My heart belongs to this man.

I hope that all my readers have heard about the “RNC Eight,” eight young people who were charged as terrorists for protesting or planning to protest the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota this September.  Their case is a case of brazen and obvious labeling of ‘dissent’ as ‘terrorism.’  They face two decades in prison for engaging in activity that is protected by the First Amendment.  If you are unfamiliar with this story, the video at the end of this post will catch you up to speed.

Their case has received shockingly little attention from the corporate media. When they are mentioned, the injustice is muddled by repeatedly refering to them as “anarchists,” as if this were itself a crime.  While it the Twin Cities for Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic, I had the pleasure to briefly meet two of these eight and watch them in action.  I was profoundly impressed by both their motivation and their dedication.

Now, this week, the Ramsey County District Attorney Susan Gaertner, whose career as a two-bit political hack will hopefully be ended by these shenanigans, is now apparently pressing additional charges, making the list of charges as follows:

• Count 1 – conspiracy to riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism (the original charge)
• Count 2 – conspiracy to riot in the second degree (without terrorism enhancement)
• Count 3 – conspiracy to damage property in furtherance of terrorism
• Count 4 – conspiracy to damage property (without terrorism enhancement)

Of course, none are charged with actually DOING anything, just with vaguely ‘conspiring’ to ‘riot.’  These charges come on the heel of a soldiarity action in court and seem to plainly be retaliatory in nature.  Thus, it is incumbent on the rest of us that we carry on with the planned call-in this week.

P.S. On my Christmas wish list is a donation made, in my name, to the RNC8 legal fund.

Rep. Paul wasn’t as articulate on the house floor or outside the capitol today as he sometimes is – still good, but not top-notch.  However, I thought this CNN interview was pretty OK:

I’ve been trying to goad my Grandfather or Uncle or Aunt, all of whom blog on Invest with Awareness (and all of whom rank as among the most prolific and thoughtful commentators on the American economy I’ve ever known) into responding to Ron Paul’s thoughts on the recent proposal and subsequent rejection to appropriate 700 Billion dollars to the whim of Henry Paulson, the COO of Goldman Sachs and close friend to the most repressive regime in the world Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

My Grandfather is cautiously supportive of the plan while my Aunt and Uncle have yet to officially weigh in. Of course Ron Paul is very much opposed.

I have sent them both Ron Paul’s written statement from September 26 and his video statement from shortly after the vote on the house floor:

Let’s see if they can resist responding now!