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Fri Nov 21 2008

Columns

Bob Fitrakis

Bob Fitrakis: Report from the RNC
September 3, 2008

Election transparency advocates, 9/11 Truth seekers and Ron Paul partisans staged a rally at the Minnesota Statehouse. The crowd of a few hundred was attributed in part to demonstration fatigue and massive arrests during the week. The march to the convention center that housed the Republican gathering still stretched two blocks long. Along the way, there were MPs from the Minnesota National Guard, police officers everywhere – from bike patrols to those in riot gear. The first four young people we passed advocated the “Get it on” agenda with slogans on the back of their shirts saying “evolve.” It turned out they were advertisers for condoms. A few marchers asked the Trojan youth squad why they hadn’t been active earlier and helped VP candidate Palin’s daughter. One marcher suggested that had Trojan been more active, perhaps they could have prevented the conception of Bush, thus making the world a better place to live.

The march went into the designated Free Form Zone where Nation writer John Nichols was making his case for why George W. Bush should still be impeached. Whenever you reflect on the Bush years in any factual way or read Dennis Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment you realize why 61% of all historians recently voted Bush, although still in office, “the worst president of the United States.” Finally, the marchers gathered outside the MSNBC booth by Fifth and Market where the crowds were really quite large. A free for all ensued between those with megaphones and many of the Republican delegates. Although certain delegations like Utah made it clear that they wanted a new Republican Party divorced from the neocons, which was no doubt a response to the numerous signs that littered a landscape held by the protesters crying “The Neocons Con Job.” It was a beautiful day for a protest and during this brief demonstration there were no arrests. But as one demonstrator explained, they arrested so many people they had to let some go yesterday. The jails are full.

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