.

If even a single Democratic senator had signed an objection, the joint session would have adjourned and the House and Senate would have convened separately to vote, with a majority of both Houses required to sustain the objection.

The Democrats controlled the Senate temporarily, since it is divided 50-50 with Vice President Al Gore who held the tie-breaking vote until January 20, but the Republicans held a majority in the House.

It would have been one more gotcha. Lighten up on the senate democrats, they knew what was going on.

[Sterling]

20. Bullshit.

Lame excuse for failing your god damn country. It was their DUTY to oppsoe the theft with everything they had.

To this day most Americans are in the dark about 2k and the CBC. That is thanks to the fact the Democratic party rolled over and has NEVER made that crime an issue. It's almost like they were in on it.

[nomatrix]

38. This goes beyond what you saw F9/11

I think Bruce Ackerman explains it well.

Anatomy of a Constitutional Coup
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n03/acke01_.html
(this refers to Jeb Bush)
"Bush's weapon was the written Constitution. The 1787 text does not guarantee the right to vote in Presidential elections: it simply authorises each state legislature to determine how its electors should be chosen. Bush called on his fellow Republicans to act 'courageously', and return to the early days of the Republic when legislatures ignored the voters and appointed electors on their own initiative. Under Bush's plan, these legislatively appointed electors could then vote for his brother even if the courts found that the popular vote had gone to Gore. The Republican leaders of the Florida legislature called a special session to do their Governor's bidding, and so, when the crisis reached its climax, the Florida House had already named a Bush slate. With the Bush family at its head, the Republican Party was making a brazen effort to seize the Presidency by assaulting the state courts and wresting power from the voters - all in the name of the written Constitution.

The only thing that stopped this Constitutional coup was the United States Supreme Court. Just as the Florida Senate was preparing to endorse the Bush slate, the Court intervened to stop the Florida recount, and establish George Bush as the next President. With its mission accomplished by higher powers, Florida's Senate quickly adjourned in the hope that the attempted Bush coup would be quickly forgotten."

"There is only one serious defence for the Court's precipitate leap into Presidential politics. In my hypothetical sketch the House and Senate come to a commonsense solution, either picking the Gore slate or following the precedent of a bipartisan electoral commission. But pessimists might foresee hordes of right and left-wing extremists marching on Washington, Congressional elites deadlocked, and the situation spinning out of control. (Had the impasse continued beyond the end of Clinton's term, existing law would have authorised the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, to serve as acting President until Bush or Gore was finally selected.) If one is haunted by the spectre of acute crisis, one can view the justices' intervention more charitably. However much the Court may have hurt itself, did it not save the larger Constitutional structure from greater damage?"

In addition they were recounting New Mexico's votes

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0051/barrett.php

"The only conceivable reason why the GOP cared enough about New Mexico's five electoral votes as late as December 1 was the fear that if it carried Florida by legislative fiat—in defiance of the courts—it might lose individual electors in other states. New Mexico would have been a cushion against such defections."

Gore knew no matter what he did, there was going to be a Bush on the throne.

[smallprint]

13. DU was founded that day!!!

Maybe one of the old-timers can help me out on the history behind this... according to the "About DU" page, Democratic Underground was founded on Inauguration Day Jan 20, 2001.

Anyone have the full story?

[Lisa]

14. yes -- but Canadian journalists covered the protests

So I saw the footage of all the crowds with signs. And also I was logged into DU.

p.s. This is what DU's main page looked like in February of 2001. (I was trying to find a record of the very first page, but www.archive.org didn't have it.)


http://web.archive.org/web/20010219033913/http://www.democraticunderground.com/

[spanone]

17. I didn't know of either and I pride myself on being news-nosey

Just another example of the pliant press corps. The real tragedy of America is the loss of an objective media.

[TrustingDog]

18. didn't know - was shocked... n/t

[Penndems]

21. I knew - had two friends down there

They bounced a water bottle off the roof of Junior's limo. :)

[librechik]

22. I did!

small mention in the foreign press, which I passed along.

Nothing came of it.

[Mizmoon]

23. I was in Jamaica when it was all going down

too stoned to care

[laylah]

24. I heard of it...

right here at dependable D.U., within a few days...but seeing it on the screen was amazing!

