My friendly, apolitical Sunday has been ruined, I hope yours is, too...
>> Sunday, August 31, 2008
The blog entry for today--and the only blog entry for today--was supposed to be a cute piece about "Chinese People Discover Fortune Cookies!" There's a funny video, John The Scientist has already shared an awesome comment expanding on the history of cookies-of-fortune in Japan, everything was going to be nice.
And then I made the mistake of looking at news.
The minor item that would otherwise be funny and negligible, is that "somebody" began massive edits of Governor Sarah Palin's Wikipedia entry just before the official announcement of her nomination. This is, of course, typical of the shenanigans that occur in politics--Democrats do it, Republicans do it. It's patently ridiculous. And nobody pointing out what's happened to the Palin entry should act offended, except to the extent that it's offensive that the entries of Senators Biden, McCain and Obama have been similarly "cleaned."
What is pathetic and would be funny, though, is that one supporter, apparently thinking people are idiots and obviously subconsciously disappointed by Governor Palin's paper-thin résumé, decided to pad out the Governor's entry with photographs of the Governor visiting soldiers, playing with a flight simulator, and doing other "military" things. (And here I find myself with a tough proposition: I would rather not sound like a sexist, but it's hard not to notice several photographs appear to have been chosen for their tight t-shirt/active soldier ratio--a subliminal message is possibly being attempted, though one skimming the photos out of context might be excused for assuming Governor Palin was a Playboy Enterprises employee traveling with a USO delegation and not a popular, reformist state Governor. Ahem.)
(A cached version of the August 30 edits can be found here as of this date, August 31, 2008; I haven't been able to dig up earlier cached versions to see what the page looked like prior to the announcement of her candidacy. Readers catching this entry in later days may see an even later cache by clicking on the link.)
Anyway this is no big deal. Happens all the time. Funny, yes. Sad (in that funny way we mean when we talk about dumb crooks and Darwin award nominees), yes. Important, no. But depressing in light of what is important:
Police in the Twin Cities have apparently engaged in Gestapo tactics against people who are presumed protesters of the upcoming Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The New York Times covers the story here, and Glenn Greenwald here (with video). Armed police officers entered several homes, allegedly with warrants permitting them to seize anything from "political pamphlets" to Molotov cocktails, did in fact seize computers and other items from the homes, and arrested several people for the charge of "Conspiracy To Commit A Riot." (I'm still trying to imagine exactly how one conspires to commit a riot.)
Police in Minnesota, it seems, are allowed to detain people for 36 hours without charging them with anything; how much do you want to bet that a number of possible protesters are locked up for three days and then released without being charged, or with charges that are quickly and quietly dismissed after they're handed over to the District Attorney's office.
At this date, there is less evidence that any of these people were involved in violent protest than there was that three meth heads were conspiring to murder Senator Obama in Colorado last week, a threat that's properly being seen as "not credible" (and one expects any charges will involve the drugs and armaments seized from the so-called "conspirators," and not their idle chatter). So we have the police raiding people's homes in the morning, sometimes with warrants (and possibly, it looks like, without warrants in some instances), seizing political pamphlets, photographs, cameras, computers and maps--and in no reported cases seizing anything more dangerous than a firecracker.
Who knew Minneapolis would make Colorado's speech cages look like marvels of free expression? In Colorado, they pen you up for your demonstrations; in Minneapolis, they break into your home the day before, steal your shit, and lock you up in jail.
The revision of Governor Palin's public history seems less amusing in the context of police raids on suspected political enemies. It may seem like a leap, but it's not: in isolation, the Wikipedia edits are a prank. In light of other events, they become a part of a mindset (not necessarily held by Governor Palin herself, but by her party and political class) that "free speech" is a weapon to be used for the ends of the privileged leaders and the public-at-large to be disarmed if they have anything to say against them. I'm not even going to say that this is an attitude unique to the Republicans, though one finds it showing up with disturbing frequency in politicians who follow their names with capital "R"s; I have no doubt that there are Democrats who have similarly fascist--and yes, I'm using that word in it's historic sense to describe the ideology that would have a boot crushing a human face forever, not merely someone I dislike--tendencies.
