Yes it was. Now everyone can focus on what a jerk you are without having to wade through gratuitous language.

To LWM
Right up until that last post I was pretty impressed with your experience and objectivity.

perhaps we can agree that arrests should be limited to persons actually suspected of a crime. You know, the way it usually works.

doesn't remember that is was the elephant who called someone a "sack of shit" the other day.

I'm sure the elephant meant it in the most civil way possible, however.

http://dncrnc.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/50000-expected-to-protest-rnc/

I'll tell you what. I'll give you that Amy Goodman might have exaggerated being pushed to the "ground". Check out the ten second mark of the video. She is being pushed to the ground. Because she is able to keep her balance she just doesn't come into contact with the ground. But the ninja turtle has his hand on her back and he's shoving her towards the ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

If that's victory for you, fine. Go back to RedState now and brag about it.

Is to veer into exaggeration.

I saw the video of Amy Goodman being arrested they warned her to move away from the line twice. And they also warned everyone else after they arrested her, and no one else was arrested after her in that video. I get really turned off at the attempt at martyrdom. Amy Goodman has been involved in journalism for twenty years. She knows that when someone is arrested, you call the police station to inquire about them, you don't go out into the street to find the cops and ask them. How would they even know who she was talking about? She was cited and released just a couple of hours later. Do you realize how amazing that is? Its actually legal to keep her in jail for seventy two hours before charging her. People get arrested for misdemenors all the time and spend the whole weekend in jail. I'd say that everyone I know has experienced that. I'm just not that shocked, nor do I have much sympathy for Amy. SHe's a big girl, she knows the risk of the kind of work she's doing. And I respect her for it. I think she's great, but she's whittling that reputation away if she's going to focus on this arrest as if its newsworthy.

The black block and anarchists are always at these demonstrations. They represent a real threat to everyone, including the people in demonstration. Unfortunately, the police do not need to send provacateurs out into the street. There's plenty working for free. There was rioting, just be clear about it. There's no need to mitigate it with excuses.

These kinds of over the top theatrics turn everyone off. Well, actually, I know for sure that they turn me off. There were plenty of abuses that should be documented, don't weaken their force with hystrionics. And for christ's sake I read Glenn Greenwald to understand political issues better. This isn't worthy of this much coverage. He;s letting the fact that he was there color his perception of its importance.

“As for Amy Goodman, I regard her as a partisan, not a journalist, and so her story is one that I regard with suspicion and my own partisanship compels me to challenge anything she does or says. And so far, her story is unimpressive to me. And I am asking questions in an attempt to expose her as a liar and an exaggerator.”

Why do you think that humane people give a damn about your repeated explanations of an inconsequential matter of whether Goodman was pushed to the ground or not, when the party you support is holding a convention so that they can elect another War puppet who will do the bidding of the neocons and ideologues who are ruining our country and creating so much suffering?

Get a life with some meaning. Your pretense of calm and level headedness is a sham. You are a phony when it comes to understanding what really is going on and what needs to be done. Show that you really care about human life and our nation. You are just another foolish puppet for authoritarian rule and injustice like McSame and Palin.

Put a ordinary citizen in a uniform that symbolizes authority (military, police) and the chances of that person acting like a barbarian, and using physical force to harm or kill others, is significantly increased, especially in disrupted circumstances. The symbol readily takes over as personal humanity is easily suppressed. The other person "becomes" the enemy for not following the order "Do as I say!"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/25/convention.security/

Interesting in that the ACLU appears to have been concerned that an over-matched police force in St. Paul might have to resort to "tactics" in the event that they cannot control protesters. (Official estimate 25,000; protest organizers claim 50,000.)

Associate Press is "covering" the protests as well...

Kind of similar to the coverage seen here at GG. Here is the front page story on Newsday/AP today:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/

"Protesters and police clash in St. Paul: Protesters smashed windows, punctured tires and threw bottles during an anti-war march."

Similarly to the coverage seen here, there is no coverage of the Iraq Veterans Against the War march on the RNC convention, which was indeed peaceful - until some agent provocateurs came in to provide footage and headlines for the likes of the AP.

Now, the AP can ignore the Iraq Veterans against the War march.

In contrast to that coverage, the Guardian ran this headline:

Protestors march at GOP convention to denounce Iraq war

Daniel Nasaw in St Paul guardian.co.uk,

Monday September 01 2008

There is no mention of this large anti-war march on Democracy Now, or oddly enough, here at Glenn Greenwald's blog. What on earth? Isn't the anti-war march the most newsworthy aspect of all this?

As far as Amy Goodman and Democracy Now, take a look at their coverage of the Iraq Veterans Against the War - in Dever:

"Iraq Veterans Against the War Descends on Denver to Call on Democrats to Endorse True Antiwar Platform"

That was a pre-convention leadup story - and there was no pre-convention leadup story about anti-war protests at the RNC, were there?

Why not? Why is Amy Goodman attacking Democrats, boosting Nader, and ignoring the real guilty party, the Republicans?

Why did Amy Goodman take $150,000 from the Ford Foundation, the very same year that the ACLU turned down Ford Foundation funding because of their "anti-terrorism provisions?"

Why doesn't Amy Goodman allow the public to post comments on the often-inaccurate, slanted and biased stories that are run on Democracy Now?

Why won't Amy Goodman make the details of the $4 million in funding that Democracy Now Productions pulls in each year?

The non-profit, private foundation-funded "alternative media" is not to be trusted - if you had to rely on that slop to find out what was going on in the world, you would be hopelessly misinformed.

It's a fraud. We've all been taken for a ride for years.