Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be nationalized

here we go... the house of cards is comin' down...

Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday informed top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants, that the government is preparing a plan to seize the two companies and place them in a conservatorship, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.

The plan, effectively a government bailout, was outlined in separate meetings that the chief executives were summoned to attend on Friday at the office of the companies’ new regulator. The executives were told that under the plan, they and their boards would be replaced, and their shareholders virtually wiped out, but that the companies would be able to continue functioning with the government generally standing behind their debt, people briefed on the discussions said.

It is not possible to calculate the cost of any government bailout, but the huge potential liabilities of the companies could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and make any rescue among the largest in United States history.

there's no way to overstate how big this is... simply put, it's HUGE... and, if our esteemed government has its way, it's us, joe and jane schmoe taxpayer, who will be the ones to pay...

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The REAL skinny on Afghanistan

a good chunk of the two and a half months i spent in kabul from march to early june was devoted to trying to figure out what the hell i was seeing and trying to make sense out of it all... i came to the conclusion that, despite the billions of dollars that has been pumped into the country since my country kicked the taliban out in late 2001/early 2002, things are still basically shit... the infrastructure - electricity, water, sanitation, health care, roads, food, jobs, and education - is in a godawful state, and abject poverty, massive corruption and spreading random violence are destroying what little was left of the afghan peoples' morale... i'm not a military strategist nor am i a specialist in the economies of war-ravaged countries, but the conviction i developed while i was there was that, if even the infrastructure problems were to be resolved, the violence would practically disappear overnight... this article goes a long way to confirming that perspective...

The bearded, turbaned men gather beneath a large, leafy tree in rural eastern Nangarhar province. When Malik Mohammed speaks on their behalf, his voice is soft but his words are harsh. Mohammed makes it clear that the tribal chiefs have lost all faith in both their own government and the foreign soldiers in their country.

Such disillusionment is widespread in Afghanistan, feeding an insurgency that has killed 195 foreign soldiers so far this year, 105 of them Americans.

"This is our land. We are afraid to send our sons out the door for fear the American troops will pick them up," says Mohammed, who was chosen by the others to represent them. "Daily we have headaches from the troops. We are fed up. Our government is weak and corrupt and the American soldiers have learned nothing."

A strong sense of frustration echoed through dozens of interviews by The Associated Press with Afghan villagers, police, government officials, tribal elders and Taliban who left and rejoined the religious movement. The interviews ranged from the capital, Kabul, to the rural regions near the border with Pakistan.

The overwhelming result: Ordinary Afghans are deeply bitter about American and NATO forces because of errant bombs, heavy-handed searches and seizures and a sense that the foreigners do not understand their culture. They are equally fed up with what they see as seven years of corruption and incompetence in a U.S.-backed government that has largely failed to deliver on development.

Even with more foreign troops, Afghanistan is now less secure.

"It certainly is a mess. Security is the worst that it has been for years. Corruption is out of control. It impacts every single Afghan," says Doug Wankel, a burly 62-year-old American who coordinated Washington's anti-drug policy in Afghanistan from 2004 until 2007 and is now back as a security consultant. "What people have to understand is that what ordinary Afghans think really does matter."

An Afghan woman and her child beg on
a roadside in Kabul September 4, 2008.
REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

the photo above shows what i saw many times as i cris-crossed the streets of kabul on my way to and from meetings - a woman and a small child lying in the middle of a street, literally in the direct path of traffic, begging for a few afghanis just to get something to eat...

these last few paragraphs sum up the sentiments i frequently heard from my afghan friends...

Moiabullah, a black-bearded Taliban from the troubled province of Ghazni, fled to Iran after the Taliban collapsed in 2001 but returned several months ago.

"People are fed up with this government," he says. "No one is working honestly. If you provide a good life, factory or jobs, of course no one will follow Mullah Omar (the Taliban leader)."

Out at the heavily fortified, sprawling U.S. military base at Bagram, north of Kabul, Brig. Gen. Mark Milley says the Taliban and al-Qaida are enemy number one, and corruption is enemy number two. But he claims the troops are inching forward in bringing security to the country.

"The western forces, international forces, Americans in particular are the most disciplined in our use of deadly force," says Milley, the deputy commanding general of operations. "We think we are succeeding."

Back at the tribal council, or shura, in Nangarhar, the eldest of the elders disagrees.

