Me? Got the kids to school.
Gary Miller? Had coffee with Giuliani…
…at St. Paul’s Parkview Cafe.
For 20 minutes Hizzoner sat at our table and fielded questions about hockey, Senator Coleman, conservative approaches to rebuilding the infrastructure, supply-side tax policy and illegal immigration while a throng of local print and broadcast media looked on.
Ahead of the TCMSM, per usual.
Be watching for video at Race42008.
Matt Abe (who regularly writes at Northstar Liberty) notes a bit of a milestone for the NARN (Volume III “The Final Word” in this case) over on True North today…:
On last Saturday’s Northern Alliance Radio Network show, “The Final Word” with King Banaian and Michael Brodkorb (broadcast on AM 1280 The Patriot), Brian Sullivan endorsed Mitt Romney for president.
…and explains why it’s significant for those new to the politics of our swingy state:
Sullivan, the current Republican National Committeeman from Minnesota, ran against Tim Pawlenty for the Republican endorsement for governor in 2002, which culminated in a legendary, overnight ballot battle royale (ask me to tell you about it someday, it was my first state convention and I was a Sullivan delegate). He has maintained a behind-the-scenes profile since then, with occasional appearances on Almanac as the conservative voice on the political panel. In spite of his unsuccessful endorsement bid, Sullivan is still a favorite son among many Minnesota conservatives.
Matt is right – and also too parsimonious with the details. Brian Sullivan played the most important role in Minnesota politics that I’ve seen performed by a non-elected official or candidate; his strong, well-organized drive for the nomination forced Tim Pawlenty – theretofore a fairly moderate, pragmatic legislative fixer – to the right. I think it’s fair to say that without Brian Sullivan, there’d have been no “No New Taxes” pledge, and none of of the fallout (almost all beneficial) from it.
So Sullivan’s endorsement carries some weight in this state, especially on the eve of Fred Thompson’s presumed entry into the presidential race this week. Sullivan said that for him, it came down to two candidates, Romney and Thompson.
“I feel both are good conservatives,” said Sullivan, “that would support the principles that I believe in, and I think that many conservatives in Minnesota believe in, it came down to who would I hire? Who is it that has actually accomplished something, made a difference, made progress against tough goals, it’s Romney.”
Matt also catches one wry irony:
“In some ways I think that Thompson has become the Republican Party’s [Barack] Obama, in the sense that not that much is known about him, he’s clearly a very good speaker, he’s an appealing personality, but his track record as a Senator, you could argue, isn’t very strong…he’s going to have to be able to be more than just a good candidate, but actually convince folks that he can lead the charge.”
Interestingly, aside from his business experience, Sullivan’s critics made much the same arguements in 2002 about Sullivan, who never held elected office.
Matt notes that many higher-ups in the MNGOP seem to be following the herd to Romney – which is at least an encouraging sign that the front office is starting to back away from its commitments to McCain that go back about a year or so:
Brodkorb reported that joining Sullivan in endorsing Romney this week were former Republican National Committeepersons Evie Axdahl, Jack Meeks, and Republican Party of Minnesota Treasurer Tony Sutton.
Go to TN and read the whole thing.
First things first: Joel Rosenberg brought up a great point in two comments in this thread the other day; no police department is immune from causing problems such as the ones Minneapolis had last Friday at the “Critical Mass” rally-turned-riot.
Mitch, I think the perception in the worst — and numerically small, but dominant — culture of the MPD is that they’re collectively utterly untouchable, and that what the peons think of as misbehavior has so long gone without consequence that there’s no need to worry about it. It’s how you get things like a cop booking a guy in on a non-existent crime (civilian possession of hollowpoints); the one that got drunk, decided to recreationally tune up a guy in a bar, took it outside and got beaten up and his gun taken, and got a couple of days off with pay; etc.
Those are hardly the only examples; they’re the ones that come to mind without having to violate some innocent’s privacy.
Or, to put it cynically, when one’s motto is “l’etat, c’est moi,” one doesn’t pay much attention to the subtleties of the latest polling.
Now, I’ve shared my misgivings about the upper-management of Minneapolis’ police department in the past. And while I know an awful lot of excellent officers on the MPD, the department does have a history of having had some bad apples that have caused all sorts of problems. They don’t have the most sympathetic reputation.
Which, along with Joel’s comment, started me thinking: what if the rioters were counting on that fact?
And I thought back to the other day, when I was at the anarkids’ “press conference”. I received a copy of the anarkids’ prepared statement about the bike rally riot.
There was a passage in the statement that caught my eye; it seemed almost incongruous in context…:
The RNC Welcoming Committe (RNC-WC), a group hosting the pReNC, gave a public speech before the ride exhorting riders to avoid confrontation throughout the weekend.
…and I filed the thought away for later.
“Later” arrived some time after reading Joel’s comment…
…and getting the following email yesterday. Over on an e-democracy discussion group, a friend and occasional interviewee of mine – who has never been mistaken for a conservative – wrote about the riots (with me adding occasional emphasis):
The way I read this situation is that we have first hand reports of
people they had never seen before making grandiose statements about what to do when the cops show up, something that has never been an issue with CM before. And then the cops do show up – in force, coordinated with the Deputies. Someone had tipped them off that a riot was about to happen.Who tipped them off?
Why, the rioters, of course.
That part seemed incongruous to me at the time; for something like the “Critical Mass” rally to go from bucolic meander to riot inside a week? For the cops to have a bear in the air and cars standing by? For fifty cops to show up when the first disturbance call went out (although believe me – I understand why cops respond so quickly to “officer needs assistance” calls)?
That’s the way it used to work in Miami. You take a crowd of peace-loving citizens and start a riot by giving the cops an anonymous tip that there will be a riot. If you have police department that is known to to Neanderthal at the slightest provocation, it’s an easy gig to arrange. Then you have a whole bunch of middle class white people who have their dresses bloodied because they are no longer virgins when it comes to rioting. You want the middle class white people pissed off as all Hell at the cops for their awful brutality. You want them on *your* side when the big show comes to town. You want their resources and their money and their bodies, all for your cause.
Why would you do that?
It’s called “radicalizing”.
In my article on the subject, and in various communications with others on the situation, I’ve used different words – that the riot makes the anarkids and their lilywhite liberal supporters feel like victims, thereby justifying whatever means they want to bring to bear in protest.
