Bush Fundraising Stomp
Word on the street is that GW is in town today for a fundraising jaunt. There are uniformed officers, some on motorcycles, lining the sidewalks along 6th Ave. 52nd Street is essentially completely closed off to foot traffic; I went out the side entrance to meet Doyle and Sullivan for an anti-cigarette and the place was like a ghost town. Apparently, they asked all those who loitered too long to go back inside. I had been outside for about five minutes when three all-black Explorers with blue sirens drove past quickly through the traffic on Sixth.
Apparently this, too, is the reason why traffic was so devastating this morning, why I couldn't get one single cab to stop all along my York-to 86th-to Park route, which is usually money as far as cabs go. I finally flagged one going north at 70th Street and made him turn around. He looked earnestly back at me and said, "The traffic today is really really really bad." I nodded. "Are you prepared for this?" He said.
It bothers me somewhat that I have enough disgust for Bush and his policies that I will toss about threats of leaving the country--which relatively few people would be especially sorry to see happen--but that I don't, apparently, have the actual energy or determination to do anything more than download an ironic AIM icon to express my anti-Bush views. This is lower than buying bumper stickers. Although my icon is actually just a pro-Bush icon that advertises America as being safer, stronger, and something else positive that begins, I believe, with 'S', it is not substantially more clever or incisive than those buttons that The Nation is currently selling in packages of twelve that bear catchy slogans like 'W' is for Wrong, sometimes with an additional note below that details exactly what, in this case, Bush is wrong on. Almost as inane as 'W' is for Women but perhaps even worse for having been pilfered. Bonus points, however, for correctness.
I wish that my peers would show more interest, as well. But the protest during the RNC was hardly a great advertisement for popular demonstration: it wasn't bad, it wasn't violent--it just wasn't impressive. There was no anger. There was no vitriol. There was no emotion. These are things I feel conservatives have more readily at their disposal, to summon when the mood to argue or denounce strikes, as it so often does.
At the same time, Sonia, one of our younger associates, is on sabbatical until the end of November in order to volunteer [I assume she's volunteering] for the Kerry campaign. She speaks many languages, Larry says, and therefore she is very useful to them. She will make contacts that will help her professionally in her career and will make many contacts that will be beneficial to the firm. She made a decision that this was something she wanted to do and we support her in this.
No one's facial expression seems to indicate that they disagree with her particular political stance, which is somewhat surprising. Then again, most of them wear Casio watches.
Is this the answer? If nothing else, I have become very good at determining those courses of action that are, definitively, not the answer.
Apparently this, too, is the reason why traffic was so devastating this morning, why I couldn't get one single cab to stop all along my York-to 86th-to Park route, which is usually money as far as cabs go. I finally flagged one going north at 70th Street and made him turn around. He looked earnestly back at me and said, "The traffic today is really really really bad." I nodded. "Are you prepared for this?" He said.
It bothers me somewhat that I have enough disgust for Bush and his policies that I will toss about threats of leaving the country--which relatively few people would be especially sorry to see happen--but that I don't, apparently, have the actual energy or determination to do anything more than download an ironic AIM icon to express my anti-Bush views. This is lower than buying bumper stickers. Although my icon is actually just a pro-Bush icon that advertises America as being safer, stronger, and something else positive that begins, I believe, with 'S', it is not substantially more clever or incisive than those buttons that The Nation is currently selling in packages of twelve that bear catchy slogans like 'W' is for Wrong, sometimes with an additional note below that details exactly what, in this case, Bush is wrong on. Almost as inane as 'W' is for Women but perhaps even worse for having been pilfered. Bonus points, however, for correctness.
I wish that my peers would show more interest, as well. But the protest during the RNC was hardly a great advertisement for popular demonstration: it wasn't bad, it wasn't violent--it just wasn't impressive. There was no anger. There was no vitriol. There was no emotion. These are things I feel conservatives have more readily at their disposal, to summon when the mood to argue or denounce strikes, as it so often does.
At the same time, Sonia, one of our younger associates, is on sabbatical until the end of November in order to volunteer [I assume she's volunteering] for the Kerry campaign. She speaks many languages, Larry says, and therefore she is very useful to them. She will make contacts that will help her professionally in her career and will make many contacts that will be beneficial to the firm. She made a decision that this was something she wanted to do and we support her in this.
No one's facial expression seems to indicate that they disagree with her particular political stance, which is somewhat surprising. Then again, most of them wear Casio watches.
Is this the answer? If nothing else, I have become very good at determining those courses of action that are, definitively, not the answer.
posted by Michael Deuser at 10:09 PM
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