At the 1968 Democratic Convention, anti-war activists were denied permits to demonstrate by the city and spent most of the week getting their skulls cracked courtesy of the Chicago Police Department, witnessed by a television audience of over 50 million. A year later, eight of the most high profile radicals – guys like Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panthers' Bobby Seale – were tried on charges of conspiracy and inciting riots. The courtroom was a circus, with Seale gagged to silence his outbursts and ultimately sentenced to four years for contempt, while testimony from counterculture icons such as Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, Norman Mailer and Timothy Leary drew massive crowds for the National Guard to disperse. more ›

Merry Gridlock to All, via our friends at No Land Grab. more ›

- The NY Times reports that the Democratic party will decide on where the 2008 convention will be held either tomorrow or Monday. New York and Denver are the finalist cities; while Denver is attractive for its swing-state quality, NYC can guarantee better "financing, hotel rooms, entertainment space, logistical support and labor union cooperation." more ›

The NY State Democratic Convention is taking place in Buffalo today and tomorrow (the NY State Republican Convention is in Long Island on Wednesday and Thursday), and the gloves are coming off as the Democrats are looking to grab the Governor's house. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic frontrunner for the gubernatorial nomination, called the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation "an abject failure". Well, of course he would say that - didn't recently resigned LMDC chairman John Whitehead claim Spitzer had threatened him on the phone? Spitzer didn't mince any words: He called what's happening downtown an "Enron-style debacle." The LMDC said that Spitzer was continuing his vendetta against Whitehead, and Governor Pataki's spokesperson also used the word "vendetta" when criticizing Spitzer's words about a World War II veteran on Memorial Day, no less. Whitehead might be a WWII veteran, but a better question would be, what got done at Ground Zero? more ›

Peter Koechley, Staff Writer, The Onion more ›

Elsewhere, the NYPD is pretty happy that crime has been down the past week - except where there are protesters involved - noting that there were only 8 shootings on Monday and Tuesday whereas there had been 18 during the same period last year. The Mayor said:

One of the things I'm most proud of is if you take a look at the rest of the city, we've kept crime down. We're doing our job throughout all five boroughs, at the same time as we have this extra job of providing security here around Madison Square Garden.

The NY Times had special Democratic Convention section, in addition to their Campaign 2004 site. And here's the Washington Post's extensive convention site. Talking Points Memo's Joshua Micah Marshall writes how MSNBC's convention coverage site (here) has "absorbed the blogging model to something like a mind-bending degree." It's true - MSNBC has a blog, Hardblogger, (heh!) and Gothamist was shocked Chris Matthews' posts weren't in all caps or bold....an assistant must have posted 'em. more ›