free indy videos on Bush protests, W.R. Pitt, savage cops & media lies

[rivertext]

100 million dollars later

After spending 40 million dollars while running unopposed for the Republican nomination George W. Bush has just over 100 million dollars left in his campaign bank account. At his last one million dollar Portland fund-raiser lunch cost $2,000. Nonetheless, "a million dollars later," our 20 minute video filmed during that fund-raiser, is free. Our film takes a unique and startling look at the protests that greeted George W. Bush's August 2003 fund-raising trip to the Pacific Northwest.

However, before presenting some images from "a million dollars later" I'd like to show you a still from each of two superb five minute films also just released by the Portland Indymedia Video Collective. I recommend first downloading one of these shorter videos.

::: A full set of links to pages that explain how to download and view these films on Macs, Windows and Linux appears at the bottom of this post. :::

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In March 2003 the corporate media looked the other way while the Portland Police attacked peaceful law-abiding Iraq war protesters. When independent videographers handed out royalty-free videos of the attacks KATU TV news was the only station to broadcast any of the footage. "Li2U News" (by Johannes Ikovit) presents the original footage alongside the distorted KATU version to demonstrate how the corporate media edits to deceive. This is must-see TV.

"Cops of the World", a music video created by Steev Hise, is based on a Ryan Harvey performance of an updated Phil Ochs protest song. This is not the kind of thing they show on MTV. Steev was the lead editor for "a million dollars later."

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George W. Bush's Portland fund-raiser, which took place on the outskirts of town, was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, a half dozen armored vehicles and more than a hundred riot police.

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I organized the arc of million dollars around brief excerpts from two penetrating commentaries on the Bush regime that William Rivers Pitt delivered during the Seattle protests. The images, music and the action swirl in a montage around Pitt's words:

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"And most of where we are right now I would say has to do with a rather demented set of priorities and values. I remember specifically Oct. 4th, 2001 there was a pall of smoke and ash still hanging over New York City in the aftermath of September 11th when Mr. Bush said on Oct. 4th, 2001: 'We need to counter the shock wave of the evil doer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates.' That's moral. Use the horror of September 11th to push your hair-brained no taxes for rich people scheme."

-- that is where William Rivers Pitt's commentary begins. It ends with a definition of fascism.

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I was inspired to put this introduction to our video together when Steev Hise and I took note of how we were both surprised that almost 2/3 of the stills from a million dollars later put up on Indymedia to announce its on-line release were of protesters getting grabbed, kicked, pepper sprayed, or threatened with guns. "a million dollars later" does cover the police break-up of a sit-in that blocked one of the buses full of rich Bush donors and it exposes a conspiracy by the police to take vengeance on Portland's peace camp activists (such as Amber Hicks who is shown in both of the above images). However, all of this is presented to sharpen our focus on where the Bush administration is taking America. In our interview with Amber, after she explains how she was grabbed while strolling in the park, dragged along the ground out of the park, cuffed and rammed face-first into a van, she concludes:

"Everything that has happened to me has been very traumatic. But compared to my family getting blown up and bombs dropping all the time. (shakes her head) I was there for a reason. I believe that what we are doing as a nation is wrong."

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We weave into the narrative interviews that range from a "Soccer Mom" watching the protest march from her front porch to a protester from the Black Bloc. From our interview with the Soccer Mom:

"Do you have any reservations about Bush?"

(She starts to shake her head, but then admits) "I think he should spend more on education than on helping other countries. Help the children of this country."

"Do you mean instead of blowing up other countries?"

"Well, yeah."

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"What do you think of all the riot police?"

"On the one hand it's funny that they're scared of us. On the other hand it's probably smart to be scared of Moms."

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"I say they can take nothing from us that we are not willing to give. And we are not willing to give this great nation up. I say let them be warned. We stand our ground."

-- William Rivers Pitt, Seattle, 08-23-03

"a million dollars later" was made without input from William Rivers Pitt. However, I think he's cool with it because I sent him a copy of CODE PEACE -- our compilation VHS tape of 5 films including the three films mentioned here -- and I have yet to hear from his lawyers. Besides I was wearing a Democratic Underground.com shirt when I was filming him and he said, "DU!" as he gave me a big thumbs up.

These films along with other Portland Indymedia Collective videos can now be downloaded and viewed using a new open source technology that works on Macs, Windows, and Linux. Technical help is available at portland.indymedia.org

I feel obligated to tell you honestly about my experiences with this technology. Although I have been assured that these videos can be downloaded and viewed on Mac OS 9, I was not able to locate them using OS 9. However, when I switched to Mac OS 10.2 (and Internet Explorer) everything was easy. I was using a 400 MHz. G3 iMac. The films were enjoyable to watch, however the sound was slightly out of sync. I was assured that this does not happen on faster Macs and that everything works even better on fast Windows machines.

-- Brian Thomas, 03-07-04

Here are the links:

Learn how to download and watch these on-line videos by reading the:

:: on line video guide
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/static/videoguide.shtml

:: windows video guide
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/static/videoguidewin.shtml

:: mac OS video guide
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/static/videoguidemac.shtml

:: Download a million dollars later
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/videos/#AMillionDollarsLater

:: Download Li2U News
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/videos/#Li2UNews

:: Download Cops of the World
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/videos/#CopsoftheWorld

See what other videos are available from the

:: resistance on line video page
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/videos/

:: rivertext's STUFF (among other things, 1 year of photos, conversation snippets, satire and music from Portland's defiance of the Bush years.)

http://www.rivertext.com/stuff.html

[DoctorMyEyes]

1. Thanks rivertext

I'll be back after watching them.