Posts by Lindsay Beyerstein

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.

DNC Police T-Shirt:'We Get Up Early to Beat the Crowds'
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 2, 2008 at 11:24 AM.

The Denver police union is selling t-shirts DNC commemorative t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "We Get Up Early to Beat the Crowds:" 

DENVER -- The Denver police union is selling T-shirts that poke fun at protesters at last month's Democratic National Convention, but the main target isn't laughing. The back of the shirts reads, "We get up early to beat the crowds" and "2008 DNC," and has a caricature of a police officer holding a baton. The front has the number 68 with a slash through it, a reference to the Recreate 68 Coalition, which organized several demonstrations during the convention.

I hope this design is introduced as evidence in every police brutality lawsuit launched against the Denver Police Department from now on.

Makes me extra sad to see a union joking about beating people up. 

Kurtz: Journalists Privately Admit to Censoring Palin Coverage
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 29, 2008 at 4:04 PM.

WaPo media critic Howie Kurtz says some journalists admit they're self-censoring their coverage of Republican vice presidential nominee's flailing incompetence, lest they be perceived as "piling on":

While some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they're piling on, pundits on the right are jumping ship. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough says Palin "just seems out of her league." National Review Editor Rich Lowry called her performance "dreadful." Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher described the interview as a "train wreck." Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker urged Palin to quit the race, saying: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

The interview is drawing extraordinary attention because of the McCain campaign's calculated decision to shield Palin from reporters. No vice-presidential nominee in modern history has been this inaccessible to the media, reinforcing the perception that she can't hit major-league pitching. When the networks balked at recording Palin's photo ops with foreign leaders at the U.N. last week unless journalists were allowed in -- and a CNN producer was granted access for all of 29 seconds -- the no-press dictum degenerated into farce. [WaPo]

So much for the myth of the ravening liberal media elite bent of the destruction of plucky Sarah Palin.

Happily, your faithful correspondent has no compunctions about covering Sarah Palin's faults and foibles. Check out my new piece in AlterNet on the Wasilla rape kit saga.

FBI Raids Home of Alleged Palin Email Hacker
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 22, 2008 at 12:23 PM.

The Wired blog Threat Level is reporting that a student from the University of Tennessee may have claimed to have hacked Sarah Palin's email account by resetting her password using publicly available information to answer the security questions.

The student allegedly posted a first person account of his exploits on a message board. Threat Level declined to publish the individual's real name because the link between the guy and the post is still "tenuous" and the authorities haven't named any suspects. 

Update 2:09pm: Fox is reporting that the FBI served a warrant on the home of David Parnell a UT student and the son of a Democratic state representative. 

Karl Rove Tells the Truth: Palin 'Not the Most Qualified'
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 18, 2008 at 10:52 AM.

In a rare candid moment, Karl Rove admitted that Sarah Palin "is not the most qualified candidate" and that she was a "political pick." However, he added that he had no qualms about her ability to lead.

Speaking with the Associated Press after appearing at a health care conference in Orlando, Florida, the Republican puppeteer predicted, ""Nothing lasts for 60-some-odd days," Rove told The Associated Press. "Will she be the center of attention in the remaining 48 days? No, but she came on in a very powerful way and has given a sense of urgency to the McCain campaign that's pretty remarkable."

Maybe he'll disappear with Carly.

Palin Blanks on Bush Doctrine, Sexism to Blame
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 12, 2008 at 9:24 AM.

Okay, enough is enough. John McCain's team has got to stop messing with Sarah Palin. I mean, this is getting sexist. They totally set up America's ruby lipped hockey mom by not telling her what the Bush Doctrine was before her 9/11 interview with Charlie Gibson!

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

McCain's Mean Streak: He Only Pushed One Woman in a Wheelchair
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 9, 2008 at 4:17 AM.

On Sunday, McClatchy chronicled some of John McCain's most notorious temper tantrums:

There's a lengthy list of similar outbursts through the years: McCain pushing a woman in a wheelchair, trying to get an Arizona Republican aide fired from three different jobs, berating a young GOP activist on the night of his own 1986 Senate election and many more.

McCain observers say the incidents have been blown out of proportion.

Yeah, a senator pushes just one woman in a wheelchair and suddenly it's a big deal.

Tom Harkin has the best line in the McClatchy story:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Continuous Police State: Hundreds of Demonstrators Detained at RNC
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 5, 2008 at 6:46 AM.

Police detained hundreds demonstrators on the final night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Approximately 250 people were arrested shortly before John McCain took to the stage to accept the presidential nomination. That's in addition to the 422 people who had already been arrested earlier in the week.

Riot police held approximate 300 people, including journalists and observers for nearly an hour on an overpass spanning Interstate 94. Police instructed the crowd to get on the bridge, then announced that everyone on the bridge was under arrest. 

