Looks like the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis has the type of security that makes it indistinguishable from a Police State. When your governments starts arresting journalists like Amy Goodman you better watch your civil liberties and rights; they may need to be added to the endangered species list. Glenn Greenwald has video and audio footage on his blog that details how your tax money is being used to protect powerful interests. These interests probably do not coincide with yours.
Another thing bothering me is the situation in Georgia (no, not the U.S. state). On it’s face, the conflict’s origin, territorial disputes over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, may be easily resolved through the use of diplomacy and with a little good will from all sides. After all, South Ossetia is tiny (smaller than Rhode Island) and has very few inhabitants (70,000). However, when you add a couple of hotheads to the mix, such as Mikheil Saakashvili, George Bush/Dick Cheney, John McCain Joe Liebermann, AND the fact that the current U.S. leadership would really, really like to distract from the consequences of it’s past policy mistakes on the eve of an important election, then you have the potential for WWIII. This article titled Stoking Tensions, Risking Confrontation: A High Stakes US Gamble with Russia lays out the case the the U.S. is deliberately acting as agent provocateur in the region, at everyone’s peril.
