RNC Media Intimidation Condemned

I want to preserve the Republican way of life. The corporate health care at 2 trillion dollars a year that produces a host of chronic diseases and prescriptive treatment that only the wealthy can afford. I want to subsidize the bank that owns my home, lord knows the elite coffers are without limits and the 3% that actually benefit from the vast resources this country has to offer are not full yet. I totally want more armed goons reading my mail and those survellience cameras at every intersection and strip mall make me feel, well connected. Ah, the artifical smell of other peoples laundry first thing in the morning. Lets not forget the high fractose corn syrup, a little something to get you though your day of hard work (work will set you free), and think of all the money you will save by not having a retirement account. Nope it is an early grave and your corporate kids will finish paying off that mortgage. Could life be any better?

now what? get the hell out in the streets of your town and demand justice! email st. paul mayor and scream!

Thanks Heavyrunner,

What a great personal account. The Founding fathers all warned us of the dangers of big political machines; but we didn't heed them. They cautioned against the evils of political party but the nasty hydra poked it's head up on the second presidential election. John Adams refused to join either the Federalist or Anti-Federalist party and they punished him so that his chances of re-election were dashed.

We have been cursed with political dirty tricks against the people ever since.

I think all of us wondered "What would today be like if Germany had won WWII.

Now we know.

Hm. Interestingly selective in its facts, this article. The Mayor of St Paul's isn't some sinister Republican. He's a Democrat. And given the penchant for repression of free speech by intimidation (on line rather than physical, but still, repression) displayed by Obots attacking Mrs Clinton and her supporters, I'd say America's problem extends beyond the current Republican party. Violent words and actions seem to be the preferred mode of political debate in the home of "the free". Whatever happened to calm and reasoned analysis and exchange of ideas? Not sexy enough to grab the attention?

It's 1984, Big Brother is watching, we are fighting for peace, protesters are a threat to freedom and the police state is here to protect you.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.."--JFK

This is what the "law and order" set is wanting so they can crush those who oppose their agenda with superior firepower and the misused monopoly on the legal use of violent force granted them by society. But the revolutionaries are smarter than that. They know they are regularly infiltrated by informants, they also know that such tactics are seeking to provoke violent conduct and response.

What the law enforcement community is rapidly forgeting is how vastly outnumbered they are by those whose freedoms they subjugate. Without public cooperation law enforcement is "mission impossible". With increasing rapidity they are tearing down any shred of remaining respect increasing numbers of ordinary people once had for their uniforms and badges.

Slowly and steadily their plainly marked cars, obvious uniforms, and badges will make all of them, good and bad, targets of retribution. When that happens and we descend to the rule of mob violence, the law and order crowd will have only themselves to blame but we will all suffer as a result.

Poet

It is all about who gets to decide and becoming who gets to determine what and how you think. Religion was hijacked a long time ago but has lost a lot of it's power to science. Science is a much broader based way of looking at the world or just about anything. It shapes everything from politics to reproduction and no one has to really ask for permission. (note you live in a scientifically controlled environment and religion is more of an after thought) It destroys creativity and diversity. It is why half the population is overweight and obese and have chemical dependencies, many just to stay alive. Nature, the natural world of which you are apart is disappearing before your very eyes and because it has been taken away slowly you bearly notice. You have to be impeccable to be a warrior.

The email of the police chief of St Paul is john.harrington@ci.stpaul.mn.us , in case anyone wants to complain

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Our "FREE PRESS-MEDIA" are the 1st victims of a Fascist takeover.

BUSH & CHENEY and their NEOCONS gang have ignored and subverted the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constition. They are establishing a NEW CENTURY AMERICAN EMPIRE.

McCAIN & PALIN are the next step in a NEOCONS Fascist Takeover.

****Save our Democracy**** defeat ALL REPUBLICAN candidates in NOVEMBER !!!!!

IMPEACH Bush and Cheney..............NOW !!!!!!!!!!!

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There is the underlying irony of this issue in every post.

