Conclusive proof from the fine folks at Snopes.

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“This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans. The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November.” – Michael Moore

Slacker Uprising

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Look, any small town mayor who wins a governorship unexpectedly has got serious political chops. The liberal blogosphere needs to realize this. And to stop bashing her because she hunts and shoots. Can’t think of a better way to piss off voters in the West and South, where hunting and shooting is a way of life. (The implied subtext of such an attack, of course, is that she’s redneck and thus of a lower class, a swell way to have the Right slime her attackers with charges of elitism. Like there’s something wrong with being redneck or that rednecks are always right wing.)

Hit her on the issues and on her extremism. Forget the other stuff, and understand that she is a highly capable politician.

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Maybe, says Socialist Unity

Obama cannot entirely ignore the radical expectations that he has encouraged. The Clinton administration died on the cross of failing to make good their promises for universal health care. Obama has to deliver something, and that means that an American society that has been accustomed to things gradually getting worse year on year, will see that things can also get better. That is a much more fruitful context for radical politics.

No chance, says Dennis Perrin

Once Obama’s president, many of these “progressives” say that they’ll feel safe enough to challenge the Dems from within. I’ve heard this from a number of quarters, including from people I respect, and it’s utter bullshit. Won’t happen. The Clinton years are the template, and that’s already ancient history. The Obama years will crank it to a new, obscene level. Power always attracts followers and servants, and the idea that “progressives” will go after President Obama as he fortifies the police state, expands war, and keeps private interests flush, is ridiculous and ahistorical.

I’m with Socialist Unity on this. An Obama presidency will raise expectations for real change. He’ll have to deliver something, and the job of the Left will be to keep pressing the issues. Perrin sounds a bit burned-out. It’s an occupational hazard for activists. Hey Dennis, I know lots of progressives that are and will continue to oppose the militarization of society and the wars. But if you lose hope, then you lose most everything. “Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind.”

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Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire

The Detroit Free Press put together a panel of voters to listen to last night’s Republican convention speeches and, much as I predicted last night, the independents were universally negative on Palin. In fact, they were more negative than the Democratic voters. The speech was clearly designed to help close the “enthusiasm gap” that has dogged the McCain campaign all summer.

Democrats should focus on Palin’s extremism, forget the personal stuff, and let women lead the attacks. From what I’ve read, Hillary Clinton has already stepped up to the plate.

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From Twin Cities IndyMedia

Affidavits released by law enforcement which were filed in support of the search warrants used in raids over the weekend, and used to support probable cause for the arrest warrants, are based on paid, confidential informants who infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement.

Yes, we all know that paid informants are completely and totally reliable.

They allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in St. Paul.

Horsepucky. Do you think the eight leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee would say those things in public or even in a meeting, assuming it’s true which doubtless it isn’t.

Evidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants.

Goodness, who would have imagined the police have no evidence.

Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provocateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence.

Like I said…

The criminal complaints filed by the Ramsey County Attorney do not allege that any of the defendants personally have engaged in any act of violence or damage to property. The complaints list all of alleged violations of law during the last few days of the RNC — other than violations of human rights carried out by law enforcement — and seeks to hold the 8 defendants responsible for acts committed by other individuals.

I see, Anarchist X tosses a rock through a window so the leaders of the Welcoming Committee are charged with terrorism even though they personally did nothing wrong and don’t even know the rock thrower. Madness.

Prediction: They will be found not guilty or the charges will be dropped. Then they will sue and collect substantial damages.

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Above The Fold has this video, and lots more.

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Scoble.

I’ve watched a lot of the two political conventions. I’ve heard a few words about support for technology and science — quickly are forgotten in the noise about McCain’s vice presidential pick — but I’ve heard nary a word about how we’re going to ensure that the United States continues to be a place where innovation happens. Increasingly I’m hearing from industry leaders that our innovation leadership is under major attack for a whole lot of reasons. Immigration policy. Education system quality. Taxation and regulation. And on and on.

Yet we don’t openly discuss it. We’d rather talk about some 17-year-old’s sex life or download the latest shiny object from Google. Question: how did that shiny object get here?

Scoble, Scoble, Scoble, you are SO politically naive. The shiny object is there because our party, the [insert name of wonderful, patriotic party of your choice] put it there but the [insert name of the hideously corrupt and extremist opposition party] wants to take it away. So please send us millions to finance attack ads that slime the opposition and have nothing to do with anything, including reality. See, that’s how the shiny object got there.

So now we will have eight weeks of attack ad from both parties that have nothing to do with issues. I do not care about a 17 yo pregnant girl or whether Obama once said hello to Bill Ayers. Both are irrelevant.

