News Cut Category Archive: The political conventions

RNC trial renewed

Posted at 1:39 AM on March 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

By way of the St. Paul Issues Forum, our attention has been called to an article in the Mac Weekly, the Independent student newspaper at Macalester College, which details a police raid on a student's room last month.

According to the application for the warrant filed by the SPPD, the search was part of an effort to find a person who, along with two others, damaged a Minneapolis police car in a group that split off from the main group of protesters on September 1. The squad car, with its shattered glass and flattened tires, became one of the most well known images from the RNC protests.

Using photographs of protesters breaking the car's windows, police drew a general description of the suspects. One of the vandals was dressed in blue jeans with a torn right pant leg, a black shirt and a black head wrap, a description fitting many members of the Macalester chapter of Students for a Democratic Society during the protest.

The article says some students at the school are unhappy that it doesn't have a policy on handling police searches and hasn't offered legal assistance to students.

Meanwhile the retrial of David McKay, charged with attempting to make Molotov cocktails during the RNC, begins in St. Paul. A deadlocked jury forced the declaration of a mistrial earlier this year. The case is being followed particularly closely in Austin, where McKay was said to be part of 8 activists who headed to St. Paul for the convention.

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RNC: Who was in charge?

Posted at 1:46 PM on November 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Last summer, I covered an event outside the Xcel Energy Center in which the top brass of area law enforcement announced they had a deal for enough cops for the Republican National Convention.

Here's the image I took of the event.

You'll have to take my word for it that Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher wasn't there and it wasn't until I heard MPR reporter Laura Yuen's story on Thursday that I took notice of that.

Chief John Harrington and Fletcher, according to Laura's story, were clashing around the time over how many cops would be needed and what form of presence they'd assume.

He said while the public may have been surprised by the intensity of police presence downtown, it's probably because residents paid attention to early assurances from the department that anarchists would not be causing safety problems -- assurances that, as it turned out, were based on faulty intelligence.

Still unclear, however, is who was in charge during the Republican National Convention?

In the second part of Yuen's series this afternoon, Fletcher says he had nothing to do with the most controversial aspects of the RNC police actions, Harrington will say it was Fletcher's department who took the lead in investigations that led to the pre-RNC raids.

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Identifying RNC victims

Posted at 7:57 AM on November 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

Last week, the St. Paul Police and Ramsey County Sheriff's Office asked the public for help in identifying a man who was apparently assaulted on the first day of the Republican National Convention.

Maybe they're getting somewhere. Maybe not. An e-mail today claims:

I dont know if you guys know who the victim in the RNC protest is yet but he is my husband's uncle, (name withheld). He is the man with the white shirt being assaulted by the rioters and I'm not sure if he has filed any charges yet, but I believe that he should. We are a military family and I believe that, from the sign he was holding, apparently fell to the ground as he is being assaulted, he was there to voice his opinions about military servicemen and families like us.

I'm trying to contact him today.

Update 10:09 a.m.: Bogus phone number

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Catching up with Jim

Posted at 7:52 AM on November 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

Of all the people I met in this campaign season, none was more impressive than Jim Felder of Ohio, who was so moved by Barack Obama in the late stages of the primary season that he and his wife jumped in the car and headed to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, just to be in the same city.

He was more than content to hand out maps to visitors:

After Tuesday night's Obama victory, I called Jim but he wasn't home. Yesterday he sent me an e-mail:

It was a real pleasure to receive a folllow -up message from you! Your interview with me made me a"star"(?) here in my hometown(smile). It was seen by many of my friends.You gave me good karma, because as we were walking away from your interview, my niece and I were approached by a young woman from California doing a documentary, and she asked if we would consent to an interview - of course we could not turn her down(another smile).Then after the big doings at Invesco Field, and about 1 AM as I was walking into my hotel lobby, an Irish Union official asked if he could interview me and again I agreed. I have not seen any of these interviews, but hope lives!

We have been on cloud 9 since Tuesday evening. The local county(Greene) Democrats had an election party which we attended for a short time, and then a large group of us left for a private home where we made a lot of joyous noise that lasted until about 2 AM. At 12 noon on Wednesday, we attended a celebration at a restaurant/bar located in our downtown district(Our village is less than 4000 population).The final event was a quiet(?) dinner party at the home of a dentist friend who lives outside our village. The last few days have been a blast!

I believe that the right person was elected and with time, he will do great things for this country and repair the damage done by the present politicians.

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City sued over RNC raid

Posted at 5:54 PM on October 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

According to a news release that's crossed the inbox, lawyers for a homeowner in St. Paul are suing the city over a police raid on the eve of the Republican National Convention.

Says the release:

The first lawsuit resulting from the police invasion of a St. Paul home prior to the Republican National Convention will be announced at a press conference October 10. Notice will be served on the city of Saint Paul that lawyers representing Michael Whalen will seek $250,000 in damages. Whalen's duplex on Iglehart Avenue was cordoned off by St. Paul police working with the FBI and Homeland Security people. Whalen and his tenants and guests were held at gunpoint for several hours, not allowed to leave - and no one allowed to enter.

It has not been disclosed what prompted the raid. An FBI agent (perhaps Scott Zimmerman) had requested entry an hour earlier. When denied he apparently called the St. Paul authorities who sent two dozen or so officers into the streets, alleys and entrances of Whalen's home.

When these officers also were denied entry, they held the premises under armed guard while police tried to create a legitimate reason for an invasion. After an hour or two, Officer Langfellow swore that Mr. Whalen had supported Irish Independence some 20 years ago, had co-owned a bookstore for a whole year with Sarah Jane Olsen also 20 years ago, had recently failed to put his address numbers on one half of the duplex and had received heavy boxes by US Mail.

The sworn affidavit, supporting the request for a search warrant, also contained a straight-out falsehood about Whalen's activities that day. Amazingly, a judge of the District Court found all this sufficient to issue the warrant - for the wrong address! The items listed in the warrant for seizure did not include Irish literature, letters from Ms Olson, unused address numbers nor the vegan literature in the heavy boxes.

It might be noted that Whalen's guests included journalists who are part of the growing people's independent press movement, which documents and web-publishes police abuse around this land of ours. Some of these folks were raided again elsewhere and some were arrested as they documented the new face of St. Paul, formerly the most livable city in America.

Mr. Whalen is represented by attorneys Ted Dooley and Peter Nickitas, both members of the National Lawyers Guild. Dooley will be among the speakers at the press conference.

On Thursday, MPR's Laura Yuen took a look at St. Paul's protection against lawsuits like this, an insurance policy the city required the organizers of the convention to buy.

The city required the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee to buy insurance costing $1.2 million that would pay up to $10 million in damages. The policy doesn't have a limit on legal expenses.

That means St. Paul won't have to tap its self-insurance fund unless the damages exceed $10 million. The policy also covers other cities that provided officers for security during the RNC.

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Live-blogging: Journalists and cops: What's next?

Posted at 5:06 PM on September 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (17 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

Last week's announcement that St. Paul won't prosecute journalists who were swept up in the Republican National Convention protests by police really hasn't alleviated a lot of the hard feelings. On the one hand, police have said it's too difficult to tell "credentialed" journalists from the "self credentialed" ones. On the other hand, it wasn't that hard once they were detained. All the cops had to do was read the credential.

Tonight, the Society of Professional Journalists in Minnesota is holding a forum with several journalists who were arrested, as well as Asst. Police Chief Matt Bostrom of St. Paul and Deputy Mayor Ann Mulholland.

Al Tompkins from the Poytner Institute is moderating and says he wants these questions answered:

* What do the police want media to know about their mission in events like this.
* How can journalists cover important stories like this and not get arrested.
* Should be tiered credentialing for traditional and non-traditional media.

If you're into drinking games, I suggest "Amy Goodman" as the keywords. I look forward to a good discussion with you in the comments section below.

Live-blogging at 7 p.m.

6:58 p.m. - Looks like about 100 people in attendance, at least one Minneapolis police officer in the audience. I suppose it's a discussion for another day but if you ever want to see an example of the lack of diversity in the media, forums and journalist get-togethers are a good start.

7:04 p.m. - Nicole Garrison-Sprenger of the Pioneer Press opens with a nod to Rick Kupchella of KARE -- the former SPJ president. "This has been an eye-opening experience... the whole RNC," Kupchella says. "We seldom see ourselves on a stage like this and seldom see the friction we saw on the streets of St. Paul." Introducing panel, and emphasizing that most journalists covering the RNC weren't arrested.

Jonathan Malat, photographer for KARE, is also on the panel. He was arrested on final night of RNC. Says the KARE Web site:

"I never saw any excessive force other than it was just loud and chaotic," said Malat about the tactics used to push people toward the bridge. Earlier police had given several orders for the crowd to disperse. "I was just there to cover the event," explained Malat.

7:09 p.m. - Al Tompkins of Poynter Institute is moderating. "We not here for a witch hunt," he says. "We can learn a lot if we listen to each other." He tells Mulholland and Boston, "it took a lot of guts for you to be here."

7:12 p.m. - Tompkins is playing various media Web site video of protests, including the breaking of the window at Macy's on Monday of the RNC. Video from Fox 9 shows cop being knocked down and pepper-spraying the crowd.

7:16 p.m. - Jonathan Malat (KARE photographer) describes the Thursday protest near the Capitol. The protest was running late, he says. It didn't get going until 4:30 and 15 minutes later the police said the permit expired at 5 p.m. "My goal was the same that day as every day: to document what was going on in the community." He says he had no indication he would be arrested. (See Kupchella's blog | Video )

7:21 p.m. - "What didn't we see in the video?" Tompkins asks deputy police chief Matt Bostrom. "When there is an opportunity to march and people don't take that -- it was intentional that the marchers didn't leave on time nor on the designated march route -- ... they made it clear early on that this would be the particular rally not to bring your kids too." (I think he's referring to this)

"No one from this group asked for an extension or a new route. We were prepared to grant permits on the fly," he said. "They wanted to turn us against each other."

7:25 p.m. Tompkins displays a quote from MinnPost from Bostrom (which he says "is close") from last December in which he appeared to criticize Boston in 2004 for muzzling protest.

Bostrom says officers in St. Paul are trained to allow the media to do their job.

7:27 p.m. - This would be a good time at the forum for Tompkins to ask, "hey, what happened?" Instead, he's laying a court-like foundation on what is freedom of the press.

Mulholland says Mayor Chris Coleman believes the officers did what they felt they needed to do to maintain public safety. "Should they be treated specially and different than anyone else in a public safety incident is what we need to talk about," she says.

"There's a special role to make sure media has access and the information they need. Having watched many hours of video, I am hard-pressed to think we didn't give great access to the media during the course of the convention," she said.

7:32 p.m. Tompkins shows op-ed piece in Pioneer Press from Mayor Chris Coleman, in which Coleman refers to his feeling while "watching news stories." How would the mayor have felt that if it weren't for the press, Tompkins asked. Gotcha.

Mulholland says there were 10,000 people exercising their right to have their voices heard, but were overwhelmed by a small group. Tompkins asked if her boss believes there was a legitimate reason for the journalists to be "there."

"I believe it's important for the journalists to be wherever people gather lawfully," Mulholland says.

Bostrom says the video Coleman referred to wasn't from journalists, it was from those spy cameras the city erected.

So here we are: Do journalists have a right to be in a place where a crime is being committed? "How close? And when does it impair public safety" Mulholland asks.

7:36 p.m. Mara Gottfried of the Pioneer Press is asked why she wasn't arrested. She notes that she, too, was one of the "ride-along" journalists on Thursday. But she says she was able to watch the protest at which Amy Goodman's producers were arrested without a problem. She also covered the Rage Against the Machine concert in Minneapolis. At one point she was blocked by police, and was joined by two PiPress reporters. The two reporters with her were ordered to the ground. They complied. When they told police they were reporters with the Pioneer Press, "they were released within a minute," she said.

7:42 p.m. - How do you know who the "real" photographers are? Tompkins puts up a picture with different-looking people taking pictures (I've done this riff already). Deputy Mayor Mulholland: "I don't know who the journalist is, so we treat everyone the same."

7:44 p.m. The story of Evan Vucci, the head of AP's Washington bureau is being discussed. He was "picked up and slammed to the ground" but when he showed his police credentials (White House, Secret Service), he was released. AP Minneapolis boss

"What kind of discretion does an officer have?' Tompkins asked Bostrom. "If someone disobeys a lawful order, they shall be arrested," he says. "But the officer... has discretion."

"What would it take for a journalist to preserve such a thing," Tompkins asked.

"If they were to release someone who was a criminal hiding behind a media credential, they have to be accountable for that," he answers... sort of.

Pyle says an AP photographer who was arrested, may have been a victim of a suburban police officer. He also noted that the photo that the photographer -- Matt Rourke -- was used by St. Paul police in a public call to help find information about some criminal activity during the protest.

7:59 p.m. "A lawful order," that's the key phrase so far. First Amendment attorney Mark Anfinson says if police issue a "lawful order" to disperse, journalists have to disperse and "very much like a combat zone, journalists take on the risk... It's hard to see where police violated rights."

Malat points out that when they were told to disperse and he asked where they should go, police officers told him "the way out is the (Marion St.) bridge." That's where he was arrested.

7:55 p.m. We're sort of flailing around issues here. Now we're on "who's a journalist?" again. Anfinson says journalists adhere to ethical codes of behavior, I don't think you can bestow that upon people who just call themselves 'journalists' for convenience."

7:57 p.m. Caroline Lowe from WCCO is up now. She's both a journalist and a sworn police officer. She, too, says she and her team were given clear orders but many of the journalists were not given a "clear way out." She says an officer called her the next day and said she thought she'd have to hit Lowe with her stick.

7:59 p.m. - Bostrom giving more details of the number of times protesters were warned they were engaging in "unlawful assembly." He says they made two announcements, then walked around the people in the street and told them to sit down, they were under arrest."

Another group then took a run at Marion Street and were turned back. They then blocked University. "No one was getting arrested for going east or west," he said.

Malat disagrees. He says officers were advancing from both the east and west. Bostrom disagrees with his disagreement.

Bostrom reveals that guns were taken from some in the crowd.

"That's a lie," someone in the audience yells, before Caroline Lowe says she saw one.

8:06 p.m. Back to "who's a journalist?" again. Chuck Olsen from The Uptake is talking about his live video via cellphone. He identifies himself as a "citizen journalist" and Tompkins asks him what that is. "Do you adhere to a code of ethics?" Tompkins asked.

I guess where we're going here is: are The Uptake journalists journalists?

"Yeah," Olsen said.

Mulholland doesn't answer the question. "I would ask the journalists in the room," she says.

Tompkins doesn't let her off the hook. "Was the mayor talking about him when he talked about journalists?"

"I think the mayor was talking about people trying to tell a story," she responds.

8:11 p.m. Tompkins is now playing a video from Pepperspray Productions, a group with an agenda, of course. Are they journalists?

"Is Fox News?" someone shoults.

Comment: Since the St. Paul cops have already mentioned that the reason so many journalists got swept up is because they couldn't tell who was a "real" journalist and who wasn't, it doesn't make a lot of sense here to run Mulholland and Bostrom through some sort of rhetorical exercise designed to make the point that it's hard to tell?

8:16 p.m. - Charlie Underwood jumps up from the audience. He asks Tompkins if he's trying to establish a separate category for people who don't get pepper sprayed. "If what the police did was wrong to you, it's wrong" to everybody."

8:18 p.m. - "All of us have a right to be on the street. I'm a member of an alternative media and I have a right and responsibility to communicate (the story)," Ed Felien from South Side Pride says. "Anyone who is vetted by the police department has given up a point of view."

8:22 p.m. - About a half dozen people have jumped up to the audience microphones to speak. I presume they're interesting in speaking to the allegation that if you get a press pass, you're in the pocket of whomever gave it to you.

8:24 p.m. Jonathan says "police acted very responsibly, given the high intensity level. I put myself in this situation." An audience member, who says she edits Twin Cities Daily Planet, says that treatment wasn't extended to others. "This was largely the province of alternative media. If the alternative media are not out there covering it, can we be sure we're going to get the coverage?"

8:27 p.m. Jason DeRusha of WCCO says "many of us came to a discussion on who gets to be to the 'in' crowd, while the alternative media attendees are advocating no special protections" for that same crowd. So do we journalists get special treatment?

It's a good question which, for some reason, Tompkins chose not to pursue at this time to get more audience reaction.

8:32 p.m. - Audience member who says she used to be an FBI "person " (Update: Jason DeRusha writes to say it was Coleen Rowley) says the independence of the reporter is at crossends of "this special status" you're talking about here.

I'm starting to realize that mainstream journalists seem to be on one side of the room, alternative media on the other. I'm sitting way up in the back, on neither side, by the way.

8:35 p.m. - There doesn't seem to be any argument in the room that if the police tell you "you have to get out of here," then you have to get out of there. So why are we still messing with the 'special attention' thing?

8:37 p.m. - Dan Feidt of Politics in Minnesota asks about the Saturday raid on journalists on Iglehart Avenue. Bostrom refuses comment after saying "a judge signed the warrant." He makes clear that this isn't the discussion he came here for.

8:40 p.m. - Michael of St. Paul asks journalists why people feel such a need to go to alternative media? Makes a big pitch for alternative media. Oh, goodness, what are we doing on that question?

8:42 p.m. - Ron Eibensteiner, former GOP boss in Minnesota says "the St. Paul Police Department did an outstanding job. " So noted. I'm suddenly wondering how that kid in Blaine is doing before the Anoka-Hennepin School Board that might get expelled for having a boxcutter for work in his car at school?

8:50 p.m. Brian Madigan, freelance reporter who says he was caught in "the scrum" on Thursday. He wasn't able to get his material back from the police for several days and wonders why the KARE 11 cameraman was able to get his gear in time for the 10 p.m. news. "They were processing people from one end of the bridge to the other. I was in the middle," Malat said. "When they were about to take me, (Ramsey County) Sheriff (Bob) Fletcher arrived on the scene and asked who were journalists. I raised my hand and a bunch of others raised their hands and there seemed to be a decision that if you had RNC credentials you were put aside from the others."

"it's the first time in my career that so many journalists were involved at the scene of a crime," Bostrom said. "What would you have me do after 4 hours?"

"That's the question of the night," Tompkins says. These SPJ things always get going about 5 minutes before they end. Still, nobody takes Bostrom up on his question.

8:54 p.m. - Photo editor of the Minnesota Daily "testifies" he was treated well. So here's where we are after two hours: "Mainstream journalists" seem pretty satisfied with the way things worked. "Alternative media journalists" are not.

8:56 p.m. - We're back on the merits of embedded reporters. The Twin Cities Media Alliance says the embeds were selected by police (always disquieting to hear people identifying themselves as journalists speak publicly about facts without fully checking, but there you go.) "Why was the embedding program secret?" she asks. "We've seen the results of embedding in Iraq."

Mara Gottfried says she was never told it was secret.

9:02 p.m. KFAI reporter goes off on corporate media. Says mainstream media is lazy and "that's why independent media is happening." Tom Lindner of KARE says he passed on "embedding" because "the rules were so cockamamie. You cover something on Monday, you couldn't air it until Friday." An embedded reporter says he was free to step out from the role at any time.

We're done here. Very little accomplished but it was a good try. In his final comments, Bostrom said "I have zero interest in arresting someone that hasn't done anything" and he seems disappointed -- appropriately so -- that he wanted some suggestions to take back. He didn't get them and it wasn't because he didn't ask.

The continuing conflict between alternative and mainstream media is an intriguing and important discussion, but the effort to make the distinction forced the journalists to defend themselves to each other, when what they should have been doing is standing as journalists to the authorities and trying to recognize a solution to the changing medium landscape.

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RNC fallout is not dispersing

Posted at 8:42 AM on September 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

The RNC isn't over and won't be for a long time in the Twin Cities. These developments over the last few days are worth noting:

The Minneapolis City Council, according to MPR's Brandt Williams, will get a report on how the police department handled their end of the protests during the Republican National Convention. But the fix may be in since the police department is doing the report and City Council member Paul Ostrow successfully led the the fight to kill an effort by colleague Cam Gordon for a specific accounting.

"I personally don't see a need for council action," Ostrow said. "I'm going to be blunt about this, because I know what the headlines are going to be, 'City Council calls for investigation of Minneapolis police department.' We don't need an investigation of the Minneapolis police department when the Minneapolis police department is already saying they're moving forward on an After Action report."

Here's the current "investigation" tally: St. Paul will have one, but it won't look at claims of police misconduct. A City Council member, who has made no secret of his distaste for the police actions, will hold a hearing.

In Minneapolis, Mayor R.T. Rybak wants the city's civil rights office to review the method of arrests and citations.

Media watcher Brian Lambert, meanwhile, acknowledges he didn't monitor the offerings of local TV and radio stations because he was "in the RNC bubble," but he says he knows what was going on anyway:

The picture here is fairly clear. The RNC with its promotional potential ( ... money) for our cities, combined with over-the-top police state preparation and intimidation, appears to have cowed not just politicians but also quite a few self-professed brave media voices into avoiding anything that could be construed as consorting with or encouraging the enemy.

Lambert, as you probably figured out, says protester voices didn't get heard in the cacophony of chatty police and politicians.

Why were they protesting again?

Impeachment, according to one of them. Jodin Morey posted a long accounting of the Poor People's March -- aka "the Tuesday protest" -- on his blog this week:

Next, the lead organizer got on the shoulders of another marcher and through a bullhorn announced to the protesters that she was going to deliver a citizen's arrest to the doors of the Xcel Energy Center for crimes against humanity. She made us raise our right hands again and promise that we would stay right where we were and to be peaceful. Everyone I could see raised their hands and repeated the promise back to her. Then she went to the free speech gate that separated us from the front doors of the Xcel Energy Center. She spoke through her bullhorn to the nearest police officer, who was dressed in riot gear.

Even the media is going to review its actions in the wake of the protests. The Society Professional Journalists is holding a forum on Monday to examine why journalists got arrested and how reporters can do their jobs in the future. City leaders and law enforcement officials have been invited to participate.

Meanwhile the "let's do this again sometime" movement slowed somewhat on Wednesday when St. Paul business owners got together to discuss their experiences. Said one business owner:

"We should have been told that the delegates were going to get in their buses, and get bused right to the front door, and right after the event, they were going to be bused right from the front door of the Xcel Energy Center right back to Minneapolis."

On the other hand, four other conventions have been booked since the RNC, according to officials. And another suggested there was no pricetag on the value of Chris Matthews proclaiming Rice Park, "the most beautiful spot in the world." A few days later, Matthews lost his gig at MSNBC for other reasons.

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The governor's bad week

Posted at 8:11 AM on September 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

This is what it comes down to for Gov. Tim Pawlenty, eh? He went from a near shoe-in for a spot on a presidential ticket to doing interviews with a sock puppet.

(h/t: MnSpeak)

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Embedded reporters at RNC

Posted at 5:01 PM on September 5, 2008 by Bob Collins (24 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

I learned today -- perhaps the same way you did -- that MPR had an embedded reporter within the police ranks during the last part of the Republican National Convention: I read it on Tim Nelson's RNC convention blog. He described Thursday's confrontations:

I was variously ordered to get down and to leave immediately. I was inadvertently struck by pepper spray and by "stinger balls" from an explosive thrown at my feet. But per our agreement, I was never forced to leave the scene.

I don't know the exact count of journalists detained. I heard numbers last night as high as 18. I did see some people with credentials issued by the Republican National Convention among the handcuffed detainees. But I also saw people with handmade "media" insignia and several students claiming to be with a college paper in Iowa.

Tim was riding along Thursday with one of the mobile police units. He was one of 8 reporters in the Twin Cities media to be so accomodated at times during the week. He could share the information he acquired after the convention ended. (Update, Sat. 9:23 a.m.: The Star Tribune's perspective was printed this morning)

For the record, his deal was unknown to all but a very few news officials in his company.But now that he has written about the arrangement, it's fair game.

These sorts of agreements pose difficult questions for news organizations. We invite you to discuss it in the comments section below in the interest of being transparent about them:

If a news organization makes a deal with law enforcement for special treatment and an agreement to stay silent on certain issues for an agreed-upon period of time, does the news organization have a responsibility to tell the audience that the report being delivered is part of an agreement with the officials he/she is covering not to be chased from the scene in exchange for.... something?

It's unclear why credentialed journalists were swept up on Thursday night. Police Chief John Harrington said it was difficult to tell the "real" journalists from the phony ones. But from the advantage of his position, Nelson wrote, he could see some of the journalists being picked up had RNC credentials. The police didn't have to figure out who was who: the Secret Service had already done that when it did a background check on everyone who applied for those credentials.

On the air with MPR's Cathy Wurzer on Friday morning, Nelson clearly had some after-the-fact insight into how everything went down on the cops' side, but we made a mistake, perhaps, in not disclosing the arrangement that allowed him to acquire it. Asked about the arrests of local journalists, he said that police had clearly ordered people to move.

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On his blog, he answered the question of why some people were arrested and some weren't in a slightly different way:

Because last week, the St. Paul police offered the media -- or at least those who showed up to a meeting at the Western District police offices -- the opportunity to accompany the officers among St. Paul's "mobile field force" teams.

St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington told MPR News today that all local news organizations were offered the embedded positions, but the protections that Nelson suggests it afforded, did not extend to all journalists -- real journalists -- at Thursday's night's events. Listen

"News organizations took volunteers, and I guess not everybody wanted to do that. We just offered the chance to be embedded over the four days, and we had 8 slots to offer people, and all slots were filled. We made that an open opportunity," he said. Some local news organizations declined the offer. Why?

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Late on Friday, MPR News Director Bill Wareham further clarified the arrangement between Nelson and the St. Paul police:

He signed a liability waiver.

