Listening to the story being told on the video reminded me of the tactics and over the top cartoon like drama used in the phony raid at the hospital in Baghdad to "rescue" Jessica Lynch. They videotaped that raid. Someone should inquire if they videotaped this raid also.

so easily intimidated by these sorts of police state tactics?

That's not to say that anarchists and the like are intimidated, because they aren't. Ordinary Americans are intimidated from protest or even dissent. And that, it would seem, is the whole point of these tactics. Show force of Authority and Americans, by and large, collapse.

I maintain this is a major reason why there is so little active resistance to the corporatism and imperialism that rules this country. There is some, to be sure, but it is hardly a mass movement; realistically, it's becoming more and more marginal all the time.

And yet, without active resistance -- including mass protest demonstrations, general strikes and the like, none of which attract anything like the support they once did -- there is no way to curb, let alone stop, the march of corporatism/imperialism/fascism. Our votes won't do it when our choices are either this corporatist/imperialist or the other one. Our lawyers too often are jockeying for positions within the corporatist/imperialist state or its private sector offshoots. Courts sometimes make quite a display of independence but they have no ability to enforce their rulings.

And the People remain largely passive.

Europeans, on the other hand, will take to the streets over anything that displeases them; they will get gassed and watercannoned, bludgeoned and dragged off to prison, and still they will fight, and their governments -- at least from time to time -- actually pay attention to their riled publics and have even been known to change their policy direction in response to public outrage. Same in Latin America and Brazil. Lawyers -- lawyers!! -- in Pakistan went to the streets and got their heads bashed in and were dragged off to the dungeons against the lawless actions of Musharraf's dictatorship.

It's unimaginable that lawyers here would take such personal and professional risks for the sake of the Law. It's almost too silly to think of. They won't do it.

What happened to make Americans so easy to manage?

I'm curious if the police used wiretapping data from the NSA program and/or if FBI national security letters were involved. Specifically, many states have used federal funds to set up anti-terrorism programs that entail spying, one presumes given the past history at the federal level with anti-terrorism including warrant-less spying.

My guess is that, at the least, the police are making full copies of all hard drives, papers, and so on.

This is not America. -- rbsalonlo

This is America and has always been so. You apparently have not read your history; and no, I do not mean that shit they spout in 8th grade social studies.

... teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with sub-machine guns drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, ... (Glenn G.)

I have preached that the so-called justice system in America has been broken for decades. I have pointed out that the militarization of the local police around the country was an Imminent Threat to all citizens.

I have watched as Americans see their local police buy tanks and other military gear and they see no problem. (other than cost perhaps)

Glenn, I wager that at least 1/2 of all citizens would see nothing wrong with this "preventative policing action." I also wager (no poll to back it up) that a sizable portion of the judges in America also see nothing wrong.

I loved the novel "Catch-22" from the first time I read it as a teenager; it was hard to follow then, and some of it went over my head, but I instantly connected with, and admired, the perfect surrealistic satire of the core "Catch-22" concept.

But during the present century, I came to see that it wasn't "surrealistic" at all. Or perhaps I should say that reality transmogrified into a state indistinguishable from the seemingly surrealistic scenes.

Glenn's report about the SWAT goons' reluctance to even show a warrant, and the authorities' refusal to make the warrants public, demonstrates an eerie concordance:

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The protagonist, "anti-hero" Yossarian visits a former brothel from which military police have arrested or chased away all the prostitutes, and wantonly trashed the premises for good measure. Yossarian asks why.

"No reason," wailed the old woman. "No reason."

"What right did they have?"

"Catch-22. [...] Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing. [...] What does it mean, Catch-22? What is Catch-22?"

"Didn't they show it to you?" Yossarian demanded, stamping about in anger and distress. "Didn't you even make them read it?"

"They don't have to show us Catch-22," the old woman answered. "The law says they don't have to."

"What law says they don't have to?"

"Catch-22." [...]

Yossarian [...] strode out of the apartment, cursing Catch-22 vehemently as he descended the stairs, even though he knew there was no such thing. Catch-22 did not exist, he was positive of that, but it made no difference. What did matter was that everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute [...].

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I know that you're a sensible and circumspect fellow, Glenn-- but you and Jane be careful, hear?

It looks like Welcoming Committee is well organized ... today's events have been relocated, for instance.

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I knew Voices was en route so I just checked and the Voices For Creative Nonviolence (from Chicago to St. Paul) is due to reach St. Paul tomorrow and their itinerary does not mention the RNC Welcoming Committee --they are having joint events with Code Pink and IVAW and Global Exchange.

From Voices:

After completing the 500 mile walk, Witness Against War, on August 30 to St. Paul- Voices for Creative Nonviolence steps to the Funeral Procession March on August 31 to join Veterans for Peace, who have helped coordinate stops along much of the 7 weeks of walking through the Midwest.

Please join us and Code Pink, Global Exchange, and Iraq Veterans Against the War - to begin at 11 AM and include civil disobedience action for some, calling for end to war.

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United for Peace and Justice also has a presence and a full impressive itinerary for the convention.

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3942

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Recreating the violence and chaos of 1968 Democratic Convention is "sexy" in ways the RNC can never hope to be ...