NunoftheAbove

DENVER — Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.
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Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

A cigar-smoking Denver police sergeant, accompanied by a team of five other officers, first put his hands on Eslocker’s neck, then twisted the producer’s arm behind him to put on handcuffs.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

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Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

Video taken at the scene shows a man, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

The sheriff’s officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later, he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

It was two hours later when Denver police arrived to place Eslocker under arrest, apparently based on a complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel, a central location for Democratic officials.

During the arrest, one of the officers can be heard saying to Eslocker, “You’re lucky I didn’t knock the f..k out of you.”

Eslocker was released late today after posting $500 bond.

Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a series of Money Trail reports on ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson.”

Eslocker’s crew is moving on the the Republican Convention to continue gathering information for the story.

Joe Scarborough goes at David Schuster while the rest of the panel try to avoid being hit by the fray.  Who said the fireworks at the convention were all outside?

Can they just not all get along?

Maybe it is the hippies last hurrah.  For those who have fond memories of the chaos wreaked at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, this year’s event is a chance to relive the days when anarchists had a real stake in the outcome of an election.

Vietnam is over, so there will be no draft cards to burn, Civil Rights are now Constitutionally protected, so there is no segregated lunch counter to occupy, and women are now full fledged citizens, so burning bras would only speed on the affect of gravity. But despite these realities, the DNC will offer a full slate of events for those who don’t need a cause to be a rebel.

For a look a the “happenings,” here is a link to the schedule.

How its all going down

With the Denver Police being instructed to avoid tickets for minor possession of marijuana, maybe this will be a kinder, gentler convention than that of 1968.  But even those who don’t attend the convention may not be immune to the shenanigans of the protesters.

Something called “Unconventional Action” is plotting to target “Democrat delegates, hotels, banks, military recruitment centers, and governmental and police offices.”

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So if you are an aging YIPPIE, a Code Pinkie, or a Move.orgre, find a VW bus or a Prius and motor on down to Denver for a real Rocky Mountain Hi.

The clip follows the nomination of Hubert Humphrey and is brought about when Chicago Police are called in to remove Alex Rosenberg, an uncredentialed New York delegate.

Forty years ago Hillary Rodham was still an undergraduate at Wellesley College, John McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton after being shot down the previous October, and Barack Obama had just turned eight and was attending elementary school in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The hot summer had brought to full force one of the most tumultuous times of political history.  Vietnam was becoming increasingly an unpopular war and although Lyndon B. Johnson had chosen not to run for re-election, many felt that his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey and presidential front runner, was equally to blame for the carnage in southeastern Asia.  The anti-war movement had been planning since March and included such groups as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Youth International Party (YIPPES), and National Mobilization Committee to End War in Vietnam.

The war was not the only stress felt by the country.  Civil rights riots had broken out in the spring following the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee.  One of King’s most visible supporters was Democratic Presidential Nominee, Bobby Kennedy, who had been killed in Los Angeles in July by a mentally ill Palestinian, Sirhan, Sirhan.The atmosphere was tender dry and lay waiting for the one spark to ignite the blaze which would forever transform the U.S. political process.

Wis. Delegate In Trouble For Backing McCain

Delegate Could Be Dumped; Said She’d Vote For McCain

POSTED: 8:43 am EDT June 27, 2008

UPDATED: 9:04 am EDT June 27, 2008

MILWAUKEE — A Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton said she hopes to fight off an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to take away her credentials because of her past statement that she would vote for John McCain if Clinton wasn’t the nominee.

“Keeping national delegate status is very important to me,” Debra Bartoshevich said Thursday. “I believe that Hillary is the better candidate of all of them.” She declined to comment on her previous comment, quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that she would vote for the Republican McCain in November if the Democratic Party nominated Barack Obama for president.

She told the newspaper she felt Clinton was being treated unfairly and she questioned Obama’s experience. She also said she had signed up with “Citizens for McCain,” encouraged by her sister, who has served in Iraq and backs the Republican.

That report came out just as Wisconsin Democrats were gathering for their state convention in Stevens Point on June 13, and the convention quickly approved a resolution to challenge Bartoshevich’s status as a delegate to the Democratic convention in Denver in August.

“It’s extremely important that we send a message that Democrats in the state of Wisconsin will never support somebody who supports John McCain for president,” state party Chairman Joe Wineke said at the time, to cheers from the hundreds of party activists.

Bartoshevich, 41, a registered nurse and mother of two from Waterford, said she got a copy Wednesday of the formal credentials challenge filed by the state party. Among other things, it said she violated party rules by expressing support for the presumptive nominee of the opposing party and failing to honor a pledge of intent to vote for the party’s presidential ticket in the fall. Bartoshevich said she is new to the process and was never provided a list of rules that she is accused of violating, although she knows she signed a declaration that she intended to vote for the Democratic candidate.

Bartoshevich said Thursday she has always voted Democratic and would be open to considering all options once the party’s nominee is selected, but no one from the state party contacted her to discuss her feelings.

Wineke did not return a phone message from The Associated Press Thursday night seeking comment.

Bartoshevich said she has 10 days to reply to the credentials challenge.