The extremes of fear and hope unveiled themselves in Denver today on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

Passing through downtown Denver this evening, I saw on foot patrol squads of dark-clad police in riot gear. Wearing brand new dark blue uniforms, the squads walked in tight groups of six. From their gun belts hung bundles of plastic handcuffs beside their visored helmets. From their hands extended long black clubs, perhaps three feet in length, swinging at their sides as they walked.

Parked on a side street sat an oversized SUV with wide black running boards in each side. More police officers in riot gear stood on these running board. They looked ready for action. The eyes scanned the passing cars.

Later I heard on the radio news that sections of downtown were shut down twice today after discoveries of “suspicious packages.”  The items turned out to be harmless, but the news reports felt chilling.

As we passed the strong police presence around the Denver Convention Center, where many of the ancillary DNC events will be held, I realized that my quiet home town now looks like the police state scenes in the most terrifying cyberpunk videos.

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Tony Campbell at Examiner.com on July 30 reported that Hillary Clinton supporters are quietly planning a coup to claim the presidential nomination from Barack Obama on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention.

Campbell writes, “The group, P.U.M.A. (Party Unity My A**), claims that 15 delegates have switched from Obama to Clinton in July. There is still the possibility of a floor convention vote to fully seat the delegates of Michigan and Florida, which would benefit Senator Clinton. Finally, the Obama flip-flop on the FISA bill has not been well received by the more liberal segments of the Democratic faithful.”

Given that 2025 votes are needed for the nomination, the pro-Hillary website DoneDems.com suggests these hopeful numbers: “Obama has about 2229.5 delegate votes, with 1766.5 pledged delegates and 463 superdelegates. Clinton has 1896.5 delegate votes, with 1639.5 pledged and 257 super delegates. Shift just 175 delegates from Obama to Clinton, and Obama’s power grab comes to a halt.”

By my own count, Hillary is only 128.5 votes short of 2025, which actually is easier to acheive than 175 votes, but I’m not sure even this number is correct. I’ll do some more reporting on this point and report my findings here.

The core question remains: Could a Clinton coup happen?  The odds are against success, but Obama is vulnerable.

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Here I am checking email on Sunday morning, August 17, and up pops a new email from the Bob Barr for President campaign. The email says the Libertarian Party nominee for president is “fighting mad” because he’s “been left out in the cold.”

To be more specific, former Congressman Bob Barr was excluded from the first nationally televised event with Barack Obama and John McCain at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, staged by  church pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren.

“We’ve had calls placed to Pastor Warren from very powerful leaders from the left and the right,” wrote Barr campaign manager Russell Verney. “We sent in our personal request, and placed numerous phone calls that have not been returned.”

Put plainly, Barr was barred from the event.

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What’s behind the dispute between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia?

Look behind all the inflamed propaganda about atrocities on both sides.  See through all of the clever rhetoric from the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev or his master, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

“Geography is destiny,” Napoleon reportedly declared, and in this case, he may be right.

Extending east from the curve of the Black Sea, Georgia is dominated by the rugged Caucasus Mountains stretching across the northern third of the country. Europe’s highest point, Mt. Elbrus (18,841  feet), straddles the northern border with Russia.

More than half of the Georgian economy is agricultural, reports the CIA Fact Book, because “the coastal climate and soils allow for important tea and citrus growth.”

Russia did not invade Georgia for its crops, however.

Russia’s immediate aim is to capture the oil pipeline that runs across Georgia, and that’s just the first steps toward wider regional and global ambitions.

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Barack Obama may announce his running mate this week, or he may just wait until we get closer to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. On the off chance this decision is not yet settled, I  suggest that Wesley Clark might be the best choice to ensure Obama’s election.

Some may feel Obama must choose Hillary Clinton to ensure his election. They think this would be the dream ticket. The announcement that Hillary is speaking the second night of the convention, however, effectively tells the world that she is not the VP pick.

If Obama chooses a southern white male, as a core group of party leaders believes he must, would John Edwards survive the sexual scandal attacks, valid or not? Some want Al Gore, but I just can’t imagine him giving up his newfound happiness and authenticity to play second banana again.

When I look at the entire field of presidential hopefuls in the Democratic primaries, the process of elimination for “electability” leaves Clark as the one clear choice.

Yeah, I know, some believe Clark probably was taken off the short list because of his quip that being a prisoner of war in Vietnam does not in itself qualify John McCain to be president. Logically, Clark made an accurate statement. Emotionally, his comment raised some hackles.  Let’s look past that faux pax to consider Clark’s  qualifications. Read the rest of this entry »

Representatives for many of the citizen groups planning events during the Democratic National Convention met together in Denver on Sunday morning, July 20, with the dual purpose of sharing information about their plans and trying to heal a rift among the activists.

The so called “consulta” fell short of being representative of all the diverse organizations planning activities during the DNC.  More than 85 percent of those attending were from either Recreate 68 or Unconventional Denver.

I did not hear anybody at the consulta, for example, overtly declare during the opening introductions that they were there representing the coalition of immigrant rights organizations planning a nonviolent mass demonstration on Thursday, August 28, the last day of the convention.

Some groups represented at the consulta were not members of the Recreate 68 coalition. These  included Code Pink (playfully creative nonviolent street theater protests), Hunger for Justice (feeding those at “Tent State” and other encampments), The People Call For Change (evening programs during  the DNC to build a positive vision of the future), The World is Listening (a network of compassionate listeners at the DNC so people can voice their visions), and the Network for Spiritual Progressives (holding an independent two day interfaith conference at the start of the DNC with Rabbi Michael Lerner, Matthew Fox, Sharon Salzburg and others supporting the Global Marshall Plan).

There was only token representation from the Alliance for Real Democracy (ARD), which I’m told was begun by a few people who walked away from Recreate 68 because that coalition refused to publicly renounce any and all use of violence at the DNC. These people joined with others to form ARD, which has independently grown to include diverse groups that were never part of R68.

The contrast between Recreate 68 and the Alliance for Real Democracy is striking.

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