There is a saying going back to the Spanish Civil War: "If you tolerate this, your children will be next." This is what we have come to, where we have arrived. I have seen a great deal of writing this week that Governor Palin is a nice human being and would make a good Vice-President or even President. As an individual that may be true--she played no part in the assaults upon the rights of protesters and I doubt she played a part in the attempt to rewrite her public record. But the bait-and-switch the Republican Party engages in with her selection as a Vice-Presidential candidate is just that, to put a smiling face on a party that has become increasingly dishonest and repressive in its tactics. Vote for the nice human being in the second slot on the ticket, get the party of jack-booted thugs in Minneapolis. And your children will be next.
So much for my pleasant Sunday.
UPDATE 2008-09-01, 12:23 A.M.: Greenwald is reporting on his blog at Salon that the FBI was involved in planning and executing this past weekend's raids. Well. Isn't that nice of them.
UPDATE 2008-09-02, 11:34 A.M.: It appears they're arresting journalists, now.
In the comments, Nathan points out that similar tactics were used at the Democratic National Convention several years ago. I'd forgotten the full-extent, but of course he's right. I also don't remember whether anything like this occurred, with a reporter being arrested and charged with "conspiring to riot" while trying to assist her producers, who also appear to have been arrested unlawfully.
I don't know Minnesota law, but North Carolina law is pretty clear: advising someone who is under arrest is not a crime. (Combined with some other overt act, it might be: attempting to talk to someone who is under arrest is probably not illegal, but attempting to brush aside police officers and to climb into the back of the squad car might be.) Given that the issues are fundamentally Constitutional--the right of free speech being the primary one--I think it's a reasonable assumption that Minnesota courts have reached the same conclusion as North Carolina's: that it's not illegal to ask why someone is under arrest and to try to offer lawful advice and assistance to the detainee.
To be absolutely clear: this is not primarily a partisan issue. One fears that this escalation of police state tactics will ratchet up: the Democrats in New York have a massive police presence, the Republicans in Minnesota raise with preemptive arrests, the Democrats raise with some other disgusting tactic, until finally somebody goes all-in. On the other hand, it is partisan to the extent that wonders why there's not more outrage from the Right--or is there, and I'm missing it?
Disturbing times.
Read more...
And then I made the mistake of looking at news.
The minor item that would otherwise be funny and negligible, is that "somebody" began massive edits of Governor Sarah Palin's Wikipedia entry just before the official announcement of her nomination. This is, of course, typical of the shenanigans that occur in politics--Democrats do it, Republicans do it. It's patently ridiculous. And nobody pointing out what's happened to the Palin entry should act offended, except to the extent that it's offensive that the entries of Senators Biden, McCain and Obama have been similarly "cleaned."
What is pathetic and would be funny, though, is that one supporter, apparently thinking people are idiots and obviously subconsciously disappointed by Governor Palin's paper-thin résumé, decided to pad out the Governor's entry with photographs of the Governor visiting soldiers, playing with a flight simulator, and doing other "military" things. (And here I find myself with a tough proposition: I would rather not sound like a sexist, but it's hard not to notice several photographs appear to have been chosen for their tight t-shirt/active soldier ratio--a subliminal message is possibly being attempted, though one skimming the photos out of context might be excused for assuming Governor Palin was a Playboy Enterprises employee traveling with a USO delegation and not a popular, reformist state Governor. Ahem.)
(A cached version of the August 30 edits can be found here as of this date, August 31, 2008; I haven't been able to dig up earlier cached versions to see what the page looked like prior to the announcement of her candidacy. Readers catching this entry in later days may see an even later cache by clicking on the link.)
Anyway this is no big deal. Happens all the time. Funny, yes. Sad (in that funny way we mean when we talk about dumb crooks and Darwin award nominees), yes. Important, no. But depressing in light of what is important:
Police in the Twin Cities have apparently engaged in Gestapo tactics against people who are presumed protesters of the upcoming Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The New York Times covers the story here, and Glenn Greenwald here (with video). Armed police officers entered several homes, allegedly with warrants permitting them to seize anything from "political pamphlets" to Molotov cocktails, did in fact seize computers and other items from the homes, and arrested several people for the charge of "Conspiracy To Commit A Riot." (I'm still trying to imagine exactly how one conspires to commit a riot.)
