The Bush Administration in Miniature

[pameladean]

So, despite all the pre-emptive raids and harrassment and warrantless searches of people who were very unlikely to do anything violent, the combined forces of the FBI, the Ramsey County Sheriff's office, and the police they got to assist them did not, in fact, actually stop the people who actually did commit violence. Possibly there was no way that they could have found and stopped those people. But I fail to see how intimidating Food Not Bombs helped in today's events at all, unless it either distracted the forces of whatever from the real problem groups, or inflamed those groups into actions they had not planned beforehand and might not otherwise have taken. Given the general track record of the Bush Administration, I guess I'd have to go with the first.

This is all depressingly familiar.

So is my suspicion that some of those violent protesters were not ordinary people or Democrats at all. This is another grand part of Bush's legacy. Every time I think, "Oh, they wouldn't do THAT," they do it. I wouldn't put anything past them. To quote Teresa Nielsen Hayden, with much less pleasure than I would ordinarily have quoted her, "I deeply resent the way this Administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist.”

Here's a link so you know what I'm babbling about.

MinnPost

Updated to add:

And another


P.

Comments

[tunxeh.livejournal.com]

So is my suspicion that some of those violent protesters were not ordinary people or Democrats at all. This is another grand part of Bush's legacy. Every time I think, "Oh, they wouldn't do THAT," they do it.

Given that the past use of agents provocateurs for political purposes by American administrations is well documented (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO), and that this administration is worse than past ones, it seems unlikely that they would refrain.

[pameladean]

Yes, good point. Part of my feeling like a nutbar is just naivete.

P.

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

Someone on my flist posted that her brother was arrested - he's 17 - while walking back to his car after not being able to get into a public, union-sponsored concert. Her post is public, here (http://blacksquirrel.livejournal.com/141245.html?mode=reply&style=mine), so I don't feel awkward linking to it.

The Palin pregnancy announcement certainly succeeded in getting the police's actions off the news....

[maiac.livejournal.com]

If The Usual Suspects didn't have the Palin pregnancy to gossip about, they'd have found something else to prevent them from reporting on the police "overreaction".

[pameladean]

Oh, my God. I hope they didn't hurt him.


P.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Reichstag fire...sounds right up Bush's alley. Friends got upset when I quoted Putin as saying that Bush had instigated the stuff in Georgia to help McCain, but to me it sounds very likely.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the raids had more of an exacerbating effect than a deterring one.

There was at least one more person at the demonstration because of them. (I hadn't planned on going before hearing of the raids and realizing that I had to express my disapproval with more than words.)

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

To quote Teresa Nielsen Hayden, with much less pleasure than I would ordinarily have quoted her, "I deeply resent the way this Administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist.”

Me too.