The "silly" season or week has started

Well its Monday and now its a contest between the protestors and the Republican Convention to see who will get their message across.

One question though. If the anti-Bush protestors value the 1st Amendment (well the free speech part anyway), why are they so determined to prevent the Republicans from meeting and speaking? I don't seem to remember lots of conservatives protesting the Democratic Convention last month, maybe I missed it.

Shawn Macomber at The American Spectator has a nice write up on the protests from a first person viewpoint (his) and a question.

The catch phrase of the day was, "Dissent is Patriotic." I saw not a hint
of irony on the faces of the mob as they demanded, for hours on end,
"Republicans go home!" and "GOP scum, leave our city!

"Let's think about this for a moment: There are 5,000 Republican delegates in town for the convention. Protest organizers predict the final count will be somewhere around 250,000 and I've no reason to doubt the figure. So protesters will outnumber delegates 50 to one.

At what point exactly, I asked several members of the Question Authority
Brigade, is one group far enough in the minority that they become, well,
dissenters? Sputtering, uncomprehending rage was all I got in response.

Its going to be an interesting week.