Republican National Convention Aftermath / Eight convicted of t...

Sounds like the guilty are being punished.

Thank you Pioneer Press for covering this story. Everyday we have to hear about the Tea Baggers, but what we should hear about are these true Patriots and Unsung Heroes trying to bring our troops home alive.
The Judge should have let the defendants not only read their defense using INternational Law which does rule over MN law, but also for Steve Clemens to read the letter he wanted to deliver to President Bush.
Shame on the MN Courts for suppressing this info. With the Occupation taking much of our tax dollars, With our troops dying almost daily, and 100's of innocent civlians dying daily. With our tax dollars being used to destroy two countries, and with Many corporations profiting from both the destruction and death in those countires, I think at the very least the Judge could have let the defendents use the INternatonal Law as defense.

"Justice".
" Sounds like the guilty are being punished. "

Hardly. Has Cheney, Bush, Rumsfield been punished? Has ST. Thomas U. law Professor who co-authored the torture memo's been punished?
Has Paul Bremer been punished?
I could go on and on.

The Pioneer Press reported that "Police saw the [Forrey and co-defendant Dustin Matchett Morales] participate in a mob that threw things at police and tried to provoke others," but witnesses actually testified that they acted alone in breaking two windows. The Pioneer Press also said that "several witnesses" saw the act, when in reality the police could only find two to testify; the paper also cited the damage as over $17,000 when that was actually the total cost of the many windows broken at the First National Bank Building on September 1, 2008 in addition to another several days later.

The costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are estimated to be about 3 trillion dollars. Almost one million Iraqis and thousands of U.S. troops have died - many more have been injured.

And, amazingly, the U.S. punishes a 79 year old nun who is following her conscience and steps off the permitted route to try to speak to members of the RNC.

So the crime is trying to talk about the war - not the hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded. What kind of country have we become????

For $50 million in RNC security, you would think they could have caught Osama Bin Laden or found Jimmy Hoffa's body. But no, they managed to convict a nun, a Mennonite and a retired Mayo surgeon of trespass. All while Cheney and Bush, who committed crimes against humanity in waging senseless war and torturing the innocent, are still free. Also free are all the anonymous black-clad police officers who pepper-sprayed passers-by, rounded up hundreds for illegal arrests, and conducted raids and property confiscation without warrants. Clearly, the law is upside-down in this country.

Ann wrote:

"Justice".
" Sounds like the guilty are being punished. "
Hardly. Has Cheney, Bush, Rumsfield been punished? Has ST. Thomas U. law Professor who co-authored the torture memo's been punished?
Has Paul Bremer been punished?
I could go on and on.

Has Teh One brought the troops home from Afghanistan or Iraq? If not, STFU.

We didn't learn anything from Vietnam. Or Desert Storm for that matter. Protesters are pointless. Bless you and your sugar coated optimism, but it's obvious that "we the people" don't amount to squat. Sorry to be a downer...

If we the people would get out in the street in the millions, we would matter.

Too many people just stay at home and complain.

Oct. 17 at 1 pm, there is an anti-war demo at Hennepin and Lagoon. Bring your friends and go!

Sorry Angie . . . Some of us have to work during the day to support those that don't.

I hope that the authorities in St. Paul are happy now that they've wasted thousands of dollars — whatever four days of a jury trial costs — prosecuting these dangerous criminals. The legal process has run its course, and "The Other RNC 8" have been loosed on the populace to raise the issues of international law and morality vis-a-vis the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, torture, violations of civil liberties, etc.

Old people....LOL

9to5r wrote:

We didn't learn anything from Vietnam. Or Desert Storm for that matter. Protesters are pointless. Bless you and your sugar coated optimism, but it's obvious that "we the people" don't amount to squat. Sorry to be a downer...

Part of what you say is correct - the majority of Americans are ambivalent about Iraq and Afghanistan mostly because the media doesn't have access to the violence on the ground. The media exposed the public to graffic violence during the 1960s and 70s when America fought Vietnam. Today, all we get is a brief update on who died - no pictures, no generals or soldiers talking to reporters, nothing. It is almost a war done in total secret.

That said, it isn't looking too good for America. Afghanistan is one of the most difficult countries to pacify; and, even if we do, it is in utter shambles. Rebuilding it alone will cost billions of dollars. Iraq is somewhat stabilized, but we will never totally trust the situation there either because the Kurds, Shi ites, and Sunnies have been fighting each other for centuries. Moreover, Iraqis do not like to be part of a colonial empire.

Combine this with Obama's sudden change of heart regarding Afghanistan and it does appear our voices do not matter. But the voices of our generation do matter. It is up to each of us to give our younger generation the knowledge of the situation so that when it does to become their turn to address it, they are better prepared to do so than we.

Congress and the Administration should adopt an exit strategy from Afghanistan based on all-party talks, regional diplomacy, unconditional humanitarian aid, and timelines for the near-term withdrawal of American and NATO combat troops. We must end a war that has no end in sight and continues to drain the U.S. economy, destroy lives and destabilize the Middle East and South Asia.
Americans are angry and appalled that the war has become increasingly deadly for its soldiers; July and August were the deadliest months for U.S. soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, with 51 U.S. troops killed in August alone.
Obama's escalation of the war, including a boost of troops to 62,000 there today, threaten to make a shambles of his domestic economic agenda, including health care reform, as the Vietnam War did to President Lyndon Johnson's presidency.
Based on a series of hearings over the past several weeks with U.S., Afghan, and Pakistan military advisers, the Congressional Progressive Caucus concluded that that U.S. funding for war "exacerbates" failed strategies by focusing on military funding and leaving far too little for economic development, institution building, local community funding and skills training.

Don't the police in the United States have any judgment? Here are a group who decide to just take a different route to exercise there democratic rights and the State intervenes to, in all fairness, to enforce and control peaceful dissent.

It would be interesting to know the crass, convoluted argument that the State put forth to the Court to get this "conviction."