He agreed that if he went on a ride-along for a day, he wouldn't publish/broadcast anything about it until the end of the convention.

In his words, "The agreement was that they would let me do my job if I let them do theirs and didn't disclose their methods before the end of the convention. I was not in the area when the order to disperse was given, and never there without a police escort." Also, "The sergeant told me that the safest place was behind their line and that if I got in front of them I would not be allowed to cross back into their lines. 'You're on your own out there,' I believe she said to me."

Because of the post-convention embargo, we decided that if we took advantage of the ride-along opportunity, it wouldn't be until Thursday so the information wouldn't be stale. We did take advantage of the opportunity Thursday, but all of his protest coverage earlier in the week had no arrangement with the cops attached

Meanwhile, Amnesty International joined in the chorus of criticism against police force this week:

The organization's concerns arise from media reports, video and photographic images which appear to show police officers deploying unnecessary and disproportionate use of non-lethal weapons on non-violent protesters marching through the streets or congregating outside the arena where the Convention was being held.

Police are reported to have fired rubber bullets and used batons, pepper spray, tear gas canisters and concussion grenades on peaceful demonstrators and journalists. Amnesty International has also received unconfirmed reports that some of those arrested during the demonstrations may have been ill-treated while held at Ramsey county jail.

The human rights organization is calling for an investigation. On MPR's Midmorning today, Mayor Chris Coleman said there would be "a review" of the police performance, but when pressed on how he felt about it, Coleman said "I feel great."

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Live-blogging Midmorning: Mayor Chris Coleman

Posted at 9:19 AM on September 5, 2008 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Mayor Chris Coleman is on Midmorning. Here are the salient points.

9:20 a.m. The city of St. Paul has been put on a map it has never been on before. Cites a cop in St. Louis who said "he can't wait to bring his family here."

9:21 a.m. Caller who says he was swept up yesterday even though he wasn't a protester. "These guys trained for a year and had all these toys and they were itching to use them."

"Fully comfortable with the methods used?" Kerri asks. Yes/No question not answered with a yes/no. Coleman recounts information the cops had about the protesters. "I want people to understand, this was not just a couple of people who were mouthing off. It was one of the most coordinated efforts in the history of the country to shut down political dialog."

Kerri asks her question again. No yes/no answer yet. The mayor says the protesters violated the 5 p.m. limit of the protest. Says cops didn't just shut it down, for four hours the police "very patiently waited for this thing to move."

Kerri presses on the caller's contention that he was heading for his car when he had a gun pointed in his face. Coleman says "it's hard for the police department to tell who is who?"

"Are you entirely comfortable with all of the methods?" Kerri asks. "We'll do a review," Coleman said.

"This morning, how do you feel?" she persists.

"This morning I feel great," the mayor said.

Is that a 'yes"?

9:27 a.m. Caller says she's proud of St. Paul. "Last night I was terribly sad and heartsick. It was a peaceful protest. The intimidation use was frustrating. How do you plan to pay for lawsuits."

Coleman says officers acted within their lawful authority. Coleman says the city isn't liable because the Host Committee purchased a lawsuit to cover liability. (Some people say that gave the police license to be tougher than they had to be.)

"People need to understand; this was not a soft threat. They were going to throw everything they had at us. That's the duty of public safety."

9:31 a.m. Business owner on Grand says not a single delegate came in. Charter buses between the X and Grand were empty.

"You have to focus in on the four days of the convention. Some businesses did not have benefit but many did. Says Meritage, Heime's and Keys had best week's (most of the articles I've seen about Meritage were so-so. What's the story here? In the last half hour of the show, Kerri is looking for businesses to call in.)

Coleman says construction crews, Host Committee were here for months ahead of time, shopping, eating and having drinks. It's a slow week for retail anyway. He repeats the story of the police officer who can't wait to come back. Coleman's message appears to be that whatever businesses didn't get this week, they got in the weeks leading up to the convention.

Laura Yuen and Brandt Williams assess this.

9:35 a.m. - Coleman on Coleman. Kerri plays Norm Coleman's remarks to the convention which seemed to suggest St. Paul was Flint, Michigan before Norm. Coleman took office.
Chris Coleman says he disagrees that "he was the engine. A lot of people had been toiling for years." Says NC was able to rely on a steady increase in state aid, and Clinton Cop money. "He made the city increasingly reliant on other sources of revenue that, in the end, dried up and went away; it became much more of a challenge," the mayor said.

"It's a consistent challenge to the Republican message that you can get something for nothing."

9:38 a.m. Coleman departs.

9:44 a.m. - Bruce Nestor of the National Lawyers Guild says the militarized presence of the city "was all out of proportion." Kerri asks if some responsibility for that falls with the people who were bent on destruction? "Whatever change in tactics was carried out regardless of what was occurring in the crowd," he said. He says they "chose to grab an independent journalist prepared to do an interview with somebody" at the Mears Park protest.

9:46 a.m. - Caller asks about "journalists" who were detained without having done anything. Specifically asks about Iglehart raid. Nestor says targeting journalists started in Minneapolis last week when the Glass Bead Collective journalists were grabbed when they got off a bus. "Iit raises serious questions about what type of intelligence was used to carry out the raids.

Kerri asks about Coleman's assistance that there were lots of announcements to disperse. "Journalists also want to be present to cover arrests and see how police behave," Nestor said. "Even if they heard a dispersal order, there was no opportunity to disperse."

9:50 a.m. Caller says people didn't respect other businesses. "There was no capability to shut down the RNC," Nestor said. "Even if it could happen, does that requiring militarizing the entire city?" He says last night was a "forceful way to suppress dissent.

9:53 a.m. "How dloes it reflect on the city of St. Paul when you're walking down the street with kids and there are officers on top of cars with guns?" a caller asks.

"In fairness to the St. Paul Police, I think a lot of this was driven by ... federal agencies, Secret Service. On a national security event like this, there's a model that's been used locally -- Seattle, Miami -- which relies on the militarized approach and the use of force. The tone was set on Friday night with the raid on the Convergence Center," Nestor said.

9:56 a.m. Asked about police infiltrators of these groups who heard plans, "They had paid confidential informants who are paid on the value of the information. The more scary, the more valuable," he said.

== End ==

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A week in St. Paul

Posted at 12:05 PM on September 5, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

MPR's Sasha Aslanian and Jeff Harkness have put together a nifty multimedia presentation looking back at this week's activities.

You can find a larger version here.

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The party's over

Posted at 5:26 AM on September 5, 2008 by Bob Collins (23 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

So that's it, then. Like a long-planned wedding, the Republican National Convention has come and gone and here we sit waiting for the photographs, wondering if we did the right thing.

How was it for you?

Share your stories of experiencing the convention -- or not -- in the comments section.

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How did authorities monitor library computer use by suspected bomb maker?

Posted at 4:45 PM on September 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

Wednesday's news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, detailing a criminal complaint against a Michigan man accused of planning to make Molotov cocktails and bomb the Xcel Center, carried this paragraph:

The affidavit states that DePalma went to the Hennepin County Library on August 18 and spent 90 minutes researching recipes for explosive devices. DePalma produced a handwritten list of items he would need to construct "special" Molotov cocktails that would stick to people and other targets.

How did authorities get the information about Matthew DePalma's activity while online using a Hennepin County Library computer?

"All I can tell you is what's in the affadavit," said David Anderson, a public affairs specialist for the Department of Justice. The affadavit didn't say.

Did the library monitor, and then turn over, records of the computer's use to authorities?" The Hennepin County Library and its employees had nothing to do with it," said Stacy A. Opitz, a spokeswoman for the library.

That could mean it was something as simple as someone watching what DePalma was doing.

Under the Minnesota Data Practices Act, libraries can only turn over information about patrons with a court order. The Patriot Act allows monitoring of electronic (or other) activities of patrons in libraries,something to which the American Library Association has objected. Some libraries, according to the ALA, are destroying computer access records on a regular basis to avoid complying.

But in this case, there's no clear indication how authorities monitored the library's computer.

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Live-blogging: The last protest

Posted at 7:41 PM on September 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (37 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

It's going to be an interesting evening. The last protest of the RNC is starting at 4. You may recall -- if you're a regular News Cut reader -- this is the one that organizers said would be the "more militant" protest, as opposed to the family-friendly one on Monday. "If people are wondering about Day 4, is it going to be safe, is it going to be OK to bring their families, we would say 'yes.' I think the more the better," the organizers said five or six weeks ago. We'll just see.

3:11 p.m. - The situation is, basically, shutting downtown St. Paul businesses. Caribou Coffee in Town Square brings us a pot of coffee because "it's going to be a long night." Besides, they don't need it; they say they've been told to close down. MPR sends non-newsroom people home.

3:17 p.m. - The people who are in line for the Daily Show have disappeared.

In the last two days, the people aren't let in until 5:30. Either the Daily Show is recording tonight's show early, or they want people off the street. The answer to that -- as with everything about The Daily Show -- is a matter of national security.

3:44 p.m. A "Kinko's journalist" (Has laminated credentials that aren't real press credentials) arrives, and appears to have broken every rule in the book about covering protests/riots.

3:46 p.m. Ramsey County announces it's closed the Juvenile Justice Center on West Seventh Street and the Public Health Clinic on Cedar in St. Paul because of the pending protest march.

4:26 p.m. - The left-hand-right-hand department -- Says the Joint Information Center:

Law enforcement officials in charge of security and public safety operations associated with the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul are dismissing as untrue reports that they requested offices in downtown Saint Paul to close early.

4:54 p.m. Who keeps all those police bicycles in shape and what's it like to be a bike cop? MPR's Michael Wells has the answer:

4:58 p.m. Police have told organizers they have to be finished by 5 p.m. (MPR)

5:04 p.m. Most marchers are heading toward John Ireland Blvd., on Rice. A separate group is attempting to go down Cedar Ave. Some arrests are being made. (KARE 11).

5:05 p.m. St. Paul officers on horseback are blocking John Ireland Blvd. (WCCO)

5:11 p.m. Via Twitter @TheInDecider (Daily Show - Michael Kraskin and Dennis DiClaudio) reports march is now a sit-in.

5:21 p.m. - Live video (via cellcam) of the situation.

5:26 p.m. - MPR's Sea Stachura has sent this image of the standoff:

MPR's Steve Mullis says, "Cops on Capitol side of John Ireland Blvd., protesters on the Cathedral side. Chanting loudly. Police are not amused."

5:28 p.m. - MPR's Tom Crann is interviewing the owner of Mickey's Diner. Flashback to Monday night:

"It didn't affect us at all," Melissa Matson said. "There were customers who came in right before and we didn't realize they hadn't been served so we were very apologetic." She says regulars are starting to show up again.

5:32 p.m. Steve Mullis' has sent this image:

5:39 p.m. - Nobody's making a move.

6:01 p.m. - Joint Press Information Center just issued this release:

Law enforcement officials in charge of security and public safety operations associated with the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul are asking for the public's assistance in identifying an apparent assault victim and suspected rioters.

People with information about any of the individuals in the photos are asked to call the Saint Paul Police Department at 651-291-1111

6:09 p.m. - via Twitter @TheIndecider says people are leaving. Would they give up that easy. Looks to me like the police have fortified Cedar at I-94 bridge. The strategy seems clear: Keep 'em on the other side of I-94. So far it's working, easily. The police only need to guard two bridges rather than try to corral protesters throughout an entire downtown as they had to do on Monday.

6:14 p.m. - Police have "retaken" the John Ireland bridge. A small handful of protesters have linked arms.

6:18 p.m. - A line of blue is up around the front of the Capitol. Both main bridges to downtown are clogged with police. The only way this thing gets seriously out of hand is if the few people on the south side of I-94 (who are watching) turn out to be the "anarchists." That doesn't seem likely.

6:23 p.m. - More police have been added to the Cedar St. bridge. Dumptrucks have been moved across the road on the south side of the bridge.

6:37 p.m. - Here's the picture I shot a few minutes ago. Police have reinforced the bridge.

As I shot this, an officer said, "Sir, you have to move back across the street." Yes, I had my press credentials and , no, I hadn't crossed the police line. But -- and this is the first chance I've had to use this as a verb -- I decided not to "Amy Goodman" the situation.

Why don't the protesters move to the next bridge at Minnesota?

Because these people are waiting...

And, besides, there's no way for the protesters to get there. 12th Street is blocked and the parking garage and armory provide a barricade.

Snowplows have been mounted on city trucks and filled with sand. They're being moved in to reinforce things on Cedar:

As more police move up from downtown...

How long can this last? The police didn't take the bait, didn't move in on the protesters, and clearly are trying to avoid a confrontation. John McCain speaks in an hour or so, then leaves, and when everyone is gone, and the 10 p.m. news is over, the police can squeeze whatever protesters are left.

6:52 p.m. - Here's a map of how police succeeded in isolating the protesters from downtown, and the Excel Center.

For those following who are not in St. Paul, the yellow interstate is about 30 feet down from the surface streets where everyone is positioned.

7:20 p.m. Via David Brauer (via Twitter) - City Pages reporter among those pepper sprayed. Their report says they had both followed orders to lie on the ground. Then they were maced.

7:28 p.m. - A woman was just maced and taken away. MPR's Steve Mullis says police are making small advances to get people to scatter and thin out the crowd, and then surrounding those who stay behind, and arresting them.

7:43 p.m. - Part 2 of the bike cops video. Kudos to Michael Wells, Bo Hakala and Anna Weggle

7:51 p.m. - Flickr photostream of this afternoon/evening's events.

7:54 p.m. Via Twitter, The InDecider says a police car window was smashed.

7:58 p.m. - 12 arrests, according to the Pioneer Press. Additional images. Here.

8:02 p.m. MPR's Steve Mullis (via Twitter), "Cops respected press credentials and let us break the line" to return to the downtown section of the city.

8:18 p.m. - Protesters are pretty much broken up. Some tried to get over the bridge at Marion but failed. Police shot flashbangs. Protesters are in small groups and are unlikely to reform -- or be allowed to reform. My son -- who works here -- has just returned and says all of the people he saw get pepper-sprayed by police had just failed to obey an order.

8:29 p.m. - Total arrests will be over 100. We may yet hit the 800 prediction from Sheriff Bob Fletcher.

This thing is over.

Submitted photo:

From Jessica Vogt : "Anti-war protest. Police stop protesters at the John Ireland Blvd. bridge. The crowd gathers."

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Fail!

Posted at 1:54 PM on September 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The verdict is in from one St. Paul shopowner on the alleged economic benefit of the Republican National Convention: Fail!

Theoretically, Bonnie Andert's Blink Bonnie Subs should be doing a booming business; it's located right next to the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention is being held. Nobody can see her business because of the big CNN bus parked in the way...

And even if you knew it was there, the security barriers require a person to walk one block west...

... cross the street, and then one block east.

Few are bothering to do it this week. Andert had hoped the week would help her business get out of debt, but it's only getting worse.

Few customers are even walking half a block.Today at noon, Cosetta's -- one of the most popular lunch-time spots in the city -- sent people to the street trying to lure over-tanned CNN celebs (and anyone else with cash) to come in.

Other than the Eagle St. Grille, which cashed in with the CNN location, at least one business has benefited. A medical supply business on the block rented its space out for the week. The combination oil painting - caramel corn - goofy Republican hat shop that went for the deal does not appear to be doing well.

The convention was sold to St. Paulites as a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Some businesses are hoping that's true.

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How they see us

Posted at 10:03 AM on September 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

For the most part, delegates haven't gotten to see much of St. Paul or meet many people from the Twin Cities. They're taking buses into and out of the city, and directly to whatever private event they've got scheduled.

All they know, is what they see out of the bus window, as this image taken by a member of the Ohio delegation attests:

"Monday night the delegation attended a reception honoring Auditor of State Mary Taylor. It was in the beautiful Landmark Center in St. Paul. The building was perfect but the location turned out to be a little rough. It was so close to the Xcel Center (where the Convention is) that we were blocked and harassed by protestors any time we stepped outside."

Meanwhile, bloggers for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver have assessed that St. Paul is the new Chicago:

Claim: Denver worried about being compared to the 1968 convention, but it was the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul that earned the distinction - on its first day.
Rocky Truth Patrol says: Rock Solid

Some 150 National Guard troops were called in Monday to help maintain order in some parts of St. Paul after self-described anarchists smashed windows, slashed tires and even attacked delegates.

The comparison came from Fred Biebel, an 83-year-old delegate from Connecticut, in an interview with the Hartford Currant. Biebel has attended every GOP convention since 1956. He made the comparison to the Republican convention of 1968, which was less violent than the Democrat's convention that year in Chicago, but still featured protesters throwing rocks at the windows of the delegates' bus.

"It compared a little bit, not as bad, to 1968," Biebel told the Hartford Currant. "That was scary."

Meanwhile, officials in Denver were still counting their blessings for a relatively smooth DNC last week. Managers of downtown skyscrapers even had glass company trucks on standby in their buildings' garages, ready to fix any broken windows. None were needed.

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Where comedy, politics, and education meet

Posted at 9:31 AM on September 4, 2008 by Bob Collins
Filed under: The political conventions

"I'm really sorry I'm late," Jeremy Nordeen, a Bismarck, North Dakota native, said this morning as he showed up for our interview, originally scheduled for 7 a.m., "I was out with Rob Riggle and the guys shooting some pieces."

Oh, right, the old "I-was-out-with-Rob-Riggle-and-the-guys" excuse. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that.

If Nordeen's and fellow Brown College student Ann Avoles' dream of working in film or television doesn't pan out, there's always comedy. Both have a sharp flair for timing - comedic and otherwise.

They parlayed that into a two-week gig during the Republican National Convention as production assistants with The Daily Show, which is broadcasting this week from the History Theater at McNally Smith College of Music.

"The one question that I was asked (in the job interview), 'If you were able to meet any famous person -- dead or alive -- who would it be? And I said 'Tom Selleck,'" Ann said. Score one gig with the Daily Show.

"If I'd been asked that question, I would have said 'Teddy Roosevelt' because I'm a much more staunch, political person," Jeremy deadpanned. The question posed to him was little less philosophical. "They asked me if I could drive a 15-person van."

Both are reluctant to disclose what they're doing at The Daily Show this week; they've signed confidentiality agreements. But Avoles says one of her jobs has been rescuing staff members from protests. "It got to the point where even the Minneapolis police knew me by my first name," she says. The show was locked down Monday night as protests swirled outside the downtown theater.

Norden says the production assistants have worked hard to play it cool around the show's stars. "You have to be professional when you're in there and recognize these people have a job to do... All the interns talk to each other and say, 'don't be that guy.'"

"This is just great! Some of our classmates are working down at FoxNews. That's a little too serious for me," Avoles said, who wants to meld what she's learned in television production with a degree she's already earned in applied technology and graphic design. "I want to do commercials."

"I hopefully stay in the business the rest of my life; I hope I never become disinterested. I've found my calling," Jeremy says.

No joke.

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Where are the protesters from?

Posted at 4:27 PM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

MPR's Steve Mullis has pulled together a Google map (don't click the map above,it's just an image, instead go here.) showing the listed hometowns of people who were arrested in St. Paul on Monday and Tuesday.

It's not a scientific presentation. Many of those arrested are giving phony names and addresses.

We've taken their names off.

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Is this mic on?

Posted at 3:15 PM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

The political analysts on the cable networks are a lot more honest when they're off the air. A couple of Republican commentators -- Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy -- went off script when talking about the Palin pick, after concluding an appearance on MSNBC.

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Pick the journalist

Posted at 2:33 PM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (16 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

In the picture, pick out the journalists. You can click on the image to make it larger.

Even in the relative calm when this picture was shot, it's difficult to determine who is a journalist, who is a protester with a camera and who is actually a protester but is saying he/she is a journalist.

Add a little action into the mix, and smaller credentials aren't much help.

A news release from the people in charge of the police today appears to suggest that the police aren't going to waste much time this week trying to determine who's a real journalist, and who are the posers.

Law enforcement responsible for security and public safety in the Twin Cities area would like to remind members of the media of the proper procedures for staying safe during unlawful assemblies. When police officials request the breakup of an unlawful assembly by announcement to the gathered crowd, that order applies to all individuals, including the media. A quick and orderly dispersal is more likely to help people, including media personnel, stay safe and avoid arrest.

Because still cameras, video cameras and other recording equipment are commonplace at large events or gatherings, it can be difficult for law enforcement and others to differentiate between credentialed media, un-credentialed media or others who may carry similar equipment. While law enforcement in no way wishes to restrict First Amendment rights, members of the press must also follow police orders to protect their safety, the safety of police and others.

(Photo via Getty)

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Candidates' kids in photo ops

Posted at 12:44 PM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (19 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The McCain campaign -- and most everyone else -- has warned reporters not to focus on the pregnancy of the daughter of vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin. A candidate's children are "off limits," the candidates themselves usually say. It's not an unreasonable point.

So why would you make the young Palin, and her soon-to-be-husband, part of the photo op with the arriving Republican presidential-nominee-to-be at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport today?

It's not just Republicans, of course. Candidates have regularly used their kids to portray an image.

When are the children of candidates "off limits"?

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Bloggers are ready for 'prime time' in St. Paul protest coverage

Posted at 11:11 AM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

Two area bloggers are doing a bang-up job (that's probably the wrong phrase) documenting the two major protests that have degenerated into scuffles with police in St. Paul over the last two days.

The Adventures of Johnny Northside blog has a compelling blow-by-blow description (that's probably the wrong phrase) of the action outside Mickey's Diner:

At 10th7th and St. Peter, in front of Mickey's Diner, a group of protesters taunted police. At one point, police appeard to push the crowd or lunge at the crowd. A half-filled plastic water bottle came sailing through the air toward the officers. Police appeared to spray something into the crowd, but no distinctive pepper spray odor was apparent. There was a discussion among some members of the crowd whether "bunk gas" was being utilized: something made to seem like pepper spray to scare off a mob, but without much actual physical effect.

Meanwhile, highly-regarded local blogger Aaron Landry documented the scene on Monday at one of St. Paul's hot spots -- Jackson Street -- where he and a friend convinced a woman to give them a ride out of the danger...

The most unnerving moment was on our way out. A man in a gas mask stood in front of the SUV staring at our driver to her the face, refusing to move. The ugly face of terrorism was standing in front of her vehicle. She froze, with her hands on the wheel and did not honk or try to move. It was a frightening scene. I yelled, "go around him" and Stacy opened her door and yelled, "Get the **** out of the way, we're press" and another man yelled, "if you're press, ****ing cover this!" Meanwhile, the mob was coming up behind us.

Stacy's a concert photographer, lawyer and music blogger. I'm an IT Manager for a design firm, social media consultant and blogger. We were doing citizen photojournalistic roles and the situation changed where we decided that our safety was more important than covering the event.

Both blogs are an example of journalism at its finest, especially during a difficult story. They both also prove that the written word remains the most powerful medium.

(Update) Media watcher David Brauer has an excellent first-person account from AP photographer Matt Rourke, who was detained on Monday, but who's gotten little notice because his parents didn't name him Amy Goodman.

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The wayback machine: Tom Eagleton

Posted at 9:19 AM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

"I assume that everyone here is impressed with my control of this convention in that my choice for Vice President was challenged by only 39 other nominees. But I think we learned from watching the Republicans four years ago as they selected their vice-presidential nominee that it pays to take a little more time."

That was Sen. George McGovern starting off his speech to the 1972 Democratic National Convention. It wasn't exactly a stemwinder; little about his bid to be president was. Even Minnesota voted Republican that year, the last time it's done so at the top of the ticket.

A few minutes before that speech, 42-year-old Sen. Tom Eagleton stood on the podium, his arms raised in triumph. Not long after, Eagleton was bumped from the ticket after it was revealed he had been hospitalized three times for treatment of depression.

In a sign of strength that it no longer has, the nation's major newspapers -- the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times -- called for -- and got -- Eagleton's resignation.

The McGovern candidacy was doomed no matter what he did. If the South Dakota senator had stuck with Eagleton, there'd be questions about his fitness for office. When he dumped Eagleton, it launched questions about McGovern's judgment.

Last month, the now-85-year-old McGovern reflected on the what-he-should-have-dones:

In view of the fact that we knew it was going to be a very tough battle with Nixon and he would use every technique possible to win re-election, we might have been cautious about going ahead with Sen. Eagleton if we had known that he had had a 15-year history of depression, mental illness that would almost make him incapacitated during those periods. It's not that he should be punished for that, but we at least should have had that information before we made a final judgment. And that was what caused all the confusion about what to do with it.

Today, 2008, people have a much better understanding of mental illness and especially depression than they did 36 years ago. I didn't know much about it myself. I don't claim to have been an expert on clinical depression. Abraham Lincoln struggled with it most of his adult life. At one time he said, "I'm the most miserable man." Another time he talked about being "the saddest man on the planet." It's a terrible affliction that can really put you down. And so we would have, I think, before we made a final decision on Sen. Eagleton, if we had known about this history of illness, we would have had time to talk to the doctors, talk to the psychiatrist, talk more to Sen. Eagleton than we did.

Eagleton died last year.

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The story... and the real story

Posted at 8:36 AM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Sen. Joe Lieberman, (i-Connecticut) lit up the crowd, according to the crowd, at the Xcel Energy Center last night. A rootin' tootin' former Democrat was the GOP's best pal during his speech on Tuesday evening because he's for their guy.

"Lieberman makes the case to Hillary Democrats...and plain old Democrats..vote for the man not the party," tweeted Michigan party boss Saul Anuzis.

So why isn't the guy John McCain wanted as his running mate on the ticket?

Because, according to Charlie Cook (who has more contacts on the inside than just about anybody), Republicans don't like the guy.

