Along with my friends at True North, I’ve spent a good chunk of the last year getting primed to deal with the hordes of “anarchist” thugs – generally upper-middle-class college kids or twenty-somethings – who plan on coming to Saint Paul this fall to cause mischief.

This blog has spent lots of time and effort documenting their statements of intent, and their actions.

While I support everyone‘s right to free speech, and am perfectly willing to ascribe 90% of the things the Anarcho-fops are saying to “post-adolescent drama-addiction”, there are enough of them out there who do intend to cause serious trouble – vandalism, rioting, assault and mayhem – that I plan on doing what I can to protect my city from their depredations.

And when I’ve mentioned this in mixed-politics forums – like the “E-Democracy” Saint Paul discussion group – the resopnse, almost to a person has been an ignorant “riiiiiiight” at best, and a denial-clogged “the Republicans are just as likely to get violent” at worst.

One of the people who’s given us plenty of both was Grace Kelly of the local leftyblog MNBlue. Kelly, a 9/11 “truther”, is shocked, shocked, to notice that some of her fellow protesters are up to planning no good!

While nearly every peacemaker group has focused on elections, one small group, Protest RNC 2008 has been focussed on protesting the Republican National Convention(RNC), which is normally a good activity except this time.

(Which is a sentence that makes perfect sense except for this time)

I wrote of the importance of nonviolence and peace pledge previously. Now all groups who are participating with this group are being asked to commit to a unity pledge

Let’s be clear, here (since Grace Kelly doesn’t state it very clearly); it’s the “Protest RNC group” that’s proposing the pledge below. Kelly herself proposed a pledge – one of those “unicorn in every garage” pledges, all full of high expectations and dreamy assumptions that are the peacenik’s only useful tangible intellectual product – and is somewhat upset that the other guys’ pledge is getting more traction among the anarkids.

And – this kills me – she’s surprised that the anarkids want to pledge people to… (Kelly’s responses are in parentheses below; mine will be in square brackets):

• respect the diversity of tactics (ignore the people who state on public email lists that violence to property like throwing bricks through windows is ok

[Or on MPR, or in the Minnesota Daily, or…]

• >separate activities (please don’t stand next the person throwing bricks or you too will probably get arrested

[we’ve been through this one before; this is part of the art of psychologically priming people to help create a riot against their will]

• don’t criticize publicly (like I am doing right now, no free speech, no request for peace pledge, no request for a standard of non-violence, no openness, no transparency)

I get a kick out of this; Kelly, like many dozey peaceniks, is actually surprised that people whose intellectual and ideological roots trace back to Lenin, Mao and Stalin would actually stifle free speech.

The horror of it all! Who knew?

• don’t cooperate with police (like my pledge to point at the person throwing bricks)

Of course, Kelly’s a 9/11 Truther – so even though the intent to commit mayhem against both the city and the convention and her fellow “peaceful” protesters is right there in black and white, we all know whose fault it really is…:

Well I looked at this unity pledge and I thought, all that Bush has to do to shut down protests is join the groups protesting as “George Bush, Tactic – Iraq War and Group – US Government” and to live by the unity pledge, the protests could say nothing.

And there is more, to even sign up to go organizing meeting of the “umbrella” of groups planning for the peace protest, you have sign a pledge of endorsement – which means the group’s name can be used, basically associated with all the “diversity” of tactics used and dragged through media mud.

Gosh. D’ya think.

The Protest RNC 2008 and RNC Welcoming Committee had a “community” meeting, which I came to represent St Paul. They only collected questions and then promised to answer question later if we came to the organizing meeting.

Hm. Where have we heard this before?

Oh, yeah. From conservative bloggers who’ve been “covering” the fops for the past year.

I came to that meeting and was requested to leave because I advocate for the community, the peace pledge and non-violence. I am not “one” of the them. Exactly, I am a peacemaker. I am a member of several peacemaker groups, all of which have declined to be involved.

No kidding!

We on the right have been warning you about exactly this since the very beginning.

Many peacemaker groups have long experienced activists who know the history of people who join groups to cause difficulties. The question is what happens to groups advocating for peace, who do not have that experience. Will they unknowingly sign on and take the unity pledge? Will people’s unwillingness to question tactics of people who seem to work for the same cause get them in trouble?

Clearly we need a separate non-violent peace pledge committed group to organize a separate peaceful protest.

No, Grace. Clearly, what “you” in the “peace” movement need is to rise up and condemn those who advocate violence; you need to make them feel unwelcome in the Twin Cities. You need to actively reach out to Law Enforcement and make sure that thugs, mayhem-seekers and other degenerates get the welcome they deserve from Saint Paul.

But y’all aren’t gonna do that, aren’t you?

Because you still think “pledges” and the unicorn-in-every-garage rhetoric of the “peace” movement actually carries any weight among your movement’s degenerate wing!

Mark my words; the anarchofops are going to be here; they don’t give a shit about your motivations; they will actively seek to disrupt the convention and life in this city. They may be a tiny minority of those protesting, but they will get the vast bulk of the press coverage. They will vandalize. They will destroy. And, if some of their rhetoric is to be believed, they will attack anyone who gets in their way.

And the “peace” movement will do nothing about it, because the “peace” movement is only about taking the easy moral stands.

Which means that they are utterly worthless at either making peace or dealing with aggression.

Fops: You’re in my town, now.

Well, that changes everything!

The Republican Convention is going to draw scads of protesters.  Bully for them.

