10’s of thousands of protesters met each other and had a nice afternoon espousing their shared values and desire for change. This is what free speech is all about, getting out there and getting together to speak with 1 voice…

BUT… why should it extend to trying to go down to the XCEL to try interfere with others that are trying to meet and pick their candidate. Why isn’t free speech enough, why do protestors think they have the right to try to physically go down and interfere with the RNC convention. Your rights to free speech do not extent to the point of interfering with others political convention, do not extend to the point of interfering with other’s rights.

If you are of the ilk that you should be able to interfere with the others that are trying to meet and choose their own candidate, that the police are your enemies and should NOT get between two groups of people that vehemently disagree, for the safety of all… what EXACTLY do you want instead? It seems to me that many posting here DON”T want police that arm themselves and use force to keep people from hurting each other. The alternative is chaos, be careful what you ask for… it could be like many places in the world where people beat each other and shoot each other with no law to keep things ’sane’.
There is a difference between espousing your own views through free speech, and actually getting people to listen. Your have the right to state your views, you do NOT have the right to force anyone to listen to you. Also you will convince ZERO republican national convention attendees of your rightness of thought, by attempting to lay siege to their own gathering.
The forces for change will make the most difference at the edges of groups, where reasoned logic can convince thoughtful people about the right course of action for the future. Massed attempts at intimidation will only harden the hearts of the radicals on both sides.

Then rembember that Rumsfield recently changed the military’s oath so that soldiers now swear alligience to the Commander in Chief and not the constitution.

And that according to the Army times as of Oct. 1 there’s a full brigade of soldiers assigned to the US for “crowd control” purposes who have been equiped and instructed to use the same crowd control techniquest they used in Iraq – a clear violation of Posse Comitatus. (Don’t take my word for it, look it up).

and consider that members of the house of representatives were threatened with MArtial Law if they didn’t pass the bailout bill. 3 weeks ago that would have been an empty threat. but not now.

And then think about the fact that the bailout bill gave the president 8 billion dollars in discretionary funds with no congressional oversight.

while you’re at it, consider that – according to the Justice Department – the whole planet is legally a “battlefield” the the so-called “war on terror”, and ask yourself “if the whole world is a battlefield. doesn’t that include America?

And remember that the patriot act allows the feds to define protest as terrorism and that terrorists can be stripped of their citizenship and held indefinitely without trial.

Think about that – and about the hundred other tiny steps towards fascism this country has taken, and WAKE UP. If you don’t want to be living in a fascist state it’s time to either (1) get out in the streets and stop this shit right NOW. (2) get the hell out of America. Because without a major uprising on the part of average americans demanding our rights, this country is about 3 weeks away from overt fascism. even if they do let Obama win. the same 10 corporations are the biggest donors to both parties. Politicians won’t save us. if we want to stop the coup in progress we have to do it ourselves and do it NOW.

I live in Minneapolis. I suspect when I was taken from my apartment and frisked some time before the convention, people seeing this thought I was arrested. I was not arrested. I was taken into protective police custody.

When I was taken in handcuffs from my apartment another time, I was taken for a psychiatric examination. Shortly after that I was released with two bus tokens after dark. I walked home. The two bus tokens currently are setting on my kitchen counter.

The police officers in each case acted appropriately.

As a female with three children, two of whom are direct descendants of President Richard Nixon’s family, there is a lot I would like to say publicly. I have started a memoir. That project is resting.

Perhaps, if I am able to finish that memoir I will include that fact that seeing G. Gordan Liddy on television here recently stirred negative emotions.

It caused me to wonder if he, G. Gordan Liddy is receiving government service retirement money.

I am not. Nor did I know the existence of this publication prior to reading it this morning.

The other thing that needs to be clear is that different groups of cops often give conflicting orders (if such orders are even legal). At the tail end of the 9/4 event, for example, different groups of cops were herding people in different directions. One group on horseback was forcing everyone west, while another group was bombing (smoke bombs and concussion grenades) the area to the west that everyone was trying to run to. How are people supposed to follow jumbled orders over a loud speaker that is far away or different sets of orders coming from all over the place? How are people supposed to leave the area when there is nowhere to go?

Throughout the entire week, I saw cops deliberately try to provoke confrontations and protesters resisting the urge. So much for “protecting and serving.”