Posted on 05/22/2004 5:46:23 AM PDT by BobbyGood
So...Kerry was intending to accept the nomination at the convention before he decided not to accept it. Sounds right.
Or how much they inconvenience others. Now if it were one of THEM stuck in that nightmare, heads would roll, apologies would be demanded and probably court cases would ensue. Of course, some would follow the example of Hillary and just run down anybody in their way.
That's brilliant. (I see Hillary left home without her makeup on...)
Did you do that yourself, or would you like to tell us who did?
Cheers,
KJ
I'll go out onto a limb here, but I think the 2004 conventions, both Democratic and Republican, are the _last_ conventions that will be held in crowded city centers.
For reasons of "security", the disruptions are going to be so overwhelming that they will become the news story in and of itself that threatens to overshadow the goings-on inside.
In Boston, they're going to close miles of streets, and completely shut down a major rail station (North Station). Just how are the thousands who use the station daily in their commutes going to get to and from work?
If anything, the Republican convention in New York is going to be _worse_, because Penn Station (which sits directly underneath Madison Square Garden) is (with Grand Central) perhaps the busiest railroad station in America. Tens and tens of thousands of commuters use it daily, from both Long Island (Long Island Rail Road) and New Jersey (NJ Rail) to get into the city, with _no_ other reasonable alternatives possible. In addition, Amtrak's Northeast Corridor routes through Penn, with trains coming from Albany, Boston, Springfield, and Washington D.C.
New York City officials are already at loggerheads with the Republicans about how security is going to be conducted there. New York's mayor so far has insisted that it will be "business as usual" for the entire convention, although there is talk the Secret Service will demand that Penn be closed for the time that George W. Bush is addressing the convention. RNC security people, on the other hand, spoke of creating a "secure zone" for _blocks_ around Penn. Better call out the Army for that one.
There is no way - let me repeat that for emphasis - NO WAY - that you can do a full-scale security check on everyone entering or leaving Penn Station at the height of the rush hour. By "full-scale" I mean scanning through a metal detector, then perhaps a "wand check" if needed. Or, consider the new "sniffing" devices that the Department of Transportation is experimenting with at the New Carrolton Amtrak station. It takes about a minute to process an individual through one of these scanners (and that doesn't include metal detection, to my knowledge). One minute per passenger, at least.
A typical NJ Rail train may have ten cars with seats for 100 in each car. That's easily 1,000 passengers, not counting standees. At one minute per passenger, that's 1,000 minutes of "scanning time". Hmmmm... how many hours is that? BUT - you've got to get this train loaded in about 10 minutes, because as soon as it pulls out, ANOTHER train is rolling in to swallow 700-1,000 _more_ commuters. And that's just on one platform.
Penn Station has 21 tracks, and during rush hour, trains are backed up in the tunnels, just waiting to get track space (how do I know? I _run_ them in and out of there).
And the Republican security people are talking about _closing_ the place?
If issues of security have become so sensitive that corresponding "walls of safety" must extend for significant distances around convention proceedings, then the time has been reached when they have become too "safety-sensitive" to hold them in major urban centers. Instead, future conventions will have to be held in more remote locations where there is less impact on those "of the rest of us" who have to live and work in those areas.
For example, Boston has the Bayside convention center down in South Boston which arguably would be a much better choice, or even the World Trade Center. Either of these locations would have been superior from a security standpoint, yet still be close enough to downtown for conventioneers.
In New York, the Jacob Javits center (which is only walking distance from Penn Station) would have been a better choice. It is relatively "isolated" from the core of the city, and could be much more easily protected.
But - at a time of war, and where acts of terror are a concern (and quite possibly a real threat) - to locate one of the year's most sensitive political events, at which the President must be protected, _directly_ above the nation's busiest rail station is as ill-advised a decision as the Republican party leaders could make.
I submit that if Osama bin Laden successfully disrupted the normal everday business of North Station and Penn Station for a full week, that would be called _terrorism_. But the Democrats and Republicans are going to do it, and that's just politics.
This is going to improve the party's standing _in_ New York? This is a joke, right?
Cheers!
- John
All hail She Who Must Be Oyveyyed.
All I can say is, your nightmares must be a horrible place to inhabit... *grin*
Once again, great work. If I was on my own computer right now, I'd save that.
My gosh why would they be afraid of a terrorist attack? If they did that they would wipe out their most ardent supporters.
But there is still this nagging feeling that with the movement for Anyone But Bush …
Hmmm, somehow I thought that grasping claw would be around another part of his anatomy.
Any betting that, to national news media, the story of NYC disruptions caused by the EEEEVIL Republicans will be much bigger than the story of the trivial, easily accepted, minor inconveniences caused by the Dems in Boston? (I live in Boston; the whole Dem convention promises to be a truly royal screw-up.)
haha !
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