Tuesday night at the RNC

The running commentary will be below the picture of relevance in this entry. Yeah, I know that is inconsistent with yesterday's entry. I'm branching out. . .

Last night I got home around 6:30 - just missing the demonstration in the park. By the time I got there, there were only two demonstrators left.


If' you don't think that 'No, we can't' sign is funny, you might want to call your doctor. Your funnybone is missing. The website is 'LobbyistsforMcCain.com.' I don't know if it actually exists. . .

No additional comment necessary.

You are just going to have to take my word for it, that's Chris Matthews, filming in another St. Paul park, for MSNBC.

Gotta love the protesters. This guy's bumperstickers say Vermin Supreme. He was using the bullhorn to heckle the Republicans entering the hallowed halls of the fenced off area surrounding the Excel Energy Center. He'd say things like, "Continued obedience to a worthless government is encouraged at all costs."

It didn't take long for the police to intervene. I watched, Jeff debated stepping in, we watched together. The guy seemed a) sober; and b) able to handle himself (not his first protest, I'm guessing.) Turns out the cops told him he had to be 50 feet or more away from the fence entrance if he was going to be spewing propaganda with a bullhorn. I am unclear as to whether there is really a law to this effect.

Ummmm, okay. I didn't know Jesus was from Anchorage. But that might explain Sarah Palin's close personal relationship with the man - Jesus, I mean.
I'm not sure I get the significance of the wheel barrow. Also, I wonder if the insulated lunch bag is part of the presentation, or just where this man stores his lunch. . .

For those of you who haven't seen them, I documented the male Republicans. (I have a brother who is one, so I already knew what they looked like!)

Here's what the female of the species look like.

This guy was on the side of the street, dancing his little puppets. No verbal commentary required.

Here's the famed fence. You can't get through it without a badge. And speaking of badges, they all say different things: delegate, guest, suite guest. I only saw one woman with a "Suite Guest" badge. For reasons that will become obvious, I am not posting her picture. I think "Suite Guest" is Republican speak for "Call Girl." At least she looked like a call girl. And she sure was hugging a guy named Herb VERY enthusiastically.

This is a picture of the back of Pat Buchanan's head. (Again, you're just going to have to trust me on this.)
Another shot of Chris Matthews. I think this is his good side!

Interesting protest. I was not aware that John McCain was not pro-life. I wonder if he knows. . .

Again, interesting. Not sure what it means, but interesting.
Another protest. I make it a policy to take pics of all the protesters that put some effort into their protest.

Do you see that red fire extinguisher looking thing in the cop car? That is tear gas - Sam's Club sized. It can take out about 200 people, per my brother, who heard it from a cop. This becomes relevant to the rest of the evening, because the above pics are about all that was of interest near the Excel. As such, we decided to take a stroll down Exchange Street, to see if we could find anything of interest. Boy did we ever.

*****small disclaimer******* relatively new cameras and darkness do not blend well. It took me a while to figure that out. the pics get better.

Note the cops in the left hand side of the picture. They aren't letting people cross the street.

Here, the cops are on the right. What are they doing?

I cut through an alley to get to the cross street from the back. More cops. Suddenly, a bunch of minivans pulled up and tons of cops in riot gear got out.

Without saying a word, the cops lined up, as shown here, facing those of us trying to see past the cops on horses, and started advancing on us. Each time they took a step forward, we took a step back, until they had cleared people from the whole block.


Here's a picture of the cops on the far side of the street.

More cops preventing passage.
I wanted to see what was going on on the other side of the cop wall, so I had Jeff boost me up onto this wall. You'd have thought I'd climbed the watchtower with a high powered rifle. Cops were running from all over, yelling for me to get down. I didn't dare take a picture of THAT.

You can see the wall I climbed. It's across the street from the balcony I stood on for this shot. Note the police are containing the people with bisecting police body walls.



Here, you can see the police have moved, allowing the people to walk down the street.

I made my way around the block. You can see the wall I climbed, the balcony I was on, and the line of cops from this angle as well.

I walked a block further away, because I was getting bored. Note the people milling about. No one is shouting, threatening, breaking or burning anything.

Jeff and I went back down the block, but things started to feel icky. I asked the cop at the front of the 'cop wall' if we could duck through. He said no. So we kept walking in the direction shown, until the cop at the end of the cop wall spoke to us through his gas mask. "You don't want to go down there," he said. "There's nothing but trouble down there." We retreated back to about where this picture was taken.

Tear gas is dispersed.

That would be tear gas was released without warning, I might add. . .

Tear gas released without warning or any suggestion that we leave.

They also threw these fireball looking things into the street, which sparked and bounced and then smoked.

People running. Sorry about the blur. I was running, too.

10 minutes later, there's no one on the street.

On the way back home, I encountered police from Arlington, Texas. Pardon the blurriness. I was still pretty shook up at the whole 'tear gas encounter.' While I found it nerve wracking, I will note that I was not personally affected. Either I am impervious to tear gas, or was lucky about how the wind was blowing. In any event, not an experience I want to relive.

Go, Cedar Rapids, Iowa!