Yes, the US internet infrastructure is slow and getting worse, compared to Europe and Japan. Smart people often can’t come here because of increasingly onerous immigration restrictions. Our schools are less than stellar. There are real problems. No one is talking much about them. We need to.

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Police officers used tear gas on a peaceful crowd that was following instructions in St. Paul on Tuesday evening. In an overwhelming show of force, well over a hundred riot police locked down 7th Street between Wabasha and St. Peter, surrounded protesters in the Poor People’s March, media, and bystanders and then proceeded to launch several cannisters of tear gas after the crowd was hemmed in.

Thousands of people, many whom were just there to see the concerts, will be radicalized by this. Nothing works better than good old-fashioned police brutality in getting people to see the violence inherent in the system and how the police too often enforce the political goals of the elites.

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From Danny on the MarxMail listserv. He was there and not happy about what he saw. (If you think you might be offended by Bad Words, then you best not read the whole post.)

As their roadies tuned up and they were all set to go on, however, the fascist police occupation that now rules the Twin Cities during the RNC refused to allow them to take the stage. They even cut the power to the event, though organizers had a permit for it to go until 7pm, well after Rage would have played. They claim that since Rage wasn’t on the permit, somehow they had the right to prevent them from playing, which is, well, ridiculous police state nonsense.

I will say that the RNC has been full of important political lessons for the people of the Twin Cities, including the role of the police, the ends to which the government is willing to go to prevent us from effectively protesting, and the serious gap between the myth of democracy in this country and the reality.

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From Twin Cities Indymedia Live Wire

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:53 Police Have Alerted Area Hospitals that they are going to begin gassing the crowd.

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:45 RATM/Poor Peoples’ March- one protester snatched, organizers ask ppl in black to leave march or move to back

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:41 Taser used at RATM/Poor Peoples’ March

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:34 Police use pepper spray at Poor People’s March

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:33 7th & cedar 50-100 riot police in front of the march as it heads up 7th. No reported violence.

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:32 15+ Jane/John Does have been hunger striking all day to get anemic Jane Doe medical treatment. She passed out, still being denied treatment!

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:11 Rage Against the Machine just took 200 people on unpermitted march toward river. They are chanting, “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.” UPDATE now marching with Poor People’s March towards Excel Center, 2-4000 people. UPDATE Tons of riot cops heading east on University.

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 19:01 Riot Cops surround concert at the capital, refuse to allow Rage Against the Machine to take the stage

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 18:56 Mobile Broadcast News (independent media) bus is being raided

This is starting to sound like when the MC5 took the stage at Chicago 68 DNC…

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The McCain team used little more than a Google Internet search as part of a rushed effort to review Palin’s potential pitfalls.

McCain campaign cancels Palin appearance, Phyllis Schafly not happy.

“I think this is clearly somebody in the McCain campaign who doesn’t understand where the votes are coming from,” Schlafly told ABC News. “They only told me this at 10 o’clock last night, and it was a call from somebody down-the-line in the McCain campaign.

Is Palin not ready for prime time? Something else? The excuse given was she was busy on her VP acceptance speech, but hey, she could bungee in for an hour then leave, politicians do that all the time. Schafly is a serious player on the Republican Right and not to be trifled with. Is this yet another last-minute ill-thought-out decision by Maverick McCain (who by now is starting to resemble a stray calf walking around in circles)?

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sole purpose appears to be to intimidate.

I don’t know who is running this show but it smells like the Feds have been taking lessons from the pre-Olympics Chinese to me.

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John Robb

Very cool demonstration from Minnesota of how police forces have been militarized. In addition to the five fold growth in SWAT forces since the 90’s, there’s been a shift in attitude. All likely due to a misdirection of  GWOT [Global War of Terror] Homeland security $$ and thinking towards domestic protest. The side effect: The heavy handed approach here will cause a quick shift protest to the open source/disruption model if things deteriorate. Protest is dead.

Note: Robb means “very cool” in the sense that it proves his point.

What we are seeing now on the streets outside the RNC is the open source / disruption model -decentralized, fast-moving, linked by technology. In Left terms, it’s a mostly leaderless bottom-up anarchist political model rather than the top-down Marxist model with the cadre in control.

Robb is right, protest in the sense of thousands marching in the streets probably is dead. It’s become ineffective and pointless.

FutureJacked (who is no Leftie)

Wow. The Powers That Be have become so insecure that big protests are now considered dangerous and a threat. In the past, huge protests and civil disobedience were a way to vent frustration and send messages - great ways to do that, in fact, that usually kept the property damage at a minimum.

For some reason, the elites seem terrified of any sort of dissent these days. It’s amazing and unnecessary. By crushing these protest groups through pre-emptive strikes, you are are making the same mistake the Forest Service made back in the 20th century [by not allowing controlled burns], you are priming the political landscape with the tinder for a huge firestorm in the future.

Indeed. what are the elites so afraid of? At the police press conference yesterday they actually said police officers were frightened by masked criminals. I am not making this up. A phalanx of cops in riot gear is scared of a few unarmed kids wearing black bandanas over their faces?

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“I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know, my mother had me when she was 18. And how family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics”

Maybe Bristol Palin’s life is a disaster now. Mine was when I was 17. And I got through it. Can’t imagine what it would have been like trying to do that had partisan zealots slimed me because they had a political grudge against my mother.

The mother is fair political game, the daughter isn’t.

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From the San Francisco Chronicle

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How bad is it in the Twin Cities?

Glenn Greenwald

Here’s a woman being pepper-sprayed at close range by a marching legion of police while standing on the side of the road holding a flower.

Yup, she was just standing there holding a flower, and some alleged human of a cop sprayed her in the face with a mega-dose of tear gas for no reason.

The police and the RNC are out of control. Of course there will be lawsuits and the police will end up paying millions. In the meantime, we need to make sure this story gets into mainstream media and stays there.

Let’s make a lot of noise about this. We need to make an issue about it.

PS News sources from the Twin Cities (for those who may have missed them.)

Theuptake Live video from cell phone cameras as it happens via Qik. (Quite amazing technology, isn’t it?)

Twin Cities Indymedia Lots of breaking news. One of the best organized Indymedia sites I’ve seen.

Coldsnaplegal On the streets, twittering the news as it happens.

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Amy Goodman of Democracy Now arrested, charged with conspiracy to riot.

From Democracy Now

Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfuly detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Coldsnaplegal twitter approx 30 minutes ago

Code Pink is w/ Mothers Against the War. They’re being pushed against Wabasha Bridge by 150 riot cops now.

The police are out of control.

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Cell phone video live from the tear gas zone of the RNC protests.

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ColdSnaplegal is twittering directly from the streets.

The Uptake has live video (via Qik, which streams live video from a cellphone)

Update: The National Guard is being called in.

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From the Twin Cities Indymedia LiveWire

Mon, 09/01/2008 - 13:16. ~20 pagans at kellogg/cedar stopping delegate busses. successful blockade at 8th and wall. cops moving in.

Mon, 09/01/2008 - 13:13. windows OF DELEGATE BUS SMASHED ON KELLOGG

Mon, 09/01/2008 - 13:11. New 7th and wall hard blockade. on 94 offramp

Mon, 09/01/2008 - 13:09. Sherrif Bob Fletcher is personally on site at John Ireland and Kellog confronting black bloc

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So what? If a mom covers up for a pregnant daughter, why should this a big deal? But Sarah Palin was the one who was pregnant, and this whole incident makes it clear that the coming campaign will be monumentally vicious on all sides.

Michael Moore and the ex-head of the DNC have apologized for being gleeful about Gustav screwing up RNC plans. As well they should have.

Folks, let’s keep our own side of the street clean. Wouldn’t it be nice if the candidates talked about the issues rather than the tsunami of attack ads that we all know are coming. I know, I’m just a crazy idealist.

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Oh yeah, the worms in the permaculture on the bus might have little bitty machine guns and be terrorists. So let’s dump all the people and animals on the highway and tow the bus away for a bogus “inspection”.

Not only is the Ramsey County Sheriff a thug deliberately trying to intimidate political protesters, it’s also clear he is incompetent. Look at the facts. He’s been raiding those dangerous granola-eating pacficists at Food Not Bombs and now the New Agey Starhawk. So I can’t imagine he’s been investigating anyone who might actually have serious disruption plans for the RNC. Nor, I’m guessing, would he know how to find them if he was. Talk about looking for things in all the wrong places…

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The FBI used informants inside the groups, yet the charges are bogus. Thus the raids were clearly coming from the federal government and were meant as political intimidation.

So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do.

Twincities Indymedia has been doing a stellar job of reporting what’s happening with their Live Wire instantaneous news on the home page.

PS “Those in Twin Cities still going ahead with plans to stage massive civil disobedience on the 1st”, they say.

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Maybe Republicans are assuming the governmental response to Gustav will be another disaster else why the cancellation of much of day one of the RNC? If they thought the government would respond competently then, seems to me, they could hold a dignified session while pointing out how much better a Republican administration is doing now.

But they aren’t, and they want George Bush nowhere near any of them as Gustav hits. I’m not buying the McCain excuse that he doesn’t want delegates in party hats tooting noisemakers as Nola floods. The Republican cadre tends to be quite disciplined and could simply be told not to do that, with a ban on funny hats and noisemakers on the floor.

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