“Stop misleading the country you a—holes” screamed a young, sweaty, lanky, long-haired protestor Sunday outside Denver’s Pepsi Center. “Where you from” I asked?“F--- off” he said.Welcome to the 2008 Democratic National Convention!
The protestor was yelling at police officers and reporters during a demonstration Sunday that shut down the main entrance to the Democrats’ (Use your best Ed Sullivan voice if you are over 30 and get the cultural reference) “really big show.” They were protesting the war in Iraq, U.S. immigration policy, free trade, U.S. labor laws, and I am sure somewhere in the crowd someone was protesting the nomination of Britney Spears “Piece of Me” video for MTV’s video of the year award.We really do live in troubled times!Not that this 20-something who reeked of patchouli oil, (for the record I haven’t smelled this much patchouli oil in one location since I covered a Grateful Dead concert in the 1990s at Deer Creek outside Indianapolis), represented the majority of protestors.They were mostly sincere citizens who want the issues important to them addressed by the Democrats when the gavel falls Monday to open their 45th quadrennial convention, and by convention I mean blow out party!Of course they will address real issues at this convention and that’s important to Denver Citizen David Hite.
He was stuck outside the Pepsi center during that protest and told me that protesting is “everyone’s right and this is healthy.”He is far less worried about our country’s future than the protestors who David stopped to watch during a bike ride with his friend Sherry Richardson.“I was excited about JFK and still get excited about the future.I am cautiously optimistic” he told me. This from a guy who describes himself as a moderate liberal.“Just fascinating,” said Sherry. “I am always proud of Denver but the protestors make me nervous.”
Not Charlene Fernandez. She’s a superdelegate from Yuma, Ariz., I met during the protest, and by protest I mean disorganized beatnik bash.“I worry about the middle class,” Charlene told me.For her the economy is front and center at this convention, and she’s not alone.A Fox News poll found 43% of the people surveyed list the economy and jobs as their number one concern.Just 11% list Iraq as their number one issue.(Message to protestors: You may get more mileage with the Britney Spears thing, OK?.I’m just saying.) Charlene and others worried about the economy will get a healthy dose this week of what the Democrats believe is wrong with American Capitalism, and by wrong the Democrats mean bash President Bush and the Republicans at every possible opportunity.
But Charlene and I suspect most Americans don’t want any more bashing (unless it involves free beer and booze which conventions have plenty of) and instead want solutions.Like what to do about housing and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a multi-trillion-dollar time bomb that politicians from both parties helped create.On Tuesday, the Democrats have declared their theme “Renewing America’s Promise.”Barack Obama is making a lot of promises these days.Some include raising taxes on people who earn more than 250 thousand dollars a year. People called “the rich.”He is also promising to raise the capital gains tax on anyone who cashes in an investment, not just “the rich.” Hello middle class are you paying attention? That means the stocks and mutual funds you invested in to help pay for your kids college education will be taxed at a higher rate which means less money available for Jonny or Susie to pay for a college education, and by college education I mean midnight beer bashes with their friends at campus bars.
Analysts predict Obama’s overall plan will add about three trillion dollars to the national debt! The debt today is about nine trillion.Obama’s advisors say that’s rubbish; their plan will balance out and for the record the analysts predict John McCain’s plan will add about five trillion to the national debt!I don’t see anyone protesting either candidates plan to burden us all with more debt.Not even Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile who while rushing away from that protest told me, “This is an extraordinary political season. We will make history.”
But will the Democrats make sense?Will the 2008 Democratic National Convention layout a plan for America that people like Charlene and Dave will embrace? Will the protestors hear in that plan the kind of agenda that will convince them to stop protesting or at the very least keep MTV from awarding another honor to Britney Spears?And will someone please ban patchouli oil? That 20 something protestor who told me to f--- off really smelled bad.Welcome to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
This is one of the worst articles I have ever read in my entire life. The people protesting the DNC are the same people that protest the RNC, the Bilderberg group, the CFR and so on. You, Mr. Shapiro, are nothing more than a tool for the New World Order, you can't deny that when Rupert Murdoch signs your check. Humanity is slowly waking up to the injustices that your propaganda ignores. You make me sick, because you are SICK with EVIL.
