Among the traditional protests scheduled for New York next week are these:

But not all the demonstrations will be unorthodox attention-grabbers. Among the more traditional acts of protest will be a parade of thousands of abortion-rights advocates marching across Brooklyn Bridge; the Hip-Hop summit's poor people's march to Madison Square Garden, where the convention is being held; the 5,000-strong permitless march of the poor being organised by a welfare mother from Philadelphia; and the huge demonstration planned for Sunday, which the demonstrators insist will be in Central Park and the New York Police are adamant will be on the West side highway, but which could reach a million-strong.

There will be a 1:2.4 ratio of law enforcement to civilians during the convention:

At least 20,000 security personnel, representing everyone from the Secret Service to civilian units of the Army National Guard, have been mustered. Given that the convention is expected to attract only 48,000 visitors, including delegates, lobbyists and journalists, this is the equivalent to one law-enforcement official for every 2.4 civilians.

If there is violence, it won't be tied to the Democrats:

With Kerry taking a moderate stance on the war, these demonstrations have little, if anything, to do with the Democratic party. None the less, many believe that whoever is responsible, a rash of violence so close to the election will once again benefit the Republicans.

The Republicans will spin it that way though. Don't fall for it.

The New York Times reports that there may be as many as 250,000 protesters in New York for the Republican convention. That's mind-boggling from a logistics standpoint when you consider how many of them will be traveling to NY from other cities around the country. Where will they stay? How will they get around once they arrive? Who will feed them?

True, back in 1969 or 70, when masses of college students descended on Washington to protest the Vietnam war, we never thought about that stuff. I remember getting in a car with some students I didn't even know, having found them through a bulletin board of some kind, driving a few days from Ann Arbor, MI to Washington, and once there, sleeping in a kind of gymnasium, and having one of the best weekends ever. I marched, I met what seemed like a million sympatico souls, and it was an experience that probably contributed in large measure to my continued activism as an adult --and to my passing activism on to my child as a positive value.

Decades later, it's a little different. I've tried to think back to the Washington march days to remember whether any of us showered between leaving Ann Arbor and arriving back there days later. For the life of me, I just can't remember. I guess it wasn't an issue then. Now, it would be a big issue and I can't help but wonder, where will 250,000 visiting protesters to New York sleep, eat, cleanse and regroup when their energy sags and their funds are depleted? New York City is not Woodstock. The atmosphere will not be "We are all one." And camping out under the stars in Central Park is unlikely to be an option with New York's finest.

What do you make of this? President Bush will come to New York next week to make his speech Thursday night. But he won't be staying overnight.

But now it turns out that Mr. Bush may not spend a single night in the city that helped transform his presidency. At this point, the unofficial plan is for him to arrive in Manhattan sometime on Thursday, Sept. 2, the final day of the four-day convention, deliver his acceptance speech that night, then leave immediately for Pennsylvania. Campaign officials say that the schedule could still change, and that Mr. Bush may have a brief New York sleepover in the end. But either way, the incumbent president has no plans to visit ground zero, or to hang around in his room at the Waldorf-Astoria for days watching the party on television.

Not that he'll be missed, but still....if I were a Republican delegate, I'd be insulted.

It's enough to make you dizzy, but it has everything from where to find the best bathrooms to where the action is, courtesy of Theoria at Daily Kos.

Update: Skippy has some more tips for New York bound bloggers, inlcuding IndyMediaNyc, with almost one-stop shopping for protest news and activities.

Reading about Bush's plans for the convention in Sunday's New York Times, it was hard not to gag.

And after months in which Mr. Bush stressed issues of concern to conservative supporters - from restrictions on stem cell research to a constitutional amendment to bar gay marriage - the convention will offer its national television audience a decidedly more moderate face for the president and his party. If "strength" was the leitmotif of the Democratic convention in Boston, "compassion" will be the theme in New York, marking the return of a mainstay of Mr. Bush's 2000 campaign, party leaders said.

Bush and compassion. Go together like a horse and carriage, no?

How about his strategy for dealing with the protesters:

Drug Policy Alliance is working on placing a series of ads titled "The RIGHT Response to the War on Drugs" in the New York Sun and Roll Call during the Republican Convention, with quotes like:

"...I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years or so you saw the conservative coalition come out for an end to drug prohibition." -- Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform

"Can any policy, however high-minded, be moral if it leads to widespread corruption, imprisons so many, has so racist an effect, destroys our inner cities, wreaks havoc on misguided and vulnerable individuals and brings death and destruction to foreign countries?" -- Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize Winner (Economic Science, 1976), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1988)

If you're one of the conservative commenters on TalkLeft, go on over and read the reasons conservatives should be opposed to the drug war. In a nutshell, the drug war amounts to unwanted government intrusion, has too high a price tag and is disasterous foreign policy.

[link via Drug War Rant.]

The news has been filled with articles about the FBI expecting violence from protesters at the Republican convention in New York next week. The New York Times reports on the anarchists--and on the tactics police will use to try and prevent violence.

