Critiques of some of the protests planned for the week.
No more "Footloose" jokes, please, we're radicals.
Living in the East Village is a bitch this week.
Protest pix from various bloggers are starting to come in. (I just know I am going to eventually recognize some Upper West Side friends in these photos.)

And you thought Communists for Kerry was a parody. More here.

I can't reveal the ultra-secret Protest Warrior plans that we were instructed in at the ultra-secret PW location, but I will post after-action reports (I'm not planning to put in for any Purple Hearts, however). We also have our very own embedded reporter.

As I was enjoying a friendly discussion about peace in the Middle East at a Shabbat dinner Friday night, thousands of cyclists were blocking traffic in midtown Manhattan, and some natives were not happy about it. Also:

parks workers discovered the Van Cortlandt Golf Course in the Bronx, where a few GOP delegates were to play yesterday, had been vandalized with anti-Bush messages. "Extensive damage" was done to holes 15 through 18 and slogans were spray-painted on the grass, parks officials said. Repairs will cost $6,000.

I expect some new Bush voters from this. Some may even be registered in a swing state.

Meanwhile, two men "of Middle Eastern origin" were trying to set off a bomb in the Herald Square subway station. Fortunately, they were dumb and set off the police.

Roger is worried that Republican squareness will tarnish his Hollywood street cred, and according to Rob Long he has good reason:

Even for me, an ultra-loyal Republican, the two creepiest words in the English language are "Christian rock." . . . The lyrics always seem like regular bad music lyrics, too�"I feel your body next to mine/ And that makes my whole life shine"�but after a second or two you realize that they're singing about Jesus, not some girl named Mandy, and the whole thing just seems, well, creepy.

. . . According to the most recent RNC press release, conventioneers will be treated to country music acts such as Brooks & Dunn, Lee Ann Womack, Darryl Worley, and Donnie McClurkin. They'll be joining Michael W. Smith, Daniel Rodriguez, Daize Shayne, Sara Evans, and Dana Glover on the podium. Sounds exciting, no?

I'm aware that I'm going to sound like one of those liberal Democrat media snobs, �which is unfair, because I'm a conservative Republican media snob�but who are these people? . . . the sad truth is, the real difference between Democrats and Republicans is that their celebrities are, like, actually famous and ours are, well, singing weirdly erotic songs about Our Savior.

Christian rock cannot be creepier than the following:
Here's a photo from the vomit-in I wrote about last week.
Links to some sexually-oriented protests.

Next installment here.