If the good of the nation and welfare of its general populace were of any concern, regulation and recovery would be nearly (dare I say) ‘easy’. It would be inspired and direct, in essence a solid plan targeting the currently unrepresented average citizen. However, the prime directive most certainly would not be handing over billions, which will in all likelihood balloon into trillions of dollars, to the CEO’s in the top three percent income tax bracket who were at the helm during this ship’s course over the falls. So far in this ‘bailout’ endeavor there has been very little oversight, very little capitulation, very little remorse and a complete shunning of the common working man/woman. In some instances, blowhards have even went so far as to blame the collapse on everyone but the CEO’s, speculators and government entities in charge.

Our interests are not being represented by those we elect. Some may argue about the length of time this corporate influence has outweighed that of the constituent, but in the light of a crisis such the one we are experiencing now, it becomes apparent the voice of the people is shouted down by the dollars of the campaign benefactors.

We are being taxed, without representation, by those that would rather salvage the rich and sacrifice the poor. We are not the cause of the collapse and we will not benefit from any of the bailouts, though a better approach to mend wounds would be to invest in communities, the people and infrastructure, not write check after check to corporate leaders who have proven their corruptness.

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Careening from the chaos of the Florida fiasco of 2000, when the winner of the presidential election was shunted aside and the loser was inaugurated following a controversial finding by the Supreme Court under John Rehnquist, the American roller-coaster has taken its captive passengers and the rest of the world through a series of dizzying loop-the-loops.  Half-way through the eight-year ride an interim election took place, and its results were just as troubling.

After a lengthy campaign, John Kerry led “W.” in the polls, but the official results reported another “upset” election anointing America’s rogue president for an undeserved second term.  Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. and other experts performed a forensic autopsy on the 2004 election and pronounced their collective diagnosis — the American electoral process was deeply traumatized, chronically dysfunctional and susceptible to covert abuse by computerized criminals.  After his tearful concession the morning after the traumatic night, John Kerry told investigators that the election had been stolen.

Last week, Amy Goodman interviewed Mark Crispin Miller who addressed the issue of the troubling vote in the state of Ohio in 2004.  Miller identified an evangelical anti-abortion activist named Mike Connell as the operative who infiltrated the computerized results in Ohio and re-calibrated them in order to deliver the presidency unto George W. Bush.  Miller described Connell as, “Karl Rove’s computer guru.”  According to Miller, Connell had been involved in cyber-hacking more than one major US election.

In the aftermath of the 2004 election, the world’s leading watchdog over global democratic procedures, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) examined the US elections.  In their official report , the OSCE stated that the colloquial voting procedures in America failed to achieve the desired standard for democratic elections as defined by the 1990 Copenhagen Document.  Citing recurrent problems with voter registration, partisan election officials, gerrymandering, inconsistencies with provisional ballots and the flagrant circumvention of spending limits by independent “527” organizations, the OSCE published a lacerating report on the US presidential election of 2004.

Following 2004, the USA quickly dropped to 17th on the Economist’s Democracy Index falling far behind more advanced democracies that include:  Sweden, Iceland, Canada and Malta whose elections are held to higher standards.  It is a sad fact that no major presidential candidate has called for meaningful voting and electoral reform.

After the troubling election of 2000, former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford led a commission to reform America’s creaking electoral infrastructure.  The Help America Vote Act (HAVA ) became law, but its provisions were not fully implemented by 2004, thus permitting another electoral debacle to mar the face of American history.

After the second soiled election, former president Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker led a commission to re-enforce America’s voting and electoral infrastructure.  In 2006, the election results appeared to be less controversial than in 2000 and 2004, and there were hopes that this year’s presidential election would be less compromised than those of 2000 and 2004.

Today, Barack Obama is leading John McCain by a larger margin than John Kerry led George W. Bush, so it is only prudent to pose the question:  “Will the vote in the 2008 American presidential election restore credibility to our status as a ‘democracy?’”  However, the answer is already clear — “No.”

