Dr. Ben Marble, a young emergency room physician who plays in alternative rock bands and does art on the side, needs our help. Since he was the one who told Dick Cheney to "go fuck yourself" on Sept. 8, that's the least we can do.
Marble is a complex guy, to say the least. Some of the lyrics he writes can be considered harsh by some – personally what I've heard is very much on target - but he has a softer side as an organizer of breast cancer fund-raisers, not to mention an ER doctor.
When he, like thousands of others, lost his home due to Hurricane Katrina last week, it was the single most traumatic week of his life. That led to his Sept. 8 confrontation with the man who best represents the worst of the most callous, heartless, shittiest administration in U.S. history.
As Marble explains, he was driving to his destroyed house Sept. 8 in Gulfport, Ms., when military police refused to allow him to cross a barricade that was about 200 feet from his home. They forced him to drive an extra 20 minutes and spend even more on gasoline.
"Thanks to Dubya Gump and Mr. Cheney, gas is really expensive and extremely hard to get anywhere Katrina has destroyed," Marble wrote. "So needless to say, I was extremely aggravated that they wouldn't let me pass."
Suddenly a long line of dark cars pulled up, and they honked at Marble to back up to let them through the barricade that supposedly no one could drive through. That only made Marble madder so he did what most of us would do – or at least consider doing.
"I waved a middle finger at the caravan," Marble wrote.
After driving the extra 20 minutes and filming video of destruction along the way, he made it to his home. Marble overheard a neighbor say that Cheney was down the street talking to people. That's when he got the idea to go meet Dr. Evil himself.
"I am no fan of Mr. Cheney because of several reasons," Marble wrote. "For those who don't know, Mr. Cheney is infamous for telling Senator [Pat] Leahy 'go fu** yourself' on the Senate floor. Also, I am not happy about the fact that thousands have died due to the slow action of FEMA, not to even mention the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time, i.e. Iraq."
So Marble, who was wearing an old Mr. T "I Pity Da Fool" t-shirt since he was sifting through the wreckage, asked a couple of police officers if he and a friend could walk down to Cheney. They told him Cheney was "looking forward" to talking to "the locals."
"So we grabbed my Canon digital rebel and my Sony videocamera and started walking down the street," Marble wrote. "And then right in front of the destroyed tennis court I used to play on Dick Cheney was giving a pep rally, talking to the press. The Secret Service guys patted us down and waved the wands over us, and then let us pass."
As he stood about 10 feet away from Cheney and his friend and some camera operators from CNN and other media filmed the scene, Marble suddenly yelled, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney! Go fuck yourself, you asshole!"
Hey, at least Marble was polite. After all, he referred to Cheney as "Mr. Cheney."
"I had no intention of harming anyone but merely wanted to echo Mr. Cheney's infamous words back at him," Marble wrote. "At that moment, I noticed the Secret Service guys with a panic-stricken look on their faces, like they were about to tackle me, so I calmly walked away back to my former house."
His friend videotaped a little bit longer and then came back to Marble's house. As they were salvaging a few things from Marble's home, two military police waving M-16's showed up and said they were looking for someone who fit Marble's description who had cursed at Cheney.
"I told them I was probably the person they were looking for, and so they put me in handcuffs and 'detained' me for about 20 minutes or so," Marble wrote. "My right thumb went numb because the cuffs were on so tight, but they were fairly courteous and eventually released me after getting all my contact info. They said I had NOT broken any laws so I was free to go."
Jackson Thoreau is a Washington, D.C.-area journalist/writer. His latest book, "Born to Cheat: How Bush, Cheney, Rove & Co. Broke the Rules, From the Sandlot to the White House," debuted at the Take Back America conference in June 2007. More info on the book is at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/cheat.html
Good on him 4 sayin' what a lot R thinkin'.......only wish I was there 2 witness it. As 4 the Gestapo mentallity I'm like WHAT THE FLUCK this the year 2005 & on U.S soil.
by
Kirky a Koori in Parkes. Oz. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Friday, September 9, 2005 at 6:58:49 PM
Sadly, it appears that the Doctor's video is no longer available on eBay. Did they pull it, or did it sell? Too bad -- I wanted to bid to help this courageous man.
by
JP (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Friday, September 9, 2005 at 8:32:43 PM
We discussed this brave guy last night at dinner. He's done what we all have hoped we might do & he gets cuffed for it??? Disgusting! What happened to the First Amendment?
We're in dire straights, this litle democracy.
by
Blue (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 9:13:35 AM
We need more people telling this regime what most of this country is actually thinking about them... instead of the screened photo ops and screened questions.
by
Ben Rosenberg (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 9:12:26 PM
The media is so tightly controlled under this Administration that CNN needed a a lawyer to allow them to film the unfortunate people who died in the hurricane. They were still blocked and not able to film. The reason why this Presidency has lasted this long given all that has occured is due to Carl Rove's actions in controlling that which this country hears, smells and sees. He continues to create a people who hears no evil, speaks no evil and sees no evil. This administration has turned Americans into the symbolic three chimps.
by
Ruvane Richman (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at 10:29:46 AM
I just emailed him and asked him NOT to call the president Dubya Gump... it is such and insult to Forest, who has more integrity in his pinky than dubya has in his entire body.
Besides he is more like Charly McCarthy to Cheney's Edgar Bergan.
If you don't know who that is ask your parents!
: )
by
Bam M. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 26 comments)
on Saturday, September 17, 2005 at 9:53:38 PM
Well the story has received an overwhelming amount of
global mass media coverage on a global scale including
but not limited to Time, Newsweek, Harpers, The Daily
Show, Good Morning America, Letterman, CNN, MSNBC,
Hustler,etc. Rolling Stone even called it the "BEST
TELEVISED SOUND BITE OF THE YEAR". Our website
www.hurricanekatrinasucked.com has had over 900,000
hits as of yesterday. I have received approx. 4000
emails 95% of which have been supportive. I recently
wrote and recorded the dR. O tune 'GO FU** YOURSELF
MR. CHENEY' and managed to produce a video for the
same. And the video we shot OURSELVES is taking the
internet by storm with thousands of downloads a day
and that pace is still rapidly growin and so I wonder
have you had a chance to watch OUR video yet???? this
is NOT the 30 second cnn/msnbc video that has been
circulation the web...this is over 30 minutes of
footage we shot ourselves on the day of my encounter
with The Dick that I had auctioned off on EVILBAY.
In mid Sept. I had announced that I will be donating
50% of the profits from the EBAY auctions/ sales at
www.cafepress.com/benmarblemd to my life long friend
Jay Scully who was the actual cameraman on the day I
ran into The Dick. He and his wife both lost their
jobs due to the storm and they recently had a
premature infant born at 24 weeks who was just finally
allowed to come home i.e. they need help. The other
50% will be donated to the SALVATION ARMY since my
grandmother worked for them for several decades. (I am
not keeping any of it to take away the right wings
ammo in their criticism that I am trying to profit off
of the misery of Katrina even though I did lose my
home and my studio).
I will also be working on trying to make a movie about
Katrina and the aftermath. I have shot about 15 30
minute mini-dvd's of video starting just before
Katrina hit and I will eventually edit that down into
a film.
My rock bands Yoon ( www.myspace.com/yoon ) and dR. O
( www.myspace.com/odro ) have received a ton of
positive feedback and I am in the process of trying to
see about getting some 'press kits' to the 'right
people' and setting up some gigs in Los Angeles and
New York.
If you can help me to spread my story and/or just want
to talk feel free to email clone9@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Ben Marble, M.D.
ps if you have the time you may find the following
articles interesting to read