"It is a shame for them," says Abdul Samad, a tall, lanky man in his seventies with a silver beard on his gaunt face. "It was a good opportunity after the Taliban. But it is gone."

so very, very sad, and i may be heading back there toward the end of october...

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Commuter rail patrons' rage boils over in Buenos Aires - again [UPDATE]

this is the second time in two years that angry commuters have set fire to a commuter train in argentina... the last time was may 15 of last year and now again yesterday... the incident last year took place in estación constitución and a different train operator, but yesterday's was against tba (trenes de buenos aires)... tba runs the tigre service on the mitre line that operates out of estación retiro, a line i ride frequently from the station closest to my house, rivadavia station... (as i pointed out in the post i put up about the previous incident, tigre serves the affluent suburbs to the north of the city along the rio de la plata and offers generally reliable service and air-conditioned coaches...) tba's sarmiento line operates out of estación once and serves a huge number of poor communities to the northwest and west of the city... it's the sarmiento line that suffered yesterday's assault... (see map below for station locations)


A fire begins at the carriage of a train at the Castelar station
in Buenos Aires.


Firefighters put out a blaze in a train at the Merlo station,
in the western suburbs of the capital Buenos Aires.

Furious rail commuters in Argentina set fire to a train on Thursday in anger over delays during the morning rush hour.

Television images showed black smoke and flames engulfing the train at the station of Merlo, in the western suburbs of the capital, Buenos Aires. At nearby Castelar, passengers hurled stones at the ticket office and blocked the rails.

"We understand that people get angry when the service is delayed or canceled, but they absolutely can't attack a public service in this way," Gustavo Gago, a spokesman for rail company TBA, told local television.

Many passengers said the delays, caused by a broken down train, had cost them a day's work.

Merlo Station, Sarmiento line (red arrow, upper center left)
Castelar Station, Sarmiento line (red arrow, middle center left)
Rivadavia Station, Tigre line (red arrow, lower center)

most of the folks served by commuter rail service in buenos aires are working poor who, like so many folks right here in the u.s., have to live in the far exurbs because that's the only place they can afford to live... they have to rely on cheap public transportation to get to jobs where they are paid a pittance for what is often very hard, exhausting work... losing a day's pay due to a transportation breakdown is a major loss... since a lot of these people live on the edge of abject poverty anyway, i can fully understand how this kind of rage could be close to the surface... i'm not excusing it, mind you, but i can certainly understand it...

[UPDATE]

according to mercopress, the south atlantic news agency, publishing out of montevideo, uruguay, the argentine government is accusing "radical leftists" for sabotaging the train and inciting the commuters to engage in the acts of destruction...

The Buenos Aires police chief said there is no way the incidents can be considered entirely spontaneous and suggests the involvement of organised violent groups.

[...]

Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez said the faulty train's brakes had been sabotaged and leftist political activists took rocks and flares from their backpacks to incite violence and set the train aflame.

"This was planned, it was premeditated," Fernandez told a news conference, adding the fire caused nearly 8 million US dollars in damages to the newest train running on the heavily traveled line.

i had forgotten that tba is in the process of putting new coaches online... when the article mentions that it was "the newest train running on the line," i'm sure that's correct... in fact, if you look at the second photo, you can see air-conditioning units on the top of the coaches... until just recently, only the tigre line had air-conditioning on the train coaches...

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Juan Cole thoroughly deconstructs McCain's false narrative from last night

it's a masterpiece and deserves to be read in its entirety...

just as a teaser, here's the last two paragraphs...

You want a narrative, about a war hero tortured by the confession he signed, or about a feisty soccer mom who cleaned out the Augean stables of Seward's Ice Box, then you have got it.

You want real policy positions and a rationale for them that goes beyond "I will make my friends rich," then you won't find that in the convention in Minnesota.

a few minutes ago, after turning on the sprinkler on the front lawn and before sitting down to read juan cole, i was reading the headline on the morning paper and i felt my stomach go all queasy...

McCain vows change in Washington

John McCain, a POW turned political rebel, vowed Thursday night to vanquish the “constant partisan rancor” that grips Washington as he launched his fall campaign for the White House. “Change is coming,” he promised the roaring Republican National Convention and a prime-time television audience.

it's amazing chutzpah that mccain mcsame can stand there in front of the republican convention and a national television audience of decent american citizens and baldly claim that he's going to change a friggin' thing... what, pray tell, is he going to change...? the doctrine of waging preemptive war...? hell, no... the practice of enriching the richest of the rich by filling their pockets with the booty of endless war and conflict...? hell, no... stopping the thousands and thousands of poor americans and poverty-stricken people of every nationality dying so the criminals in charge of our government and their cronies can continue to reap their ill-gotten gains...? hell, no... accountability for the crimes of the current administration...? hell, no... a return to the principles embodied in the united states constitution...? hell, no... a dismantling of the apparatus of the police state...? hell, no... if that's the country you want to have, the country we have right now, by all means, cast your vote for john mccain and sarah palin...

