April 25, 2011

Fresh Juice Party is honored to be the target of a little good natured ribbing from Jon Stewart and The Daily Show! (FJP at 1:50)

We wrote and performed the protest song sung at a Presidential fundraising event in SF in 2011.  Our song criticized the lack of transparency in American politics. The political stunt made all kinds of international news because the President was just a few feet away from us and we were able to sing our message directly to him. But getting mocked by Jon Stewart for protesting too politely was the pièce de résistance! Mr. Stewart, FJP always blow kisses when we blow your mind…

Video of Obama telling one of FJP’s singing protesters, Logan Price, that Bradley Manning “broke the law.”

FJP performs for the third time at Occupy SF. First we performed at the Make Banks Pay march, then in the back seat of a pedicab through the streets of downtown SF, and now at the Keystone Pipeline protest outside of the W Hotel where President Obama was hosting a $7,500/plate fundraising lunch.  The price for a meal with the President went up $2,500 since our repast in April; guess they wanted to keep riff raff like us out. They succeeded – we all took to the streets!

San Francisco Chronicle reporter, Carla Marinucci, was forced out of the White House reporters’ pool after posting a video of our protest that she recorded on her phone.  Free Press is another victim of the lack of transparency plaguing our government.

Following posted by Phil Bronstein

]]> http://www.freshjuiceparty.com/white-house-punishes-sf-chronicle-for-posting-video-of-our-protest/feed/ 0 http://www.freshjuiceparty.com/fjp-gets-international-support-for-our-action-for-bradley-manning/ http://www.freshjuiceparty.com/fjp-gets-international-support-for-our-action-for-bradley-manning/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:36:49 +0000 Fresh Juice Party http://www.freshjuiceparty.com.php5-11.websitetestlink.com/?p=366 April 22, 2011
International support for FJP! We are receiving a mountain of support from friends in the US and internationally.  In addition to the chorus of voices in the US, we’ve heard from Italy, Australia, Turkey, Germany, Russia, France, Croatia, Argentina, Ireland, Switzerland, India, Scotland, England, Slovenia, Spain, Pakistan, Poland, Canada, Greece, Austria, Jamaica, Finland, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Netherlands, Qatar, and Costa Rica.

Here is one particularly sweet comment we received: ”Just wanted to say how I admired your song at Obama’s fundraiser. Guys, thank you so much! I live in Croatia where we have lost all hope that something can actually be done. You are so inspiring! You shed light in all this darkness. Thank you so much!”

Thank you, all! Please keep up the global fight for Bradley Manning and Truth/Ethics in government and business!

April 21, 2011 The FRESH JUICE PARTY (www.FreshJuiceParty.com) movement made its grand debut in San Francisco this morning at an Obama fundraising breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel.  Showing they’ve got considerable juice behind them, the organization squeezed out thousands of dollars for seats at the event for the opportunity to sing a song for the President. (OFFICIAL Fresh Juice Party video- “Where’s Our Change” a song to President Obama)  At the conclusion of their performance, the other guests applauded after a stunned pause, and the President commented on the creativity of the song, saying, “They have better voices than I do…Thank you for the song…Now that’s the kind of creativity I’m talking about.”  He had been speaking of the importance of grassroots organizing before the song began.

This growing group of concerned citizens feels the President and the DNC need to remain true to the principles Obama asserted when he was campaigning in 2008.  So they commandeered the morning’s festivities with the song, “Where’s Our Change?” to show solidarity with Bradley Manning, American soldier and alleged Wikileaks source who has been languishing in a detention center in Quantico, Virginia since July 2010 without due process, often forced to stand naked and being refused the ability to meet with United Nations officials.  The 5^th and 8^th Amendment Violations against him have led to public outcry here in the United States and internationally.  So much so that there are now plans to move Manning to another facility.

The FRESH JUICE PARTY is an experimental action group, but this is no joke: they promise to PAY individuals who post videos on YouTube of themselves singing the song (found at www.FreshJuiceParty.com) in a public forum, up to $100 per video and the top video will win an award of $1,000.

Just in time for September 17, 2012, FJP’s album of original songs about social justice, “Where’s Our Change?” is available for download on Reverb Nation, iTunes & Amazon!

