When the House of Representatives insisted that Bill Clinton must be impeached for lying to Congress about sex with an intern in the Oval Office, the smell of something decaying in DC permeated the land.  Forty million taxpayer dollars later, the articles of impeachment were passed over the objections of huge segments of the general population to the unctuous claims of Congress that they must hold the high moral ground even if this position became a political liability. The Senate then devolved into a three-ring trial circus of banter guaranteeing that no serious business would be conducted that term while the members of that august body dithered their way to the inevitable defeat of the impeachment.  The stench of irrelevancy and chicanery even wafted past my nostrils and I knew that I could no longer allow myself the luxury of taking comfort in the faux Watergate demonstration that the fabled Balance of Power actually worked.

So for the second time in my life (the first being the Nixon years and the  aforementioned Watergate Scandal that ultimately brought him down) I became politically active.  I joined MoveOn and committed to contributing to the political campaigns of candidates who stood on progressive principles (I thought) and who stood a good chance of winning in their general elections.

In the summer of 2000, I was intrigued by a book on the New Book shelf in the LA City library branch of the new community I had moved to a few months prior and, acting completely out of character, I took it home to read.  The book was Nina J. Easton's The Gang of Five, chronicling the insidious and duplicitous rise to power of five icons of the  politically and religiously conservative right in this country.  The contents were disturbing in themselves, but when the dirty tricks and deceit  practiced locally by these dubious characters – and hinted at in the impeachment proceedings – showed up nationally in the 2000 election, it was clear to me that the country was facing monumental challenges that no conscientious patriot could let pass without mounting some resistance.  No longer would my activism be sporadic.  For the sakes of the children of the nation as well as what still remained of my own future, I could not contemplate sitting on my complacency ever again.  Thomas Jefferson's “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” took on a whole new meaning.

Thus it was that I undertook to organize with others to impeach the five Supreme Court Justices who saw fit to unconstitutionally interfere with the Florida vote recount and to protest the induction into the White House someone who clearly had not been elected.  Real justice was wanted here, and we strove to attain it. 

And that is how I came to set up a political table on the Boardwalk in April 2001.  We began by collecting signatures on petitions to impeach.  By  September, Oregon Democratic Caucus had passed a resolution to investigate causes for impeachment, Washington State was posed to do the same and in California, the various county caucuses were getting their resolutions together to be acted upon. 

Then 9-11 happened. 

Almost the entire opposition movement went underground.  Suddenly it was unpatriotic to question the government, even if it was illegitimate.  After all we had been attacked, hadn't we?  But had we?  Even early on, the evidence suggested that the story about that infamous day might be significantly different from what we were  being told.  Our group moved at once into digging for information  from alternative sources.  Some of the more practiced politicos were almost charmed in their ability to uncover facts that had been deliberately hidden away from public view and soon an alternate scenario began to unfold. 

We put the information together into a source book, made some posters, and went back to the Boardwalk with the offer to make that information available to anyone willing to give us a way to get it to them. 

Others of the group drifted away, moving on to other activities, but I have been able to keep the table going every Sunday and holiday, and whatever time I can spare from my  life-sustaining  daily routine.  It has expanded to encompass discussions of deliberate and regular vote fraud, of secret societies and their hidden influence on us, of revisionist history that seeks to set the record straight about the lies we have been told as well as other timely topics.  The table has petitions for worthy causes and disseminates information in dvd, cd and hard copy form.

It was a very successful venue and participating in legitimate Boardwalk activity is an experience I would wish on anyone.  The sense of community there was everything a person could hope for and community is the one force that can mount a beneficial opposition to the current repressive agencies currently stalking the land – all of whose visible, though not necessarily actual – roots can be traced easily to the current illegal cabal masquerading as legitimate government in Washington.

Unfortunately, the DC disease has percolated down to the municipal level and we now have on the Boardwalk, courtesy of the LA City Council, the same unresponsive, repressive and venal governance that we see on the national stage.  The city, in its wisdom, decided to discontinue enforcement of the single most important stipulation of LAMC42.15 which provided a framework for being on the Boardwalk:  NO COMMERCIAL VENDING.  Consequently, people hoping to make a quick buck brought mass-produced junk from downtown warehouses to the beach, marked them up and hawked them to the huge tourist trade.  Soon, these people, inordinately aggressive in their drive to make money, caused mayhem with conflicts over space, and often resorted to physical violence.  The city began to make noises about further regulation of the Boardwalk.  Lucky for them, Cindy Miscikowski, wife of one of the biggest developers and influence peddlers in LA City and County, had just been appointed by City Council to represent the beach properties, which had all been folded into CD11 – over the strenuous objections of the locals who did not take kindly to her development connections.

Thus it was that the “Lottery” came into being.