And if I were looking to create exactly such an incident, what Metro police department would I pick as…my mark, for lack of a better term?
I use the term “mark” because that’s where the email was leading:
In short, Minneapolis got played. Bigtime. The rubes who fell for this
routine are nothing less than suckers. I’m especially mad at the cops for
falling for this, but they’ve never showed that they had too much in the
way of sense before so it’s not much of a surprise.
And then, this part here – which brought my attention directly back to that Anarkid press release about the big speech telling the Critical Massers to “stay peaceful”:
What I am quite sure of is that this WILL happen in Saint Paul sometime in
the near future. Any of you who attend a peace rally or any other thing
will suddenly hear someone shouting about how to conduct yourself in the event of a major police action. That’s the warning shot. They do this because they want you to flee to avoid arrest.
And, according to the Anarkids’ own press release, that’s exactly what they got:
Nearly twenty squad cars arrived on the scene. Over forty police created a line formation in which they advanced on bikers, arresting, and brutalizing those who fell behind.
If this correspondent is right – and some reading about crowd/mob psychology is on my agenda here – it’d seem that the Anarkids have taken charge of the public agenda. They even seem to know the political turf pretty well:
I heard that there was a similar incident in the works two months ago in Saint Paul, but our cops didn’t over-react enough to start the appropriate riot. If that is true, good for them. Having the best led and best paid police force in the state is doing us well.
Of course, even the best cops – and I share the correspondent’s regard for the SPPD – get worn down. And the Anarkids would seem to know that:
Remember, above all else – this isn’t about you. It’s not about your rights or your person or anything like that. It’s about finding fresh meat to put into the grinder to get a really big riot going. They will have to stir things up a lot if they are going to have a big show one year from now, and that means radicalizing a lot of people. That also means beating down Saint Paul’s finest and getting them battle-weary.
Don’t play that game. It’s not yours to win. Stay cool, stay smart.
True for all of us, really, on both sides of the fence – since any counter-protests will no doubt be met with provocations designed to play equally into their plans.
Something to keep in mind for the 9/15 counterprotests.
Over at True North and Anti-Strib, Tracy Eberly takes apart the “cute” anarkid video that’s been getting yuks from the hear/see/speak no evil crowd.
Comments at Anti-Strib.
Last spring, when I appeared on MPR’s “In The Loop” on a panel discussion, Jeff Horwich asked me (and I’m paraphrasing closely) why conservatives aren’t out there on the street, protesting.
I stammered and yawped my way through the the answer, live on the air (it’s much easier being a host than a guest!). As I noted later, I wished I’d said…:
“Jeff, I think the difference is that conservatism isn’t fundamentally about emotions, or their expression.
Liberalism – or the left, anyway – is really a co-option (good or cynical, or a little of both, really) of a lot of things most of us are taught as kids; share with people, be nice, don’t fight, you’ll shoot your eye out with that gun. That kind of thing. Now, it adds some grownup things, like a legal imperative and, in extreme cases, a certain pseudo-religious ardor – but at the end of the day liberalism is just an institutionalized version of things we all learned in kindergarten.
Conservatism is not about emotions, usually; it’s something that doesn’t come easily to a lot of people, since it’s something you have to think hard about, and in some ways on the surface it seems to fly in the face of things we’re brought up to believe. You share, or be nice, or quit fighting, not because mommy or the government tell you to, but because it’s the right thing to do. And you realize that there’s complexity to all these things; sharing in the form of charity is good, while welfare has and causes serious problems. Fighting is bad, but sometimes it’s necessary to defend yourself, your family, and your country. That kind of thing.
So if you consider that becoming a real conservative is largely a solitary, intellectual journey rather than an emotional wave one gets swept up in, it makes a lot more sense that we’re not out there waving signs and threatening to, say, bum-rush Erica’s convention, to pick a random example.
Now, I was oversimplifying, of course; emotion is a huge, and justifiable, part of the pro-life movement. And the left’s war of bigotry against the law-abiding gun owner certainly left many a rigorously law-abiding citizen in a fit of pique or two.
But either way, with few exceptions, conservative movements are generally not about standing about in the street and waving signs – and certainly not about standing around hoping to get “arrested” and slapped with what in the (liberal) protester-friendly Twin Cities generally involves the most token possible charge and released instantly.
And I have no desire whatsoever to change that!
But if there’s one thing “protests” are good for, it’s getting outdoors, meeting people, and having a good time.
Now, on Saturday the 15th, the Anarkids are going to be throwing a “tune-up” march in downtown Saint Paul, in the environs of the Capitol and the X – basically the area that’s going to see most of the action next year.
And it’d be fun to get some of the Good Guys and Gals out there. To “show the flag”, literally and figuratively.
Of course, being a group of conservatives, we have to have an operating philosophy; I suggest “WWPJOD” (“What would P.J. O’Rourke Do?”)
Over this next week, a group of us at True North will be organizing a counterprotest; a big, fun, loud, fun, raucus, fun, “tune-down” for the passersby.
We’d love to see you there.
Details forthcoming.
It may be out of character – but it’ll be fun.
Yesterday, along with their “prepared statement” – which their spokesbeing read word for word from the exact same handout that’d been given to all the “press” and any other onlookers that asked – the Anarkids handed out this statement about last week’s riot in Minneapolis, produced here word-for-word from the “release”.
While fisking it is probably not going to be as interesting as finding out who the writer’s English Teachers were over the years, it’s probably worth a look:
On Friday, August 31, nineteen people were arrested after police brutally attacked cyclists with Tasers, pepper spray, and excessive physical force. The cyclists were part of the monthly Critical Mass bike ride.
This month’s Critical Mass was a kick-off for the pReNC, a weekend of organizing against the Republican National Convention to be held in St. Paul in 2008.
Interesting. On some of the local discussion forums, lefties are claiming that there is no, was no, never has been any connection between the two.
The RNC Welcoming Committe (RNC-WC), a group hosting the pReNC, gave a public speech before the ride exhorting riders to avoid confrontation throughout the weekend.
Well, bully for them!
But of course, in the months before the ride, they were busy talking about all the mayhem they were going to carry out. Wonder if that “speech” managed to counteract all of that braggadocio?
While the police as a whole use excessive and brutal force in our communities on a daily basis, we feel that yesterday’s police response was highly inconsistent with their usual behavior.
Um – hello? So which is it? If they’re a bunch of jackbooted fascists “on a daily basis”, what’s “inconsistent”?
