Yikes!!!! Disturbing Developments

Glenn Greenwald and Jane from FDL report about preemptive raids of protest organizer homes. These are clear violations of the Constitutional rights of these people, and apparently the police are much more aggressive than what was seen in Denver.

Some excerpts:

those inside described how a team of roughly 25 officers had barged into their homes with masks and black swat gear, holding large semi-automatic rifles, and ordered them to lie on the floor, where they were handcuffed and ordered not to move. The officers refused to state why they were there and, until the very end, refused to show whether they had a search warrant. They were forced to remain on the floor for 45 minutes while the officers took away the laptops, computers, individual journals, and political materials kept in the house...Nestor indicated that only 2 or 3 of the 50 individuals who were handcuffed this morning at the 2 houses were actually arrested and charged with a crime, and the crime they were charged with is "conspiracy to commit riot." Nestor, who has practiced law in Minnesota for many years, said that he had never before heard of that statute being used for anything, and that its parameters are so self-evidently vague, designed to allow pre-emeptive arrests of those who are peacefully protesting, that it is almost certainly unconstitutional, though because it had never been invoked (until now), its constitutionality had not been tested.

There is clearly an intent on the part of law enforcement authorities here to engage in extreme and highly intimidating raids against those who are planning to protest the Convention. The DNC in Denver was the site of several quite ugly incidents where law enforcement acted on behalf of Democratic Party officials and the corporate elite that funded the Convention to keep the media and protesters from doing anything remotely off-script. But the massive and plainly excessive preemptive police raids in Minnesota are of a different order altogether. Targeting people with automatic-weapons-carrying SWAT teams and mass raids in their homes, who are suspected of nothing more than planning dissident political protests at a political convention and who have engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever, is about as redolent of the worst tactics of a police state as can be imagined.

He's got video at his site

What a scary country this has become...

Primer on the Palin Scandal

The Bellman seem to be in the business of cataloging the Palin scandal. Good stuff.

EZ Polling Results!

The results are in and they look tasty....


72% of OGnians (that participated) think that Biden is NOT CRAP. Any future references to him, the choice, VPs, and MNBA as crap will be laughingly out of touch with popular opinion, and will be subject to mockery and snark.

Note: would the 2 voters that indicated that they do not participate in opinion polls please contact me, I have a questionnaire I would like you to complete. It only takes a couple hours. I am working on a survey of nonrespondents, but have had trouble with my sample size.

The anticipation for next week's poll is building...see you tomorrow.

Huck the Fuskies

Always Nice to Get a Mention

From a GOP fund-raising e-mail.

Obama and the Democrats are ready to jam their liberal agenda on the American people. Their fundraising troika of labor bosses, Hollywood, and trial lawyers is trying to smash the Republican Senate Firewall and hand the keys over to liberal interest groups.

.

Crap/Not Crap

McCain's pick of Palin make concerns about his age and health legitimate talking points and lines of attack for the Dems.

I say "not crap."

Hilarious....

h/t Hoffmania via atrios

I actually was going to post a funny bit from political radar...I was perusing past posts (led there by atrios also) and came across this:

ABC News' Jennifer Duck reports: During the heated 2008 presidential race, President Bush has never attacked Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., by name, and on Friday, Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters the president has no plans to attack the Democratic presidential nominee when he addresses the Republican National Convention on Monday.

“Do not expect the speech to define the president's legacy. This is not an opportunity to recap accomplishments of the past seven and a half years. It will not serve as a farewell to the American people, and it certainly will not attack Barack Obama," Perino said.

One reporter asked "why not" and Perino replied with a laugh, "Because he's got class.”

Yes the man won't mention his awesome legacy, the kick ass job he's done the past 7 and 1/2 years, and won't be his farewell...too bad, would have been a great speech. What is he going to talk about?
can't wait for the OG liveblog of the Convention...

Palin and Sexism

A friend sent me this. I think it's amazing that the Republicans are pushing the "Palin is hot" meme enough that it took less than three hours for someone to dummy this up.

Sorry if posting it only compounds the problem of women being seen solely as sex objects, even when they are running for VP, but it something I am seeing the Republicans push, so the sign makes a comment.

One of my first thoughts after hearing about Palin is that a good trick by the Republicans would be to have someone like Buchanan or Novak or Savage say something sexist, then she could denounce the sexists in her own party and try to win those Hillary voters over. This might be the first wave on that line.

Noted without comment

This One's Got Legs [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

An e-mail:

"Of course, you are correct that women will not reflexively vote for Governor Palin because of her gender. This pick helps more with *men*. Think we'd much rather watch Governor Palin than Sen. Biden for the next four years?"

How low will he go?

apparently, pretty low. I will not link to the ad. but this screenfreeze appears for about a full second (at least 30 frames) and the C has obviously been shaded out. There is no way this is coincidence, no f'in way.

h/t Raw story

Dean Baker on EFCA

Thanks, Dean:

Anti-labor groups have been trying to whip up opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act by arguing that it will take away workers' right to have their union representation decided by a secret ballot. The most basic problem with this claim is that workers do not currently have this right.

Under current law, it is employers who have the right to demand that recognition be decided by a secret ballot. Unions can, and often are, certified by card check, a mechanism whereby it is determined that a majority of the workers in a bargaining unit have indicated their support for a union. Unions can also be decertified by card check.

The major change of the Employee Free Choice Act is that workers would have the option to determine the manner of certification not employers. The Post gets an "A" for pointing out that it would "end a company right to demand a secret-ballot election." Under the Act, workers would still have the option to petition for a secret ballot election, but the choice would remain with the workers.

Gov. Sarah Palin

Kay Bailey Hutchinson is on CNN right now basically saying that she has never heard of her and knows nothing about her.

So McCain is basically going after the Hillary vote. Giving up the attack on Obama for not having experience and going after the women. Doing so in the most craven way possible.

This race stays pretty effing exciting.

[UPDATE]

Watching CNN, I have learned that it is sexist to ask if a woman with a 4-month-old with Down Syndrome should be running for national office. On the other hand, we will hear a lot about how she didn't abort the youngster, so she is a paragon of virtue.

Oh, What a Night!

I watched Obama rock my world. The OG did well. I got to talk to my friends. I played poker, which involved a group of us TWICE singing the UO fight song in the face of a Husky. Drank a bottle of cheap wine. Listened to this: loud enough that my ears still kind of hurt an hour later.

Now I am organizing the hell out of some grievances and trying to figure out the "plot" of Ghost Rider.

You know, sometimes life is pretty awesome.

And I try not to remember that the ability for me to enjoy my life is built on a mountain of exploitation.

Meanwhile...

The GOP has been so disastrous at governing that the natural world is wreaking havoc on any attempt for them to get good PR:

Senior Republicans said images of political celebration in the Twin Cities while thousands of Americans flee a hurricane could be disastrous. "Senator McCain has always been sensitive to national crisis," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds...

O RLY?



To add to the intrigue, should the GOP have to delay their convention by one week, and McCain accepts the nomination on Thursday... anyone want to take a look at that date on the calender?

The OMG Obama rocked open thread

Because you have scroll fatigue.

Obama speech open thread

Yak on.

DNC open thread

Here's tonight's schedule. Personally, I'm looking forward to Michael McDonald.

See you down below.

This Is Pandering to Courtney

Myerson on Labor

On the heels of several "unity" events discussed previously, Harold Meyerson provides a nonetheless sober account of the state of the unions.

More Novick Worship

Steve For Gov? Will my dissertation be done by then? Will he let me staff it up for 'em?