Our buddy, Sam Seder, decided to go check out the protest talk show hack (and professional potty-mouthed angry person) John Ziegler organized to take David Letterman off the air in light of his joke about Sarah Palin's daughter, a joke for which he had already apologized twice.

Give Sam credit. It wasn't easy to find those whole fifteen protesters amongst the sea of media covering them. I'm not sure that your protest can be considered effective if the media outnumbers the protesters by more than 2 to 1. Way to try to horn in on the media circus that surrounds Palin, Ziegler.

(T)o show you the lengths Ziegler will go for his point, check out this convoluted logic in explaining the hypocrisy of going after Letterman and not other media figures. When asked why the protest took a week to happen, Ziegler asked, "Why did David Letterman take a week to apologize?" When Air America, in more of an accusation that a question, remarked that Sarah Palin went on Saturday Night Live in 2008 a week after they had aired a skit which said that Tod (sic) Palin had slept with his daughter, Ziegler pointed out that skit was set in a New York Times staff meeting where the paper's staff was considering topics to write, so it was essentially a satire on what the Times might publish to discredit her, not Saturday Night Live saying this directly of Gov. Palin.

So this was more about attacking David Letterman and CBS than in some crusade to go after "perverts." And as Keith Olbermann pointed out, the amount of time for Letterman's apology was a matter of 3 or so hours, not a week. It sounds like Ziegler graduated magna cum laude from the Palin school of upholding responsibility.

The timing of Ziegler's latest round of publicity appears to be tied in with his return to radio in Los Angeles this month, almost as if he got involved to promote his revitalized radio career. But when you look at his track record, it's a wonder that even in the world of conservative talk radio that he keeps getting hired.

Ahhhh...so the real agenda comes out. Well, Ziegler, Freedom of Speech is a wonderful thing. You're free to make an ass out of yourself and others are free to start a FireJohnZiegler.com site to show you for the ass you are.

This hasn't gotten too much coverage in the blogosphere, but I just want to note her that at her doctor's request, actress Mia Farrow has just ended a 12-day fast undertaken to draw attention to the plight of Darfur.

She's right, what's happening in Darfur is so massively horrendous, and the response of the Western world so inadequate, it seems to call for some sort of large gesture. I'm only sorry people seem so very disinterested:

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 (Reuters) - Actress Mia Farrow, ailing after almost two weeks on a hunger strike, announced on Friday that British billionaire Richard Branson would take over her protest in solidarity with people in Sudan's Darfur region.

A Farrow spokesman said her health had deteriorated in the past few days and her doctor requested that she end the liquids-only fast she began 12 days ago to protest at Khartoum's expulsion of more than a dozen aid agencies from Darfur.

Farrow asked Branson to take over the fast, her statement said, adding that the British entrepreneur had accepted and would begin a three-day hunger strike on Friday.

"I'm honoured to be taking over the fast for the next three days," the founder of the Virgin Group said in a statement on his blog.

"We cannot stand and watch as 1 million people suffer. We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace."

Farrow's spokesman said last month that her doctor expected the slightly built actress could not fast for more than three weeks.

Farrow, who was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF in 2000, has been campaigning for years to raise funds for children in conflict zones such as Darfur, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Chad and Nigeria.

The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in March, charging him with masterminding mass killings and deportations in Darfur in western Sudan.

Since then, Sudan has expelled 13 foreign and three domestic humanitarian aid agencies, accusing them of collaborating with the Hague-based ICC.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his latest report on the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, that the expulsions had put "over 1 million people at life-threatening risk" in Darfur.

Well, if this doesn't paint Blue Gal as an aging hippie, nothing will.

Today is the 39th anniversary of the anti-war protests at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. For those of you under 40, May4.org has the history recap here.

Although I was in the first grade on May 4, 1970, I can't forget what happened in Kent, Ohio on that day.

I was there.

Not on campus, I was in first grade. In Kent, Ohio. My father and my mother's father were both faculty members at Kent. By 1970 my grandfather had retired from the Math Department. When he retired in 1968 he was the only math professor on record as opposing the War in Vietnam.

My dad, on the other hand, was in the Art Department. Nuff said.

We were rushed home from school that day in a panic of police sirens, smoke, and confusion.

When I got home, my mother had the front door locked for the first time in my life. "Mommy, what is happening?" "I don't know, dear." Mom not knowing, being visibly scared and shaken. Another first.

But she had the TV on and Walter Cronkite was talking about Kent. That was exciting to my six-year-old heart. I didn't see the consequences, had no idea what death was, let alone that four college students had been shot to death that day in my hometown. Their only crime was protesting their government's illegal, unilateral invasion of Cambodia.

I know, it's hard to believe a Republican president invaded a far away country based on lies and innuendo. (/snark)

The sad irony of Kent State, and what made it so explosive in terms of the "silent majority" of Americans, was that those Americans who could afford it avoided the military draft and the dangers of Vietnam by enrolling their children full-time in college and graduate school. All four students killed on May 4 were full-time students. If the war was going to kill sons (and daughters!) in OHIO? Many who were not outspoken before May 4, now said it was time to stop the war once and for all.

At my own house, a mile or so from campus, my two younger sisters, both pre-schoolers, were in their pajamas in the middle of the afternoon because my mother thought there might be an evacuation and getting the girls in their pajamas was something she "could do." They were playing making a tent with a blanket and the dining room chairs.

They do not remember that day, because it was just another day to play and make a tent.

I remember a few days later Kent was really, truly, on that proverbial "cover of Newsweek." I said to my dad:

"Daddy, before no one ever heard of Kent. Now no one will ever forget."

