Awesome! Joy Garnett has more, including an explanation for those less geeky.

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UPDATED: Our friend Michelle was marching with said protester.

Congressman Ed Schrock (R-VA) in front of a statue of Saddam Hussein at the Baghdad International Airport. Since this photo was taken, the statue has been removed.

I’m doing my happy dance! Ed Schrock (R-Va) is the second-most conservative member of the House, according to The National Journal. He has a 92% approval rating from the Christian Coalition. He opposes gays in the military, he opposes any protection from being fired for being gay, and he is a co-sponser of the Federal Marriage Amendment.

He is also a closted gay man, and after tapes were released of his personal on a gay sex line, he resigned from the House. Rock on!

BlogActive is the blog that brought this hypocrite down, and it says more are to follow. There’s even an MP3 for you to listen to his recording.

After a day of watching my neighborhood under occupation (and below 23rd Street isn’t on any map of “security zones”), this really cheered me up.

I just walked up Eighth Avenue. From 7th Avenue to 9th Avenue, from 14th Street to 23rd Street, is all no-parking, no-stopping and no-deliveries. There was no warning other than some fliers the police put up on Sunday night. The stores in our neighborhood are really screwed, with their delivery people having to park blocks away and use handtrucks to bring deliveries in 85+ degree heat.

There are 6-10 cops every block. Many of them are bored and talking on their cell phones, not even pretending to watch for anything. Our tax dollars at work.

[The image is from some kind of pro-war GOP House web site.]

From Newsday:

Newsday photographer Moises Saman – who spent eight days in an Iraqi prison in 2003 – was taken into police custody yesterday in Times Square while covering a protest related to the Republican convention.

“I was photographing a guy getting arrested and somebody grabbed me from the back with a lot of force and made me fly backwards,” said the award-wining photographer, who was at 45th Street and Seventh Avenue at about 5 p.m. when the incident occurred.

“I turned around and it was a police officer in a white shirt,” Saman said. “He just said something like, ’You’re arrested … I told you to move.’ But he [had] never said anything to me.”

Spencer Platt, a staff photographer for Getty Images, who was on the scene, said police had started to arrest some quasi-anarchists on the street corners when officers got rough with Saman and others.

“There were about 10 photographers photographing what I think was an arrest,” said Platt. “A cop just walked up, arbitrarily grabbed Moises by his shoulders and just threw him backwards. … Moises was on the ground, dazed and shocked. We’re all yelling, ‘What are you doing?’ and he picked him up off the street and arrested him. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Saman, 30, said police handcuffed him and put him in a van with about 10 protesters, took a Polaroid photograph of him, and drove him to the West Side pier, where a temporary processing center has been set up.

“By that time, they already knew about me and they took me aside from the rest of the protesters,” Saman said. “They told me they were going to let me go.”

Police later said several photographers were taken into custody when protesters blocking the sidewalk were arrested. After officials realized the photographers were members of the media, police said, they were released and no charges were pressed.

Saman said it took about two hours before he was released. An officer then escorted him to the West Side Highway, where he hailed a cab and returned to Times Square to continue work.

The Newsday photographer, along with Newsday reporter Matthew McAllester, was held by Saddam Hussein’s security agents at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in March 2003 as U.S. trooped pressed into Baghdad.

I only took one, as I was generally holding the sign which said on one side:

and on the other

James has a post and a lot more photos.

I’m listening to anoise.org right now. The police have cleared the Times Square area of all pedestrians so that the delegates leaving their Broadway shows won’t have to see any protesters.

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We got home OK. We were near the end of the march, so we started around 11:30-12 at Christopher and 7th Ave and finished at Union Square around 5:30. Tired.

Gothamist Gazette has a group blog covering the invasion/convention, with the writers including our friend Jon Winkleman.

Here are more photos of our march across the Brooklyn Bridge today.

Here is the post James did, with a link to his gallery of photos.

who have added links to this site recently, don’t worry. I will probably calm down and write about things art-ish again once the evil Republicans leave Manhattan and go back to screwing us, financially and otherwise.

The Imagine Festival is a good place to find politically-oriented cultural events during this period, as is Joy Garnett’s weblog.

I’m following the progress of Critical Mass on anoise.org right now — streaming ant-RNC news all weekend.

Good background from Newsday on Critical Mass (emphasis mine):

Hundreds of bicyclists who flout traffic rules could face arrest tomorrow night when police crack down on an unauthorized ride through midtown.

The monthly ride, Critical Mass, has for years proceeded without police intervention even as thousands of riders blocked streets, ignored red lights and took up traffic lanes. Under the law, bicyclists must obey traffic laws, have a working bell and are banned from riding more than two abreast.

…

The ride is scheduled the last Friday of each month and is meant to encourage pollution-free transportation. It has no preset route, instead following the whim of its leaders, who are not chosen beforehand. It is slated to begin in Union Square at 7 p.m. tomorrow and end at a West Side bar.

A police spokesman would not say why officers avoided ticketing riders for the more than 10 years that Critical Mass has been holding rides. During a ride in June, 1,000 bicyclists took up both northbound lanes on Park Avenue on the way to the South Bronx, ignoring traffic signals. A few riders blocked intersections until the group passed through.

We saw this play last night at an undisclosed location. I love a play where “moderate” is an insult. Go see it! Here is a Salon article on it.