Hi all,
Youngest daughter Sarahbellum and I had a day together in St. Paul, attending the rally at the State Capitol, and marching to the Xcel center, where the convention is being held.
The picture above is of the two of us at Rice Park, close to the Xcel, and where MSNBC had its pavilion for its talking heads set up. Neither Tweety nor KO were there tonight; the festivities have been really scaled back, at least inside the Xcel. Bummed me out; we had great seats! We did see Mittens being escorted across the park grounds, off to somewhere for an interview, I'm guessing.
The rally at the Capitol seemed huge, but I have no idea what the official numbers were; I just walked in the door a few minutes ago and downloaded the pic from the gentleman who took it.
Code Pink was out in force, and did a great "wedding" between Chimpy the Imbecile as the groom, and McAnus as the bride (who wasn't blushing, although God knows all these fuckers should be blushing with shame for the shit they've wrought on this nation). Lapdog McAnus promised to uphold the policies of the current misadministration. The VP candidate from the Green Party spoke (her name escapes me now, sorry!) and several other groups were also represented (immigrant rights, poverty, housing, more that we missed since we were late - we took the bus)
The march started out slow, but got going well once we were off the Capitol grounds. A small group representing the anarchists marched, but were well-behaved for the most part during the march. The most 'mayhem' I witnessed was a few members rattling the walls of the cages of the "Free Speech Zone" outside the Xcel, taunting the police in riot gear on the other side. There was violence elsewhere, from what I heard from other folks during our walks and bus rides home, and on the radio on the way back to Mankato, but we didn't witness any of that. Last I heard, almost 270 people were arrested, but I also heard 160 and 210 so who knows? Cops everywhere: on bikes, on horseback, in riot gear, in regular uniforms, city cops, state cops, secret service and snipers on rooftops and the whole shebang. We did see two guys getting frisked, but we didn't see what they had done to warrant that; they were already up against the wall as we came around a corner.
Lots of creative signs and tee shirts and friendly, passionate, committed people, out on a great day! I did see one DUer, with a democraticunderground.com shirt on, and I can't remember HIS name either! We chatted for just a bit as the march was getting underway.
After the march, we made our way to Rice Park, and enjoyed just sitting in the shade and people-watching. Lots of delegates started coming out of the Xcel between 5:30 and 6:00, and between the media circus and the conventioneers, there were a LOT of people to watch, which is REALLY STRANGE for St. Paul. They roll up the sidewalks about 4:00, 4:30 pm and call it a day at many businesses, normally...place is pretty dead. Once we found out Tweety and KO were not going to be on, we headed back to catch the bus back to Sarahbellum's place in Minneapolis, where I had left my car. Spoke to several other marchers on the bus ride back, and were all temporary best buddies by the time we hit our respective stops.
There were many other activities going on today (big concert over at Harriet Island, Tom Morello and Atmosphere and Steve Earle and a bunch of other folks) and the anarchists had some more real mayhem planned (they allegedly broke some windows at Macy's, from what I heard, and I also heard rumor of a police car being vandalized). A young man we met as we walked to the bus stop had witnessed Amy Goodman's arrest and said she was treated pretty roughly for doing nothing more than asking why some other members of her crew were being arrested. Haven't had time yet to check for video/pix, but there should be a lot out there, from what this kid said; he took over 200 shots himself and was heading home to download and publish.
Anyone else out there able to be in St. Paul today?
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