Where's Andrea? My Favorite RNC Moment

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell ... what a trooper!

How RNC Delegates Celebrate

We actually haven't heard much about same-sex marriage during the Republican National Convention, but it's certainly an issue neocons like to use to rally their base. Proposed constitutional amendments are on the ballot in Arizona, California, and Florida.

There is some good news, however. Temenos, an LGBT site, reports:

While our past track-record on these ballot measures is cause for concern, there are many reasons to be hopeful about election day 2008, not the least of which is shifting public attitudes about Marriage Equality. The number of ballot measures has dwindled from 11 in 2004, to 9, in 2006, to just three in 2008. Arizona, California, and Florida face constitutional amendments prohibiting marriage equality for same sex couples (Arkansas faces a related ballot measure restricting unmarried couples from adopting children or serving as foster parents). All three states have strong LGBT organizations, and a chance to win their respective fights.

Looks like it's losing some of its punch. Maybe that's because marriage has been legal in Massachusetts for awhile now and the earth hasn't stopped spinning. Vermont passed Civil Union legislation years ago, and there has been no discernible increase in divorce among heterosexual couples. Hopefully by 2012 opposition to same-sex marriage will be off the ballot altogether. Now that's change I could believe in!

h/t to Kevin at 9in10.org
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Amy Goodman Arrested: Republican Police State at Work in St. Paul

h/t to tristero at Hullabaloo, who has this to say:

Your police state at work. Be sure to listen to the mp3 of the arrest. It's chilling.

UPDATE: Video [see above] of Amy Goodman's arrest. h/t Avedon at Eschaton.

UPDATE II: Call to demand Goodman's release:
Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman’s office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0).

Do we need any further proof that the country doesn't need another four years of Republican rule?

UPDATE: Digby has a great link list for following the police action in St. Paul, in her post Tas R Nation.

Glen Greenwald and Firedoglake have been following this closely.
DNC - RNC - Troops Out Now (an activist group).
Legal Team.
Legal team's twitter update.
Minnesota Indymedia.
Minnesota Blue (a liberal Democratic site).
Minneapolis Star Tribune Convention page.
Google Blogsearch: "Republican + convention + arrests".
Googlenews search: "Republican + convention + arrests".
Cut and paste these:
www.theuptake.org The Uptake
www.submedia.tv The Stimulator
www.tcdailyplanet.net Twin Cities Daily Planet
www.minnesotaindependent.com The Minnesota Independent

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RNC to Phone Banking Staff ... You're Fired!

That's right, the RNC as fired all their phone bankers. The excuse reason given is that the phone bank technology is outdated and difficult to maintain. A spokesperson for the RNC told the conservative Washington Times, "the RNC was advised that we would soon need an entire new system to remain viable."

Faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off in small-donor contributions and aging phone-bank equipment that the RNC said would cost too much to update, Anne Hathaway, the committee's chief of staff, summoned the solicitations staff last week and told them they were out of work, effective immediately, the fired staffers told The Times.

An RNC spokeswoman is denying there has been a drop-off in contributions, but former employees are telling a much different story.

"Last year, my solicitations totaled $164,000, and this year the way they were running for the first four months, they would total $100,000 by the end of 2007," said one fired phone bank solicitor who asked not to be identified.

Republicans have traditionally had a larger base of small-dollar donors than Democrats, but their base is upset and their small-dollar donations are starting to dry up. And the main reason for the drop off?

There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens.

In September 2005, during a benefit for Hurricane Katrina survivors singer Kanye West caused a stir when he said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Well, now it seems that Bush's base doesn't care about brown people, either!

Hekebolos, at My Left Wing, writes:

Time catches up with everyone, it would seem. The Republican Party had done a fantastic job of keeping the theocons, neocons, paleocons and corporatecons united under a big tent by playing both ends against the middle--but eventually, that jig had to come to an end, and now we're seeing it in action with the immigration issue. Bush and the Republicans are compromising and "granting amnesty" to keep their corporate masters happy, and the base is finally getting around to realizing that they have, in fact, been sold down the river. And they've finally stopped parting with their dollars in the hopes that this election cycle will be different.

Looks like corporate America will be choosing the next Republican presidential candidate.