Listening to Democracy Now this morning, hearing the jubilant interviewees at the RNC who saw one of their own in the VP seat, I had an insight.

When the nomination was announced, I assumed this was a craven attempt to capture disaffected Hillary Clinton voters–but now I think that had nothing to do with this particular political calculus. it doesn’t take a whole lot of brainpower to suspect there won’t be a heck of a lot of Hillary voters who would choose a candidate who is anti-choice, anti-Green, pro-war just because he’d chosen a running mate that happens to have two X chromosomes, even though she’s well to the right of even McCain (who is no liberal).

But what I didn’t think about is the instant street cred this gave McCain with Bush’s base: the arch-conservatives. They were not excited about McCain, and rumor had a lot of them planning to sit this one out. Now, they’re energized. They’ll vote, they’ll send money, they’ll campaign actively. In a single stroke, he makes the race a lot more competitive, and has the added benefit of something that brings in the disability advocacy community.

But…here’s my insight: The ultra-right likes this pick because they think McCain has a very good chance of dying in office.

McCain, at 72, has a long history of health problems. If he is dead or incapacitated, Sarah Palin is the wet dream of the radical conservatives. She ardently opposes abortion (and I’ll give her credit for this–chose to bring her own baby to term knowing he had Downs, so on this matter at least she lives her principles), believes in teaching creation, waves her NRA membership around proudly, censors books…and for this, they are willing to forgive much:

  • The fiscal irresponsibility and ruination of the character of the town of her years as Wasilla’s mayor
  • A long track record of petty vindictiveness and a very spotty record on ethics
  • A clear attraction to pork-barrel special-interest politics
  • Her daughter’s illegitimate pregnancy
  • The possibility that her own first child might have been conceived out of wedlock (Track Palin was born just 7 months, 21 days after the wedding–isn’t that unusual for a first pregnancy?)

    That last should be easy to check. If Track Palin, her oldest son, was a premie, there should be some significant medical evidence of neonatal intensive care. Any investigative reporters want to work on that?

    It is a bit ironic that all these people who’ve been screaming their highly intolerant definition of family values for decades suddenly find tolerance in this case. I personally don’t care who Palin slept with or when, but I find the hypocrisy very revealing.

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    Things continue to be ugly in Saint Paul at the Republican National Convention. Watch this video of police seizing the living/working permaculture demonstration bus from activists, not allowing them to remove any of their possessions except for their chickens and dogs–which were left with the bus residents on the side of a highway as cops hauled the bus away–and not giving anything resembling a valid reason for their action.

    And not much prettier on the convention floor, where Sarah Palin made an absolutely despicable speech attacking Obama last night. Among other things, she said, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer’ except that you have actual responsibilities.” Obama, of course, got his start as a community organizer. As did I, and I don’t appreciate the jab.

    And I see they’re trotting out the L-Word again–here’s former presidential candidate Fred Thompson at the RNC:

    the Democrats present a history-making nominee for president, history-making in that he’s the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for president.

    Now it’s time for Obama–who has been remarkably classy in attacking the McCain-Bush policies while commending McCain’s personal commitment and his patriotism to say what Dukakis should have said in 1988.

    “Liberals gave us the 8-hour day and workplace protection safeguards instead of 12 or 14 hours in near-slave conditions. Liberals passed historic legislation to protect the air and water of our nation. Liberals actually belief that government should serve the people–all of the people, and not just the $5 million a year and more club. Yes, I’m a liberal and I’m proud.. Why aren’t YOU?”

    That would have turned around the 1988 election and changed the discourse for decades. It can do the same today.

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    If you were as horrified as I was by the police violence I wrote about yesterday, please sign this petition from CREDO:

    Jailing journalists is unacceptable in a democracy. But that’s exactly
    what is happening at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul,
    Minnesota.

    Award winning journalist and host of “Democracy Now” Amy Goodman was
    arrested by St. Paul police while covering a protest outside the
    Republican National Convention. Though clearly identified as press,
    Goodman was charged with “obstruction of a legal process and interference
    with a ‘peace officer.'” Two of her producers were arrested for “suspicion
    of felony riot.”

    To tell you that this arrest was brutal and upsetting simply doesn’t do it
    justice. Watch this video
    https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/dont_arrest_journalists/
    to see for yourself. Then take action.

    I just e-mailed the presidents of CNN and NBC News (which oversees MSNBC)
    to demand that their networks cover this important story. I hope you will
    too.

    Please have a look and take action.
    https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/dont_arrest_journalists/

    Also this report from Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice,w ith the phone number for the St. Paul Mayor’s Office:

    We are sending you this message because the situation in St. Paul is very grave and we’re concerned that the real story is not being told by the mainstream media.

