The executives at Target are pretty much all right wing Republicans. I can imagine that they were pretty happy to read about the Citizens United ruling that allowed Target to spend money getting their kind of candidates elected. There's only one reason I can imagine that they'd back down on this: profit.
Target finally opened a store in Manhattan a few weeks ago, but it couldn't have been worse timing since their support of homophobic Minnesota politician Tom Emmer leaked out just moments later.
We don't go for that kind of thing here!
Until then, the Target chain had seemed gay-friendly and sort of pro-artsy and semi-downtowny in a dollar-store sort of way.
So this came as a complete shock, and as a result, potential shoppers have put down their inexpensive throw rugs and mobilized to protest.
(Village Voice)
The protest over Target donating to MN Forward has not only hurt their PR image, it's hurt their bottom line. This and only this can be the reason they apologized.
Some time ago, I was working in an office one night, and someone barged into the room. He had on a cut-off sweatshirt, I think cut-off jeans, and I know he had loafers on with no socks. I didn't know who he was. He said, "Move and you're dead." And he had a gun pointed right at me. I didn't move, so I am not dead. It turned out the office I was "working" in was the Douglas County Draft Board Office, in Alexandria, Minnesota, and it was a few minutes past midnight, forty years ago tonight, and the fellow with the gun, whom I didn't know, was an F.B.I. agent. The first thought that went through my mind was, "So, Bill, this was not a treasure hunt we were on!"
Every peacemaker is struggling with the idea of escalation of US soldiers in Afghanistan. The inherent problem is that essentially soldiering and policing are different roles, with different sets of skills. Afghanistan needs a good police force not foreign group of soldiers trying to act like police. So there is a painful discussion going on within peacemakers, as well as protests for peace now back on the streets.
Last year, the right to assemble and the right to protest was taken away by requiring permits to assemble in both St Paul and Minneapolis. Last night was one the largest challenges by having a unpermitted march down Hennepin Av in St Paul. I applaud the Minneapolis city government and the Minneapolis local police for allowing the unpermitted march, while simply lining up a row of officers on horses on one side and a row of officers on bicycles on the other side. Eventually, those people who wanted to be arrested had to sit down and block the intersection. Those who simply wanted to march then dispersed on police orders. Kudos to the Minneapolis police for acting with restraint.
Craig Stellmacher from the Uptake has an onsite report:
And after last night's speech by President Obama, here on the semi-frozen tundra, people will be exercising their Constitutional rights to do just that.
That was the scene at the entrance to last Saturday's MnGOP Convention. Dusty Trice, noted and intrepid blogger and my "go to" in-the-field reporter for my radio show, has video - it's beyond the fold.
A little background (as I've written about here and here and here):
Lieutenant Colonel Joe Repya was so disgusted by the (s)election of FEC Tony and MudSlingerMike (a/k/a, "The MSM"), that he published an op/ed in the PiPress on the reasons he was leaving the Republican Party, now led by FEC Tony and MudSlinger Mike (a/k/a, "The MSM"). While that Op/Ed is no longer available on the PiPress website, comments on that Op/Ed are. Nathan Hansen, GOP Deputy Chair of CD-4, did comment - here's what he had to say:
Burnsville police are apparently opposed to peace activists protesting near Rep. John Kline's (R-MN) office and it seems like they are doing everything they can to help Kline from ever coming into contact with any constituents. The First Amendment prevents the BPD from stopping the protesters from doing their thing, but ... they sure are wiley down there in Burnsville. They've been charging the people driving by with crimes ... so sneaky ... so ... do you hear that? I hear the ACLU getting the paperwork ready as I type ...
Yesterday one of my friends learned that he was facing three months in jail and a $1,000 fine. His crime? Improper use of a car horn. You may think that people don't go to jail for honking their car horns, you may think that there must be an additional charge on top of the honking offense because we have all heard people use their car horns in non-emergency situations but most of us have never heard of a person going to jail for such an offense. There are no other charges however, the only charge against him in the police report is that he was "honking the vehicle's horn repeatedly approximately five to ten times."