It’s also going to draw scads of arrested (figuratively) adolescents who intend on creating mayhem.  Some of them have been saying in public that their intention is to “shut down Saint Paul” and “stop the convention” and harass delegates outside the convention and generally cause mayhem.  And while I’m willing to write 90% of it off to vainglorious adolescent posturing, rumor has it that it’d be naive to assume that it all is. Very, very naive.

Fortunately, Grace Kelly rides to the rescue.  Kelly – a Saint Paul area 9/11 Truther and DFL spear-carrier – writes for MNBlue, a blog that lost last year’s “Unintentionally Funniest Leftyblog Contest” only because I didn’t allow myself to vote 200 times a day – submits a pledge for your approval:

I propose that everyone involved in the peace parades and peace protests at Republican National Convention (RNC) use the same pledge as the School of the Americas vigil in Georgia.

We will gather together in a manner that reflects the world we choose to create. We will promote an alternative to domination systems by acting with love, respect, mutuality, compassion and acceptance for the interdependence of all life.

We will struggle for a world free from violence, and we will use
actions, words and symbols consistent with this struggle.

We will not use or instigate violence against any person.

We will act with respect for the people and property of the local community.

We will promote the safety of ourselves and others through our
actions and interactions.

We commit to recognize and to work to dismantle all forms of
oppression in our personal relationships, local neighborhoods, globally and with Earth itself.

We will return to our communities with renewed energy to create the peace.(Retyped from a physical copy)

One minor change is in pledge to ensure relevance , the phrase “to close the SOA/WHINSEC” is changed to the more generic “to create peace”.

An alternative is the Pledge to Nonviolence. that all marchers in Birmingham had to sign, before participating in the marches:

Oh, have no fear; since the various Tic factions resemble the Peoples Front of Judea sketch, Kelly actually submits about forty different options for pledges, delving into the semiotics of each in a way that sjdaksd kl,ml;ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
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Oh, crap.  I’m sorry.  I nodded off.  Where was I?

Pledges.  While Kelly (have I mentioned she’s a 9/11 Truther?) does give a small pile of options for pledges to give out, she neglects to tell us how she’s going to get the Black Bloc, the “Youth Against War”, and the other groups that have reported dedicated themselves to mayhem and violence to take, and follow, them.

Note to all you lefties; we know most of you aren’t going to cause any problems, pledge or no.  It’s all those “people” who travel with you that we’re watching.

I’ve said it before; part of me wants to be able to support John McCain.

In many, many ways, he’s the best conservative of the bunch.  And, as Ed notes (in re a poll that shows him with the lowest negatives among the GOP field):

John McCain may get the best bump from this poll. People wonder whether he could win a Republican primary, but he has the lowest opposition numbers in both the general population and the unaffiliated population. His -6% in the latter group makes him the most electable among the front-runners of both parties. In a race where no one has captured the passion of the electorate, it could be enough of an edge for McCain to make the electability argument his own.

And, I suspect, he could fix that whole “nomination” thing in three not-simple-at-all steps:  repudiating the McCain-Feingold laws, getting religion on immigration, and making some kind of amend or another on the whole Gang of Fourteen thing.

Even two out of three would go a long way.

I want to support McCain, in many ways, sooooo badly.  And yet those three things are killers.

IMF protest in DC turns bloody.

You can expect to see some of these thugs in Saint Paul next September.

We drew (according to one count) about 30 people to yesterday’s counterprotest on John Ireland Boulevard.

It was a huge success.  Before I took off from the house Saturday morning, I had a hard count of maybe 18.   Getting nearly double that?  Awesome.

Of course, the point wasn’t to demonstrate.  Demonstrations don’t really affect policy in any way at all.  What they are, if you keep things in perspective, is a dandy social occasion; a time to get together and realize you’re not alone out there. 

Liberals and “activists” are like tuna (and, if it’s possible, please believe I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense); they travel in big groups, they get uneasy when they’re NOT in a big group, they have a hard time conceiving of existence that doesn’t involve big groups. 

Conservatives are like sharks; any one of us is a match for dozens of liberals, and our very presence at marches or school board meetings or community council elections provokes unreasoning fear, panic, irrationality and an “end justifies the means” mentality.  And we usually operate alone.  Conservatism is fundamentally a solitary thing; we usually come to the movement alone, or with a spouse.  Liberals have their marches and their union meetings and their poli-sci classes; our social impulses are usually carried out via talk radio and blogs, at work or while hauling kids to school.  Getting a group of five or more conservatives together for ANYTHING but an open bar is a major undertaking.

So I have neither the illusion of nor the desire to try to get thousands of conservatives out into the street next year for the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul.  But I do want to get dozens out on the street, and spotted around the city’s various choke points, with cameras and video and laptops and wireless cards, to make sure that the “demonstrators” are held accountable to the world for the actions of their, er, less-restrained fellows.

Like Brad Carlson did with this guy.

The left labors under the fantasy that there’ll be an equal amount of provocation from the left and the right.  My goal; to have the radical far left’s sins and crimes spread far and wide, in the event that their lunatic fringe misbehaves in Saint Paul this year.

And yes, I fully expect that the left will have its phalanxes of “citizen journalists” trooping through the streets with cameras, trying to do the same.

Hopefully we’re all going to be bored stiff.

Anyone wanna place bets on who’s gonna be busier?

Kermit, Brad, Dr. Jonz and Swiftee were there…

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. 

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:

From WCCO on Friday:

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.

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?

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…:

1. Came up with a law to bar protesters from the front of the Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway, which…
2. …the City Attorney now, it just happens, notes is probably unconstitutional, just in time to welcome thousands of white, upper-middle-class liberal demonstrators to the city next year.

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.

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