I've picked the perfect time to start a mouthy anti-authoritarian blog didn't I? In discussion with friends over the events at the RNC and the near total corporate media blackout on the crackdown on journalists is chilling. It's a wakeup call, regardless of the finer points of anarchist rhetoric or social structure, I know what side I'm on after this. It's frankly a little scary. All this repression I've blogged on and seen through indymedia has had a radicalizing effect on me and I imagine many others. The cops know how to deal with protests and they don't care whether you're a national celebrity, a black hooded window breaker, or a peacenik with a sign. Stand up and they'll fuck you up. Here's the real tough question: Is mass protest, while an important tool, the only tool the resistance to this creeping fascist state can use or should be using? Does organizing ourselves into masses to be pepper sprayed every four years just put a big target on us? Instead of trying to street fight the Secret Service, Nat'l Guard, and every cop in Minnesota, would nationwide smaller actions be more effective and harder to crack down on? This is a tactical question that I'm sure has been asked before and in no means should be interpreted as a referendum on the bravery of those willing to put their asses in front of a line of mean riot cops. It's showed me just how indiscriminate police reaction to political dissent is. What if we get caught, someone asked me once...My friend, i think quoting from another source, retorted, "Motherfucker, you already caught, better figure out whatcha gonna do if you get free."

Tough Times in the U.S. of A. How are we gonna get free?

A couple of Mark Twain quotes and a song to take us out...

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either."

-Mark Twain, on Freedom

"As an active privilege, it ranks with the privilege of committing murder; we may exercise it if we are willing to take the consequences."

-Mark Twain, on Freedom of Speech

Big ups to the Stimulator, looking forward to your next projects, you've done us a favor...

Martin V.

Here's what Amy had to say about what happened in her own words:

When I was in Denver I found out that the two convention cities were given a 50 million dollar grant from homeland security for police at the conventions. The protests were minor in Denver compared to what we've seen in Minniapolis/St.Paul The police presence was very high in both cities. There was a feeling of intimidation that you could get "swept up" in mass arrests just by being in the general area of the protests. From what I am hearing now, some of those arrested have been given felony charges. These are not terrorists. These are fellow Americans exercising their constitutional right to assemble peacefully and address their grievances.

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The night before the RNC got underway a house with people from Iwitness video was raided and cameras, laptops etc were seized. This group from NYC had been very successful in exposing improper police behavior at the 2004 convention. At least 400 cases were overturned because of their work videotaping at the time. This is America folks. We have become a police state. When asked how Germans sat back and allowed Hitler to take over their country they responded that it wasn't one event that they could point to...it was little changes over time... until they no longer recognized their country. I'm just trying to help point out some of those little changes happening today right here in the so called "Land of the Free." These people are not "terrorists" they are journalists and they happened to disagree with the party that is currently in control of our government.

Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I urge you to read this article by Thom Hartmann to get a handle on the bigger picture and what this all means to our Democracy. This election in November is the most important one in my lifetime. I hope you do your homework if you have any question about who you'll be voting for and why.

My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog! Ask General Patton.

"Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man." Gen George S. Patton

Aisha O'Brien, Skinner's girlfriend and former reporter for the Rebel Yell has posted information on her blog, Neon Feminism.

Skinner's audio recordings of the arrest can be heard here.

More info will be posted soon.

The Democratic Party convention over in the US saw massive antiwar protests t'other week (pictured) as did that of the Republican Party where police repression was also escalated.  The better part of a thousand activists and demonstrators have been arrested in the last couple of weeks, including Amy Goodman and two of her Democracy Now! colleagues.  The demonstration police have been getting a bit more truncheon-happy in this country too of late, and we'll have to see what happens at the Stop The War Demo at the Labour Party Conference on the 20th - but the demo looks to be an exciting one.  STWC has been hastily arranging NATO-themed meetings, post-Georgia, and getting a tremendous response (350 people to see Tony Benn in Liverpool, for example).

Russia is not the same as Iraq or Afghanistan, and opposing the neocons is not the same as opposing Western militarism itself, and a new and more radical set of antiwar politics are needed.  If the "multipolar world" really is reasserting itself, then capitalist competition is likely to happen at a different level - at the level of nations and continental alliances rather than at the level of shops and factories - and we cannot effectively oppose that militarisation without challenging the system that drives it.  I've been reading John Reed on the megabus down here and, for all that yes yes the Colorado and Petrograd stuff is amazing, his essay on WWI ("The Traders' War") is a good place to start, and my humongous ego insists that I plug in the same breath my own addition to the revolutionary defeatist canon.