WOW!, I always knew you had to be pretty stupid to be a democrat. But to not even understand tongue in cheek laughing opinion piece. Oh well what do expect from the pary that has murder in their national platform.
Your right "FrankBlack, Agendas that have no care for humanity and in fact will prop up regimes that torture and kill their own citizens by means of state terror. I refer you to the US Governments role in places like El Salvador and Guatemala. My advice, tune out and stop letting this entity control your mind........ Venezuela,Cuba,China all the other commie states the American left love to honor and wishes to emulate.
Thanks again looney left for letting me know that even the braindead have a place in American political discourse.
Rob
And now the answer to the final questions asked above: No, only rhetoric. Nothing will change for the better. As Bill Clinton once quipped, "...its a virtual presidency" alas so it is.
Howabout instead of poking fun and passing generalizations about people based on their appearance and perceived unimportance, you do some investigating into why they are there and the issues that are important to them. Although I suppose you're not able to write articles that might go against the capitalist and corporate foundation and ideals of the paper you work for...
More unbiased information, less crap!!!
I found the comment regarding students of middle class background wasting their parents' patronage in bars instead of classrooms to be particularly unnecessary and downright rude. Do you really have so much contempt for the middle class? Should we all just sign on to serve cappuccinos at Starbucks to snotty reporters like yourself rather than waste our parents' hard-earned cash in midnight beer bashes? Or did you actually mean that you spent so much of your own college time in beer bashes that you took no notice of the hard-working majority of students who go on to be successful scientists, doctors, engineers, politicians, and teachers?
Furthermore, since when did it become acceptable to put quotation marks around the word rich when it comes into conjunction with '$250,000 a year' salaries? My mother, who works three jobs as a social worker, helping army veterans deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and earning about $35,000 a year would no doubt love to hear all about the troubles facing individuals making more than seven times what she makes--usually at a single, well-paying job. No doubt when Obama's small return to progressive tax policy comes about, those families may have to forgo gifting their daughter with a car on her sixteenth birthday, or perhaps forgo a Caribbean cruise or two.
Perhaps the Patchouli stink you blather on about does serve a useful purpose--to ward off smarmy fellows such as yourself. If you do choose to brave the odorous protesters, though, feel free to enjoy the Democrats' party. The fractious pity party going on among the Republicans is not likely to top it.
FOX News, mouthpiece for the radical right. It is pleasing to note that the worst deprecation (or in Fox's case, perhaps "defecation" is a more apt description of FOX news content) was that one of the protesters reeked of patchouli. As the foremost advocates after Rush Limbaugh of poorly written, nazified notation, you should be very pleased with yourselves. I can almost here the remaining conservatives (called more correctly "Nazis" in my youth) purring as they lick the grime and filth off their forked tails.
FOX News, get a clue. The days of King George tearing up the Constitution and the funneling of millions of tax payer dollars into spurious conflicts that seem to benefit no one other than that 1% of horders at the top of the money pile is about to end. I hope that you are all ready for this. And by ready, I mean I hope you all have sturdy enough chairs and strong enough ropes to hang yourselves in distress when you lose the country you have treated as a personal fiefdom since the Regan years.
When Regan started his absurd "trickle down" nonesense, I predicted this elimination of human rights in America. So far, no Republicans have disappointed me. I admit, however, to looking forward to Republican tears in a few short months. Your "maverick" McCain has become just another cog in your machine of hate and selfish money grabbing disenfranchisement of average Americans from coast to coast. Good work FOX! Keep pitching. Maybe something will happen to turn things around...NOT!
I wish journalist would ignore the career protesters that jump at any chance of attention.
