Occupy Wall Street Banned From Democratic National Convention

[glowing]

58. So how many vendors selling merchandise will this effect?

And last I remembered, the media bring in a lot of their own tents and staging outside of the event. In Denver, they had a tent dedicated to the Bloggers and media. People sold merchandise/ t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc outside of the event as well. So, it there are no tents, then what will happen to all the people who will be trying to make money off of the event? Its not like the city is going to be able to stifle the protestors on either the Occupy side or the Tea Bag side. Protests are just another part of the big show. Its amazing how scared these politicians are of Occupy. I can't even begin to imagine what the city of Tampa will be doing when the Piggies come to town? I'm feeling a sense of trepidation for my Tampa Bay area when the Piggies have their hate fest.

I'm not sure how smart they are being by putting the show on at the Convention Center, downtown Tampa? Its almost like isolating themselves on an island that can be easily shutdown in and out of the Center. AND the piggies are asking for the hotels and merchants to give them discounts and cheap rooms for downtown hotels near the Convention Center. Its amazing how cheap and stingy these assholes are. I bet they will all tip horribly bad. They are asking for small, local businesses to participate (first time ever), however, in order to participate in being a local official RNC small business, the piggies are asking for the businesses to help out with the financial costs. AND they won't allow just anyone to participate. The small businesses they will allow in will be screened and picked. I'm sure they will be right leaning businesses and will be used as PR mechanisms for the piggies to showcase their support of small, local businesses. I'm sure there will be some asinine pledge that these small businesses will be signing onto that say how much they support the Republicans and how much they need the Dems and President Obama to keep their tax rates low, their health care mandated requirements rescinded because of the financial burden upon their struggling backs, and some general narrative about Govt regulations and Govt intrusion on their small business. If Newt is the official a$$hole, then maybe they will even throw something in the pledge about getting rid of minimum wage and child labor laws (so that these "family" run businesses can allow their children to participate and work for their family business--- like that doesn't already happen to some degree anyway, depending on the type of family business.

Also... the small business title is more than a bit skewed anyway... we know that some very large corporations act under the title of small business if they organize their business model in certain manners. I think the Koch Bro's operate as a "small business". And more than a few businesses in FL actually operate as a Ltd or LLC type of company to protect their personal assets from business dealings.

Anyway, the piggies convention will be even more interesting this year by far. AND being in Tampa will be interesting logistically as a setting. I have a feeling that the Tampa tank and helicopters and probably un-manned drones will be in full force. Also, with Tampa being the host city of MacDill Air Force Base (CENT Com headquarters), the charges for any protestors arrested may be end up getting charged with terrorism.. OR just held indefinitely without any charges for being a suspected "enemy combatant". This may be the reason for the Defense Auth bill containing the ability for the US Govt to hold American Citizens as terrorist/ enemy combatants and thrown into a holding pen for the entire week without posting their arrest information for anyone to know about. The Govt could disappear the most disruptive of the protesting groups, perhaps like they did in 2008, before the actual event. Maybe the Govt will come down harder on the Democratic protesters in Charlotte, being that this time around, a Democrat holds the Presidential seat and is in "charge" of the agencies like Homeland Security, FBI, and CIA. It would be up to the Republican Gov, Republican controlled legislators, and local dingbats to come up with procedures to limit the Citizens right to protest and probably violate the 4th amendment by spying, infiltrating, disrupting, and lying about different protesting groups before they arrive at the opening dates of the convention.

I'm looking forward to the protests of the "outside" main vendor money parties. There are more than a few wealthy persons in the area. There is a private, wealthy elite island in Tampa that I'm sure they will have private events at. Its tricky. Dick Cheney was at one of these events for donation gathering back in the day. The protestors had to stay on the side walk. If they touched one blade of grass, they would be arrested for trespassing. Well, a cop pushed the crowd, and sure enough, someone towards the back lost their balance with the pushing and shoving and fell onto the lawn. Instead of the police coming over to her rescue as peace officers to make sure she was ok and not injured, they threw hand cuffs on her and took her to jail. They totally neglected her injured ankle that she had twisted when falling.

I do believe 2012 will be an interesting year. Maybe the smoke and mirrors will finally fall away and enough people around the world will demand for a free and fair world that respects one another and our home on this planet that we must share with one another and with our future generations to come. I can only pray that Occupy becomes a full-bodied movement and enlightenment period in our history books.. and that we are truly living in interesting and hopeful times.