Convention Logistics
Denver Gets Ready For DemCon08
By Robert Struckman, 8-14-08
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State and territory flags flapping in downtown Denver—as well as steel trestles carrying Internet cables over streets and sidewalks—signal the beginning of the end of the preparation for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
“We’re in the final execution stage,” said Natalie Wyeth, a convention spokeswoman. “The fact is, when Monday, August twenty-fifth, comes, we don’t get another day. We have to be ready.”
Most of the ongoing convention construction seems centered on the Pepsi Center, where huge tents will make workspace for some 15,000 journalists, staff and for food service.
“We have to make sure the members of the media can cover the convention and have access to do so,” Wyeth said. “The food service, that’s an incredibly important part of the convention week, to make sure we’re fed.”
I walked downtown on Sunday. The whole area seemed pretty quiet, a typical Sunday. Stores were closed by 6 p.m. The first things I noticed were the banners (each sporting a corporate sponsor like Visa or AT&T or King Sooper, the supermarket chain).
“What’s amazing is how quickly things transform over there,” Wyeth said, referring to the space inside and outside the Pepsi Center. That’s the downtown arena that hosts the Denver Nuggets and Avalanche. Workers removed some 5,000 seats from the arena to make room for the stage and podium. The whole building has been rigged with lights and wired for massive Internet access.
The Democratic Party’s cost will be $16.8 million (the party itself is federally funded) and reports have the Denver host committee spending as much as $40 million in addition.
As an aside, I had been expecting to see something like a city in an economic slowdown. It didn’t look that way. The downtown skies seemed filled with cranes. All over the metro area I saw commercial construction on a huge scale, and even some new home construction.
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Comments
This should be a spicey meatball in the political pasta.
"Denver authorities are preparing for mass arrests during the Democratic National Convention by creating an impromptu holding facility at a city-owned warehouse.
"City officials said they don't anticipate widespread arrests but that they need to be prepared if they occur. KCNC-TV says the dozens of metal cages in the warehouse are made of chain link material and topped with barbed wire.
"A sign on the warehouse's wall warns that electric stun devices are used there.
"Protester Adam Jung said the facility is akin to a meat processing plant and it reminds him of how cattle are treated.
"City officials said they are beginning "community outreach" to inform people of the facility. They said food, bathrooms, phones and medical staff will be available at the facility. People who are detained will also be able to meet with their attorneys.
"The facility will be open the week of the convention from Aug. 24 to Aug. 31. People who are arrested will not be released into the surrounding neighborhood in northeast Denver where the facility is, but instead will be taken the city's county jail before they are let go after they post bail or are given a court date."
I can only hope that "mass arrests" will be the ONLY troublesome thing to arise during the DNC.
Remember the hand raised, "Heil Hitler!" salute?
It is being said (rumor flying via emails) that at Invesco Field everyone is supposed to stand and put their hands over their heads and touch the fingers and thumbs together. It makes a circle ~ like an "O" ~ as in Obama. It is his salute for 'hope'.
Or maybe to himself ... ?
Can one of you with tickets to attend substantiate this rumor?
See: http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/95074/dissent_is_essential_to_democracy/
>>>>>>>
Dissent Is Essential to Democracy
By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate. Posted August 14, 2008.
So why are people being arrested for lawful protest?
The bulwark against tyranny is dissent. Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good.
Denver's CBS4 News just reported that the city is planning on jailing arrested Democratic convention protesters at a warehouse with barbed-wire-topped cages and signs warning of the threat of stun gun use. Meanwhile, a federal judge has ruled that a designated protest area is legal, despite claims that protesters will be too far from the Democratic delegates to be heard.
The full spectrum of police and military will also be on hand at the Democratic convention in Denver, many of these units coordinated by a "fusion center."
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
It would be a great demonstration of Obama's leadership for him to go to either the barbed-wire holding pens or the freedom cages, smoke a doobie with the folks, and get the protesters to peacefully sing Kumbaya...in exhange from him to seek legalization of weed.
HOWEVER: the article I copy/pasted in my comments above is NOT about the "freedom cages". Please note, as your second response above so states, the "cages" in the article I posted are for those who BREAK THE LAW during the DNC ~ wherever and however that might be ... and will be used for ARRESTS made when the law is broken.
This is an entirely other subject than where "protesters" are allowed to "protest" which is supposed to be done in a LEGAL manner!
You have to understand two things me-thinks:
(1) that the City of Denver is reaching out throughout the State of Colorado to get every law enforcement person possible into Denver to be there to help them out during the DNC, crime in local communities be damned ... with most communities in CO already short-handed even when every badge is on duty throughout the state; and,
(2) there has yet to be a FULL disclosure and accounting of ALL this DNC is costing TAXPAYERS! Since both political parties are PRIVATE organizations that "taxpayer funding" thing does rattle my cage, regardless of which party we're talking about!
As I said before, I just HOPE that "mass arrests" will be the ONLY troublesome thing to arise during the DNC.
I hope that for all of us throughout this nation.
Lots of stuff "said to be" happenin' under the covers and I just hope it stays there: under the covers.