Q.) What has chainlink fences, armed guards and razor wire?

[mburbank]

A.) The FREE SPEECH ZONE beneath the abandoned overpass next to the Fleet center where the DNC is being held! This is where they are are forcing protesters to go! And WE'RE the Democrats!

What does this mean they'll have to do in New York?!

"The FREE SPEECH zone is located directly under Jefferson "You gots a purty Mouth" Johnson, a three hunred thirty two pound convict on a work release program violently sodomozing protesters.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Yeah, I hope they all brought construction helmets.

As for the RNC-- I dunno, I should avoid hyperbole, but I really feel it has 1968 written all over it.....

[Cosmo Electrolux]

are they really calling it the free speech zone?

[mburbank]

I am afraid I did not make that up.

[Cosmo Electrolux]

that makes me sick to my stomach, Max...what have we become?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

This isn't the first time the phrase has been used. They used to designate little "free speech zones" on my college campus during demonstrations. I'm guessing it was first used in DC, since they have many protests every year, and they tend to serve as like a testing grounds for riot control procedures......:/

[El Blanco]

A.) The FREE SPEECH ZONE beneath the abandoned overpass next to the Fleet center where the DNC is being held! This is where they are are forcing protesters to go! And WE'RE the Democrats!

Awwww, man, I was gonna guess the main stage at the next Woodstock.

What does this mean they'll have to do in New York?!

Oh, so thats all the construction at the Staten Island Dump.

"The FREE SPEECH zone is located directly under Jefferson "You gots a purty Mouth" Johnson, a three hunred thirty two pound convict on a work release program violently sodomozing protesters.

How sweet, Max is gonna make a new friend.

[mburbank]

I can't be bothered to go all the way to New York to protest. I do my protesting on the front page of the Hartford Courant sunday edition, and then only if one of their reporters stops me on my way home from work when I happen to have an hour to kill. And even then my protesting takes the form of bitching about how the convention is incoveniencing me.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE, BABY!! YOU CAN'T CHAINLINK FENCE THAT SHIT IN!

See, my problem with protesting is
A.) I hate crowds.
B.) The smell of patchuli oil makes me want to barf.
C.) I am terrified of oversized puppets.
D.) The only thing I hate anywhere near as much as a huge gang of zealous right wingers is a huge gang of zealous left wingers.

I've been two about a half dozen big protests over the last few years, and they were all pretty much like the time I went to hear William Shatner speak, except William Shatner didn't speak at any of the protests I went to, and I didn't feel as bad about myself the next day.

[Abcdxxxx]

They're sticking the RNC protestors on the West Side Highway. To bake. In the sun. In security pens. It's going to be a zoo. Please stay home.

[Preechr]

A very good friend of mine nearly tore my head off over a disagreement we had over the protest conditions imposed at the G8 Summit down here. He was all "Free Speech!" and "Freedom of Assembly!" and I was all "They have all the access to cameras they want!" and "It seems you want the freedom to physically threaten world leaders with mobs rather than the freedom to spread your message!"

Are the days of the effective protest dead? I think effectiveness began being rated on a scale of inconvenience to the public a while back. Participating in a protest can serve to liberate one from the feeling of looking like a principled idiot in public, but isn't that just a first step to a larger, more substantive goal? Shouldn't the protester then move on to something beyond hassling passersby?

Take the podium at the convention rather than picketing it, maybe... Not that I agree with the Free Speech Zones, especially when instituted by Democrats of all people... though I don't share the idealism with which you guys seem to regard the party... but they're at least supposed to ACT like hippies, aren't they?

[ArrowX]

My sig is from james black talking about security precautions for those two conferances in NY and Boston. It was lol

[KevinTheOmnivore]

I think Lewis Black said something similar. :/

[Sethomas]

Or was it James Brown? :eek

[FS]

:lol that was embarassing.