Unfortunately, the initial reports for the early voting period are discouraging.  Although Barack Obama and the Democrats are doing very well in the early voting, the internet is inundated with reports of serious flaws marring this year’s vote.  In Colorado, election officials removed a Diebold voting machine that was flipping votes from one candidate to another in what may have been a first step in the right direction.  While this development is welcome, other more serious flaws in the US electoral system are now endemic and will require new legislation.

Anticipating that the preponderant majority of America’s voters would reject their party this year, Republican officials ordered vast purges of voting rolls deleting 19% of the registered voters in battleground states.  RFK, Jr. and Greg Palast have drawn attention to the troubling record of Donetta Davidson the former Colorado Secretary of State who purged 19.4% of the registered voters.  After that aggressive purge of low-income and minority voters who were overwhelmingly registered as Democrats, George W. Bush elevated Donetta Davidson to head the federal agency ominously titled, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC).  Following Donetta Davidson’s arrival at EAC, her staff noticed a partisan slant to her policies that tarnished America’s reputation as a democracy that resulted in critical international publicity on the BBC , (see below).

Realizing that their moves to truncate the bloc of eligible voters would not go un-noticed, shrewd supporters of John McCain and Sarah Palin have repeatedly called attention to the case of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.  ACORN is a charity that registers America’s poorest citizens to vote that has benefited from financial contributions provided by the Obama-Biden campaign.  After registering over one million new voters who are largely poor, minorities, women and young, ACORN’s officials revealed that a minute proportion of the new registration forms were deeply flawed.  However, US law requires that all voter registration forms including incomplete or questionable applications must to be turned in to local officials.

This bureaucratic procedure, the verification of voter registration forms by local election officials, is now the subject of an investigation by the FBI, an agency already over-stretched by the massive number of financial cases boiling out of the meltdown on Wall Street.  The background is illuminating for it has been reported that fewer than 100 instances of vote fraud are committed in any given year, but the MSM have been transfixed by the case of ACORN even though it does not represent one single solitary case of vote fraud.  Why the FBI is concentrating on this case at this time remains obscure other than theories of partisan political influence.

With their audiences transfixed by the case of ACORN, Americans learned that Republican operatives supporting McCain-Palin had organized lists of foreclosures to challenge thousands of voters on Election Day as ineligible due to their lack of a current physical address on their registration forms.  This dubious procedure is termed, “voter caging.”  In Ohio, Republicans filed a lawsuit to require the Democratic Secretary of State to purge thousands of newly registered voters from the lists if there were slight inconsistencies in their registration documentation.  Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. focused on this desperate voter-suppression operation during his recent interview with Rachel Maddow.

To counter this legal but elitist ploy, supporters of Obama-Biden filed a lawsuit that was swiftly elevated to the US Supreme Court that ruled against the caging of voters in what is deemed to be a serious setback to the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempt to expunge the poor from the voter rolls.  While this is a positive development, an aura of suspicion is beginning to descend over the election.

Another positive development for the Obama-Biden ticket is unfolding in Florida. Due to the overwhelming success of early voting, Governor Crist and his Secretary of State have extended the polling times four hours per day in order to assure working people, the young and the poor the opportunity to vote.  Governor Charles Crist had been a favorite for the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination, but John McCain passed him over in favor of the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

In Florida, massive teams of lawyers are assembling under the leadership of Charles Lichtman who is in command of the Democratic squad, while his old friend, Ed Pozzuoli is heading the Republican legal eagles.  Both parties are braced for post-election litigation as the polls remain close and within the margin of error.

It must be observed that the MSM have refrained from providing adequate coverage of America’s crumbling reputation as a viable democracy.  However, America’s declining status as a democracy is routinely reported in the international press and media.  The BBC is regarded as the most authoritative news agency in the world.  Earlier this month, the BBC broadcast a lengthy report on its premier program, Newsnight, analyzing the egregious flaws in America’s voting system that could have an impact on the outcome of the presidential election.  The world is enthralled as Barack Obama and Joe Biden confront the two-headed dragon of John McCain and Sarah Palin who are blatantly directing a campaign to restrict voting in the presidential election at the expense of the democratic ideals enshrined in the Constitution.