Police in Minnesota, it seems, are allowed to detain people for 36 hours without charging them with anything; how much do you want to bet that a number of possible protesters are locked up for three days and then released without being charged, or with charges that are quickly and quietly dismissed after they're handed over to the District Attorney's office.
At this date, there is less evidence that any of these people were involved in violent protest than there was that three meth heads were conspiring to murder Senator Obama in Colorado last week, a threat that's properly being seen as "not credible" (and one expects any charges will involve the drugs and armaments seized from the so-called "conspirators," and not their idle chatter). So we have the police raiding people's homes in the morning, sometimes with warrants (and possibly, it looks like, without warrants in some instances), seizing political pamphlets, photographs, cameras, computers and maps--and in no reported cases seizing anything more dangerous than a firecracker.
Who knew Minneapolis would make Colorado's speech cages look like marvels of free expression? In Colorado, they pen you up for your demonstrations; in Minneapolis, they break into your home the day before, steal your shit, and lock you up in jail.
The revision of Governor Palin's public history seems less amusing in the context of police raids on suspected political enemies. It may seem like a leap, but it's not: in isolation, the Wikipedia edits are a prank. In light of other events, they become a part of a mindset (not necessarily held by Governor Palin herself, but by her party and political class) that "free speech" is a weapon to be used for the ends of the privileged leaders and the public-at-large to be disarmed if they have anything to say against them. I'm not even going to say that this is an attitude unique to the Republicans, though one finds it showing up with disturbing frequency in politicians who follow their names with capital "R"s; I have no doubt that there are Democrats who have similarly fascist--and yes, I'm using that word in it's historic sense to describe the ideology that would have a boot crushing a human face forever, not merely someone I dislike--tendencies.
There is a saying going back to the Spanish Civil War: "If you tolerate this, your children will be next." This is what we have come to, where we have arrived. I have seen a great deal of writing this week that Governor Palin is a nice human being and would make a good Vice-President or even President. As an individual that may be true--she played no part in the assaults upon the rights of protesters and I doubt she played a part in the attempt to rewrite her public record. But the bait-and-switch the Republican Party engages in with her selection as a Vice-Presidential candidate is just that, to put a smiling face on a party that has become increasingly dishonest and repressive in its tactics. Vote for the nice human being in the second slot on the ticket, get the party of jack-booted thugs in Minneapolis. And your children will be next.
So much for my pleasant Sunday.
UPDATE 2008-09-01, 12:23 A.M.: Greenwald is reporting on his blog at Salon that the FBI was involved in planning and executing this past weekend's raids. Well. Isn't that nice of them.
UPDATE 2008-09-02, 11:34 A.M.: It appears they're arresting journalists, now.
In the comments, Nathan points out that similar tactics were used at the Democratic National Convention several years ago. I'd forgotten the full-extent, but of course he's right. I also don't remember whether anything like this occurred, with a reporter being arrested and charged with "conspiring to riot" while trying to assist her producers, who also appear to have been arrested unlawfully.
I don't know Minnesota law, but North Carolina law is pretty clear: advising someone who is under arrest is not a crime. (Combined with some other overt act, it might be: attempting to talk to someone who is under arrest is probably not illegal, but attempting to brush aside police officers and to climb into the back of the squad car might be.) Given that the issues are fundamentally Constitutional--the right of free speech being the primary one--I think it's a reasonable assumption that Minnesota courts have reached the same conclusion as North Carolina's: that it's not illegal to ask why someone is under arrest and to try to offer lawful advice and assistance to the detainee.
To be absolutely clear: this is not primarily a partisan issue. One fears that this escalation of police state tactics will ratchet up: the Democrats in New York have a massive police presence, the Republicans in Minnesota raise with preemptive arrests, the Democrats raise with some other disgusting tactic, until finally somebody goes all-in. On the other hand, it is partisan to the extent that wonders why there's not more outrage from the Right--or is there, and I'm missing it?
Disturbing times.
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