The Joint Information Center offered conflicting accounts about the status of the assembly permits for last night's gatherings. When I called at 4pm, a spokesman told me that the organizers of the March were slated to march from the capitol, through downtown, around the xCel Center and back to the capitol and that the protest was set to go until 7pm. 

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Media Silent, But Activist Groups Loud About RNC Police Brutality
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 3, 2008 at 3:35 PM.

A slideshow by Lindsay Beyerstein of security forces tear-gassing a peaceful Poor Peoples March during the Republican National Convention, Sept. 2, 2008. Set to music by Junior Murvin.

Several activist groups held an outdoor press conference in St. Paul this morning to decry police brutality against peaceful protesters. Last night, police filed tear gas into a peaceful crowd on 7th Street when the group did not immediately scatter upon the order to disperse -- rapid egress was hampered by the fact that the the police had encircled groups of people and locked down intersections at both ends of the block.

The demonstrators were part of the Poor People's March. The March is not affiliated with the anarchist groups whose members destroyed property during a demonstration on Monday. When some anarchist protesters joined the procession, organizers asked them to leave or move to the back. They were concerned that the anarchists might cause trouble or attract unwanted police attention.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Riot Cops Gas Docile Crowd Outside the RNC
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 3, 2008 at 9:31 AM.

Police officers used tear gas on a peaceful crowd that was following instructions in St. Paul on Tuesday evening. In an overwhelming show of force, well over a hundred riot police locked down 7th Street between Wabasha and St. Peter, surrounded protesters in the Poor People's March, media, and bystanders and then proceeded to launch several cannisters of tear gas after the crowd was hemmed in.

The police were clearly in a nasty mood. Shortly before the tear gas started flowing an officer on horseback made his horse lunge at me to force me off a concrete median. The traffic island was public property and nobody said anything to indicate it was off limits. If he'd asked me to move, I would have done so immediately. Luckily, since the intersection was locked down, there weren't any cars coming.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Hundreds Arrested at RNC Protests
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 2, 2008 at 1:40 PM.

As of 10:30 pm last night, 284 protesters had been arrested and booked at the Ramsey County Jail in Saint Paul, MN. The most common charges included obstruction, unlawful assembly, conspiracy to riot, and rioting.

The bulk of the arrests took place late yesterday afternoon. The mass arrests started around 3:00pm when officers dragnetted protesters on Shepherd Road in a park near the river. The officers encircled the protesters and detained them for over an hour. About 50 people were let go, according to Gena Berglund of the National Lawyers Guild, which dispatched between 80 and 90 trained legal observers to monitor and videotape yesterday's protests.

Some of the protesters arrested during yesterday's demonstration in St. Paul began to make their way through the court system today. The first hearings began at 8:00am at the Ramsey County Court. Another round of hearings will begin at 1:00pm.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Police State RNC: A Nun and Eight Others Swept into Unmarked Van by Cops in Minnesota
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on August 31, 2008 at 12:35 PM.

UPDATE (12:34 PDT):: One of the 9 protesters arrested was a nun, seen being loaded into an unmarked blue van. The 9 were apparently trying to climb a fence near a church.

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UPDATE: ColdSnap is reporting 9 arrests downtown near the Excel center and police massing all over the downtown core.

The National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police Brutality have filed an emergency motion to stop the seizure of cell phones and cameras during the RNC.

The groups will hold a joint press conference at Hennepin County Government Plaza to discuss their application for an emergency injunction, according to a tweet issued by the ColdSnap Legal Collective.

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The 6 activists arrested during police raids in advance of the Republican National Convention are being held without charge by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, the Minnesota Independent reports.

The arrestees are being held on probable cause holds. These holds give the authorities 36 hours to charge them or let them go. Holds are typically used to give investigators more time to gather evidence before filing formal charges.

Holds allow police to charge first and ask questions later. Sometimes that's a good thing. Arrest opportunities are unpredictable. A suspect could slip away in the time it takes to turn a solid suspicion into sufficient evidence to file charges. A probable cause hold buys the police some time to dot the i's and cross the t's.

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Inside an RNC Raid in Minnesota
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on August 29, 2008 at 3:47 PM.

Thanks to the miracle of cellular technology, I was able to talk to a homeowner while his home was surrounded by police conducting an RNC-related raid. At approximatedly two-thirty this afternoon, I reached Mike Whelan, a waiter and army veteran, at his duplex at 951 Iglehart Ave. in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Whelan said he'd invited independent observers from the group LegalWatch stay in one half of his side-by-side duplex while they monitored RNC protests.

Whelan described himself as a supporter of the RNC demonstrations, but said he is not affiliated with any particular group. "I want to build a country that's based on good social values," he explained.

When I spoke to him, Whelan was waiting in one half of the duplex with his roommates, Dan and Julian. The three were afraid to go outside because the police were still there. Whelan said he thought that the police were inside the opposite side of the duplex, where the legal observers were staying. "I think they are detaining people," he added.

