A recent ruling by the supreme court essentially guts the fourth amendment right to protection against unwarranted search and seizure of our homes. Now corporations have all the rights of people without even risking jail, risking termination or risking running out of time. Well, it is getting worse. Before the Republican National Convention, Sheriff Fletcher and the FBI used pre-emptive raids and pre-emptive arrests on basically no evidence.The justification was fear of terror. Now in the calmest no-fear time, one person, Carrie Feldman has been jailed for contempt of court for 12 weeks. There was no trial and no conviction, and it appears that there is no end to the jailing. So we, as a nation, have gone from 3 days of jailing without due process of law to 12 weeks and continuing. Anyone of us could now be held endlessly for not testifying about something that we know nothing about.
Cuddle up with your (progressive) one true love and lower your political hackles for just a second. If you are able to laugh at yourself a little (and we all know you can laugh at the GOP), visit GOPValentine.com and look at this year's tongue-in-cheek electronic love notes to Democrats the RNC has generated on its' romantic fundraising site (donations to send a GOP e-card are encouraged, but not required, so maybe send one and scare your honey into thinking you've flipped!).
Oh, and don't miss the one with Senator Al Franken (which refers to when Franken interrupted Joe Lieberman on the Senate floor) which says: "In My Capacity As The Senator From Minnesota, I Object To This Valentine's Card." Others are funnier. See the complete 2010 selection here .
By now we have all heard the story about the Facebook poll "Should Obama Be Killed' and the secret service investigating. We also heard about the military coupe that is allegedly linked to the Republican National Committee's web site.
On CNN's American Morning today, host John Roberts asked RNC Chairman Michael Steele about the Facebook poll that asked "Should Obama be killed?" - which the Secret Service is investigating - and whether it was "spawned by racism." "No, I don't think," replied Steele, adding that he's "always very careful about going down that road, you know, so blindly and so quickly."
Roberts followed up by asking Steele if he agreed with Tom Friedman's column this morning, in which he wrote that "Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination." "Where do these nut jobs come from? I mean, come on, stop this," replied Steele. He then said that America didn't have "this kind of conversation" when people were "complaining and protesting" about President Bush.
"Not to say that it's about the color of his skin or his background, ethnic background or whatever, but threats against this president are at a level 400 percent higher than they were against former President Bush," replied Roberts. "What explains that?" Steele was skeptical of Roberts' numbers, saying "how do we know that?" When Roberts said it came from the Secret Service, Steele largely dismissed the concern:
STEELE: Well, I don't - I don't know - I don't know that because I don't have a report to compare that to. The Secret Service has it. I haven't seen that publicly put out there statistically to show that.
But even if it is, this is my point. You know, I think that we need to be very smart and very careful about jumping, making these leaps on race and connecting dots that may or may not exist there. We are engaged as a country right now in a very important public policy debate, whether it's the war in Afghanistan or health care cap and trade or what happens to be. There are passions that run deep and long on both sides of the aisle.
Don't necessarily jump to the conclusion that, because someone says something vitriolic or hot that that's necessarily from the right or necessarily from the left. It's reflecting deep-seeded frustrations that people have. We don't excuse it but I just - I want us to be very careful because I just - I see ugly things happening down the road if we're not smart approaching these types of issues.
As news of Pittsburgh G20 security measures reminds us of last years St Paul Republican Nation convention, I hear that people as still want a final accounting of what happened at the Republican National Convention just over a year ago. Here is my evaluation based a years worth of research and active participation in the event.
While we may not have achieved our St Paul vision of calm, friendly streets, I do think that we did achieve a relatively more peaceful and safe city with people being able to actively march and parade to the target site, than other security dominated events.
As a peacemaker, I know that violence creates more violence in an escalating cycle. Actually, for creating peace "means" are more important than "ends". This is the moral imperative where "who you are" is way more important than "what you have achieved". In the moral judgment of violence, the circumstances matter.