I bet they secretly hope Obama loses because the idea of protesting a black man would confuse them into a even dizzier stupor.
It's easy for them to callously compare Bush to a absolute monster like Hitler, but they live and breathe political correctness and are frightened they will be silenced by the chance of looking racist.
The only thing patchouli is good for is so that blind people can hate the hippies too.
For a better understanding of how FOX works and why all the protestors of agendas that benefit the few over the many are described as essentially smelly, crazed, outcasts, I refer you to Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent. Although written over 20 years ago before the unfortunate rise of entities like FOX which bring new meaning to the word propaganda, you can see the same play book being used now as then in shaping the publics opinion toward a particular agenda. An agenda, I might add once again, that benefits not one person in this country or elsewhere and only benefits a few who want power and control completely in their hands. Agendas that have no care for humanity and in fact will prop up regimes that torture and kill their own citizens by means of state terror. I refer you to the US Governments role in places like El Salvador and Guatemala. My advice, tune out and stop letting this entity control your mind.
You are incorrect. Obama's tax plan maintains current capital gains rates for families earning under 250K.
Wondering if that was an honest mistake, or an intentional misrepresentation, as Fox is so prone to do.
Awful article. Who is this Adam Shapiro guy? Thin skin if you ask me. Way to characterize the convention even before it starts. Typical FOX... totally fatigued by your "coverage". I've voted for Republicans in the past (specifically Dave Durenburger for U.S. Senate and Arne Carlson for MN governor) but I am voting the Democratic presidential ticket this year. Nuff said.
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Jim
This is one of the worst articles I have ever read in my entire life. The people protesting the DNC are the same people that protest the RNC, the Bilderberg group, the CFR and so on. You, Mr. Shapiro, are nothing more than a tool for the New World Order, you can't deny that when Rupert Murdoch signs your check. Humanity is slowly waking up to the injustices that your propaganda ignores. You make me sick, because you are SICK with EVIL.
Sean
who is this guy? and what's his point? Lay off the weed, dude...
Rob
WOW!, I always knew you had to be pretty stupid to be a democrat. But to not even understand tongue in cheek laughing opinion piece. Oh well what do expect from the pary that has murder in their national platform. Your right "FrankBlack, Agendas that have no care for humanity and in fact will prop up regimes that torture and kill their own citizens by means of state terror. I refer you to the US Governments role in places like El Salvador and Guatemala. My advice, tune out and stop letting this entity control your mind........ Venezuela,Cuba,China all the other commie states the American left love to honor and wishes to emulate. Thanks again looney left for letting me know that even the braindead have a place in American political discourse. Rob
Veritas Vincit
And now the answer to the final questions asked above: No, only rhetoric. Nothing will change for the better. As Bill Clinton once quipped, "...its a virtual presidency" alas so it is.
Martin
Howabout instead of poking fun and passing generalizations about people based on their appearance and perceived unimportance, you do some investigating into why they are there and the issues that are important to them. Although I suppose you're not able to write articles that might go against the capitalist and corporate foundation and ideals of the paper you work for... More unbiased information, less crap!!!
Bruce Brenneise
I found the comment regarding students of middle class background wasting their parents' patronage in bars instead of classrooms to be particularly unnecessary and downright rude. Do you really have so much contempt for the middle class? Should we all just sign on to serve cappuccinos at Starbucks to snotty reporters like yourself rather than waste our parents' hard-earned cash in midnight beer bashes? Or did you actually mean that you spent so much of your own college time in beer bashes that you took no notice of the hard-working majority of students who go on to be successful scientists, doctors, engineers, politicians, and teachers? Furthermore, since when did it become acceptable to put quotation marks around the word rich when it comes into conjunction with '$250,000 a year' salaries? My mother, who works three jobs as a social worker, helping army veterans deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and earning about $35,000 a year would no doubt love to hear all about the troubles facing individuals making more than seven times what she makes--usually at a single, well-paying job. No doubt when Obama's small return to progressive tax policy comes about, those families may have to forgo gifting their daughter with a car on her sixteenth birthday, or perhaps forgo a Caribbean cruise or two. Perhaps the Patchouli stink you blather on about does serve a useful purpose--to ward off smarmy fellows such as yourself. If you do choose to brave the odorous protesters, though, feel free to enjoy the Democrats' party. The fractious pity party going on among the Republicans is not likely to top it.
