Josh Levinger

“Whose streets? Our streets.” The chants at the massive demonstrations against the Republican National Convention in New York City last Sunday were usually as short, but rarely as true as the above. Half a million people and I took over two miles of Seventh Avenue from Union Square to Madison Square Garden; several thousand then made their separate ways to Central Park for a gathering in defiance of a city ruling that it would destroy the grass. The biggest demonstrations ever during a political convention showed that at least some in this generation haven’t succumbed to apathy.

Various actions continued through the week, including a day of “direct action”, a code name for civil disobedience and anarchic action, on August 31st. While the New York City Police had been remarkably restrained for the first two days of the convention, they lost patience as small groups harassed delegates all over the city. As soon as more than a few people gathered on a street corner, and unfurled signs or began to legally march on the sidewalk, the police simply wrapped the entire area in orange netting and arrested everyone inside. Many members of the press, civilians merely in the wrong place in the wrong time, and peaceful protesters were wrongly detained.

Nearly 1,700 arrestees were taken in city buses to a dirty pier on the Hudson, made to lie on an oily cement floor without padding, and held in excess of the legally mandated 24 hours. The rational for this long wait is either incompetence, or a desire to keep protesters locked up until the President left the city. Either is unacceptable. On Thursday, a New York State judge ordered the the release of those prisoners held for more than 24 hours, and fined the city $1000 per illegally detained person.

I had left the city before the mass arrests began, but did experience some action. I narrowly missed an arrest and perhaps a beating in front of the Broadway theater where my state’s delegates saw the play Bombay Dreams. I was able to converse peacefully with delegates and members of Congress attending a party at a bowling alley late on Sunday night, until the police showed up and cleared the sidewalks under threat of violence.

Some at the Republican Convention questioned the patriotism of the demonstrators. Zell Miller, a renegade Democrat who gave the keynote address on Wednesday, claimed that Kerry’s protest of the Vietnam war &#ldquo;weakened our military.&#rdquo; He said that &#ldquo;it is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.&#rdquo; While the solider does defend that right with his or her blood, the right itself is given to all by the Constitution, and expected as the behavior of an active citizen by our founding fathers. No less a man than Thomas Jefferson stated that “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”

While Zell Miller may compare me with a terrorist, dissent is our most important political right, enshrined in the First Amendment. Whatever your views, speak up. Dissent has been curtailed in previous times of war, and it is often the first right to go in dictatorships. To truly honor those who sacrificed themselves defending our freedoms, practice the rights guaranteed to you in the Constitution. Silence is the ultimate act of condonement and defiant dissent its antithesis.

Both political parties claim that this is a defining moment in our history. It couldn’t be more true. While both candidates use remarkably similar language on certain issues, particularly the war, we are faced with a choice between two radically different visions for the future of government. Unlike the last election, where it seemed we were given the choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the choices these two candidates make, and the people they surround themselves with, will take this country in different directions.

Which future you support is your decision, but participation in democracy is not. I don’t care who you vote for, just vote. Request an absentee ballot from your state, read a real newspaper, and make an informed decision. Thanks to the peculiarities of the electoral system, your vote in Massachusetts is meaningless, because the state is guaranteed to go for Kerry. If you want your vote to count, vote by mail.

You don’t have to risk arrest or bodily harm to be a patriot, but you do have to vote.

- Published in today’s Tech

I was treated to a helicopter ride over Boston courtesy of the Marine Corps. Yes, I sold my soul for two minutes in a rented helicopter. But the pictures were worth it.

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‘The people have spoken, the bastards.’ While John Kerry’s concession speech didn’t include this gem of a quote by congressional candidate Dick Tuck, it certainly could have. Kerry made the usual entreaties for national unity, healing, and an end to the partisan divide, but they rang hollow. His running mate John Edwards claimed that ‘the fight will go on’, but it’s hard to see where we have left to fight.

George Bush won the popular vote by over three million, solidifying his party’s leads in the House and Senate, and defeating the Senate majority leader. By anyone’s count, it was a good day to be a Republican.

Republicans will likely interpret this victory as overwhelming. Compared to the squeaker in 2000, it is a mandate from the people. But given how he governed when he lost the popular vote, I shudder to imagine how this victory will manifest itself in his policy proposals. He will almost certainly get to appoint three or more Supreme Court justices, as well as the new Chief Justice. There is renewed momentum for a ban on gay marriage, which will legally have to come as a constitutional amendment. Our preemptive foreign policy will continue and expand. The Patriot Act will be reinforced. The tax cuts will be made permanent. Social security will be privatized. America will continue to spread freedom from the barrel of a gun.