Police are not one group but several groups: Secret Service, FBI, St Paul Coalition forces and Sheriff Fletcher. Each group had different decision making responsibilities and actions that they should be held responsible for.
I was very active on the streets of the Republican National Convention, even in covering the pre-emptive raids. I thought I might be a victim due to being a citizen journalist. I have done comprehensive research, with the problem that many testimonies will not go on the record. So there is some grayness to facts, however I am comfortable in the general conclusions and rankings. Feel free to comment on what you know.
Here are the rankings with 10 being the best.
Peace Team 10
Medic Team 10
Secret Service 10
Independent Journalists 8
National Lawyers Guild 8
Coldsnap Legal Cooperative 7
St Paul Coalition Police Force 5
Citizens of St Paul 3
Other groups are best defined by their actions as peacemaker failures. They have negative rankings.
FBI, a failure of -3
RNC Welcoming Committee, a failure of -3
Legacy Media Companies, a failure of -5
Non-violent anarchists, a failure of -6
Republican National Government, a failure of -9
Black Bloc of Anarchists, maximum failure of -10
Sheriff Fletcher, maximum failure of -10
In these rankings, I have held groups responsible for what they actually did not the mission that they claim to have. For me, the actual acts trump the words every time. I no longer buy the marketing hype.
The feudal city of St. Paul and the lands outside the moat in Ramsey County continue a strange quest to return to medieval times with the conviction in Ramsey County Court of the, "Other RNC 8." (Previously superbly reported by Coleen Rowley. http://www.mnprogressiveprojec... Take a look at the video and cringe in fear of these nasty protestors. These true loyalists speak to the truth as so few dare. Their courage in defending the Constitution is a sight to behold!
I still don't understand how two of those complicit in the disgrace of the RNC police riots consider themselves serious candidates for the DFL nomination for Governor. Mayor Coleman carefully averted his gaze as the sheriff and police chief cheerfully trampled and burned the Constitution. The police high command even deployed helicopter gun ships and a Coast Guard gunboat in the Mississippi. The County Attorney continues to pursue prosecutions of people the police think that might be thinking of doing something naughty. How much shame do we allow our candidates?
(This great story by Colleen describes what real civil disobedience and real heroes look like! - promoted by Grace Kelly)
Despite the cogent efforts of eight peace and anti-torture activists charged with trespass a year ago, at the 2008 Republican National Convention, a court in St. Paul could not bring itself to admit evidence of the Constitution, binding treaties creating war crimes and the right of conscience embodied in the Minnesota Constitution. Blinders came down that nothing of this legal magnitude could be at stake in the small St. Paul courtroom last week.
At the time of their arrest, the eight were carrying messages, including a letter to President Bush, placards describing victims of the indiscriminate killing and copies of international and constitutional law documents concerning the illegality of the Iraq War as well as the illegality of torture. The city's assistant prosecutor insisted however, that the case involved nothing but the power of the police to control crowds and property rights. The judge readily accepted the prosecutor's argument that the issue of trespass was more important than the issues of international and constitutional law. (In other words, the type of narrow legal reasoning prevailed that could be used to convict Rosa Parks of sitting in the wrong seat on the bus without letting her argue the illegality of the wrongful, illegal racial discrimination that restricted the seating.) The prosecutor went so far as to generally paint "acts of conscience" and morality as being in opposition to the law. At one point he even declared that the law has nothing to do with right and wrong.
We, peacemakers, get really down on the war because of the method not the goals. We, peacemakers, get really down on the torture because of the method not the goals. We, peacemakers, get really down on the Neocons because they hold the loyalty ethnic higher than any other principles. However do peacemakers hold themselves to the same standards of principles first, no matter "who" and no matter "what goals"? What if instead of using the word "loyalty", we used the term "solidarity". Isn't solidarity simply another term of blind loyalty where we elevate the importance of who over the ethics of how?