As well as Eastern Europe, we still need to keep up the pressure on Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine (and don't forget Somalia!), and prepare a response to any invasion of Iran, the apparent likelihood of which seems to change with the weather.  And then there's Pakistan... the war in Afghanistan was never going to respect that particularly meaningless border, and while that's fertile grounds for a long series of posts in and of itself, the deepening political crisis of that country is linked to that.  If a full-on occupation of Pakistan is ever launched, the movement will have to respond quick, and hard.

Drop the Charges Against Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! Producers
Today it is critical that you make your voice heard in the the Ramsey County Attorney and St. Paul City Attorney offices. Demand that they drop all pending and current charges against journalists arrested while reporting on protests outside the Republican National Conventions. Read More…

Amy Goodman’s New Column: “Why We Were Falsely Arrested”

Pretty soon we will be able to be arrested for simply thinking about protesting.

If you were watching the McCain speech at all during last night you might have seen a few of the clips of a few crazy protestors who managed to get in to the arena and were holding up signs. You might, if you were watching MSNBC, have caught a glimpse of a rather hidious looking woman strip out of her jacket and down to a pink dress and try and rush the stage. Obviously the left is getting a bit nervous of the republican competition and that's why they do these kind of things. However, if you thought that was all that was going on....

You would be wrong.

Police arrested more than 250 protestors during McCain's speech last night in St. Paul.

The peaceful protest, dubbed "No Peace for the Warmakers," drew nearly 1,000 people who had planned to march to the downtown convention hall where the Republicans met.

Marchers chanted "Who is the terrorist? McCain is the terrorist" as they tried to cross several bridges that span Interstate 94 into downtown St. Paul, but were blocked by police.

It always amazes me to see people describe a protest so filled with anger and hatred as "peaceful" but whatever. I guess most of them knew it was supposed to be peaceful, but apparently a few of them didn't get the memo:

Walsh said most would be cited for unlawful assembly and released. One person was found with a semiautomatic pistol, for which he had a permit, and others were found with bags of feces, he said.

Feces? Really? Did these people walk around scooping up abandoned piles of dog poo from peoples yards, or were they actually taking craps in bags and planning on throwing them at people? I know that the left things we conservatives are somehow weird and delusional because we believe in things like God and Morals,but I think it is high time for them to start looking at themselves in the mirror. Seriously, who's the crazy one here? The one who believes in God or the one who is keeping bags of fecal matter on their person to throw at someone?

The real creepy thing is that these people are Obama supporters. These are the people who are so invested in Obambi's success and are responsible for elevating Obama to cult status. They fling feces at people one minute and then point fingers at us conservatives and scream "crazy!" the next. It's like they live in some bizzarro world where up is left and down is russia.

On Wednesday morning (03.09.08) Anonymous activists picketed outside the New Village Academy private school in Calabasas, California, which is funded by the actor and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who is a devout follower of the bizarre sci-fi cult.

Protestors - dressed in Guy Fawkes masks - held up placards emblazoned with the words 'Scientology disconnects families' and 'What church stalks critics? Scientology'.

Passing children on their way to the nearby Arthur E. Wright Middle School shouted at several people, believed to be Scientologist investigators, who were monitoring the protest.

One boy Max, 11, said: "We hate Will Smith". While another John shouted: "Get the crazy cult school out of Calabasas!"

United Peace Relief Detroit has put out a call to action:  

We will be meeting in front of Freedom Hill at 3:30p. McCain begins his speech at 5:00p. Bring signs: NO WAR, For Obama, whatever you have, wear pink for CODE PINK, blue for Obama. Be loud, be peaceful, let them know that the protests at the RNC represent what we feel across the country!

Freedom HIll is in Sterling Heights, MI on Metro Parkway (16 Mile), just east of Schoenner.

Anyone who needs a ride from Detroit can contact UPR Detroit: uprdetroit@yahoo.com, Jean Wilson 313-377-4203.  