Today, about 40 protesters showed up to protest at Representative's Betty McCollum's office. The group said there were no leaders, even though two Republican candidates were there. For some reason, they wanted to pretend that this was not organized, saying "We are just a bunch of individuals." Even though this event is organized through the tea party website:
8/14/09 Health Care Freedom Rally
Step 1. Find your representatives in Congress at http://www.congress.org Step 2. Decide which office you will visit
Step 3. Write a letter or statement and bring it with you
11am - 12pm
Arrive at 11am and stay until noon if you can.
Bring a camera!....
Fourth District Betty McCollum (DFL)
165 Western Ave. N., Suite 17
St. Paul, MN 55102
651-224-9191
Fax: 651-224-3056
Although Betty McCollum is out of town, the staff had enough warning to prepare tea and handouts. Everyone had a copy of Betty McCollum's remarks at the Health Care Town Forum, articles debunking rumors, and a summary of the health care bill. Every person was able to fill out a form with their remarks and any requests.
The group demanded a health care forum. Then they were informed that Betty McCollum's health care forum had already been held on July 1. The group then asked how come they didn't know about the health care forum. All of Betty McCollum's forums, town meetings, actions and views are easily accessible by simply signing up for her newsletter. So it was really obvious that this group had just suddenly developed an interest in health care legislation. The staff had a tape of the health care forum ready to roll, which the group refused. So having been provided with a way to provide input and with multiple sources of Betty McCollum's information, it became really obvious that group's sole purpose was mostly disruption. One person actually brought a cowbell!
In someways the more things change, the more they stay the same. On Wednesday, I attended the tenth anniversary of the Peace protests at the Lake Street Bridge. A protest sign is one of the original short messages. Twitter is the newest version of short messages.
In the movie, The Lord of the Rings, a string of bonfires is lit in succession to ask for aid in war, which represents an actual historical use of instant messaging. American Indians did instant messaging by smoke signals. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, the peace protesters used a precursor of Twitter to communicate and organize. The recent Twitter communication of Iran protests is the best use of instant political communication used for organizing. I was also very impressed with Uptake tweeting the last days of the legislative session, which was followed by many.
There are two opposing forces working on Tweeting or Twittering. One form of Tweeting is to only speak when you have something important, which is the form that I use (TheGraceKelly). Some people use Twitter like a Dear Diary function, and post notes like "I am doing my grocery shopping, now!". That is the social function of tweeting - staying in touch. Hmmm, maybe my last social Tweet will be, " I am dying now, signing off, have a good life!".
Right now, I find an overwhelming amount of noise in Tweeting, Facebook, blogging, RSS feeds and even emails. So now comes along the sorting functions like recommends, best-of features, and aggregators. Now, I am just waiting for the Spam Ads. Opps, the spam is already posting on trending topics, with a Clean Tweets fix. See I am still in the signal fires age!
The parallels with history suggest perhaps we should communicate more with intention in mind.
Since I have no strongly held beliefs in the nature of God, I have listened to many people talk about God. Since "God" has become important in politics, the discussions of God have become even more relevant. What I have noticed is the almost always, God is remade to the personal desires of the speaker, looking like "Superman" version of the person speaking. If the person is rich, then God has rewarded him/her in this life. If the person is struggling, then God is testing them. If bad things have happened, then it is because "we" have all sinned. Indeed upon close questioning, a best friend is allowed to have more differences in belief from the speaker than God is allowed to have.
Now one Christian religious scholar has said that this personal recreation of God is actually a false idol. He also says that religion is outside standard, not personally made up standard, written in a book called the bible.
So take just one issue, abortion, and see what the bible says:
The Revised Standard Bible Says:
"When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."