"From the folks I talked to, Sen. McCain wanted desperately to pick Sen. Lieberman but then too many party leaders said 'at best, you'll have a walkout, at worst they'll burn the building down if you pick Lieberman.' He was so committed to making a pick that would shake things up that if you can't pick Lieberman or Tom Ridge, Gov. Palin was the next choice."

Angered that he couldn't choose his own running mate, according to Cook, McCain Lieberman "gave the (party) establishment the finger instead."

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A battleground state

Posted at 8:05 AM on September 3, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

"Inviting as many as 20,000 guests to Minneapolis and St. Paul for the convention will have an incredible economic impact. People will stay in hotels. Go out to dinner. Spend money. Shop. And return home with wonderful stories to tell about Minneapolis-St. Paul."

Jeremy Hansen, spokesman for Mayor R.T. Rybak
September 28, 2006
After the Twin Cities were awarded the convention

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Twitter: The anarchist tool?

Posted at 8:14 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Tech, The political conventions

Twitter got a lot of attention from the various press outlets today for its value in following yesterday's rampage by anarchists and the response by police.

One aspect of the social networking service is getting less mention: It's being used to coordinate the violence.

This evening, for example, the Twitter feed for the anarchist group at a protest outside the Xcel Energy Center, where the Republican National Convention is being held, warned, "Cops near Excel are searching people's bags for goggles and gas masks-- hide them!"

From the looks of things, the anarchists set up separate Twitter accounts for "sectors" of the city on Monday, giving the go-ahead at a coordinated time for the anarchists to break away from the peaceful protest and initiate a day of combat with police.

The system was also used to report places where protesters could get to delegates without police protection. At 2:31 yesterday, for example, one reported:

bringing in delegates at st peter and kellog WIDE OPEN

As the police moved on one sector, Twitter was used to move in protester reinforcements:

sector 2 requesting backup at kellogg and wabasha, massive amounts of riot cops

It's unclear whether the police, themselves, are also monitoring the Twitter feeds to try to stay ahead of the protesters, or whether they're doing anything to disrupt the communications. Nonetheless, the main Twitter feed for the anarchists reported on Tuesday afternoon that all of the "sector feeds" were not working.

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Whoops

Posted at 7:12 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Republicans meeting in St. Paul have not strayed from the party line that Sarah Palin is the perfect vice presidential pick for Sen. John McCain. But every now and again, a slip of the tongue cracks the veneer.

It was all going well tonight for Ohio State Rep. Jo-Ann Davidson, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, as she was paying tribute to Republican women, with a nod to the last time the Republicans met in St. Paul.

"Ever since that convention, women have been an integral part of the party. And today, 116 years later, we are holding a convention that will nominate a Republican woman governor, Sarah Pawlenty our next vice president."

Whoops. There was no indication from Davidson that she realized the gaffe she had just made.

But it might be understandable. Davidson was on the team that scoped out Minneapolis-St. Paul for the convention. She's made dozens of trips to the Twin Cities in advance of the convention and worked closely with Pawlenty, who many Republicans had hoped McCain would tap as his running mate, and who remains a hot ticket at the convention.

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Checking out

Posted at 5:51 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, The political conventions

With only five delegations staying in the city, and everyone else being bussed out of the Xcel and over to party town, some downtown St. Paul businesses are giving up on the idea that there's any economic benefit for them out of the Republican National Convention.

One large eatery in Town Square, which specializes in closing immediately after the lunch rush normally, had tried staying open until the supper crowd left. Today, they gave up the ghost and shut it down after lunch.

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The longest line of the day in St. Paul

Posted at 4:39 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

... is the group of people waiting to get into the taping of The Daily Show in St. Paul. If those people had a sense of humor, they'd all bring kiwi fruit in with them.

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New target: The media?

Posted at 4:25 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The Minnesota Joint Information Center put out an advisory this afternoon:

Law enforcement coordinating security related to the Republican National Convention are asking media representatives to exercise caution, following credible reports that media may be targeted by groups wishing to cause disruption and damage.

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Political chicks a go-go

Posted at 1:46 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Republicans didn't want to be seen partying while New Orleans was underwater.

Not everyone got the word, apparently.

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Scenes from a standoff

Posted at 1:05 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Reader John Morson sent along this recap of how a group of people on the way back from the labor concert at Harriet Island got caught in a standoff with police on Monday.

The Wabasha St Bridge was closed in downtown St Paul today (Monday). Following a concert on Harriet Island, everyone was told that they could only use the Robert St. Bridge. Thousands of people proceeded to cross that bridge, which had been closed to car traffic. Suddenly, riot police blocked the north end of the bridge. holding all of us captive, batons at the ready. We weren't protesters or anarchists, just regular citizens trying to get back home, via the only route possible. The riot police essentially held us pedestrians captive on the Robert St. Bridge for a very tense period of time, refusing to talk to us or recognize the gross error they were making.

A threat was heard that they were going to use tear gas on us if we didn't leave. I called 911, as did many other people, in an attempt to contact any authority in order to get any information that would keep us all safe, and hopefully allow us to get home. A police van approached from behind us and people tried to talk some reason into the officer who was driving. Finally the riot police were told to move aside. Everyone walked by without incident.

However the riot police were also blocking streets that people live on, or had their cars parked on, and would not allow these citizens to go through. We were sternly told to "Just keep walking!" and were not informed which way to go or what to do. My girlfriend and I had to take a circuitous route home, which was otherwise only four blocks away.

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What they're saying

Posted at 12:19 PM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The Massachusetts' GOP blog writer has finally identifed the anarchists:

Protestors - not as many as they might make it seem like on TV. There were a few small groups scattered on a few street corners, but there was only one Ron Paul group that became particularly violent and force had to be used. Local police were prepared and in good force. In fact, some young demonstrators were actually asking delegates where the parties were.

Perhaps Ron Paul is posing a bigger threat to Sen. McCain in Massachusetts than elsewhere.

Brenda Goff, a delegate from Kentucky, also repeated the Ron Paul theme:

As delegates entered the area close to the Xcel Center there were minor protests. It appeared to not be more than a dozen people holding signs with comments like "God hates McCain." As we left the Convention at the end of the day their were maybe 5 or 6 people protesting and yelling "Ron Paul." I understand that while the convention was in session there were larger protests in the streets outside the center but our delegation was inside and was not affected.

... but enough about them, what about us, Massachusetts?

Host City - Minneapolis and St Paul are indeed the twin cities located across the river from one another but learning they distinct in their own right. Both however are clean, very metropolitan in terms of restaurants and tourist attractions. Haven't explored them all just yet, but impressed with our welcome so far.

.. and Kentucky?

The local police and the community have been welcoming.

Virginia delegate Randy Marcus also blogged to the people back home that there weren't that many protesters yesterday:

On the way to the convention hall, we encountered our first protestors. I don't know how they will be perceived through the media, but it was a very small group of very animated (and irrational) people. There were more people watching the protestors than were actually protesting.

Keep in mind, of course, that the delegates are ensconced in buses that do not travel through the streets of St. Paul, and then are allowed into the security zone. Delegates don't get much of a look at the street from their entry point.

The blog of the Cleveland Plain Dealer assesses the streets of St. Paul...

Only in America can you have hard-working individuals unite with their political friends inside a convention and solicit donations to storm victims, while outside unemployed terrorists disrupt the daily lives of tax paying citizens. The Democrats would have us believe that we need more wealth redistribution from these taxpayers to these to non-workers. The media coverage was very good at showing film clips of this violence. I did not see any acts of terror at the Democratic Convention. Is it because Republicans are more likely to spend their time working to support their families, strive to make a better life for themselves and their communities and paying high taxes while doing this rather than waste their lives protesting?

The District of Columbia delegation got a pep talk this morning, one blogger notes, to stay on message regarding the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter:

Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman from Arkansas who once headed the DEA, stopped by to speak to delegates he called "insiders." He told them not to overreact to news that vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's teen daughter is pregnant.

"To me, its not a distraction. It's part of the media examination," he said

What gets talked about in those private receptions? According to one South Carolina delegate, an interstate highway connecting Michigan with the Atlantic Ocean.

While we non-Italians were painfully underdressed we soon found ourselves engrossed in wonderful conversation and enjoying some of the best Italian food that we have ever tasted! I even met a well placed Republican official who is very interested in helping make I-73 a reality in Michigan so that the interstate can, eventually, connect the great lakes, in Michigan, with the Atlantic Ocean, in South Carolina.

Why don't you see more people walking around with their convention credentials? They're scared to, according to a Vermont delegate.

Smart Conventioneers are not wearing their 'credentials' in a visible manner. We've been hearing stories that people will "do something not nice to you" if they see that you're part of the convention.

For the record, I wear GOP credentials on the mean streets of the Twin Cities. So far, no problem.

Meanwhile on Twitter we get the weather report from a DC attendee:

Muggy as all hell here in ugly Minneapolis... And....it's raining. This convention sucks.

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Live-blogging: What does America want?

Posted at 9:49 AM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

The Republican National Convention gives political wonks a chance to engage in some interesting discussions. The Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota this week is holding several forums this week.

One of them -- What are Americans Looking For -- begins at 10 and features Charlie Cook (photo below) , the editor of the Cook Political Report; Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center and Bill mcInturff, co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies.

E.J. Dionne, Washington Post columnist, is moderating...

10:14 a.m. - We're underway with introductions.

10:15 a.m. - Charlie Cook is up first. "Louisiana is known as the state in which half of it is underwater and the other half is under indictment," he jokes.

10:17 a.m. "Studying voting patterns... is actually a detriment in this election rather than an asset because nothing is happening in a way you would have guessed." He says this would be a difficult election for the GOP under any circumstances. You look at party ID, it's different than the last elections. The Republicans shouldn't have a chance in this election but "John McCain made some important deposits in the maverick bank years ago and now it's time to make some important withdrawals."

"I don't know whether the selection of Palin was brilliant or insane. But it's one or the other. There's no in between." Cook says the biography and narrative is there but he says he was talking to a guy who had three interviews for a job at Ruby Tuesday, which is more, apparently, than it took Gov. Palin to get the job..

10:22 a.m. Cook: "I thought experience made a big, big difference when people made a decision for president." But experience has been devalued to the point where a Barack Obama could win a Democratic nomination. For that reason, he's not willing to say the Palin pick is insane. "From the folks I talk to, Sen. McCain wanted desperately to pick Sen. Lieberman but when too many party leaders said 'at best, you'll have a walkout, at worst they'll burn the building down if you pick Lieberman.' He was so committed to making a pick that would shake things up that if you can't pick Lieberman or Tom Ridge, Gov. Palin was the next choice."

Cook says the race was so close that McCain didn't need to do a "Hail Mary" pass. He says what we learn in this election year probably won't have any lasting value; it's that weird of a year.

10:25 a.m. "There's not a single state in this country where John McCain is as organized as George Bush was four years ago. The idea that the Palin pick will grab Clinton supporters is "absurd."

Next up: Andrew Kohut of Pew Research Center.

10:29 a.m. His top questions:

Anarchists' statement

Posted at 9:02 AM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (26 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The Welcoming Committee (their Web site proclaims them as "anarchists") issued this statement a bit ago:

First, let us start by saying thank you.

Thank you to the 1000's of people who courageously faced 10 ton buses, concussion grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, batons, charging horses, gas masks, rubber bullets, and all of the tools of repression and intimidation that were used yesterday to repress the public in this supposed democracy. Your direct actions stand in stark contrast to the conventioneers inside the Xcel Energy Center, passively dragging the party line and the rest of this world down with it.

We are inspired by the extraordinary people who stopped buses, blocked highway ramps, and breached concrete barriers to reclaim the streets and recapture the space of downtown St Paul. We are excited about what the next few days may bring, now that the illusion of business as usual has been shattered.

The actions taken yesterday prove that the tactics of intimidation, harassment, violent oppression, the snatching of specific individuals, and the profiling of activists will not stop committed people from taking to the streets for what they believe in and putting their bodies behind those convictions. These tactics were seen yesterday in the targeting of medical workers, journalists, legal observers, and the public. They are the same tactics used daily by police and governments around the world to terrorize and oppress those that they claim to serve.

Indeed, after a long hard day of losing control in the streets and having to resort to calling in the National Guard, Sheriff Bob Fletcher continues the raids on homes, public spaces, and our lives. It isn't surprising that these tactics continue, especially now that Sheriff Fletcher and the mayor's office are faced with the challenge of trying to spin 284 arrests and climbing, 130 of those people being charged with felonies, along with massive police and military brutality. In spite of the arrests of our friends, we are excited by the fact that the number of people willing to take to the streets and express their dissent is growing, and we proudly support the March for Our Lives happening in St Paul today.

The infrastructure that has been created for these actions with the help and support of the twin cities community has been amazing. 100's of people in Minneapolis and St. Paul have opened their homes to 1000's of protesters, Locals and newcomers have taken time off work and from their lives to cook meals, provide medical care, legal support, and transportation. We understand that it must be intimidating to see people organizing for themselves around the idea of mutual aid and solidarity, but in doing this we are actively creating the world we want to live in. This is work that we will continue to do for the rest of our lives.

See you in the streets

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Denver 2 Minneapolis 1: Where's the 'there' here?

Posted at 5:09 AM on September 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Denver has taken a lead over St. Paul News Cut's Convention Competition. Today's category: "There's a there there."

Here's Denver's "there," the core of the convention activity on the 16th Ave. Mall.

The place where all sorts of "characters" showed up...

... where there were street musicians and people trying to make a buck. There was the giant Guitar Hero game. It was a never-ending show.

Where's the show in the Twin Cities? Where's the "there" here? It's not St. Paul. Other than the kids and the cops, people meeting in a convention behind barricades, and a few restaurants within spitting distance of the security zone, there's nothing going on there.

Naturally, there's even less economic trickle-down out around Grand and St. Clair. I stopped at the St. Clair Broiler on Monday afternoon and learned I'm only the third convention-related hack to show up there.

And so I headed to Minneapolis in search of the Main Street of the Republican National Convention. Nicollet Mall would be the logical choice, but it was mostly empty, too. Few delegates, no bands, no hucksters, no show, no festive atmosphere and no (daytime) fun.

Some establishments were closed to get ready for private parties.

The Dakota was all locked up because of the big "Keep Florida Red" celebration featuring LeAnn Rimes on Monday night. The minimum cost to get in? $10,000.

The National Education Association reserved another establishment on the same block. The NEA is thick in the Democratic Party, but as things shifted to the Twin Cities, the union stressed its Republican membership. One of every 3 teachers is a Republican, the union trumpeted.

Nearby Brit's Pub was also closed because of an event hosted by a women's business group.

With the media dropping us like a hot potato, about a third of the total attendees have disappeared. Unfortunately for the vibe, it's the third that tends to mingle with real people. The remaining attendees mingle with themselves at private parties and receptions.

Even the opponents seem down. Here's the Unconvention headquarters:

High-noon on the mean streets of Minneapolis...

Other than an occasional whiff of tear gas, there's very little for Minnesotans who aren't big spenders to experience at the convention.

Where is the convention hiding? If you find it, drop me a note. I'll check it out.

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What they're saying about us

Posted at 6:21 PM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The era of good feeling about the Twin Cities and the visiting Republicans is over.

The Connecticut State Republican Party blog posted this message this afternoon:

83 year old Fred Biebel, the Chairman emeritus of the Connecticut Republican Party, was hit with a small amount of bleach and water as the CTGOP delegation attempted to enter the GOP Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Biebel said that it wasn't the worst he's seen - saying 1968 was worse. After the altercation, he experienced shortness of breath and seemed to lose his color in the face. EMTs on the scene reviewed his condition and eventually allowed him to enter the Convention with the use of a wheelchair.

The Daily Show evaluates the St. Paul cops vs. the "anarchists" and casts its lot with the latter:

As it turns out, just a little while earlier in the day, a group of about 9,000 anti-war protesters had decided to follow in the footsteps of other great change-makers like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi by going ape**** retarded crazy and busting the **** out of a bunch of police vehicles (as well as the officers who drive them).

But I have a feeling that their message was well-heard by all the innocent Republican delegates who have absolutely no power whatsoever to remove troops from Iraq. I expect those troops to be re-deployed anytime now.

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Anarchists: How do you like us now?

Posted at 5:34 PM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Should we still believe the whole "we're just engaged in peaceful activities" mantra from the more extreme groups who gathered in St. Paul for the Republican National Convention? We don't know -- yet -- whether the people inflicting the damage on downtown St. Paul at this hour are the same people who claimed innocence after last weekend's police raids, but they succeeded in muting the point made by thousands of peaceful protests. And the Republican National Convention went on as scheduled at the Xcel Energy Center.

The RNC Welcoming Committee sent out an email to the media with a subject line "grain of salt."

Just a quick note for all you media folks to remember. The police and the mayor are charged with maintaining order and the semblance of order. They lie to the media and they lie to the public. The people are in the streets and the spectacle of the RNC has been crashed.

And now for coverage of people who protested without violence:

Slideshow of the protest

And some video of the police preparations:

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Businesses keep fingers-crossed with scaled-back convention

Posted at 5:09 PM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

While all the politicians are taking great pains to express their thoughts and prayers for the victims of Hurricane Gustav, a few businesspeople in the Twin Cities are praying they won't be victims of the scaled-back Republican National Convention. The five-day soiree is shaping up as the biggest bust in Minnesota since Dimitrius Underwood.

One hotel in Minneapolis was told by a media organization to hold 120 seats in a restaurant for the whole week. Today, 23 people showed up.

So far...so good, however for Amy Brown...

and Heidi Andermack.

They own the catering business, Chow Girls, and have scored two media-related gigs and one A-list party during the convention.

Heidi is handling the St. Paul side of things, which means providing meals to the staff of The Daily Show and PBS' NewsHour. Amy is working in a kitchen in Northeast Minneapolis that easily reached 100 degrees this afternoon, preparing a meal for one of the hotter tickets in town -- the Political Chicks A Go Go fundraiser, which -- with the newfound sensitivity for the Gulf Coast -- has been renamed the "RightNOW!, Lifetime Networks and Rock the Vote Relief for the Gulf Coast."

"We have people working around the clock in our kitchen," according to Heidi. A van driver is working 12-hour days, delivering the food and navigating security.

Jim Lehrer's show wants healthy food, and Daily Show wants "hearty, easy-to-understand food. It has to be 'very hearty'; no mistake about it. NewsHour today gets salads and rotisserie chicken. And fruit. Lots of fruit."

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Heidi hasn't met Jon Stewart... yet. But she knows a few things about his dietary habits. "He doesn't like melon or kiwi in his fruit salad." Lehrer, on the other hand, "needs a turkey meal every day because of a health condition."

The Daily Show's executives made it clear after the first day that Andermack needed to dial back the quality. It was too good. She suspects it was the honey butter that pushed the execs over the edge, to the point that they worried the worker-bees would be expecting too much this week.

Meanwhile on the Minneapolis side, Amy Brown says "people are starting to get a little crabby. The kitchen's hot, people are crabby. Nobody's broken down yet, though" she says.

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Brown says she thought she'd be cooking for a star tonight. Sarah Palin was supposed to be in the party's VIP room, "but I don't think she'll be there now," she says.

Is there much concern about the great disappearing convention? "Yes," Andermack says. "I woke up from a call from one of my staff telling her that someone from Lehrer called at 2 this morning and didn't leave a message. I do have concern, I don't know how it's going to affect us." Her biggest concern is the convention will be delayed. The firm has two weddings this weekend. Lehrer has already skipped town, but his healthy-eating colleagues are still around.

Brown figures there's a built-in safety net to their operation. "We're catering the fake news. We've got the Daily Show, so most of those clients have stayed on site. As opposed to doing CBS or the major media, we've got most of our eaters still in the Twin Cities."

The catering firm isn't entirely on the hook if the media leaves town. "We've gotten deposits for half the amount, we have another payment coming in, and then the rest of it 15 days after the convention is over," according to Andermack.

The firm got the party gig because the Right Now group, which is all women, looked for an all-women catering firm. But a News Cut investigation on Monday revealed men working in the kitchen... on Labor Day.

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End of the show

Posted at 3:56 PM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

As the troops redeployed from the Capitol at the end of today's official protests in St. Paul, the police marched down the protest route. My first clue that they weren't on some way to a conflagration (yet) was when they started smiling and waving to us in the world headquarters of News Cut.

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Inside these cubicles...

Posted at 12:26 PM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

The Daily Show is being created. The show has taken over the basement of the McNally Smith College of Music in the History Theatre, 10th and Exchange streets downtown.

Early gossip on tonight's show. The show will focus on today's protest march which is happening just outside the taping area. Staff, however, is watching it on TV.

(More later)

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The Palin pregnancy

Posted at 11:20 AM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (20 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The hottest rumor sweeping the blogosphere in the last day or so was the accusation that Palin's youngest daughter son is actually Palin's daughter's daughter son. It started with some research that showed that Palin didn't announce her pregnancy until she was 7 months pregnant, and her staff couldn't tell.

Close enough for Daily Kos.

I've stayed away from it for the last two days, the problem is I can't report the actual news today and ignore the rumor's existence, because it was announced today that Palin's unmarried daughter is five months pregnant now.

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The Twitter convention

Posted at 9:49 AM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, Tech, The political conventions

Twitter, the "micro-blog/instant messaging" program is proving to be an excellent way to follow the convention from a variety of perspectives.

For the delegates/bigshot view, check out @sanuzis. It's coming from Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. The delegation is also writing a blog, but it's nowhere near as interesting as the Twitter feed.

However, we do get word via that blog that the Michigan delegation is starting a blood drive at the Northland Inn, where the delegation is staying. The drive, of course, is directed at the victims of Hurricane Gustav, although it seems that the only people in harm's way are the TV reporters, standing out in the middle of the street, telling us to get out of harm's way.

Another state party chairman -- Chris Healy of Connecticut -- is Twittering (tweating?), but mostly just to call attention to the blog posts Healy is writing (Today a Medal of Honor winner spoke to the delegation).

For the well-connected-but-not-a-delegate view, the A-List is headed by David All, a Washington communications consultant (@DavidAll).

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, Twitter gets props from media analyst David Brauer, for coverage of Friday/Saturday police raids.

For comedy -- the intentional kind of comedy -- you'll want to follow @TheInDecider. It's Michael Kraskin of The Daily Show on Comedy Channel. He, too, is also writing a blog.

If you've got a favorite, please add it below. (And please use html to do so if you can)

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Where is everyone?

Posted at 7:56 AM on September 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The local coffee shop in St. Paul is singing a familiar refrain. It opened early on Monday -- 5 a.m. -- to serve the hordes of delegates and media we've been hearing about for the last two years.

Crickets.

On the other side of the river, hours earlier, there were plenty of customers. Wrong city. Wrong hour. Wrong drink.

(h/t: Tom Weber)

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Down in front!

Posted at 11:01 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The torch -- and the good seats -- have been passed. Here's the view at the Xcel Energy Center for the Texas delegation to the Republican National Convention. Texas, with its native in the White House, has been a front-row resident at five of the last six national conventions. Those days are over. Arizona and Alaska have leapfrogged to the front. Minnesota, as the host state, also gets prime seats.

No matter, insists Texas delegate Cathie Adams of Dallas, who is also a national committeewoman for the Republican Party, and a deft deflector of questions that otherwise might yield intrigue.

Ms. Adams has been in the Twin Cities for more than a week because she's on the platform committee, whose work will be approved in what little convention business delegates will attend to on Monday.

"It is the most conservative platform -- maybe ever. It's right on energy issues, the life issue, on immigration issues," she told me late Monday evening after another evening of receptions.

Adams knows conservative. She is among the most conservative delegates in Minnesota this week. She heads the Texas Eagle Forum, which was formed by Phyllis Schafly.

As with everyone else, Adams has her attention divided between the Twin Cities and home, where Hurricane Gustav is expected ashore. "I have not heard of one person who would be leaving," she said. "Some (delegates') families might come and meet with them until the hurricane blows over."

Adams almost didn't make the Twin Cities. She and a friend were hurt last December when a drunk driver being chased by police, struck their car on a Texas interstate highway.

Listen

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Scenes from the convention

Posted at 9:03 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Erik Hare of St. Paul found a commentary on the security fence on Chestnut Street in St. Paul.

If you find something particularly interesting, be sure to send it along.

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Good timing

Posted at 7:27 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

I threw alway almost all of the swag from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, except for the paper card with wildflower seeds, the water bottle, and this little item, which I didn't pay any attention to until today.

An emergency radio to be used in case of a natural disaster.

What did the Democrats know and when did they know it?

It was distributed by ProtectingAmerica.org, a group headed by former FEMA boss James Lee Witt.

The organization is advocating for state legislation to create disaster funds. In Texas, it's lobbying for a privately-financed disaster fund.

You can sign up to get one of the radios, but you're also going to get spam and copies of speeches, which will do nothing to help you in a disaster unless you need something to burn to stay warm.

On the radio -- made of cardboard (how well is that going to work in a flood?) -- it says:

Please keep this FM radio in your home disaster kit so that you can be kept abreast of developments if catastrophe strikes.

With Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the U.S., I finally tried it out tonight: and got a show on MPR about trout fishing.

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Media stars bug out

Posted at 6:09 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Another star anchor has ended his one-day love affair with the Twin Cities.

Jim Lehrer (shown here in Denver) has left St. Paul and returned to Washington "to focus on covering Hurricane Gustav from there. We have a team heading to Louisiana," an email from the NewsHour folks reveals. (BTW, if you want to see what good guys the PBS/NewsHour guys are, see Jason DeRusha's blog)

We've lost PBS.

At last check, we still have Jon Stewart.

More cancellations and changes:

A pending disaster?

