DNC tittle and bosh

Strictly for fashionistas: Westword notices the new shirts Spags 'n' R68 are wearing, which the d-blog noted the other day somewhere:

Now, fit that shirt with this Spagz quote from the Denver Channel today:

Spagnuolo said protesters will push the limits of a security zone at the Pepsi Center. A federal judge upheld a city of Denver decision about where the protesters can gather near the venue.

"But we're also not looking for confrontation with the police, if that confrontation comes, we will stop," Spagnuolo said.

Talk about your mixed messages. But as far as I know that's a first--a hint, however meager, that R68 might give up its utterly bogus "right of self-defense against cops" routine. Hard to believe, because if it were true, Spagz' fellow suburban revolutionaries, like former CU ethnic studies instructor Ben Whitmer, would swallow their own heads in rage. They yearn so for that elusive bloodbath.

Detroit mayor arraigned; may have to wear electronic "tether" to DNC:

A judge ruled Thursday that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will no longer have to wear an electronic tether ordered as part of his bond in his perjury case and may travel to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where he is a superdelegate.

But the state attorney general's office, which has charged Kilpatrick in a separate assault case, said the mayor still may be required to wear the tether since it was also part of his bond in that case.

Classy.

Clinton gets roll call vote:

In what ultimately is meant to be a show of unity [thanks for explaining it, reportron!], Democratic delegates will be given the chance to vote for either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama during their national convention, Obama's campaign announced today.

Obama, the presumptive nominee, said in a statement: "I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion."

Yeah, sure. 18 million Voices (Rise Hillary Rise) will be happy, anyway. They, by the way, have Confluence Park all day on the 25th, and plan "welcome activities" and preparation for the group's march for Hillary on the 26th. Good times.

"Rage" to play Tent State. This has gotta kill R6!8, with their lineup of hack revolutionaries, rap poets and profoundly obscure local bands:

Rage Against the Machine has agreed to perform as part of the "Tent State Music Festival to End the War" on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at the Denver Coliseum during the Democratic National Convention. They will be joined by Denver's Flobots, along with The Coup, State Radio and Wayne Kramer.

Doors open at 9:30 a.m., show begins at 11 a.m.

Wait, did you say 9:30 A.M.? As the old saying goes, I haven't even finished throwing up that early.

Tickets are free and available by lottery. Sign up for the lottery, with a valid photo ID (person must be present) at Tent State University at Cuernavaca Park between 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. from Sunday, Aug. 24, through Tuesday, Aug. 26 (look for the Tent State Music Festival booth near the IVAW tower.

The IVAW has a tower?

Speaking of lotteries, notification begins for Obama Invesco ticket-seekers:

People who requested tickets to Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech begin finding out today whether they hit the lottery.

And those who did will be able to pick up their tickets to Obama's Aug. 28 speech beginning Saturday.

I'm wetting my pants! Not in anticipation, of course--just what I do every day about now.

DNC posters selected. Weirdly, the Rocky chooses to describe rather than publish them, though they're readily available. My fave, because it fits this festering ol' bovine-burg:


Yippie-yi-yo-ky-yay, motherf--I'm so tired.

And finally, a new edition of Separated at Birth!


Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine.

Islamic Rage Boy.

Uncanny.

More:

"HEY, THIS GUY IS TAKING PICTURES!" Westword's Jared Jacang Maher goes looking for Gitmo on the Platte (a term he proudly but erroneosly thinks he coined), and, by brilliant cloak if not dagger work, finds it. A car chase ensues. Funny, so read the whole thing (there's a slideshow, too), but the assumption that, because a building isn't suitable for heat-sensitive equipment, it's necessarily uncomfortable, let alone the Black Hole of Guantanamo Maher hints at, is absurd. People have to work in there.

More of those darned mixed signals. In an otherwise standard-issue piece in Fort Collins Now, Recreate-68 and Unconventional Achtung (now Unconventional Denver) discuss crowd numbers:

While Unconventional Denver has served as the planning committee for the anarchists community, Recreate ’68 has served as the umbrella organization for all the group that want to protest.

Yet between the two groups it’s anybody’s guess how many protesters will actually show up.

“Could be hundreds. Could be a few thousand. It could be just us here,” said Tom Mestnik, a Recreate ’68 organizer who has been to a few conventions in the past.

“Oh, it’s going to be over 1,000,” said Tim Simons, an Unconventional Denver organizer.

Then Ben Yager, another Unconventional organizer, chimed in, “Well, I'd say a good safe number is 30 (people) because that’s how many have been showing up to the meetings.”

Mestnik replied, “Even if it's just us here on the back porch, we’re going to go down there and jack s*** up.”

Then he laughed and said, “Nah, just kidding.”