Saw most of Independent Thinking with Jon Caldara interviewing Recreate68 "Lovely Leader" (as he encourages followers to call him) Glenn Spagnuolo and Denver City Council-tan Charlie Brown. Far more bleat than light, though there were a few good moments, like Spags calling the Boston Tea Party "nonviolent civil disobedience," and Charlie repeatedly pointing out that Glenn and R68 had already "worn out their welcome" with--well, basically everyone.
Glenn denied that the infamous "dangerous situation" quote was a threat, and even seemed to leave open the possibility that protesters might leave city parks by closing time (11:00 p.m.) voluntarily.
"We are committed to nonviolence," he said, but naturally then went into the "it's the city that wants violence" routine: "They want to create this conflict, they want to create this violence."
Both Caldara and Brown kept trying to get Glenn to admit he was encouraging people to break the law. After some word salad he did. That's when the Boston Tea Party (for which the punishment would have been hanging, he didn't mention) came up.
Caldara: If there's a water cannon, can I use it?
Too much fake (or, God forbid, real) chumminess among the three. Glenn gave Brown an R!68 t-shirt with "Revolution begins with 'R'" on the back and that awful R!e!cre!ate68 orangefist and "Do it in Denver!" slogan on the front.
The show will be repeated at 5 p.m. Tuesday on local PBS channel 12. If a transcript or video shows up I'll post it.
Update: Weirdly, before the show I'd just gotten home from the forum on the DNC at North High School, which Spagnuolo and a few other R68 and Tent State members also attended. It was pretty tame, with disappointingly few (as El Presidente of Slapstick Politics, who was there too, put it) "Don't tase me, bro" moments. None, in fact. Actually it was mostly a sell job. One panelist even noted the new flower planters, trees and American flags (a hundred and eight of them!) that were going to spring up downtown. We are not a cowtown.
As far as news: the Secret Service might never release a map of the actual perimeter around the Pepsi Center past which protesters won't be allowed, though the cop who said this in response to an R68er's question also said that, "in accordance with case law," protesters would be within sight and hearing of delegates; Councilman Rick Garcia seemed to hint that the city might be open to further negotiations with R68 as far protesters camping in city parks, though the city's Katherine Archuleta seemed firm that protesters would not be allowed to do so; and, in response to another R68er's question, the cops won't say what role, if any, the National Guard might play during the convention.
EP videoed at least the interesting parts of the event, and I believe he'll put up a much more thorough post in the near-to-midrange future. I'll link to it. Yes, I'm lazy.
Update: Slapstick Politics has the vids.
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