Zombie: Liveblogging from the Kos Tent with Dan Rather
Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 12:15:35 pm PDT
(Zombie live-blogging from the Kos “Big Tent” in Denver.)
I’m sitting in “The Big Tent,” a “space” co-sponsored by Daily Kos for “alternative media.” RIght now, as I type, Dan Rather is standing about 8 feet above my head, giving some longwinded diatribe about media ethics to a room half full of Kos supporters.
12:38
Despite the fact that this building/tent/“space” is supposed to be for the little guy, the blogger, the citizens journalists excluded from the mainstream media tent at the Pepsi Center, it is just as elitist and exclusionary.
12:39
One has to have registered long beforehand and/or paid a fee to gain admission, and been vetted for approval by the “Big Tent” staff — I presume people like me would probably have been excluded for ideological reasons.
12:39
Luckily, I was able to charm my way in under a different persona
12:41
It’s extremely crowded with left-wing bloggers and “new media” types. Everyone is (like me) frantically posting things to their blogs. Nonprofits have little booths around the room handing out freebies.
12:41
Me, I’m mainly here for the free wi-fi connection. I gave Dan Rather about 10 minutes of my life before bailing out. Utterly tedious. And without the stage makeup, he’s a little haggard.
12:42
So, what’s happened today so far?
12:42
I started the day off at Civic Center Park once again, where there were a variety of scheduled protests. But as always, it was the unscheduled that took priority.
12:44
A group of anti-homosexual Christian activists set up camp right in the middle of the radical leftist protesters, and began shouting about Sodom and Gomorrahe through megaphones. These were the exact same guys I saw at the Tookie Williams execution and the “Walk for Life” in San Francisco.
12:45
As with those other events, they were quickly surrounded by detractors. The Christians were actually quite humorous in their shpiel, even though I disagree with them and think they’re a bit nuts.
Before long, a communist cult member (couldn’t tell which group he was with — the Wobblies or World Can’t Wait or something), tried to attack them
12:46
The police rushed in and arrested the communist for trying to get violent against the Christians, and dragged him off with a horse-cop mounted police escort.
12:48
Needless to say, this send the assembled crowd of radicals into a frenzy, and an equestrian-human melee ensued
12:48
The cops ended up literally trotting in circles around the arrestee and the officers holding him
12:49
It was like a scene out of the wild west - - very appropriate for Denver!
12:49
The horses served to scare away the hundreds of would-be “rescuers” of the arrested guy.
12:50
Then reinforcements showed up and carried him away to jail in a off-road vehicle. In the concomitant frenzy, a young protest girl wearing pink was knocked to the ground by a cop when she ventured too close
12:50
Oops, dan rather just came in
12:50
He’s five feet from me
12:50
Hi dan!
Cameras are following him
12:51
the media are descending on him
12:51
within ten seconds, he has 20 photographers encircling him
12:52
Now there are 30
12:52
He’s a real celebrity around here!
12:52
Anyway, where was I?
12:52
Oh yes — the girl.
She fell to the ground and acted like she was dead or unconscious
After playing dead to arouse sympathy, she suddenly hopped up when everyone was looking elsewhere
12:54
Then I went to the next scheduled event: a pro-Hillary march.
12:54
About 400 rabid Hillary supporters. They were angry!
12:54
I got photos of that.
12:55
Then I followed the Giant Puppets parade for a while, and came here.
12:55
That’s it for today so far!
12:55
More later.
Ta ta from Denver...
