It's a ripsnorting, '60s style, "give me an F," punks and folkies wailing, no-makeup-wearing Cindy Sheehan agitating, bring the troops home now, my mother-in-law and the other hippies will be there, good old anti-war rally and free concert as Operation Ceasefire seeks to rattle the windows of power tomorrow, Saturday, September 24, all afternoon and evening at the Washington Monument in DC.
Promoted as a "centerpiece of what is expected to be 4 days of enormous protests in nation's capital in support of a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from the quagmire in Iraq," the show, hosted by ex-Dead Kennedys frontman and inveterate iconoclast Jello Biafra, includes the following performers:
2:05 PM - Machetres
2:30 PM - Living Things
3:18 PM - Joan Baez
3:50 PM - Wayne Kramer & The Bellrays
4:41 PM - Steve Earle
5:31 PM- The Coup
6:23 PM - Sweet Honey in the Rock
7:09 PM - The Evens
7:54 PM - Ted Leo + Pharmacists
8:50 PM - Head Roc
9:37 PM - Thievery Corporation
10:59 PM - Pure Belly Dance
11:27 PM - Bouncing Souls
12:12 AM - Le Tigre
Speaking between musical acts will be Biafra, the "Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement" Cindy Sheehan, Representative Lynn Woolsey, Washington Wizard forward Etan Thomas, former State Department officer Ann Wright, national radio commentator Jim Hightower, Fernando Suarez del Solar of Gold Star Families, Reverend Graylan Hagler, Cindy Corrie (mother of Rachel Corrie, who was killed in the West Bank), Code Pink and Global Exchange co-founder Medea Benjamin, the DC Guerilla Poets, investigative journalist Greg Palast, Iraq Vets Against the War co-founder Michael Hoffman, and Anti-Flag drummer Pat Thetic.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
anyone (besides my mother-in-law) planning to attend?
2 - Eric Berlin
Politics aside, this sounds like a great event for Baez (and nostalgia / historical factors) and Bouncing Souls (kick ass kinetic pop-punk).
3 - Eric Olsen
I predict the Fish Cheer will ensue
4 - demabloggery
Glad to see Sheehan has made a career out of making her son out to be a mindless idiot who got killed for nothing.
5 - JELIEL
I'd be there if I could, but it's a bit foreign for me =) and the specter of Godfatherhood shall fall upon me in the morrow to come
6 - Eric Olsen
well congrats on that, Jeliel!
I have very mixed feelings about Sheehan, Wallace, although I would like to think she is sincere
7 - Dave Nalle
Did I see that Jello Biafra was one of the speakers, or did I misread that?
Dave
8 - Eric Olsen
Jello is the host
9 - Bob A. Booey
There's always room for J E L L O.
He's always bizarre and interesting.
Etan Thomas is also one of the more interesting athletes around, very politically active, a poet, and a pretty smart guy for a mediocre NBA center.
That is all.
10 - Eric Olsen
his time on the bench has led him to believe that immediate withdrawal is the answer
11 - Joanie
Gawd, I hate how this has become a concert event to draw in the unwitting.
It really bothers me that no one bothers to look into the groups sponsoring these events. I admit, I never used to, but now that I know, it scares me how easily led people are.
12 - JELIEL
Thank you Eric.
13 - Eric Berlin
What's so underhanded and sinister about a... "centerpiece of what is expected to be 4 days of enormous protests in nation's capital in support of a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from the quagmire in Iraq."
It sounds to me that if you show up to this thing, you pretty much know what you're in for.
14 - Scott
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists too! That's some sweet rock n roll!
15 - Dave Nalle
"It sounds to me that if you show up to this thing, you pretty much know what you're in for."
Plus the audience they're marketing to is young, dumb and ill-informed, so they don't know or care how pernicious the groups behind the concert are. All the sponsors want is young, photogenic and pissed off looking people for the cameras.
Dave
16 - Scott
That's a fairly large generalization to be making there Dave.
17 - RogerMDillion
"the audience they're marketing to is young, dumb and ill-informed,"
As opposed to the old, dumb and ill-informed who bought everything the administration sold them.
18 - Bob A. Booey
BURN!
That is all.
19 - MCH
"Though the cause is deadly serious, the performers and intensity of rhetoric ensure a high entertainement value for the whole affair as well."
- Eric Olsen
Uh-huh, but not nearly as intense as the rhetoric of those who "support" the invasion from their keyboards.
20 - Eric Olsen
at this point that is patently false
21 - Dennis Robbins
I've FINALLY figured out how war protesters can avoid "STUCK ON STUPID." I just hope THEY don't discover it any time soon.
Just in time for the weekend war protests . . . THE quintessential "Anti-War Demonstrations For Dummies." This book will change the way protesters yell "No blood for oil" for years to come. It SHOULD be a refreshing change of pace.
For a sneek preview, visit:
http://georgiavoice.blogspot.com/2005/09/in-alternate-universe-things-could-be.html
Enjoy for the pure IRONY,
The Georgia Pundit
22 - Scott Butki
That sounds like a great concert line-up. I've long wanted to hear Steve Earle live and Le Tigre are wonderfully weird.
Dave, on what are you basing this suggestion:
"the audience they're marketing to is young, dumb and ill-informed,"
Because a) I'm guessing the fans there to see Baez are not exactly young as the young would think it was a typo for Jason Mraz
b) I know people who are going of all ages and most of them are neither dumb nor ill informed.
23 - Dave Nalle
>>Because a) I'm guessing the fans there to see Baez are not exactly young as the young would think it was a typo for Jason Mraz<<
Sorry, there are two markets. The young, dumb and ill-informed and the old, confused and ideologically ossified.
>>b) I know people who are going of all ages and most of them are neither dumb nor ill informed.<<
Then why are they going? Only someone ill-informed or gullible could fail to realize what the groups behind this rally are really after. Are you suggesting that all these attendees are really interested in the violent socialist overthrow of the constitution? I was being nice to call them dumb and ill-informed. If they're not dupes then they are something much worse.
Dave
24 - steve
Cindy Sheehan is the worst mother in America. She has exploited her son's death. Hopefully someday she will come to this conclusion.
25 - octogent
Karl Marx once wrote that religion was the OPIATE of the masses, could he not also have included hysteria of the asses?