'Freedom.'

That ubiquitous word, attempting to be defined by those who profess to live under it's sunshine, it's laughing face, it's tearful eyes, it's thousands of law books containing the city, county, state and federal laws and policies that do precisely what the 'Constitution' was written to prevent.

Laws, that are not natural laws, are the pawns on a chessboard. Easily sacrificed or discarded in the attempt to dominate the center of the board, and thus, the strategic 'win.'

In a 'democratic, representative Republic,' such as those alive now in it find ourselves, it is minimally that which it originally aspired. Even as the originators themselves redirected the meaning of '...all men are created equal...'

When the heirs of wealthy, industrial, financial, scions such as the Bush family are even permitted to hold a Federal office after being found guilty of seditious, treasonous business practices that enabled the Nazis in WWII, and had those financial and industrial investments impounded by the Federal government in a court of law, illustrates the depravity, the superficial strength of the 'three branches of government.'

You may argue the facile position that one member of a family is not legally binding on other family individuals. Especially corporate driven profit seeking without regard for 'patriotism.' Yet all those family individuals have assets under those names to prevent the confiscation of those assets. Legal papers drawn prior to intrusion by lawyers where only a date and signature is required for the transference and protection of assets.

The generational vengeance to redeem pre-conceived notions of grievance as instituted by Bush and his enablers should be evidence enough that any and all laws, policies, signing statements and foreign relations be rescinded and rethought.

While local 'authorities' step back from their embrace of Federal money for the dissolution of this Republic, which is the qualifier, unwritten, in the granting of taxpayer funds by criminals who claim to be 'elected.'

If I were Bush-Cheney-Rove and pals after 9-11 and thought as they think, here's what I'd have done. I'd look at those darn liberal whistleblowers in the FBI like Coleen Rowley, and I'd think: Too many liberals in the CIA and FBI ever since Hoover left and COINTELPRO was exposed, and all these FISA laws came to be. I'd try to make a clean slate and start fresh, recruit pro-military, pro-police, no limits, neocon-sympathizers.

I'd start a new intelligence department. I'd call it Homeland Security. Then at the RNC in St. Paul, I'd get those police in riot gear, mostly imported police from other places, or homeland security direct hires. I'd see to it that the local police, that might have relatives in the area, were assigned to the edges of the action, at a relative safe distance from the RNC at the Excel center. I'd get the out-of-town and Homeland Security riot police in their riot gear, and I'd brief them, train them to expect violence, show them training video of girls with flowers, who have a bomb or a gun under their blouse or in the flowers. I'd train them to think the peaceful demonstrators were a threat that had to be kept away at any cost, and tell them that they should not take risks with their own safety, but use the tear gas and pepper spray liberally (ironic? intended). If any out-of-town police had relatives living in St. Paul or planning to attend protests, I'd interview them all to screen those out from the start, so that they'd not hesitate to use their chemicals and force when ordered to.

Then the use of gas and pepper spray by riot-gear-clad police would become a media event in itself, but in the spirit of supporting the troops (we're in a war against terror!), the mainstream media would not want to cast them in a negative light, so they'd do what they usually do: Simply act as stenographers and report whatever the police spokespeople told them.

Others who had any glimmer of a thought that they might have attended such an event for peaceful protest would be intimidated: I have chilren and a wife or husband, and the kids would be terrified if I were in a hospital being treated for pepper-spray injuries, or worse. I'd better just E-mail Move-On and True-Majority and my congressman-or-woman and senator, and maybe the mayor and council in St. Paul, from the comfort of my home. Or maybe not even do that: They might monitor my email and break in without a warrent, and kill my kids by accident, or kill me, and my kids would grow up terrified and angry. Better not. Better law low.

That's part of how I'd win the game if I were Bush-Cheney-Rove after 9-11.

