Slapstick Politics: Democratic National Convention Countdown, No. 18

Adam Jung of Tent State will lead his minions on a daily "Long March" from City Park to "Freedomville Shantytown" at the Pepsi Center--stragglers and counterrevolutionaries will be shot, survivors will be shot again

Democratic National Convention Daily Digest and Open Thread
Thursday August 7, 2008--No. 18

•SP and Drunkablog humor exclusive--Top 10 Alternative Names for Recreate '68

DNC:

•Too bad--Judge says DNC security plans do not have to be altered to provide more accommodations for protestors, who had filed lawsuits arguing that the planned security provisions were too "restrictive" and that First Amendment rights won't be infringed

•Good news from the NY Times--Denver and the Secret Service are planning for the worst

•So much for transparency--Denver more tightlipped than St. Paul on convention expenditures

•Tent State, previously planning to camp out in City Park (illegal), has decided to take its traveling freak show to the Pepsi Center protest zone, now dubbed "Freedomville Shantytown"--but there's a hitch, they still won't be able to put up any tents--and will engage in what Drunkablog dubs a daily mini "Long March":

The Tent State University organizers say they believe they have resolved questions about what to do once the curfew strikes at 11 p.m. at City Park: Pack their belongings and tents and march every night to the Pepsi Center's protest zone.

While at the Pepsi Center's demonstration site, organizers said during a news conference Wednesday, they plan to continue to demonstrate against the Iraq war and then feign sleeping as part of their act of protest. The protest zone will be open 24 hours.

Adam Jung, an organizer for Tent State University, mocked the city's allocation of the protest zone for demonstrators at the southeast corner of the arena's parking lot, near Seventh Street and the Aurora Parkway. Nonetheless, he said, the demonstration site would be the location in which hundreds - or thousands - of protesters would converge on once they're booted out of City Park and they begin the more-than-two-mile trek to the Pepsi Center.
. . .
"But we were not seeing the big picture. The city of Denver does not oppose free speech. They love free speech so much they just want to protect and secure it with razor wire and caging. Because of their passion for the First Amendment the city has provided one place for demonstrators to be overnight - the freedom cage. Each night demonstrators will take the freedom cage and transform it into the 'Freedomville Shantytown.' "

By morning protesters plan to pack up their gear and head back to City Park where they will set up their camps, continue their anti-war messages and be entertained by music and speeches.
. . .
Sue Cobb, the mayor's spokeswoman, said structures, including tents, would be banned at the Pepsi Center's demonstration zone because of "security considerations and the need to ensure everyone's right to free expression." However, Cobb said that demonstrators wouldn't be violating any laws if they bring in tents into the public demonstration zone but don't erect them.

That's one heck of a trudge with all that stuff--its a couple miles between the southeast corner of City Park and the Pepsi Center. The view from the "Freedom Cage" digs--bedding down will include a stint on the ultracomfortable asphalt of Parking Lot A. Undoubtedly even a few hundred protestors walking back and forth each morning and evening would be a "parade" in itself. Expect more gridlock.

•"House of Urine" a rumor?

•Drunkablog deconstructs the radical moonbattery and utter uselessness of "Dialog:City"--including karaoke, an "Air Forest," and GLBT "unison readings" (which is good news, since the DNC, by the way, has more than exceeded its GLBT quota)