But before Democrats become utterly despondent, let’s remember that 48% of the country, over 55 million people, voted against George Bush and his ideology. This was not a blowout, and we put up a good fight, but we were clearly beaten.

Whatever it was, John Kerry didn’t have it. Maybe he pulled out of Missouri too early, or spent too much energy on Florida. Maybe he was too negative, or not aggressive enough. Maybe the campaign outsourced too much of the ground work to the 527′s. He was probably too nuanced and equivocal. There will be plenty of time for recriminations and accusations among groups on the left. The now leaderless party will wallow in its own self doubt and pity for the next few months. It’s hard to tell whose head will roll that hasn’t already been cut.

Before we degenerate into finger pointing, let’s savor this moment of sadness. There is a lesson to be learned here: a majority of Americans support Bush. Why exactly is a matter for the pundits to argue, but it’s undoubtedly true. Americans see something powerful in their plain spoken leader; something that we who get our news from the New Yorker and the Nation don’t. Although some of us would like to dismiss Bush as an ignorant cowboy, his victory forces us to realize that he is more than that. He is the man a slight, but clear majority of us chose to lead in these troubled times.

Bush promised in his victory speech to try to earn the trust of Kerry’s supporters. It’s hard to see how he will, but I’ll try and give him the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t steal this election, we lost it fair and square. Now it’s time to see what Bush will do with a lock on all three branches of government.

As our military surrounds Falluja yet again, ready to reinvade, I’m not hopeful about the future. Bush often says that history will judge his mistakes. Now that he doesn’t have to fear the electorate again, this is certainly true. But history is a harsher judge than the American people, and this chapter is Bush’s to write.

Well, we lost. Time to fantasize about better candidates for next time.

I suggest a man with mercenary experience, who is willing to shoot first, and survived brutal treatment as a prisoner of war. His running mate is fiercely loyal, but can get a little testy when backed into a corner. Together, they’ve got a vision, and a plan for ridding the world of bounty hunters terrorists.

No, it’s not McCain/Giuliani, it’s

Yeah, I’ve got too much time on my hands.

In case you missed President Bush’s second inauguration speech, let me sum it up for you with one word: freedom. Freedom with a capital F, as in FDR’s famous four, Capitol Hill fries, and Mel Gibson wearing a kilt and blue warpaint. Apparently, the terrorists hate us for our freedom, and we’re going to do our damnedest to spread it around the world just to piss them off. But there was something missing between the lofty liberal ideals, and the hidden religious rhetoric, something very basic: a definition. What exactly is this freedom that is God’s gift to humanity?

When still-President Bush offers freedom to the rest of the world, is he pushing our democratic ideals like free press and speech, or merely capitalism? When he tells jailed dissidents that “when you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you” does he mean that we are willing to go to war with every two bit despot, and China too?

We as a nation have made this promise before, and failed to keep it. After the first Gulf War, the first President Bush told the Shia majority to rise up, that we would support them. They did, and were duly slaughtered by Saddam, by the helicopters we allowed him to keep at the ceasefire talks in Safwan. President Bush later called the loss of life “unfortunate.” In an apparent attempt to rectify the situation, we went to war with Iraq again, and are now learning that its people desire freedom from our occupying forces nearly as much as they did from Saddam. Or they are at least free enough to articulate their desires through roadside explosives.

But the President’s speech was not about the past, and wars we’ve already fought in freedom’s name. It was a clarion call to the future, and the wars we have yet to fight. It was a clear signal to Iran and North Korea, the last standing members of the axis of evil. We will show them the road to our kind of freedom, open markets and an “ownership society”, whether they like it or not. Because freedom doesn’t mean Islamism, or Communism. If the people choose one of those ends, we won’t stand by them. We stood by and watched as democracy was suspended in Algeria in 1992 when Muslim extremists were prepared to win in a landslide.

We are currently preparing for an election in Iraq where perhaps 30% of the voters will be disenfranchised because “some pockets” will be too dangerous for voting. The expected pro-Shia results will not likely lead to a federal constitution, where the rights of the ethnic minority Sunni and Kurds will not be protected. Is this our idea of freedom, an election where we choose who can and cannot vote, and then apply the results equally to everyone? Or does freedom mean civil war, and chaos that makes the current insurgency pale in comparison?