The bikers did not provoke this incident, as they committed no violent or destructive acts.
It’s perhaps not surprising that this contradicts the Strib’s account of the incident.
Unmarked cars filmed and targeted specific people. A State Patrol helicopter accompanied the entire event.
And is it any wonder? Given all the threats that these jackbooted little wannabee fascists have been making, if I were a cop I’d make sure that there were plenty of cameras aimed at the scene, too.
Three police cars followed throughout the ride, attempting to intimidate the riders by sounding their sirens regularly and driving into the crowd, but issued no official dispersal orders.
Wow. Cops driving into a crowd of bicyclists?
I’m a bicyclist. I know if a cop ran into my bike, I’d have some damage to show for it. Right away!
Two cruisers – #993 and #998 – drove into the back of the Mass at the corner of La Salle and Grand. Witnesses report that at least one bicyclist was hit by a squad car. At this point, the police began to arrest and pepper spray those who had gathered at the site of the accident. They pointed Tasers at a nonviolent crowd, as if to create a sense of panic.
Again – and naturally, and not unexpectedly (“HONEST, officer, someone put that crack pipe IN my purse! Really”), this contradicts everything I’ve seen in the media on the subject, which reported the cops tried to arrest someone who was playing “chicken” in traffic, and were in turn attacked by a crowd of anarkids.
Now – take careful note of this next part (emphasis added):
Nearly twenty squad cars arrived on the scene. Over forty police created a line formation in which they advanced on bikers, arresting, and brutalizing those who fell behind.
Huh-whah?
Anarkids on bikes couldn’t escape a bunch of cops, loaded down with gear, advancing deliberately in a line (per normal riot training)?
Am I the only one who suspects that they must not have been trying to “get away” all that hard?
One cyclist was pepper sprayed when she attempted to obey dispersal orders.
“I swear to God, officer – I have no idea where that TV came from! Stolen, you say? Someone must have stuffed it into my backseat!”
She was then handcuffed and held to the ground as a third officer Tasered her in the neck. Witnesses were also pepper sprayed and one bystander was among those arrested.
I’ll be interested in seeing the video.
Most of the nineteen arrestees were held on “Probable Cause” for Riot charges and their bail was set at $3,000 each.
Let me take a step back here.
I know that it is entirely possible that the police might have overreacted. Nothing about being a conservative involves blindly accepting government’s view of things – indeed, since every actual systemic government infringement of free speech in our society today attacks conservatives rather than liberals, we are right to be vigilant.
But what do you suppose the odds are that the Minneapolis Police Department – one of the most intensely-politicized police departments in the business, which works for among the farthest-left-leaning city governments in the nation – being fully aware of both the Anarkids’ proclamations and intentions and the sympathies so many of their civilian bosses have for the “protesters“, would allow their officers to go all unhinged? Indeed, I’m going to make a very fearless prediction here; the officers covering and responding to the “protest” knew that they were going to be on dozens of videocameras, both official eyes in the sky and a thousand points of cell-cam. I’d be amazed, under those political and technological circumstances, if there were more than the thinnest film of police misconduct. Just a hunch – but like most of my predictions, I’m pretty comfortable with it.
We believe that the police aggression experienced Friday night was a pre-meditated attempt to intimidate the anti-RNC organizers. Although members of the RNC-WC were the intended recipients of police violence, the officers present exercised no discretion in their brutality. All Critical Mass riders were subject to the police’s use of unrestrained force. This was, with no question, a police practice run for next year’s RNC.
Well, they were half right.
I’ll bet anything that this was an intentional provocation, intended to inflame a sense of righteous victimhood on the part of the “protesters” – to create a sense of “we have nothing to lose, so anything goes. Our ends now justify our means!”.
Indeed, their next passage indicates almost exactly that (emphases added):
When the RNC-WC says that the State brings violence to the streets and leaves poeple, pacifist or otherwise, with no peaceful option for resistance, these acts of brutal force are what we speak of. We do not expect the police to be held accoutnable by a system that necessitates their violence; however, we remain committed to confronting this repression wherever it exists and with whatever means available.
We will not be intimidated.
No, I don’t suspect “being intimidated” has ever been on the agenda.
UPDATE: A commenter noted that, while I DO try to avoid using “nazi” references, I did let one slip through.
I’ll cop to it. The thought of these jagoffs polluting my city, my adopted hometown, with their puerile/violent little fantasies, is noxious to me. So I slipped.
Good catch.
I wonder sometimes: If a group of diabolically-weird behavioral scientists were to build an entire universe around a test subject in which the reality we experience is altered in some key ways, a la The Truman Show – say, a red sky, gravity pulls sideways, the sun rises in the north, the Twins are having a good season – what would happen if the subject of that test were to suddenly (a la Truman) escape from that experimental world, and experience life out here with the rest of us?
Would they adapt? Or would the fundamental change in everything they saw, felt, pre-supposed and believed so disorient them that they’d find it impossible to carry on, and wither and die like a spider kept in a jar?
Along those lines, I also sometimes wonder: If the DFL stopped issueing talking points, could Lori Sturdevant adapt to the non-talking-point reality? Or would she flash out of existence?
Sunday’s column makes me want to bet the “under”:
The media bigs tell Minnesotans regularly that U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s reelection bid is in trouble because he has mostly supported President Bush’s policies in Iraq.
Ah. “Media Bigs” say so.
It must be true!
I read this next bit, and picture Sturdevant, standing, looking as eager as a sophomore hoping the dreamboat senior class football star will ask her to prom, silently chanting “he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…“:
Maybe so. But for my $11 price of admission, the best measure of Minnesota political reality can be had at the State Fair. On Thursday, I listened as Coleman fielded questions about bridges, ethanol, bridges, transit, bridges, floods, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, the federal deficit, and — did I mention bridges?
“I want to tell you just one thing,” said a stern-faced Ray Martin of Stillwater when he caught up with his senator in the middle of Underwood Avenue.
If Coleman braced himself for a barrage on Iraq, he needn’t have.
“he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…“:
[Coleman’s questioners] may not have walked away satisfied [although Sturdevant gives us no reason to assume either way – ed]. But my guess is that the senator did. They’d just provided him with more of the evidence he’d been collecting at the fair that Minnesotans’ minds are on matters Republicans seeking reelection find congenial — that is, matters other than Iraq.
