Silicon Alley Station

View an audio-visual slide show of the Eyes Wide Open exhibition. Requires the Flash Player. Download the Flash Player here.

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

Meagan Wollman is Director of Internet Communication at the Republican National Convention. Her job is to manage the GOPconvention.com website, which had received more than 30 million hits between Monday, August 30, and when we spoke to her on Wednesday, Sept. 1. According to Meagan, the most popular items on the site are the live webcasts and video archives of the speeches. Under Meagan's leadership, this is also the first Republican National Convention to invite bloggers. We interviewed some of the bloggers here.

Listen to Meagan's comments.

On Top of the Issues in Pennsylvania


Pennsylvania State Rep. Jeff Haybay was among the delegates from Pennsylvania, an important swing state for the presidential election. Jeff has been involved in many of Pennsylvania's high technology initiatives, including those related to the pharmaceutical industry and legislation to bring the film industry back to Pennsylvania. He is also involved in higher education funding initiatives, as his nephew is a college student at Temple University in Philadelphia. Altough he is a Republican, he actually won the Democratic nomination for his seat in the Statehouse! Listen to our conversation with Jeff here.

Florida's Youngest Republican


We also spoke to University of Florida student Sherry Valera, who at 21 years of age is the youngest member of the Florida delegation, and the second-youngest delegate at the convention. Sherry is the chairwoman of Florida's College Republicans, and reports that more than 2000 college students have signed up to help re-elect President Bush in the state of Florida. See what Sherry has to say about getting out the college vote.

Wisconsin Women for W


Pat Rasmussen has held several key positions in Republican women organizations in the state of Wisconsin, and is Chairwoman of the Marathon County Republican Party. She is very interested in furthering women's economic and political equality, and believes that the Bush Administration has placed more women in key roles than any other administration. She thoroughly enjoyed her stay in the Big Apple - a place she admits that she might never have visited if it had not been for the RNC. Pat shares her thoughts with us here.

Hoping for a Sweep in Rhode Island


Martha is a veteran delgate from Rhode Island, attending her third Republican National Convention. Spurred by a desire to effect change in her state, Martha became active in Rhode Island Republican politics several years ago. Although Rhode Island is a mostly Democratic state, Martha believes that a Bush sweep, simliar to the Reagan sweep in the 1980s, is a possibility this year. Hear Martha's story.

Last 2 photos by Kyle Cassidy

This was the first Republican National Convention where bloggers received press credentials, according to Meagan Wollman, Director of Internet Communications at the RNC. (Listen to our interview with her here.) About a dozen of them were cloistered at a table on Radio Row, across from a booth where Sean Hannity made a celebrity appearance.

We spoke to Mike Krempasky and Josh Trevinio of redstate.org, a community blog with a conservative Republican bent. They spoke about blogging, how the Right needs to replicate the success that the Left has seen on the Web, the difference between "Arnold" Republicans and "Bush" Republicans, and who is on the Republican "bench" for 2008. Listen to our conversation with redstate.org.

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

During the days of the Republican National Convention, at a place called Union Square - a traditional site for protest in New York - visitors and city dwellers alike were treated to the unusual spectacle of more than 975 pairs of combat boots arranged in neat rows by the 14th Street subway station. The exhibition, Eyes Wide Open, is sponsored by American Friends Service Committee - aka the Quakers - and is designed to provoke reflection on the human costs of war.



As a background to the eerily empty rows of shoes, a reader solemnly sounds out the names of more than 1000 soldiers, journalists, contract workers and Iraqi civilians who have been killed in the War in Iraq. Listen to Quaker spokesperson Elizabeth Enloe describe the goals of the travelling exhibition.

Photos by Kyle Cassidy

Democratic Air America Radio commentator Al Franken was a fixture on Radio Row at the RNC. In addition to broadcasting his regularly scheduled shows from Madison Square Garden, he hobnobbed with the likes of Tim Russert, Sean Hannity and other media stars. He took time to give Silicon Alley Station some of his impressions of the convention, including a sharp critique of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "gurlie men" statement. He also spoke briefly about technology under a Bush vs. Kerry regime, and why the left is so much better at using the Internet to get their message out than the right. Listen to Al Franken's comments here.

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

As a former Guardian Angel, radio show host Curtis Silwa appreciated the security apparatus present at the Republican National Convention. Listen to Curtis Silwa here. He also reminded us that this is the 20th anniversary of the Internet, as invented by Al Gore. Listen to him send up Al Gore here.

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

Late at night at the convention center, we ran into New York Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel having a chat with Republican Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Rep. Rangel shared with us a few observations about the course of the Republican National Convention in New York City. Listen to what he says about the Republican National Convention here.



Rep. Rangel also shared with us his views about how the Democratic Party would further the goals of technology businesses, criticizing Republican initiatives that have made it easier to export tech jobs and high technology overseas. Listen to what Rep. Rangel has to say about Democratic vs. Republican policies for technology businesses.

Photos by Kyle Cassidy

About 200 protesters were arrested this afternoon during a protest ouside the World Trade Center site. A group of several hundred protesters gathered at ground zero to march and participate in a "Die In". The group, loosely collected under the rubric of A31's "Day of Action". As the marchers left ground zero and began to march east up Fulton Street. Police with bullhorns warned protesters that the march did not have a permit and that if they violated New York traffic laws, they could be subject to arrest, that these included crossing against a light and walking more than two abreast on the sidewalk.



After a group of about 100 had crossed Church street uniformed officers and bicycle patrolmen surrounded the group, cordoned them off with orange portable fencing and began to flex-cuff them and load them into vans and NYPD busses. A Silicon Alley reporter and photographer interviewing protesters were among those initially detained but were let go shortly afterwards. Emotions ranged from anger to bemusement as protesters alternated chants of "We are peaceful, let us disburse." and "Give the cops a raise."




Photos: Kyle Cassidy

The very personable Pat Buchanan is always willing to give a soundbite on a specific issue. We raced after him as he was wallking out of the press area, and got him to talk a little bit about President Bush vs. John Kerry on the technology industry. You can listen to our encounter with Buchanan here.

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

Zainab al-Suwaij, former citizen of Iraq, spoke during prime time on Monday night about her experience growing up in Iraq under the Saddam Hussein dictatorship. You can read a transcript of her speech here.

We ran into her on Radio Row. She spoke a bit about her feelings about the War in Iraq and the increasing role of women in Iraq.You can listen to our interview here.

Photo by Kyle Cassidy

Typically the press arrives the Saturday before the convention begins. This year New York was ready to greet them with a gala affair held at the Time Warner Center on central park.


New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks with reporters.


Former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani greets reporters.


CNN analyst Greta Van Sustren enjoys herself at the Media Welcome party.

More than 15,000 representatives of the media are expected to descend upon Madison Square Garden this week. Silicon Alley Station is the only Internet Radio broadcaster that will be attending the RNC!

(photo by Larry Aronson)

The RNC hosted a press party in the new Time-Warner Building on Saturday. Silicon Alley Executive Producer Dolly Nielsen is seen here chatting up veteran reporter Helen Thomas.

(photo by Larry Aronson)