    Over the past few days, the heavily armed and extremely large police presence in St. Paul has intimidated, harrassed and provoked people; and, in a number of instances, the police have escalated situations when they used excessive force. They have used pepper spray, including spraying at least one person just inches from her face as she was held down on the ground by several police officers. They have freely swung their extra long night sticks, pushed people around, rode horses and bicycles up against peacefully gathered groups, and surrounded people simply walking down the streets. On Tuesday evening, they used tear gas on a small group of protesters in downtown St. Paul.

    The massive police presence and the uncalled-for actions by the police on the streets has not been the only problem. The police raided a convergence center and several locations where people are staying over the weekend and they have stopped and searched vehicles for no clear reason. https://www.counterpunch.org/cohn09022008.html

    On Tuesday afternoon, they literally pulled the plug and turned off the electricity at a permitted outdoor concert. The timing of this led to a situation where hundreds of understandably angry people ended up joining a march being led by the Poor Peoples Campaign for Economic Human Rights, a march that organizers were insisting be nonviolent. In other words, the police set up a dynamic that could have turned ugly, but the skill of the organizers kept things calm and focused.

    All of this – and much more – needs to be understood in the context of the overwhelming presence of police. Police from all around the Twin Cities have been put to work, and they have also brought in police units from around Minnesota and from as far away as Philadelphia, PA. The National Guard and state troopers are in the mix, to say nothing of the Secret Service, Homeland Security and who knows who else from the federal government!

    We are very concerned about what this all means about the right to protest, the right to assemble, and the right to have one’s dissenting voice heard. We are worried about what it means about the growing militarization of our nation and the ongoing assault on the Constitution. We shudder to think about how the influx of new weapons and armed vehicles and everything else will be used in the neighborhoods of St. Paul and Denver: both communities each received $50 million from Homeland Security to purchase the equipment and pay for the policing during the conventions.

    There are still two more days of the Republican Convention in St. Paul — two more days of protest and possibilities of police mis-conduct, over-reaction, and excessive use of force.

    We urge you to call the Mayor of St. Paul right now! Let him know that people around the country know what’s happening! Urge him to stand up for the Constitution and to take action to end the militarization of the downtown areas of his city! Urge him to reign in the police and help bring civility to the streets of St. Paul!

    Mayor Chris Coleman: 651-266-8510

    And call your local media outlets to demand that they tell the real story of what’s happening in St. Paul this week.

    Peace,

    Leslie Cagan, UFPJ National Coordinator

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    I am absolutely outraged! the Republican National Convention is turning into a replay of the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1968, where cops went crazy violent against activists, who were hauled into court.

    Enough is enough!

    The first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to peaceful protest, as well as the right to freedom of the press. Here is the full text. with the relevant parts in bold:

    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

    .

    At the RNC this weekend, legitimate journalists, credentials around their necks, were thrown roughly to the ground, handcuffed, assaulted, and arrested by police who violated all sorts of protocols. Earlier in the week, the police engaged in pre-emptive raids against citizen-journalists who have been known to record police brutality incidents.

    You can read, watch, or listen to the entire account by clicking here. But I want to share a few of the most outrageous bits.

    NICOLE SALAZAR: Cars were behind me. We were in a parking lot. And, you know, I was telling them that “I’m press. I’m press. Please, you know, don’t—you know, let me pass.” But I couldn’t turn around. And I tried to move in between the—between two cars, and instead of, you know, letting me pass and following the crowd, they instead came right after me and slammed me into the car, at which point I think my camera came back and hit me in the face. And two cops were also behind me, and they pushed me through that row of cars into the next area of the parking lot and slammed me to the ground and said, “Get your face on the ground! Get your face on the ground!” And I was, you know, at that point—

    AMY GOODMAN: So you were on your stomach, on your face, on the ground.

    NICOLE SALAZAR: I was on my stomach on the ground. And one of the officers, I think he was trying to grab me. He was trying to drag me. He was grabbing my leg. And another officer put his boot on my back and was pressing me to the ground.

    AMY GOODMAN: Had they handcuffed you by now?

    NICOLE SALAZAR: Yes, they had put me in those plastic cuffs, and my hands were behind my back. And my camera was, you know, two feet away from my face, lying on the ground. And I think shortly thereafter one officer came over and picked up the camera and took out the battery. And at that point I was worried that they were going to take my tape, but I don’t think—I mean, they didn’t, because now we have the tape, but he did take the battery out, I guess so the camera wouldn’t be recording.

    AMY GOODMAN: Finally, I made it to the police line, where the police in riot gear were lined up. I asked to speak to a commanding officer. They immediately grabbed me. I said, “Sir, I just want to speak to a commanding officer. My reporters are inside.” They’ve got their ID. I mean, we’ve done this in New York, as well, when there is confusion about a reporter. They immediately grabbed me, handcuffed me—and as you haven’t quite talked about, those plastic handcuffs cut right into your wrist, and they make those tight—pushed me to the ground.

