Chicago 1968 Redux And What It Means For America

Over at BT, Steven D talks about First Amendment rights and the DNC Convention opening in a week. He brings up a very good point about the Village perception of the convention in Denver however.

But seriously, with all this talk and speculation about "violence" at the Democratic Convention it does make me wonder if someone in the government (i.e., the Bush administration) or the RNC has a false flag operation set to go to disrupt the convention and give the appearance that Democrats/Liberals are dangerous, violent, irrational and anti-American. Sort of like the ads we keep seeing from the McCain camp. Just saying, there appears to be something rank and rotten emanating from all this fear mongering and speculation about massive and violent protests which will, of course, require a massive police response along the lines of Chicago in 1968 or Seattle during the WTO meeting there in 1999.

Am I crazy, or does anyone else smell a rat? It's not like our government doesn't have a history of infiltrating protest groups for the purpose of instigating violence which can than be blamed on the "Left." Or has anyone forgotten Cointelpro already? Frankly, after 8 years of vote suppression, vote stealing, corrupt political prosecutions by the DOJ, unwarranted domestic surveillance and spying on Americans on an unprecedented scale, and a host of other dirty tricks by republicans, why should we believe they will not take the opportunity to deliberately attempt to disrupt the Democratic Convention in which the the first African American nominee of either party for President is to receive his widest national exposure to date?

After all, we know the Denver cops have a converted warehouse that they plan on using as a massive detention center and that Rush Limbaugh has said on his radio show in April that "Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats" like it would be a GOOD IDEA to make sure that would happen.

Limbaugh said with massive riots in Denver, which he called part of "Operation Chaos," the people on the far left would look bad.

"There won't be riots at our convention," Limbaugh said of the Republican National Convention. "We don't riot. We don't burn our cars. We don't burn down our houses. We don't kill our children. We don't do half the things the American left does."

He believes electing Democrats will hurt America's security and economy and appeared to call on his listeners to make sure that doesn't happen.

"We do, hopefully, the right thing for the sake of this country. We're the only one in charge of our affairs. We don't farm out our defense if we elect Democrats ... and riots in Denver, at the Democratic Convention will see to it we don't elect Democrats. And that's the best damn thing that can happen to this country, as far as I can think," Limbaugh said.

And with the American people angrier than ever at the GOP, suddenly the Village is mightily concerned that the DEMOCRATIC national convention will the site of riots and tear gas. What's wrong with THAT logic?

Not to at all suggest that rioting at the Repulican National Convention is a good idea, mind you. But it makes no sense to riot in Denver unless you're trying to discredit the Dems and scare the voters. And yet the Village is expecting it to happen, and so are the Denver cops. The nutjobs on the right are hard at work trying to spread the meme that Barack Obama is so hated by his own party that a massive riot in Denver is inevitable, and every time I see that put out there, it's connected to a group called Re-Create '68.

The interesting thing is that this group is indeed protesting the convention...but is protesting it peacefully while giving a large three-day concert. And yet the right is licking their chops, saying R68 is going to burn the city down and assure McCain wins this fall.

Something's not right here. I'm sure the Bushies would love nothing better than to declare Denver under martial law for a week and make sure the convention is canceled or delayed, blame the "liberals" and assure that the GOP remains in power for another four years.

Think about what that would do. Think honestly about the third and fourth order consequences of this. Look at the chessboard and make the moves in your head.

You'd have images of riots and cops busting in heads, the right winger SCREAMING on the teevee about those dirty fucking America hating liberals and how if Obama is elected every US city over 5,000 people will burn in dirty hippie flames. The Republicans would lock the Twin Cities down for their convention fucking tanks at the Mall of America, and of course it would go off without a hitch, the media would report happily. Denver would have served as a lesson, and a brutal, brutal warning to the peaceful protesters. Of course, more "violent protesters" would be detained ahead of the convention in Minneapolis as a "safety precaution after Denver." The need for more domestic surveillance like the kind suggested yesterday would be "instantly made clear".

The ads would write themselves. For the next two months the airwaves would be filled with replays of the "Denver Riots" and the guilt welded on to every Democrat in the country as permanent baggage. The GOP would promise bold new measures to make sure "we never have another Denver."

McCain would win in a landslide. Most likely, the Democratic majority in the House and Senate would be intact, but barely. It wouldn't matter however. Republicans bring American order and safety! Democrats bring un-American hippie chaos and death! President McCain would make his first priority to announce even MORE new domestic safety measures to "prevent any more domestic terrorism like Denver" from happening again. Just like after September 11, we would do everything he asked. Anytime the Dems tried to do anything, they would be literally beaten with images of the "Denver Riots."

The RNC convention in the Twin Cities meanwhile would become the symbol for the new locked down, police state America. Even more power would be invested in the executive branch, law enforcement would have sweeping new abilities, and the "surveillance state" would become a fact of life, like it is now in the UK. We would be told before we can defeat enemies in Iran and Russia, we would have to defeat enemies in Indiana and Rhode Island. Clean, neat, orderly America!

The next target would be the internet. Once it became clear that the "Denver terrorists" were using the ordinary internet to coordinate their activities, the GOP would demand an "iPatriot Act" that would subject all electronic communication to monitoring. We would be told it was necessary to stop another Denver, and of course we would comply. The internet would get locked down, and free speech and uncontrolled information on the net would be a thing of the past. We'd make the Great Firewall Of China look like a broken Commodore 64.

Of course, the logical endpoint of all this would be where the Constitution would be suspended for terrorists, then criminals in general, and then citizens. And it all would have started in Denver.

One week from now.

How easy would it be to sell a Denver Riot to the media and the world?

It's already been done. And you know what? If the Denver Riot plan doesn't work, the GOP has Plan B.

Be prepared.