“he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…“.
Alternate possibility: Minnesotans, like Americans, are starting to realize that Iraq might be doable. Maybe not instantly, maybe not ending in a surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship built by a nation organized into the greatest manifestation of the New Deal experiment, but – in the way of all counterinsurgencies that aren’t resolved by killing all the locals and scorching the earth – eventually, and with subtle signs of improvement to go along with the declining costs.
Minnesotans (I will speculate) aren’t worried about Iraq because, for the first time since the contractors mutiliated bodies were pulled from that bridge in Fallujah, it’s starting to seem like the US is getting into control of the situation. And when I say “Minnesotans”, I mean “people who live outside newsrooms and DFL covens like Merriam Park and Kenwood”.
“he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…if he doesn’t, it’s because he’s busy, or he’s got a lot on his mind…he’s GOT to ask me…”
That includes the calamities Minnesotans will forever associate with August 2007, the Interstate 35W bridge collapse and the flash floods in southeastern Minnesota. The federal response to both of those disasters is getting mostly high marks — and for that, Coleman can take a bow…He turned the president’s attention to the needs of flood-ravaged Minnesota towns when, serendipitously, Bush came to the state two days after the flood to raise money for Coleman. Coleman’s pleas, and those of GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty, cut through the red tape associated with federal disaster declarations and got FEMA and the Small Business Administration on the ground with a speed that has to astound survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
Grooooaaaaan.
That’s right, Lori. Never mind that the disasters are of orders of magnitude different scales, and that unlike Louisiana Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco and NoLA Democrat mayor Ray Nagin, local officials were both competent and less interested in securing political cover.
Ms. Sturdevant must have gone into journalism because she flunked math.
“he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…he knows it’s TRUE LOVE, as much as I do!…he’s GOT to ask me…”
I add emphasis below:
…Coleman may have been spared barbs about Iraq because, as he claimed, “most Minnesotans support my position that we simply can’t cut off funding for the war” and abruptly withdraw troops. On the other hand, the State Fair chapter of Minnesota Nice may have precluded the kind of conversation — or confrontation — the topic begets.
“he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…if he doesn’t…” …then blame it on a bit of facile folk-pop psychology.
One thing’s for sure; when it’s time to measure Minnesota’s cultural barometer, you can count on Lori Sturdevant to check the wind gauge:
Fairgoers weren’t shy about mentioning the war down Underwood Avenue a piece [“a piece”. Oh, good lord. ed.], where DFL challengers Mike Ciresi and Al Franken had set up shop.
To be fair, fairgoers at the Franken booth “weren’t shy” about issueing dangling Halliburton references or theorizing that the World Trade Center fell to a controlled demolition, either.
But while Sturdevant is tone-deaf to culture outside of her native habitat, she is a master of Socialist Realist flakkery, issuing a pealing paeon to those the Talking Points anoint:
If ribbons were awarded for crowd-drawing capacity by politicians, Franken would take purple. Every time the former “Saturday Night Live” comedian, author and radio talker showed up — which happened daily, for long hours — a queue formed for photos and autographs. Old political hands likened his appeal to that of 1998 fair phenom Jesse Ventura — a portentous comparison.
Less “portentous” than strained. Ventura took in – as in, “bamboozled” – a little over a third of the electorate with a mixture of faux-populist bluster and a veneer of libertarianism (that he tossed aside like a Mustang Ranch souvenir mug when he got into office), which he sold to a credulous state at a time when people took elections as seriously as they take American Idol. Franken’s demographic – autodramatic middle-aged granola crones, gaunt state workers with anal-retentive gray beards, fashionably-downmarket-looking Hamline students – are comparable to Ventura’s masses only by the triteness of their understanding of the issues.
Those words undoubtedly buoyed his spirits that evening as he boarded an airplane bound for Baghdad. Minnesotans may have given him a pass on the war at the State Fair — but he has to wonder whether it was only a respite, as fleeting as the fair itself.
“he’s GOT to ask me…he’s GOT to ask me…if not today, then tomorrow!…he’s GOT to ask me…”
When you’re a Republican in Saint Paul, you get used to feeling like a Finn at Suomussalmi.
It’s a rare thing indeed when the good guys outnumber the left at much of anything in this town.
Today was the last day I expected to be one of them.
The Anarkids – the various arrested adolescents who are planning on bringing violence to the Republican National Convention next year – had a “News Conference” at the Capitol at 11:30 today.
Present were:
So – of the 15 (I counted ’em) people at the “news conference”, both the news media and the GOP presence were greater than the Anarkids!
Ms. Brown-Rivers – a short woman who looked either frumpily perky or perkily frumpy – did a lengthy soundcheck, looking hot and sticky and uncomfortable in her dark, dirty-looking standard-issue anarkid-wear duds, and sounding tentative behind the microphone, at the bottom of the capitol steps. Then she cleared her throat, and as camera crews and the cute redhead reporter from WCCO tried to get her name for attribution, replied “We’re not taking questions…”
“No, we’d like to get your title”, replied one of the camera guys, who I suspect must have been wondering what he did to piss off his assignment editor.
Finally, after an extended buildup, Ms. Brown-Rivers read the following statement, word for word (barring a few flubs which I won’t bother to re-create):
Thank you, ladies, gentlemen, and otherly-gendered of the press, for joining us on this, most glorious of occasions. This Labor day weekend, anarchists and anti-authoritarians from every city, every town, every hamlest, every last Hooverville of this great nation convened a grand congress. Together, we have magicked into being a detailed plan, worthy of note, to receive the Republican National Convention. Like many a good plan, it is broad in scope, aimed an othering less than complete controll (!!) of this hallowed turf, our fair city. Today, declare our first victory, having a chieved a complete shutdown of government services citywide. This we have accomplished whilst wading in the dark tide of the State and their attempts to crush us on the first even of our festivities, when the gentle flesh of our comrades was met with hard metal and penetrating volts by members of the self-appointed police force – a foreshadowing glimpse. Yet here we stand, and our chariots ride on. Much as a phoenix rises from its own ashes, we admist that tomorrow the city will function anew. But know this: its hegemony, like all but the truest of loves, is fleeting, ephemeral.
I thought about fisking it – but this may be the most perfectly self-fisking statement in the history of public oratory (although other bloggers may feel free to go for it!).
Ms Brown-Rivers stalked off the steps, leaving the reporters looking mildly pissed.