God only punishes the guilty person(s) with a fine if the fetus is lost in an accidental miscarriage, but invokes equal punishment if the woman is injured or killed as a result of the accident. The implication being: 1) the unborn child only has a monetary value to God, 2) the unborn child is not a person, hence their use of the word "fetus," and 3), the woman has infinite value (to her husband) while the fetus has little if any value. The New American Standard and many other English translations validate this position as do many Jewish commentaries.
Liberated Christians
No one has been able to give a more applicable passage to the bible to this particular political issue. Most people back away from any strict literal view of the bible because it has logical problems, which means there is even less reason to invoke the bible in a political discussion. So when political discussions do get to the actually Biblical passages, then the final argument is usually a version of the argument that God professes what the person wants God to profess.
On April 30, outside of of Susan Gaertner's Fundraiser for the governor's race at 801 Washington, a dedicated group of people protest that eight people (RNC 8) are charged for felonies, such as conspiracy to riot, from the Republican National Convention.
This trouble in three different ways:
1) There is trouble with Susan Gaertner's claim to good judgment since the evidence provided to the public has been so sparse that these cases appear to be just the government's attempt to save face. Recently, Gaertner dropped two of the four conspiracy charges against the RNC 8. The cost to both Ramsey county and the defendants has been questioned! The RNC 8 face about $250,000 in legal fees.
Even the Minneapolis mayor is going to look bad for spending the funds for three cop cars and about five officers, to hold down the volume and keep taped signs off of the buildings - high priority crimes? A call to the first Minneapolis police precinct confirmed that the police were provided at city cost.
Hmmm, there are protests every day at the capitol. I wonder how much money, Susan Gaertner is planning to spend on police for all of those protests?
Think the business of the Republican National Convention is over with, think again. Just last Friday, March 13, a search warrant was executed on a Macalester student, Bassam Khawajam, by the St Paul Police Department, searching for the three people who broke windows and slashed tires on a police car. The source on this is Macalester's College's Mac Weekly. I think every St Paul citizen has reasons to be alarmed about this:
The basis of serving the warrant is a general description and membership on a Facebook group, an identification that is more of an indictment of age and political views than any political wrong doing!
Using photographs of protesters breaking the car's windows, police drew a general description of the suspects. One of the vandals was dressed in blue jeans with a torn right pant leg, a black shirt and a black head wrap, a description fitting many members of the Macalester chapter of Students for a Democratic Society during the protest.
Using other photos and his appearance in a protest related Facebook group, officers identified Khawaja as appearing similar to the vandal, mostly based on his clothing, the standard SDS outfit.
On the day of the search, officers served a warrant allowing them to look for the shirt, jeans and head wrap, as well as black shoes, red shoe laces, a hammer and identifying documents. Most importantly, the warrant allowed them to take "photographs of tattoos on both arms" and "any documents related to Anarchist activity."
Khawaja does not have tattoos on either of his arms. He said that when the officers arrived to search his room, he showed them his arms as proof he had been misidentified, but they began pressuring him to quit resisting.
Wait, wait, it gets stranger!
the warrant was dated for October 2007
Even as a typo, warrants have to be reissued if on the wrong address. I really question the "2007" part. So how many old warrants are just sitting around, that the police are going to use? How old can a warrant be? Was this search even legal?
Normally, you would expect Chris Coleman (no relation to Norm Coleman), the St Paul mayor who won with 69% of the vote against an incumbent, to have no problems running in the re-election. However the recently circulating emails and resolutions show that St Paul was not pleased with being turned into a police state for Republican National Convention. It was so bad that most businesses lost money due to the convention.
From: Hope For Saint Paul
Date: February 1, 2009 4:11:31 PM CST
Subject: No Endorsement for Chris Coleman
As a leader in your community, I am writing you today about a very important and urgent issue. Please feel free to forward on this message!