Jenn

[Gin]

26. I saw it happening and didn't understand what was going on.....I heard

each protest... but had no idea about the senators not helping.

I did not see the egg throwing at the limo though...that would have made my day..

Did they catch the person who did it?

[DemBones DemBones]

25. I knew it thanks to DU, Smirking Chimp, Buzzflash,

BartCop, and other sites that no longer exist 'cause the owners got tired or broke or both.

Who else remembers a site called Bush Brothers Banana Republic? (At least, that's how I remember the name.) Radical Fringe was another.

C-SPAN and foreign news sources online and on satellite television also helped me know there were things going on being ignored by CNN and FOX.

I'll never forget talking heads on CNN spinning the Selection as a manifestation of democracy in action. They talked about a transfer of power being accomplished after a disputed election "without tanks in the streets."

[CatWoman]

32. I found out about it here on DU

actually, those protests were a sidebar to the birth of DU

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/01/010127_7days.html

[scarletwoman]

27. I knew about both, but I hadn't actually SEEN any video documentation.

I had read articles about both events, but it was immeasurably more powerful to actually SEE it.

I hadn't known that any video of the inaugural demonstrations even existed, I was extremely delighted to see that it had been recorded for posterity.

sw

[in_cog_ni_to]

29. Not one damn word of it.

The media needs to be gutted and started anew! I didn't know about the Black Caucus/Senate BULLSHIT either and was just appalled when I saw it. You know what? I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hate our government and the media whores that do it's bidding. I'm sick of it.

I was GLUED to the TV during the Florida debacle and everything that followed. (That's what brought me to DU...I needed an outlet!) Those 2 stories were NOT shown...unless C-SPAN covered it and back then I didn't have C-SPAN. That doesn't excuse the other cable networks who ignored it. :grr:

[Anwen]

30. I had no idea.

I heard NOTHING from the media regarding both matters. The Supreme Court ordeal was very depressing to watch...but seeing the Washington protests actually gave me a lot of hope!

[Carolina]

31. me ...

My sister still lives in our hometown --- Washington, DC --- and she called me during the installation to report all the protestors streaming into Metro heading for the Mall and areas around PA and Constitution Avenues. She said it was absolutely incredible, "you should seee this!" Of course, I only saw the sanitized mediawhore version here in GOP land (SC). And come to find out that same sanitized version was all we all saw on the networks and later in still photos in the newsweaklies.

Even though I knew the truth by word of mouth, nothing can top the actual images in F9/11. Thank you, Michael Moore.

[cidliz2004]

33. No, I didn't know, which

makes me realize that if 2004 goes to Bush with EVEN AN APPEARANCE of inpropriety (how else would it happen) ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE -
and it won't be just eggs being thrown at the Bush Limo

[proud patriot]

34. Raising Hand

That's how I found DU

[EndElectoral]

35. I still am surprised that Kennedy and Byrd didn't sign

[SoCalDem]

36. I watched what little was shown on c-span.. kept waiting for more

coverage, but you could tell by the camera angles, that they were avoiding showing the magnitude of the protests..

Next day on WJ..barely a mention :(

[Jacobin]

37. Not I

That was the most surprising thing on the movie for me.

[Generator]

39. I thought the exact same thing

Of course, I had just given birth (thank Goddess she made it in under Clinton not *) got home on the 19th. I had no idea that the motorcade was forced to get the hell out of there. But you certainly never see that replayed.

Ah the outside of the mainstream hatefest began early!I wonder why? Because of a stolen election you ask? Why yes.

I heard about the Black Caucus though seeing it was very powerful. It was the first part of many tears I shed, seeing what a sad display of non-Democracy it was.

[Mari333]

40. I was at the protests in DC in 2000

Its a long story..but, yeah, I was there.
4 long years of a FRIGGING NIGHTMARE FROM HELL
no one listened to any of us at the protests...or the protests against the war either.
and we were
right.

[kayell]

41. I did, but I had no idea they were so large

watching that section of F911 was a revelation to me.

[quaker bill]

42. I did, I worked for Gore in Fla. so

I was taking the whole thing rather personally.

But then I also knew that we would be bombing brown people somewhere in less that a year if shrub took office. That is why I worked for Gore in the first place.