Politics & Government

Who knew MSNBC had a funny guy?…

Charlie Rangel painted the town blue. Denver, worked into a DNC lather, can’t get enough famous people. Either that or longtime Democratic New York Representative Charlie Rangel’s blue suit was the cutting edge of fashion. Because Rangel was absolutely mobbed by reporters, photographers and all-around glad-handers on Monday around 2…

The original “We’ll Beat You Again” flier. In “Artist’s Prank Punks Re-create 68, Other Activists,” a More Messages blog published on July 10, an anonymous artist admitted to having created fliers e-mailed to Democratic National Convention groups such as Re-create 68, which threatened retribution against protesters. He shared information about…

We’re not sure exactly how using one of these trusty Planned Parenthood-issued condoms will protect you from John McCain, unless you plan on sleeping with Johnny Mac sometime soon and don’t want to catch his oldness. But it’s cool nonetheless…

You know who have no sense of humor? National Guardsmen. They were not happy at all about having their pictures taken while they were hanging out in the sun at their official staging area: the Denver campus of Johnson & Wales University…

Allen Toussaint. The New Orleans All-Star Jam-Balaya Fillmore Auditorium August 24 It was clear that the New Orleans All-Star Jam-Balaya, a fundraiser co-sponsored by the Friends of New Orleans featuring some of the biggest and best names in Louisiana music, differed from the typical live-performance event in Denver even before…

“Where the buffet at, yo?” The buzz around my hotel — aside from outrage over the $1 a minute charge to use the business center computers — is about one of the guests. Rapper Method Man of the Wu-Tang Clan was in Denver for the weekend’s Rock the Bells concert,…

The real business begins today, but photos offer a window into the weekend’s business. Here are a few slice-of-the-convention snapshots from Saturday and Sunday. “We riot police are not amused by your endorsement of that Middle Eastern hippie, ‘Jesus,’ if that is his real name.”…

It’s the 16th Street Mall, Downtown Denver Partnership style. An interesting mix of people roamed the 16th Street Mall late afternoon on Saturday. The folks who usually hang out there weren’t entirely absent, but they seemed changed somehow, spiffed up. For instance, I saw what has to be the cleanest…

Starting at Cuernavaca Park, we made the rounds through LoDo on Sunday afternoon, past the MSNBC set behind Union Station and amongst the protesters on the 16th Street Mall. Consider this slide show a sneak peek of the week ahead. — Dave Herrera…

“Wow — they look just like the cabs in the big cities.” Drove past the Pepsi Center a couple of times on Saturday to get a passing look at the DNC preparations there. The first time by, two enormous groups of police officers, clad in full riot gear, posed in…

A willingness to make an ass of yourself if key to enjoying most things in life. The American Presidential Experience, an exhibit that fills a good chunk of the parking lot at Invesco Field at Mile High, is pretty much what you’d expect — in a good way. The primary…

“Howdy folks.” As (bad) luck would have it, my son, Nick, was scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C. to begin his second year at the Catholic University of America early on Sunday morning, during the very weekend that thousands of Washingtonians were fleeing their fair city to come to Denver…

Slideshow. Gas masks, pantsuits and “Buck Fush” shirts aren’t the only fashion statements being made on the streets of Denver as the DNC ramps up this week. An army of street vendors are making sure the politically inclined but stylistically hopeless have every opportunity to embarrass their loved ones with…

Welcome to Denver! Click here to see highlights from Sunday afternoon. Between 300 and 500 self-proclaimed anarchists associated with the far-left group Unconventional Action weaved through downtown Denver for several hour this afternoon, in an unscheduled march that blocked numerous streets and intersections. It began around 2 p.m. in conjunction…

Quick question: What’s more fun than a couple thousand members of the traveling press getting tanked on free beer and then shoved on a rollercoaster? Answer: Almost anything. Yeah, I get it: This wasn’t supposed to be work. This was just supposed to be fun — a chance for the…

At about 11:15 a Denver Department of Corrections bus — the same type used last year to haul away arrested Columbus Day Parade protesters — drove by the Westword offices with a police escort. The windows were covered with mesh, but about a dozen people could be seen in the…

I thought I’d seen everything just before midnight on Friday, when suddenly there were swarms of available cabs around 15th and Platte streets. Denver is many things, but it’s never been a town where you can hail a cab…until now. On Saturday, August 23, the only thing more plentiful than…

This camera can see a lot more than the Pepsi Center. Do you ever get that funny feeling you’re being watched? Well if you’re anywhere near downtown Denver during the Democratic National Convention, you probably are. Over the past three weeks, the Denver Police Department has quietly rolled out an…

An image from a 1979 police training video viewable below. “Are you another fucking Mexican?” the Sergeant asks the recruit to the Denver Police Department. “Jesus fucking Christ, is there any white people in this class?” Westword has obtained a police-training video from 1979 that shows a group of new…

There’s really nothing to say. Just listen…

Check one two. I didn’t learn much during the Pepsi Center’s community walk-through today that I didn’t already know, but I did get a feel for just how massive an operation the Democratic National Convention and the accompanying media coverage will be. Just getting to the Pepsi Center from the…