Not so different fiddlers, same dance:

Police raid RNC protest sites in Twin Cities

…On Saturday afternoon, law agents surrounded 951 Iglehart Av. in St. Paul where members of I-Witness Video, a New York-based group that monitors police conduct during protests, were staying. They were detained and handcuffed but eventually freed without charges…

tiny URL

Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis

…This is truly repugnant, extreme police behavior designed to intimidate protesters, police critics and others, and it ought to infuriate anyone and everyone who cares about basic liberties.

Amendment I

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.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

More Protesters Arrested in the Twin Cities

…Glenn Greenwald: So what were they charged with?

Bruce Nestor: They were charged with conspiracy to commit riot, which is about as bullshit a charge — about as thin a charge — as you could possibly come up with. And I say that as a lawyer.

Glenn Greenwald: How do you distinguish between that and a protest?

Bruce: You can’t. It basically criminalizes political advocacy. I mean, the essence of conspiracy law is if a single individual takes an overt act towards accomplishing an illegal goal such as purchasing a brick, and the police then claim that someone else in his group has an intent to throw that brick, then everyone who advocates that you attend that demonstration…

Glenn: Even if you’re not intending to commit that crime…

Bruce: …even though you’re not intending to commit the crime, could all be charged with conspiracy….

It’s their party and they’ll desecrate the Constitution if they want to.

Heaven protect us from long (and short) haired protesters with large puppets and smart mouths. Puh-leaze.

Oh, wait a minute. The republican nominee doesn’t appear to have to worry about any mortgages. You wouldn’t know that if you hung out with our useless and lazy old national media. Like at a cookout in Sedona, Arizona.

It seems that McSame can’t remember how many homes he owns. The Obama campaign has already fired up an ad:

Larry King Live on August 18, 2008:

…KING: From Lake Forest, California, we welcome — it’s always great to see him, a frequent visitor to this show. Not frequent enough, by the way. Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, best-selling author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” and on Saturday, he conducted those interviews with Senators Obama and McCain at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency.

Let’s take care of one thing right away. You introduced Obama and said that Senator McCain and said he was in a cone of silence.

WARREN: Yes.

KING: Now, obviously, Rick Warren would never tell a mistruth.

Did you not know that he was in an automobile?

WARREN: I didn’t know they had put — hadn’t put him into the Green Room yet. No, I didn’t. When we walked in, I knew he hadn’t been in about 10 minutes earlier. And I figured within the 10 minutes we got there, they had put him in.

The whole thing is really kind of bogus, Larry. The Supreme — I mean, the Secret Service were with him the whole time. Then our facility’s staff — our security staff were with him. And he was put in a building completely separate from everybody else. And there’s no way he could hear. I’ve been talking about this all day. There was a rumor going around that he watched the program on a monitor in the Green Room that we had him in.

Well, there’s only one problem with it. My staff, Chuck Taylor, disconnected that thing two days before it happened. So if he — if they had happened to turn it on, it would have been all just static.

And both Barack and John agreed to the terms that said we will not listen to the other’s, we will not get the questions in advance.

Actually, what happened is I did give Obama one in advance that I didn’t get to Senator McCain because he wasn’t there. Right before we started, I wanted to tell them there’s going to be one question that I’m going to ask you for a commitment on. And I didn’t think that was fair to ask for a commitment publicly without setting them up. And it had to do with orphans.

And so I did get to tell Senator Obama about that question. But because Senator McCain wasn’t there, he hadn’t — he didn’t have that question yet.

KING: All right.

Well, could he have heard it in the car, though, if he was still arriving at the event?

WARREN: You know what, if — not a chance. The Secret Service would have reported it. When he showed up, there were — and he says he didn’t. You know, I…

KING: All right.

WARREN: …I just have to accept his integrity on that.

KING: Sure…

[emphasis added]

I don’t think so.

What the United States Secret Service (protective mission) does:

Authorization

Today, the Secret Service is authorized by law to protect:

   * The president, the vice president, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the president-elect and vice president-elect

   * The immediate families of the above individuals

   * Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former president leaves office

   * Children of former presidents until age 16

   * Visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad

   * Major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election

   * Other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President

   * National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

Note that nowhere does their mission include keeping candidates from listening to KNX News Radio 1070 in Los Angeles.

Uh, yep, on Larry King Live ten years ago, July 14, 1998:

…KING: Is anything said, Tim, when you sign on about confidentiality?

MCCARTHY: Well, there’s no document that you sign, at least by the time I retired, Larry, about confidentiality. However, going on to the president, presidential detail, or vice presidential detail, it was made very clear to you in your briefings that what what you see there and what you hear there would remain there.

And not only because much of it could be confidential, much of it is classified, secret and top secret, but also for the issue that we’re talking about, I believe, today, that if the protectee feels that the agents could relay information to others about what’s going on, certainly, as Jerry said, the issue of proximity will change, and there will be mistrust of the agents.

And you have to remember, when an individual becomes a protectee of the Secret Service, whether it’s a foreign dignity, a candidate for the presidency or anything else there’s mistrust to begin with. They’re worried for example if they’re a candidate from the Republican Party and the president is a Democrat, that they may be passing information back to the president, for example, or to his staff. It’s not true. And it doesn’t happen.

But it’s difficult to get over that mistrust that they have that you’re an intelligence agent. And this is, as Jerry said, I couldn’t have said it better — it’s going to plant the seed of mistrust between the protectors and the protectees…

[emphasis added]

Uh, Larry, don’t you have staff who are supposed to research your past shows? Sloppy. Just plain sloppy.

This is the idiocy that gets foisted on our public discourse and on campaigns in general when our media sucks so badly that amateurs at a non-public sponsored event take over their role.

…KING: Now, obviously, Rick Warren would never tell a mistruth…

No, of course not Larry, but it’s still just ducky to be ignorant…

The McSame‘s don’t really feel your pain.

Priceless, er, I mean, pricey:

“…My husband was running for the Senate in Arizona, and in Arizona the only way to get around the state is by small private plane and I wound up loving it and buying a plane…”

…the plane, the plane…

Brett Penrose on the only professional “flip-flopper” in this campaign.

It’s in his nature…

…and the timing is perfect due to the uproar over cone of silence-gate.

1 voter for McSame: “Peace the Old Fashioned Way”

Here at Show Me Progress we’re big fans of political bumper stickers.

For me that means I tend to notice the various permutations in this particular sub genre. Other than that I don’t particularly care if your kid can beat up my honor student or that you ate the 144 ounce steak in one sitting whilst visiting a Texas panhandle tourist trap.

Today I walked past a pickup truck in a parking lot and saw two unique large stickers, one on each side of the rear window. A top view silhouette of B-2 bomber in a circle on the left and a top view silhouette of a B-52 bomber in a circle on the right, each with the legend “Peace the Old Fashioned Way” underneath. I just had to get a picture.

I like this one better…

1 voter not for McSame

…since it’s actually pertinent to our present reality.

Rasmussen released a 500 sample poll of likely voters in Missouri dated June 3, 2008:

2008 Presidential General Election Match-Ups

McCain 42%

Obama 43%

Other 9%

Not sure 6%

The poll has a margin of error of 4.5%.

There are some other interesting things in those top line numbers:

How do you rate the way that George W. Bush is performing his role as President? Excellent, good, fair, or poor?

9% Excellent

17% Good

17% Fair

56% Poor

1% Not sure

Worst. President. Ever.

The kool-aid drinkers are down to 26%. That’s probably the best we can expect. Just think about it – one in four people you pass on the street thinks dubya is just doin’ peachy.

Even if the next president is a mediocrity that individual will probably be added to the pantheon on Mount Rushmore – he’ll be considered one of the greats in direct comparison to dubya’s disastrous eight years. Unless of course we get a third dubya term with McSame…

Photo of George W. Bush and John McCain from Progressive Media USA. This photo is used in the recent National Education Association mailer: “The Book on John McCain and Public Schools”

I’m a member of two unions and proud of both of them. Today I received a mailer from the National Education Association (NEA), of which I am a member, titled “The Book on John McCain and Public Schools”. This piece alone was worth my yearly membership dues – I know the NEA isn’t afraid to try and make a difference in this presidential election. My union isn’t afraid to speak out. That makes me very proud of them.

The NEA web site has a comparison of the positions of the current active presidential candidates. There’s an interesting disclaimer, a footnote really, on John McCain:

All three Presidential candidates were asked to complete an NEA presidential candidate questionnaire. Senators Clinton and Obama completed the questionnaire but Senator McCain did not.

Back to the NEA mailer. Underneath the photo (above) is a quote:

“Competition is the key to success in education in America. That means charter schools, that means homeschooling, it means vouchers…” – John McCain, Republican Presidential Debate, 12/9/07

Vouchers? Not in Missouri.

Missouri Constitution

Article I

BILL OF RIGHTS

Section 6

Practice and support of religion not compulsory–contracts therefor enforceable.

Section 6. That no person can be compelled to erect, support or attend any place or system of worship, or to maintain or support any priest, minister, preacher or teacher of any sect, church, creed or denomination of religion; but if any person shall voluntarily make a contract for any such object, he shall be held to the performance of the same.

Missouri Constitution

Article IX

EDUCATION

Section 8

Prohibition of public aid for religious purposes and institutions.