The international audience is keenly aware that McCain and Palin will not merely continue the horrible roller-coaster ride — they will accelerate it.  McCain’s promise to bomb Iran and Palin’s strident threats of doom to America’s enemies have not gone un-noticed by the global audience who now fear the continuation of the rabidly neoconservative theocracy in America.

An arc of darkness is sweeping across the face of America, and the only ray of hope that will overwhelm flagrant attempts to render democracy cold, dead and inert forever in the USA is for a pro-democratic revolution at the polls in a massive turnout of Americans demanding their right to vote.

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The ones that tripped up Hillary Clinton?

Well, some vigiliant GOP lawmakers in NY remember them, too. And they’re trying to make sure they don’t wreak havoc on election results next month. Officials held a hearing today on thousands of licenses issued to non-citizens under illegal alien-friendly Spitzer’s tenure:

With Election Day right around the corner, the Republicans are bringing back an issue that brought them national media attention: Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s long-dead plan to let illegal immigrants get driver’s licenses.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, an outspoken Hudson Valley Republican (particularly when it comes to all things immigration-related) who won a bitter GOP primary battle last month, and Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, who sued over Spitzer’s license plan, are holding a public hearing in Manhattan Thursday on “massive voter fraud potential” caused by the issuance of 23,000 licenses to non-citizens during the former governor’s tenure.

From the press release announcing the hearing, which will be held at the Metropolitan Club:

“Section 5 of the Federal Motor Voter Act requires New York to provide individuals with the opportunity to register to vote at the same time that they apply for a driver’s license or seek to renew a driver’s license.

By law, none of these 23,000 foreign visitors are eligible to vote, yet now many are registered because they hold Spitzer licenses. A public hearing will be conducted on October 16th in Manhattan to assess what can be done at the local, state, and Federal level to secure these 23,000 licenses and scrub the voter rolls of ineligible voters.”

They’re not the only ones who should be investigating.

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The idea of “victimless crimes” has been around for a long time, but the ultra-modern 21st century has given us a bold new concept: perpetratorless crimes.

This is by now a familiar dynamic: Outright, undeniable crimes are committed, often very heinous ones — mass murder, military aggression, torture, vast financial corruption and fraud, warrantless spying, egregious violations of the Constitution — but somehow, no one is actually responsible for them. They just sort of, you know, happened, all by themselves.

The most we can possibly do about these crimes is to conduct a non-binding “investigation” — preferably by a committee of “serious” Establishment figures — who will then offer suggestions on how to avoid such unseemly situations in the future. Of course, most of the time it would be too “divisive,” too “partisan,” to do even that much. But in any case, you certainly can’t prosecute anyone for these crimes.

(This innovative concept only covers crimes in which powerful people might be involved, of course. Any ordinary person remains subject to the full weight of the increasingly draconian law — although, if said ordinary person was commiting crimes at the behest of powerful people, the application of the law can suddenly become miraculously light, or even non-existent.)

The New York Times points us to yet another of these perpetratorless crimes. In fact, the venerable Gray Goose — sorry, Gray Lady — of American journalism acts as close accomplice of a crime wave that seems to strike nationwide every two to four years: the deliberate and illegal disenfranchisement of millions of citizens, almost all of them the poorest and most marginalized in American society.

After eight years of a veritable Ossa of evidence of gamed, thrown, fixed and finagled elections, this week the NY Times bestirred itself to notice that something might possibly be amiss in the nation’s electoral process. A headline writer topped the story with weakest possible statement of the undeniable truth: “States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal.” And you can bet your bottom dollar (as it falls through the bottomless pit of the Beltway bailout banditry) that if the New York Times deigns to acknowledge even the “appearance” of some mischance in the divinely ordained machinery of the Establishment, the actual rot is very far gone indeed.

Thus the thoroughgoing disenfranchisement of eligible voters — as many as three million in 2004, as Greg Palast has noted — has finally spilled into the paper’s sacred precincts. The first paragraph puts in plainly:

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

Hard to put it more plainly than that: voters in key states are being disenfranchised in violation of federal law. In other words, a very serious crime is being committed, a bloody shiv job to the heart of the democratic process.