Where is the freedom in the military bases we are building in Iraq to tighten our grip on the Middle East? Where is the freedom in the Patriot Act, passed without discussion, and soon to be made permanent? Where is the freedom in holding old men captive indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay?

The United States is no longer that shining city on a hill, that beacon of light to the world. Lady Liberty needs to adjust her torch, before we send her back to France. Despite President Bush’s uplifting speech, those huddled masses may be stuck yearning to breath free for at least another four years.

- Published in final IAP issue of The Tech

I spent the month of January working on MIT’s autonomous robotics competition, 6.270. The chassis was made with Lego, with a big collapsable arm on the front and a more than passing resemblance to a certain Star Wars character. We dubbed it “Admiral Ackbot”, and had planned to yell “it’s a trap!” during the final competition. Unfortunately, due to a blown component on our microcontroller, the robot would spontaneously reboot, causing the loss of our first two rounds and our elimination from the contest. I feel that our design and strategy would have gotten us pretty far, had our board actually worked. Another hard won engineering lesson…

Our witty team website, Admiral Ackbot and the Mon Calamari Cruisers

Four years, 218 credits, and nearly $200,000 later, I’ve got a diploma. Sweet.

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I guess I’m officially an adult now; working for the man every night and day. But I’ve still been able to get out and enjoy the summer. We celebrated Klara’s last week in town with a trip to the Harbor Islands. This was the first visit in my memory, although Janet informs me that I was taken there as a little tyke. I probably had as much fun this time exploring the fort and watching the re-enactors fire their cannon as I did when I was four. Standing in a pitch black room, lit only by a single shaft of light from above, we practiced our maniacal laughter. Had a picnic lunch overlooking the harbor, and then took the interisland ferry to a smaller island where Hana and I napped on the beach while the others explored the abandoned WWII battlements.

Our fair city

Bathed in light

Reenacting a nap

Relaxing on the Beach

Little Brewster Island

Went to an Obama rally last night, trying to find out if he’s really all that. Waited in the mile long line for three hours with Ruth Miller, my former editor at the Tech, and now my neighbor in the office park. The line was something to behold, full of middle school girls, old fogies, and more sober college students than should ever be in one place. Volunteers tried to get us to call prospective voters, but I demurred, having done that for MoveOn before, and knowing how painful it is. Lyndon Larouche supporters were out, spouting their nonsense about the hyperinflationary shock wave, and nattering on about the Weimar Republic. While I am concerned about our current accounts deficit, I am less than convinced that Larouche is the guy to fix it. Call me when we’re burning dollars for heat, and we’ll talk.

When finally allowed inside, we got a tiny slice of a view, but were able to hear rousing speeches by democratic luminaries such as: the mayor of Lynn, some Asian woman I had never heard of, Deval Patrick, John Kerry, and that dynamic, fresh faced phenomenon, Ted Kennedy. Kerry stank up the place, and there were some heckles from the back about his particular track record on presidential elections. Obama took the stage at around eleven, and gave a speech he probably has given hundreds of times before. It’s a pretty standard stump speech about new politics, and change, and all that good stuff. Still, he managed to be engaging, because he is one charismatic sonofabitch.

Found some good pictures by flickr user Kori Leigh. I was nowhere near this close.

***
Post ur-Tuesday update:
Looks like he’s still in it, so I’m pretty psyched. Note that most of his wins were in non-coastal, less traditionally blue states. This bodes well for general electability. It’s also interesting that the division between Clinton and Obama voters appears to be class, not race. It remains to be seen if he can adopt the Edwards message and really reach out to poor voters. Of course, his experience as a community organizer is relevant.

I also read this essay by Robin Morgan, which is a pretty compelling feminist call for Hillary, and am implicit critique of Obama. While I do find it compelling, I still think that Hillary brings out the worst of the Democratic Party, embodying all of the Clinton triangulation with none of her husband’s charisma. On a purely policy level, she just doesn’t offer enough of a counterpoint to McCain to have a chance in November. Sorry ladies, but I don’t think it’s your year.

With it hot as a genital reference in the city today, my lady friend and I decided to head to the ocean. What better way to cool down than show a southern belle a former confederate prison in the middle of Boston harbor? I am a genius.