I think this is a good sign that the fight left in this country is not gone.  Founded on the principles of freedom and individual rights, peaceful ptotest should never be ceased.  In St. Paul, the police pulled the plug on a Rage Against The Machine concert meant to act as a protest to the Republican National Convention.  As you will see in this video, the crowd supports the band as they opt to do an accapella version of a song as a continuation of their right to peaceful protest.  This is America?  Should the state or its police be using tax payers' dollars to shut down peaceful protest?  NO

Listen to iNPLACENEWS' exclusive interview with Rage Against The Machine guitarist and founder, Tom Morello, HERE

Luckily here in the land of the free, home of the brave, supression of dissent via ridiculously exagerated police tactics and protester harassment would never happen. We are so civilized and shit. (Do check the videos on the first link)

Of course, were such an inadmissible event to happen, the national media would be all over this most outrageous situation.

*Now, of course, what can happen to an arrested protester in China is on an entirely different league to what can happen to an arrested protester here. That is most definitely true, and it'd be ridiculous to equate protester treatment in China and the US. We are lucky to have laws that limit what police can do against protesters.

With that said, this does not make it any less true that the motives are the same, and the exagerated police force is doing all they legally can on both countries. They are acting in the exact same way, we just have one on a straitjacket. Their intentions and lack of restraint are as despicable, if their end results are not quite so.

Last week there were stories non-effin-stop about PUMAs and dissatisfied Hillary supporters. Reporters were going out of their way to find them. Now we have thousands of people, marching along main streets, and where's all the reporters? I get that it's more interesting to them to cover inter-party fist fights (even if only a few people are involved and don't represent the event nor the group of people participating in the event) than to cover protestors subjected to undue police force. But their job is not to report the stories that give them a washington-boner. Their job is to report what's actually going on, to give people the big picture. Sure, a small-scale fight is part of it. But I'd expect that events going on day after day where thousands of people are involved, and allegations of police abuse are made, would be an even bigger part of the picture.

EDIT- Rereading this I think I may have come across as thinking what's happened at DNC/RNC protests and what happens with political dissent in China is "about the same." I do not believe this, and I probably wasn't clear enough. As bad as I think is to shout "Anybody on this bridge will be under arrest" to a crowd of peaceful protestors, it's -nothing- compared to arresting a person who dared apply for a legal permit for protesting. Not to mention keeping her "dissapeared" for a while.

But! If one is protesting China's ridiculous actions not only for their gravity but for the principle (as every good american politician is required by divine law to protect them freedoms), then those very principles, while in effect being comparatively rather constrained, are still undoubtedly present in the ridiculous abuse of force being showcased against peaceful protesters at political conventions here. If they want to criticize China not for fighting dissent but for going a bit overboard while doing it, that's their prerogative. If they chose to accuse them for acting against freedom of speech and assembly, then they better also accuse those who do the same here.

Listen To The Entire Show Here

McCain Accepts RNC Nomination

Peace Activists Interrupt McCain Address

Up to 400 Arrested on RNC’s Last Day

Obama Finds Common Ground With O’Reilly in Fox News Appearance

Abramoff Sentenced to 4-Year Term

Book: Admin Conducting Extensive Spying on Iraqi Gov’t

Pentagon Urges Delay of Iraq Troop Reductions; Afghan Occupation to Increase

U.S. Arrests Iraqi Journalist, Family

Army Suicide Rate on Record-Setting Pace

Karzai Visits Site of Deadly U.S. Strike

Anger Grows in Pakistan over U.S. Attack

Tropical Storm Hanna Kills 90 in Haiti

Detroit Mayor Pleads Guilty, Resigns in Perjury Case

Citing Alleged U.S. Torture, Attorney Seeks Mental Evaluation for Pakistani Prisoner

Cheney Pushes Georgia Membership in NATO

UN: Aid to Poor Nations Lags

P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times, September 4, 2008

ST. PAUL, MINN. -- As clashes between police and protesters subsided outside the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, county prosecutors charged eight people with conspiring to cause a riot as part of a terrorist act.

The eight suspects were arrested in connection with raids of homes in the Twin Cities that were conducted by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department before the convention began.

The charges are highly unusual because of the terrorism aspect. Ramsey County Atty. Susan Gaertner said she could recall no such case in her 24 years with the prosecutor's office.

"This was the most serious charge that we found that was supported by the evidence," she said. "The terrorism aspect is appropriate. This is not your average criminal charge, but this was not your average crime."

If convicted, the suspects could each face up to five years in jail, a $10,000 fine, or both.

Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which is representing several of the suspects, called the charges ridiculous.

The accusations are "an effort to equate publicly stated plans to blockade traffic and disrupt the RNC as being the same as acts of terrorism," Nestor said in a statement.

