Post in Republican Silence, Who Pays for RNC?
Mitch continues down his path of preemptively blaming everyone to the left of him (that is, mind you, most of St. Paul) for the future acts of everyone else to the left of him who may cause trouble at the RNC. Despite no evidence that anyone from the St. Paul’s DFL side of the aisle in any way condones the violence Mitch warns us about, he continues in his “Start minding your own people or face the consequences” mindset. The truth of the matter is that there are signs of potential bad behavior on both sides here. Here on the St. Paul Issues Forum we’ve seen the thinly-veiled threats that Mitch and his friends are going to hold us all responsible for the “dirtball demonstrators.” But in other venues, Mitch sounds far less concerned about civil unrest, and has actually invoked the specter of a vigilante group he’s hoping will come to St. Paul to help deal with the riff raff. Shortly after the convention’s visit to St. Paul was announced, Mitch was on that AM radio powerhouse, 1280, the “Patriot,” proclaiming what fun he and his right wing friends would be having infiltrating the protest marches. Complete tape of the gleeful on-air exchange can be heard here: http://www.townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=6095d4dd-c4c3-4d90-b1de-13a5bd5b84aa But let’s consider some highlights of Mitch, Ed Morrisy, and “Ingy” from this show broadcast last September about the upcoming RNC in St. Paul. At about forty minutes into the show, Mitch Berg is talking with longtime caller “Ingy” about the upcoming 2008 Republican Convention. Starting at around 40:42 into the program: “Oh, we’re gonna have such a blast at this convention, Ingy, and of course our friends at Protest Warrior are already getting stoked up for this particular party out on Kellogg Boulevard (Ingy says something unintelligible) …It’s going to be a donnybrook, a- a- rhubarb, a- a- uh- what’s another good sports cliché for – for-- for— a slam-bam?” Ed: .. A fracas. MB: A fracas, that’s right! Ingy: [Faint in the beginning, but gets stronger]… For people that are associated with Protest Warrior or any of those groups, who aren’t delegates or anything, go down there! MB: Oh, absolutely! Ingy: You will see street theater at its finest! MB: And you know what – thank you very much for your call – this is gonna be great street theater… [MB then talks about how some people are upset that the Republicans and not the Democrats are coming to St. Paul in 2008, ask for calls on this, then goes to a commercial break at 41:32. The break lasts to 44:45. . They talk about other stuff until 46:43 and then start on the Convention topic after saying they’d be going back to their callers – which they never did.] But then they take up the convention again later: MB: (47:10) , talking up the alleged boost to the local economy that the convention is bringing: “…there’s going to be millions of dollars to the local economy, even after you get done paying for the security that’s gonna be involved in keeping the largely leftist crowd of lunatics and thugs from disrupting the cities too terribly.” Ed: (47:20) “There’s gonna be a big security bill here.” MB: (47:25) “If only the left would actually get and- and- and grow some responsibility and tell their lunatic fringe to quit throwing things, quit firebombing things, quit destroying things, and actually have some respect for the American political process – d’you think you can do that, Twin Cities Left? Twin Cities DFL, can you do this? Can you keep your thugocracy and your far fringe left under control?" So after invoking the presence of the now-underground vigilante anti-left group the “Protest Warriors,” Mitch starts in on the theme we’ve seen him run with ever since, that it’s going to be the left causing violence – not the agent provocateurs of the right that he has so gleefully wished will be there – and that the rest of us are responsible for the behavior of strangers. Keep all this in mind over the next year as Mitch continues to say provocative things along the lines of his recent posts here. He’s the one who continues talking about “keep[ing] a watch … on the animals who are planning their mischief,” while encouraging mischief from the other side of the aisle. He contends that those who disagree with him are “poo flinging monkeys” while those vigilantes who show up with no other purpose than to provoke a fracas and put the “lefties in their place” are somehow noble defenders of freedom. As he continues predict that people will step out of line, don’t forget that he’s the one who’s using terms like “Game on” and “the fringe left’s refusal to admit it has a problem” and “dirtball demonstrators.” He’s the one gleefully celebrating the arrival of right wing provocateurs in the hopes that they create a "slam-bam," not the citizens of St. Paul. Diane Gerth Peaceful in the West End Post script: More on the people Mitch hasn’t invoked lately: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_Warrior http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Protest_Warrior From the Sourcewatch site: “The group's primary method of activism is "crashing" left-wing events and counter-demonstrating left-wing protests, actions that the group itself gives names such as Operation Eagle Strike, Operation Liberty Rising, and Operation Wolverines (a reference to the film Red Dawn). The group engages in protests of their own, often against what it considers to be organizations in support of terrorism in the USA and around the world. Protest Warriors often carry large signs with sarcastic or mocking messages. After large operations, videos are posted to the website documenting the events. The videos include confrontations with protesters and the unwelcoming, sometimes violent, reactions of the protesters. Protest Warriors claim that these videos show the hypocrisy of the protesters in their claims to being pro-peace and pro – freedom of speech. Those who conflict with the Protest Warriors generally see them as acting in a provoking or aggressive manner towards protestors, and that the Protest Warrior signs are offensive. Many feel that the Protest Warriors are deliberately confrontational and hostile to antagonize the otherwise peaceful protestors. Some see the Protest Warriors' criticism of Islam as bigoted. Others feel that the Protest Warriors, by choosing groups likely to be agitated by their rhetoric as targets, are causing the very problem they intend to demonstrate.
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