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Amy Goodman's chilling account of her arrest and that of two of her colleagues

we simply cannot continue to allow this to happen...

Why We Were Falsely Arrested

By Amy Goodman

04/09/08 "TruthDig" -- - ST. PAUL, Minn. - Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy. As the Republican National Convention meets in St. Paul, Minn., this week, police are systematically targeting journalists. I was arrested with my two colleagues, "Democracy Now!" producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, while reporting on the first day of the RNC. I have been wrongly charged with a misdemeanor. My co-workers, who were simply reporting, may be charged with felony riot.

The Democratic and Republican national conventions have become very expensive and protracted acts of political theater, essentially four-day-long advertisements for the major presidential candidates. Outside the fences, they have become major gatherings for grass-roots movements - for people to come, amidst the banners, bunting, flags and confetti, to express the rights enumerated in the Constitution's First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Behind all the patriotic hyperbole that accompanies the conventions, and the thousands of journalists and media workers who arrive to cover the staged events, there are serious violations of the basic right of freedom of the press. Here on the streets of St. Paul, the press is free to report on the official proceedings of the RNC, but not to report on the police violence and mass arrests directed at those who have come to petition their government, to protest.

It was Labor Day, and there was an anti-war march, with a huge turnout, with local families, students, veterans and people from around the country gathered to oppose the war. The protesters greatly outnumbered the Republican delegates.

There was a positive, festive feeling, coupled with a growing anxiety about the course that Hurricane Gustav was taking, and whether New Orleans would be devastated anew. Later in the day, there was a splinter march. The police-clad in full body armor, with helmets, face shields, batons and canisters of pepper spray-charged. They forced marchers, onlookers and working journalists into a nearby parking lot, then surrounded the people and began handcuffing them.

Nicole was videotaping. Her tape of her own violent arrest is chilling. Police in riot gear charged her, yelling, "Get down on your face." You hear her voice, clearly and repeatedly announcing "Press! Press! Where are we supposed to go?" She was trapped between parked cars. The camera drops to the pavement amidst Nicole's screams of pain. Her face was smashed into the pavement, and she was bleeding from the nose, with the heavy officer with a boot or knee on her back. Another officer was pulling on her leg. Sharif was thrown up against the wall and kicked in the chest, and he was bleeding from his arm.

I was at the Xcel Center on the convention floor, interviewing delegates. I had just made it to the Minnesota delegation when I got a call on my cell phone with news that Sharif and Nicole were being bloody arrested, in every sense. Filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and I raced on foot to the scene. Out of breath, we arrived at the parking lot. I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.

Within seconds, they grabbed me, pulled me behind the police line and forcibly twisted my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, the rigid plastic cuffs digging into my wrists. I saw Sharif, his arm bloody, his credentials hanging from his neck. I repeated we were accredited journalists, whereupon a Secret Service agent came over and ripped my convention credential from my neck. I was taken to the St. Paul police garage where cages were set up for protesters. I was charged with obstruction of a peace officer. Nicole and Sharif were taken to jail, facing riot charges.

The attack on and arrest of me and the "Democracy Now!" producers was not an isolated event. A video group called I-Witness Video was raided two days earlier. Another video documentary group, the Glass Bead Collective, was detained, with its computers and video cameras confiscated. On Wednesday, I-Witness Video was again raided, forced out of its office location. When I asked St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington how reporters are to operate in this atmosphere, he suggested, "By embedding reporters in our mobile field force."

On Monday night, hours after we were arrested, after much public outcry, Nicole, Sharif and I were released. That was our Labor Day. It's all in a day's work.

Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 700 stations in North America.

© 2008 Amy Goodman

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Don't Pinch Me...........

.........I don't wanna be woke up.

I'm having sweet dreams, courtesy of NewsMax, no less.


Obama May Bring Criminal Charges Against Bush

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden said he and presidential hopeful Barack Obama could bring criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

“If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Florida on Monday, ABC News reported.