Read More Here

While stationed for Antiwar.com at an alternative to the GOP's convention, I stayed at the Hotel Saloon, Minneapolis' only gay motel. I highly recommend it and both the Saloon Bar and Pi, the lesbian bar. Didn't make it to the Gay 90s a few blocks down but some Ron Paul supporters received some acceptable adult gay entertainment there.

The butch who owned Pi said it is acceptable to support Ron Paul just as long as you call him Ron Paul and not "Dr. Paul, cuz that's creepy."

The police and secret service were in full force. Pumped up on Starbucks, I foolishly challenged two police officers and two secret service agents much to the amusement of former Outright ex com member Mike Nelson. They were complaining about the presence of "anarchists" in their fair city. I asked if they had ever met an anarchist. "You just did, here's my card."

The LP had a presence there but unlike some of the published pictures, it was mostly staffed by two volunteers (Rich Paul and another man whose name I did not get.) The Barr workers and LP staff were nowhere to be found save when I bumped into too attractive to be a libertarian Austin Petersen.

Frankly, the booth was unremarkable bordering on unprofessional. The fact that the LP paid twice the price that Antiwar.com paid for such a sloppy display is why it was the right thing for me to discontinue raising money for the LNC.

People noticed the lack of quality and it reflected poorly. Image does matter. The bags were nice though.

An Antiwar.com donor was also staying at the Hotel Saloon for the Ron Paul event. He's a Catholic lay leader and rebukes religious people who would vote for a mass murderer just to avoid gay marriage. Something that those who attended the "other" event should reflect upon.

Keaton, an anarchist, no hyphen

Tomorrow, Friday September 5th, at 12 pm there will be a press conference at the southeast entrance of Ramsey County Jail on Lafayette Road in St. Paul. This is North Star Health Collective’s first official press conference.

LOCAL HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS DENOUNCE POLICE DETENTION AND ABUSE OF MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS

Saint Paul, MN – A group of local and national health care providers has been offering first aid to protesters and city residents during the RNC protests. This aid has been offered to people exercising their first amendment rights to protest. The care providers have witnessed law enforcement harassment of EMTs, RNs and other first aid providers while they were engaged in providing care, including approximately 25 arrests (10 of which were made during the writing of this press release Thursday night). Members of the North Star Health Collective (NSHC), a local group coordinating medical response during the protests, will hold a press conference Friday morning to bring attention to these incidents and testimonies of medical personnel present in the street.

NSHC will be highlighting examples like this:

*On Monday evening, two clearly marked providers, giving care to a paraplegic, were forcibly thrown to the ground by police and arrested. Explained Sean P. McCoy, a U.S. Navy Veteran and trained EMT:

“My medic partner and I were treating a handicapped male in a wheelchair for pepper spray to the face at the parking lot of Jackson Street. In the process of treating the patient, we were surrounded by several police officers in riot gear and forcibly thrown to the ground and told we were under arrest. We were then forcibly removed from our patient, handcuffed, and forced to lay face down on the ground while the officers proceeded to cut our bags off of us and remove all of our medical gear by dumping it on the ground.”

Mr. McCoy was held for over 55 hours in Ramsey County Jail, and, like many other protesters, locked in his cell for over 23 hours a day.

During the press conference, members of the group will display examples of the kind of projectiles they have seen police fire into crowds of people, often at point blank range.
Explained Garth Kahl, an NEMT-B from Oregon:

“There is a reason that these are called less-lethal weapons as opposed to non-lethal weapons. The indiscriminate firing of baton rounds, sponge grenades, and other blunt force projectiles in crowded areas is highly dangerous and irresponsible.”

Kim Christoffel, a graduate student in social work at the University of Minnesota and a local coordinator with NSHC, states:

“Our goal has been to keep people safe in areas that local EMS vehicles cannot quickly reach. Our observation of harassment of medical personnel contradicts police statements that claim that their actions have been directed at keeping everyone safe during the protests. It is shocking that providers have been arrested while attending injured and distraught people. NSHC never thought it would be necessary to say it, but apparently it is: ‘Providing medical care is not a crime.’ ”

The jail vigil needs more support. Perhaps the National Guard will finally go away?