At the Republican National Convention (RNC), the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee endorsed "solidarity" as their principle. To be fair, most of the peace community did not endorse this, and many peace groups were conspicuously absent from everything but the main peace march.
The reassurance that Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee gave was that different groups would maintain a distance in time and space. That failed on Labor Day, when the anarchists including the Black Bloc anarchists were acting at the same time as the main peace parade. They came within two blocks of the main parade and were headed off by parade marshals and police. Yeah, like someone who says that they are going to break legal rules is going to suddenly respect another set of rules? Duh!
As a peacemaker and as an American, I am deeply troubled by the erosion of our freedom of speech and our freedom to assemble. I also am troubled that due process of law instead of being used to protect us is now used as expensive punishment to exercising civil rights.
One of the peacemaker ways of healing a social wound is to gather everyone around in a circle and have everyone tell their stories. This goes in rounds. In our modern world, we have too little time and too many people to have a chance to do this physically. However, I will interview and tell the stories of a circle of representative people from Republican National Convention (RNC).
Nigel Parry, originally moved from Palestine to St Paul, so he has a unique perspective of an actual war torn city. This was not that bad, although the police numbers were similar. After his Republican National Convention (RNC) experience, he wants boring St Paul back!
I am a freelance web/print designer, writer, and musician who currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am also an alternative media activist concerned with Palestine, the Middle East, the US Criminal Justice system, and the 2008 RNC.
Here is a summary of what Nigel Parry said:
The media covers on the "if it bleeds it leads" principle. The RNC welcoming committee tried to set up the St Paul principles of a different time or a different space for actions. To make that work, it would have to be a different city to have to have been a different enough place or it would have to have been a different day to have to been a different enough time. The St Paul principles didn't work because basically one group was acting just a few streets away at the same time as the main peace march. The actions and message of 10,000 marching for peace were lost in the actions of a few.
The Black Bloc part of the Anarchists are going the way of cheap and easy protesting, the McDonalds type of protest.
During the Republican National Convention(RNC), the pre-emptive raid on the Whalen house, at 949 Iglehart in St Paul was the most outrageous. The people in the house were I-Witness, a group of citizen video journalists (like me), lawyers and other people who pledged to be both law abiding and peaceful. This search was extremely long and vindictive, holding people in uncomfortable positions for hours. And NOTHING was found. The boxes that needed to be searched could be opened in the post office, by post office authority.
The FBI, specifically Agent Zimmerman, was responsible for this raid. Justice Smith authorized this warrant on this information:
Michael Whalen was advocating direct violence by saying on his webpage:
"We support the struggles of oppressed and colonized peoples for self-determination. Self-determination is a fundamental right to be obtained through whatever means necessary, including armed struggle, Imperialism and the nation-states' militarism which permits and encourages it must end".
Apparently the FBI is totally against the American Revolution and considers the first generation of Americans to be terrorists! Oh hail George Washington, our first and foremost terrorist, according to the FBI! And all of us must be terrorists too, for we think the American Revolution was a good thing!
What is amazing about the "Chicken Little" title being assigned to Ramsey County Sheriff Fletcher is that this title is coming from a undercover cop, who should normally be one of the Sheriff's strongest supporters. In "Cop Book" a retired 27-year veteran of the Bloomington Police Department, Richard Greelis writes about a honcho cop he calls "Chicken Little". Ruben Rosario quotes Richard Greelis in his column:
"He wanted the credit for saving St. Paul from the sky that was, according to him, falling fast," Greelis writes. "In addition to airing his concerns, he tended not to play well with other cop-types who did not work for him - like our intel unit."
According to Greelis, this official was so adamant that his unit remove an informant who infiltrated a reputed anarchist group that he actually followed Greelis from a Minneapolis surveillance spot and pulled him over as if he was executing a routine pull-over traffic stop.
The obviously partisan Republican Convention (RNC) Host Committee puts on a convention impact report that is a finely crafted pack of marketing deceptions!
