Republican Convention

Finn, was that a shot at Joe's writing? From you? Ha! Thanks! That's the best laugh I've had all day.

The invasion of the Big Apple is coming, and its residents could not be less delighted. From next weekend, about 50,000 delegates and their guests will pour into town for the Republican Party Convention. They may be joined by up to a million political protesters, some very noisome.

Why us, is the cry of many New Yorkers who are dreading the confab of Republicans that starts on 30 August. Never before has the party of George Bush chosen New York as the host city for a convention. This is Democrat territory: fewer than one in five New Yorkers voted for Mr Bush in 2000.

Solidarity is the answer. The Republicans settled on New York soon after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. Coming to town in 2004 would be the perfect gesture, they thought, but Democrats see it differently. They say that the President is trying to exploit the tragedy of 2001 and use the backdrop of a maimed Manhattan to cast himself as the tough leader who can crush terrorism.

For Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican himself, the four-day gathering is an opportunity for his city to sell itself. But he is concerned that it could go horribly wrong. How nice will New Yorkers be to their guests? And how violent may the promised protests become?

With only a week to go, the city is in a stand-off with an activist group called United for Peace and Justice that expects as many as 250,000 people to turn out for an anti-Bush rally next Sunday. The group is suing for the right to hold the march in Central Park. The city is refusing, citing probable grass damage.

"I am afraid this Central Park thing is really going to blow up," said Gary Ferdman, director of a business consortium that persuaded Mr Bloomberg to announce last week a discount programme for protesters who behave. Any activist who promises to protest peacefully will be rewarded with a badge entitling them to discounts in restaurants, hotels and theatres.

Scores of other groups are planning their own demonstrations, including Planned Parenthood, which will stage a march across the Brooklyn Bridge in defence of a woman's right to abortion. Only a tiny number of permits have been issued for demonstrations outside Madison Square Garden, the sports and concert area where the Republicans will be gathered.

Those who accuse the GOP of exploiting victims are off the deep end....

Why pretend like it didn't happen?

I was surprised the Dems didn't put aside some time for it.

Mention of the event--discussion of the GOP's response to it-- how is this a bad thing?

In response to Mayor Bloomberg's reluctance to grant protesters permits to use Central Park and the recent report that the FBI has been questioning political demonstrators, members of Not In Our Name (NION) held a press conference Monday morning on the steps of City Hall.

"Central Park will be our gathering place," declared Tanya Mayo, National Coordinator for the Not In Our Name project. "We will battle for Central Park. We will not be silent."

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg emphatically denied a Central Park rally permit for demonstrators seeking to protest the Republican National Convention.

Taking umbrage at the mayor's edict, United for Peace Justice, which representatives of NION said was part of a coalition planning to protest the RNC, reneged on a compromise with the city to hold the rally on the West Side Highway after a march past Madison Square Garden. According to the city, Central Park's Great Lawn cannot handle the expected crowd of 250,000, because grass planted in a recent renovation would be trampled.

"Mayor Bloomberg said this isn't about politics," Mayo said in a press release from NION, "but the whole battle for a permit couldn't be more political."

Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, told reporters that the demonstrators had every right to protest the convention. "Suppression of their First Amendment rights will only perpetuate an atmosphere of violence," she said. Lawyers from the NLG will be providing pro-bono representation for those arrested, according to the NLG website.

Other speakers at the press conference, including members from Refuse & Resist, told of friends who have been questioned and subpoenaed by the FBI as part of an initiative that began before the Democratic Convention in Boston last month. "But we will not be intimidated," said Sunshara Taylor of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. She denounced the Bush administration and its so-called war against terror. "The Bush administration has no legitimacy."

According to several reports, FBI officials have reportedly urged agents to look for information about planned disruptions and have come up with a list of people who they think may have information about possible violence. The bureau maintains the investigation is focused on possible crimes, not political dissent.

Some activists are fearful that agent provocateurs may be among protesters with the purpose of fomenting conditions that might lead to mayhem.

"We have a right to protest in this country and we will be in Central Park on August 29," Mayo said during the question and answer phase of the press conference. "No, we do not plan to have acts of civil disobedience. We want a peaceful rally."

The Republican Convention will be at Madison Square Garden from August 30 to September 2.

Those who accuse the GOP of exploiting victims are off the deep end.

They didn't happen to gather at the Democratic convention, but it seems certain they will be there in New York. These are unaligned extremists?

What it took to oppose any of those issues was a man or woman of conscience, and a different opinion.

Guess there were none.

Finn wrote:

Quote:

They didn't happen to gather at the Democratic convention, but it seems certain they will be there in New York. These are unaligned extremists?

We're all lumped together in disdain for the politics of your leaders.

Enemy of my enemy, and so forth. I think the fact that there was basically NO protest at the DNC might have more to do with the fact that the Democrats aren't supporting policies that people want to protest against....

Cycloptichorn