Wow! Wonder who could be behind such a brazen and dastardly crime — a crime that benefits very powerful people seeking even greater power? Why, no one, of course! Here’s the very next paragraph of the story:

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

You see? It just sort of, you know, happened. And even though these open violations of federal law — i.e., crimes — are affecting likely Democratic voters “disproportionately,” the Times says, they are not being directed by anyone toward any particular aim. Nope. It’s just some kind of strange repeat of this really weird thing that happened back in 2004 and 2000, when the same kind of people were tossed from the voting rolls by the multitude.

The paper traces the crimes to the “Help America Vote Act” of 2002. The Times, along with the rest of the corporate media, continues to treat this bill as if it were a serious attempt to address the ludicrously inept and decrepit U.S. electoral process, instead of what it transparently was: an attempt to codify into law the vote-suppression machinery that threw the bollixed 2000 Florida vote into the hands of the partisan extremist faction on the Supreme Court, two of whom had family members pocketing wads of cash from the Bush campaign. HAVA was meant to spread this deliberate chaos throughout the entire country — and it has done so.

But the tender eyes of Times readers must be shielded from such ugly truth. Instead, we get yards and yards of carefully hedged, bled-dry prose, obscurely outlining a pattern of systematic vote suppression in key states but ensuring that, once again, no one can possibly blamed for it — and certainly no one can possibly be charged for it. It’s just some kind of rare and unpleasant natural phenomenon, like, say, a boll weevil infestation. Or the war crime in Iraq. Or the American torture program. Or the destruction of the American economy. And so on.

At the moment, with the McCain campaign cratering like a merchant bank, the disenfranchisement crime wave will probably not be enough to skew the election. Even with a few million voters blocked from the polls, the widespread revulsion toward the ruling party will probably swamp the polls and put the Democrats back in the White House. Whether this result will be an unmitigated joy and genuine change in the nation’s headlong degradation is another matter, one which we’ll be taking up in a later column. The merits, or lack of same, of the contending candidates are not the issue here. The point is that millions of the poorest, most marginalized Americans are being denied their right to vote for whomever they please. This is, as even the New York Times acknowledges, a federal crime. But it is not, however much the Times tries to obsfuscate the issue, a perpetratorless one.

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1. USA Patriot Act – A 342 page document presented to Congress one day before voting on it that allows the government access to your bank and email accounts, as well as your medical and phone records with no court order. They can also search your home anytime without a warrant.
2. USA Patriot Act II – This one allows secret government arrests, the legal authority to seize your American citizenship, and the extraction of your DNA if you are deemed a potential terrorist.
3. Military Commissions Act of 2006 – Ends habeas corpus, the right to an attorney, and the right to court review of one’s detention and arrest. Without this most basic right, all other rights are gone too since anyone can be detained indefinitely. Now anyone may be arrested and incarcerated and nobody would know.
4. NSPD 51 – A directive signed by George W. Bush on May 9, 2007, that allows the President to declare martial law, effectively transforming the U.S. into a dictatorship with no checks and balances from the Legislative or Judicial Branches. Parts of this directive are considered classified and members of Congress have been denied the right to review it.
5. Protect America Act of 2007 – Allows unprecedented domestic wiretapping and surveillance activities with a reduction in FISA court oversight. Probable cause is not needed.
6. John Warner Defense Authorization Act – Signed by George W. Bush on October 17, 2007, this act allows the President to declare a public emergency and station troops anywhere in America without the consent of the governor or local authorities to “suppress public disorder.
7. Homegrown Terrorism and Radicalization Act – Passed overwhelmingly by Congress on October 23, 2007, is now awaiting a Senate vote. This act will beget a new crackdown on dissent and the Constitutional rights of American citizens. The definitions of “terrorism” and “extremism” are so vague that they could be used to generalize against any group that is working against the policies of the Administration. In this bill, “violent radicalization” criminalizes thought and ideology while “homegrown terrorism” is defined as “the planed use of force to coerce the government.” The term, “force” could encompass political activities such as protests, marches, or any other form of non-violent resistance.

