This has been going on for years, starting largely (though hardly entirely) after the Battle of Seattle in '99. Even little stuff gets it -- the World Agricultural Forum was going to be here in St. Louis a few years back (we're the headquarters of Monsanto), and a bunch of anarchist kids were arrested (largely on building code violations) and treated to having the police chief call them terrorists on the evening news using as "evidence" that they were going to make pipe bombs with PVC and nails.

Of course, they'd been rehabbing their house and putting a new roof on the garage, which requires PVC pipe and nails, and they didn't have any, oh, I don't know, explosives or history of violent behavior or plans for criminal activity or anything.

I'm glad you and Jane were there to give some broader exposure to these abuses; they always start with the people they think no one will pay attention to (radical left kids) and start moving it towards the more mainstream as they think they can get away with it. Like canaries in the mines.

I finally understand where your anger comes from.

Which is, in part, why I come to a blog such as this. Looking for leaders.

I think it is misplaced: Glenn has never, ever, ever positioned himself as a leader at all. But at least I understand it.

You have my sympathy, and I don't mean that as snark.

Welcome to the Fascist States of America 2008.

This is why EVERY person who wears a police uniform in this nation is a potential enemy of the people of this country and must be treated as such.

It's because you're one of the most brazen and despicable hypocrites ever. It's hard to describe what a ridiculous joke you are. You lecture everyone on failing to do enough -- about doing nothing -- even though you are the very embodiment of do-nothingness that can be imagined.

Wow. Quite a tirade coming from a man that won't even follow his own elucidations and deductions to their ultimate conclusion. As you often like to point out to others... you don't know my life. You don't know what I have or have not done and/or attempted to do. You have branded me a hypocrite and you know nothing about me. It doesn't matter, think what you will. I don't think you are a hypocrite. I was just mistaken about you.

You beat your chest like some sort of rabid revolutionary but it's all confined to comments you leave here.

You have been having me followed? Advocating for direct action is beating one's chest? You just watched a few chest beaters be overrun. You are documenting it well enough.

I didn't see you at any of the protests in Denver or here.

That's because I wasn't there and you more than likely wouldn't have seen me even if I was.

I've repeatedly invited you to post whatever protests and events you're organizing -- and promised I would do what I could to promote them -- and you never answer, because you do nothing, while attacking everyone who does things for not doing enough.

I remember one such "invitation" but you will forgive me if I did not take it seriously given the level of snark and ridicule found in it.

You're a walking joke and everyone sees it but you. -- GlennGreenwald

Successfully hurtful, but I am not sure that "everyone" would agree that what I have to say makes me a "walking joke."

Firstly, you need to stop associating "anarchists" with chaotic, nihlistic psychopaths, this is something that has been so thouroghly drilled into the public's consciousness that if someone like me ever actually states my political stance, I'm immediately thought to be somebody who advocates wholesale murder. Take a history lesson and read up on what anarchists really believe, try and contextualise.

Secondly, the RNC Welcoming Committee may have had mole elements. That's hardly surprising, but look at their stated intentions. Nowhere did they say: "let's burn senators cars! let's beat people up!" Their stated goal was to make a mockery of the Republican Party and by extension all representative politics. Is that seriously something that deserves this kind of police action in your mind?

Whatever, you liberals will just go back to sleep as soon as this issue drops off the front page. The thought of actually taking responsibilty for yourself and others is too scary a notion.

You are way overdoing this story and you know it!

when will the media, congress, and the american people wake up?

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman claims the police found Molotov cocktails during one of the raids. If it's true, this would obviously change the complexion of the story.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/08/31/politics/horserace/entry4401722.shtml

Were these "raids" on the Minneapolis homes legit? Who knows? I live in Minneapolis, and I'd like to believe the best about the Minneapolis P.D. Then again, as one who has a hearty skepticism towards officialdom, these "raids" could very well be a bunch of shakedown/intimidation bullshit. (I'm out of town--I'm up in Duluth--and I heard this stuff on the news. I hope Greenwald and Jane Hamsher enjoy their stay in the Twin Cities--and don't get their heads busted.)

An unrelated item: It was recently revealed that the Minneapolis police chief, Tim Dolan, was keeping his personal pet dog in the police department's K-9 kennel. Chief Dolan's salary is something like $135K a year. If he's too impoverished to care for his own dog, maybe we could take up a collection!

I keep saying that we must get pictures of the Cops that are dis horning their oath and send them to their children,their neighbors,their clergy,ect.

We must inform the public of who the real enemy is....The Mindless Cops,aka,(Robots)that will KILL YOU if told to do so.

How do their children feel about the way their parents are helping to destroy their country,and make their future a living hell....their own children,by the way.