And so the season begins!
On Friday, I talked with MPR reporter Jess Mador about the countdown to the Republican National Convention, which stands at “one year” right about now.
The mystery – When will the piece air?
It might be on “All Things Considered” this afternoon.
Or it might be on “Morning Edition” tomorrow.
And it might or might not include anything I had to say…
I’ll tune in, natch – but let me know if anyone hears it.
UPDATE: I actually met Ms. Mader this afternoon at the “Press Conference”, and had a brief but pleasant conversation. She informs me the piece should be on ATC this afternoon.
BEFORE:
Earlier this summer, the City Pages’ Peter “Snoopp Peete” Scholtes wrote about the Critical Mass bike rally:
What always strikes me about this parade is its quiet, a gap in rush-hour racket that absorbs even the clink of chains, the shouts to passersby. The effect might explain why participants prefer to joke with–rather than preach at–people they pass. On a previous ride, when the cyclists glided past a man looking under the hood of his overheated sedan, one rider couldn’t resist yelling: “Time to get a bike!”
That’s about as didactic as this roving protest gets. Though against automobile traffic in both the physical and philosophical sense, Critical Mass is a ride first and foremost, an exercise in guerrilla leisure conceived ten years ago in San Francisco and duplicated across the planet, from Tel Aviv to Sydney. The name was lifted from Ted White’s 1992 documentary Return of the Scorcher, in which one interviewee described the bike buildup and spontaneous group forays across the busy intersections of Beijing as “critical mass.”
Sounds peaceful.
Almost bucolic.
Almost something I can get into.
Indeed, an old friend turns up:
“It’s an exhilarating feeling to ride on some of the streets where we’re most vulnerable and feel absolutely safe,” says Jason Goray, a Web developer who joined the Mass in April. “I never realized how much tension I carry around when I ride; the feeling that a car could take you out at any point.”
This exorcism inevitably backs up traffic and irritates weary motorists, but Goray doesn’t like the word protest. Like many riders, he believes the movement’s civilly disobedient slogan–“We are not blocking traffic. We are traffic”–is an assertion, not a dare.
After a summer of biking to work – which, with a 17 year gap, followed a decade of serious biking, albeit most of it in the country – I can agree.
What could be wrong with that?
AFTER:
Minneapolis Police arrested 17 adults and 2 juveniles during a monthly bicycle protest Friday night…The trouble started Friday night with one bicyclist.
“Somebody was driving straight at cars,” said Deputy Chief Allen.
Police tried to arrest that bicyclist on Hennepin Avenue, but were unsuccessful. In a videotape of the incident provided by a friend of one of the bicyclists, the crowd grew vocal and restless as officers tried to make the arrest. “What’s the charge? What’s the charge?” the group chanted.
According to Police, the bicyclist escaped back into the mass of riders. Officers made another attempt at an arrest on LaSalle Street, not far from Loring Park, at 7:15 p.m. Friday.
“There were individuals physically trying to pull officers off the individual under arrest,” said Deputy Chief Allen. That’s when the officers called for backup, and at least 50 squad cars responded to the scene.
On the videotape provided to WCCO-TV, an officer is seen spraying pepper spray at some of the bicyclists. According to Allen, that was warranted, because the bicyclists were being aggressive and refusing to back away from the arrest scene.
“They were set upon by a large group who started fighting with the officers,” he said.
The Strib article on the incident goes into more detail:
When officers tried to arrest a rider they felt had been trying to provoke them, a scuffle broke out, said Minneapolis Police Lt. Marie Przynski.
“When the officer went to arrest him, his buddy came up, and they started to struggle with the officer,” Przynski said.
A group surrounded the officers, and begin to chant “Let them go!”Then several people tried to prevent the officers from arresting these individuals,” she said, and a skirmish ensued.
Soon, the two officers were surrounded by about 30 people, and they issued the call “officer needs help.”
That brought 48 officers from six different law enforcement agencies racing to the scene, where the situation escalated and the officers used chemical Mace in an attempt to control the crowd, Przynski said.
And the Strib noted, almost as an afterthought:
The ride was also linked with weekend protests of next year’s Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.
Hmm.
So what could have possible taken a peaceful (if typically, Minnesotan-ily passive-aggressive) protest and turned it into a riot?
A hysterical lefty site gives us a hint (and photos):
Police attack Minneapolis Critical Mass @ pReNC and arrest around 20 cyclists
The first day of the pReNC gathering in Minneapolis/St. Paul (in preparation for next year’s Republican National Convention) saw an utterly unprovoked attack by police on a non-confrontational Critical Mass ride. Around 20 people have been arrested, several from out of state.
A strong critical mass of around 400 or more cyclists were attacked by the police at the corners of LaSalle and Grand as the tail end of the Mass went under the bridge.
The site also asks, plaintively:
If you know these people and know that they were part of Critical Mass or the pReNC, let us know immediately so that jail support can work to help them. Many out-of-state Anarchists journeyed to the pReNC alone and it is our fear that they may not have written down the jail support number and now be languishing in jail without our knowledge.
Huh.
According to this site, all but three of those arrested have been released:
Gus Ganley (Henco jail record)
Paul Krisopovich [Actually Kristapovich, of Prospect Park – and he’s been released]
David Renz [Henco jail record]
Alan Palazello [Henco jail record]
Dohovan Lessard [Henco jail record]
Joshua Nichols [Henco jail record]
Alice Battey [posted bail] [Henco jail record]
Julia Bates [Henco jail record]
Isaac Peter (a minor)
Alia Trindle [Henco jail record]
Magdelena Kaluza (a minor)
Luce Guillen-Givins (She’s popped up before) [Henco jail record]
Jeff Pemberton [Henco jail record]
Joel Leders [no Henco jail record on the website]
Daniel Barnett [no Henco jail record on the website]
Mike Kirk [Henco jail record]
Jeff Fick [Henco jail record]
Hunter Gsoell [Henco jail record]…Those not listed are being charged with felonies and kept till at least Wednesday, bail set at $3,000.
So: heretofore peaceful local protest plus [possible] out-of-town anarchists (some of the names were just too common to Google) and thugs equals riot.
It’s going to be an interesting year.
Local anarkids plan to “tune up” for the convention:
Marie Braun, a local antiwar leader, said protesters will get a tuneup on Sept. 15 when they will stage an antiwar march from the Cathedral of St. Paul to the Xcel Center and then to the State Capitol, a route protesters hope to use again on the opening day of the convention.
