Deconstructing Randi

Road Sage says it quite well, touching on all the ambivalence and frustration and resignation and I-knew-it-was-coming-tion. And you knew, too. Read Road:
Randi Rhodes & Her Eff’ing Adjectives!
Rhodes Quits Air America and how might we think of this outcome.
By Road Sage
She pushed the envelope. It was her style.
And it was her personality to get indignant –but mostly about things that mattered. But sometimes her anima would not let things go—once she got her brain’s wires wrapped around it. She just had to follow her dendritic synapses to wherever they led.
And of course she was one who could tell the blatant and unmitigated truth. No mealy-mouther her. No—not Randi Rhodes. But that is why people listened to her—she would often say what other flocks of angels feared not tread. Yeah she had courage and gallantry for a sense of justice—for sure.
That is why she is valuable to a truth-starved society like ours. She could wake people up—that is if she is not upsetting them too much.
But then she called Hillary Clinton a “f**king” whore at a speech event in the Frisco Bay area. It got on the Internet via YouTube and made a splash—daring. So when the stuff it the fan her bosses at Air America suspended her “indefinitely” over the mouthy flap.
Then she quits her radio talk show host job at Air America.
[...] But what is not so amazing is that the mainstream media actually printed the story of Rhodes quitting her job at Air America! Normally the mainstream does not much recognize her. Could it be then that America did in fact get the message about Clinton being a war-mongering prostitute and that this could add to the eventual death knell for Hillary’s campaign?
But even more importantly, Randi Rhodes has passion and commitment—even if sometimes headstrong. Passion, awareness and commitment is something far too lacking in much of mainstream America—which seems non-committed like Camus’ character Meursault in his book The Stranger. It seems that most Americans, in general, are under developed in the potential for being humanely socialized to be aware and human. Some have noted that even saints have at times acted with faults, and although few would claim Randi a saint, at least most could say: “thank you Ms. Randi Rhodes for caring a great deal. And thank you for your imperfect self—at least you are out there fighting for a difference”.

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/96486.html

Are We Losing Union Square?

Here we go again. First Washington Square Park loses the fountain and gets "No Loitering" (???) signs to ward off the "bad guys" trying to play chess, now this:
Union Square Boondoggle (Indypendent)
Parks Dept. privatization plan for Union Square Park comes under fire
By Alex Kane, April 12, 2008 02:31PM EDT
The chain link fences are up around the north end of Union Square Park as the city prepares to launch a $20 million renovation that critics say privileges private business interests over the public good.

The overhaul began in 2002 as a $1.9 million initiative by then City Council Member Margarita Lopez to improve two playgrounds on both sides of the pavilion at the north end of Union Square. By 2004, the Parks Department and the Union Square Partnership had folded the playground money into a $14 million scheme that would install a privately run restaurant in the pavilion. The pricetag is now at $20 million with an anonymous donor contributing $5 million.
“There’s absolutely no rationale for the city to be doing this except to appease business groups,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, a nonprofit watchdog group dedicated to monitoring New York City’s public spaces. “This is an area with the highest concentration of restaurants in New York City, and the lowest amount of playground space. The fact that the Business Improvement District has been able to usurp the public’s interest and the community’s interest is very unfortunate.” [...]
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/96223.html

1000-1500 people protested Bush at the UN!

Protest Against Bush at UN and
March to Washington Square
Here's a report from NYC IndyMedia. Go to the the link below for more and to check out the terrific pictures!

Led by a coalition of groups, about 1000-1500 people protested Bush at the UN as world leaders filed by on First Avenue (the ex President of Mexico Vicente Fox stopped by to chat. The current Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel did not).

Speakers included representatives from World Can't Wait, Code Pink, and from several of the NYC area colleges and universities and would have gone on except that the permit was pulled early. 15 people were arrested, most as part of a planned civil disobedience. Several, however were pulled out at random.

About 500 people, mostly high school and college students, then proceeded to march from the UN to Washington Square Park. Except for one arrest near the end near the Washington Square Gate, the police didn't interfere with the march. There was, however, quite possibly the heaviest police videotaping of an anti-war march I've personally seen since the RNC demonstrations, odd considering that the march was mostly made up of high-school kids.

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/91300.html