The University now holds an annual two-day symposium on democracy to commemorate the events of May 4.

Mudflats (the go-to blog for Alaska politics):

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.

So, if you’ve been doing the math… Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy...Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans.

There's a photo gallery (with some great signs) here, and a video of the crowd below.

The Guardian UK: (h/t uglycasonova)

After police banned them from playing a political rally in Minnesota yesterday, Rage Against the Machine whipped out the loudspeaker and went a cappella.

The band's original plan was to play an impromptu gig at left-wing rally Ripple Effect. Sadly, the police had other ideas, leaving Zack de la Rocha to address some angry fans.

"Rage Against the Machine is a band that has never, ever advocated violence," he, er, rages. "We've always advocated a direct opposition to unjust wars like the one started by John McCain and the Republicans and Bush and all of them."

He continues: "Why the F@#% are these cops so afraid of us? Are they afraid of us?"

I showed this video to our C&L team and BillW could not say enough how much he loved it. It's terrible to me that the larger story of how the police have acted -- or have been directed to act -- has gone mostly unreported in the traditional media, becaue it really does exemplify the tenuous grasp on basic civil rights that most Republicans seem to possess.

A St. Paul police officer who was dragging an alleged protester down the street was jumped from behind by what I'm assuming is another protester. The officer quickly sprays the surrounding onlookers who are not involved in the incident and is forced to retreat and loses both men in the process. The angle of the video doesn't show what the alleged protester had done to prompt the officer to drag him down the street.

Note: In posting this video I am not advocating attacks on police, or violence of any kind. But as I heard someone say yesterday, the Denver police prepared for protests, the St. Paul police prepared for the Apocalypse. Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher have been documenting the searches and seizures on peace groups. And the Minnesota Independent documents a 17 year old peace protester and community organizer who was beaten and pepper sprayed by the St. Paul police.

Glenn Greenwald reports:

Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 -- with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas canisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.

... Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now -- the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years -- was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and -- after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were -- asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant."

Tear gas has also been used.

Do you think maybe that events in St. Paul would have gotten more attention already if we weren't all distracted by the Palin circus show?

Update: Amy has been released, but her two producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, are still being held.

"I was down on the convention floor interviewing delegates when I heard that two of our producers had been arrested," said Goodman. "I ran down to Jackson and 7th Street, where the police had moved in."

Goodman said that when she ran up to find out what was going on, she was also arrested.

"They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my Democracy Now! ID too. I was clearly a reporter."

Goodman, who was released after being charged with a misdemeanor, said that Salazar had been hurt in the face, while Kouddous had been thrown up against a wall and hurt his elbow.

"Nicole told me that as they moved in on three sides, she asked them 'How do I get away from this?' and they jumped on her."

Both Kouddous and Salazar could be held for up to 36 hours.

"One of the police kept shouting at me 'Shut up, shut up," she said. "It was extremely threatening."

Update 2: Democracy Now! reports that both Kouddous and Salazar have now been released too. (H/t Kat)

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Glenn Greenwald:

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations..."

If this wasn't so despicable, unconstitutional, and downright fascist, it would be funny. Cops circling a place called Seeds of Peace? Raiding so-called "hippie houses"? If the cops wanted to know what was going on with RNC protesters, they could have checked the website. When a guy from the National Lawyers Guild reads the charges, people can't help but laugh:

Videos from Veracifier/Talking Points Memo.

Firedoglake notes the mainstream media silence....

Twincities Indymedia is following with a live feed of updates.

More updates: The Dirty Hippies are suing to stop confiscations of cell phones and cameras among protesters... Um, is there a publicity department for the Ramsey County MN Sheriff’s Office? We think not.

I'm of two minds about these protesters, but the coverage of them on FOX is hi-damn-larious. It is to seriously giggle. They clearly did not expect to see the vitriol towards Pravda, er...FOX News from the "far left" protesters (why are all Democrats "far left" in FNC's eyes? Do they think that moderates stay home or just don't exist?), or they wouldn't have sent relative newbie Griff Jenkins (gawd, if that doesn't sound like a frat boy, I don't know what does) out amongst the riff-raff to ask them if they believe in freedom (of speech). Dude, they're protesting. That IS exercising their freedom of speech. That they choose not to validate the Republican Party's official propaganda arm isn't exactly ignoring freedom of speech.

Griff is shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that there could actually be people protesting at the Democratic National Convention who might not support Obama (because aren't all Democrats lemmings like the unquestioning party-over-country Republicans?), even though he acknowledges that the protest includes Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney and her supporters. Critical thinking skills are obviously not a job qualification for a FOX on-air personality. In fact, it probably helps if you don't have any.

And to be fair--as much as I hate to be--to FOX, I'm not sure how well these protesters come off. I personally stopped going to anti-war protests because the message seemed to get more and more diluted by those who brought their own agendas (including those who just got off on being anarchists). As Will Rogers famously said, "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!" and there's clearly some truth to that viewing the protests.

Speaking of protests, Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny just told me about a fabulous one:

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BlogSchmog:

How to get deported in three easy steps. First, go to China. Second, take footage of protesters in Tiananmen Square. Third, put footage up on Qik.[..]

Noel Hidalgo-(a.k.a. Noneck) an activist I once met online in 2006 while attending RootsCamp in Second Life-had a camera as he walked through Tiananmen Square and happened upon some people protesting the human rights violations in Tibet. He wound up on a plane back to the States. Fortunately, Noneck twitters:

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