Even anarchists who are against violence are warning of trouble and admit that they are planning acts of civil disobedience, including blocking intersections, staging "chaos on Broadway'' when the delegates attend Broadway shows on Sunday night, holding a "die-in'' near Madison Square Garden, sneaking into parties and other functions and generally harassing the 4,853 delegates and alternate delegates.

What do the anarchists believe in?

Definitions vary but most see anti-capitalism as the bedrock of their ideology. They question and disdain authority and hierarchal government as corrupting and intrusive in personal affairs. "Neither slave nor master'' is a common slogan. Some are zealots; others see anarchism as a way to raise awareness of problems like hunger, greed and materialism.

Say Hello to the new RNC blogger aggregator where you can read the posts of the bloggers covering the Republican Convention and protests by blogging live from The Tank.

Also bookmark Cosmopolity, which has the latest info on the Tank bloggers and events. TalkLeft is going to blog from The Tank along with the other anti-Bush oriented bloggers.

The real story for TalkLeft will be the action in the streets--the protesters, the security, the riot police and their attitudes. I'll have my digital camera, tape recorder , ipod and laptop. I have recruited two volunteers so far to capture the images on the streets, so TalkLeft can upload and bring them to you as they are happening.

Do I need help to do this? Yes, it's not cheap to spend a week in New York City.... If you're in a position to assist, you can do so via

• PayPal.

If you'd like to donate anonymously, use

• Amazon.

Both are secure. Many, many thanks. So, why blog from the streets?

Ted Rall writes a very funny article about New Yorkers' reactions to the Republican invasion of their city next week--and their intended plans to ensure the delegates get lost as much as possible:

Rejecting ex-mayor Ed Koch's call to "make nice" with the party that used the deaths of 2,801 New Yorkers--most of them Democrats--for everything from tax cuts for the rich to building concentration camps at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib to invading Iraq to enrich Dick Cheney and his fellow Halliburton execs, some groups are encouraging liberal-minded New Yorkers to volunteer for the city's squad of official greeters.

Creatively altered maps of streets and subways will be handed out to button-clad stupid white men. Other saboteurs wearing fake RNC T-shirts will direct them to parts of town where Bush's policies have hit hardest. Rumor has it that prostitutes suffering from sexually transmitted diseases will discourage the use of condoms with Republican customers.

Given that New York City is so predominantly Democratic, you have to wonder why the Republicans chose it in the first place for their convention. The last time the Repubs convened in New York was 150 years ago. Here's the explanation:

As the Republican Convention in New York approaches, so does worry over the planned protests. Liberals, TalkLeft included, hope the protesters avoid violence. It will only help Bush. Altercation reprints this normally subscription-only article in The Nation by Todd Gitlin and John Passacantando that explains why violent protests will hurt the Democrats' chances of success:

The Bush Administration plainly flunks. The Bloomberg administration has proved its small-mindedness. But we who oppose Bush face our own tests. If, as the whole world watches, rioters hijack the protest, the fine intentions of millions will have been canceled by the behavior of a few. Let dissent with dignity win the day and let us get on with a more perfect chapter of American history.

Liberal bloggers will be plentiful in New York during the convention, providing coverage of the protesters. I'm hoping it won't turn into a re-run of Chicago, 1968. But I also want to make sure the media doesn't over-emphasize a few bad apples and ignore the mostly peaceful protestors. That's reason enough to go.

Check out the official New York Convention page--welcoming peaceful protesters. There's even a list of planned protests and anti-Republican parties and performances. [links via e-mail from KBand.] The message to protesters, according to the Washington Post, is shop 'til you drop.

Noah Shachtman at Wired News and Defense Tech reports on plans by activists to hack Republican websites during the convention:

So it's no surprise that hardened electronic activists are planning to jam up the servers of georgewbush.com, rnc.org, and related websites, once the Republican National Convention gets underway on August 29. "We want to bombard (the Republican sites) with so much traffic that nobody can get in," said CrimethInc, a member of the so-called Black Hat Hackers Bloc.

The Black Hat Hackers Bloc is hoping to cause a whole lot more trouble when the Republicans start to gather in New York. The groups will be targeting not only GOP computers, but "e-mail, faxes and phones, too," CrimethInc said, as well as unspecified "financial disruption."

The New York Times today has a lengthy article on the FBI's recent visits to those they think may be political troublemakers at the Republican Convention. The story first surfaced in the Rocky Mountain News at the time of the Democratic Convention. We wrote about it here.

The FBI says they are just calling on those they think may be involved in criminal acts, not those who just might want to express dissent. Several of those who received the lawmen's visits disagree. From today's NY Times article:

"The message I took from it," said Sarah Bardwell, 21, an intern at a Denver antiwar group who was visited by six investigators a few weeks ago, "was that they were trying to intimidate us into not going to any protests and to let us know that, 'hey, we're watching you.' ''

Who's behind this new intrusion? According to the New York Times, which has obtained documents, it's the Department of Justice: