Superman comes to the Rockies

Glen Arbor Sun newspaper

Inspired by the late Norman Mailer’s essay on John F. Kennedy, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket” (Esquire magazine, November 1960).

DENVER — Could you hear it? The roar of 85,000 people rising to the upper stratosphere of Mile High Stadium (officially called Invesco Field) and bouncing off the Rocky Mountains to the west. Could you feel it? The vibration of 170,000 hands clapping in unison, and as many feet pounding the football bleachers as if their beloved John Elway were about to launch another improbable, come-from-behind touchdown drive. Could you sense the emotion? On the forty-fifth anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King’s march on Washington, D.C. and his “I have a dream” speech, another African American stood at the altar of history, while in the crowd, thousands of descendents of slaves reached out their ebony hands and felt that next threshold, so close, in the late summer air.

Barack Obama — the son of a vagabond mother from Kansas and a dead-beat father from Kenya; the grandson of poor African sheepherders and a soldier in Patton’s army which marched to Berlin; the owner of the most compelling narrative journey of any presidential candidate in this country’s history (and conversely, according to our favorite “rags to riches” fable, the most quintessentially American of stories) and one who has called Kenya, Kansas, Hawaii, Indonesia, the south side of Chicago and Washington D.C. home — Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on this Thursday night, and if he wins the election on November 4, the event (and his primary election triumph over Hillary Clinton) may go down as one of the greatest, equalizing events in our history … perhaps even mentioned in the same breath with Lincoln’s freeing of the slaves, Jackie Robinson’s breaking of baseball’s color barrier, King’s march on the Mall, Ali’s refusal to go to Vietnam.

Obama was cast in his most natural role tonight, as a rock star orator in front of a huge crowd. The junior senator from Illinois beat Hillary by a hair this spring, mostly because he dominated caucuses, that is, people voting in groups instead of alone. His strength has always been in his ability to inspire people en masse, especially the young, and especially African Americans. Specific policy proposals have sometimes lagged behind, but in a country depressed and enraged by eight years under a bullheaded idiot in the White House, lost jobs, an economic recession, an illegal and counterproductive war, thousands of dead or maimed soldiers, a flooded city, a collapsed bridge, and faith in government that’s never been lower … inspiration itself is not unwelcome. That’s why David Axelrod and the rest of Obama’s campaign staff decided to present him not inside the dark, cozy Pepsi Center, where the first three days of the convention had taken place, but in the football stadium, out in front of 85,000, the nation and the world.

The strategy had worked well during the primary season, as Obama campaigned in front of loud, boisterous crowds from Iowa to South Carolina, his two most crucial victories. More recently, he had played basketball in Kuwait with enthusiastic U.S. soldiers waiting to deploy to Iraq, and after appearing with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in front of panoramic shots of Jerusalem, he seduced as many as 100,000 ecstatic Europeans at the Siegesäule victory column in Berlin. The intention here was not just to show Obama’s populist popularity with the masses, but to all but establish him as an active president, thus creating an air of inevitability. Indeed, while on his Middle East tour, Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki agreed with Obama’s timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops — a blow to Bush, and John McCain. Multiple heads of state in Europe greeted him with open arms (though not too warm, for fear of awakening the anti-European, anti-anyone-outside-our-borders sentiment on the American right), thereby putting Obama in a position to influence White House foreign policy even before the November election. And tonight, Obama appeared in Denver on a stage of Roman columns that sought to resemble the White House. If he looked presidential enough, the thinking went, then enough voters will actually vote for him as president.

Family Ties

There was, of course, another image that the powers that be in the Democratic Party wanted to burn into the minds of voters: the Obamas as family people — non-condescending, non-threatening, solid, Christian, Midwestern, even mundane. This image was far preferable to the Hollywood rock star image the McCain campaign was trying to manipulate, or The New Yorker magazine’s provocative parody cover of Barack in a turban, Michelle toting a Kalashnikov, a picture of bin Laden on the wall (of the Oval Office) and an American flag burning in the fireplace (note to readers: the Obamas are devout Christians, as is much of Barack’s ancestral Kenya … and Obama favors military incursions into Pakistan, if necessary, to find and kill Mr. Jihad).

On Monday night, after Michelle Obama gave her convention speech, and used familial words such as mother, daughter, grandfather and family 47 times over 42 paragraphs, their daughters, Sasha and Malia, joined her on stage and talked to their dad through a giant video screen. Barack was in Kansas City, wearing an American flag on his lapel and watching the first night of the convention at the home of a white family of four while sitting on couches in their living room. When Barack addressed his daughters and told them he’d be back in Denver in a few days, a typical framed wedding photo of his Caucasian hosts was visible on the mantel behind him.

Norman Mailer wrote that the scene when John F. Kennedy arrived at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles for the 1960 Democratic National Convention resembled an Italian wedding, in its pomp, its pastel colors, the cloud of cigarette smoke permeating every ounce of space, the seemingly Mafioso gang accompanying the Kennedys, and even Kennedy’s sparkling white teeth, which Mailer noticed immediately.

Obama’s team has appealed to Kennedy analogies when useful — they share youth, a handsome presence and beautiful wives, minority status (Kennedy as Roman Catholic, Obama as African American), civil rights and political crossover appeal — but shied away from them whenever anyone mentions Dallas or 1963. Axelrod and company have also milked the obvious analogies to Abraham Lincoln, another Illinois senator, historic unifier and civil rights champion. Obama announced his candidacy for president on the steps of the state capital in Springfield, Ill. in February 2007 and returned there the weekend before the convention to introduce Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

If Kennedy’s convention was an Italian wedding, Obama’s party was a live episode of “The Cosby Show” or any American television show in which the viewers are supposed to connect with the typical family on screen. Forget pomp, or skin color, The Audacity of Hope or troop levels in Baghdad. See the mom and pop, and their two daughters, on stage (Barack has white teeth too, but more eye-popping is the flag on his lapel), looking up into the night sky after the speech and seeing, perhaps for the first time, all 85,000 people, roaring like adoring fans, and fireworks, and sharp shooters ominously lining the perimeter of Mile High Stadium. Could the daughters actually grasp the immensity of what was happening? This was far beyond American Idol!

Supporting Cast

Of course, this was only the curtain call — the final, tear-jerking scene before the cut to commercials. The real drama, remember, had been taking place off-stage for months — since the dawn of 2008. And how close the directors came to settling for a completely different cast of characters. How different the Democratic Party’s scripted show would have been had Hillary and Chelsea, and maybe even Bill, taken the stage tonight. Is there a sitcom television corollary to Mom supplanting Dad as the family breadwinner? Dad and his ego, his bygone days and his libido, sitting back on their haunches to bask in his own presidential glory days … while their daughter, yes their daughter, announcing that Mom is her hero now.

How could a man, who was once the leader of the free world for eight prosperous years, stomach this abuse? Well, he did, on Tuesday night of the convention. Chelsea introduced Hillary, first by narrating a documentary video about the New York senator’s life, and then by preceding her onstage. Hillary, the perpetual working class, Crown Royal-swilling, red meat-devouring girl from suburban Chicago, took the mic and announced herself as a “proud mother, a proud Democrat, and a proud Barack Obama supporter” … but not as a “proud wife.” And the jolly, red-cheeked husband from Hope, Arkansas — the statesman who made a gallant run for universal healthcare, talked tough to Slobodan Milosovic, fought off two Republican election campaigns, succumbed to a White House intern and then survived an impeachment — clapped robotically at first before finding his statesman’s stride and flashing his million dollar smile. Suddenly, the donkeys were braying in unison and all was well again in the house that FDR built.

Everything seemed to be going the way of the Obamas, for the party’s other first family had graciously stepped aside to let them pass (despite “18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling in the land”), and the recognizable guests at the ball were all waxing poetic about Barack, hope and change. There was Howard Dean, the Vermont populist still recovering from his enigmatic Edvard Munch impersonation during the 2004 campaign, Nancy Pelosi, the tough-talking new-agey grandmother who scared heartland conservatives more than a walk through Golden Gate Park at night, Joe Biden, who was trying his hardest not to trip over his words and offend anyone who didn’t resemble a hard hat Delaware commuter. There was Al Gore, the Moses of global climate change awareness who still needed help to pep up his speeches, and John Kerry, who briefly considered un-learning his French and his love for New England clams to make another run for the White House, and Dennis Kucinich, the feiry, short guy from Cleveland who carries a mini Constitution in his coat pocket and claims to have seen UFOs. There were the new guys on stage: Mark Warner from Virginia, Brian Schweitzer from Montana and Evan Bayh from Indiana — all states the Obama team thinks they can win in November. There was even Ted Kennedy, almost literally risen from the dead, to stump for the guy who filled in for him at the Wesleyan graduation commencement this past spring.

