RETURN TO PLANET JOSE BIOGRAPHY - JOSE JORGE RODRIGUEZ

I was born in the Canal Zone of Panama. Boy, was I lucky. The best place in the world to grow up! My mother and father - Conchita and Jose Luis - originally came from Monterrey, Mexico, another great town filled with wonderful family.
My parents and myself were naturalized as citizens because of my father's long career in the U.S. Air Force. Yup, that's me crying over a hair cut.
In high school I was a jock until a knee injury cut short my dream of being a defensive end for the Green Bay Packers. I devoted myself to JR ROTC and even applied to West Point. TEN-HUT! EYES STRAIGHT AHEAD! CHEST OUT! STOMACH IN! GIVE ME 20! YOU SORRY MAGGOT!
Nothing changes your outlook on authority like getting drafted for Vietnam. I was lucky enough to have 2 years worth of deferments, but I still spent 4 years in the Air Force, stationed outside of Los Angeles.  Ho Chi Minh never made it to Southern California so obviously I did my job.
The Air Force was the longest 4 years of my life.  A friend wrote "Jose" on this cartoon that looked like me and expressed my attitude.  This ink drawing another friend did does so even better!
I moved to Virginia and enrolled in George Mason University.  I became involved in the anti-nuke movement and was helping organize occupations of power plant sites with the legendary Potomac Alliance even before the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster.
Yup, that's my NEED JOB sign which got a photo and mention in the Washington Post. My career as media whore was just being born.
I got into running in a big way and have run in dozens of 10k races in the D.C. area. A great way to get the word out is running with a peace t-shirt.
Leading up to the 1984 elections, I wanted to boot that nuclear maniac Ronald Reagan. I got my start in electoral politics fundraising for the campaign of Alan Cranston who was running as the nuclear disarmament candidate. After he lost New Hampshire, I worked for Gary Hart, and then Walter Mondale who won the nomination. I did press advance for Joan Mondale - see us together at the right. What fun - helping organize an event in a different city every 3 or 4 days and waking up in hotels not knowing what town you are in.  The best part is being in a  motorcade with a police escort with sirens wailing and stopping traffic.  Whoopee!
I went on to being associate director of Freeze Voter, the political action committee of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.  See me telling contributors to show me the money??
After leaving Freeze Voter I joined the Great Peace March, starting in Los Angeles.  It was seven hundred plus folks marching for global nuclear disarmament from L.A. to Washington D.C.  It took from March to November in l986, walking l5 - 20 miles a day, living in tents, taking a shower once a week - if we need one or not. A great community that accomplished so much in getting the word out about those God awful nukes.    I think we could use another march right about now.   I have organized lots of events for all sorts of causes from animal rights to gay and lesbian rights, but the Great Peace March is by far and away the most meaningful thing I ever have participated in...a truly life changing event for all those involved.   There were really no titles on the Peace March but I was responsible for a lot of the fund raising, logistics and publicity that came out of the Washington Office for a good part of the march. There I am with my other office buddies.  And that is me holding the banner when I re-joined the march in beautiful Iowa.  What a great way to lose weight and get a great tan.  We celebrated the end of the march at the Lincoln Memorial.
Working with the Sane/Freeze anti-nuclear campaign, I organized the "Bridge for Peace" protest between the White House and the Russian Embassy during a Reagan - Gorbachev Summit to discuss cutting back nuclear weapons.  I appeared at this televised Sane/Freeze press conference and was out there the day of the demonstration dealing with logistics -- including these officers.
!n the late 1980s I got serious about selling t-shirts and buttons at street fairs, music concerts and political rallies, designing many myself.  What a great way to get the word out, meet people and make a real difference!
In 1990 when George Bush I lured Saddam into invading Kuwait, it meant yet another big war to protest with more permits and rallies -- and funds to raise through t-shirt and button sales.
Can you believe I've been selling this very popular button through TWO Bush administrations??
From 1991 to 1993 I had a series of stores, most famously on K street and in the Shops that generated lots of publicity. My mail order catalogue was everywhere in DC.  Ask some of the old timers.
The Washington Post and NBC nightly news covered my stores -- see photos.  So did the Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor and US News & World Report.
Dallas Morning News did a story featuring me in my favorite t-shirt in front of the White House.
During the same 3 year period I did thirty-six episodes of my award winning "Politically Correct Cooking" cable show, produced by Jai Tomlinson. (See photo at left. You can see them all on this site.)  It was featured on the CNBC cable television show "Equal Time" co-hosted by Mary Matalin and Jane Wallace (photo of screen shot from show at right). I was one hardworking dog during these years!
During the rest of the 1990s and up to 2005 I operated a "free speech" protest selling stickers and buttons on the Washington National Mall supporting various political causes and my poor activist lifestyle. I was involved in a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court regarding the sale of First Amendment items on the National Mall. I love my job as the Mall's permanent peace protest.
Celebración de mi herencia Mejicana con mis amigos y la familia.
Yup, I'm a big Howard Stern fan.  I take my "Free Speech" seriously!
When Bush II was elected I was ready to go!
September 11 was a dastardly attack -- but no excuse for a phony war on terror which is more about profiteering and imperialism than fighting real terrorists.  So I've been busy organizing again the last few years.
I was out there with the DC Antiwar Network DAWNDC.NET calling for impeaching Bush even before he invaded Iraq.  I'm holding the second  "H".
Working with DAWN, I helped with the big 2004 Veteran's Day coffin display at the Lincoln Memorial and the Bush Inauguration Protests in 2005.
Back in the media's eye again.  "More rebel than retailer" - that's me!
Some of my Mall buddies who attract the tourists to my  booth on the Mall so I can seduce them with my messages.
More of my best sellers.
Getting the word out at a 2003 Palestine rights rally. And, as head of the logistics team, scoping out sites for the huge September 24, 2005 anti-Iraq War rally and Cindy Sheehan's simultaneous "Camp Casey" protest.
Photos of my "Abu Gharib" anti-torture protest at peace demos were used repeatedly during 2005.  Even Rush Limbaugh featured them, if with a totally inaccurate spin.  So I'm still using the media to get the word out about peace and freedom and human rights.
In early 2006 I visited Monterrey, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico to get back to my roots - and to have some fun in the rain forest and at the beach. While always promoting peace, of course.  More photos soon. Meanwhile check out the Green Toucan ecological camp I visited.
"Nuclear death" is my new protest gear. I made the front page of the July 4, 2006 DrudgeReport with a similar wire service photo, f   Look for me everywhere!
September 2006, I'm busy doing logistics and playing with the Bush Chain Gang at Camp Democracy near the Washington Monument.  Check out our video on YouTube!  Yup, that's me in the Bush Mask giving Condi Rice a fat wet one!