I think I'll move to St. Paul

[pameladean]

So that I can vote against Chris Coleman. He defended the raids. All of them, not just the one on the outfit that had the inflammatory website. I'm pretty sure that even that raid did not need to be carried out the way it was, but he defended all of them. Apparently his mother-in-law wants to protest during the convention. Well! We can't have her walking with scary people who travel around in a bus with a bunch of chickens teaching people how to live sustainably. We can't have her walking with scary people who cook vegan food and give it away for free. That would be so terrible.

One of the houses raided was 3500 Harriet Avenue. I walk past there all the time. But this hits home even more strongly.

I wonder how much in damages Ramsey County and the other entities involved are going to be paying for these raids five years from now.

The current leadership, policies, and practices of the Republican Party are very well calculated to bring out the worst authoritarianism and paranoia in the human psyche, and to elevate the worst and suppress the best in the party. September 11 was like a test that they failed once, and they enjoyed failing it so much that they studied assiduously how to get more and more questions wrong so that they could fail it even better. I wish to God I could vote against them as many times as they have voted for torture and murder and wrecking the environment. I wish I thought that would even help.

P.

Comments

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

I've been reading about this with shock all day.

Amen to your entire post.

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

Dear God, I hadn't known.

What's next, kristallnacht?

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I wish to God I could vote against them as many times as they have voted for torture and murder and wrecking the environment. I wish I thought that would even help.

Amen.

Between this and the poor people unable to get out bracing for Gustav....dear Christ.

[pameladean]

It's a very bad weekend indeed.

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

The city has free buses and trains to take people out who don't have transportation of their own.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I wish...I wish I was a close personal friend of Obama right now, so that I could call him up and say "Are you seeing this? Would you please say something? Please? This can't be allowed to continue."

[pameladean]

I do kind of wish he'd say something, though it would be quite a balancing act. I sent email to the Mayor of Minneapolis, who has not yet said a single word, although two City Council members have strongly condemned the raids.

P.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I can't say I'm surprised. Given what happened at the NYC Republican convention, and the worsening of civil liberties protections in the country since then, this is all pretty predictable. Which doesn't make it less horrifying - if anything, more so, because it vividly illustrates just how bad things have become.

There was some ugly stuff in Denver, too, but nothing on this magnitude.

[pameladean]

The stuff in Denver was deplorable, but it wasn't pre-emptive in the same way. It's just enough to allow people who want to (not you, I hasten to add) to conflate the parties, a tactic that drives me crazy.

P.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Besides the outrage, I'm feeling a deep regret. I believe Senator Paul Wellstone would have come down on this like the wrath of God. Why are Paul Wellstone and Molly Ivins dead, but Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter are alive? There ain't no justice.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

It kind of makes me smile, despite everything, to think of what Paul and Molly would have said and written about this.

[pameladean]

There has hardly been a day since his death that I haven't missed Paul Wellstone.

P.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Before you blame the Republican Party, remember that Minneapolis and St. Paul are both DFL-run. And that Chris Coleman is a DFLer.

I'm planning to tell my councilman that don't want any national political conventions in Minneapolis during my lifetime or the lifetimes of recently-born Minneapolis residents. And that I do want stricter civilian control of the police.

[pameladean]

I blame them for the entire atmosphere of the last eight years. I blame them, as I say, for deliberately playing on the worst aspects of the human psyche. I never said that the Democrats were immune to this; it has been painfully evident for some time that they aren't, although at least some fight back.

P.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

I just saw online that the convention is going to be *curtailed* because of Hurricane Gustav. What an interesting week this is going to be.

Isn't it just like Mother Nature to apply a dose of reality.

[pameladean]

I am so grateful that Bush isn't coming to St. Paul. The madness would only get worse.

I'm glad Gustav wasn't as bad as it could have been, too. It looked like a Category 3 or worse when they had to make their decisions, and then ramped down. I can't really laugh, since it didn't disappear altogether and has caused damage and displacement and grief, but I can grin a bit.

P.

[chakolate.livejournal.com]

I couldn't believe it when I read about the raids on slashdot. Have we gone back to 1951-53? Or 1968? Jeebus, it's really creepy that this should be happening in this country at this time. It should never happen in any country at any time.

I'm so frazzled I'm not sure I'm making any sense any more.

[pameladean]

That's just how I feel.

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

It's awful that it's happening, but I suppose it will be like DC -- once you've done it and had to pay lots of money for doing it, you won't do it again soon.

[pameladean]

I hope we have to pay through our noses. Damn it.

I guess a part of me actually believed Chris Coleman and thought we wouldn't do it in the first place. I wonder if this helps or hurts his chances of re-election.

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Boing Boing has picked it up (from Ned Sublette) with videos and articles.

[pameladean]

Wow, not the way I'd have wanted us to hit Boing Boing.

P.

[erinbow.livejournal.com]

This is way to close to home ... I used to live not two blocks from there. And only the net seems to have the news. I feel like a subversive, trying to pick up sadizidat news....

My poor lost country.

[pameladean]

I know, it's enough to make you weep.

I think it's seeping into the mainstream media a bit, now that they've arrested Amy Goodman, for God's sake.

P.

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

Do please vote, though.
Speaking as someone who doesn't get a vote, but does think and hope it will make a difference.

[pameladean]

Oh, I will, absolutely. And not for Republicans.

P.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I have an additional reaction.

The guys who got busted are a bunch of lame-ass amateurs. Anything said, discussed, or decided in a group of, say, 20 people, will be reported to the red squads verbatim. Regardless of what the organization/cell/druplet/affinity group/conspiracy is.

Why did they make themselves so easy to round up? It was entirely predictable to anyone who has worked seriously on anything like this any time in the last decade. Why didn't they create patterns of action which could not be disrupted so easily and cheaply?

[pameladean]

Oh, golly, yeah, let's blame the victims. That'll help.

The more hapless they are, frankly, the madder I get at the overreaction. Of course cannier protesters would be better, but I think that's mostly a side issue.

P.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Does anybody know if there's any sort of defense fund set up people picked up in these--or any further raids?

[pameladean]

I haven't been able to find anything collective. There's a lawyer's group that came to assist people arrested while actually protesting, and they're helping with legal stuff; and the permibus has an LJ account with a way to donate, and IWitness may also have a website. I've been a bit distracted by the need to donate somewhere for Gustav, too.

P.