Hm.
If I can make it to the meeting, I’ll tune up by skipping my shower for three or four days, and eating lots of bean burritos and cheap beer.
That will tune me up.
Learned Foot is taking a poll to decide which five Twin Cities center-right bloggers, “thunderjournalists” and cellar-dwelling misanthropes should go to the convention.
The good news: I’m currently tied for second.
The bad news: I’m tied with a fictional monkey.
A few votes would really hit the spot, ifyacatchmydrift.
Thanks.
I’m not one of those conservatives who reflexively bashes the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.
But I do relish the chance to give them a rhetorical wedgie.
They’re organizing a phalanx of lawyers to defend the well-heeled “anarchist” fops that’ll be swarming the Cities about this time next year.
Katherine Kersten, as usual, is the only voice in the major media with the real story:
The pinstripe brigade may see lots of action. At the 2004 Republican convention in New York City, police arrested more than 1,800 people, though a smaller crowd of protesters is expected here next year.
The MCLU’s volunteer lawyers will go to bat for any demonstrator arrested at the convention, regardless of conduct or offense, says Samuelson.
Really?
So if a ProtestWarrior runs afoul of a cop for whatever reason, the MCLU will be there, defending a conservative counterprotestor?
What sort of protesters are likely to benefit from these legal eagles’ skills? Earnest grandmas who wave signs outside the Xcel Energy Center aren’t likely to get in trouble with the police. Arrestees will probably disproportionately be anarchists and other self-proclaimed rabble-rousers who are eager to flout the law.
One such group is Unconventional Action, an “emerging network” whose national membership advocates “militant direct action.” At a recent planning conference, members listed goals to “shut down” Minneapolis and St. Paul, and “to deter [other] cities from wanting to host [political] conventions in the future,” according to an anarchist web site.
Unconventional Action lauds the strategy of an organization that helped create havoc at World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, another website says. In Seattle, according to published accounts, a relatively small group of activists used weapons like Molotov cocktails and ammonium-nitrate bombs with nails to provoke violent confrontations with the police. Millions of dollars in property damage and numerous injuries resulted.
So the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union is going to elevate malicious violence to the level of a civil liberty, worthy of our defense?
According to Unconventional Action, the Twin Cities have “strategic vulnerabilities unique to any trade summit or party convention of recent years.” The group is considering blockading traffic on narrow highway interchanges, bridges and key intersections and conducting other kinds of civil disobedience.
Hm. It’s a little late to organize this, but wouldn’t it be fun to organize a counteprotest to visit this next bit…
This weekend, the so-called RNC Welcoming Committee, a local anarchist group, is hosting activists from across the country — including Unconventional Action — to strategize. The committee has urged people to march through St. Paul to “gather information, take measurements, check drain covers, etc.” At a news conference on Monday, the group showed a video featuring masked figures and hinting at violence. “There exists no ‘peaceful’ option,” it said in a news release.
…and block their right to speak freely?
Wonder how they’d like it?
No matter. The MCLU, head buried firmly in sand, will be there to get Ian and Ashley out of the clink:
Samuelson says that protesters have no “license to riot.” But he expressed little concern about anarchist threats, and said that serious problems — if they occur — are likely to arise spontaneously.
So, Chuck Samuelson – is the MCLU defending the right to commit violence as a general thing?
Or only violence against Republicans?
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing off and on about the situation that local conservative volunteers and bloggers are in – and about the need to get rallied for the new electoral season.
I wasn’t just flapping my gums to enjoy the sound of it.
More details later this week.
Al Franken wants to be your next Senator.
But he didn’t bank on Swiftee, who buttonholed him on Saturday at the Minnesota State Fair:
Swiftee: “Well I am convinced that you yourself were not involved in the actual money exchange, but it is inconceivable that you were not aware that money that was meant to send kids to summer camp ended up in your pocket.” “Have you sent that money back to the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls club?”
Al: “Well, Air America is paying that back and…”
Swiftee: “I’m asking about you Al. I’m asking about the money that went from The Gloria Wise charity to your pocket. What did you do, personally, to make things right?”
Al: “You know they still owe me hundreds of thousands of dollars..”
Swiftee: “Yeah, they are running out of charities to turn to I guess.” “Look Al, you are running for the Democrat endorsement, the Democrat platform is supposedly built around concern for kids, especially poor kids. Don’t you think it smacks of hypocrisy to have kept those funds?” “You may not have known about it at first, but you found out a long time before you car to admit it, and you certainly know about it now; why not send it back today?”
Al: “So, do you want me to answer?”
Swiftee: “Absolutely”
Al: “Well I, you know this story has been twisted so badly, you know there is a newspaper called the New York Post and, it’s known as a conservative paper, and (turns to FrankenTeamster), what was that guy’s name?”
Swiftee: “Forget what the Post said Al, its all lies. I’m asking you, Al Franken, candidate for US Senate to explain what has happened to money that you received that was supposed to have sent those kids to summer camp.” “You’re not going to deny that some of that money was paid to you are you?”
Al: “Well, you know, Air America was being run by people who were not honest, Evan Cohen and (unintelligible)…they were crooks. I didn’t have any knowledge of the financials (unintelligible).”
And I loved this bit:
Al: “Well, look, my lawyer put a blank piece of paper out for me to sign, it was an addendum actually, the document was dozens of pages long, and I signed that addendum, yes, but I didn’t read it.”
Mrs. Swiftee: “You’re saying that you signed a legal document without knowing what it said?”
I love the photo Mrs. Swiftee took:
Never have I so wished to have been at a campaign function with a tape recorder.
It’s going to be a fun campaign season.
Last week, I wrote that conservative activists are tired; as Gary Miller wrote, they’ve been ridden hard and put away wet for five straight election cycles now. It puts a strain on people, their finances, their families, their real lives.
My article sounded downbeat. It probably was.
Of course, I knew there was more to come. The good news and the bad news: the future of this state once again depends on it. We’ve seen exactly how stark this state’s choice is; the last legislative session, the DFL’s “your money or your life” hysteria, the bridge collapse and DFL’s schizophrenic response (lurching drunkenly from demanding more money to trying to indict Tim Pawlenty for murder), the miasma of Minneapolis show the mistake the voters made. And like the morning after a dumb one-night-stand, the state is starting to wake up to the mistake it made last November.