And thus it was that the Department of Recreation and Parks elaborated a list of “Rules and Regulations” for the Boardwalk, which had formerly been largely self-regulating.  And thus it was that the 350+ vendors of their own means of expression who could be seen jostling together on a busy summer Sunday in their self-made spaces were collapsed into 200+ marked off spaces with their specific and rigid rules for being there.  When this action served only to drive some of the best artists and performers away and others into outspoken resistance, and invited in the very commercial vendors of cheap junk that the new ordinance was supposed to deal with, further tinkering with the law led to more and increasingly unreasonable restrictions so that the Boardwalk is now saddled with the “You must be in a 'designated space'” rule and the “If you are not in the lottery you can set up after noon in an empty space” rule and the “If you are set up in a space not allocated to you and the person holding the ticket for that space shows up at any time, you must vacate it” rule.

The cadre of resistors refuse to join the lottery (free speech cannot be regulated), refuse to set up in 'designated spaces” (the entire Boardwalk is a free expression zone), refuse to abide by rules that are patently unconstitutional.

And, being a member of the resistors cadre (definitely first amendment, not making money off this venture, speaking out with a message that is vital to the well being of our nation and our world – how could I not be?), I accordingly set up on June 11 sort of in a 'designated space” before noon as I have always done,  That day, the LAPD acting on orders from whomever gives them their assignments, was targeting Peggy Lee Kennedy and Calvin Moss of Food Not Bombs, who had set up near me.  Food Not Bombs has been setting up on the Boardwalk for at least three years.  They are not eligible for the “Lottery” being a group and not an individual.   This particular day, the LAPD gave FNB an early morning warning.  A couple hours later, they returned to see that the warning had not been heeded.  While they waited for their prey, who was temporarily away from the area, LAPD Officer Bowser approached me and asked if I had permission to be there. When I replied in the affirmative, he asked to see my permit.  I got out my copy of the Constitution and was looking for the First Amendment when he told me I needed a permit from the city.  He then wrote me up for setting up “between sunset and 12pm” without a permit.  Since it was about 11:45am and he didn't finish writing the citation until close to noon, I remained set up in the space that I knew was goong to be free anyway.

LAPD is on a mission, it would appear, since later that week, they confiscated artwork leaning against the wall of the Rose Avenue parking lot and arrested the person who  put it there.  Subsequently, they arrested Bill of Creatures of the Sea, and confiscated his inventory. The police have informed the Boardwalk community that there is so much  criminal activity on the Boardwalk they must expand their manpower and have therefore requested 10 new officers.  The “Lottery” was supposed to address exactly this issue.

It's not working, but rather than revisit the issue, the politicians keep trying to tinker with it more.  In the meantime, they are harassing the people with legitimate rights to be there, the “Lottery” has encouraged rather than eliminated commercial vending, and has served to shatter the ambiance that was the essence the Boardwalk.

The citations require the recipient to travel at his/her own expense to a hearing, where the ticket can either not be found or has been reduced to an infraction.  The enforcement of revised LAMC42.15 is arbitrary and uneven, largely because it is at the whim of LAPD who seem motivated to act on it when leaned on by some  invisible outside force in the larger community.  The new LAMC42.15 was given to the community by Cindy Miscikowski, an unelected and unwanted appointment by a City Council that was also not elected by the relevant community.  Cindy Miscikowski is no longer with the community, but her toxic influence lives on. 

We have just learned that all the walkways with their private residences have been zoned commercial.  That means a business can be put up next to someone's home and the homeowner has no legal recourse.  Do people in the community know about this?  There is also the issue of eminent domain which further strips away owners' rights.  The city can take property for whatever reason it wants, if it deems it desirable.  This is happening in other parts of the city right now.  Is Venice next?

The beachfront has become very valuable.  There are those (Doug Ring, Cindy Miscikowski's husband comes to mind) who covet the property there.  Don't delude yourself that they don't have plans to come into possession of it whether you approve or not.  Someone asked me how I felt about getting that citation – which is still working its ponderous way through the system – and here is my response in a nutshell:

Corporatocracy has taken over the country overtly.  GW Bush is the  face on it.  Bush was put in  power by Choicepoint, then by Diebold and ES&S electronic voting.  Corporatocracy requires militarism and enslavement.  The air of repression in this country since 2000 is palpable, even when largely unacknowledged.  It has permeated everything.  LA has been the developers dream ever since the first Gringo set foot on the ground.  This history is covered quite nicely in the movies, LA Confidential and Chinatown.  The repression in DC and the developers assaults on personal freedom locally go hand in hand.  Elections are mostly windo-dressing to keep us uncertain about the reality of the situation we find ourselves in.  Everyone of us should be concerned.  Everyone of us should feel the motivation to stand up to these forces.   Everyone needs to join in if we are to  turn away from the move toward central corporate control of everything.  Some call it fascism and some call it communism. It is definitely unconstitutional.  Those of us who are getting these citations and being set upon by the system are only at the forefront. We are fighting for your rights, too.  And here is a link that just came to me elaborating on the topic of corporatocracy: