RNC in NYC
With help from a crew of volunteer-friends (the "Asses 11") we had a tremendous week in New York City during the RNC. We sold hundreds of our shirts and buttons, gave out 3,000 Asses of Evil fortune cookies, and met great people everywhere we went. We even had some very positive interactions with police officers and there was always great parking available all over the city, so someone's looking our for us. We would like to thank all the volunteers who joined us in New York! 
 
We would like to highlight the incredible work of four groups that held great events that we attended-we know there are many more great groups involved in many events and actions during the week: United for Peace and Justice, National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood and the Still We Rise Coalition.

And while you're surfing, check out the Freeway Blogger, one of our favorite sites.

You can also find recent coverage of the Asses of Evil in the Boston Globe, The Nation and click here to hear Jethro on Radio Times (skip to 18:59 - you'll need RealPlayer to listen)

Adventures at the DNC
Thanks to our many volunteers in Boston during the DNC, we sold a lot of shirts, publicized our websites and did our part to do away with the stereotype of leftists without a sense of humor. We are deeply indebted to our volunteers, Michael Byrne, Dan Nolan, Lori Shemanski, Beth Maury, Camilo Viveiros, Maureen White, and Jesse Rudner.

We met great people all over Boston, and ran into lots of other groups like our own - friends who got together and said, "Let's do something!" One of our favorites was the Backbone Campaign - in our opinion the perfect mix of public action and real grassroots organizing. The Backbone Campaign spent a lot of their own money to make the trek from way out West to liven up the Boston protests. Go visit their site to check them out and send them a check while you're at it.

Who are the Asses of Evil?
The Asses of Evil Collective is made up of a small group of people formed to do creative, non-violent, action-oriented work that involves design, activism and organizing. Our current efforts are an outgrowth of work done by The Cell, also a small group, who began doing work together in Boston in the late 90s. Last year, the Cell designed the ENEMY t-shirt, which we sold at numerous anti-war events in 2002-2003. Over the last two years, we’ve sold over 1200 of these shirts, with the money we made going to anti-war organizations and future projects. Funds have been used to purchase a button maker, domain names and website space, fortune cookies and other supplies for our projects. 

Following on the success of the ENEMY shirt, we began to design other t-shirts and products  that you can see in our online store. In addition, we have developed three websites which educate, motivate and provoke.

DoYouFeelSafer.com
OsamaSurprise.com
WhiteHouseProps.com

Mason Wendell designed and programmed the Osama Surprise site, for which we're eternally grateful. You can see some of his other work at www.canarypromo.com.

Our current efforts are intended to motivate and coordinate responses to a potential terrorist attack or October Surprise so that these events do not undermine the efforts to defeat Bush this November. Our effort can be seen as an inoculation against catastrophic event propaganda. We feel that an October Surprise becomes less likely the more it is publicly discussed and prepared for.

FAQs
How can I help?
Send links to our websites to everyone you know and buy some of our stuff. Our t-shirts make great back-to-school gifts or an early Christmas or other holiday present. If you want to help out in some other way just contact us.

Where does the money go?
Between now and Election Day the money we make goes to support our efforts to defeat George Bush. Money also will go to future actions beyond the election, possibly including Inauguration Day. After we pay back our expenses, we spend our profits on political actions, theater, and other design projects.

Fortune Cookies?
We gave out thousands of customized fortune cookies in Boston at the DNC, and we've ordered another 3000 for New York to welcome the RNC to town. Our fortune cookies are vegan and contain a variety of messages which should help you determine the future of our country.

Where are you from?
We are from Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Madison.

Will your T-shirts and websites really change the world?
Not by themselves. Our T-shirts are great conversation starters and are part of changing the culture and politics of the left and of the country generally. And buying our shirts supports our other organizing and design activities that we feel will change the world.

History of The Cell
In 1998, The Cell designed t-shirts that read "Justice for Palestine" in both Arabic and English for the Palestine 50 event which was planned by a great coalition of groups. Over 1,000 shirts were sold. We also helped come up with the idea for a plane to fly over Boston Common, where Israel's creation was being celebrated, carrying a banner with the same message. Between 1998 and 2001, we worked on defeating two mega development projects in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston by designing and constructing two 50-foot long banners that we hung up on a building at the intersection of the proposed luxury development “Millennium Towers” for six months each. One read “The Fenway Community is Not for Sale” and the other read “Shmillennium! Fight the Tower!” We also fought the proposal for a new corporate stadium for the Boston Red Sox by using guerrilla theater in the form of an actor in a hot dog suit who shadowed various public events where elected officials and Red Sox ownership were arguing their case for public funds for private profit. Fenway Frank, a spokesweiner for the Red Sox who couldn't help but tell the truth, poked holes in the arguments made by the Red Sox owners, declaring that “corporate subsidies don’t cut the mustard” and “I relish the opportunity to tell you the truth.”

Both the Millennium Tower and the Red Sox owners' plans for a new stadium were stopped by the hard work of the Fenway community. We like to think we helped.