Lactiferous

The folks at PETA have apparently sent Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen , better know to most of us as "Ben & Jerry" an odd little letter. In it, the animal welfare organization urges the ice-cream magnates to stop using cow's milk and replace it with human breast milk. "The breast is best!" they say. "Won't you give cows and their babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow's milk to breast milk in Ben and Jerry's ice cream?"

They cite Swiss restaurateur, Hans Loche, who recently unveiled plans to include human breast milk in recipes on the menu at his restaurant, Storchen, as the inspiration for their idea. Their dumb, dumb, idea.

Damn right, it's better than yours

Gift

Every day there are thousands of people waiting for some kind of transplant to save their life. 30% of people in need find a donor from within their own family. 70% need the help of a stranger.

Right now, NASCAR is paying the $52 tissue typing cost for anyone who meets the eligibility criteria for the National Marrow Donor Program. A bone marrow transplant is often the only option people with Leukemia and Lymphoma have left to live. Donor's don't even have to be a "perfect match", but a patient does need a donor whose cells are as close to theirs as possible. We did the tissue typing this week. It's as simple as swiping 4 cotton swabs across the inside of your cheek, closing the envelope and dropping it in a mailbox. The eligibility determination is done on-line. It takes 10 solid minutes. If you pass, they send the typing kit to you in the mail. You send it back. You're on the Registry.

Go to www.marrow.org. Look for the "Event's" box on the right side and click on "NASCAR Foundation Drive". The drive ends Sept. 22.

Politicization

Your true political self?

The Anarchists Scare Me.

Really, they do.

McCain's speech is hours away and things are already getting tense downtown. Coast Guard boats with machine guns are cruising up and down the river. Clusters of cops, some in riot gear, are everywhere and we're a mile from the RNC. Traffic is totally erratic. A posse of protesters gathered on the South side of the river and had people heading towards the Capitol, over the Wabasha St. bridge, in staggered squads of 8-10. The sky is ominously overcast. Everybody here in the office is restless, at best.

The news is releasing more and more info on the anarchists. Apparently, they have been watched pretty closely over the last year. I suppose it wasn't that hard, seeing how they have their own web site and MySpace page. Police raided their home base, a banquet hall on Smith Ave., last Friday and confiscated a good amount of bad things. Plans that were, at least, discussed at one point or another included the possibility of kidnapping delegates, blockading bridges, using liquid sprayers filled with urine or chemicals on police and throwing marbles to trip police and their horses. But they do provide childcare to visiting anti-authoritarians who are coming to town. How weird is that?!

You can follow some of their actual chatter here, here and here on Twitter.

Bull On Parade

Although not as large scale as Monday’s protest, two smaller groups met in downtown St. Paul last night as their respective, and peaceful, events concluded. One was the 1000 person strong Poor Peoples March that started in Mears Park and was sponsored by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. Cheri Honkala, leader of the campaign, urged participants to remain pacific, pointing out the large number of children in attendance. She went as far as to single out the anarchists, that she knew had intermixed with the crowd, and said she would hold them personally responsible for any violence that occurred during their event.

As the march made its way down 7th, to the Xcel Center, the crowd suddenly tripled as they were joined by concert-goers leaving the Ripple Effect festival on the State Capitol lawn. It just so happened that Rage Against The Machine showed up, unannounced, to end the show. Police, however, seemingly chose to pull the plug on the concert rather than let the band play. Apparently, they were not included on the permit and the cops felt it was too close to the event’s 7PM curfew to make changes. Until this point, the crowd, who was predominantly hippy, had peacefully burned bundles of sage and grooved to the likes of Matisyahu, Michael Franti and WookieFoot. When RATM was denied access the stage, singer Zach De La Rocha and guitarist Tom Morello successfully riled up the gathering by jumping onto the lawn and leading a cappella versions of old RATM songs. Radio reports of a free Rage show had expanded the crowd to about 2000. Then, the band members started the now en-raged fans in a procession off the Capitol grounds, straight towards the heart of the RNC and the end of the Poor People’s March.

The crowd, which estimates put at 4000 by now, was stopped at the 8 foot fences that cordon off the RNC “security perimeter”. Honkala used a megaphone to chastise the riot police who were there to greet them. "We want to charge the folks that are in the Xcel Energy Center with crimes against humanity" Honkala said as the crowd chanted: “The whole world is watching!" The group peacefully disbanded after no one from the RSC came out to receive the subpoena.

30 minutes later, a smaller crowd of protesters re-formed in the middle of the 7th & St. Peter intersection to block traffic. St. Joseph's Hospital was placed on lockdown from about 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. due to the large protester presence. Police ordered the group to disburse. When they did not, it was declared an “unlawful assembly” and they disbursed the crowd themselves…using tear gas, bean-bag guns and concussion grenades.

Now, I'm not saying things wouldn't have gotten ugly downtown again if RATM did their thing or not (those anarchists are friggin' nutty), but I find it interesting that reports have the band, and the bodyguards that accompanied them, quietly exiting their parade soon after it left the Capitol lawn. Allegedly, people didn't know they weren't following RATM all the way to the RNC. But they can catch Rage when they play their show at the Target Center tonight! Seats are only $60 and available through Ticketmaster.

One State Two State Red State Blue State

Although the RNC kicked off with very little fanfare, due to the impending landfall of Hurricane Gustav, the Republicans are definitely in town. Word on the street is that NOLA was "spared" so they can now get back to business and get their party on. They’re promising to "rev things up" today. Gustav sure didn't hinder the rioters though. About 200 or so self-described "anarchists" splintered from the 10,000 person, and otherwise peaceful, anti-war protest yesterday. Property was destroyed and people were hurt. Cops and National Guard were forced to use tear gas and rubber bullets on the crowd. It was sad to see. It was sad to see the efforts of the other 9,800 people so undermined by their hurtful BS too.