The facelift Denver got for the Democratic National Convention didn’t make it feel all that genuinely Rocky Mountain-esque, unless you count leather boots and steaks all over town (and the “Obamanator” beer — not too dark, not too light — at the Wynkoop Brewery, which boasted an alcohol content of about six percent and teamed with the thin mountain air to kick your ass if you were from out of town). This convention was equal parts Washington D.C. and Hollywood, to the chagrin of populist writer and author of The Uprising, David Sirota, who left the Beltway to get away from its constant political fraternity party. Sirota was done in by fatigue and five-o’clock shadow when I met him Thursday afternoon to get our press passes for the Obama speech at Mile High Stadium, and the realization that all of the economic players from the centrist Clinton camp and the Chicago School of Economics (Milton Friedman) who sought to keep Barack a laissez faire, NAFTA-loving capitalist were here too, wining and dining each other. (When Obama assured working-class Ohio voters during the primaries that he would rework the North American Free Trade Agreement to keep their jobs in the Midwest, his Hyde Park chum Austin Goolsby was telling the Canadians not to worry, this talk was just political, and their free trade deals were in no danger.

As for Hollywood, the celebrities were everywhere: Stevie Wonder, Cheryl Crow, Will.i.am, Bruce Springsteen, Darryl Hannah test-driving electric cars, Ben Affleck, Rosario Dawson and Tai Diggs participating in revolutionary monologues at the Starz Movie Gallery; the Kennedys at events all over town, serving as a constant reminder that, if he wins in November, Obama will inherit the torch not from a Clinton but from JFK. In this hype, even former presidents (Jimmy Carter) are treated like gods, and when pedestrians, delegates or self-righteous journalists cross paths with them (at a men’s urinal in the Hyatt, for example) the immediate impulse is to ask for an autograph or to text message everyone back home with the happy news.

How change? How much race?

The most on-point criticism of Obama has been that his rhetoric is vague, that he offers few concrete suggestions to engender hope or to enact change. His speechwriters knew this, and they made sure that, on this night at Mile High Stadium, he addressed policy proposals, halfway through his presentation, as specifically as possible but without sounding wonky. Obama built to this crescendo through familiar themes: thanking family and the powers-that-be in the Democratic Party; briefly rehashing his life story; appealing broadly to populist sympathies; referring to the tragedies of New Orleans and Iraq; bashing George W. Bush and Dick Cheney; and appealing to the inherent greatness of this country and to the American dream.

And then, he got specific:

“So … let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president. … Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. … Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. … I’ll eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow. … I will — listen now — I will cut taxes — cut taxes — for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class. … And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”

Later, Obama offered his trademark crossover appeals to personal responsibility and compromise — facets of his rhetoric that have drawn the ire of radicals on both sides of the political aisle, and some, like Jesse Jackson Sr., who accuse him of being tougher on blacks than whites. Obama reminded the crowd that he opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the single biggest difference between him and John McCain, the cause of so much bloodshed and so many ruined lives, and the reason we’ve all but forgotten about the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for bin Laden.

And then, nearly at the end of his speech, he dared to pet the sleeping giant, the factor that may still decide the contest to come, and measure how far this nation has come since the shackles of slavery …

Throughout the presidential race Obama has resisted overplaying the race factor. He and his young African-American “post racial” club that includes Newark, N.J. Mayor Corey Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Harold Ford Jr. and Jesse Jackson Jr. understand that a black candidate appealing mostly to black issues can never ascend beyond the status of city major or state representative. These were the pitfalls of Jesse Jackson Sr. and Al Sharpton in their day. Reports of nooses appearing at some Obama campaign rallies in the Deep South during the primary season were downplayed or squashed by his team; Barack was intentionally slow to respond to the school racism case in Jena, La., and he has said very little about affirmative action. When the South Carolina primary looked like it might be a close contest, Michelle, not Barack (she being a true African-American, as in the first adjective modifying the second; he is African while also being American) was dispatched there to win black votes.