Posted at 4:36 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Bottom line? St. Paul was a more hopping place when the national square dancing convention was held in the city in 2002.

The Republican National Convention, which is estimated to cost $84 million, was supposed to drop a pile of cash on businesses and the city economy. The cities and state were to reap the benefit of enormous international attention. That was the plan, anyway.

So far on Sunday -- and keep in mind in Denver one hotel official described Sunday as the "craziest" day of that city's convention activity -- if you take away the cops, the legal observers, a few protesters, and MSNBC in Rice Park, you're left with St. Paul on a Sunday afternoon.

It's a whole different vibe. In Denver, police in riot gear and Secret Service agents in kevlar guarded the perimeter. In St. Paul, private security guards from Travelers are the front line troops.

Most of the police are dressed in more casual attire, as opposed to Denver's "we're gonna bust down grandma's house" look.

Hamm Plaza is relatively empty of visitors, except mostly for the lime-green-shirted National Lawyers Guild protest monitors. You know those folks -- Homeland Security, Secret Service, National Guard -- are out there.... somewhere. But where?

A sidewalk cafe across from St. Paul's Landmark Center was similarly sparse.

There were almost no media people racing about looking for something that smelled like news. This reporter asked these people what they thought of it all. The interviewee said he was most struck by "the amount of security."

MSNBC is setting up shop in Rice Park. A crew moved a table from one side of the stage to the other, setting up for an afternoon show.

... and almost nobody watched.

The Arizona delegation, and Sen. John McCain, will be staying at the St. Paul Hotel.

Maybe they'll stop into some of the skyway shops...

... most of which were closed.

The city tried to rent -- on the cheap -- some of the vacant skyway storefronts, to make the city look a little more retail-lively downtown than it really is. The long-vacant Norwest Bank building is now a "world market."

But most of the new "shops" (which seem to feature kids toys and books), if open, featured a woman sitting on a chair in the corner, waiting for a customer to wander in.

Town Square, the core of the skyway system in St. Paul, looked like any other day at 3:30 p.m. Empty.

For all practical purposes, the Republicans are holding a convention in name only. Even the Democrats sent to "truth squad" the convention are pulling out, leaving St. Paul, at least, to ponder what might have been.

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Where is the Republican National Convention?

Posted at 2:13 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The people of St. Paul, bless their hearts, have spent a considerable amount of energy in the last few months, reminding the national media and anyone else who would listen, that the Republican National Convention is in St. Paul.

That's not entirely true. The arena at which the nightly sessions are held is in St. Paul; that's true. But a convention is much more than the nightly session. Many of the official events of the week will be at the Minneapolis Convention Center. And the "core" of the convention is usually at "the official convention hotel." That's in Minneapolis (the Hyatt Regency). Moreover, the convention is wherever most delegates end up hanging out. That's not St. Paul either.

Of the 56 delegations attending the conventon, 26 of them are staying in Minneapolis, 18 in Bloomington and only 5 in St. Paul (Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada and Texas).

The social center of the convention is likely to be in two locations: the Mall of America and Nicollet Mall.

Looking to meet some rootin' tootin' delegates? Here are the delegate hotels:

Alabama - The Marquette Hotel
Alaska - Ramada Mall of America
American Samoa - Four Points by Sheraton Minneapolis
Arizona - The Saint Paul Hotel
Arkansas - Embassy Suites Minneapolis-Airport
California - Sheraton Bloomington Hotel Minneapolis South & Sofitel Minneapolis- Bloomington
Colorado - Four Points by Sheraton Minneapolis
Connecticut - Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Maple Grove Northwest Minneapolis-Arbor Lakes
Delaware - Best Western Normandy Inn & Suites - Minneapolis
District of Columbia - DoubleTree Guest Suites Minneapolis
Florida - Minneapolis Airport Marriott
Georgia - DoubleTree Hotel Minneapolis - Park Place
Guam - DoubleTree Hotel Minneapolis - Park Place
Hawaii - Embassy Suites Bloomington
Idaho - Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Illinois - Millennium Hotel Minneapolis
Indiana - Embassy Suites Bloomington
Iowa - La Quinta Inn & Suites Minneapolis Bloomington West
Kansas - Country Inn & Suites by Carlson Bloomington at Mall of America
Kentucky - Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Louisiana - Crowne Plaza Minneapolis North
Maine - Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Maryland - Embassy Suites St. Paul-Downtown
Massachusetts - Crowne Plaza Bloomington
Michigan - The Northland Inn
Minnesota - Hilton Garden Inn St. Paul City Center
Mississippi - Embassy Suites Minneapolis-Airport
Missouri - Ramada Minneapolis Northwest & Water Park
Montana - Best Western Normandy Inn & Suites - Minneapolis
Nebraska - Best Western Normandy Inn & Suites - Minneapolis
Nevada - The Saint Paul Hotel
New Hampshire - Hilton Minneapolis
New Jersey - Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America
New Mexico - Holiday Inn Minneapolis Metrodome
New York - Minneapolis Marriott City Center
Northern Mariana Islands - Country Inn & Suites by Carlson Bloomington at Mall of America
North Carolina - Holiday Inn Minneapolis Metrodome
North Dakota - DoubleTree Guest Suites Minneapolis
Ohio - Radisson Plaza Hotel Minneapolis & The Marquette Hotel
Oklahoma - Four Points by Sheraton Minneapolis
Oregon - La Quinta Inn & Suites Minneapolis Bloomington West
Pennsylvania - Minneapolis Marriott Southwest
Puerto Rico - Courtyard Minneapolis Maple Grove/Arbor Lakes
Rhode Island - Hyatt Place Minneapolis Airport-South
South Carolina - Hilton Minneapolis
South Dakota - Courtyard Minneapolis Maple Grove/Arbor Lakes
Tennessee - Ramada Mall of America
Texas - Crowne Plaza Hotel St. Paul-Riverfront
US Virgin Islands - Radisson University Hotel-Minneapolis
Utah - Sofitel Minneapolis - Bloomington
Vermont - Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Virginia - Radisson University Hotel-Minneapolis
Washington - Crowne Plaza Northstar Minneapolis-Downtown
West Virginia - Crowne Plaza Bloomington
Wisconsin - Minneapolis Marriott City Center
Wyoming - Hilton Garden Inn Minneapolis St. Paul-Shoreview

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Elections and the media

Posted at 12:05 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

At the Science Museum in Minnesota this (Sunday) morning, the political media aristocracy is holding court, discussing the elections and their role in it.

David Brauer is Twittering about it and is providing the salient take-aways.

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The raid: Part II

Posted at 12:28 PM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

Here's some more video and a few interviews with those inside the St. Paul house that was raided by police on Saturday.

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MSP 1 Denver 1

Posted at 11:58 AM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

You can probably tell, I'm keeping score between Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The locals won last night's competition between media parties.

But Denver has tied it in today's "convention inflation" competition. Coke Zero at Pepsi Center: $1. At Xcel Energy Center: $3.50.

Next up in the competition: Actually holding the convention.

(h/t: John Nicholson)

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Inside Xcel

Posted at 11:48 AM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

MPR's John Nicholson (he's the guy who keeps all the computers and technology humming) has put his iPhone to good use over the last week or so.

Here's a shot he took of the floor of the Xcel on Sunday morning. I'm not sure what that's a picture of, but it appears very unMinnesota.

Somewhere on that floor, perhaps, someone is making a decision whether this convention will even take place. President Bush and VP Cheney are both skipping the convention (I'm still pouring through the history books to find out the last time a Republican president didn't address his party's national convention). The Republican ticket is in New Orleans, where a natural disaster is in the making. They're still scheduled to be in St. Paul this week, where -- if the convention is delayed -- an economic disaster is brewing.

A decision is expected within a few hours. Gov. Pawlenty says it can't be canceled, but will probably have a "less celebratory" tone.

Here's another shot:

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Educating the visitors

Posted at 10:54 AM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

You don't have to actually go in to the Twin Cities to follow the experiences of delegates and visitors. Many of them are blogging the convention.

It's an entertaining way to find out what they think about us and our state.

Here's one today from a delegate from Virginia, who is also the chief of state staff to that state's governor.

Events include everything from a fashion show supporting the Komen cancer foundation to a jazz luncheon with Pat Boone to a concert with Five for Fighting to a cruise on the Mississippi River (I didn't know it went to Minnesota either) to a meet and greet with Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson to a reception at Nye's Polannaise Room, which was recently voted the best bar in America (Yes, I will definitely attend that one). This is in addition to the dozens of events hosted by and for Republican officials and dignitaries.

(Forehead slap)

Minnesotans, you've got some serious work to do this week educating our visitors.

Or perhaps not, as this blogger from Tennessee has accurately assessed our Minnesota niceness:

Everything is very green, the air remarkably clean and fresh, and lakes and rivers seem to be ubiquitous. I'm not sure if it's just the RNC being here this week or if this is commonplace, but the level of hospitality that we have experienced thus far rivals Southern hospitality. I'm not sure if I can give a higher compliment than that.

As long as we can keep him from experiencing the art of merging on Minnesota highways, we should be OK with this one.

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The CNN Grill

Posted at 10:00 AM on August 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Famed St. Paul blogger, photographer, and Realtor Teresa Boardman was kind enough to send along this photo of the former Eagle St. Grille, which has been bought for the week by CNN for its CNN Grill. For the week, this spot becomes the place everyone tries to get into, since -- apparently -- it validates them as the powerful people (in the eyes of CNN) they want to be.

Next week, you can get in for half-angst.

In Denver, CNN couldn't possibly have asked for a better location: Inside the security perimeter of Pepsi Center, and right next to the long line waiting to get inside.

On Friday, the morning after the convention ended, workers were already repainting a bright red iron fence from its CNN-red to whatever-the-name-of-the-joint-was olive. (It is actually a restaurant called Brooklyn's)

(h/t: John Nicholson)

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Minneapolis-St. Paul 1 Denver 0

Posted at 10:35 PM on August 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The traditional Saturday-before-the-convention-starts media party at a national political convention is the first opportunity for the host city (or cities in this case) to impress the largest group of attendees -- the media. Last Saturday night, Denver hosted its party at an amusement park.

On Saturday night, the MSP 2008 host committee held its party on a plaza between the Guthrie Theater and the Mill City Museum. The reviews? The Twin Cities wins. "Bad beer and bad food" one wag told me of the Denver party. There were no such comments about the Twin Cities' showing. Without the traditional media partner, the committee was able to pull together Minnesota restaurants and specialty food shops, in an impressive setting.

People like Carolynn Kimmes and Mooraly Baradan, of Edna's Caramels.

With plenty of help from volunteers. There was a concern some months ago that the Twin Cities wouldn't have enough volunteers. In June, they were still 4,000 volunteers shy of their goal. But organizers found plenty. Many, like these three, were hoping to get an assignment inside Xcel Energy Center. No luck. They got stuck with us media. No complaints, mind you, but they all want to do more events in the coming week.

This was also the first chance to see the "low key" police presence for the convention, compared to Denver. There, Secret Service agents in kevlar vests greeted the media. In Minneapolis, there were plenty of police, but they didn't appear ready to stage an assault. Inside the party, the only obvious police officers were Chief Tim Dolan and Deputy Chief Sharon Lubinski.

These kids appear to be the youngest media members at this week's convention...

Hawal Arjiri, Myles Miller and Anna Arena, from New York, are covering the convention for Children's Press Line. Give the link a click; they do some pretty good work, and don't pull any punches.

Here's a few more snapshots...

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Scenes from a raid

Posted at 2:56 PM on August 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, The political conventions

Sara Coffey is a volunteer with the National Lawyers Guild (she's not a lawyer). She's standing handcuffed in the middle of Iglehart Street in St. Paul. The police who surrounded a home there had warned her, she says, that if she tried to leave, she would be detained.

She tried to leave. Listen

Denis Moynihan, of the group, Democracy Now, Free Speech TV, read an e-mail from those inside the house, saying they were (are) "media activists." Moynihan told me he was on his way to the house to pick up a colleague from a group called, Eyewitness Video, when he saw the police.

Listen

The neighbors watched the show, as did a few dozen media activists, posting material to YouTube and various independent Web sites. Curiously, the only mainstream media at the raid were MPR and Al Jazeera. I suppose I've left the door open for an obvious and cliched comment.

After about an hour of waiting, police officials on the scene told the ACLU that a warrant had been signed and would soon be delivered.

Some months ago, City Pages carried a story claiming police and federal officials were looking for people to infiltrate groups coming to St. Paul to protest the Republican National Convention. The raids on the eve of the convention would suggest they had some luck in that effort.

The raids have put the protest groups on their heels. "The problem for us now is the panic this is causing around the area," one organizer told me. "Phones are ringing everywhere, saying 'the police are coming.'"

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Protest groups decry raids, but refuse to answer reporters' questions

Posted at 10:37 AM on August 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The self-styled "anarchists" in St. Paul are positively organized when it comes to stonewalling the media.

A coalition of groups held a news conference at Harriet Island this morning, to protest the raid of their office on Smith Ave., in St. Paul, and several other houses in the metro.

After a series of speeches detailing various allegations against police, I asked a speaker if there was any evidence that law enforcement had infiltrated their organizations.

"Absolutely," said Cheri Honkala, who says she's from Minnesota. She then detailed already-well-documented evidence about infiltrations in 2004. New York spied broadly on the groups well in advance of the Republican convention in New York, the New York Times reported.

"That was 2004, I'm asking about 2008," I said.

As one member of the coalition tried to answer a question, the leader of the group cut him off and announced "The Welcoming Committee will not be answering questions."

Listen

Just prior to that Honkala made an impassioned speech about the importance of the news media in covering a story.

update 2:53 p.m.
A news release from the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office says these items were confiscated during the raid in St. Paul:

Materials used in creating "sleeping dragons" (pvc pipe, chicken wire, duct tape)
Large amounts of urine (including 3 - 5 gallon buckets of urine)
Wrist Rockets
Assorted edged weapons including a machete, hatchet and several throwing knives
Gas mask and filter
Empty glass bottles
Rags
Flammable liquids
Homemade Caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads)
Metal pipes
Axes
Bolt cutters
Sledge hammers
Old tires (for burning)
Repelling equipment
Kryptonite locks
Empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields
Material for protective padding
An army helmet

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We're underway

Posted at 8:37 AM on August 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

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 .

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Denver Diaries: The exodus

Posted at 12:51 PM on August 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

Frontier Airlines put everyone they could at the counter as delegates raced to get out of Denver today. It worked. There were no lines at the check-in counter.

But, it's too much like Disney World. Just as you think, "gee, this isn't so bad," the security line hits.

This was the last test Denver had to pass. Long as it was, the line was less than 15 minutes.

Denver's grade for the convention: A.

Over to you, Minneapolis-St. Paul

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Denver Diaries: The exodus

Posted at 12:51 PM on August 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

Frontier Airlines put everyone they could at the counter as delegates raced to get out of Denver today. It worked. There were no lines at the check-in counter.

But, it's too much like Disney World. Just as you think, "gee, this isn't so bad," the security line hits.

This was the last test Denver had to pass. Long as it was, the line was less than 15 minutes.

Denver's grade for the convention: A.

Over to you, Minneapolis-St. Paul

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Take two

Posted at 12:11 PM on August 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

I hope you enjoyed the News Cut material from Denver. I'm on my way to see if there's any News Cut material from Wichita, and then back to the Twin Cities to start over again (tomorrow?) with the Republican National Convention.

At the end of a national political convention, the big question is always the same: I wonder what happened this week in the real world?

That giant sucking sound you hear is the deflating of the local media's balloon. Sen. McCain didn't pick the Minnesota Guy, and we all lost a good news angle for the week. We're back to chronicling the minute-by-minute thoughts of delegate from Big Lake or Sleepy Eye.

In Denver today, the mayor is -- and justifiably so -- ebullient in his praise for the people of his city. Side note: Those free bikes that were provided during the week were ridden 4,500 miles. He says that's indicative that delegates and visitors were "getting out and visiting the city."

That'll be an interesting thing to track in the Twin Cities: How far outside Minneapolis and St. Paul proper the convention's promised benefits will extend.

Total number of people arrested this week: 152. Can the Twin Cities beat that?

Another question: How do you intend to participate in a national convention in the Twin Cities? As a protester? A volunteer? A visitor? What are you most interested in seeing? Bring your camera, and send me your pictures and your commentary as the week unfolds.

(Above: A News Cut Wordle based on 39 posts from Denver)

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Take two

Posted at 12:11 PM on August 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

I hope you enjoyed the News Cut material from Denver. I'm on my way to see if there's any News Cut material from Wichita, and then back to the Twin Cities to start over again (tomorrow?) with the Republican National Convention.

At the end of a national political convention, the big question is always the same: I wonder what happened this week in the real world?

That giant sucking sound you hear is the deflating of the local media's balloon. Sen. McCain didn't pick the Minnesota Guy, and we all lost a good news angle for the week. We're back to chronicling the minute-by-minute thoughts of delegate from Big Lake or Sleepy Eye.

In Denver today, the mayor is -- and justifiably so -- ebullient in his praise for the people of his city. Side note: Those free bikes that were provided during the week were ridden 4,500 miles. He says that's indicative that delegates and visitors were "getting out and visiting the city."

That'll be an interesting thing to track in the Twin Cities: How far outside Minneapolis and St. Paul proper the convention's promised benefits will extend.

Total number of people arrested this week: 152. Can the Twin Cities beat that?

Another question: How do you intend to participate in a national convention in the Twin Cities? As a protester? A volunteer? A visitor? What are you most interested in seeing? Bring your camera, and send me your pictures and your commentary as the week unfolds.

(Above: A News Cut Wordle based on 39 posts from Denver)

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The Jesus factor

Posted at 8:12 PM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Religion, The political conventions

Away from the glitter and goofy hats of a political convention, you can usually catch a whiff of the things that keep Democrat insiders up at night.

In Denver on Thursday, the "faith caucus" held its first meeting ever, an attempt to bridge a divide within the party over abortion, and prepare for a Republican strategy that markets faith as a GOP virtue.

"It's hard for people to talk about religion," Party Chair Howard Dean told a three-quarters-empty Denver Convention Center ballroom. "We've been people of faith for a long time. We just don't like to talk about it. It matters how you live your values, not what you say on Sunday."

That shot at Republicans was the easy part. When Dean left, the rift within the party over abortion was more apparent.

"I'm a pro-life Democrat and I like to think I'm in a party that has room for me," said Rev. Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, former director of the Congressional Black Caucus. "Nobody should be left outside a party that's called a Democratic Party. I'm proud to stand beside a pro-choice Democrat, but I want you to hear what I have to say. It's saying 'my values matter and you have room for my values that my Bible tells me about.'"

The issue has driven millions of Catholics into the arms of the Republican Party. "The Catholic vote is an important vote," said Dr. Douglas Kmiec of Pepperdine University, a Catholic legal scholar who wrote a Slate Magazine article claiming Obama is a natural choice for Catholics. "It's 25% of the electorate. Catholics have voted for the winning candidate in the last nine presidential elections. They know how to pick a winner."

Kmiec told a Catholic newspaper earlier this week that Barack Obama's position on abortion is "morally unacceptable." But he's still voting for him. "I, too, am pro-life, but that label ... has to be a commitment to all of life, from the moment of conception to the moment of death," he said. His church responded by denying him communion.

Wooing conservative Catholics to the Democratic Party may be a tough sell. It's no coincidence that Obama picked a Catholic -- Joe Biden -- as a running mate. Biden, however, supports legalized abortion in defiance of his church.

An even tougher sell for a party trying to learn how to talk religion is evangelical Christians, a solid Republican voting bloc.

"Younger evangelicals are morally conservative but more socially compassionate than previous generations of evangelicals," according to Cameron Strang, of Relevant Magazine. "They're very pro-life, but this generation has a more holistic view of what it means -- the defense of innocent lives. Not just the unborn, but it includes genocide, unnecessary war, slavery, and abortion."

Strang identified some common ground on the issue of abortion -- adoption reform. "If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, what happens to all of these unwanted children?" he asked. "It costs $25,000 for an adoption. It costs $500 for an abortion. That's messed up."

But Strang this week showed why it will be difficult for Democrats to stand side-by-side with evangelicals. He was to give the benediction at the convention on Monday, but pulled out, citing fears his bridge-building gesture would be misinterpreted.

Little known to outsiders, the Strang name carries weight with evangelicals, especially in the fast-growing charismatic and Pentecostal branches, according to the Chicago Tribune.

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Denver Diaries: Why you won't be able to buy 'McCain in a Bottle' in the Twin Cities

Posted at 1:39 PM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

Michael Harold's plan to get rich has come a cropper.

Harold, who is from Denver, is driving a 10-foot-high Barack-Obama-in-a-Bottle around Denver, staying one step ahead of the police, who don't seem that interested in enforcing the fact he doesn't have a license to sell the smaller $19.95 versions.

Harold also has a few thousand McCain-in-a-Bottles but no way to sell them in St. Paul.

His brother-in-law, who let him borrow the pick-up truck, needs it back.

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Denver Diaries: Why you won't be able to buy 'McCain in a Bottle' in the Twin Cities

Posted at 1:39 PM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

Michael Harold's plan to get rich has come a cropper.

Harold, who is from Denver, is driving a 10-foot-high Barack-Obama-in-a-Bottle around Denver, staying one step ahead of the police, who don't seem that interested in enforcing the fact he doesn't have a license to sell the smaller $19.95 versions.

Harold also has a few thousand McCain-in-a-Bottles but no way to sell them in St. Paul.

His brother-in-law, who let him borrow the pick-up truck, needs it back.

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Denver Diaries: The State Fair has nothing on downtown Denver

Posted at 10:19 AM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

If you're looking for something to do during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul next week, create a fictitious cause and then go out and try to attract attention. You will.

The Miami Herald's Dave Barry writes about his and Star Tribune's James Lileks' encounter with people who were protesting bird porn.

Even though many appear to be playing with less than a full deck, you have to admire the commitment some of these people have to their cause -- even if few of us can actually figure out what the cause is, or determine whether it's a real passion or someone is just having a good time; not that it matters this week.

Walking (that's right, walking, and not talking on my cellphone or texting like everyone else) back to downtown from Pepsi Center yesterday, I encountered Art, from Heartland, Wisconsin, who was dressed in black with a cow-themed tie. I didn't take a picture of him because I was afraid he would actually talk to me.

"Who do you write for?" he asked. Curses, my plan didn't work.

"Holstein Today," I said, waiting to see if he'd laugh, a sign of some sanity.

He didn't laugh, but showed an amazing talent to walk and make his pitch at the same time.

He apparently has put together a book of Barack Obama quotes and has come here with two other people with the goal of distributing 50,000 of the books, which require you to download it from the Web site. According to the Web site, 386 people have downloaded it so far.

So close.

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Denver Diaries: The State Fair has nothing on downtown Denver

Posted at 10:19 AM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

If you're looking for something to do during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul next week, create a fictitious cause and then go out and try to attract attention. You will.

The Miami Herald's Dave Barry writes about his and Star Tribune's James Lileks' encounter with people who were protesting bird porn.

Even though many appear to be playing with less than a full deck, you have to admire the commitment some of these people have to their cause -- even if few of us can actually figure out what the cause is, or determine whether it's a real passion or someone is just having a good time; not that it matters this week.

Walking (that's right, walking, and not talking on my cellphone or texting like everyone else) back to downtown from Pepsi Center yesterday, I encountered Art, from Heartland, Wisconsin, who was dressed in black with a cow-themed tie. I didn't take a picture of him because I was afraid he would actually talk to me.

"Who do you write for?" he asked. Curses, my plan didn't work.

"Holstein Today," I said, waiting to see if he'd laugh, a sign of some sanity.

He didn't laugh, but showed an amazing talent to walk and make his pitch at the same time.

He apparently has put together a book of Barack Obama quotes and has come here with two other people with the goal of distributing 50,000 of the books, which require you to download it from the Web site. According to the Web site, 386 people have downloaded it so far.

So close.

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On unity

Posted at 9:23 AM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

According to Rasmussen Reports today, 74% of those surveyed say the convention has them united.

If 1 out of ever four Democrats says he/she is not on board with Obama (or don't know if they're on board with Obama), doesn't that mean they're not united?

Consulting dictionary.com on united:

1. made into or caused to act as a single entity: a united front.
2. formed or produced by the uniting of things or persons: a united effort.
3. agreed; in harmony.

Three out of four Democrats aren't behind the Democratic nominee? That's the kind of unity that loses elections.

In the last presidential election, John Kerry had 89% of the Democratic vote, and still lost.

Discuss.

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Denver Diaries: Bikes and guitars

Posted at 9:47 AM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

In a comment attached to another post, a News Cutter writes:

Looks like you were up pretty late for a man of your age. On a lighter note, there was a brief story about all the bikes (the pedal kind) that are scattered around Denver for people to use. I understand we may have some around St. Paul too. Have you used or have you seen people using the bikes? It would be interesting to see how much this project really mattered. I understand the bikes had gauges for miles and calories etc.

Here's a picture I took of the main location yesterday:

Business was pretty brisk and the majority of the bikes seem to have been dispatched. Denver appears to be very bike friendly and very skateboard friendly. As near as I can tell, most of those grabbing the bikes are locals.

I've never been to Denver before. It's hot in the sun and the altitude certainly takes some getting used to. A walk up a few stairs at the light-rail station requires a moment's rest, although that may have more to do with your first sentence.

Next to the bike corral, however, is the place where -- if I had a choice and a large trust fund to carry me through my unemployment years -- I'd spend the whole week.

A giant Guitar Hero location:

It's put on by the Rock the Vote people. While you're waiting, you can have your caricature drawn. It features huge speakers, and a large video screen. There were no lines when I went by, but that may have more to do with the fact they stuck the thing out in direct sunlight.