Giving seven million dollars back to charities is lying about the RNC being a benefit to charities. All the businesses that I interviewed said that the $250 million that RNC was trying to raise from businesses was coming out of their charity budgets. Remember the alternative would be for businesses to take it out of profits! And of course, businesses did not want to be quoted on this. All the charities were reporting reduced fund raising. And of course, the news reports all omitted the original negative impact on charities. In fact, all local contributions should be deleted from the positive financial impact, for that was local charity money diverted for Republican parties and a convention.
(The curmudgeon speaks for me! - promoted by Grace Kelly)
Has the US Senate become a subcommittee of the RNC? It is certainly acting as a robotic extension of the Republican Party.
We expect the Republican senators to salivate and vote when the bell rings. They are completely separate from any concern about the populace. They collect their paychecks from the insurance, drug and other anti-people lobbies. Their primary objective is to destroy the Obama administration. They have no other interest and clearly no moral compass. If a bunch of citizens die in the process its just collateral damage.
The senate democrats are a disappointing story. It appears that our vaunted majority leader has stepped aside in favor of Rush Limbaugh. Harry the Harried runs around in fear of a Republican filibuster or of hurt Republican feelings. He and his turncoat comrades like Baucus and Conrad join their "friends across the aisle" in not giving a crap about the American people. They sold their soul for their 30 pieces of silver and the people be damned.
We allegedly have a filibuster proof majority in the senate. What good has it done? The fault, dear Harry, lies not in your stars but in yourselves.
Soon, we will see the political test of Susan Gaertner, the current Ramsey County attorney, running for governor. The judge canceled the Wednesday, Aug. 19 hearing for the eight Republican National Convention parade organizers (RNC 8), that would have held tomorrow. The few trials for actual physical damage like breaking windows, dropping a sandbag or making Molotov cocktails has been prosecuted. Now the political free speech trials begin. The charge is conspiracy to riot. If there are not written plans of intense violence and threat, then these trials are going just look like the the political shut down of free speech. I, as a juror, would not see a plan of pushing a garbage can down a street as act of conspiracy to riot! There had better be more substance than the typical planned mischief that fraternities plan for a sporting event! The standards for "conspiracy to riot" should be the same for a political event and a sporting event.
Right now I expect there is intense pressure from Susan Gaertner using our tax dollars to force these people to plea guilty to some lesser charge. In my mind, such a plea would just demonstrate the bullying power of the Ramsey County attorney, rather than a true finding of facts. Susan Gaertner really does need factually demonstrate "conspiracy to riot", which no news articles support and my personal observations do not support. Or she needs to drop the charges entirely. Truly it is Susan Gaertner on trial to see if she is using the court to deny civil rights.
Soon, we will see the political test of Susan Gaertner, the current Ramsey County attorney, running for governor. The judge canceled the Wednesday, Aug. 19 hearing for the eight Republican National Convention parade organizers (RNC 8), that would have held tomorrow. The few trials for actual physical damage like breaking windows, dropping a sandbag or making Molotov cocktails has been prosecuted. Now the political free speech trials begin. The charge is conspiracy to riot. If there are not written plans of intense violence and threat, then these trials are going just look like the the political shut down of free speech. I, as a juror, would not see a plan of pushing a garbage can down a street as act of conspiracy to riot! There had better be more substance than the typical planned mischief that fraternities plan for a sporting event! The standards for "conspiracy to riot" should be the same for a political event and a sporting event.
Right now I expect there is intense pressure from Susan Gaertner using our tax dollars to force these people to plea guilty to some lesser charge. In my mind, such a plea would just demonstrate the bullying power of the Ramsey County attorney, rather than a true finding of facts. Susan Gaertner really does need factually demonstrate "conspiracy to riot", which no news articles support and my personal observations do not support. Or she needs to drop the charges entirely. Truly it is Susan Gaertner on trial to see if she is using the court to deny civil rights.
