Shadow Conventions 2012: HuffPost Live Previews Alternative Convention Coverage

HuffPost Live Previews Shadow Conventions 2012

HuffPost Live president Roy Sekoff sat down with host Jacob Soboroff to chat about the Shadow Conventions -- HuffPost's sitewide initiative to spotlight three issues that neither the Republicans nor Democrats will be talking about in Tampa or Charlotte. During the RNC and DNC, The Huffington Post and HuffPost Live will be devoting one day to the following issues: the War on Drugs (8/28 & 9/4), Poverty in America (8/29 & 9/5) and Money in Politics (8/30 & 9/6). In addition to section-specific original stories around each topic on the HuffPost website, HuffPost Live will feature four original hours each day from 12-4pm ET on the drug war, poverty, and the corrupting influence of money on U.S. politics.

A group of community members joined Roy and Jacob to weigh in on the topics that will be discussed at the Shadow Conventions. Political activist Rowaida Abdelaziz said of the "deafening silence" on the Drug War, "It says failure to me. When neither party wants to say anything it's because we don't have a solution." And commenter westward1 added, "We are fighting three wars in this country. The drug war could be argued to have had the greatest costs."

The original Shadow Conventions date back to 2000 when Arianna Huffington and others went to the locations of the national conventions, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and discussed the same topics. As Roy told Mashable earlier this week, "When we thought about how Huffington Post would be dealing with the Shadow Conventions now, my first thought was 'If we were going to do them again, wouldn’t we do them virtually?'" As Jacob points out, in the 12 years since the first Shadow Conventions, with regard to drugs, poverty and money in politics, "things have only gotten worse."

The Shadow Conventions kick off Tuesday morning on HuffPost and at 12pm ET on HuffPost Live. WATCH FULL SEGMENT BELOW.

Watch HuffPost Live's coverage on the War on Drugs on Tuesday 8/28 & 9/4, from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to join the conversation.

Watch HuffPost Live's coverage on Poverty in America on Wednesday 8/29 & 9/5, from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to join the conversation.

Watch HuffPost Live's coverage on Money in Politics on Wednesday 8/30 & 9/6, from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to join the conversation.

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