Hmmm

Yes, hmmm:

Advocacy groups and the American Civil Liberties Union said today they won't appeal a federal judge's ruling that upheld law enforcement and the city and county of Denver's security plans during the Democratic National Convention. . . .

Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, said the groups have also decided not to proceed with a Tuesday trial that was set to challenge security restrictions at Invesco Field at Mile High, where Barack Obama is expected to give his acceptance speech on the last night of the convention.

Update: "Protesters to appeal DNC ruling 'in the streets'":

An organizer for one of the groups planning large-scale protests during the Democratic National Convention says they will appeal a federal judge's decision to restrict access to the Pepsi Center "in the streets of Denver."

Which organizer said that? Huh? Which one? I can't wait to find out!

Glenn Spagnuolo of the Re-create 68 Alliance protest group said today that demonstrators still intend to go to the Pepsi Center.

Oh, Glenn.

"It was a very adverse decision where the federal courts are willing to throw away people's civil liberties in the name of security," Spagnuolo said. . . .

The ACLU's Silverstein again:

"Overall the regrettable thing is courts are deferring to security planners who base their plans many times on risks that are extremely speculative ... and the result is all of our First Amendment rights are diminished," Silverstein said. "That's the world we live in."

Hey, that's just what key R68er Benjie Whitmer said, sort of. Actually, what he said was this:

Constitutional rights ain’t contingent on what some shitheel judge says. That goes for the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and every amendment thereafter. We have rights which ain’t bound by any pig, judge or otherwise.

Benjie's such a plus for R68. Sunny personality, cogent thinker, sensitive, nuanced writer. They're lucky to have him. (And don't forget, parents: he got his English degrees at CU!) Anyway:

"We'll file our appeals in the streets of Denver," Spagnuolo said. "We intend to march, and we still intend to go to the Pepsi Center." . . .

How . . . vague.

"We were waiting to make any statements until we had a conference meeting with our attorneys today," he said. "We wrapped that up, and we're going to be discussing the ramifications of (the judge's) decision and what Re-create 68 is intending to do as far as appeals or what may happen in the streets."

They're having (or just had) a press conference. Mock it when I see it.

Update: Fox News was on it. Same old. But the story has a nice bullet-point list of the ways the city and DNC have bent over backwards to accommodate the socialist extortionists (somebody call the Squad Squad!) of R!68.

More: Oprah!

Update: Remarkably, Stop the ACLU uses the same word: "Anarchists band together to extort [that word] Denver."

More: Spagz on Youtube after the press conference. Note the t-shirt.

. . . you try to remain nonviolent in the face of overwhelming oppression and violence. But we do expect the police to get violent--they train for it every day--they're spending millions of dollars to get weapons so they can act violent every single day. So we expect them to act violent in that way. But you know, it's a testament to when protest becomes effective the government becomes repressive. . . . Revolution starts with one word, that word's no, and we're saying no to the federal courts.

So there we are. Won't you please come to Denver?