Sometimes you just have to say “What the Fuck?!?”
Coming to you live from the exciting world of still annoyingly ill here; and I'm going to start talking American politics again. Given the family and friends I have over there, that my humanity and personal politics don't end at passport control and the degree to which American Foreign Policy affects the world this is likely to happen pretty often - I'm going to tag it so that if it aint your bag, baby, you can avoid it without hassle.
First we're going to talk about an amusing disparity of legal response; consider this for a moment. A plot by three men to kill a presidential candidate is discovered. They have appropriate weaponry, a hotel room to use as a base near where the candidate will accept their party nomination, disguises, fake documents, tactical gear, the whole nine yards. They are caught by the FBI, who request that the book be thrown at them - the state attorney general refuses on the grounds that they were 'more aspirational than operational' - not a true threat.
A man in prison sends a single threatening letter to John McCain containing baby powder and the same district attorney is howling for his blood and comes crashing down with the full weight of the law behind him, saying "We won't stand for threats of this kind in Colorado."
So tell me, what is the significant difference between these two cases? What is this overwhelming disparity that justifies such a hugely contrasting response? It looks pretty simple to me; the first involves some white men plotting to kill a black democratic candidate, the second involves a black man threatening a white republican candidate. We hold these truths to be self evident, eh?
Next up, we take a step over to the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities where Law enforcement have been exercising a heavy booted, heavy fisted approach that would have the most extreme elements of our force looking on in awe and the city itself appears to be in lockdown by the mercenary firm Blackwater - this is not a good time to be in Mineapolis St Paul.
Little Light has an awesome post up about the Portland Street Medics, a peaceful group who provide free medical care at street level and their experiences at the hands of Police and private security firms during the convention. BrownFemiPower has written a riposte to the usual cries of 'well what did they expect, protesting an event like that, srsly' that always appear in these situations. Gague has posted on livejournal about the American use of Anti Terrorism laws to prosecute some of those arrested, something that should be more than a little familliar to us here in the UK.
If you're up to the minute on this stuff already; worry not, this post isn't for you. If any of this is news for you, hopefully it helps you understand why we're backing Obama/Biden here at the Den of Iniquity because hot damn, it's time for some change here.
It is strange because my vote never felt that weighty to me before, in fact I'm sure it won't make any difference really because Idaho is as red as they come.
But when I have you, your family and many people here aching for Bush to be gone and fearing that McCain will give us four more years of the same, suddenly my single vote feels like the voice for a whole community.
It doesn't have any more weight in real terms, but I certainly feel more obligated to ensure that our little patch here is represented.