“Not out of vengeance, not out of retribution. Out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president — no one is above the law.”

Biden promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with "a fine-toothed comb" and pursue criminal charges if necessary.

Now, if they will only dig into the back of their closets, and find the backbones they misplaced so long ago, and keep their word this time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know..............but cut me some slack. I said I was dreamin'.

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Getting gassed at the RNC set to reggae

from firedoglake via alternet...

Photos by Lindsay Beyerstein of security forces tear-gassing a peaceful Poor Peoples March during the Republican National Convention, Sept. 2, 2008. Set to music by Junior Murvin.

Several activist groups held an outdoor press conference in St. Paul this morning to decry police brutality against peaceful protesters. Last night, police filed tear gas into a peaceful crowd on 7th Street when the group did not immediately scatter upon the order to disperse -- rapid egress was hampered by the fact that the the police had encircled groups of people and locked down intersections at both ends of the block.

The demonstrators were part of the Poor People's March. The March is not affiliated with the anarchist groups whose members destroyed property during a demonstration on Monday. When some anarchist protesters joined the procession, organizers asked them to leave or move to the back. They were concerned that the anarchists might cause trouble or attract unwanted police attention.

Willy J.R. Flemming, the director of security for PPM, told the press conference that he didn't see the anarchists confront the police at any time. Flemming is an organizer for the Coalition to Protect Public Housing and a trained UN human rights observer.

"I observed a lot of instigation and escalation of violence [on the part of the police]," Flemming said.

Flemming expressed frustration that the anarchists' tactics and the police response were overshadowing the march's human rights message.

"Instead of trying to convince the police that you're something, convince the people that you're there with them," Flemming said.

how appalling that this is happening in my country...

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Please, dear God, make Sarah Palin go away...!

if i read ONE MORE THING about sarah palin or her pregnant-out-of-wedlock teen daughter i am going to HURL...!

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Amy Goodman detained? arrested? in Minneapolis [w/UPDATE]

things seem to be heading rapidly over the top in the land of 10,000 lakes...

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were arrested by the Minneapolis Police Department. Charged with conspiracy to riot.

[UPDATE]

from democracy now...

Amy Goodman and Two Democracy Now! Producers Unlawfully Arrested At the RNC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
www.democracynow.org

September 1, 2008

Contact:
Denis Moynihan 917-549-5000
Mike Burke 646-552-5107, mike@democracynow.org

ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her.

Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfully detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.

Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman's office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0).

Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested during this action.

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation's leading independent news outlet.

yep... definitely over the top...

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Greenwald's thoughts on the Minnesota raids - an "excessive and truly despicable intimidation campaign"

he's right, of course... this should be a front-page story all over the country and it's not... our constitution is being actively violated and deliberately destroyed before our very eyes while we dish about sarah palin...

As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue -- see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway -- it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Today's Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.

So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone. And it's not difficult to see why. As the recent "overhaul" of the 30-year-old FISA law illustrated -- preceded by the endless expansion of surveillance state powers, justified first by the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror -- we've essentially decided that we want our Government to spy on us without limits. There is literally no police power that the state can exercise that will cause much protest from the political and media class and, therefore, from the citizenry.

Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they've done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our "freedoms" in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic -- but we've decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it's therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them.

After all, if you don't want the FBI spying on you, or the Police surrounding and then invading your home with rifles and seizing your computers, there's a very simple solution: don't protest the Government. Just sit quietly in your house and mind your own business. That way, the Government will have no reason to monitor what you say and feel the need to intimidate you by invading your home. Anyone who decides to protest -- especially with something as unruly and disrespectful as an unauthorized street march -- gets what they deserve.

it's wrong... completely wrong... and we sit and watch it happen...

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Fascism rears its ugly head in Minneapolis in connection with the RNC [UPDATE]

my brother, who lives in south minneapolis, tipped me off to what was going on there in an earlier email... welcome to fascism, u.s.a...

Crackdown begins: Food Not Bombs house among Saturday raids

Minneapolis Police Department officers stand guard outside the Food Not Bombs house.
Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel

MnIndy RNC reporter Jeff Severns Guntzel is at the Minneapolis Food Not Bombs house, which was raided by police this morning. Facts are still coming in, but Guntzel says that at 8 a.m. neighbors near the home, located at 2301 23rd Avenue South, reported hearing a loud bang followed by yelling. A single police squad car was parked out front. When Guntzel arrived he saw eight or nine officers enter the house in what he says is a joint operation between officers of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department, the Minneapolis Police Depatment, and the FBI. According to one witness who was in the house at the time of the raid, the action is related to last night’s raid on the RNC Welcoming Committee’s “convergence space.” Several other spaces have been raided this morning.