We changed the words slightly (see changes in red below) since the song was originally written specifically to catch the President by surprise at the event and to keep the song going as long as we could. Also, we chose to keep the call and response refrain (in blue below) out of the original performance.

Lyrics:
Dear Mr. President, we honor you today, sir
Each of us brought you $5,000 All of us have given you our tax dollars
It takes a lot of Benjamins to run a campaign
I paid my dues, where’s my change?

We’ll vote for you in 2012, yes that’s true is that true? NO!
Look at the Republicans - what else can we could? what are we to do?
Even though we don’t know if we’ll retain our liberties
In what you seem content to call a free society

Yes, it’s true that Terry Jones is legally free
To burn a people’s holy book in shameful effigy
But at another location in this country
Alone in a 6×12 cell sits Bradley

23 hours a day is night
The 5th and 8th Amendments say this kind of thing aint right

Nobel Peace Prize/ Whistle blowers
Guantanamo/ Quantico
Juan Mendez/ Due Process
Crimson Alumni/ Laurence Tribe
8th Amendment/ Cruel and Unusual
5th Amendment/ Punishment before a trial
Terry Jones/ Burnin’ that Quran
Promise of transparency/ Dennis Kucinich

We paid our dues, where’s our change?
We paid our dues, where’s our change?
Video of Obama after the speech telling one of our singing protesters, Logan Price, that Bradley Manning “broke the law.”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/manning-protesters/
Also, picked up by BoingBoing.net http://boingboing.net/2011/04/21/protestors-interrupt.html

Protesters supporting WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning managed to infiltrate a private fundraiser for President Barack Obama on Thursday morning in San Francisco, interrupting his remarks with a song.

As Obama was speaking at the $5,000-a-plate breakfast fundraiser, California activist Naomi Pitcairn (above), sitting at one of the tables, began humming and singing a modified version of the song “Where’s Our Change?”, decrying Manning’s treatment in prison. Pitcairn removed her blazer and shirt to reveal a T-shirt with a picture of the young Army intelligence analyst who is suspected of leaking a massive cache of classified and sensitive documents to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks.

As the rest of the group at Pitcairn’s table joined in with her song, they held up signs that read “Free Bradley Manning“.

“Each of us brought you $5,000 — we’ll vote for you in 2012, yes that’s true. Look at the Republicans, what else can we do,” the group sang.

As White House aides escorted Pitcairn from the room, she said, “Free Bradley Manning. I’m leaving. I hope I don’t get tortured in jail.”

“That was a nice song,” Obama said as she finished singing. “You guys have much better voices than I. Thank you very much.” Then he turned back to his speech. “Where was I?”

Pitcairn told the San Francisco Chronicle that she paid $76,000 to get the protesters tickets to the event, which was held at the swanky St. Regis hotel downtown.

The protest was arranged by a new group calling itself the Fresh Juice Party, which is promising to pay protesters various amounts of money if they videotape themselves singing the song in public forums and handing out Fresh Juice bills.

Participants can earn $50 if their performance is before 20 people who are “within earshot of the song,” and $75 if the singer dons a costume. The nature of the costume is up to the singer.

The price goes up to $100 for singing the song in a Bradley Manning mask and T-shirt, or for singing within the legal perimeter of a state capitol building, the U.S. Capitol building or the White House.

The lyrics of the Bradley Manning version of the song follow.

Dear Mr. President, we honor you today, sir.
Each of us brought you $5,000.
It takes a lot of Benjamins to run a campaign.
I paid my dues, where’s our change?
We won’t vote for you in 2012, yes that’s true.
Look at the Republicans — what are we to do?
Even though we don’t know if we’ll retain our liberties
In what you seem content to call a free society.
Yes, it’s true that Terry Jones is legally free
To burn a people’s holy book in shameful effigy.
But at another location in this country
Alone in a 6 x 12 cell sits Bradley,
23 hours a day and night.
The 5th and 8th Amendments say this kind of thing ain’t right,
We paid our dues, where’s our change?

FJP’s corrections to this article:

*The words in red have been changed from original version.

**Pitcairn did not pay anything near $76,000 as was reported by Wired and other news sources. That would be illegal.