She forgave my cultural faux pas, and pretended to be impressed by my Indiana Jones-style cavern finding. However, this faded when I asked a man on a golf cart how to get to where I wanted to go. This was after she paced out the distance from one wall to the relevant air shaft. Apparently asking for directions isn’t always the right thing to do if one wants to impress a lady.

In the chamber of secrets

I am a wild animal

Spooky

Big wall

I walked out my door this morning for Laika’s walk to the sight of my car jacked off the ground, two wheels missing. Some yahoos stole them, but were kind enough to leave a pile of lugnuts and the jack itself. After one profanity laced call to my parents, and then two calm ones to the police and the insurance company, I walked a few blocks to my friendly neighborhood auto shop. They said that another Fit had all four wheels taken last night, so I guess I was lucky. Come on guys, I voted for Barack; can’t we all just get along?

I created a somewhat more professional website for cool stuff I do in the Media Lab. At any rate, it should improve my ranking on Google.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~jlev/

Helping Jeff with his experiments in low cost aerial photography. More pictures on Christina’s Flickr page.

Balloon Inflation

Jeff Attaching the Payload

Liftoff

Walking down the Charles

MIT Suspenders

The somewhat finished product

Went with Janet to the opening day game. Our seats were at the top of section 14, right in front of the standing room section, where many of the professional photographers hang out. My shots didn’t turn out as well as the guy’s with the two foot lenses, but I had to try.

Rivals Arrayed

Pedro’s Opening Pitch

Jeter

Sweet Caroline (live)

Today was so lovely, I decided to go down to the Common for an old fashioned tea party. I borrowed the jauntiest hat and jacket I could find (thanks Jeff). I tried to convince other folks from the lab to come, but they all thought it was silly. I thought it was delightfully so. Luckily, some other folks agreed, and we sat in the sun, watching the passersby and nibbling on scones and petit-fours.

Earl Grey, Hot

Our tea party

A gas steam generator

A photographic apparatus

Latex George Washington

There were other people making quite a commotion, and I eventually wandered into the fray. Palin’s speech was full of sound and fury, but ultimately signified nothing. There seemed to be nearly as many counter-protesters and curious onlookers as actual teabaggers. The patriots who were there had the usual assortment of incoherent signs. I was glad to see the Larouchies out in force, with a dope-pushing queen in drag. There were also some plants with really ridiculous signs, which I don’t really think helps the dialogue.

Trolls

Larouchies

Assorted Outrage

The Queen Bee

Brainwashed Kids

But tea, sunshine and some polite conversation? Thats my kind of party.

Backdating this, because I forgot to write about it at the time…

This morning while riding the T to work, I was a witness to a police action on the Red Line. A man got on at Harvard, wearing a loose blue shirt and looking a little sketchy, but no more so than any of the regular drunks in the square. He sat across from me, next to a colleague of mine at the lab, and the train departed. We got perhaps a third of the way to Central when the conductor stopped and announced there was a “switching problem ahead”, and that we were going back. I looked at my friend, rolled my eyes, and prepared for a long wait.

When we got back to Harvard, I two police officers started walking up the train, one in the central aisle and one outside the car. The one outside stopped next to my friend, pointed at the man next to him through the window, and the officer inside drew his weapon and barked “show me your hands!” My friend put his Kindle down in bewilderment, the man next to him rolled his hands over, displaying a red dye on his palms. The cop said something like “easy, buddy”, turned him around roughly, and cuffed him. A man further down the car said “he put something in the cabin at the end”, and other officers got on the car and told the passengers to leave. I exited and moved several cars down, expecting that we would be on our way shortly. The conductors came on the loudspeaker again and told us that the train was being taken out of service, and to go upstairs to the inbound platform. We did, and I got to the lab only slightly later than usual, with no clear idea of what had happened.

Checking WickedLocal and the Globe, I learned that Robert Carney, 34, of Everett, was arrested on suspicion of robbing the Citizens Bank at 6 JFK St. Apparently he passed a note to the teller, she gave him a bag of money, and the dye pack exploded in his hands. I’m surprised he chose to escape via the T, when it was so easy for the police to shut it down and trap him there. But apparently he wasn’t the only guy who thought this was a good idea, as it happened again the next week.

Caught Red Handed

Finished my thesis on the Boycott Toolkit and handed it in at 4:50 on a Friday. It’s online as a PDF for your reading pleasure. Thanks to everyone who helped me make it a reality.