Even so, I expected that Obama might make more out of his official nomination coming on the anniversary of Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech. He didn’t drop a reference to the 1963 march on Washington until the end of the night:

“It is that American spirit, that American promise, that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend. … And it is that promise that, 45 years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream. … But what the people heard instead — people of every creed and color, from every walk of life — is that, in America, our destiny is inextricably linked, that together our dreams can be one.
‘We cannot walk alone,’ the preacher cried. ‘And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.’
America, we cannot turn back ...”

As the crowd of nearly 100,000 left Mile High Stadium and was corralled into tiny walkways that inched back toward downtown Denver, I found myself sharing breathing space with a young African-American woman, her white Jewish husband and their two interracial children. I asked her if she had expected to hear more King in Obama’s speech. Not at all, she replied, adding, gently, that we whites all overplay Obama’s skin color. Remember, she said, he’s half white … his mom’s from Kansas. Making tonight all about race would have done an injustice to King.

No more than five minutes later, when the herd lost its patience, and a couple activists broke down a temporary chain link fence and climbed through the space to an open field, and breathing room, I heard the same woman cheer as she quoted King, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, Free at Last!”

Founding editor Jacob Wheeler was at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last month reporting and blogging for Chicago-based In These Times magazine.

http://www.glenarborsun.com/archives/2008/09/superman_comes.html#more

Was Hillary’s speech a turning point?

Many Clinton supporters in Denver swallow doubts, support Obama

In These Times magazine

DENVER — Just about everyone inside the Pepsi Center last night for Day Two of the Democratic National Convention had reason to smile. Hillary Clinton supporters saw their hero at her best: graceful and conciliatory, yet visionary and wise. Gone was the feisty (some would argue, condescending) tone that accompanied the senator from New York whenever she raised her voice against Barack Obama during their primary battle.

Obama supporters breathed a sigh of relief when early in her speech, Hillary left no doubt that she was behind Barack in his bid for the White House.

“I’m a proud mother, a proud senator from New York, a proud Democrat … and a proud supporter of Barack Obama!” she said, to thunderous approval, after waiting through three minutes of applause before she could begin her speech.

Democratic Party faithful clenched their fists in gleeful, testosterone-driven rage when Hillary attacked Republican presidential candidate John McCain with witty (for a politician) jabs: “No way, no how, no McCain” and “How fitting that Bush and McCain will be together in the Twin Cities next week, because these days it’s hard to tell the two apart.” Hillary on the offensive meant that the party could once again count on the Clintons — their best attack dogs against Republicans in decades.

Even His Highness, William Jefferson Clinton — left out of Hillary’s introductory words (she never said “proud wife”) and treated as a liability through much of her primary campaign — was reported to chuckle and tear up a bit during poignant moments of the speech. At other times, Bill sat back in his chair, appearing to lip sync entire lines. If he helped Hillary practice her speech, Bill must not have been completely banished from the camp.

These political conventions are all about symbolism, and so it was no mistake that vertical blue banners on sticks (distributed among the delegates during the speech) sported the word “Unity” on one side and either “Obama” or “Hillary” on the other. The family reunion turned out to be a success, with more handshakes and hugs than bitching and shoving.

Leave that to the media — those hordes toiling throughout Denver with backs made crooked by laptop bags, gobbling up free stuff around every corner. The media are always looking for dissent within the ranks: the crux of another story.

This week they found it in the supposed intra-party Obama-Clinton chasm. Hillary and Bill, and Chelsea, too, are pissed, we’re told. Obama and staff are arrogant and ungrateful for not considering Hillary as a vice presidential candidate. Hillary’s supporters, especially the phantom group PUMA (Party Unity My Ass — The Nation’s Katha Pollitt wonders if they have been McCain supporters all along, are considering throwing rotten vegetables on stage at Obama and voting for the old man from Arizona in November. And rising above it all (though not quite like a phoenix from the ashes, for that would suggest grace) is John McCain, whose campaign advertisement last week sought to manipulate this rift.

Is it actually possible that these empowered, emotional, angry-as-hell-at-Bush-and-Cheney Hillary lovers would vote against the upstart young black man, and in favor of the neo-cons and tax breaks for the rich this fall? Is their party truly tearing itself apart?

I’m not getting that impression in Denver this week.

