We're underway

For all practical purposes, the Republican National Convention is underway with the first police raid of the convention.

The anarchists group "RNC Welcoming Committee" claims police raided their offices, and photographed them. CNN reports a police spokesman said "we were executing a search warrant," although the reasons for the search warrant weren't made available.

Update: MPR's Laura Yuen reports a suspicion of "bomb-making materials" prompted the raid.

The group is holding a news conference this morning. The police are scheduled to hold one as well. Both are scheduled for the same time. (10 a.m.)

It issued a statement claiming the transgression was a fire code violation.

The Web site TwinCities IndyMedia also is carrying submitted text messages reporting house raids in the Twin Cities. Here's the link but be forewarned: There's no independent confirmation .

I would like to see the warrant.

If the group is making bombs, that's not cool. They should be locked up. All of the other stuff, computers, paint, paper, looks like pretty standard freedom of speech tools. I have suspicion that the bomb making was added to an otherwise pretty weak warrant just to get it signed.

I do have to give some kudos to the police for at least getting a warrant instead of running this under the guise of Homeland Security.

I am curious if these groups call themselves 'anarchists' or if the name is applied by the media. If the groups call themselves anarchists it would be interesting to hear what their views are (anarchists technically are uber-libertarians). If it is applied by the media it is interesting that trained jounalists (people with, I would assume, a fair amount of education) would apply the term erroneously, making anarchism synonymous with political violence. Such a ploy is like saying being a baseball player is synonymous with drug use. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy....maybe my assumption about education of jounalists is overshot.