So when you add in:

1. Halliburton Confirms Camps Constructed
2. Halliburton’s Immigrant Detention Centers
3. Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps
4. Halliburton Confirms Concentration Camps Already Constructed
5. KBR awarded Homeland Security contract worth up to $385M
6. This from Halliburton’s own website

It starts to get a little scary.”

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My personal favorite moment in the tape is an off-camera exchange. Police in riot gear have surrounded loungers in a waterfront park. They announce, “Ladies and Gentlemen, You’re Under Arrest” and you hear one young woman say incredulously “Are you serious?”

Yep, I’m afraid they are.

Here’s the press release that came with the video, from the Glass Bead Collective:

BURIED TAPE REVEALS USE OF FORCE AND AN UNWARRANTED MASS ARREST OF BYSTANDERS DURING THE

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (September 18, 2008) Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.

More than eight hundred people were arrested in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention. This video shows that at least twenty percent of the eight hundred plus arrested were seized without due cause.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/investigate_now/index.html

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What difference is there between the crowds of flag-waving Republicans and the apparatchiks I covered as a reporter in the old East German Communist Party? These Republican delegates, like the fat and compromised party functionaries in East Berlin, all fawned on cue over an inept and corrupt party hierarchy. They all purported to champion workers’ rights and freedom while they systematically fleeced, disempowered and impoverished the workers they lauded. They all celebrated the virtue of a state that was morally bankrupt. And while they played this con game, one that gave them special privileges, power and wealth, they unleashed their goons and thugs on all who dared to challenge them. We are not East Germany, but we are well on our way. An economic meltdown, another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, a war with Iran, and we could easily swing into an authoritarian model that would look very familiar to anyone who lived in the former communist East Bloc.

A few of those arrested in St. Paul, including eight leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee—one of the groups organizing protests at the GOP convention in St. Paul—now face terrorism-related charges. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald and Max Spector could get up to seven and a half years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge, which allows for a 50 percent increase in the maximum penalty. This is the first time criminal charges have been filed under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act, which was put in place as much to silence domestic opposition as to ferret out real terrorists, has largely lain dormant. It has authorized the government to monitor our phone conversations, e-mails, meetings and political opinions. It has authorized the government to shut down anti-war groups and lock up innocents as terrorists. It has abolished habeas corpus. But until now we have not grasped its full implications for our open society. We catch glimpses, as in St. Paul or in our offshore penal colonies where we torture detainees, of its awful destructive power.

The commercial media told us that what was important in St. Paul was happening inside the convention hall. The vapid interviews, the ridiculous soap opera sagas about Sarah Palin’s daughter and the debate about whether John McCain or Barack Obama has proprietary rights to “Change” divert us from the truth of who we have become. You had to search out “Democracy Now!,” TheUptake.org, Twin Cities Indymedia, I-Witness, along with a few other independent outlets, to see, hear or read real journalism from St. Paul.

It does not matter that the RNC Welcoming Committee describes itself as an “anarchist/anti-authoritarian” organization. We don’t have to embrace a political agenda to protect the right to be heard. Shut down free speech and radicals only burrow deeper underground, splitting ossified political systems into fractured extremes. We may well end up with the Christian right on one side, with politicians like Sarah Palin providing an ideological veneer to a Christian fascism, and embittered leftist radicals who turn to violence on the other.

St. Paul was not ultimately about selecting a presidential candidate. It was about the power of the corporate state to carry out pre-emptive searches, seizures and arrests. It was about squads of police in high-tech riot gear, many with drawn semiautomatic weapons, bursting into houses. It was about seized computers, journals and political literature. It was about shutting down independent journalism, even at gunpoint. It was about charging protesters with “conspiracy to commit riot,” a rarely used statute that criminalizes legal dissent. It was about 500 people held in open-air detention centers. It was about the rising Orwellian state that has hollowed out the insides of America, cast away all that was good and vital, and donned its skin to shackle us all.