Sure, there are exceptions. Bob Kunst, a self-proclaimed single-issue Florida Zionist, stood near the state capitol building on Tuesday yelling at anyone who would listen that Obama is anti-Semitic. His alleged willingness to consider a Jewish-Arab border in Jerusalem would spell the end for the chosen people, according to Kunst.

Kunst digs Hillary. He thinks the people behind Obama dig Hamas, and so he’ll vote for Hamas’ self-proclaimed worst enemy, John McCain. Kunst added that Bush and Condi Rice are gambling with Israel too, and that Obama would represent a third-Bush term. But that ain’t chutzpah, that’s ridiculous.

Lauren Fort Miller, a former mayor of Sag Harbor on Long Island, represented a more typical sample of Hillary supporters. She and a friend stood on a street corner in downtown Denver with Hillary signs aloft, slowing down traffic and drawing attention aplenty.

“I think Hillary is definitely the most qualified person,” said Fort Miller. “How fitting that she’s the first woman to reach this level. I admire her because I’ve dealt with her personally, on a community level in which she really listened to people. That’s such an incredible challenge for a person. Mostly they want to talk. Obama is a talker. Hillary is a listener.”

How does Fort Miller feel about Hillary asking her to vote for Obama?

“She has to do that. What else is she gonna do? I’ll vote Democratic because I’m born to do that. But I have severe doubts about Obama, what he’s going to do and where he’s going to take us. He lacks experience. Hillary knows everybody and everything… She’s been studying and learning for this job her entire life. And where did he come from? He hasn’t even done the job [in the Senate] he was elected to do.”

Tammy Tesky, a delegate from Minneapolis who sported two pins on her shirt at the convention last night — one that read “Hillary Supporter” and another that read “Minnesota Delegate for Obama” — echoed some of Fort Miller’s fears, but is ready to support Obama.

“I’m a supporter of Hillary, and I will cast my vote for her at the convention. It’s been an historic campaign and we want to honor that with a vote. But as soon as I go home I’ll put an Obama sign in my yard and I’ll vote for him in November,” Tesky said.

She was hurt by Hillary’s loss in the primaries, and that the metaphorical glass ceiling withstood the “18 million cracks” it suffered. Tesky also regrets that the Obama camp didn’t at least vet Hillary, out of respect, for vice-presidential consideration. “I don’t even know if she wanted it, but I would have wanted her to have the opportunity.

“I bawled when she offered her concession speech,” she said. “I worked for two years on her campaign.”

But Tesky doesn’t believe that Hillary supporters are in danger of voting en masse for McCain. She thinks that scenario was cooked up as media spin — or by the enemy camp. As for McCain’s commercial last week that sought to draw Hillary supporters over to the other side, Tesky and Fort Miller both found the idea ridiculous.

“The only way I’d be afraid of McCain [winning the votes of Democratic women] was if he chose a woman as his running mate,” concluded Tesky. “I’m 100 percent Democrat. I’d never vote for a Republican.”

Fort Miller echoed, “I want someone who will at least answer to the Democratic Party and for democratic values.”

Jacob Wheeler is an assistant editor at In These Times.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3881/was_hillarys_speech_a_turning_point/

Bringing Baghdad to Denver Streets

In These Times magazine

DENVER — “This is not street theater! This is real!” shouted a man wearing a baseball cap into a microphone as approximately 20 soldiers of the United States army — decked out in camouflaged uniforms and sporting expressions as tense as if they were invading Fallujah — hurriedly established a checkpoint on 16th street (the pedestrian mall in downtown Denver) around noon today and scanned nearby buildings and open windows for a sniper. Steps away stood dozens of police officers, arms folded, doing nothing.

Suddenly one of the soldiers announced that they were looking for a suspect wearing an orange bandana, who they suspected of planting roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs). At that the GIs began forcing nearby pedestrians face-first up against a wall and yelling at them to “shut the fuck up.” One man was pinned to the ground in what looked like a stress position. The police officers, from Denver and surrounding towns, did nothing. They had been informed days before, one officer told me, that the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were coming to town and preparing to engage in nonviolent street theater on Tuesday and Wednesday. The scared pedestrians pinned to the wall and the sidewalk, I learned, were volunteers. This was all just acting.

As the order came to re-group and move on to the next checkpoint, I recognized one of the soldiers, bushy-haired Jason Hurd, a former medic in the Army National Guard, who I had interviewed at the IVAW’s Winter Soldier hearings near Washington D.C. in March.