We have been heading for this fascist takeover ever since the Soviet Union began to fail. Too many well-meaning people in the US thought, and still think, that the US Constitution would protect us from such a fate. The Constitution has never really been more than a distraction for those concerned with such dangers, as it is only as good as those who interpret it, and those interpreting justices are only as good as the president who nominates them and the senate that confirms them, and the president and senate are only as good as those who elect them, and, today at least, those are the corporate oligarchs.

What kept the corporate oligarchs in check for several decades, starting around 1918, was the fear instilled in them by the success of the Soviet revolution. They compromised with labor, helped develop a middle class, and expanded opportunities to everyone. However, once the Soviet Union's demise began to look almost certain, sometime around the late 1970s, the oligarchs recognized their opportunity and began to support politicians, such as Reagan, who were determined to reestablish the absolute dominance of capital. The US middle class was deemed expendable as a world market could develop in the aftermath of a Soviet collapse. The process accelerated under Bush, and the oligarchs began serious attempts to enable the US to completely dominate the planet militarily so that no new leftist government could develop to serve as a counter-example and as a threat to the stability of the fascist system they were constructing.

Having come to love the Twin Cities, I now fear them. "Minnesota Nice" is revealed to be an empty myth to which Minnesotans cling to rationalize the evil in their soul. It is my wish conventions and personal trips to the Cities be canceled. A price must be paid for this atrocity. For those unfamiliar with the Twin Cities, to strike at Minnesotans' pride in being perceived as good, decent, open minded, folk will hurt them more than anything else which can be done. Please, please, begin referring to the Cities as the new Mississippi! Sadly, and I mean this in all despairing honesty, they deserve such derision for betraying what was my love for them.

I was a NYC police officer for several years in the borough of Brooklyn (some 20 years ago) and while I witnessed less than desireable behaviour on the part of a good percentage of the officers i.e racism, misogeny etc., I don't recall falsely imprisoning people or lying on depositions as these law enforcement people have.

It seems as though as in NYC during the convention there the law enforcement officials are in essence preparing to break the law or circumvent it because from what I understand the city is given funds by the RNC or whoever in preperation for the civil suits that will arise out of these false arrests.

Is there a paucity of citizens that care that our own citizens are falsely imprisoned with no consequence for the authorities that commit these acts or do we just label these concerned citizens who so bravely give of their time and selves to send a message that is squashed by the state/corporate media as anarchists or loonies.

I don't know what happened to the cry for justice,... torture illegal war and no response. I am however quite impressed by the people that stay active including the independent media that do a noble job to try to inform the public. Support these people while there still there.

I don't want a pit bull for president whether it's wearing lipstick or not.

Such domestic incidents as these are nauseating. What do these idiots want-- suicide bombers? Is that their idea of a good time? Internationally, they'll bring about world war. Pit bull leaders and pit bull cops, neither with any brain at all. Pit bulls at home and pit bulls abroad, so some sorry excuse for a human being at the RNC (Republican National Convention) can declare: "There's never been a day when I wasn't proud to be an American."

I'm not imagining this, am I, that this kind of problem did NOT occur in Denver (at least not to this degree?) How can these police agencies actually expect that people will believe them that THREE SEPARATE RAIDS or TARGETINGS are merely coincidental? They lied to get the search warrants, they defied the warrants by entering premises not included on the warrants (and if that's NOT thrown out of court, then we have truly lost all), they rip off a woman's credentials in order to say she didn't have any. As the one poster has said, Bush has succeeded in creating a totalitarian state - and he calls the MUSLIMS FASCISTS???? We need a revolution - a literal revolution. If we can't get Obama into office to change this shit, it will be the only way. If the patriots of 1776 could do it to break free of a tyrant, than we should be able to as well! It is guaranteed by the Constitution (for those of us who still believe in it).

I said this before, protest all you want these leaders answer to other task masters and not American voters. As someone suggested a cival war, it will never happen as the sheep of America would be to intimidated to show up. Who are you going to take on? The police, military, well good luck there. The rest I am sure you could figure out on your own on how to make change.