We @ TC-IMC are all pretty tired, but everyone - including our friends from out of town - are all safe and accounted for, though some still face charges. Of course, the Republicans couldn't end their eight-year reign of state terrorism without dumping it all over our fair cities - beginning with the Friday night Convergence Center raid, the thundering Saturday raids, the Monday journalist beatdowns, the Tuesday concussion grenades, the intentional bottling up of the RATM fans on Wednesday night, and finally on Thursday night, a big stupid fracas instigated wholly by the police for no particular reason.

On Thursday night, parents across the Twin Cities are incensed that their peaceful children have been detained on totally spurious charges, fabricated to justify the concussion grenades, tear gas and pepper spray, thrown around like this state has never seen. There weren't hordes of window-breakers, just lots of people who got stiffed on getting damn protest permits (who the hell was running that system? Sure you'll get a medal.)

Fortunately for decent folk, it appears they went way too far: even Tom Lyden on Fox9 said that it was like a police state, and after playing clips of massive, unwarranted pepper spraying, he concluded his segment by saying that they'd be looking into a blue ribbon panel to see what the hell happened. When you've lost Fox News on the final night of the RNC.... well, some things just can't be spun.

Legal observers on-scene were incensed that they were directed to move to safety in one direction, then they themselves got arrested. The police couldn't control their horses, which shit all over the place.

Kare11's cameraman got arrested (has been released), WCCO's cameraman Tom Aviles got arrested, Pioneer Press' Ben Garvin got detained for two hours and shot one hell of a video. In particular, the WCCO footage is possibly the strongest we've yet seen from a corporate source!
Are we really seeing this? http://wcco.com/video/?id=47039@wcco.dayport.com
Pioneer Press' Ben Garvin http://www.twincities.com/video?bcpid=1653590799&bclid=1755456983&bctid=...
PioPress http://www.twincities.com/rnc/ci_10385049
Uptake's Susan gets detained http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/videogalleryView/id/725/
More: http://flickr.com/photos/theuptake/
Tony Webster's response to the police chief's email to him: http://wtf.mn/u/a602a5

Meanwhile Code Pink managed to mess up John McCain's whole speech via some banners. Way to go! That's it for now - we need to rest.
Tomorrow Mayor Coleman will have to answer for the abused journalists, the hordes of arrested demonstrators, the edgy mess of a town we've got. A week from now, it'll feel like some strange dream, a hangover from the new world order/police state that awaits us, if this kind of madness is not stopped once and for all.

Prior to the RNC, over 300 people (including reporters and attorneys) were arrested in an attempt to destroy political free speech around the convention.  Despite the law restricting jail time to 36 hours for those not charged, these people were held for up to a week due to the Labor Day holiday and court approved extension.  Because of this, these people were held through the convention.  No violence was planned or executed by those arrested.

Not all those arrested were released without charge, as some face 7.5 years in prison for "furtherance of terrorism", among other charges.  One facing these charges is a young lady named Monica Bicking.

Monica's brother, Ian, wrote a decent article here on his take on the event.  The photo above is also from his site.

Monica's father makes an appearance in this news discussion on the events.  The link goes to the YouTube video of part 1 of 3.  It is long, but all 3 clips are worth viewing.

Apparently, the federal government received details of where the peeople were housed, by infiltrating the peace groups in an undercover manner.  The U.S. government has a long history of this type of activity, including putting LSD in members drinks to try and cause a riot.

"I Am The Owl"
Dead Kennedys, 1979

I am your plumber
No I never went away
I still bug your bedrooms
And pick up everything you say
It can be a boring job
To monitor all day your excess talk

I hear when you're drinking
And cheating on your lonely wife
I play tape recordings
Of you to my friends at night

We've got our girl in bed with you
You're on candid camera
We just un-elected you

[Chorus]
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away
Keep America free
For clean livin' folks like me

If you demonstrate
Against somebody we like
I'll slip on my wig
And see if I can start a riot
Transform you to an angry mob
All your leaders go to jail for my job

But we ain't the Russians
Political trials are taboo
We've got our secret
Ways of getting rid of you
Fill you full of LSD
Turn you loose on a freeway

[Chorus]

Send you spinning
Send you spinning
Send you spinning all over the freeway
Spinning on the crowded freeway
Spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway
Spin
Spin
Spin-Lookout

The press, they never even cared
Why a youth leader walked into a speeding car
In ten years we'll leak the truth
By then it's only so much papaer

Watergate hurt
But nothing really ever changed
A teeny bit quieter
But we still play our little games

We still play our little games
We still play our little games
We still play our little games
We still play a lot of games

I am the owl