How Bad Will the GOP Convention Get?

Several articles talking to people who always speak under the condition of anonymity say the GOP will end up ruing the day they chose New York City as the site of the GOP nominating convention at the end of August, set so that Bush and Company could take advantage of the approaching third anniversary of 9/11.

Some liken the possibilities to the chaos and violence of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. That seems a bit wild to me, given the fact that any peace demonstrations I've been involved in have been just that: peaceful. My partner, however, attended the 2/15/03 anti-war march in NYC and said the violence and bad attitude was limited to some of the police.

I do rather hope to attend the marches and demonstrations in New York City just because they (the GOP) chose New York. They've done everything possible to profit politically and economically from the awful events of 9/11, and I especially resent them trying to claim Ground Zero as their own, given what we've learned about lies about pollution, cleanup, the deteriorating health of the firefighters and Ground Zero workers, and the way in which Bush did everything possible to avoid any questions about how 9/11 happened.

But the only violence and bad behavior I expect is from people like Tom DeLay and a record number of police officers (10,000 put on for each shift) who don't want a single dissenting voice to spoil the party atmosphere of the fat cat Republicans.