DNC Sunday Update, Protestors Fail To Show Up

The early score in the contest between the troublemakers and the police is 1-1. It’s a draw. Since I have the advantage of blogging from Denver, Colorado, my wife and I went down to the Pepsi Center at mid morning (Sunday) to scope out the action. At first, it looked like 1968 might be happening again. The 16th Street Mall (Denver’s main downtown shopping venue) was swarming with police. I found out by interviewing the heavily equipped boys in blue that several of the “unofficial” renegade protest groups had formed an alliance, and were planning to march against the war in Iraq up the 16th Street Mall—without an official protest permit. About 1,000 fearsome policemen, armed to the teeth with anti-protest gear, were there to stop them, By 1:00 PM, no protestors had appeared, and 1,000 of the boys in blue had been left cooking in the hot August sun for more than two hours. The protestors, by not showing up, had scored one for their side.

Across the downtown area, at 1:00 PM, at the foot of the front steps of the Colorado State Capitol, the “official” anti-war march was just getting started. This march had a proper permit. The expectation was that 25,000 to 50,000 protestors would show up, but barely 900 heeded the call. The protest was a complete bust. The cops kept their cool, and the score ended with a decisive win for the legions of the lawful. Pouring gasoline on the fire of this lame protest was none other than Ward Churchill. For those unfamiliar with the name, he’s the discredited CU professor who was fired from a tenured position for plagiarism in his writing, and for a false bio which claimed Native American heritage. Just think of a phony-Indian, liberal-left version of Rush Limbaugh, and that’s Ward Churchill—minus the 400 million dollar deal.

On a personal note, I made some points with my wife today. Since February, she’s been wondering, what’s the point of blogging. We happened across the temporary convention quarters of Daily Kos. His blog has grown into a full-fledged media source, and his digs in Denver are as spacious and comfortable as the big network’s headquarters, but he did, after all, start out as just a blogger. My wife is not holding her breath for me to repeat his feat.