Well there's your story. Why? Electronic surveillance that we aren't allowed to know about and not even what it showed?

This is not America.

Dear Glenn,

Seems that by now people would have learned that Nazis can use anticipatory assault on individuals or sovereign nations as a pre-emptive measure. This legal viewpoint and the legitimacy of torture can be quickly confirmed by the puppet now running the justice department whose motto "not every violation of the law is a crime".

Besides even if it is a crime for little people, it certainly would not be for a superior being in the commission of saving the world and keepin' folks safe from terrists.

The part I am both frightened and saddened by is that there is still this large group of people who don't comprehend that some things are wrong no matter who does them or who they are done to, or why they are done. They are simply wrong.

Also, seems to me this same swat team would do better to rush out to the airport with sirens blazing and slap the cuffs on any suspicious characters hanging around the Larry Craig memorial men's room. Each of these individual police officers should be ashamed of their individual participation in this awful crime against fellow citizens. They are similar on this occasion to the people who ran the gas chambers--surely they have some inkling what they are doing is wrong.

Thank you for your good work.

Conrad C. Elledge

PS. on the subject of fake news reporters how about the numbchuck in the NYT yesterday who asserts that McCain's VP pick upstaged Obama's speech. talk about an assault-what a dork.

Could some readers of the Minnesota Independent please write your paper and decry use of the word "crackdown" in their headline on this?

http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/6158/breaking-food-not-bombs-house-among-saturday-raids

"Crackdown" implies that lawbreaking has been tolerated up to now, but no longer. There's nothing against the law happening here.

"Harassment" might be loaded the other way, to a newspaperman, but "Raid" is, I'd say, neutral enough.

Use of "crackdown" though, says "protesters are criminals" by implication.

Makes you wonder why a SWAT team is called in for a fire-code violation.

Frightening, when dissident voices are silenced by police force. It's the end of democracy.

Where they wiretapped before the raid? Do we know anything about how they collected evidence, if there was any?

.. down my spine with this one. This has GOT to be headline news, and we've GOT to make sure this gets attention. Any suggestions for how??? This is so much worse than the NYPD repression in 2004! The Right has successfully, and with nary a wimper from Dems, conflated terrorism with lawful left/liberal protest, with no evidence linking the two whatsoever. I am shaking with rage.

While Glenn suggests this is a run of the mill protest, the RNC Welcoming Committee suggests otherwise (www.nornc.org).

Just a few excerpts:

Under the "Goals" heading.

"Crash the Convention – We didn’t get an invitation, but we’re showing up anyway....Together, we can derail the purely ceremonial show of this repressive system and remake it with our own hands and according to our own visions."

Under "How we get there."

"2. Transportation Troubles – This includes blockades downtown (at key intersections), on bridges (10 bridges over the Mississippi River in the metro area), and other sporadic and strategic targets (busses, hotel and airport shuttles etc)."

Check out the website for yourself. These aren't a group of kids painting signs to wave in front of the convention.

Thanks for the clarification.

It is here! Obama will not change or stop these kinds of tactics. We have a one party state that answers to no one.

to the Police State.

There really is nothing to add.

No doubt G.W.Bush will come out to denounce this incident as he is all for letting "demockracy flower" in Russia and China.

Next week Vice-President Richard Cheney will be going to Georgia to lecture and taunt Putin and Russians over how they need to let "demockracy flower" across Central Asia.

Just last week Condi Rice,the American SOS was scolding Russia about pushing people around and not being very 21st century in ways of "demockracy" was she not? Condi--go to St.Paul and look into these incidents. Americans surely are not being hypocritical about "demockracy" are they? Hell--Thailand is doing and behaving better than this!!

Perhaps George and Dick could find some time to visit St.Paul and talk about how they and the GOPer Party they are the leaders of are all for "demockracy in Saint Paul,Minnesota" over next couple of days.

Bush,Cheney and Rice are all about spreading and being champions of "demockracy" are they not?

Check out the website for yourself. These aren't a group of kids painting signs to wave in front of the convention.

Yeah - anyone who is in the proximity of members of a group planning a street march that might block traffic should have their homes invaded, be put on the floor, be handcuffed by machine-gun-wielding police and have their computers and journals -- all before they have done anything remotely illegal. These are real terrorists -- true menaces to public order.

http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/6183/warrant-at-food-not-bombs-house-sought-bombs-feces-razor-wire

or click sig

Wright, peaceful disruption, including sit-ins and blockades, are exactly how Jim Crow was defeated and divestment from South Africa was achieved, and are totally legitimate means of protest. It's called civil disobedience. Implicit in your comment is the idea that these protesters, by seeking to disrupt the convention, are engaging in protest that is dangerous and must at all costs be stopped. Is there a shred of evidence that true violence is being planned??? NO. Listen, loud chants and music are disruptive, and massive marches usually block traffic. Are you really suggesting that these forms of protest are deserving of preemptive SWAT team raids?? Is this America, or Burma? Or China???

I posted that before I read your clarification. A raid on a home is much different (in my mind, anyway) than a raid on a rental hall/headquarter.