I'm hoping this thing makes its way to the Twin Cities. Perhaps by then I will have worked up the courage to give it a go.

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Denver Diaries: Bikes and guitars

Posted at 9:47 AM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

In a comment attached to another post, a News Cutter writes:

Looks like you were up pretty late for a man of your age. On a lighter note, there was a brief story about all the bikes (the pedal kind) that are scattered around Denver for people to use. I understand we may have some around St. Paul too. Have you used or have you seen people using the bikes? It would be interesting to see how much this project really mattered. I understand the bikes had gauges for miles and calories etc.

Here's a picture I took of the main location yesterday:

Business was pretty brisk and the majority of the bikes seem to have been dispatched. Denver appears to be very bike friendly and very skateboard friendly. As near as I can tell, most of those grabbing the bikes are locals.

I've never been to Denver before. It's hot in the sun and the altitude certainly takes some getting used to. A walk up a few stairs at the light-rail station requires a moment's rest, although that may have more to do with your first sentence.

Next to the bike corral, however, is the place where -- if I had a choice and a large trust fund to carry me through my unemployment years -- I'd spend the whole week.

A giant Guitar Hero location:

It's put on by the Rock the Vote people. While you're waiting, you can have your caricature drawn. It features huge speakers, and a large video screen. There were no lines when I went by, but that may have more to do with the fact they stuck the thing out in direct sunlight.

I'm hoping this thing makes its way to the Twin Cities. Perhaps by then I will have worked up the courage to give it a go.

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Denver Diaries: The people have spoken

Posted at 12:07 AM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The most e-mailed stories on Web sites can tell us a lot about what people think is interesting. They can be a reality check.

How closely is Denver following the convention? Here's the most-emailed list on the Rocky Mountain News Web site at the moment:

At the Denver Post, readers appear to be interested in some peripheral parts of the convention...

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What's up with cameras?

Posted at 12:34 AM on August 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

If the Minneapolis police are already nervous about people taking their pictures -- and the stories Tim Nelson has uncovered suggest they are -- it might not be a bad idea for everyone to get comfortable with the idea soon.

This week, I've taken more pictures of cops and security that at any other previous convention. On several, I expected a warning not to take a picture. It never came. That doesn't mean that some Denver cops aren't losing it, though.

One ABC News photographer and reporter was detained for photographing some senators and big-money supporters, according to ABC. Many of these incidents seem to happen where there isn't that much of a threat.

A more typical scene is described in a Boulder newspaper about a parade that occurred on Wednesday:

Horse-mounted police and hundreds of officers standing in full riot gear, with batons at the ready, looked on, took some verbal abuse in stride and allowed the non-permitted event to take its course.

(Aside: The paper embellishes the size of the crowd. I met this protest parade, ducked one block down to use an ATM machine and in the time it took me to make a fastcash withdrawal -- $40 if you must know -- the parade had passed.)

Many of the Denver residents I've talked to this week have been unnerved by the sheer size of the police force here. Who wouldn't be? At the same time, however, it's generally clear that the security forces have been well counseled on what to expect, and the need to keep calm. The officers, too, are experiencing an attention that they've likely never encountered before either.

Will the Twin Cities be able to say the same thing a week from now?

This much is fact: There are going to be more cameras trained per second on the cops for five days than they've seen in their accumulated lifetimes.

Local officials tried to get the Republican convention to Minneapolis - St. Paul as a marketing tool for the region, to enhance the Twin Cities' image.

Let's take a look at how that's going so far:

Minneapolis

Denver

(Taken by Nikki Tundel on the 16th Ave. mall on Wednesday night.)

Save this link. Next week, if you are told not to take a picture, drop me a line with the particulars. But be mindful of this one tip: If the police ask you to do something next week, you probably should do it. Security forces in Denver, while courteous, are in no mood to discuss principles, or negotiate alternatives. The early evidence suggests the same will hold true in the Twin Cities.

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The 15,000

Posted at 11:27 PM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The Columbia Journalism Review has a hysterical piece that chronicles the 15,000 journalists who are here.

14,000 are wearing terrible suits
4,021 are smuggling bad-mouthing the convention
500 don't have credentials but are trying desperately to get them.
150 are in the CNN grill

He left out "fixing their hair" (see above). It appears to be all TV hosts know how to do when the camera isn't on.

(H/t: Sasha Aslanian)

The article is an enjoyable read. But a serious comment attached to it makes a stab at more serious endeavors.

The problem with such tiring criticism of the national political conventions is that it comes from critics who simply don't understand what really happens there every four years. The conventions are about a lot more than just nominating a president, selecting a vice president and adopting a platform to get them elected. National political conventions are about change. The real lasting changes take place off the convention floor, out of the camera lens' range, in each state caucus, rump session and hospitality suite. Tomorrow's leaders grab the reins, yesterday's fade into history. Ideas are exchanged between state and local government officials who learn proven new ways to solve their problems. New courses are charted at the state, county and city levels. That's what most of the reporters assigned to cover these gatherings of the nation's political leaders and volunteers are doing in Denver and will be doing in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Too bad the talking heads don't understand that.

I haven't been tagging along with the Minnesotans -- we've got plenty of reporters here to do that -- but a glance bears witness to the rising powers in the DFL. Names like Tarryl Clark, R.T. Rybak, Patricia Torres Ray contrast with the names from the 1996 convention in Chicago -- Paul Wellstone, Roger Moe, Skip Humphrey. If you're in the mood for a trip down whatever-happened-to-him lane, sift through the 1996 election story archive.

Useless convention trivia - A vice presidential candidate automatically becomes the person-to-beat to succeed the person at the top of the ticket if elected. Joe Biden will be 74 in 2016 -- two years older than Sen. John McCain is now.

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Walking away from history

Posted at 3:55 PM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

I wonder if Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address was as good in person as it reads on paper?

I didn't watch Hillary Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention last night because I don't really like convention speeches as delivered. They're full of applause lines and rehearsed spontaneity.

But take the same speech and read it off a printed page later, and the beauty of the writing shines, regardless of whether you agree with their meaning.

So today I picked up a copy of the transcript of her speech at the convention press office, and read it on the light-rail ride back to the hotel. I'm sure it was powerfully delivered, but I'll bet it was more powerfully written.

Here's the line that I found compelling in its simplicity:

"My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election year my daughter got to vote for her mother for president."

Forget about Obama vs. Clinton and Obama vs. McCain for a second and let's ponder this pretty powerful point.

Today, Sen. Clinton released her delegates so they can vote for Barack Obama in a show of unity. In the end, they'll nominate Obama by acclimation in the belief that such an action will somehow make a difference to someone who isn't strutting about Denver this week.

Sen. Clinton, whether you agree with her or not, has done something over the last two years that no other woman in history has done -- she came close to being nominated to run for president by her (major) party.

Now the discussion I hope you'll have here: Pretend you're a delegate pledged to Mrs. Clinton. You've worked for two years and you believe her accomplishment is as meaningful as that vote her daughter got to cast for her. You're at the end of the road and you have one opportunity to tell your grandchildren that you did something particularly meaningful in the history of the country's politics.

How can you not cast that vote?

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How to be a political convention volunteer

Posted at 4:05 PM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

I know a lot of you in the Twin Cities are planning to volunteer during the Republican National Convention. You've probably had some sort of training, but perhaps you're still unsure just how you're supposed to act.

The News Cut School of Political Convention Volunteering is now in session. Everyone quiet down, we have a special guest with us today.

Jim Felder of Yellow Springs, Ohio was spending last winter in South Carolina when he saw Barack Obama speak at his alma mater. "We should try to go to the convention," he said to his wife. "We should go as volunteers."

So they drove to Denver from Ohio this week and stopped at a volunteer center. He was assigned the task of going out on the street, handing out maps of the city and being nice to people.

He's good at it.

And you can be, too. Just watch this:

Remember: This course is pass-fail. The final is next week.

Class dismissed.

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Denver Diaries: Reporter Romney

Posted at 10:07 AM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

Being a "credential challenged" member of the media (the DNC insisted it couldn't give arena credentials to all the media), I was intrigued by the above photo, which appeared this morning on the front page of the Denver Post.

Let's look closer...

Oh really, governor? Press? You couldn't get your own credential? And who was the very important member of the media who gave up his/her access for you?

I'm betting I'll be posting more stories today than Mitt Romney. From outside Pepsi Center, of course.

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Denver Diaries: How retail ramps up

Posted at 3:01 PM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

The following dispatch comes from my colleague Nikki Tundel

The Denver Police Department isn't the only organization bringing in back-up from around the state. Walgreen's is also supplementing its staff with muscle from beyond the capital city.

I stopped in one of the chain's downtown stores and was promptly greeted by seven employees, all in matching blue shirts. There were at total of 27 employees working the floor. Given that workers outnumbered customers, most of the staff members were busy straightening the packages of toilet paper and rearranging the rows of air fresheners. (I will admit that the place looked great.)

Not only did Walgreen's recruit additional staff, it also decided to hawk some political merchandise, right along side the bags of beef jerky and boxes of hair dye. The store was offering convention T-shirts, shot glasses, water bottles and Pez dispensers. Plus, it was selling electronic dolls of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama. All three sing and wiggle around when you squeeze their hands.

That's all well and good. But, according to one manager, the biggest seller this week has been tobacco.

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Denver Diaries: How retail ramps up

Posted at 3:01 PM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

The following dispatch comes from my colleague Nikki Tundel

The Denver Police Department isn't the only organization bringing in back-up from around the state. Walgreen's is also supplementing its staff with muscle from beyond the capital city.

I stopped in one of the chain's downtown stores and was promptly greeted by seven employees, all in matching blue shirts. There were at total of 27 employees working the floor. Given that workers outnumbered customers, most of the staff members were busy straightening the packages of toilet paper and rearranging the rows of air fresheners. (I will admit that the place looked great.)

Not only did Walgreen's recruit additional staff, it also decided to hawk some political merchandise, right along side the bags of beef jerky and boxes of hair dye. The store was offering convention T-shirts, shot glasses, water bottles and Pez dispensers. Plus, it was selling electronic dolls of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama. All three sing and wiggle around when you squeeze their hands.

That's all well and good. But, according to one manager, the biggest seller this week has been tobacco.

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Live-blogging Midmorning: The young voter analyzed

Posted at 8:05 AM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (16 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

(It's a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call for MPR's Midmorning staff. Producers Nancy Lebens and Chris Dall prepare for today's show hours before broadcast time. Kerri Miller is working in the background)

I'm live-blogging Midmorning today from (9-9:45 a.m. CT). We're talking about the youth vote and we'd like to put your views on the air. During the session on election reform the other day, it was fascinating how much of the effort is tied to the young voter. Why? Because the young voter isn't as committed to voting, according to research. They're impatient, they move faster in the world, and if the voting process doesn't go smoothly, they'll move on and go do something else.

And yet, the political parties are courting the youth vote.

If you have a view to share with the world, type it up below. Because Midmorning this week is being broadcast in several markets, it would be great if you'd indicate where you're from.

Our guests are: Molly Andolina, associate professor of political science at DePaul University; Robert Biko Baker, executive director of the League of Young Voters;
Justin Rockefeller, political activist, and co-founder and National Program Director of Generation Engage; and you.

9:05 a.m. - I'm listening to Kerri and the guests talking off-air. "How long are we on for?" one of the guests asks. "About 40 minutes," Kerri says. "Wow! Thorough," came the reply.

9:10 a.m. - Justin says "this time around is different" regarding the youth voter. We were told it would make a difference in '04; it didn't. He says New York is one of the places where it's difficult to get young people to turn out.

Minnesota is one of the places where young people do turn out. Baker says same-day registration is one of the reasons for that.

Molly Andolina says young people have never turned out since 1972 (that would be me!). Young people are more likely to move around, and less likely to be involved in their communities. The gap in voter participation between young people and old people grew widest for Generation X in the '80s but they closed the gap in '04.

9:15 a.m. Good comments already. Social networking is the way to ground young people into the community. So that has to show up this year at the polls if true, right? I was walking down the street yesterday marveling at all of the people who were disengaged from where they were. They were all texting or on the phone. Maybe a young person's definition of community isn't geographic. Maybe their community is their "friends on the other end of the message."

9:17 a.m. - Baker says peer-to-peer networking is the best way to increase voter participation. "We sent African Americans into Latino neighborhoods and it didn't work," he said.

"This generation needs authenticity; they've been marketed to since birth. They don't want a politician or a musical person telling them who to vote for," Andolina says.

9:21 - Krissy from New York City says, "you know how you can put signs in your yard? They have the same thing on Facebook and everytime your friend joins a group, a sign pops up that says 'your friend is supporting Obama.'

"It works," Baker says. "This is the 21st century and the tools we use right now are going to be used for the next 20-30 years."

9:23 a.m. - Rockefeller says face-to-face is still going to be important, "because young people want to get out and socialize."

9:25 a.m. - Andolina says the current generation is more willing to sacrifice and represents the new "greatest generation." We've got to discussion that. Where's the evidence that the young generation is willing to sacrifice to the degree that the World War II generation did, as Andolina seemed to suggest?

9:28 a.m. - Rockefeller says the war is "not in the abstract" for young people and remains an issue. Biko Baker says the economy and college debt (he has $140,000 in college debt.Is that usual?) are main issues.

9:35 a.m. - "This generation volunteers more than any previous generation," Rockefeller says. I need to start seeing some data on some of these generational comparisons.

9:37 a.m. - I want to go back to something Andolina said. "Authenticity." There's almost nothing authentic about politics. This convention is a perfect example. Maybe one of the reasons young people don't engage more, is that they think politics is fake. Comments?

9:42 a.m. - A good exchange between a caller and Rockefeller. "Obama looks like change, but is he change?" The caller, a 16 year old, says she's seeing much more interest in school in politics than before.

9:44 a.m. - Here's a link that a guest just mentioned. Generation Vote.

Here's the link for Generation Engage.

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Security at the convention

Posted at 12:31 AM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

These are delegates and dignitaries arriving around 8 p.m. (9 Twin Cities time) at Pepsi Center, to see Hillary Clinton speak. I love the expression of the woman on the right. She just saw this...

It was a heck of a line to get through security. It didn't seem to be moving very fast and I wasn't certain people would get into the center in time to hear Clinton speak. But they did.

Where would this fit around Xcel Center? It feels to me as though the perimeters and various security zones are farther away from the arena than what's planned for St. Paul, although I can't prove it.

A bridge over a small river is where the delegate buses come in. I don't know why there's a tent over it. Perhaps there's some secret scanning equipment in there they don't want us to see. More likely: It's really hot out in the sun.

Here's where the traffic is detoured. I'd guess that if this were downtown St. Paul, this spot is about the same distance from the Pepsi Center as the MPR News Cut World Headquarters is from Xcel Energy Center.

On the other side of that spot, life goes on. People are out on the 16th Avenue mall (a much larger Nicollet Mall). Getting into restaurants is no problem.

There's no way St. Paul competes with this shopping area, by the way. Plenty of shops, plenty of restaurants. Hamm's Plaza is cute and all but one brew pub, a Jimmy John's, a Walgreen's and a closed movie house doesn't cut it in the competition.

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Denver Diaries: 'Radar' jumps the Obama ship

Posted at 11:06 AM on August 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Last night I decided the line to get into Pepsi Center was too long for my taste, so I strolled around downtown Denver, just to see what interesting people might be around.

I stopped into a McDonald's for a bite to eat and ran across this distinguished gentleman and his wife. I saw he had a delegate tag on.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "All the action is down at Pepsi Center and you're a delegate."

"I was down there but needed to come back for some medicine," he said.

I asked him where he's from. He's from Iowa. We then talked about a few more things, including the fact I'm from neighboring Minnesota and eventually I asked him where in Iowa he lives.

"Ottumwa," he said.

"You know what I'm going to ask you now, right?" I said.

He stuck out his hand and said, "I'm Radar."

He is, in fact, Don Shaffer (and his wife is Pat). And he is the person on whom the character of Radar O'Reilly was based in the book that later became the movie and TV series M*A*S*H. Richard Hornberger (who took the name Richard Hooker) thinly disguised the characters in the book as soldiers who served with him in an Army field hospital in Pyongyang, Korea. Shaffer was company clerk and a chaplain assistant. When the unit had to "bug out" to escape the advancing Chinese, Shaffer had to drive two USO members. One was Joe DiMaggio.

He told me the real "Hot Lips" Hoolihan was "much more beautiful than Ms. Swit," and that the soldier on whom Klinger was based was gay (and was named Springer), but it was the Army that was trying to throw him out , while he wanted to stay in the service.

He served in both Korea and Vietnam and -- after concluding his service in intelligence work -- became a professor of history and political science.

Shaffer said he was always interested in politics. He hitch hiked to Des Moines in the '40s to see Thomas Dewey and Harry Truman open their campaign offices.

And now here he was, sitting in a McDonald's in Denver, another Hillary Clinton delegate who won't vote for Barack Obama. He says he didn't like what he said the Obama forces did in Iowa's caucuses, taking advantage of the state's same-day voter registration rule to pack the caucuses. "Many of them were Republicans and you'll never see them again," he said.

As precinct captain, he tried to get the other Clinton supporters in Ottumwa to support Obama. None would. "I won't vote for John McCain," he told me.

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Denver Diaries: 'How do you like us?'

Posted at 11:04 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

If you're a civic-minded resident of the Twin Cities, you can probably relate to Seana Gates, left, and Kathleen McIntee, right. I met them Tuesday evening while navigating the obstacle course to get from Denver's light-rail system to the Pepsi Center. They had two passes into the hall courtesy of Kathleen's company. They were on their way to see Hillary Clinton speak.

But Kathleen didn't want to talk about that. She wanted to know what I thought of Denver, a common question I've gotten as I ride the rails this week. People here clearly love their city and they want us out-of-towners to like it, too.

She admits to being nervous this week that things wouldn't go off exactly as planned. She's holding her breath that nothing will go wrong. So far. So good. Denver is getting high marks.

With just a few days to go before the start of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, many volunteers and residents of the area are holding their breath, too. Are we interesting enough? Is there enough to do? Will delegates like us?

Like just about every other Denver-area resident I've talked with this week, Kathleen has Minnesota ties, too. She's lived here for 35 years, after being tossed out of the College of St. Benedict "for fooling around too much." She has family in the Cities and North Dakota.

Later in the evening, I talked to two other Denver residents on the train. One has lived here all of his life. The other moved here from Massachusetts years ago. Both say the best thing about Denver is the climate, a near universal reason.

And the obligatory Minnesota link? One just sent his son off to Mankato State. "He's found a true love and has followed her to Minnesota," he said. "The winter will test that

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Denver Diaries: 'How do you like us?'

Posted at 11:04 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

If you're a civic-minded resident of the Twin Cities, you can probably relate to Seana Gates, left, and Kathleen McIntee, right. I met them Tuesday evening while navigating the obstacle course to get from Denver's light-rail system to the Pepsi Center. They had two passes into the hall courtesy of Kathleen's company. They were on their way to see Hillary Clinton speak.

But Kathleen didn't want to talk about that. She wanted to know what I thought of Denver, a common question I've gotten as I ride the rails this week. People here clearly love their city and they want us out-of-towners to like it, too.

She admits to being nervous this week that things wouldn't go off exactly as planned. She's holding her breath that nothing will go wrong. So far. So good. Denver is getting high marks.

With just a few days to go before the start of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, many volunteers and residents of the area are holding their breath, too. Are we interesting enough? Is there enough to do? Will delegates like us?

Like just about every other Denver-area resident I've talked with this week, Kathleen has Minnesota ties, too. She's lived here for 35 years, after being tossed out of the College of St. Benedict "for fooling around too much." She has family in the Cities and North Dakota.

Later in the evening, I talked to two other Denver residents on the train. One has lived here all of his life. The other moved here from Massachusetts years ago. Both say the best thing about Denver is the climate, a near universal reason.

And the obligatory Minnesota link? One just sent his son off to Mankato State. "He's found a true love and has followed her to Minnesota," he said. "The winter will test that

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Instigation of police-protester clash is unclear

Posted at 3:36 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The Recreate '68 protest organization has put out an "action call," trying to get people to call the mayor and governor's office in Denver to protest a clash between police and protesters on Monday evening.

What led up to the "small riot" is not entirely clear.

According to Glenn Spagnuolo, one of the organizers, "the incident last night started around 5:30pm, when heavily-armed police in SWAT gear began making random sweeps through Civic Center Park, harassing people sitting in the grass by poking them with nightsticks and telling them to get up and leave."

According to the time stamp on my camera (and audio recorder), this was the scene in the park at 5:41 p.m., about 10 minutes after I arrived.

All appears relatively calm. Five minutes after this, I did see a patrol of about 8 cops walking through the park, but I didn't see them taking any action against anyone.

At 5:39 p.m., I took a picture of this singer on the "main stage..."

But he sang to a generally disinterested audience...

On a Web site, the group posts this picture of the incident...

That's the state Capitol across the street. And I was walking by that location around 6:10 and the police I saw were sitting under trees.

The release continues...

I'd spent most of the afternoon in this location, and according to my cellphone, I called my wife from about a block away (within view) at 6:02 p.m.

That the incident happened is unarguable. Democracy Now has video and plenty of interviews with people (although the time of the film is unclear since it was dark). Sunset in Denver last night was 7:41 p.m. And Democracy Now's Amy Goodman said the problems started after 7, not at 5:30.

Video from ABC News -- also taken after dark -- shows some protesters getting in the faces of the police.

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Denver Diaries: Tuesday's traffic report

Posted at 1:59 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Here's your midday traffic report from Denver as we attempt to project the impact the Republican convention will have on our ability to get around next week.

Here's the afternoon situation around the Colorado Capitol, a stone's throw from the downtown convention center.

It doesn't appear traffic is a major problem yet.

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Denver Diaries: A day at Invesco

Posted at 1:40 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

MPR's information technology expert John Nicholson provides today's construction update from Invesco Field:

And engaged in a little star gazing while he was at it, capturing Anderson Cooper with who we believe to be Ratt.

Here, Cooper appears to be asking for a ride back to his hotel.

I don't really know who Ratt is, but, John, if you want to hang out there for a few days until Bruce Springsteen shows up, that'd be OK with me.

Holding the final night of the convention at Invesco Field is a big gamble, the Wall Street Journal reported today. There's so much money being poured into this that a rainstorm could ruin the entire convention for the Obama campaign.

However, the forecast says after some thunderstorms this afternoon, the hot weather will disappear and a cool front -- I'll defer to the Colorado people to tell me what constitutes cool in August in Colorado -- will settle in for the week and provide a more desirable backdrop on Thursday.

Update 1:55 p.m. MT - Colleague Steve Mullis says (in the comments section) these are the cast of The Daily Show, and -- in fact -- now that he mentions it, even I recognize Rob Riggle, the one guy remaining besides Jon Stewart and John Hodgman who still makes me laugh.

Nicholson provides a better photo:

Now I'm worried about Ratt? Where's Ratt?

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Denver Diaries: A day at Invesco

Posted at 1:40 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

MPR's information technology expert John Nicholson provides today's construction update from Invesco Field:

And engaged in a little star gazing while he was at it, capturing Anderson Cooper with who we believe to be Ratt.

Here, Cooper appears to be asking for a ride back to his hotel.

I don't really know who Ratt is, but, John, if you want to hang out there for a few days until Bruce Springsteen shows up, that'd be OK with me.

Holding the final night of the convention at Invesco Field is a big gamble, the Wall Street Journal reported today. There's so much money being poured into this that a rainstorm could ruin the entire convention for the Obama campaign.

However, the forecast says after some thunderstorms this afternoon, the hot weather will disappear and a cool front -- I'll defer to the Colorado people to tell me what constitutes cool in August in Colorado -- will settle in for the week and provide a more desirable backdrop on Thursday.

Update 1:55 p.m. MT - Colleague Steve Mullis says (in the comments section) these are the cast of The Daily Show, and -- in fact -- now that he mentions it, even I recognize Rob Riggle, the one guy remaining besides Jon Stewart and John Hodgman who still makes me laugh.

Nicholson provides a better photo:

Now I'm worried about Ratt? Where's Ratt?

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On probable cause

Posted at 11:37 AM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

I don't know if Denver authorities uncovered an actual assassination plot against Barack Obama when they arrested three men in suburban Aurora. Two were picked up in what police say was a "routine traffic stop" (there are so many cops being deployed downtown, that I'm not convinced there are routine traffic stops being made by the few officers left to make them.)

Was it really just luck that they happened to stop a car with rifles in it, and were led to a hotel, where a third man tried to jump out of a sixth-story window to get away?

One of the men was interviewed on local TV today and when asked if his colleagues could kill Obama, he paused for a long time and said, "I don't want to say 'yes,' and I don't want to say 'no.'"

The threat sure looked credible. If it was just the luck of a "routine traffic stop," that's pretty frightening. If it's because somehow, someway, the cops "just know," that's a little disconcerting, too.

These lads ran out of luck today.

Somehow, some way, the police knew that the boys had a couple of cases of spraypaint and other paraphernalia in their car. How?

If it's just a matter of luck, then perhaps there's the threat of the erosion of probable cause as police stop and detain more people. The more people you detain, the greater the likelihood you'll get lucky.

There's a little bit of evidence that 's the approach being taken in St. Paul. Last week, my colleague, Tim Nelson, revealed several circumstances in which people were -- at least momentarily -- detained for no apparent reason other than they were on a public way at the wrong time.

Today, three "independent journalists" were detained by Minneapolis police and questioned about their reporting plans, according to a spokesperson for a group, Glass Bead Collective.

If Denver is any indication, finding out probable cause or finding out how the police knew who to stop is going to be a critical question in the Twin Cities. And, surely, there'll be a discussion about the balance of individual rights vs. the need to protect society.

What's your opinion?

Update 4:45 p.m. Law enforcement officials say the Aurora arrest was not a credible threat. They were apparently tipped off by an unidentified woman. Authorities said those arrested were heavily into methamphetamines.

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Denver Diaries: Confrontations on cue

Posted at 12:39 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

I was standing on a corner in Denver Monday afternoon when a confrontation headed toward me. Or it sounded like a confrontation. It turned out to be one guy with a very loud voice playing to the cameras as he berated Michele Malkin.

This is her in the front, trying to make a dignified getaway from the horde. She's a conservative blogger and Fox News commentator.

She was followed by 10-20 YouTubers and this guy...

... who had a remarkable ability to appear to be on the verge of physical assault and repeatedly give the full URL of his Web site.

She disappeared, he calmed down on cue and the throng disappeared.

A newspaper story from Ft. Collins documented it for history.

... Today it was radical Alex Jones, from the group 9/11 Truth, which believes that the September 11 terrorist attacks were planned by the U.S. government, verbally confronting Michelle Malkin, a conservative columnist and Fox News contributor.

"You support torture. Shame on you, you fascist piece of trash," Jones yelled. He also accused Malkin of supporting the U.S. Marines when they drown puppies.

Malkin found an ally in Recreate 68's Sanchez, who pushed his way into the crowd of TV cameras to yell at Jones: "Michelle Malkin is a true patriot!"

Sanchez later said he had no idea why Jones was attending the protest and added that Recreate 68 does not support Jones' ideas. He added that although they strongly disagree with her views, Recreate 68 supports Malkin's right to free speech.

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Denver Diaries: Confrontations on cue

Posted at 12:39 PM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

I was standing on a corner in Denver Monday afternoon when a confrontation headed toward me. Or it sounded like a confrontation. It turned out to be one guy with a very loud voice playing to the cameras as he berated Michele Malkin.

This is her in the front, trying to make a dignified getaway from the horde. She's a conservative blogger and Fox News commentator.

She was followed by 10-20 YouTubers and this guy...

... who had a remarkable ability to appear to be on the verge of physical assault and repeatedly give the full URL of his Web site.

She disappeared, he calmed down on cue and the throng disappeared.

A newspaper story from Ft. Collins documented it for history.

... Today it was radical Alex Jones, from the group 9/11 Truth, which believes that the September 11 terrorist attacks were planned by the U.S. government, verbally confronting Michelle Malkin, a conservative columnist and Fox News contributor.

"You support torture. Shame on you, you fascist piece of trash," Jones yelled. He also accused Malkin of supporting the U.S. Marines when they drown puppies.

Malkin found an ally in Recreate 68's Sanchez, who pushed his way into the crowd of TV cameras to yell at Jones: "Michelle Malkin is a true patriot!"

Sanchez later said he had no idea why Jones was attending the protest and added that Recreate 68 does not support Jones' ideas. He added that although they strongly disagree with her views, Recreate 68 supports Malkin's right to free speech.

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Denver Diaries: The right to privacy among 15,000 cameras

Posted at 9:30 AM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

MPR's Elizabeth Stawicki reported last week on an effort by the ACLU to train attorneys to help out during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul next week. The effort seems to focus on making sure due process is followed once any protesters are arrested.

In Denver, I got a look at a similar effort, only this one provides legal representation and assistance when dealing with the biggest show of force in Denver -- the media.

A cameraman from World News in Canada was filming some protesters who were "being treated for injuries." There had been no confrontation with any police.

Some of the protesters made a high-decibel request to stop photographing, and damaged the man's camera. A crowd gathered, and cameras and microphones appeared like mosquitoes to bare skin.

That's when the legal adviser stepped in to inform us that it was illegal to be filming people.

"You wouldn't go into a hospital ward and film," he said.

"But you're in a public place," the cameraman informed him, "and I have a right to film."

"Under the Constitution, they have a right to privacy," the legal expert informed him, staking out an odd week, odd location, and odd activity to be asserting a privacy right.

Al Crespo, a photographer who documents major protests and is a well-known gadfly in the protest community, stepped in and told the cameraman he needed to "stop whining about your rights and move on."

Irony is not in short supply in Denver.

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Denver Diaries: The right to privacy among 15,000 cameras

Posted at 9:30 AM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions, The political conventions

MPR's Elizabeth Stawicki reported last week on an effort by the ACLU to train attorneys to help out during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul next week. The effort seems to focus on making sure due process is followed once any protesters are arrested.

In Denver, I got a look at a similar effort, only this one provides legal representation and assistance when dealing with the biggest show of force in Denver -- the media.

A cameraman from World News in Canada was filming some protesters who were "being treated for injuries." There had been no confrontation with any police.

Some of the protesters made a high-decibel request to stop photographing, and damaged the man's camera. A crowd gathered, and cameras and microphones appeared like mosquitoes to bare skin.

That's when the legal adviser stepped in to inform us that it was illegal to be filming people.

"You wouldn't go into a hospital ward and film," he said.

"But you're in a public place," the cameraman informed him, "and I have a right to film."

"Under the Constitution, they have a right to privacy," the legal expert informed him, staking out an odd week, odd location, and odd activity to be asserting a privacy right.

Al Crespo, a photographer who documents major protests and is a well-known gadfly in the protest community, stepped in and told the cameraman he needed to "stop whining about your rights and move on."

Irony is not in short supply in Denver.

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The Fizzle Festival: Coming soon to St. Paul

Posted at 2:23 AM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Protest groups often complain that if money weren't being spent on the military, it could be used to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and rebuild our broken bridges. This week in Denver -- and certainly next week in St. Paul -- the same can be said for the money it takes to keep the protesters under control, if not under wraps.

In St. Paul, there'll be a significant number of relevant protests. There'll also be plenty of levitating wizards.

Update: It turns out the wizard, Mark Cohen of the umbrella protest group Recreate '68, intended to levitate the mint. It didn't levitate either. Some news reports said police estimated the crowd at 50-75. I counted 3. Later, perhaps, people looking for something to protest stopped to watch.

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Denver Diaries: The Gustavus connection

Posted at 9:17 PM on August 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

For two weeks every four years, I talk to strangers on the street and on trains. This is one of those weeks.

And, you know, it's funny how many people you meet with roots in Minnesota. On the way back to the hotel this evening on the light-rail system, I introduced myself to a man who looked like an interesting character.

He was.

He was a former Gustavus Adolphus professor from the '70s, now living in Parker, Colorado.

"How do you like it here?" I asked.

"I'm a walking Chamber of Commerce," Connor Shepherd said. "I've lived in 11 states and I've been here for more than 20 years."

He also gave up the education gig, to run for -- and become -- the mayor of Grand Junction, Colorado for one term, "until they found out I was a liberal." Now he operates a consulting firm, Circuit Rider of Colorado, which provides services to local government.

But even after all these years, he's puzzled when I ask him about Colorado politics. "Our legislature leans Democrat, the mayor of Denver is a Democrat, our governor is a Democrat, a senator is a Democrat, and yet the state went for George Bush.

"And this year?" I asked.

"It's a toss-up, he said," stroking a professorial beard and shaking his government-wonk head.

In exploring his background, I learned he taught sociology at Gustavus until he decided to pursue a master's degree in leisure studies.

"What's involved in pursuing a master's degree in leisure studies?" I asked.

"You have to be very mellow," he said.

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Denver Diaries: What are Denverites like... really?

Posted at 2:05 AM on August 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

I noted in a post on Monday that I hear the "a" word being hurled quite a bit since I arrived in Denver. I heard it twice more from drivers while covering events downtown. A delegate was walking against the light and a driver who was apparently in a hurry, nonetheless took the time to assess the delegate's anatomy. Our rental van has Texas plates and the people who drive it say they've been the target of an "a-bomb" or two.

What gives, Denver? Are those real Denverites? Is that the spirit of Denver? Or is there a difference between those who drive and people you might run into on the ground. I haven't been here long enough to know and despite what you may have read in a local weekly that has an off-and-on relationship with accuracy, I'm not prepared to judge an entire population on the anecdotal evidence.

Just consider these as data points and see if, maybe, the Twin Cities can strive to make our guests feel welcomed next week.

I've found the volunteers to be predictably helpful and friendly. They're supposed to be. And, besides, I've got a press credential around my neck. And even the cops have been friendly. On Monday, however, I spent some time "undercover."

I posted myself at several corners for 15 minutes at a time, with a map unfurled, scratching my head, and looking as helpless and lost as I possibly could, to see if anyone would say, "can I help you find something?" I also counted the number of people who walked by me during my time as the country bumpkin.

Seven-hundred-17 people walked by me, and none volunteered to assist the more distressed elderly man I was -- quite fictionally, mind you -- portraying. Are you getting this, St. Paul?

But here's the kicker. About an hour after that, I was on my way to an appointment near the Denver mint. I was no longer "pretending" to be lost. I really was. I took out my map, and looked up to check the street signs. A young couple walked past me, then turned and walked back to me.

"Can I help you find something?" he asked.

I'll bet if he were in a car, he'd even let me cross against the light.

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Denver vs. St. Paul: Traffic comparison - Part I

Posted at 3:10 PM on August 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Minnesota's Department of Transportation today released a list of ramp closures during next week's RNC.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation will close the ramp from northbound Interstate 35E to Kellogg Boulevard and the ramp from eastbound I-94 to 5th Street at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29. The ramps will remain closed throughout the convention and will reopen at 6 a.m. Friday, Sept. 5.

The ramps are being closed to provide more efficient traffic flow and security during the event. Only delegate buses and other official vehicles will be allowed to use the closed ramps.

Inconvenient? Probably. Significant? Probably not.

Last week on MPR's Midday, both mayors said I-94 will remain open.

Now let's switch to Denver. On Thursday, I-25 -- the main drag through the city -- is going to be closed for 5 miles around Denver. In other words: Denver will be closed.

Advantage: St. Paul. Maybe.

Light-rail stations (there doesn't appear anywhere near as significant a bus system in Denver as in the Twin Cities) are closed near Pepsi Center.

Nonetheless, a local traffic reporter's blog confirmed what I observed this morning. The day-to-day, get-to-work traffic here this morning was not a big deal.

I took light-rail into the city around 8 this morning. If this, as the traffic reporter suggested, was heavier use than normal, it must usually be near empty.

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First look at Invesco

Posted at 2:19 PM on August 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

MPR's John Nicholson has just sent along the first peek at things inside Invesco Field, where Barack Obama will give his speech on Thursday.

Today, it was revealed that Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen will perform there prior to the speech.

I notice that "The Rising" has been taken as the Obama campaign theme song.

More pictures:

Meanwhile, back at Pepsi Center, the delegates are starting to stream in for their evening of work which will include... well... I don't really know. But Michelle Obama is going to speak (and maybe Ted Kennedy too) and news stories around the world will report tomorrow that they liked them.

Hat tip to Michael DeMark of the MPR Operations Department for sending that picture along.

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Denver Diaries: Do prairie dogs bite?

Posted at 10:20 AM on August 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

This entry will be updated through the day on Monday.

Political science

The MPR contingent that is housed in an out-of-the-way hotel has been thinking of moving it location. The light-rail line is two miles away if you take the way the hotel official says is the "closest" light rail station. But this morning I found a closer one. But here's the problem: It requires a short cut through what appears to be a field of prairie dogs -- very active prairie dogs. Not knowing the nature of the beast, I went around.

Meals on No Wheels

Wednesday is a service day at the Democratic National Convention, a day when delegates can get out of their hotel rooms and go into the community to assist in some sort of social endeavor. It's a chance to meet some of the people of Denver and the organizations that serve them.

But the Minnesota delegation won't be leaving its hotel to do so.

The group is preparing meals for Denver's Meals on Wheels program. All of the food to be packaged is being delivered to the delegates' hotel, where it will be packed and sent back out to seniors and others, according to a state party official.

Some delegates had hoped their social work would be more involved, and less of an obvious photo opportunity.

First impressions

Minneapolis-St. Paul, you can outdo these folks. A****** , from what I can tell, appears to be Denver's way of saying, "Hi there, welcome to the Mile High City." Drivers wait about 3 seconds when a red light turns green to honk.

And all we need in the Twin Cities is a clear day to show off all the smog we don't have.

The volunteers who were in such abundance seem pretty much to have disappeared from the streets downtown, where much of the convention activity takes place. For the record, the nicest, most helpful people I've met so far, have been the cops.

The big tent

Most of the caucuses happen around the Convention Center, about a mile from Pepsi Center. It's what a lot of delegates do during the day. During the evening, the Democrats will attempt to look like one big, happy family. But during the day, they splinter into all sorts of factions -- unions, religious groups, ethnic groups etc. -- and hold their meetings to, presumably, push their own interests.

It's part of the "big tent" thing, and while on the one hand there's strength in the diversity of the political party (at least that's the convention wisdom), it also means that some faction is always upset about something, and a significant amount of time has to be spent soothing hurt feelings in order to keep the larger coalition together.

The other Big Tent

Via @jasonbarnett on Twitter (The Uptake), the "Big Tent," which has garnered so much publicity for being the nuclear core of bloggers here in Denver, had no outlets for laptops this morning.

How do you like that Obama text-messaging gimmick now?

It seemed like a nifty idea at the time (to some people). But the Obama campaign has not been shy about using the e-mail and text message addresses it gathered through the gimmick of announcing the vice presidential pick. Over the last day -- my anecdotal research says -- Obamaspam has been coming in about once every four hours.

The 'jerk ratio'

I talked to a young man working security in the Hyatt. He says he's working 14-hour days this week and said Sunday was 'crazy' but the first day of the convention hasn't been as busy as he thought. "What's the jerk ratio?" I asked. "It's not too bad, he said. Much better than when there's a tech convention in town."

It's worth noting, I think, that people are getting to work fine, the light-rail is running, restaurants aren't particularly crowded and while I've never been in Denver before, most every other political convention city has had the same experience -- the reality doesn't tend to match the pre-convention hype and panic about how things will grind to a halt.

Teresa's story

I love the Internet. A few days ago I wrote about a volunteer I met at the media party on Saturday. Somehow, she found News Cut and added an interesting comment. News Cut will travel anywhere to sign up one new reader.

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Live-blogging: Is there a voting system that'll work?

Posted at 10:25 AM on August 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Greetings. I'm live at one of the Hyatts in downtown Denver where I'm blogging a comprehensive look at the election system we have. Does it work? Can you trust electronic voting? This is part of the Pew Charitable Trust "Make Voting Work" initiative. "For all the attention to election reform since the 2000 presidential vote -- and the resulting upheaval... that continues today -- in most states, individuals can't get a simple answer to basic questions, like 'Am I registered to vote?'" the project description says.

A similar forum will be held next week in Minneapolis. At the moment, few people are in the room for the 9:30 (Mountain Time) start. So sit tight. Most of the attendees are probably loss. Denver is a nice city, but there's one major flaw (listen up, MSP 2008), there's no directions to anything. The maps printed in the official convention guide are designed to get you to the local businesses, but little else. There are two Hyatts within two blocks, and two towers to one of them. One has to be persistent to get here.

By the way, if you have a question, feel free to post it in comments.

All times Mountain time

9:58 a.m. We're underway with a look at the changing face of the electorate. (Tangent: Interesting story here on how the changing face of the nation is changing the Democrat Party.

We're talking with Anna Greenberg, a researcher who's studied voting behavior and admits to be a Democratic pollster. The pace of change, she says, is far faster on racial and ethnic diversity than we thought. But the other area undergoing rapid change is the changing family structure. For the first time last year, a slight majority of people are not married. The growth of the unmarried population has a big impact on politics.

Greenberg is looking at younger people who, she says, are much more diverse. The general population, for example, is 69% white, but looking at those under 30, only 61 percent are white. One of the fastest-growing demographic areas in elections, is unmarried women -- and in turnout, unmarried Hispanic women are leading the uptick in turnout for presidential elections. Twenty-six percent of the people who turned out in 2008 primary/caucuses were unmarried women. How do you think this will affect the issues that candidates select?

This group -- unmarried women -- is the easiest to discourage from voting, Greenberg says. They tend to be less educated and affluent, and less likely to ask for help when voting.

10:22 a.m. - We're talking with David Beirne of the Election Technology Council, which represents electronic voting machine vendors; and Steven Rosenfeld of Alternet, whose latest article from last Friday is "Why your vote may not count this November."

Beirne says electronic voting machines were originally designed as "an auditing tool," and not to be the "ballot of record."

Computerworld Magazine has a story up that examines the problems with voting machines in Ohio in '04.

A major electronic voting system vendor has changed its story in an attempt to explain how its machines dropped hundreds of votes in Ohio's March primary elections, saying it was a programming error, not the fault of antivirus software.

Beirne highlights as an industry challenge that "there haven't been any product upgrades within the last two years." These need to be certified by election officials. He says there is a lack of industry involvement in the development of standards for voter machines. (By the way, Colorado is one of the states that has banned electronic voting machines.)

10:47 Rosenfeld's turn. He's not buying it. "If we in the press call something a glitch instead of it being a 'system that doesn't work as promised,' are we just supposed to blame the poll workers who can't understand the equipment? This is why this issue is so controversial and why the public has lost confidence. Nobody can understand this."

He says there's nobody who can look at the underlying software because the industry has declared it proprietary. He says he's not a fan of conspiracy theories but just said the Ohio Secretary of State's Web site in 2004 was on the same server as the White House. I have no idea if that's true, but he's clearly suggesting the Ohio voting machine problems in '04 were rigged by Republicans.

Rosenfeld says the problem isn't the machines themselves, but the voting lists that are inputted into them. In New Mexico, he says, the voting machines during the primary were missing the voter lists for an entire county. In Georgia, they didn't deploy enough laptops to the polls with the latest voter lists.

11:09 a.m. - Three election officials -- from Los Angeles County; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; and Marion County, Indiana -- are speaking about whether polling places can handle the crush of voters expected this fall (remember the Minnesota caucuses last winter?)

"We're not just asking poll volunteers to flip through voting lists and hand people ballots anymore," says Dean Logan of Los Angeles. "It's far more complicated now." If I translae that correctly, that means there are more points of failure now in elections than before. That's not comforting.

Cuyahoga County's (Cleveland) Jane Platten says they thought there'd be more new voters registered so far this year than that city has had. Memo to self: Check voter registration experience in Minnesota. She says high school volunteers make great election judges because "they're better at problem solving." Does this spell the end of the little old lady at Minnesota's polls?

It's a sign of the times: Platten says "we will be sued on November 4th."

Beth White, the clerk of Marion County, Indiana, says her county has the toughest voter ID law in the country. You may remember the Supreme Court upheld the system earlier this year. She's been sued since, she said, on state constitutional grounds.

Indiana requires a photo ID in order to vote and opponents, including the League of Women Voters, say it diminishes voter turnout. White's most interesting comment: "Indiana has a history of low voter turnout." Oh, then.

"It's too early to know whether (the Voter ID Law) will diminish voter participation," she said, although she promised "we will be ready." This law, by the way, has been a huge issue in Minnesota. I wrote about it here.

All of the people on the panel said there'll be a lot of first-time voters in the coming election, and they tend to be less patient than other demographics (see earlier notation on the changing demographic). "These are people who are used to a rushed lifestyle," Dean Logan, the clerk in Los Angeles said, "and that's going to be their expectation with the voting experience too, and that's why we have to be very concerned about long lines at the polling place. I've heard the stories of voters who've been sent to two or three places because their names wasn't on the voting list. After two or three times, they give up and getting them back to trying to vote is problematic."

Trivia time : Over 100 helicopters are employed in Los Angeles County to deliver ballots on election day. There are 4,300 precincts.

Question for your discussion: Why do we have 50 different voting systems? Should there be a single standard?

12:11 p.m. I'm moving on to "Will new voters navigate the system" with Mike Slater of Project Vote. He, too, is worried about the experience the younger voter may have on Election Day. Slater says many jurisdictions work too hard to bounce people from voting lists. "A number of these factors fall hardest on low income and minorities," he said.

A continuing theme here: Each state treats the right to vote differently. "In Washington, you have a long period of time to correct a mistake on your voter application. In Florida, you must correct it before the close of registration or you won't be eligible to vote," he said. "In some states, election officials pick up the phone and call a voter who may have a problem; in other states election officials would never pick up the phone."

Slater says anecdotally he sees high voter registration for November, "and we know the kind of problems they're going to face." He encouraged us journalists to start asking questions of our elected officials for how they plan to correct voter registration problems.

Eddie Hailes, Jr., of The Advancement Project says 600,000 voters in Ohio may be disenfranchised this year. Coincidentally, we're about to have lunch with Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's secretary of state.

In Ohio, as in other states, voters are mailed a card 60 days prior to election. They can't be forwarded by the postal service. If the cards are returned as undeliverable, the voter may be challenged on Election Day.

How are you liking that same-day registration voting now, Minnesota?

Hailes, by the way, sees the future of voter information online. His organization is about to launch projects on the major social networking sites to assist voters -- and potential voters -- around the country.

"There should be a movement in place to enshrine in the Constitution, an affirmative right to vote," he said.

"Amen," said Beth White behind me.

12:56 p.m. - We're talking with Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's secretary of state, who gave up her judgeship to run for office in 2006 after voting regularities in the state in 2004. Brunner has had to clean up the mess, firing election officials in the state, some of whom had close ties to the Bush administration. The former secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, also was the Bush-Cheney campaign chair in Ohio.

She says she's issued more than 70 directives this year to create a voting system "that's more transparent." She said she wanted to get rid of voting machines and go back to paper ballots this year, but the poor Ohio economy (she needed $64 million) wouldn't allow it. Instead, Ohio "has been working with a bipartisan team around the state to roll out security procedures that we'll roll out today or tomorrow. We developed minimum standards that will tell each board of elections how to develop a security plan." Ohio will give voters a chance to use paper ballots as a backup.

She wouldn't take the bait, though, on the question of whether the election in Ohio was rigged. "We're trying to focus on what's ahead," she said when asked about long lines at the polls in 2004 in minority neighborhoods.

1:32 p.m. Listening to Rosemary Rodriguez of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission prompted me to go to the Commission's Web site. There, I saw a news release from the commission chairman on a New York Times article from earlier this month.

On August 16, The New York Times (NYT) ran an incomplete and outdated article that reports on "a government backlog in testing (voting) machines' hardware and software." The article suggests that the backlog has been created by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's (EAC) voting system certification process and leaves the impression that EAC is doing nothing while States are left to fend for themselves to fix problems before the November elections.

Which prompted me to go back and look at what I wrote earlier today about the guy from the electronic voting machine industry.

Beirne highlights as an industry challenge that "there haven't been any product upgrades within the last two years." These need to be certified by election officials. He says there is a lack of industry involvement in the development of standards for voter machines.

Confusing? Yes. Comforting? Again, no.

Here's the Times article

1:39 p.m. - I mentioned earlier that the idea of a photo ID when voting has been a big issue in Minnesota. Now we're going to hear about it. David Muhlhausen of the conservative Heritage Foundation is going to give a presentation on why the idea doesn't inhibit voting. He'll be followed by Tova Wang of Common Cause who says it does.

1:40 p.m. - Wang is going to go first because Muhlhausen can't get his Powerpoint presentation to work. Twenty-four states now have ID laws that go beyond the Help America Vote Act. The rest -- like Minnesota -- just requires people to sign a poll book.

"Indiana is a state in play this year so it (the photo ID) may influence the election," she said. "If you don't have a passport or government ID, you'll have a hard time voting. There will be a number of pollworkers in other states who will think this is a national law and ask for IDs where it's not required."

She says polling place fraud is "almost non-existent and we saw that during the U.S. attorney scandal. Not one of the voter fraud cases they prosecuted would've been affected by the photo ID law," she said.

She says the argument for the law's proponents now is that people have lost confidence in the system, noting that their citing of a fraud problem that doesn't exist is one reason for the lack of confidence. Plus, she said, "it's a stupid way to steal an election. There are better ways."

1:50 p.m. - Now the other side from the Heritage Foundation. David Muhlhausen says 69% of whites, 58% of African Americans support the idea. He admits "the prevalence of in-person voter fraud is hard to find, but the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

Trivia time: In Ohio, there's a popular bumper sticker that says, I Voted. Twice.

2:08 p.m. - There was a question about people who move with a Photo ID law in effect and have IDs that don't carry the current address. "I don't understand why people move so much," Muhlhausen said. "And sometimes people have to take time out of their day to take care of these sorts of things"

"Sometimes people are busy having their home foreclosed on," Wang responded.

( This concludes the focus on our voting system. Continue discussion below.)

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Discussion: What role does faith play in your politics?

Posted at 7:11 AM on August 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Yesterday, the Democrats held an interfaith church service, picketed by a group called COCORE.org, which is made up of several Colorado atheist organizations. The group asserted the Democrats are "assisting the emergence of a religious-left to counter the religious-right."

Religion, however, is a big part of politics. It's unlikely that's going to change anytime soon.

But here's why I ask. Over the last two weeks, I've been interviewing several Minnesota delegates to the two major party conventions. Two have made a particular impression. On the Democratic side, Rep. Yolanda Lehman of St. Cloud is a liberal who clearly comes to her politics as an extension of her faith. She can cite the Bible for guidance on a political philosophy.

Nancy Haapoja of Redwood Falls is a Republican delegate (watch for her profile later this week). She is the director of the Campus Life Center of Youth for Christ. She also comes to politics by way of her faith. She, too, cites the Bible for guidance on her political philosophy.

Two delegates, both come to their politics through their religious belief, both cite the Bible as their favorite book, both pray to the same God, yet both end up in very different locations on the political spectrum.

How is that possible? And what about you? What is the role of your faith in politics? Did your faith shape your politics and, if so, how?

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The message is not the media

Posted at 6:05 AM on August 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

National Public Radio had a fascinating story on Friday afternoon, analyzing how media coverage of the national conventions has changed. It's had to, partly because politics has changed -- convention delegates don't actually do anything significant here that hasn't already been done. And partly because -- in this week's case -- political parties haven't really changed how they handle media access to their made-for-TV show.

Behind the scenes of a political convention are political turf wars. There's a reason Texas is stuck in the back of the Pepsi Center. There's a reason some Clinton delegates here are feeling disrespected. As political winds shift, old scores are being settled and those who -- as one delegate described it to me -- "jumped on the right bus" are taking advantage of their newfound power.

It's the culture of power. Inside party politics is a totem pole. The role of convention producers, is to hide all of that. They're usually pretty good at it until the group that's most affected is the media. Credential day -- the day many media organizations find out the degree of access they'll have this week -- is the day the various media entities find out where they stand on the pole. Sunday was credential day.

Conventional wisdom says this is the "blogger's convention," but as the New York Times reported on Sunday, the credential process revealed that when it comes to getting access to power, it's still 1980 for many in the media.

"It's unprecedented access for bloggers, yes, but it's certainly not equal access," said Ms. Spaulding, who learned last week that Pam's House Blend would receive two extra credentials. "What, pray tell, is the big secret?"

The annoyance felt by many bloggers is familiar to those who previously attended conventions as correspondents for smaller print publications. "This is very reminiscent of being at the low end of the totem pole," said Micah Sifry, the co-founder of the group blog Techpresident.com, who formerly wrote for The Nation magazine and attended his first convention in 1984. "They can't buy a sky box, they're scrambling."

There are various levels of credentials for an organization like a Minnesota Public Radio. The "hall pass" gets you into the Pepsi Center, but not much farther. The 'arena pass' gets you closer to the action. The "floor pass" gets you on the floor to talk to delegates. The "perimeter pass" doesn't really get you anywhere but inside the security perimeter, but it can almost make you look dead sexy hanging around your neck.

The number of each type of credential alloted to a news organization, is a statement from the Democratic Party about its position on the totem pole.

It's a good thing, actually, that reporters are limited in their access to Pepsi Center this week, especially since Hollywood producers are making sure everyone inside the building sticks to a script. But it still defies logic in the 2008 media landscape to put on a show exclusively so the media can tell your story, and then make it difficult for the media to get to your story.

Why? Because if you make it impossible for them to cover your spoon-fed story, whose story do you think they are going to cover instead?

While it's true that an anti-war protest is synonymous with an anti-Republican protest, it wouldn't take too many under-credentialed reporters to note that it was the Democratic Party that swept into power in the last election by promising change, and then caved in on virtual every major showdown with the White House.

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The politics of seating

Posted at 1:12 PM on August 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Where the state delegations are assigned to sit is very much a reflection on how the party bosses view the relative importance of a state in the general election. Thanks to John Nicholson of MPR's End User Computing department, here's the first look -- stage left (or is that right?).

Pretty good seats; not particularly great; not on the floor, not like Illinois, which is front and center, and not like Delaware which -- after Joe Biden was added to the ticket -- got their seats moved to the front. They had been back near red-state Texas at the back of the hall. But the location at least suggests that Minnesota is again a swing state, although, perhaps, not as swingy as 2004 in Boston.

This is the view the delegation had back then:

Where does Minnesota fit in the big scheme of things, then? There are no "A List" (and frankly no "B" List types either) politicians who've been dispatched to speak to the caucus during the week. And the latest MPR poll has Obama up by 10 points in the state.

Contrast that with four years ago when there was real concern the state was about to turn a bright shade of red.

A couple of other shots from the floor today:

Are these two CNN anchors "texting" each other?

And someone had something to say about the security perimeter...

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Denver Diaries: The cyanide guy

Posted at 8:33 AM on August 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

What was a man from Canada doing in a Denver hotel room with a pound of cyanide? As the Democratic National Convention opens, nobody seems to have a clue and the story has been reduced to a few paragraphs buried in the papers.

Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, of Ottawa, Canada, was found dead about two weeks ago. The local coroner ruled that he committed suicide. Family members said Dirie had schizophrenia, which may have led to his suicide.

The Somali Justice Center in St. Paul cautioned people not to jump to the conclusion that people had already jumped to.

"We're done with the investigation now that we've got the coroner's results," said Det. Sharon Hahn. But she would not release any of the details of the finding.

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Denver Diaries: The media parties

Posted at 1:33 AM on August 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Last week on Midday, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak discussed the value of next week's Republican National Convention in promoting the Twin Cities on the national stage. For that, they'll have to impress the thousands of journalists who'll be arriving in town, most of them by way of Denver. And they'll be comparing this city (Denver) with the Twin Cities.

We're starting now. This (above) is Theresa who was one of the volunteers at the giant media party thrown at an amusement park next to Pepsi Center tonight. Her job? She was assigned to stand next to a large trash bin, in which trash was being thrown into three receptacles. The city is pushing for a zero-waste convention, and reporters aren't particularly bright, apparently, when it comes to determining whether the half-eaten shredded pork is recyclable nor not.

She's originally from the Seattle area and then moved to the Mojave Desert with her husband to work for a mining company. She was in the human resources department and was given the task of recruiting people to work for the company. When she found the Mojave Desert a tough sell, they moved to Salt Lake City, and then to the Denver area.

She, like all the volunteers I met, was nothing if not enthusiastic and outgoing. It'll be a challenge for Minnesotans. Outgoing isn't in our state motto. We'll be delighted to welcome visitors, as long as they talk to us first.

As of last month, the Twin Cities organizers were still 1,000 volunteers shy of the goal. One of the problems with this sort of thing, of course, is you never know where you'll be assigned. I talked to one volunteer who had hoped to get some bartending work at the media party. She was clearing our dirty plates instead. No matter, she said. Her husband is involved in logistics for several events this week and she's expecting to pitch in. As it turns out, she's a social worker in Denver who handles problems with Section 8 housing.

The media party

It's the largest party during the convention. An estimated 9,000 media types showed up at an amusement park next to Pepsi Center for free music, booze, food, rides and fireworks. MediaNews, the same company that runs the St. Paul Pioneer Press, blew a reported $1.5 million on the affair to put a happy face on the people who are going to write about the company's hometown (it owns the Denver Post).

Traditionally, the dominant media in a convention city hosts this party. But this year the cash outlay raised eyebrows because publisher Dean Singleton's company is in free fall, just sold its Connecticut newspaper operation to raise cash, and is expected to undergo "restructuring" soon now that its bond rating has been reduced again.

Neither the Star Tribune nor Pioneer Press decided to sponsor the media party in Minneapolis next Saturday night. It'll be held along the riverfront near the Guthrie. My colleague, Kerri Miller, suggests it'll be far more elegant, but we'll see whether media folks craving free food and free beer will judge elegant to be better than a free ride on the bungee jump.

Media watcher David Brauer raises the key point of all of this. Should the media be taking something for nothing? Is this any different from the politicians getting freebies and food from major corporations?

(Photo by Nikki Tundel)

If, the next time the Pioneer Press lays off a generous portion of its staff, you see the local media pulling its punches on the story, you'll have the answer.

Cameras

As you might expect, those cameras that have sprouted on light poles around downtown St. Paul, are all over downtown Denver as well. No one seems to be complaining. Tonight the head of a group of lawyers that's in town to make sure people's civil rights aren't violated, said the cameras will be useful in documenting any incidents.

Media interviewing media

The Uptake's Chuck Olsen has the most fascinating setup. You see something interesting, you fire up your phone-gizmo (it's technical talk!), record your interview, press a gizmo that sends it back to... wherever... and somehow it ends up on The Uptake's Web site some seconds later.

The lengths to which some people will go to get their stuff embedded on News Cut!

Chuck and I had a spirited conversation some weeks ago on News Cut, We disagree on a few things about the media, but agree on many, many more. He's a good man and a very talented documentary producer. It was a pleasure to run into him and even more so to have a half hour or so to sit and chat about how he does what he does.

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Denver Diaries: Arrival

Posted at 7:15 PM on August 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The MPR News team has arrived in Denver. That's boss Mike Mulcahy, left, rounding up reporters Mark Zdechlik and Tom Scheck. Within a few days, they'll experience the down side of traveling with a blogger.

Joe Biden, the Democratic convention, and whatever you hold dear

Posted at 7:32 AM on August 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

So it's Joe Biden, the guy who said "it's not me. I'm not the guy" earlier in the week. And the whole "you'll know first by text message" angle turned out to be a load of hot air. Big shock, both. For many, the text mails announcing Biden's choice are still making their way to the be-the-first-to-know recipients.

The early line from Rasmussen? Biden is seen favorably by 43% of those surveyed.

What do you think? Whenever I think of Biden, I think of one of the two best political quotes of all time (in my opinion): "The greatest love affair in Washington is between Joe Biden and the sound of his own voice." The other great quote has nothing to do with Joe Biden but it was Walter Mondale's comment the day after he got clobbered in the election for president, "I wanted to run for president in the worst way, and that's just what I did."

Here's my analysis: Kiss it goodbye, Gov. Pawlenty. The McCain campaign has made 'experience' an issue in this campaign. There's going to be a debate between the vice presidential candidates. So how can the McCain camp trot out a Tim Pawlenty -- nice guy, but being governor of a state in flyover country and the state rep from Eagan isn't going to compare well with the credentials of Biden, no matter what you think of Joe Biden.

Forbes Magazine today rips Biden on the basis of the economy, and says all of the rumored choices were negative on that issue. But Pawlenty's state now has higher unemployment than the national average, so he's not going to stand out as a sage on economic issues, either.

For that matter, Gov. Mitt Romney -- the other oft-mentioned possibility for McCain's vice president -- doesn't match up that well, either.

Tom Ridge and even Joe Lieberman move up a rung on the ladder, it says here, regardless of their position on abortion.

I'm on my way to Denver today and probably won't have much to post until later this evening. Hopefully we'll be able to provide you with a gentle blend of trivia, behind-the-scenes images, and occasional insight that cuts through the showbizzy informmercialness of it all.

As I did at the '04 conventions, I want to make this a conversation during the week -- letters to home from the convention, and involve your perspective and questions on things. So bookmark this page, and whenever you're moved to ask a question or make an observation about things, write it down and send it and I'll figure out some way to work it in here.

Some of the MPR crew is already in Denver, the rest are heading there today. There's a "media" party tonight, which is usually one of the two major non-political events. In the past, they've been sponsored by the dominant media in the convention city. But that was when the media was a living, breathing thing -- not the shriveled-up banana peel it often appears as today. The media party planned for Minneapolis next week is nothing if not "restrained," and it's sponsored by the host committee.

I'm not entirely sure what Denver's scale is or the involvement of the local media -- in particular Dean Singleton's operation (the head of the company that also owns the Pioneer Press). I'll let you know if I make it there.

Sunday night is a media party of our own, although it's not a party. I started the "tradition" in '04 with MPR reporters and a small group of fellow-Minnesota reporters. We have one nice meal together on Sunday evening, knowing that come Monday, our dinners consist mostly of vending-machine Cheetos and soda. Seventeen colleagues from MPR, the Star Tribune, and the Pioneer Press are getting together.

I called only two places for reservations. The first -- downtown -- had no tables available. The second seemed almost relieved I called. So I'll try to assess the local business impact of the convention this week to see how it may -- or may not -- reflect on what the Twin Cities will experience starting next week.

I'm anxious to explore one comparison between Denver and MSP. Can I take a picture in Denver without being rousted? If you don't hear from me again, you'll have the answer.

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Free wireless during the RNC? Maybe.

Posted at 6:18 PM on August 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Tech, The political conventions

While St. Paulites were scurrying about trying to make sure the national media got the name of the city right when they mentioned the Republican National Convention, Minneapolis was doing its own thing, and you have to show a little love to that other city across the river.

On Friday, city officials will announce a plan to provide free wireless Internet for residents and visitors during the convention. But it might not be quite as fabulous as it sounds, freebie lovers.

Mayor R.T. Rybak, Lee Brenner, MySpace's executive producer of political programming and director of IMPACT, and Joe Caldwell from USI Wireless announce plans to offer the City of Minneapolis free use of the citywide wireless network to connect visitors and residents to the Internet during the Republican National Convention, according to a news release.

The release says there'll be MySpace kiosks in downtown Minneapolis. And a (as in "one") free access day.

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Unity will need to be more than a word in Denver

Posted at 5:03 PM on August 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

The Minnesota DFL today released the names of guest speakers for its morning breakfast/caucus meetings/pep rallies during the Democratic National Convention in Denver. There are no big starpower names (in Boston, perhaps, Garrison Keillor and Rob Reiner spoke), but there is room for reading the leaves.

We'll be hearing the word "unity" next week, but in interviewing delegates and others across the state for the last two weeks, it's more show than substance at the moment and it remains a major challenge for a party with a history of internal turf wars.

Hillary Clinton won the big states that the Democrats will need to win in November, but -- especially with it becoming obvious she's not in the whisper/leaks for vice president on the ticket -- some Clintonians think the Obama forces could do more to reach out to them (and, no, none of them wants to be identified.... yet).

That apparently is not going to happen -- at least in public -- at the Minnesota delegation meetings. Of the 27 speakers given slots, only five endorsed Hillary Clinton during the primaries.

If there is to be a significant effort to win the Clintonians support (it's not their vote that's important, it's their ability to organize, raise money, and turn out the vote), it'll come next Tuesday when three Clintonians will speak: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who was a national co-chair for Clinton, Mayor David Cicilline of Providence, and State Sen. Tarryl Clark are all scheduled.

Another Clinton supporter, Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelliher, will speak to the delegates on Thursday, along with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

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Who's watching you?

Posted at 3:34 PM on August 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

I don't know who's at the other end of the camera that just went up in downtown St. Paul at the corner of Seventh and Cedar...

But I wonder if they got nervous when someone walked up to it and took its picture, and I wonder why they'd be nervous -- or at least concerned -- about being photographed.

Did they kick it up the chain of camera command when I walked up two blocks and photographed another? (I don't know why I found the image of the Capitol in the background ironic, but I did).

And then walked another block and took a picture of the one at 10th and Cedar.

Which is about 10 feet away from the ones on the side of the human resources building.

I'm not the only one wondering. On Midday today, a caller asked who is monitoring the cameras and are they being monitored outside of St. Paul. Mayor Chris Coleman said the St. Paul Police Department is monitoring them, and Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak recalled the brouhaha when cameras were installed in his downtown some years ago.

But that was then. Eight, nine years ago, this sort of surveillance was a big deal. But not anymore.

If you want to have some fun during the Republican National Convention, look up, and see if you can spot the people or machines that are watching you.

The issue is being debated on St. Paul's e-democracy.org forum.

Many people don't give a hoot if they're legal. They're creepy, they are unwelcoming, they're a boon to those who want to stalk downtown residents (imagine having a camera with public access to the feed watching your home 24/7), and they ought to be sold on eBay after the convention.

.. and..

Before we adopt our own "Operation Sentinel" (the name given NYC's plan to watch everyone all the time everywhere), why hasn't there been a public discussion of the decision to make them permanent? How did accepting the money to pay for temporary but necessary security measures turn into permanent surveillance?

Ward 2 City Council member Dave Thune says after the convention is over, there will be a public discussion on whether they should stay.

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Live-blogging Midday: The RNC and you

Posted at 11:14 AM on August 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis are taking questions on the nuts-and-bolts of how the Republican National Convention affects you.

Q: How bad is it (traffic) going to be?
A: (St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman) There's no question there'll be more traffic. Shepherd Rd. will be open. St. Peter St. will be open. I'd be crazy to say you're not going to see an increase in traffic, but that's part of hosting a convention. People will be able to get to their jobs. People will be able to get to their place of employment.

(Mayor RT Rybak) - On a typical night, we've got 50,000 people in downtown Minneapolis, and many aren't on buses. In this case, we've got people boarding shuttle buses, leaving at 3 and not coming home until 10. It won't affect most people's commute.

Q: What is the situation with Dorothy Day Center?
A: (Coleman) The protest march is going close to the homeless shelter. The free-speech stage is close to their. We're working with Catholic Charities to keep the Center open.

Q: Is it true that persons who use Dorothy Day Center are being moved to the psych ward of a nearby hospital?
A: No.

Q: Who's monitoring the installed downtown cameras? Will they be monitored outside of St. Paul?
A: (Coleman ) I'm mindful of the Big Brother aspects but when you see how they're used and how effective they are (working on getting drug dealing out of downtown) ... they'll be very helpful. They're being used property. They're monitored in the St. Paul Police Department.

Rybak says no additional cameras were installed in Minneapolis for the convention.

Q: Are there preparations for impromptu protests?
A: Yes. We have the ability to respond. If someone's protesting peacefully on Summit Ave., they have a right to do that. The question is when the protests become something other than that. (Coleman)

Q: Should people expect violence?
A: (Rybak) Nobody can predict, but law enforcement has trained well for it. Expect the unexpected, but this is a community that's used to expressing itself. Rybak says the best way to protest is to register people to vote.

(Coleman) There will be headaches.

Q: Are you bending over backwards to accommodate the protests and handcuffing the police?
A: Nobody who knows what they're talking about would say that. (Coleman)

Q: Will you have enough police officers?
A: (Coleman) Absolutely. We have 620 officers. Minneapolis has 880 officers. In New York, there are 30,000 officers. We formed partnerships with agencies across Minnesota. There are only 10,000 officers in the entire state.

Tangent time: A news release from the Minnesota court system just showed up:

Court officials have cleared many other regular calendars beginning August 27 to enable quick processing of convention related cases. They also plan to hold court over the weekend, and on Labor Day, Monday, September 1, normally a court holiday.

Court officials have been meeting with Minneapolis and Bloomington police, the Hennepin County Sheriff's office and the Hennepin County Attorney's office to plan for the events of convention week.

Tangent time, two - A release from the GOP just showed up. Sen. Norm Coleman to address convention on Wednesday. Gov. Tim Pawlenty will address it on Thursday, not long before McCain.

Q: Why do you rent out public institutions?
A: (Rybak) I'm thrilled to have them rented out during non-business hours. If you look around the entire areas, museums and public facilities will benefit from the money Republicans will spend.

(Coleman) We regularly rent out facilities during the year. It has to be looked at in the context of promoting the area.

Q: is there any need for armed security at my condo?
A: (Rybak) That's up to each association.

Q: I work in downtown St. Paul and I'm concerned I'll be attacked by police or protesters.
A: I object to the idea that the police will be attacking anyone. People are going to be protected and they're going to be safe. (Coleman)

Q: I hear I-94 will be shut down by protesters at Macalester. Is that true?
A: You will hear all sorts of predictions. There are no guarantees. We are prepared for many scenarios, including that one. (Rybak)

We're planning for a convention, not a crisis. (Coleman)

Q: Word on the street is the RNC is not using local sources for many parties, how does this help Minnesota?
A: Rybak: We've pushed that very, very hard. The media party on Saturday night is local. That's one example. A big difference between here and Denver is entertainment and performers. Denver is bringing in big-names. Our entertainment is from local arts.

Q: What are the chances of a law enforcement communications breach, in which things get scrambled?
A: (Coleman) We're prepared to deal with it. We have an 800 mHz system we saw in action during the bridge collapse. People at the highest levels of the Secret Service, FBI, and Homeland Security are looking at every possible scenario. They do this for a living.

Q: I commute to downtown St. Paul on my bike and I work a late shift. I'm concerned with all the drinking, getting mucked by some drunk driver. Why are bikes banned?
A: (Coleman) Vehicular traffic ban includes bikes. The zone is as narrowly defined as could be. You'll be able to walk to the front door of the Ordway. CNBC is broadcasting from Rice Park and we wanted people to be able to see that, too.

The drunk driver issue is interesting, most of these people are going to be transported by buses. We have 350 coaches transporting people.

Q: How many "joints" are going to be open until 4 in the morning?
A: (Rybak) A number of hotels, First Avenue and several others will be open.
(Coleman) My goal was to have a level playing field. We wanted to do what Bloomington and Minneapolis was going to do. There haven't been a lot of "takers" to pay the $2,500 to stay open. I'd like to make it easier for restaurants and bars to stay open.

Q: Can I volunteer? Do they still need help?
A: msp2008.com is where the specific volunteer opportunities are listed.

Q: How can we accommodate protesters if there's no hotels or camping?
A: (Coleman) We had 17,000 rooms booked, there are still rooms available throughout the region.

Q: Where's the best place to see famous people?
A: They're going to be all over the place. Go out and spend a normal night in Minneapolis St. Paul. Go to the fun spots and you'll likely run into somebody.

(Coleman) The large tent across from the Xcel is for broadcasts. CNBC will be at Rice Park.

Q: Is the health care system up to it?
A: There's been a huge emphasis on preparedness for health care. After 9-11 and Katrina, there's been a lot of work on this. When the bridge collapsed, the health care system were deeply woven into the preparedness plan. (Rybak)

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Delegate profile: Bethany Dorobiala

Posted at 10:25 PM on August 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

Another in a continuing series of profiles of Minnesota delegates to the national political conventions.

Name: Bethany Dorobiala

Party: Republican (Alternate delegate)

Hometown: Woodbury (Now living in Burnsville)

Representing: 6th District

Age: 21 (Youngest in the Minnesota delegation)

Occupation: Student (political science) at the University of Minnesota. Chairman, Minnesota College Republicans. "We have a chapter in almost every campus in the state. We face a lot of struggles with campus administrations and student opinion on campus. Once we put out a positive image of what Republicans stand for, we get a lot of support." Listen

How she became a delegate: I ran for alternate. I knew that especially this election year, it's important for youth to be represented as part of this campaign. i wanted to make sure students had a voice. I ran for an at-large alternate position. Sen. Obama hadn't been announced as a presumptive nominee but it was close, so I knew how important students were going to be in this election. Listen

Political roots: Has always been interested in politics. "I got started in a YMCA program called Youth in Government. It models state government. We had a chance to sit in the halls of the state Capitol and talk about issues students are passionate about."

"A lot of my values stem from how I raised by my parents but not something that was enforced by them by any means; the values they instilled in me -- personal responsibility, fiscal conservatism, taking care of one another -- has led me to the Republican Party." Listen

What she's most looking forward to at the RNC: I've been following the preparations since St. Paul was named the host city. I'm excited to have the party rally here. I'm proud to be able to host the leaders of the party. All the different things going on are exciting to see take shape." Listen

Favorite book: To Kill a Mockingbird

Favorite movie: An American in Paris.

Favorite music: County. "I like a band called Little Big Town."

Most influential person. "My mom. She's an incredibly hard worker and I've tried to model my life similar to how she lives her life."

Bucket list: I want to travel the world. I think Americans don't value how lucky we are to live in America and the freedoms we're able to enjoy."

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A snapshot of Minnesota

Posted at 3:55 PM on August 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

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Delegate profile: Sam Scott

Posted at 2:30 PM on August 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

(Another in a series of profiles of Minnesota delegates to the national political conventions)

Name: Sam Scott

Age: 25

City: Andover, Minn. Originally from Foley, Minn.

Political affiliation: Democrat

Pledged to: Barack Obama

Occupation: Student at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Business. Intern in a financial services firm. Veteran, Army Reserved. Served in Mosul, Iraq.

His political roots: "Growing up, I'd never been that interested in politics. I went to Iraq, I spent a year in Mosul. When I came back I wanted to be engaged in my civic duties, seeing as how it was in Iraq. I realized that individuals can make a difference. I was involved working with the provincial governor in Iraq and I thought the best way to do this was to get involved in the primaries. (listen - mp3)

How he became a delegate: DFL separates delegate candidates to men and women." I had to go up against 15 delegates (at the district convention), but my experience being a veteran helped my cause. At the state convention, there were 16 individuals who wanted to be a national delegate. I thought at first there'd be no way. People were campaigning for weeks sending out letters and buttons. I didn't know how involved people get and how passionate they get. I had no frills. I figured I might as well give it a shot. We gave 1-minute speeches and I was amazed at how well I was received, being a veteran. I was the only candidate for national delegate that received a standing ovation. I received a 2-to-1 margin for getting the top spot for national delegate." (listen - mp3)

What he's looking forward to most in Denver: "I'm looking forward to the experienc eof getting involved and having my voice be heard and known nationally to break the stereotype of military members voting one direction and one direction only."

"I go to my military unit and they ask me why I'm a Democrat. The military gets mischaracterized as being right-leaning. A lot of my peers are liberal. I was always a Democrat or a liberal. What the Iraq war did for me was to inspire me to become more involved in politics. When I was in Iraq, my specific job was to influence people and get them to vote." (listen - mp3)

Getting to Denver: "I had no idea what I would be responsible for, financially. I learned that quickly that I'd be supporting my own lodging and travel. I've been fortunate to have family members who live in Denver, so I'll be staying with them. if they didn't live there, I wouldn't have been able to put my name in the hat to be a delegate because I don't have the means. (listen-mp3)

Top item on his bucket list: I'd like to get my four-year degree completed. It's been hindered by our engagements around the world. I'm going to the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota. I've been going to school since 2001. I started in engineering but when I came home from Iraq, I knew myself a lot better and transferred into finance.

Interests: I try to get out as often as I can. I went to a friend's cabin and did some fishing this weekend. Life is so busy right now. I work 40 hours a week and go to school fulltime.

What he's reading: Curently reading both The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer. "I find it very relaxing. I'm still unwinding from being in a war zone."

Favorite movie: The Lord of the Rings -- The Trilogy. "However, the new Batman movie is pretty sweet."

Favorite music: "I've been listening to some Bob Marley lately. I don't own an iPod, but I have a Marley CD in my car now."

Most influential person he's met: Gen. David Petraeus. "He re-enlisted me when I was in Iraq in 2007. I had a small conversation with him. He's very personable. I only met him for about 20 minutes, but he's been very inspirational to me."

Listen to the complete interview (mp3).

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Electorate Fetus?

Posted at 10:21 AM on August 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Continuing our look at interesting things that will be happening away from the Xcel Center during the Republican National Convention.

The Electric Fetus sends a news release today:

Staging a Movement: A variety of bands will be playing special in-store performances to support The Electorate Fetus Political Happy Hour events. The shows will take place Tuesday through Thursday and the lineup will be announced soon.

Sound(off) Check: The Fetus is offering an open mic to anyone interested - including the candidates, who have been invited - in discussing the importance of voting. The forums will take place between band sets. Political candidates or their representatives will have microphone priority and certain restrictions apply (obviously). Bring your guitar, a beat, or just yourself and be heard.

(Bob notes: There are at least three open mic locations that I'm aware of during the convention, I'll be anxious to stop by each of them and find out if there are voices that particularly worth hearing.)

Rocking Refreshments: The Fetus will be offering cookies and juice to anyone who stops by to take part in The Electorate Fetus events.

Political Records: During the three-day span, the Fetus will be naming 10 important political albums of all time and will feature them 20 percent off, with a portion of each sale going to support the Rock the Vote movement. The 10 albums will be announced this week and will be available for sale both online and in the store.

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Delegate profile: Yolanda Lehman

Posted at 3:09 PM on August 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

(An occasional introduction to some of the Minnesota delegates to the national political conventions)

Name: Yolanda D. Lehman

City: St. Cloud

Political affiliation: Democrat

Occupation: Adjunct professor St. Cloud State University. Teaches a class called "Race in America." Former pastor of Resurrection AME Zion Church in St. Cloud.

Family: Husband - Dr. Christopher Lehman, professor at St. Cloud State (ethnic studies), Daughter (7), Son (6 months)

Pledged to: Barack Obama
"I was introduced at the DNC through his amazing speech that I watched on television. I remember sitting on the floor in a hotel room watching the speech with tears running down my face and I said, "this man will certainly be the first African American president of the United States and we must do what we can to help him get elected." (listen - mp3)

How she became a delegate: I did not know that I would become a delegate. That was a happy surprise. I got to the CD6 convention and realized I'd need to quickly fill out some paperwork and give a little speech. I gave my little speech. At first there was a large field so none of us had the votes we needed. As the field whittled, I was left as the delegate... " (listen - mp3)

Looking forward to: The in-service day Minnesota delegates are holding on Wednesday, preparing Meals on Wheels. My hope is they will allow my daughter to stand with me and do that preparation because that's something I want to sow seed into her -- service. (listen-mp3)

Most inspiring person she's met: My father is a Harvard MBA who has chosen not to pursue glory and wealth but publishes the St. Louis Black Pages, a combination magazine-directory that promotes African American businesses. In his free time he goes about the city doing as many good works as he can around issues of integrating people leaving prison into the community, helping entrepreneurs start up businesses, very active in the community supporting people who have need."

Favorite book (other than the Bible): : Uprooting racism: What white people can do to work toward racial justice (Paul Kivel) (listen - mp3)

Favorite movie: Malcolm X "I have to admit I liked Denzel Washington a lot, but I also liked the movie a lot."

Favorite music: "I listen to a lot of gospel music."

The piece of advice she most often gives: I read this quote that says 'all is well, all is well, all matters of things are well.' That is the principle by which I try to live my life, with a philosophy of abundance. Everything that I will need will be provided to me as I need it. I am an eternal optimist. Most people are intrinsically good. We don't have to sit around and be despondent..." (listen - mp3)

Getting to Denver: We are going to pack my six month old son and our seven-year-old daughter into our Honda Civic and my husband and I are going to drive through the night, praying that they stay asleep.the 14 hours to Denver. It's a wonderful opportunity to bring, especially, the seven year old into the process and see the sights and smell the smells and hear the things that are going on. She door-knocked for Kerry and she's really passionate about politics. (listen - mp3)

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No news at the conventions?

Posted at 11:20 AM on August 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

Like the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game, the lament that there's no news at a political convention officially kicks off the convention coverage season.

Jack Shafer, writing in Slate, has tossed the first pitch.

A still better way to improve convention coverage would be to withdraw all reporters and force the curious to rely on a C-SPAN feed: Unless a brokered convention threatens to break out, these political gatherings tend to produce very little real news. Yet the networks, the newspapers, the magazines, and the Web sites continue to insist on sending battalions of reporters to sift for itsy specks of information. According to Forbes, 15,000 pressies are expected to attend each of the conventions. Slate, I'm embarrassed to admit, is sending a team of eight to Denver and six to St. Paul. Attention! Don Graham! We're spending your cash like it's Zimbabwean bank notes!

Shafer is correct, at least to the extent that far too many mainstream journalists -- and even more in the blogosphere -- believe that convention coverage involves sitting in a darkened hall somewhere and waiting for someone to deliver a tinkle of news. But why would they? It's a rehearsed infommercial, and this isn't 1968.

So what's a reporter to do? Leave. Look for a better location to learn the real stories behind the script from which the Dems and Republicans want the media to read. Eventually, they reveal their true selves and deliver a far better story.

I've used this story before, but Shafer hasn't heard it, obviously. It's Boston 2004, the Democrats have trotted out the image campaign to make John Kerry a war hero. The former Fleet Center was bedecked in pictures of Kerry in Vietnam, all intended to provide some salve to the wounds inflicted by the Swift Boat Veterans.

The message: Democrats are patriotic, too. It was a carefully crafted message swallowed hook, line, and sinker by the major media. But on one morning, after a late-night convention session, an event was scheduled on Bunker Hill -- a salute to veterans. Most reporters didn't go, figuring there was no news to be had. That, and it was a mile away from Fleet Center.

They were wrong.

Thousands of Democratic delegates stayed away from the event. Had reporters spent more time looking for these angles instead of lamenting the lack of news, perhaps more than one news outlet would've told you the story of the convention that was reluctant to "salute the vets."

Fast-forward to New York City weeks later. The Republicans draped themselves in 9-11. Widows speak to a hushed convention. "We will not forget," becomes the rallying cry.

A day later, Minnesota delegates to that convention refuse to take the time to talk with another group of widows and survivors -- the ones whose loved ones' remains are buried in a Staten Island garbage dump; the ones who can't get sympathy from either the Republican mayor or the Republican governor of New York. As they're touring the site, I tell the delegates about the group of families. They return to their buses instead.

Here's the slideshow I put together at the time (Sorry it's in RealAudio format, it was 2004.)

In San Diego in 1996, a "Faith and Freedom" rally became a metaphor for the party as a whole. The far-right evangelicals were allowed in; the moderates stayed home.

In Boston, we started a dialog on whether Catholic Democrats have an obligation to their Church and faith that supersedes that to their constituents? That didn't appear on any agenda.

And in New York, Laura McCallum was one of the first people to analyze the possibility of a national role for Gov. Tim Pawlenty. That was four years ago, and people going into that convention forget that it was Sen. Norm Coleman, not Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was considered a rising star of the party. Pawlenty got the love tap from the head of the Club for Growth, the ultra-conservative kingmakers.

By looking for news, MPR did an outstanding job finding the stories, and we're poised to provide even more over the next few weeks.

We're obviously not the only ones looking -- and finding -- these stories. And, sure, it's unclear whether we'll find their equals in Denver or St. Paul. But if we don't, it will only be because we didn't look hard enough.

It's our job to ignore the infommercial. But Shafer's suggestion -- staying home -- isn't the way to do it.

Update 12:13 Media lecturer Jeff Jarvis gets his licks in, too. But remember, that's a journalism "expert" advocating journalists stay home and just steal other people's work. If you haven't looked for the news, how do you know it's not there?

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Last call for late drinking

Posted at 12:37 PM on August 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

For all the talk about the need to stay open late to allow Republican National Convention delegates -- and their media followers -- to drink, there's been a somewhat surprising lack of plans to keep the doors open, at least where official "parties" are concerned.

According to the schedule of lobbying-related parties I wrote about last week, only one event is scheduled past the normal 2 a.m. closing time. Each night the Warehouse Productions Party is being held from 10-3 a.m. in Minneapolis.

Nothing is scheduled late (or early, depending on your perspective) in St. Paul. And that, apparently, includes the non-official locations. The Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, is holding a news conference this afternoon to try to get the city to lower its $2,500 "fee" for bars and restaurants that want to stay open until 4 a.m.

The Chamber, which will be joined at the news conference by bar owners, says "the current fee places Saint Paul venues at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring cities." That would refer, of course, to Minneapolis, where there's a $100 fee to stay open late.

(h/t: Tom Weber)

Update Here's Tom's story.

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Free speech

Posted at 3:44 PM on August 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

There is free speech, and then there is free speech.

Minnesotans have gotten a steady dose of free speech tutorials in the last few months from would-be protesters at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

Today, for example, two groups are suing the city of St. Paul, not because they don't have the right to free speech, but they haven't been given close enough access to be heard by their intended targets -- the delegates.

It's an interesting claim -- that you not only have the right to speak freely, you have the right to be heard when you do speak.

Then there are actual cases of people not being allowed to speak. That's playing out today in Boston, where a trio of MIT students discovered a significant security flaw in the Boston mass-transit system's fare-card program. They had planned to release their findings at DEFCON 16, a hackers convention today. The MBTA -- the transit system in the city where some say freedom was born -- sued the group and was granted an injunction, preventing the three from speaking... anywhere.

"The court's order is an illegal prior restraint on legitimate academic research in violation of the First Amendment," said Electronic Frontier Foundation Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick.

It's an argument that probably has more legs to it than the St. Paul case. But no worries, Minnesota, your name comes up all the time when free speech cases are debated. For it was Mr. Jay Near and Howard Guilford who published The Saturday Press, and wrote on September 24, 1927 that "a Jewish gangster was in control of gambling, bootlegging, and racketeering in Minneapolis" and that law enforcement agencies were looking the other way.

The attempts to silence -- literally -- the press (in this case) made it to the Supreme Court where the idea that muzzling free speech is censorship was further codified.

For his trouble, Mr. Guilford was shot dead.

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Road closings for the GOP convention

Posted at 3:21 PM on August 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Where can't you drive -- or ride your bike -- during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.? Just about anywhere around the Xcel Energy Center. Releasing its "second phase" of transportation restrictions, the St. Paul Police Department said the restrictions will start on the Friday before the convention and continue until Saturday after the big show.

Says the release:

The view outside the Xcel

Posted at 1:56 PM on August 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

MPR's Tim Nelson will be on All Things Considered this afternoon to talk about the change outside the Xcel Energy Center, where the Republicans will hold their national convention later this month.

Tim put together this spiffy view of the place.

Panorama of Xcel Energy Center on CleVR.com

"The photo was taken this morning from a parking ramp near the site. In the foreground is the Cleveland Circle parking lot, about where the Ice Palace stood in 2004. The large white structure under construction in the foreground will house FoxNews. The ABC television network is also expected to set up operations at this site," Tim reports.

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The political conventions: Party lineup

Posted at 10:58 AM on August 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Both the Republican and Democratic delegates to their respective conventions have very little to do. They have to approve a party platform that no one pays attention to, and endorse a candidate that, basically, has already been endorsed.

So what's left? Parties. And what's the role of the parties? Influence.

The Sunlight Foundation has compiled a list of all the parties being thrown by various organizations who have some skin in the legislating game.

Here's the Democrats' schedule in Denver. Here's the Republicans' convention schedule in Minneapolis St. Paul. (The Sunshine Sunlight Foundation identified the convention as being in Minneapolis, something that has increasingly driven organizers crazy. But, let's face it, it's a losing battle, St. Paul.)

Though there are many more parties and events scheduled for Democrats, Republicans have some of the more interesting ones. Bank of America, for example is hosting the Bank of America Goes Green event at the University Club. AT&T is saluting the Screen Actors Guild at the Fine Line. (What? The Republicans are saluting a labor union?)

Late-night, post convention "receptions" are bieng hosted by Daimler, the Distilled Spirits Council (Solera), the Recording Industry Association of America, Honeywell, Citibank, and Anheuser Busch.

Musical acts scheduled here include Smash Mouth (Coalition for A Conservative Ma Majority at the Aqua Night Club on Monday 9/1), the Beach Boys (Atrium at International Market Square - 9/1/), Big Head Todd (The Fine Line on 9/1), LeAnn Rimes and the Bellamy Brothers (Keep Florida a Red State - Site to be determined on 9/1), Gretchen Wilson, John Rich, and Cowboy Troy (Trocaderos on 9/2, sponsored by AT&T), Styx (9/2 somewhere in downtown Minneapolis, sponsored by the food and ag industry), Super Diamond & Boogie Knights (9/3 at the Fine Line). The Recording Industry Association is promising only an "A-list musical guest at Epic on Wednesday 9/3.

Not all the events here are sympathetic to the Republicans. Target (up to recently run by a very "red" CEO) is sponsoring the Creative Coalition Gala Concert at the Depot on September 3rd. Charlie Daniels is typical Republican entertainment. But guests Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, Maggie Gyllenhaal are not.

According to The Hill, tickets to this party (and a similar one in Denver) will be among the most coveted.

All that said, both conventions have failed to live up to the Chicago convention in 1996 in terms of involving the neighborhoods of the host city. Rather than host the traditional delegate party on the Sunday night before the convention in a single location, Chicago's neighborhoods hosted individual receptions. Delegates from each state were sent to a different neighborhood. It was a fabulous way to get to know the people of the host city. I wrote about it in this 12-year old post. We didn't have blogs back then.

No political convention since has come as close to involving the locals.

(h/t: Jon Gordon)

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Inside the "X"

Posted at 10:05 AM on August 6, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The Republican National Convention people have released the latest weekly time-lapse video of the transformation of the Xcel Energy Center into the RNC convention palace.

The thing is: It doesn't look like all that much has changed. Such is the joy of removing one seat at a time. Work seems to be concentrated on the main stage.

Outside the Xcel Center, however, fences have gone up on some of the parking lots that the Republicans have taken over. They'll mostly house temporary trailers that serve as offices and production facilities for the big-media companies.

Meanwhile, out in Denver, officials started taking reservations this week for a public tour of the Pepsi Center on the Friday before the convention opens. The reservation list filled up in one day, the Denver Post reports.

The Democrats have also provided a YouTube update on the construction process.

MPR is sending a ton of people to Denver (and of course to St. Paul). News Cut will provide some behind-the-scenes slideshows from both. And as befits the nature of this space, I have no idea what stories I'll find at each convention, but they'll likely be from off the beaten path.

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RNC security update

Posted at 3:32 PM on August 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The upper crust of the "public safety community" held a news conference late this afternoon to assure people that there will be enough cops to provide security during the Republican National Convention later this month.

St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington did the talking, saying his department has worked out agreements with 54 other law enforcement agencies in the state to provide help, and he's still trying to cut deals with 28 others. Cops will be coming from as far away as Duluth (40 cops) and Rochester (up to 20 officers). And, Harrington says, out-of-state law enforcement agencies -- from Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois -- have been "invited" to assist.

But some communities have been concerned they'll get stuck paying the time-and-a-half rate if St. Paul doesn't fully reimburse them.

At the last Republican convention -- New York City in 2004 -- cops complained that they couldn't see their families, were forced to work double shifts, and had to sleep in the police stations. One police officer guarding the Bunker Hill subway stop in the Charlestown section of Boston During the Democratic convention told me essentially the same thing. Harrington says that won't happen in St. Paul, at least with the close-to-home cops. "That's why we want to bring in as many who are local as possible," he said, "so they can go home and be in that nurturing environment during the week."

Like Boston, where the Democratic National Convention was held in 2004, St. Paul firefighters will be asked to help out with "traffic control." In Boston, that was code for "being available at important intersections to hose down protesters if it came to that."

But Harrington says his department has no information that suggests any "threats" to the convention.

The officials still have not released details on security perimeters and road closings; that will come next week. But Harrington says downtown St. Paul "will be open for business." You may have to walk to where you're going, however.

Yards away from Harrington's news conference, several off-duty members of the St. Paul Police Federation picketed in a dispute over a new contract.

The city has offered a 10-percent pay increase over three years, according to Mayor Chris Coleman. The union says its officers rank 25th in the state, compared to other police departments, even though it has the second-highest crime rate.

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The militancy of the painted face

Posted at 1:32 PM on July 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Some would-be protesters at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul today ran up against a group that may be more likely than the cops to give them a hard time -- reporters.

Today, the Anti-War Committee announced a protest at the Xcel Center on September 4. The group received a permit for a protest, but not at the time it wanted.

"Day 4 will be for a committed and more militant group of activists...." Committee spokesperson Misty Rowan said at a news conference. (Listen)

"Militant?" Say what?

"Anything and everything that will bring a strong message to Republicans," she said. "Our hope is (the convention) will go on with a bang instead of a fizzle."

Guess what the first question was. "Like what?"

"I don't think it's bad to protest with something that's loud and spirited," co-speaker Katrina Plotz (pictured above) said. "Creative tactics that aren't going to be at the traditional march."

On her list? Painted faces.

What about what most people think when they hear a term like militant, violence, for example?

"The violence that I'm worried about is the violence that's being carried out in Iraq right now," she answered, which isn't really an answer.

"You're not answering my question," a blogger said, uttering the five words that mark a great political journalist.

"I know," she said, adding that she doesn't consider the blockades being planned -- allegedly -- by other groups "violence."

"That's not what we're planning," she said.

"We worked very hard to make the Day 1 march on the Xcel something that you can bring your family to and you can all come out for the war. And we believe Day 4 is for the truly committed and for the people who really want to see change and expect that to be a little harder to come to than just showing up with the kids and the balloons." (Listen)

That sounds almost militant. Perhaps, too militant, because the other speaker jumped in to spin that answer...

"If people are wondering about Day 4, is it going to be safe, is it going to be OK to bring their families, we would say 'yes.' I think the more the better."

A few minutes later, however, she said militant might mean that "people face a little more risk by coming down." (Listen)

After saying there wouldn't be any "sit-ins" or "die-ins," that led us back to the question of how the second protest is more militant than the first? "I would say if people have questions, they should get in contact with us," she said.

Hello?

She said people should go to an organizing committee meeting to find out what the protest is going to look like.

Listen to the entire news conference.

(h/t: Tom Weber)

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Credentials

Posted at 4:02 PM on July 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

Diamond is out of town, the Xcel Energy Center is in the hands of the Republican Party and you need credentials to get around.

This shot is courtesy of MPR reporter Tom Weber.

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Second banana St. Paul

Posted at 9:38 AM on July 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

As the Republican National Convention gets closer, one can feel the frustration building that St. Paul, where the theatrical peformances convention sessions will be held each evening, is playing second fiddle to Minneapolis.

The New York Times, up until recently, has been referring to the convention being in Minneapolis. And it was only this week that some bosses in the newsroom got an apology from National Public Radio for referring to the convention being in the city that is not the state's capital.

Now if someone would just tell the Republican National Convention organizers who have given Minneapolis top-billing in its video slideshow blog posting introducing the convention to attendees. It's too bad because the St. Paul video is much better than Minneapolis'.

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Air security for Twin Cities

Posted at 11:59 AM on July 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Media, The political conventions

I can't help but point out the breathlessly delivered "investigation" last night by KSTP on air safety requirements for the upcoming Republican National Convention....

.. contained an awfully lot of facts available to News Cut readers 2 1/2 months ago.

What will happen if a pilot strays too close to the Xcel?

This...

First the fighter jets will try to contact the pilot by radio. Then they'll get serious by dropping flares. Then they'll get really serious.

And, no, the pilot of the plane above wasn't being stupid. He was flying along -- legally -- when the pilot of the fighter jet asked if he would mind being used for intercept practice.

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Air traffic to increase during convention

Posted at 6:39 PM on July 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

The airports around the Twin Cities haven't gotten much attention from the media in advance of the Republican National Convention in August. But the Twin Cities Business Journal reports the increase in private jet traffic by the bigwigs should be quite noticeable.

Airports with longer runways -- including St. Paul Downtown, Anoka County-Blaine, Flying Cloud (in Eden Prairie) and Minneapolis-St. Paul International -- will likely see the biggest increases in private traffic, he said.

St. Paul Downtown Airport has yet to predict convention traffic, said Greg Fries, airport manager. But he's planning to work with the firms that service and store planes at the airport to prepare for a rush.

During the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Hanscom Field, a large reliever airport near Boston, received about 100 extra planes, Shift Manager Neal Ivester said. "That took a lot of extra space, so we had to cone off certain areas," he said. "We didn't have to close any taxiways or runways, but we're lucky because we're an old Air Force base and have a significant amount of ramp space to utilize."

Security concerns are likely to keep private pilots firmly on the ground. For many, the hassle of having no-fly zones popping up out of nowhere, increasing the risk of a confrontation with one of the several fighters jets which will be deployed to the area for the convention, isn't worth the joy of flight.

Regardless of what kind of private plane or jet is flying, St. Cloud and Eau Claire are bound to be the big winners in the "air traffic" sweepstakes. According to sources, fliers will have to stop at one of those two airports before receiving permission to fly into the Twin Cities region.

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Does volunteering for the GOP convention make you a Republican?

Posted at 9:57 AM on July 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, The political conventions

Considering that the Democratic convention in Denver has, so far, turned out to be a financial disaster and a logistical quagmire, Democrat big-shots have got to be kicking themselves for not picking St. Paul as the host city, beaten out by the Republicans.

St. Paul, Minneapolis and, therefore, the state of Minnesota is a Democratic state. There's no real indication that the state is the swing state it was in 2004. Sure, we have a Republican governor. But Tim Pawlenty won re-election in 2006 by the skin of his teeth, partly because he was in a three-way race and his chief opponent -- Mike Hatch -- spooked voters in the last days of the campaign by sending his running mate to farm country with no apparent knowledge -- at least on that day -- of the number one issue (ethanol) and then capped it off with a tirade against a reporter, who he is alleged to have called "a Republican whore."

Fast-forward to 2008. Republicans are due in St. Paul, and the region is having a hard time finding volunteers to help out.

Why?

Part of the answer comes in an e-mail today from my old Minnesota Fantasy Legislature friend George Linkert. It appears that people in this Democratic state don't want to help Republicans put on a good show.

I don't know how much you are following the upcoming RNC convention, and the push for volunteers, but I was involved with some interesting discussion this last week I thought you would find interesting.

I'm on the board for the Seward Concert Band, a community band based out of South Minneapolis. We were asked last week to perform on the stage at Civicfest , a non-partisan community event being held in conjunction with the RNC convention. I was in charge of polling our band members to see if we could have a viable band.

At first, responses were typically polite "yes" or "no." Then someone exploring the site, found only RNC gear available at the shop, which raised her partisan flag. After this discovery, there was some e-mail discussion about whether this was truly a non-partisan event, and a couple people started to bow out. Some have tried to change this tone in our discussion, but I am doubtful at this point if we would be able to pull this off.

I know there was some news in the last week about recruiting volunteers, I wonder if other organizations like ours are having these sorts of difficulties?

Officials of both cities have tried to stress, basically, that volunteering to help St. Paul (and Minneapolis) put its best face(s) forward for Republicans doesn't make you a Republican., but a lot of people aren't buying it.

If you're a volunteer,thinking about volunteering, or have decided not to volunteer, let's hear from you.

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Denver vs. St. Paul

Posted at 1:08 PM on June 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: The political conventions

St. Paul vs. Denver. Who's better at putting on a convention?

The early line? St. Paul.

Indications leaked out today that the Democratic National Convention is behind schedule and short of cash.

Last month, for example, the Denver host committee tried to renegotiate its deal to provide up to $55 million to bring the convention to town. Reportedly it was $15 million short. St. Paul? Republican officials are upset that the state of Minnesota didn't back a line of credit in the event of a cash shortfall, but -- at least so far -- there's no report of a cash shortfall. Advantage: St. Paul.

(Update: A news release issued Friday from the GOP said the group had met its fundraising goal for the convention.)

Today, however, the Democratic National Convention Committee angered a fairly powerful contingtent -- the media -- when it canceled a planned walkthrough at the Pepsi Center next week. That's the event during which media organizations plan the infrastructure and workspace required to cover the coronation for Barack Obama. That leaves hundreds of media companies on the hook for airfares and hotel reservations they had arranged.

"We want to be sure that when we host you and other media for this event, we're prepared with the information you expect us to have so that it is an efficient and productive use of your time," said Theodore LeCompte, the director of media logistics for the convention."We recognize the significant inconvenience this may cause in your travel and logistical planning. Postponing the event allows us to work through outstanding issues and ensure a successful event when media do arrive in Denver."

And St. Paul? The walkthrough and planning sessions at the Xcel Energy Center occurred a month ago. An earlier session took place last December.
Advantage: St. Paul.

And earlier this week, I noted that St. Paul will keep its homeless population within sight of the convention. Denver, on the other hand, is trying to hide them. Advantage: It depends on how you feel about the homeless.

In both cities, parade routes for demonstrators has been an issue. In Denver, a route has been finalized for groups who wish to march "toward the Pepsi Center," according to a news release. The groups will be allowed within a half-mile of the convention. In St. Paul, the issue has been more contentious -- Republican conventions tend to draw more protesters -- the protest route will take groups within 300 feet of Xcel Center. Advantage: St. Paul.

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