My job – our job – is to make them want to chew their arm off rather than wake them up for the next session.
In my homage to the “Class of ’04” – the raft of great bloggers that got into the racket about this time three years ago – I noted that this city is blessed with the most vibrant, intelligent, on-the-ball center-right blogging community anywhere in the country. Anywhere in the blogosphere. And like most groups of conservatives, it is an organic, self-forming, un-directed mass – a free association of equals.
And so it should stay.
But as we approach yet another “Must Kick Ass” election, we – the Upper Midwest’s center right, freedom-loving, hard-working, blog-for-the-love-of-blogging independent alternative media – need to roust ourselves from our weary hibernation. And maybe focus just a bit.
Because this year, there is more Ass to kick than ever.
And like Bill Millin on Sword Beach, a group of us are going to start moving toward the breach.
More – much more – on that next week.
To: Saint Paul City Council
From: Mitch Berg, mere taxpayer and member of the city’s Republican minority
Re: Priorities
Ladies and Gentlemen:
A few days ago, on a Saint Paul Politics email discussion group, Council President Dave Thune wrote:
We have an assembly permit ordinance but our city attorney says it would be unconstitutional if challenged. I’d like to get that out of the way before we run into trouble with it. it was enacted to attempt to protect planned parenthood from demonstrators.
On Monday morning I had a brief, interesting conversation with Mr. Henderson of the City Attorney’s Civil Division. He says it’s the City Attorney’s opinion that the city’s permit ordinance is fine, as-is.
I also spoke with Chuck Samuelson of the ACLU-MN. He didn’t know of any proposed changes (and goodness knows they’d be interested).
I freely admit this could be a matter of my own confusion, but…Which ordinance were you referring to, Mr. Thune?
And whom at the City Attorney’s office would be the go-to person on this issue? I’d especially like to know, for as-close-to-the-record-as-I-can-get, why a measure that was hunky dory when applied to peaceful pro-life demonstrators is now in your own words
possibly “unconstitutional” and a matter of grave concern when all of the far-left council’s pals are coming to town.
Councilman Thune also wrote:
Our other committee is working on a “demonstrators guide to the galaxy” not the real title but is sounds cool). They will be figuring out how to get info out to non-delegates as to housing, communication, emergency services, etc.
So exactly who at the city is working on this? How much city money is being spent to make protesters comfortable? This, in a city that spent the entire legislative session bitching about how broke it was due to Aid to Local Government “cuts”?
We have to look at a bunch of logistical things like – where buises or cars can
pick people up after marching, porta-potties, water, first aide, etc.
Is it normally the city’s job to provide transportation, sanitation, water and healthcare to protesters? If the MCCL were to bring thousands of people to town to picket, say, a Planned Parenthood convention, how many porta-potties would the city put out for them? Or, as I suspect, would they be told to arrange all of that for themselves, at their own expense?
Our position – supported by police is that demonstrators must be within sight
and sound of delegates. Shuffling folks away to a remote site is not an option.
Speaking of the police – could any of you comment about the friction in these organizing stages between Saint Paul (with its police department which, while, excellent, is politically beholden to the far-left City Council) and Ramsey County, whose sheriff, Bob Fletcher, is one of few quasi-Republican elected officials in the county? It seems like the city is trying to inject itself into as much of the planning as possible, to try to insulate protesters from Sheriff Fletcher’s attention.
Comment?
We hopefully have a large labor organization asking for the use of harriet island for the entire week. this would then become the “peace island” – rest
area, lost and found, communications, medics, connections for housing, evening entertainment and such. This may provoke a fight over a free speech group having the island instead of dignitaries or parties for media but it’ll be a good one. I expect the council will have to override our permit process. if this is challenged by anyone we could have a charter crisis over whether the
council can unilaterally do it.
So the city – or actually, the far-left-of-center, labor-and-radical-beholden City Council which Councilman Thune leads – is willing to risk a constitutional crisis, and the attendant legal bills, to ensure that cronies of the City Council have full access to Harriet Island, one of the city’s premier park properties?
We don’t have a next meeting scheduled but I’m meeting with our council
research staff next week or so to start planning subsequent work sessions.
Included have been the lawyers guild, MCLU, electeds, police, parks, emergency
communications and others. Any suggestions for things needing to be worked out are welcome.
Yeah, esteemed councilpeople, I have some suggestions. How much money and effort is the city expending on “welcoming protesters”? Who in the city’s government is leading this effort (whatever the effort is)?
It seems to the not-so-casual observer that…:
Anyway, thanks in advance for your responses. I’m sure they’ll be forthcoming.
Mitch Berg
The Midway
UPDATE: Council President Thune has said that he was mistaken – the city attorney didn’t tell him the city’s Permit Ordinance needed to be changed.
My other questions stand.
The other day, I wrote about the odd double standard the city of Saint Paul observes when it comes to civil liberties; a law that was enacted to protect Planned Parenthood on Ford Parkway is, according to City Council prez Dave Thune’s channelling of the City Attorney, possibly unconstitutional.
Just like, y’know, a bunch of us actual civil libertarians – the ones that cared about civil liberties before John Ashkkkroft was sworn into office – said at the time. “Oh, Pshaw” responded Saint Paul’s liberals at the time – until (in their opinion) it was their ox hypothetically being gored.
Tom Swift covers Thune’s statement much more thoroughly:
imagine your city leaders publicly announcing their readiness to spark a “charter crises” to do it.
I expect the council will have to override our permit process. ifthis is challenged by anyone we could have a charter crisis over whether thecouncil can unilaterally do it.
A city’s charter is its constitution.
What Thune is saying is that he is prepared to attack the founding document of the city he was elected to protect and to serve. He is telling us that he puts his own political agenda ahead of the law.
He is telling us that he puts the best interests and wishes of those constituents that do not wish to have their homes, lives and livelihoods put in jeopardy second to those of the constituents who will be providing the havoc.
If you think I am overstating the facts, or that I am reading intentions into Thune’s words that do not exist I encourage you to read the following paragraph very carefully.