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But at least there is still freedom of the press! Right? Apparently not. Here is how the donutmunchers dealt with ABC news producer Asa Eslocker. Mr. Eslocker was standing on a public sidewalk with a camera crew when Democratic Party officials were exiting a hotel. He was doing a story on major donors to the Democratic efforts and some of those major donors were coming out of the hotel. Police decided that he had no right to do that story and began by manhandling him and pushing him off the sidewalk into traffic. ABC News reports that the donutmuncher told Eslocker: “You’re lucky I didn’t knock the fuck out of you.” Here is some video of the incident. Welcome to America, land of the free. And, if you believe that, I have some swamp land in Florida for sale.

In this next video things are a bit sketchy but USA Today and Rocky Mountain News reported on the incident leading up to it. Alicia Forrest, 24, was watching a protest when a police officer yelled, “Back it up, bitch.” He then struck her with his baton causing her to fall to the ground in pain. After she got up she was being interviewed peacefully by reporters about the incident. Apparently those interviews were enough. The police are seen then rushing in and grabbing her and taking her away. That is one way to put an end to interview.

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Mayor John Hickenlooper said the city and its partners developed what may be one of the most comprehensive security plans for an event of this magnitude.

“You never know what you don’t know, but we have spent more time planning and training than I think any city in history for a national convention,” he said.

The Secret Service, the agency in charge of designing and implementing the overall security plan, is confident that authorities will be ready to address any issue that might come up, spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.

“That’s not to say that things won’t happen, but what we’re saying is that we’re prepared to deal with anything,” he said.

Working under the guidance of the federal agency, the city and others have been working for more than a year to develop a security plan that includes rooftop snipers, restricted airspace and shutting down Interstate 25 for four hours Thursday evening.

Reinforcements from across Colorado and beyond, including a mounted patrol unit from Wyoming, will be on the streets of Denver, doubling the 1,500-member police force.

“Certainly, there will be an increased police presence near the venues,” he said. “Folks can expect to see law enforcement on some rooftops near the Pepsi Center and near Invesco Field.”

Other security arrangements are covert.

“There will be lots of security measures in place that will not be visible to the eye,” Wiley said.

Denver received a $50 million federal grant to pay for convention-related security costs, including equipment and personnel.

With some groups promising to “disrupt” the convention and menacing Internet chatter floating around, police have been training for a worst-case scenario.

“If you’re throwing a birthday party at your house and you invite 100 people, you prepare for 100 people. If 120 show up and you got some steaks in the freezer, you yank them out and use them,” said police Detective Martin Vigil, president of Denver’s police union.

Some of the meatier items in Denver’s security stockpile include a tactical armored vehicle that withstands bullets, a $750,000 truck to handle hazardous materials, guns that fire pepperballs, surveillance cameras and other equipment for crowd control and mass arrests.

Vigil said police hope they don’t have to use the new equipment but they do expect trouble.

“I hope to God it goes easy, safe and nobody causes any problems. But we’re prepared,” he said.

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099

Security profiles

Securing the Democratic National Convention is a complex undertaking involving many federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

An executive steering committee has overseen 17 subcommittees on topics including civil disobedience, communications, explosive mitigation and air intrusion. Here is a look at some of the key players involved in the planning:

Ronald Perea

* Job title: Special agent in charge, Secret Service, Denver

* Age: 52

* Hometown: Albuquerque

* Background: Five years with the Albuquerque Police Department; 24 years with Secret Service

* Years in Denver: One

* Role: The Secret Service is mandated to coordinate all security plans for the DNC, partnering with other federal, state and local agencies to achieve a common goal of safety. The Secret Service is specifically responsible for securing the venues.

* Role during DNC week: Spend the first part of the week splitting time between the multi-agency command center, the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field. When Sen. Barack Obama arrives in Denver, Perea will be with his security detail.

* Biggest concern: Making sure the Democratic process goes on as it’s supposed to and that the delegates are safe.

* Prediction for how the DNC will play out: “I’m very confident as far as the security mechanisms we’ve put in place. I think Denver will be showcased.”

* First thing he’ll do when the DNC is over: Start planning for the election and then the inauguration.

“My anniversary was this month. I owe my wife a trip somewhere,” Perea said. “We’ll see when we can fit it in.”