With the caucuses leading to the City endorsing convention on Tuesday, it is time for Progressive St.Paul DFL'ers to make it clear to Chris Coleman that his leadership (or lack thereof) of the Republican National Convention, the trampling of free speech rights and the whitewashing of the event by "his committee" is NOT OKAY. In fact, it is shameful, embarrassing and a disgrace to our city. It is shameful to our values as a democracy and as progressives! Leaders like him have no place leading any further! While there may not currently be any progressive challenger, this could change, and I encourage you to deny Chris Coleman the DFL endorsement. It is very plausible, given the rules and the amount of people who have expressed their lack of trust and shame in having Chris Coleman as Mayor that WE CAN DENY HIM THE DFL ENDORSEMENT!
It only takes 40% of delegates to vote no endorsement! Show up to your caucus and become a delegate, it's a very easy process.
Eventually it had to come out in the trials for alleged crimes at the Republican National Convention(RNC) that the so called "anarchists" of the RNC Welcoming Committee were being influenced by provocateurs. Basically the worst that happened at the RNC was broken windows, slashed tires and one dropped sandbag. However, the worst alleged planned incident that was an alleged fire bombing by three people. The stories that are now coming out point to the leader of that group as Brandon Darby, paid by the FBI. Brandon had the strongest political activist background. Brandon was not a person just sitting in a meeting taking notes, he was a person teaching people in martial arts how to fight the police. Brandon was a leader! Informants don't lead, provocateurs lead. Yet this provocateur is getting off scot-free and even being called a hero by the Powerline Republican blog. Brandon suckered two naive young people into doing acts that will put them in jail for a long time. David McKay and Bradley Crowder, from Austin, Texas are scheduled to go on trial in Minnesota on Jan. 26, and are facing a possible 30 years in jail if convicted on all counts.
LISA FITHIAN: I have no question that he's a provocateur. I mean, I've worked with Brandon for a long time, and everywhere that Brandon has worked, there has been discord, tension, aggression. We know that-you know, the interesting thing is that now that we know for sure, more and more stories are starting to emerge about what Brandon has asked people to do in the past. So the more I find about these young men, as well, it's clear to me that-
AMY GOODMAN: Like what?
LISA FITHIAN: Well, that, I mean, they are two young men from Midland, Texas who are angry at our government, who wanted to learn about organizing, and they wanted to make a difference in this world. They are not that experienced, and they were very impressionable. And when you have somebody like Brandon, who has some national notoriety, he's-they were star-struck. And again, based on the documents-and I know Carly will talk more about this-these documents make it very clear that he was leading these young men down a road that unfortunately got them into a situation that they are now facing very serious consequences, years in prison, as a result of the work of Brandon Darby.
And here is testimony from even further in Brandon Darby's past in the organization, Common Ground:
MALIK RAHIM: And I knew from the very beginning that Homeland Security had infiltrated us. I knew that when I realized that to be critical of FEMA response as it related to Katrina, on the aftermath of Katrina, we took upon the wrath of Homeland Security. I was looking at it coming from many different ways. But God knows I didn't think it would be from Brandon. And that part of it has literally-it has literally broken my heart, again, you know, that this has happened.
I know that there's been many people that left from Common Ground in frustration, and many of it was due in part because of Brandon. Many young ladies, many individuals that he literally ran off, you know? It just tackles me. I couldn't read the whole letter.
Prosecutor Gaertnor is saying that she cannot answer RNC questions because of a "gag" order issued by a judge in an off the record meeting in judge's chambers, which means that I cannot get a written record of such an order. Hmmm, the convenience of such an order is amazing. Especially since the most basic complaint is a political complaint that the law is here is being applied in a totally unfair and inconsistent way. It is like enforcing a jaywalking law on the pedestrians in the middle of University of Minnesota.
So here are the questions that I would like to ask Ramsey County Prosecutor Susan Gaerdner:
1) Would any person who did the same acts at a sporting event be treated the same way as these people at the RNC who allegedly committed these crimes?