This is what I wrote about Hurd in The War That Never Ends:

Jason Hurd, an Army National Guard medic who served in Baghdad in 2004-05, said his unit regularly opened fire on civilians. After taking stray rounds from a nearby gunfight, a machine gunner fired 200 rounds into a nearby apartment building. “Things like that happened every day in Iraq,” he said. “We reacted out of fear for our lives, and we reacted with total destruction.”

“Over time, as the absurdity of war set in, individuals from my unit indiscriminately opened fire at vehicles driving down the wrong side of the road,” Hurd continued. “People in my unit would later brag about it. I remember thinking how appalled I was that we were laughing at this, but that was the reality.”

I called out Hurd’s name, but he was already on the run, up 16th street, ducking through crowds of delegates, journalists, Denver tourists, police officers … trying to bring the neurosis of war to the Democratic National Convention.

I’m told that the Iraq Veterans Against the War will march, and continue their street theater, tomorrow, following the Rage Against the Machine concert.

Jacob Wheeler is an assistant editor at In These Times.

Don’t Tase Me, GOP!

In These Times magazine

The St. Paul Police Department is arming itself with Tasers.

Local activists and media say that the department ordered 230 stun guns in late February — adding to the 140 already in its possession — in preparation for protests at the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC), which St. Paul will host from Sept. 1 to Sept. 4.

Police spokesman Tom Walsh denies any connection between the arrival of the Tasers and the upcoming RNC. “They are not related to the convention in any way,” says Walsh. “A patrol officer suggested months ago that we supply our force with Tasers.”

But some demonstrators are wary of such assurances.

“Our concern is that they’ll have them and that they’ll use them,” says Marie Braun, a member of Women Against Military Madness, which has received a permit to protest in a St. Paul park on Sept. 1. “These are dangerous weapons and people have died as a result of them being used.”

Four years ago at the RNC in New York, the New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested thousands of demonstrators, holding many of them in an asbestos-filled pier on the Hudson River until the convention’s conclusion.

And at an impromptu mass march toward Madison Square Ground where President Bush’s re-election fest was being held, an NYPD officer in civilian clothing reportedly provoked a fight by driving a scooter into the crowd.

St. Paul Assistant Police Chief Matt Bostrom told the online newspaper MinnPost.com in December that no St. Paul police officers would infiltrate protest organizations, and the force will dress in regular uniforms — not riot gear — during the convention.

And spokesman Walsh insists that the department will patrol the streets of St. Paul without help from contract cops or the Secret Service, who will operate only inside the Xcel Energy Center where the convention will take place.

Nevertheless, an underground anarchist group that calls itself the “RNC Welcoming Committee” states on its website that “the RNC, local police and federal agents are likely to get violent.”

The group and other activists cite a Critical Mass bike ride last August in neighboring Minneapolis that led to police using Tasers and pepper spray to break up the event and arrest 19 protesters. The gathering coincided with what the Welcoming Committee calls the “pReNC, a weekend of radical organizing in preparation for the RNC.”

During the subsequent trial of one cyclist, Minneapolis police Sgt. David Stichter reportedly testified that the department had created a task force to monitor Critical Mass because it knew RNC protesters would participate in the ride.

“[They have been] taking every opportunity to try and intimidate the people who live here,” says an activist using the name “Diablo Bush,” referring to the local police.

On March 13, the Welcoming Committee’s website began requesting Taser donations. So far it has received none, according to an e-mail message to In These Times from Diablo Bush.

“Any Tasers we do receive would be simply for day-to-day maintenance of public safety,” jokes Diablo, “and are not at all related to the RNC — just like the St. Paul Police Department’s order [of Tasers].”

In May, the Twin Cities’ alternative-weekly, City Pages, reported that University of Minnesota police were working with an FBI special agent to recruit “moles” to attend vegan potlucks, gain the trust of RNC protesters and report back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between federal agencies and local police.

Last summer, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the nearby Ramsey County Sheriff’s office was preparing to construct pens to hold 5,000 arrested protesters — a report Bostrom of the St. Paul police claimed was news to him.

Says Braun of Women Against Military Madness: “We have as much concern about the police as anyone, because when we look at political conventions in the past, it’s often the police that have a history of overreacting.”

Jacob Wheeler is an assistant editor at In These Times.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3806/dont_tase_me_gop/