Peter Weir

* Job title: Executive director, Colorado Department of Public Safety

* Age: 55

* Hometown: Golden

* Background: More than 30 years in law enforcement, including former district court judge, former executive director of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council and former prosecutor

* Years in Denver: 45

* Role preparing for the DNC: Assigned, at the direction of Gov. Bill Ritter, to coordinate all safety and security responsibilities of state government during the DNC

* Role during DNC week: Will work at the Multi-Agency Coordination Center to direct the assistance being provided by the State Patrol, CBI and other state agencies to the Secret Service, FBI and Denver police

* Biggest concern: “That the efforts of state agencies to assist our federal and local partners is effectively coordinated.”

* Prediction for how the DNC will play out: “I think the convention will be a very safe, outstanding event that will showcase Denver and the state of Colorado to the nation and the world.”

* First thing he’ll do once the DNC is over: “I plan to take my kids to a ballgame.”

Michael Battista

* Job title: Deputy chief of operations, Denver Police Department

* Age: 49

* Hometown: Denver

* Background: 261/2 years with Denver police

* Years in Denver: Native

* Role during DNC week: Incident commander for the city of Denver

* Biggest concern: Providing a safe and secure environment for all participants in the DNC and the city

* Prediction for how the DNC will play out: “Host a historical event in Denver while the Police Department supports individuals’ rights to express their First Amendment rights.”

* First thing he’ll do once the DNC is over: Begin working on a demobilization plan and compiling after-action reports

Mason Whitney

* Job title: Director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security

* Age: 63

* Hometown: Wichita, Kan.

* Years in Denver: 30

* Background: Retired in 2007 as a major general with the Colorado National Guard. Spent 39 years in the military in the Air Force and the Air National Guard.

* Role: Sits on the executive steering committee. Maintains situational awareness for the governor; advises governor on strategies to respond to or recover from any disaster.

* Biggest concern: Despite intense preparation, there’s a lot of unknowns that officials can’t prepare for.

* Prediction for how the DNC will play out: “I feel very confident that we’re able to handle situations as they occur.”

* First thing he’ll do after the convention: “I think I’m going to take a couple days off to kick back and relax a little bit.”

Elizabeth Light of Unconventional Denver demonstrates Aug. 15 at the detention center, where those arrested during the convention will be processed. “I hope . . . nobody causes any problems,” said Detective Martin Vigil, of Denver.

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Please go to kucinich.us now and sign the petition, which calls for impeachment. This is the one petition that will make a difference because I will be delivering it personally to your member of congress. Please circulate word of this petition far and wide, to all your friends and family. This is the one opportunity that we have right now to actually change events in this country.

Two hundred and thirty-two years ago, our nation was conceived in liberty. We have once again reached a moment of truth, one that Lincoln recognized at Gettysburg as to whether “this nation or any nation so conceived or so dedicated can long endure”.

Through the ashes of war, Lincoln prayed that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

This Fourth of July, 2008, we face a different kind of war; one which is trying our souls.. a war based on lies. But with the power of truth and the power of the people we can achieve a new birth of freedom, standing up for what is good in America, insisting on the rule of law, demanding adherence to the Constitution, and supporting the impeachment of a President who lied to take us into a war against Iraq.

Be the answer to Lincoln’s Prayer. Please pledge your support now to restoring the rule of law in America. As we once again celebrate our Independence, let us celebrate freedom from fear and pledge that this government of the people will survive in this land that we love.

Please go to kucinich.us now. This is your chance to make a difference; truly celebrate our Independence. Thank you.

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Scarborough explained that Clinton failed to meet recent expectations and that, just as with corporate earning statements, that’s what counts.

“You don’t want this to end, do you?” Hanes asked in conclusion.

“Of course not,” Scarborough replied. “I want the Stones’ Street Fighting Man played in the background while I monitor the streets of Denver with tear gas, the ghost of Abbie Hoffman rising up over the auditorium. Yeah, baby, I want a fight — on both sides”

This video is from MSNBC’s Primary Coverage, broadcast May 6, 2008.

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