How to overcome all this police brutality and surveillance of "assailants" (and a corporate owned press that acts as a ministry of propoganda for the Repugs): Yugoslavia was a police state, right? People there had little or no rights for decades under Tito, and the same with the press there.
Then the country has a civil war, and in Serbia another thug comes to power: Slobodan Milosovic. After being in power for number of years, and having brought the wrath of NATO down on his country, he faces an election and loses.
He claims he won the election, and attempts to stay in power. The people of Belgrade rise up, storm the capitol, and Milosovic is out, the real winner in, and Milosovic is handed over to the World Court to face war crimes charges.
If Serbs can do this, so can real Americans! If McCain wins under the same conditions as Bush did in 2000 and 2004, we all should know what to do!

SnowWolf writes: "Sometimes you can cut the paranoia in here with a knife...."

To quote Andy Grove, former chairman and CEO of Intel: "Only the paranoid survive!". Andy Grove has done pretty well for himself being paranoid, so has Bush (ARABS ARE CONSPIRING TO DESTROY AMERICA! ARABS ARE SWEEPING ACROSS EUROPE AND COUNTRIES FALLING LIKE DOMINOES! AL QAIDA IS EVERYWHERE! AMERICA IS RIDDLED WITH TERRORISTS! BOMB! KILL! DESTROY! THEN PILLAGE!), so, perhaps, the rest of us should get paranoid, too, and we might do well, also.

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Andy Grove wrote about his book, "Only the Paranoid Survive":

"I'm often credited with the motto, 'Only the paranoid survive.' I have no idea when I first said this, but the fact remains that, when it comes to business, I believe in the value of paranoia. Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left. I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people's attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management."

NOW READ MY ALTERED VERSION OF WHAT ANDY GROVE WROTE, AS IT SHOULD APPLY TO US:

"I'm often credited with the motto, 'Only the paranoid survive.' I have no idea when I first said this, but the fact remains that, when it comes to politics, I believe in the value of paranoia. A country's success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful a country is, the more corporations want a chunk of the government and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left. I believe that the prime responsibility of a citizen is to guard constantly against other people's attacks on the government AS AN INSTITUTION, and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her influence."

It seems that the moneymaker press has no interest in competition from the independent press. Thus its use of the press pass system increases the chances that unique local writers and photographers will be winnowed from the mercenary writers and photographers of the mainlining news businesses. Control of the information is of utmost importance to maintain the status quo. Using the police to intimidate reporters and photographers is SOP in the management of dissent so that the US of A can practice trompe-l'œil democracy.

Americans have a long way to go before one can expect liberty on every street corner. Thankfully there are those that risk life and limb on the American streets to tell its stories and paint its pictures each day for the common citizen. As some days are better than others it is the courage of those who face the bad days that we must hail and praise. Vive la Liberté

ex malo bonum

Global capital has apparently concluded that the US middle class is a burden and a nuisance and is no longer necessary, and that noisy trouble-making protestors may be forcefully brushed aside without repercussions. You people didn't really think that the constitution could protect you, did you? Like Mr. Bush, one of the highest ranking servants says, "It's just a g*dd*mn piece of paper."

What to do? Unplug the TV and boycott anything from Minnesota...

One more step.

How about the police snipers stationed on roofs overlooking the Rage Against The Machine concert? Talk about overkill...

I have been working as a Police Dispatcher for 24 years. The Agency I work for and have watched our officers evolve as an "Us against Them" to "Us can do as we wish with the backing of our superiors". I showed the woman from "Code Pink" in Denver being called a "Bitch" and being shoved to the ground, and showed Amy Goodman's arrest. These Officers put all the blame on the Journalist being arrested. 20 years ago if one of our officers had done that - he would have been charged administratively and suspended from Duty. Now they can get away with it. I read Naomi Wolf's book recently "End of America" and what happened in the "Twin Cities" is exactly what she describes in her book of the "Window Closing on a Democracy". I hope this nightmare will end soon.

I'm sure that the police just need a little lebensraum.

Initiate a class action lawsuit.