Around 9:20, two Minneapolis Police Property & Evidence trucks pulled up. Present were a Hennepin County Sheriffs’ crime lab truck, a Ramsey County Sheriffs’ squad and an MPD squad, plus at least four unmarked cars parked facing the wrong direction in traffic. Police tape is marking off the yard.

Two men are released from the Food Not Bombs house as reporters,
neighbors, and supporters look on.
Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel

At one point a five-year-old boy was escorted from the home by police. In what Guntzel calls a “sweet moment,” the boy told police he wanted his markers, and the officer went in and came back out a few minutes later. “These are the only colors I could find,” the officer said. “Did I get the right stuff?”

As MnIndy reported on Thursday, rumors of a weekend sweep of activist organizations have been swirling. In the last 12 hours, at least three other sites, from the RNC Welcoming Committee’s “convergence space” in St. Paul to sites in South Minneapolis have been raided.

Officers and agents from the Minneapolis Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, Ramsey County Sheriff's office and the FBI collaborated on the raid.
Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel

9:45 A woman named Heather Adams just came out of the Food Not Bombs house and gave Guntzel the following account: She arrived from Chicago at 3 a.m. this morning with plans to protest at the RNC. At 8 a.m. she woke up to find police in the house wearing riot gear and camouflage flak jackets. She says they had rifles drawn. Adams has a broken ankle, and when officers ordered her to roll over on her stomach, she says she was slow to do so and the officer, she says, pushed her with his boot.

Adams says one arrest was made. Nathanael Secor, a main organizer of FNB, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to riot, she says.

9:54: Guntzel says a Ramsey County warrant was served, and the house is now occupied only by law enforcement agents. Evidence has been taken out the back of the house. Adams said law enforcement took photos of maps of St. Paul which were present in the house, as well as house plants. Adams also said that a city inspector was on site as well. The house, according to one law enforcement official, has links to the RNC Welcoming Committee.

10:03: Guntzel has in hand a Hennepin County warrant. It indicates law enforcement was searching for incendiary devices, smoke bombs, urine and feces, and other items. See a transcription of the warrant here. [Update: PDF]

In the alley behind the house, two Minneapolis Police Department Property & Evidence trucks wait to be loaded.
Photo: Jeff Severns Guntzel

10:44: The RNC Welcoming Committee issued a press release noting that four individuals were arrested in the raids: Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Nathanael Secor. The press release also notes that “Search warrants for 2 of the 3 raided houses listed only one name apiece, each of individuals not present at the houses and, thus, not arrested.”

appalling... this is precisely what i DIDN'T want to welcome me back to the u.s...

[UPDATE]

it looks like the storm troopers also tried to prevent independent documentation of their actions by seizing cell phones and cameras... the protestors are filing an emergency motion with the county court to stop it...

Two organizations said today they filed an emergency motion with the court Saturday to try to prevent police from seizing video equipment and cell phones used to document officers' conduct.

The move came after the Ramsey County sheriff's office raided on Friday night a center used by protest groups in St. Paul, and three Minneapolis homes Saturday. Five people were arrested. Sheriff Bob Fletcher said they are key leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee, a self-described anarchist group.

The National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police Brutality filed the motion late Saturday, according to a press release.

The release said "examples of police interference with the right to document their conduct" included seizure of equipment in Minneapolis from three journalists with Glass Bead Collective and targeting of journalists during a raid in St. Paul on Saturday.

Communities United Against Police Brutality president Michelle Gross said she was video taping the sheriff's office raid in St. Paul on Saturday night when deputies shut off her camera.

"This action prevented her from documenting the incident in its entirety," the press release said. "Despite their actions, Ms. Gross was able to capture about 7 1/2 minutes of video and audio of the beginning of the raid, including use by deputies of a battering ram to force open the door to a upstairs theater where families were watching a film.

The groups are holding a press conference this afternoon.

what the hell has happened to my country...?

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Dennis thinks we should wake up...

i agree... we've been sleeping in while our country has been stolen right out from underneath us...

dennis kucinich at the dnc...



i'm actually more than a little surprised that kucinich was allowed to even get NEAR the dnc podium when a former democratic president, jimmy carter, didn't even make an APPEARANCE...

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