Clowns get tent, and other DNC news

The Post:

The many bloggers who weren't selected to get credentials for the Democratic National Convention will have access to a special venue within blocks of the Pepsi Center.

"The Big Tent will be a 9,000-square foot, two-story structure that will house work space for bloggers and new media journalists as well as the Digg Stage with events for the public," according to the statement Thursday from sponsors, including Daily Kos, Progress Now, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Digg, Google and YouTube.

The facility will be at 15th and Wynkoop in lower downtown Denver. There will be events to which the public is invited, but a four-day blogger pass requires an online application before June 30 at http://bigtentdenver.com/. Those selected will be asked to make a $100 contribution to defray costs.

Gouging bas--I mean: such a deal! I'll apply, of course, and when I'm not picked I'll apply for space in the dumpster outside ($75). Fifteenth and Wynkoop, by the way, is more than half a mile from the Pepsi Center.

MSM: get those stinkin' anarchists away from us:

Denver's selection of a spot for protesters to congregate during the Democratic National Convention has angered another group - the national media.

Some of the media tents to be erected on the Pepsi Center parking lot will be within a stone's throw of the area the city has designated for protesters.

Members of the media are concerned that loud demonstrations could disrupt broadcasts or that reporters and photographers could be doused with tear gas or pepper spray if there are confrontations between police and protesters.

What a bunch of wusses. Dan Rather must be turning over in his grave.

Andrew Taylor, chair of the Standing Committee of Correspondents, said he is sending a letter to Mayor John Hickenlooper requesting that another site be designated for the demonstrators to congregate, away from the reporters.

The one-acre protest site on the southeast corner of the parking lot, near Seventh Street and Auraria Parkway, will only be about 40 feet south of one of the media tents, Taylor said. A second media tent will sit west of the protest site.

Forty feet? I could toss a (toy) washing machine that far, he said muscularly.

"The media is more sympathetic than virtually any other group for the need to have protesters, to give them a place to speak out," said Taylor, an Associated Press reporter. But then he added:

"We're just basically raising what are really the obvious issues; you're going to have thousands of protesters covering an acre, and it's going to be right next door to two tents, where the print and broadcast media are going to try to do their jobs," Taylor added.

The city is looking into it.

The Connecticut Survivalist Alliance is worried about COINTELPRO-type operations at the DNC:

As we have reported, groups like Re-Create 68 have been infiltrated by informants and operatives, who will make sure violent episodes will be instigated with security forces. Even in non-violent oriented organizations like The Alliance for Real Democracy, there are sure to be paid informants.

Of course, R68 doesn't need (paid) instigators. Anyway, check out CSA's flag logo. Didn't know Connecticut was part of the Old South.

That's Waak:

The head of Colorado's Democratic Party has a problem to solve today - undoing a mistake that saw one too many men elected as delegates to the national convention in Denver.

Party rules require that every state's delegation be split evenly among men and women. But Colorado, with 70 total delegates, currently has 36 men and 34 women.

That means that Pat Waak, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, has the unenviable task of removing a male delegate and making him an alternate, then choosing one of the alternates to fill the spot.

In the end, an alternate may be replaced as well because that group also must be balanced by gender.