I am counting on mutual cooperation from local free speech folks and cityofficials to not only advance the speech part but also to protect the residentsand small businesses here in my downtown area ward from chaos or danger. So farour city atty has been great and police very calm. the ramsey county sheriff’soffice is not in any lead planning role. The MCLU and Lawyers Guild have beengreat in keeping this in play by their presence as well as opinions.
dave
city council
ward 2
“So far our city atty has been great and police very calm. the ramsey county sheriff’s
office is not in any lead planning role.”People who do not live in St. Paul, or who are not familiar with the city might not know that the police officers union (and the fire fighters union) is heavily invested in the left wing politics that dominate the place.
I’m not suggesting that they do not catch Democrat shop lifters, but what Thune is suggesting to the chaos crew is that the police department is playing ball with them.
The bed-wetters and fair-weather civil libertarians of the St. Paul DFL are terrified, of course, of Sheriff Fletcher; he’s rumored to be somewhere right of center – probably the only elected official in Ramsey County to qualify as “Center” – and is thus the target of an incessant smear campaign from lefty politicians and activists in the county.
Thune assures me in an offline communication that he’s committed to lawful, peaceful demonstrations, and claims to have opposed the ordinance in question when it first went on the books (I’d have to check that out) – but the question remains, why is this ordinance suddenly receiving attention from the City Government?
Where was the MCLU when it was the rights of law-abiding anti-abortion protesters who were being squashed?
Where were Dave Thune and Randy Helgen and Jay Benanav and the rest of the crypto-Maoists on the City Council when it was a bunch of mere pro-lifers who faced jail time for expressing their views, in accordance with their First Amendment rights…
…that the rest of the USA honors?
I’ll be asking the City Attorney tomorrow, personally. Anyone want to place odds on whether I get a call back?
Saint Paul City Council prez Dave Thune, writing in a Saint Paul politics email discussion forum (emphasis added) about the city’s preparations for the 2008 Republican National Convention – specifically, the planning that’ll allow demonstrators within earshot of the convo itself:
> We have an assembly permit ordinance but our city
> attorney says it would be unconstitutional if
> challenged. I’d like to get that out of the way
> before we run into trouble with it. it was enacted
> to attempt to protect planned parenthood from
> demonstrators.
Wow.
So the Saint Paul City Council…:
Show of hands from everyone who had that whole “constitutionality” thing figured out years ago?
Saint Paul – where your freedom is inversely proportional to your political distance from the Gang of Four.
A few weeks back, I noted that, as his “campaign” continued, Barack Obama looked less and less ready for prime time.
And now, others are jumping on board.
It’s not like there’s not oodles of evidence.
Caricaturists! Think back on the glory days of “Bush is Dum” japery, and let your pens run red-hot!
Caricaturists?
Yo?
Hugh cites Randy Elrod’s prediction when Fred Thompson will drop his announcement…:
Fred Thompson will announce his bid for the Presidency on Labor Day at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
And then, things will get fun!
I was at the Cub store by 60th and Nicollet in South Minneapolis, and I met my old friend Joshua-Micah Cohen-Tostengaard.
Josh has been a lifelong Democrat; the guy bleeds blue. He has impeccable DFL credentials. And he’s bugged.
“I am a Democrat”, Josh said, “but I hate the DFL and the national Democratic Party. I’ve voted for every Democratic presidential, Senate, Congress, Gubernatorial, State Constitutional and Legislative office, every election, ever. But I’m not going to anymore”.
I asked him why?
“Because while I have always been a good, dues-paying liberal Democrat, I have found that I just can’t abide my party’s policies! Although I’ve been a card-carrying liberal my whole life, I cannot stand the left’s stances on gun control – I own an AK47 and am carrying a Desert Eagle in my cargo pocket right now! I’m very pro-life, and find my party’s stances on all abortion issues to be noxious. I support my party, but I find their drive to disengage from Iraq – indeed, to cut and run – to be horrendous. And while I revere the legacy of Hubert Humphrey and Fritz Mondale, I think the party’s high-tax, low-growth, punish achievement policies are going to kill this state.:
” I think Local Government Aid is a subsidy of failure. I applaud my party’s record on welfare, but I think that aid should be closely tied to work. While I believe in my party’s history as a supporter of immigration, I support English as a national language, and believe that the border should be closed, immediately. Oh, while I support my party on transportation issues, I think every cent spent on trains and buses is a complete waste.”
Was that all?
“Yes. Well, there’s one more thing; while I support my party’s historical legacy, I think David Strom and Phil Krinkie and their “no new taxes” pledge issued exactly the call this state needs, no matter what the DFL party as a whole says”.
“So”, Josh concluded, “I’m a Democrat. But what my party has become, nauseates me. I can’t support them, since they oppose everything I, as a Democrat, believe”.
It was an interesting conversation.
The Freedom Dogs bum-rushed Keith Ellison’s “town hall meeting” last night, proving that they are a one-blog right-wing conspiracy.
Read the reports from Mike Mannske and Diamond Dog.
Mannske:
I had no trouble finding the meeting place; you could make out the confluence of “Impeach Bush” signs on Google Earth.
DD:
The sheer hatred and venom coming from these folk was unbelievable. One leftist after another stood on a soapbox trying to “out radical” the previous speaker. I would say that Rick Hanson of Military Families Speak Out
was perhaps the most hateful of all. According to Mr. Hanson, our “kids” in Iraq understand that their lives have been reduced to less than nothing as they are killed in Mr. Bush’s war as intentional victims.
These are the people we’ll be meeting out on the streets of Saint Paul next year.
Great job, Dogs.
Obama would pull out of Iraq, and dive into Pakistan – which, with its bigger population and much-more-difficult terrain, would be a much worse place to fight.
Good one, Barack.
Thomas P.M. Barnett – one of NARN Volume I’s best guests ever – engages Barack Obama’s abdication on genocide and its long-term meaning:
Tell me if this crowd gets back in that they won’t feel compelled to turn many blind eyes across eight long years. And, if so, are we not headed to the same ex post f–ktos as watching ex-prez Bill Clinton whine his way through Rwanda, telling everyone in sight he should have done something–anything?
Do you want to explain to your grandkids why your nation did nothing to counter the Holocaust-size totals in the Gap in the 1990s? Care to go through that again?
Why does Obama play to that base instinct? With Samantha Powers as one of his top advisers?
I sit back at times like this and realize there is no room for me and mine in either party: I don’t demonize the military or interventions so I can’t be a Dem, and I don’t demonize China or want to invade Iran so I can’t be a Republican.
Like all Barnett, the whole thing is an interesting, sometimes infuriating, always fascinating read.
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