Republicans are in town

The Republican National Convention is about to begin in St Paul - a very blue city in a quite blue state. Why they chose the Saintly City to convene is unclear, but it gave me photo opportunities. I didn't think that I could get very close to the action, but yesterday afternoon I drove down to the St Paul Cathedral, parked, and hiked down towards the History Center and towards the Xcel Center. The police were stopping cars and trucks, but I was welcome as a pedestrian, or at least tolerated as workmen did the final preparations for the big shindig scheduled to start on Monday. The first photo is from the History Center parking lot and shows the general lack of cars and the presence of gendarmes in the area known as the Zone.

I walked down the hill to the Xcel center ("The X") and circumnavigated the building. There were lots of police present - St Paul officers and out of towners - and helicopters occasionally flew overhead, presumably practicing their surveillance activities for the big show next week. Workmen were actively erecting miles of ten foot high, removable fencing along 7th Street. It's beginning to look like a police state in the Zone.


There were a few protesters already in place exercising their first amendment rights. This guy was just outside the entrance to the "X" and was pretty much ignored by the police officers in attendance. He seemed pretty much harmless, but has a fairly low opinion of the Arizona Senator who will be running the big show the next few days. A guy on a bike stopped to chat with him as I took the photo.


Across the street from the "X" is a bar that closed and rented itself out to CNN for the month. They are transforming it into a headquarters and faux bar for the festivities. Not long after I took this picture, Wolf Blitzer (CNN talking head), walked out of the building accompanied by a bevy of attractive female interns as he made his way to the convention site. He passed directly by me, but didn't say "hello". I guess he doesn't know me.



I continued my walk around the Zone - passed Rice Park where MSNBC was doing a sound check and located the Fox news studio, just to the north of the "X". I also noticed the manhole covers in the Zone have been welded shut. I understand that the authorities were afraid that they would be used to break the large expensive windows in the convention building. Notice the weld sites.




I understand that a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico has caused the current White House occupant to cancel his trip to the city for the McCain coronation. And no Cheney either.

I also played a couple of sets of tennis yesterday. I didn't want anyone to think that I was ignoring my exercise program. 7-5, 7-5. Also - the U.S. Open Tennis tourney is entering its second week.