In St. Paul

{xtypo_rounded_right2}TwinCities.com: video clips
TwinCities.com: Nearly 400 arrested downtown as the show goes on inside the Xcel
theuptake.org: The UpTake’s Suzanne Arrested
Minnestoa Public Radio: Protests on the RNC’s final night
Video clips {/xtypo_rounded_right2}As the Republican delegates roared their
approval of John McCain and Sarah Palin inside the Xcel Center, riot
police ran amuck throughout the city of St. Paul, arresting hundreds,
using pepper spray, concussion grenades, and tear gas to attack people
whose main “crimes” were gathering for peaceful protests against
the wars the Bush Regime, with the full complicity of the Democratic
Party, has been waging and intends to wage.

Step back and look at this picture for
a moment. A man whose chief “credential” is that he participated
in murderous air assaults on the people of Vietnam, and who vows “victory”
in pursuing the relentless conquest for unchallenged global empire begun
by Bush is chosen to head the ticket. A woman who claims that the U.S.
is pursuing a “task that is from God” in its war on Iraq, who
is an unyielding advocate of banning all abortions, whatever the circumstances
may be, and who has couched every decision she has made as governor
of Alaska as being “God’s will” is selected to be his partner
in crime. The full resources of the government are marshaled to crush
anyone who is even thinking about protesting these abominations. This
is what a police state looks like. 

We are living in dangerous and challenging
times. And the official terms of this “electoral season” have been
set. On the Republican side: a war criminal/mass murderer and a Christian
fascist; and in the Democratic Party corner, a man who vows to expand
the military, only wage “intelligent” wars for empire, and who has
declared his intention to expand the war in Afghanistan and threatens
that he will do “everything in my power” – meaning up to and including
the use of nuclear weapons – against Iran, along with a well seasoned
proponent of U.S. empire and unjust wars.  

The terms have been set ” or have they?
In the streets of St. Paul and Denver, courageous protestors braved
police repression in an effort to recast those terms. None of what is
being decided – or even “debated” – in this election is in the
interests of people in this country or the world. But what the people
do in the days, weeks, and months ahead  – building on these
outpourings – can bring forward a powerful new political dynamic that
challenges the programs of war, torture, repression, and oppression
of women that the Bush Regime has set in motion and both of the candidates
will continue, in one form or another.  

The future is unwritten. Which one we
get is up to us.

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