Tag: Denver National Convention

I just got back from the Pepsi Center and will upload my photos and video and some thoughts as soon as I download and edit them.

It was an exciting night -- especially since I ended up with a floor pass and was able to roam the entire Pepsi Center, from the bottom-most level where all the production stuff was going on to the club levels and private suites and the floor where the delegates sat and news networks were recording.

Caroline Kennedy looked absolutely goregous, as did Michelle Obama. On the way out I saw Theresa Kerry and asked to take a photograph, but it came out completely blurry. She looked terrific as well.

I also have video (if any came out) and will be back soon to post it all, along with some thoughts and sightings.

I was very proud of Denver tonight.

Things are running very smooth today in Denver.

Jane of Firedoglake and I drove downtown, parked behind the Denver County courthouse and walked two blocks to the Sheraton where we picked up our DNCC press passes for Monday's convention events at the Pepsi Center. No lines, very speedy. Everyone has to pick up a new pass every morning. For security reasons, each day has a different pass.

Then we hopped on the 16th St. Shuttle Bus which dropped us off on the corner of the Big Tent and we picked up our passes there, also very speedy. Along the way I took a few photos:

• A Code Pink Parade
• A Denver Sheriff's bus that transports prisoners across the street from the courthouse (it was parked and empty)
• Some Denver police officers, not in riot gear like in Boston

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So says one of the musicians that plays with him.

No word yet what night or what event. Will he be the intro at Obama's acceptance speech?

More music: Lifetime Networks and Rock the Vote will feature Ashanti at an Every Woman Counts event Tuesday night at the Cowboy Lounge.

The big Rock the Vote ballot bash is Monday night, followed by a private party. FALL OUT BOY, N*E*R*D and Jakob Dylan will headline the main event at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, while the official afterparty will feature D.J. Nick Cannon.

The visuals in this video are the point of it.

I've been feeling sad that our good Dr. Hunter S. Thompson will not be in Denver next week to share in the craziness. I sure will miss reading his take on the whole scene.

My good friend Anita Thompson, Hunter's wife, who has been spending fall and winter in NYC to attend and study journalism at Columbia, is now blogging, in addition to her excellent Owl Farm Blog, at The Huffington Post. How'd that come about? [More..]

Amnesty International will be bringing its Experience Guantanamo Cell Tours to Denver for the Convention.

Visit a Replica of a Guantanamo Prison Cell in Denver, Aug 24 - 26, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention

Urge the U.S. government to do the right thing: stop torture, charge detainees and give them fair trials or release them, and close Guantánamo.

Where: City of Cuernavaca Park, 20th street and Little Raven (across from the skate park); Denver, CO

More about the cell tours here. You can also volunteer.[More...]

Denver police officials have released more details on the warehouse detention facility that has been built to hold arrestees should there be mass protester arrests at the Democratic convention.

The arrest-processing center will operate from Aug. 24 to 31 and will be able to detain up to 400 people for short periods of time. The facility also will be able to process about 60 prisoners an hour.

It is expected that those arrested will only be held there for a few hours before being bused to their next stop: the courthouse.

There are a few wrinkles with this plan protesters should be forewarned about. [More...]

Ticket notification begins today for those who applied for "community credentials" to attend Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night at Invesco Field.

Details for picking up your tickets are here.

If you offered to volunteer for the campaign and already put in your hours, you're a shoo-in:

Obama supporters who agreed to volunteer for the candidate when they signed up for credentials — and actually fulfilled their promises — can rest easier, knowing they are set to receive "all-star volunteer seats" closer than other spectators, the campaign announced Wednesday.

As to those who signed up online without clicking the volunteer box, it's first-come, first-serve. More than 80,000 applied for 30,000 slots.

I get e-mails and press releases daily from protest groups asking me to "come to Denver" and join them. Here's the platform of one of them (I'll tell you which one at the end):

If you think no government should be allowed to do what the Bush regime has done the past 7 years, come to Denver and join others building a movement to that end.

If you are sickened by your government waging an endless, illegitimate, immoral war and occupation in Iraq, with ominous and immediate threats on Iran, and you demand U.S. aggression in the Middle East stop now, come to Denver and say it loudly!

More...

The Denver Post interviewed Hillary supporters on why they believe it's so important to be able to vote for Hillary at the convention. It's not that they are in denial. It's that they want their voices heard. [More...]

Late Night Denver Convention News:

• Oprah Winfrey has forked over $50k for a house in Denver for convention week.

• Protest groups are appealing yesterday's ruling in their federal lawsuit against the City and County of Denver and the Secret Service. They will file their appeal in the streets of Denver. The ACLU of Denver says it won't appeal the decision.

• How well received was yesterday's announcement that 1/2 the tickets for Obama's acceptance speech will be reserved for Coloradans? 60,000 tickets were requested in 24 hours.

• An E-town concert has been set for August 25 with James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Ani DiFranco. Tickets go on sale Thursday, the cost is $50 to $85.

This is an open thread.

Unconventional Denver, an anarchist protest group, says if Denver turns its $50 million security grant over to programs that help the people and calls off its occupation of Denver, it will sit the convention out.

Otherwise, they intend to show the Convention is just a bunch of corporations and lobbyists partying behind closed doors and a wall of heavily armed police. Their goal is to disrupt the spectacle. Democracy is not behind those doors, it's in the streets. That's where hope and change can happen. [More...]

Westword is Denver's award-winning, alternative, free weekly paper. It has a section devoted to the Democratic Convention, called Demver. Today's irreverent orientation video is by its "resident fake drunk cowboy" and friends at Wrist Deep Productions.

Given all the anger in the comments here today on serious subjects, hopefully it will make everyone lighten up a bit. This is an open thread.