D.C. Shut Down

[Max B. Sawicky]

If you work for the Feds at a site between 12th and 21st street,
and south of K, you've got a day off tomorrow.  Cars will be
kept out of a larger area, south of M.  So tomorrow may look
a lot like today -- an inner, totally fortified area inside
of which the meetings go on, and a somewhat larger evacuated
downtown area for the demonstrators to mill around in.  And
surrounding that, a godawful traffic jam, though it's possible
nobody will go to work.  The precedent for the latter is the
Million Man March, when lots of white people stayed home. Downtown
was great -- quiet and totally uncongested.

For the whole Fed govt, it's similar to a snow day.  Regardless
of where you work, 'liberal leave' is in effect.  Meaning you
can use one of your days off.

TV showed one person arrested for having two molotov
cocktails -- real ones, not empty coke bottles.

The Chief is pretty slick.  He was visiting the police lines,
getting filmed telling his cops to chill out.  Idiots on the
demo side were shaking hands with him.

Now I'm thinking tomorrow will be anti-climactic, unless the
direct action people have some clever new ideas.  In a sense
the police have conceded the ground by fencing it in.  You
threaten to disrupt traffic, we will shut off traffic
altogether.

mbs