Randy Novick
Thank you for this insightful opinion piece.
Gordon Illan
Fox News somehow manages to capture something negative about anything democratic. Fair and balanced? My foot.
Robyn Robertson
FOX News, mouthpiece for the radical right. It is pleasing to note that the worst deprecation (or in Fox's case, perhaps "defecation" is a more apt description of FOX news content) was that one of the protesters reeked of patchouli. As the foremost advocates after Rush Limbaugh of poorly written, nazified notation, you should be very pleased with yourselves. I can almost here the remaining conservatives (called more correctly "Nazis" in my youth) purring as they lick the grime and filth off their forked tails. FOX News, get a clue. The days of King George tearing up the Constitution and the funneling of millions of tax payer dollars into spurious conflicts that seem to benefit no one other than that 1% of horders at the top of the money pile is about to end. I hope that you are all ready for this. And by ready, I mean I hope you all have sturdy enough chairs and strong enough ropes to hang yourselves in distress when you lose the country you have treated as a personal fiefdom since the Regan years. When Regan started his absurd "trickle down" nonesense, I predicted this elimination of human rights in America. So far, no Republicans have disappointed me. I admit, however, to looking forward to Republican tears in a few short months. Your "maverick" McCain has become just another cog in your machine of hate and selfish money grabbing disenfranchisement of average Americans from coast to coast. Good work FOX! Keep pitching. Maybe something will happen to turn things around...NOT!
darkwolf
Ban Patchouli? Against Britney Spears ? You'all must be for G W Bush, the insane one..and once again F---off!
jumbo
I wish journalist would ignore the career protesters that jump at any chance of attention. I bet they secretly hope Obama loses because the idea of protesting a black man would confuse them into a even dizzier stupor. It's easy for them to callously compare Bush to a absolute monster like Hitler, but they live and breathe political correctness and are frightened they will be silenced by the chance of looking racist. The only thing patchouli is good for is so that blind people can hate the hippies too.
Colin
Wow. You have some real difficulty writing even editorial prose. Nice exclamation points. I'm glad google news dug this article to the top.
RedPoppie
Very productive. Buncha dope smokers.
Westexacan
You can always depend on Fox news to quickly report any negative news about the Democrats.
RedPoppie
Very productive. Buncha dope smokers.........
FrankBlack
For a better understanding of how FOX works and why all the protestors of agendas that benefit the few over the many are described as essentially smelly, crazed, outcasts, I refer you to Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent. Although written over 20 years ago before the unfortunate rise of entities like FOX which bring new meaning to the word propaganda, you can see the same play book being used now as then in shaping the publics opinion toward a particular agenda. An agenda, I might add once again, that benefits not one person in this country or elsewhere and only benefits a few who want power and control completely in their hands. Agendas that have no care for humanity and in fact will prop up regimes that torture and kill their own citizens by means of state terror. I refer you to the US Governments role in places like El Salvador and Guatemala. My advice, tune out and stop letting this entity control your mind.
Ed
You are incorrect. Obama's tax plan maintains current capital gains rates for families earning under 250K. Wondering if that was an honest mistake, or an intentional misrepresentation, as Fox is so prone to do.
KristianJL
Awful article. Who is this Adam Shapiro guy? Thin skin if you ask me. Way to characterize the convention even before it starts. Typical FOX... totally fatigued by your "coverage". I've voted for Republicans in the past (specifically Dave Durenburger for U.S. Senate and Arne Carlson for MN governor) but I am voting the Democratic presidential ticket this year. Nuff said.