Section 8. Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township, school district or other municipal corporation, shall ever make an appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any religious creed, church or sectarian purpose, or to help to support or sustain any private or public school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of personal property or real estate ever be made by the state, or any county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, for any religious creed, church, or sectarian purpose whatever.

In two places of the Missouri Constitution, no less.

What else did the NEA say about McSame in their mailer?:

We need to turn the page on George Bush’s failed policies, but John McCain is more of the same…

…John McCain supports Bush’s No Child Left Behind but voted to kill efforts to fully fund mandates in the law (CNN, 11/3/05; Associated Press, 4/13/07; H. Con. Res. 95, Vote #114, 4/28/05; S. Con. Res. 18, Vote #68, 3/17/05)

John McCain voted against five billion dollars in public school funding while voting for Bush’s seventy billion dollars in tax cuts for millionaires (FY 2006 Budget Resolution; H. Con. Res. 95, Vote #114, 4/28/05; S. Con. Res. 18, Vote #68, 3/17/05)…

Yep, those priorities just get you right here. He’d starve public education of funding and then transfer revenue to private schools through vouchers. That ‘s some education agenda, eh?

A public school teacher who votes for John McCain is voting to make their job a lot harder and their life more miserable. If you’ve liked the last 8 years, you’re gonna love the next 100…

Simple republican math:

“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”

Leona Helmsley

…plus…

“Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.”

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

…equals:

WASHINGTON – Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.

“You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate,” Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC’s “Today” on Thursday.

Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: “No.”

Cindy McCain says she’ll never release her tax returns [emphasis added]

Au contraire. If you want to live in public housing it becomes the public’s business. The little people are funny that way.

From the Huffington Post:

During the 2004 election, Republicans criticized Theresa Heinz Kerry for not disclosing her personal tax returns (she eventually released a copy of her 1040). RNC Chairman Ed Gillepsie claimed then:

   “Throughout history, presidential candidates have disclosed income tax information prior to Election Day. We believe Americans value disclosure and transparency in campaigns. During the 2003 filing year, Sen. Kerry made a $6 million loan to his campaign based on the value of a home jointly owned with his wife.”

Well, Ed? [sound of crickets]

From the New York Times (via MyDD):

…over a seven-month period beginning last summer, Mr. McCain’s cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain, according to public records. For five of those months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show.

Mr. McCain’s campaign paid a total of $241,149 for the use of that plane from last August through February, records show. That amount is approximately the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two, according to industry estimates.

The senator was able to fly so inexpensively because the law specifically exempts aircraft owned by a candidate or his family or by a privately held company they control. The Federal Election Commission adopted rules in December to close the loophole – rules that would have required substantial payments by candidates using family-owned planes – but the agency soon lost the requisite number of commissioners needed to complete the rule making.

Because that exemption remains, Mr. McCain’s campaign was able to use his wife’s corporate plane like a charter jet while paying first-class rates, several campaign finance experts said…

We have a little saying around here: If you’ve liked the last 8 years, you’re gonna love the next 100…

Never let people with smart mouths, bad attitudes, and political axes to grind near a union print shop. If you do so, they will inevitably gravitate toward creating a sarcastic bumper sticker. It’s got to be genetic.

The bumper sticker is 11 inches wide and 3 inches high. The background is actually white (okay, I’m not the world’s greatest photographer, so sue me).

Here’s the deal:

We printed 500 of these suckers (the photo really doesn’t do it justice, so sue me – I tell you, it “pops” live) at a union shop. Printing at a union shop is the only way to go. Are you paying attention Democratic Party candidates?

Since the Show Me Progress corporate headquarters has a staff of exactly zero we do not have the necessary infrastructure to fill requests that ask us to “please send me three”.

However, if you want to acquire 100 of these beauties for distribution as you see fit, we can talk. Contact us at: info@showmeprogress.com  If we get enough large orders we can order a really large printing (thereby driving the costs way down) and everybody will then be really happy. We won’t have distribution headaches, the meme achieves complete saturation, and a union print shop will be kept busy twenty four hours a day, seven days a week until early November.

Everybody will be happy. Except for actual republicans.

Now, don’t get upset with us because we can’t send you “just three”. We have a choice here. Write and post blog content, or fill bumper sticker orders one at a time. I think you’ll agree with the choice we made.

We plan on bringing the bumper stickers with us to the Missouri Democratic Party convention in Columbia on May 10th. Then again, if they’re all gone by then we’ll try to figure something out about getting more produced and distributed to the consumer masses.

A way to acquire a few of these beauties before May 10th is to actually see one of us before then.  Not so fast. Right now they’re sitting in one spot in the west central part of the state. We haven’t gotten a chunk of them to our folks in the eastern part of the state yet. Once we figure that out, we’ll let you all know.