    AMY GOODMAN: As I came in and I was speaking to the corrections officers, who did identify themselves—I kept asking every officer to identify themselves—a St. Paul cop behind them kept screaming, “Shut up! You, shut up!” And I asked—I said, “I want to know what your name is or your badge.” “Shut up! Shut up!” he said, I think to the chagrin of the corrections officers. One of the head guys in the jail came over and said, “He’s not ours. We can’t force him to identify himself. Our policy is that they identify themselves.” And stayed there for several hours.

    Ultimately, they released me, interference with, I think they said, the judicial process or with a peace officer.

    SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: I was taken to prison, as well. But I think one thing that was left out also in the story, and I think this happened to you, as well, Amy, was that while we were standing waiting to be processed and put on the bus, I was standing there with three credentials around my neck: my Democracy Now! press pass, which has my picture; the RNC press one, which gets you inside the convention; and a separate one, which I was supposed to put on Nicole, but I never actually did, was a limited RNC press one. A man walked up to me, who was not in uniform of St. Paul or Minneapolis police—I was later told he was Secret Service—came up and looked at my RNC press badge, said, “What is this?” I said, “It’s my pass to get inside the Xcel Center.” He said, “Well, you won’t be needing that to go—you’re not going to be going inside the convention center today,” and took it and walked off. I immediately protested. I said, “I want this around my neck to prove I’m an accredited journalist to go inside the convention center.” And he said, “You won’t be needing it today,” walked off.

    I asked my arresting officer, who incidentally was not my arresting officer—they just assigned some guy to take the picture of me and process me—he said, “I don’t know who that guy is. He looks like Secret Service.” I said, “Well, why don’t you acknowledge that this was taken, witness it somehow?” And he refused to do so. And I believe they did the same to you. They took that pass off your neck.

    AMY GOODMAN: Right. The Secret Service came up, and they—he ripped it off of my neck.

    SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Right.

    AMY GOODMAN: And I said, “That is my pass. I want a receipt that you have taken that.” But of course, they didn’t give it.

    SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And then, once I was put on the bus, as well—and just to reiterate what you were saying, while I was being arrested, I was, you know, slammed violently. I got scratches on my elbow and bruises on my chest and back. But the most painful part of it was these plastic handcuffs. They were extremely tight. Getting onto the bus, I asked one of the officers, I said, “Can you just cut these off and put on new ones?” because you can’t loosen those. And his response to that was to grab them and tighten them. So it was very painful on the way. I actually still don’t have feeling in part of my hand.

    In the Bush years, the right to dissent has been unnaturally restricted and restricted. As one among many examples, national political party conventions have colluded with local police departments to deny these rights of free speech, assembly, and redress of grievances, by forcing demonstrators into restricted areas where the politicos don’t have to see and hear them.

    But vicious physical attacks on and arrests of journalists is something that isn’t supposed to happen here, in the land of the free–in the dictatorships of developing countries (all-too-often propped up with the help of the U.S., unfortunately), it might be common. But here? The land to which our forefathers and foremothers gave their lives in order to ensure that it would always be free–Thomas Jefferson must be spinning in his grave.

    Why there wasn’t mass outrage about the idea that you can cage up demonstrators and herd them away from the institutions they’re protesting against–or why this idiocy hasn’t been thrown out by the courts–is beyond me. But it’s time for the people to say, enough, we won’t take it anymore.

    We demand our right to assemble in public places–including directly outside the gates of those we want to reach.
    We demand an end to police violence against peaceful protest.
    We demand an end to harassment, assault, and arrest of journalists, including the mainstream press, the alternative press, and citizen-journalists
    We demand our rights under the First Amendment to the United states constitution to speak, to be heard, and to register our protests, and our rights as citizens of the United states to vote, and to have our votes counted honestly.

    Tell your Senators, your Representatives, and your local political party structure.

    And it’s not just journalists. I received this via e-mail from A.N.S.W.E.R this afternoon:

    The police have engaged in a widespread riot against social justice organizations, resulting in the arrest of around 300 protesters. Most of the arrested are still in jail, and at least one person with a serious medical condition has been refused care.

    Even before the Convention began, protesters had the organizing centers raided. Armed groups of police in the Twin Cities have raided more than half-a-dozen locations since Friday night in a series of “preemptive raids.” The raids and detentions have targeted activists planning to protest the convention, including journalists and videographers from I-Witness Video and the Glass Bead Collective. These media organizations were targeted because of the instrumental role they played in documenting police abuses the 2004 RNC Convention. Their comprehensive video coverage helped more than 400 wrongfully arrested people get their charges thrown out.

    You can go sign their petition to protest and demand the release of these hundreds of people.

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