It's a long process, it starts slow at the beginning and then picks up steam.

First they take over the education system, purge the scholars.

Next its the court, police and media.

Where it starts to pick up pace is when journalists start getting arrested. Once we reach this phase there will be a rapid escalation of the Police State.

We should have stopped this long ago. I'm afraid that there will now be, cannot be, a peaceful resolution to our situation. Once open police brutality goes uncovered by MSM on their brethren you pretty much have lost all semblance of anything resembling a free country.

by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 at 9:46:49 AM

  (0+)

when the "loony left" was trying to get your attention.....instead of joining forces with the righties and repeating their propaganda

by Susan Nelsen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 287 comments) on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 at 11:52:47 AM

  (0+)

It is people-power and freedom versus corporate and government power and agendas contrary to the interst of the American people.

by George Washington (188 articles, 27 quicklinks, 189 diaries, 219 comments [17 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 at 12:53:20 PM

  (0+)

To wake the sleeping giant, we citizen journalists must use our pens to rebut the common assumption:

"It will never happen to me/you/in my locale".

THis is very short-sighted.

When free speech itself is under attack by police batons, pepper spray dumped as if from a fire hose, arrests and violence, then you'd better believe free speech itself, not merely journalists and protestors, is under attack.

This will affect EVERYBODY and not "only" those assumed to be vulnerable.

As if that word, "only", should be enough to stop AMericans from acting, or caring. Because unfortunately, the assumption of immunity---a perfectly innocent assumption----is what blocks proactivity.

That's where we can and must use our pens to counter the illusions which stop Americans from changing things.

If the Patriot Act allows police and FBI to enter our homes without knocking, all based on no warrant or probable cause but their own "self-certifying that they are acting in good faith" according to law professor Stephen Schulhofer, then we Americans at large are vulnerable, not merely protestors.

Let's get to work with our pens and wake the sleeping giant by rebutting the assumption that "it will never happen here/to me/you" and "it is 'only' happening to protestors and journalists".

Let's please also rebut the belief that "protest is illegal" because it is by no coincidence that the freedom to PEACEABLY assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances, is the FIRST amendment of the Constitution.  Free speech is not accidentally also that FIRST amendment right.

Time to get to work, folks. Use our pens! Educate, don't rant. Rants will be discredited, but facts will not. Off we go!

by Kathryn Smith (110 articles, 2 quicklinks, 43 diaries, 542 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 at 12:39:32 PM

  (0+)

Thank you for sharing that, Kathryn. Excellent -- and entirely on-target -- comment!

 As long as there are those who see, as you do, what's at stake here -- free speech itself! -- there is hope of saving our precious rights of free speech and the free press in this country. 

by Steve Elliott (11 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 6 comments) on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 at 1:00:31 PM

  (0+)

by Jennifer Epps (7 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 32 comments) on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 at 3:06:56 PM

  (0+)

This the new face of America: fascism in our streets! Interesting how readily the Republicans resort to the criminalization of dissent. Thought crimes are now in vogue--political advocacy is equated with "conspiracy to riot." Preemptive arrests are arranged, just like preemptive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where all those WMD supposedly were. Even the "terrorist" label is being haphazardly thrown about by the authorities responsible for the brutalization.

We saw all this in Katrina, when National Guard troops patrolled the flooded streets in small, heavily armed packs.

The people in St. Paul and the state of Minnesota should be ashamed from this egregious, un-Constitutional, and illegal behavior. Who is monitoring the police?

Also criminal is the failure of the authorities to allow for any exit from the area, confining protesters, citizen reporters, photographers, and passers-by in a cordon of pepper-spraying sadism. Clearly the police enjoy the opportunity to flaunt their power, and hide behind new Robocop outfits with no unique identification numbers, so as to offer anonymity.

 Of course if no one sees the violence, it doesn't exist, like the Afghan and Iraqi children our bombs carelessly kill every day, then go unnoticed and unreported. The press is the vital third rail of democracy, alongside the rule of law and voting. Without it we are no longer a real democracy.

The mainstream media has been compromised and can no longer be trusted. We've seen systematic efforts to undermine and whitewash our media, both by force and willful coopting, which is a reason brave Americans choose to come out and report on and blog about our world. Their abuse at the hands of these petty little tyrants in Minnesota is a disgrace to our nation, not to mention the ideals of the Republican party and the rule of law. We are told by these same Republicans that security is worth whatever sacrifice that must be paid, no matter how pathetic the results of the terror war, war on drugs, etc..

 Unchecked, absolute power corrupts absolutely. We now have in these United States a situation of uncontrolled abuses of authority, reflecting from the highest offices in our nation down to the cities where we live. As more Americans oppose the evisceration of their rights, they will be similarly targetted, sprayed, beaten and arrested like the people in Minneapolis.

by JohnPeebles (9 articles, 10 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 59 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 at 4:12:40 PM

  (0+)

This is Marcus Washington Freelance adult producer with Sex-Pol Studios! I am attempting to get other media who were assaulted by the Police in St.Paul together.

I was interviewed by "Taibbi, Mike (NBC Universal)" <mike.taibbi@nbcuni.com> at 627 Smith Ave. St. Paul 08/31

That same day I was detained for accidentally breaching the perimeter
which was a first and there were secret service, fbi, cia questioning me
for an hour.

The next day while filming the Anarchist march, I was wearing my Press
pass and was heavily maced. The Ambulance came and asked me to sign a
waiver that I didnt want to go with them.

Several online news sites have covered it, and I am finished with my
version that will be on DVD at the AVN convention this January and the non
adult version is on YOUTUBE at : www.youtube.com/sexpolstudios

I would like access the interview they did of me if that is
possible. I have contacted my atty Jared Karns 865-525-7313 to see if I
could sue for the police harrasement.

Marcus Washington

by Marcus Washington (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Friday, Sep 5, 2008 at 11:20:14 AM

  (0+)

The title of this article is totally inaccurate.  According to Twin City reporter/blogger Michael Cavlan, both city councils approved these Gestapo actions PRIOR to the Convention - and both city councils are over 90% Democratic (with one Green).

So don't blame this one on Bush solely - because the Dems - again - follow his fascist call.

And then to call for a revision of FISA - just AFTER the Democrats jointly gutted it with the Rethugs is a waste of time and a total distraction.  The Dems already let us know what they think of the US Constitution when they gutted FISA a couple months ago: Duopoly Expands Spy Powers; Grants Telcos Immunity

Those on the Left have eyes and ears and recognize that the Dems enable Bush's fascist takeover.  The Dems joined the Rethugs in passing the PATRIOT Acts, the Military Commissions Act 2006, and are still salivating over the Protect America Act which passed the Senae.  Over 400 house reps - mostly Dems - passed the 2007 version of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, otherwise known as the Thought Crime Act.

Let us not talk falsely now ... the hour is getting late.  We cannot afford to deny who makes up the Enemy of the People.

“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” Magna Carta, quoted in Boumediene et al. v Bush, Justice Kennedy's Opinion, p. 9

 

"In considering both the procedural and substantive standards used to impose detention to prevent acts of terrorism, the courts must accord proper deference to the political branches. However, security subsists, too, in fidelity to freedom's first principles, chief among them being freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to the separation of powers." Boumediene et al. v Bush, Syllabus [of Majority Decision], p. 8

by Rady Ananda (182 articles, 374 quicklinks, 49 diaries, 1718 comments [201 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 5, 2008 at 5:12:05 PM

  (0+)