Welcoming Committee

Last week ended with such a great feeling. This week, those great feelings are fading.

Last week I watched the Democratic National Convention. I got some unusual history lessons. I heard Joe Biden, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and others deliver remarkable speeches that were right on target. I watched Barack Obama make history accepting his party's nomination.

This week seems like a media circus and it's only Monday. I can barely keep up.

Hurricane Gustav has interrupted the Republican National Convention, and McCain's VP choice has a pregnant unwed teenage daughter. Some are referring to this as Hurricane Bristol. Ha!

And then there are these violent anti-war protests in St. Paul that aren't getting much attention, or at least not getting the type of attention they deserve. Glenn Greenwald has been reporting on the government raids on protesters:

As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue -- see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway -- it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Today's Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.

So our government has time to infiltrate vegan groups but seems to be shrugging off the Obama assassination plot?

This is turning into a bad week. I try to look on the bright side. If Sarah Palin can be VP, then I guess anybody can. Wait. That's not a good thing. Never mind.

Stave of the Goths

Gustav, meaning "stave of the goths," is the name of the hurricane threatening to interrupt or possibly postpone the Republican National Convention. If I was a religious person, I'd think Gustav was God's gentle way of telling Stuart Shepard and the whole religious right to go fuck themselves (if video doesn't show, click here):



That's Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family. Although he has issued a weak apology, I wonder if the torrential rains hitting the gulf coast are making him think about his own sins? Probably not. In fact, I'm sure his little evangelical group can spin this somehow. There's no way they will ever consider that God is NOT on their side.