No Columbus Day protests?

Are Columbus Day protesters burned out after the DNC?For Denver, the annual Columbus Day Parade and accompanying protests, arrests and ear-splitting rhetoric is a seasonal rite as familiar as the changing of the leaves. By this point in October, the anti-Columbus Day groups have held press conferences, hung posters and announced events several months in the planning. But in the wake of the Democratic National Convention, there's been silence from the usual suspects.

The websites for the Transform Columbus Day Alliance and the Colorado American Indian Movement haven't been updated in months and still feature fliers created before the 2007 parade, which marked the hundredth anniversary of Colorado becoming the first state in the country of creating a day to honor Columbus and resulted in protesters arrested during parade-stalling clashes. No luck either at the reliably radical www.TryWorks.org, where blogger Benjamin Whitmer, a University of Colorado instructor and Ward Churchill supporter, recently shut down operations (for more, go to blogs.westword.com/latestword).Comment:  Finally! With only two days to go, an explanation for the lack of Columbus controversies this year.

For some of last year's controversies, see Columbus Intimidates Indians? and "Indians Scare Me, Mommy."