If the police were doing nothing wrong, they shouldn't be so afraid of the independent media.

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats

The police have really crossed the line. With the support of the Feds, the Secret Service and all the like, they have created the fusion center for suppressing democracy altogether. What are we to do? Do we fight? Get violent? Wait? Pray?
When the police stop war protesters they are killing soldiers by perpetuating the war. They are dumb, yes. After all, how much intelligence does it take to yell who-ah, carry a stick and dress like you're ready to invade Poland. And how much toughness does it take to push over Amy Goodman? Or that lovely producer of hers, Nicole. I am ashamed of the police and am way passed the point of seeing them as human, relevant and American. War protest is democracy. Saving lives IS the domain of the protester. And, of course, dissent is very very patriotic.
But, where are the lawyers? Why is the legal guild of this country so silent as we watch our justice system crumble. As long as law is applied from the bottom up we will never have the freedom we are supposed to have.
At some point, this country gets what it deserves. Complete failure and domination by a small group perpetrating violence upon the individual.
So be it. Go fishing, play golf, and never earn more than you have to as all that does is pay for more of the same.

CORRECTION:
It is quite amusing that Cheney is on the other side of the world haling and applauding the Rose and Orange revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine respectively, both ex soviet domains, where demonstrators took to the streets and paralyzed their governments to demand freedoms fair and elections.

While in the land of the free and the brave, similar but far milder activity in the Twin Cities are having people arrested and attempting to incarcerate some for put away for up to 7 years under anti-terrorism laws made under the Bush/Cheney administration and executed by the combined forces of State and Federal Security systems, the new Stazi.

Imagine what these well disciplined storm troopers (the picture of this article said it all) would be doing if they were put to use in Government House in Bangkok today.

America usually portrays violent tyranny as over there somewhere, something Saddam Hussein does. In fact the US is waking up to the fact that the police state, draconian laws and thugs to enforce them is the fact of the new American Reich. But, what is not yet clear is if the people are apposed by riot police and draconian tactics, as the pressure mounts the people will find “other” ways. Sure you can use force to clear the streets. But do you want to? Policing is an effort to gain the cooperation of the citizenry. That guy in the picture is not asking for your cooperation, he is threatening you and is ready for your violent retort. In a country of 300 million with an official gun ownership rate of 85,000 guns per 100,000 of population, in which violence is ingrained in the culture so far that it permeates entertainment and leisure activities, the militarised police will find a response, and before it is finished it will cost many lives.

Both political parties are talking change. Obviously the powers that be can see the people are demanding change but the future looks to be offering much of the same if not worse in social and economic terms. It is at this point that America should ask itself, what kind of revolution it wants?

While in the land of the free and the brave, similar but far milder activity in the Twin Cities are having people arrested and attempting to incarcerate some for put away for up to 7 years under anti-terrorism laws made under the Bush/Cheney administration and executed by the combined forces of State and Federal Security systems, the new Stazi.

Imagine what these well disciplined storm troopers (the picture of this article said it all) would be doing if they were put to use in Government House in Bangkok today.

America usually portrays violent tyranny as over there somewhere, something Saddam Hussein does. In fact the US is waking up to the fact that the police state, draconian laws and thugs to enforce them is the fact of the new American Reich. But, what is not yet clear is if the people are apposed by riot police and draconian tactics, as the pressure mounts the people will find “other” ways. Sure you can use force to clear the streets. But do you want to? Policing is an effort to gain the cooperation of the citizenry. That guy in the picture is not asking for your cooperation, he is threatening you and is ready for your violent retort. In a country of 300 million with an official gun ownership rate of 85,000 guns per 100,000 of population, in which violence is ingrained in the culture so far that it permeates entertainment and leasure activities, the militarised police will find a response, and before it is finished it will cost many lives.

Both political parties are talking change. Obviously the powers that be can see the people are demanding change but the future looks to be offering much of the same if not worse in social and economic terms. It is at this point that America should ask itself, what kind of revolution it wants?