Whelan, who seemed remarkably calm for a guy whose flower garden had just been trampled by police with drawn automatic weapons, said he'd just returned from a morning of garage sale shopping when the commotion started. That would have been about one o'clock local time. He described what happened:

"About an hour and a half ago 20 to 30 heavily armed police officers surrounded the house," Whelan said. "One of my roommates said 'I want to see a warrant' and she was immediately detained."

"Are they still outside?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, they're still outside," Whelan replied cheerfully, "The streets are blocked off."

"How you did figure out there was a raid going on?" I asked.

"It sounded like people were falling down on my porch," he said, "Cops were running up both sides of the house onto the porch.

Whelan says his roommate, Erin Stalmaker, went out to talk to talk to the police. She asked the officers why they were there. The officers asked why people were running away from them. Erin reportedly told the officers that their drawn automatic weapons probably had something to do with it. She was detained after asking to see a warrant.

"Are you scared," I asked."

"No, I'm a veteran," he said, "I was in the army. I was a military police officer. I wouldn't have done this."

Whelan said it was especially perplexing that the police would target his home.

"There's nothing here," he said, "These are the "checking" people. They're not even going to be in the demonstration. Some are lawyers."

Whelan was watching a large crowd of legal observers gathering across the street, many wearing red or green hats. The police officers he could identify were from St. Paul, but he thought there might be other forces on the scene as well. The officers were wearing black uniforms. Their vehicles were "non-descript" vans, not police cruisers. TV cameras were also on the scene. Whelan couldn't be sure because a tree was blocking his view, but he thought City Council member Melvin Carter had arrived. Whelan called him when the raid started. (Talk about constituent service.)

"You figure this would be going on in South Africa, or Russia, not in St Paul," Whelan said, marveling at the incongruity of it all,"St. Paul is nice."

'Free Speech Zones,' aka 'Freedom Cages,' at the DNC
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on August 25, 2008 at 4:23 PM.

My first assignment at the DNC was to find a designated "free speech zone" aka a "freedom cage." Apparently, there are several around the Pepsi Center. This one is near the corner of 7th St. and Auraria Pkwy, in sight of an amusement park.

The cage is just a parking lot in the baking sun, surrounded by a fine-gauge metal fence.

Street protests are forbidden outside these zones. Every effort has been made to isolate the areas from public view. DNC organizers made a big deal out of the fact that protesters would be allowed to use the parade route.

A "parade route" sounds public, maybe even prominent. In fact, the march takes place inside a semi-opaque corridor of cyclone fencing. Where the cyclone gauge is wide enough to see through, the fencers added green mesh to block out the light. On one side of the corridor is the University of Colorado, which is closed to the public today. On the other side is the security zone around the Pepsi Center.

I followed a Falun Gong marching band through the corridor in the mid-day sun. Between the altitude and the heat, nobody was feeling very well by the time we arrived at the cage.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

More Details on Bush Admin Iraq Forgery Allegations
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise on August 7, 2008 at 7:03 AM.

Louis Bayard details Ron Suskind's claim that George Tenet ordered CIA officials Rob Richer and John Maguire to forge a letter from Iraqi security chief Habbush to Saddam Hussein.

The letter was a fictional smoking gun tying Iraq to 9/11.

It's generally accepted that the Habbush letter is a forgery.

The question remains, who forged it? Juan Cole suspects that Habbush forged the letter himself and that the CIA "authenticated" it in bad faith through its asset Ayad Allawi--whom journalist Con Coughlin contacted to vouchsafe the letter's authenticity after it was leaked to him.

What's novel and remarkable is that Suskind got Richer and Maguire to claim on the record that George Tenet ordered them to forge it.

Suskind believes the White House ordered the forgery in response to Joe Wilson's 2003 op-ed debunking many of the administration's lies about Saddam Hussein's alleged attempts to obtain uranium from Niger.

Did White House Officials Pressure the FBI to Blame Anthrax Attacks on Al Qaeda?
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise on August 6, 2008 at 5:22 AM.

An interesting item from Saturday's New York Daily News:

WASHINGTON - In the immediate aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda, but investigators ruled that out, the Daily News has learned.

After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was "beaten up" during President Bush's morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide.

"They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East," the retired senior FBI official told The News.

On October 15, 2001, President Bush said, "There may be some possible link" to Bin Laden, adding, "I wouldn't put it past him." Vice President Cheney also said Bin Laden's henchmen were trained "how to deploy and use these kinds of substances, so you start to piece it all together."

But by then the FBI already knew anthrax spilling out of letters addressed to media outlets and to a U.S. senator was a military strain of the bioweapon. "Very quickly [Fort Detrick, Md., experts] told us this was not something some guy in a cave could come up with," the ex-FBI official said. "They couldn't go from box cutters one week to weapons-grade anthrax the next. [NYDN]

This item relies on anonymous sources. I'd like to a name attached to these claims.

The source's account seems plausible in light of the Bush administration's extensive record of public deception on matters pertaining to national security.

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