More RNC protests

Tonight's protest wasn't as fun-filled as Monday, but after watching the news tonight, I'm glad I left when I did. It is rather frightening seeing hundreds of officers in their turtle costumes with tear gas guns pointed right in your direction from all sides, ready to pull the trigger at any moment. Also kind of scary to see half the protest attendees (press included) with scarves or masks of their own, knowing they were more than likely going to come in handy. About 200 arrests were made after demonstrators (photo journalists included) were finally chased onto a bridge and surrounded from both sides. Not many actual protest photos here because I was keeping my distance for the right reasons, but here are some I liked. The march started at the State Capitol. It might go without saying, but click on them to see the best results please!







He has a permit.















"The law stinks!"
























The highlight for me was when Triumph the Insult Dog drove by, yelling out the window at everyone. It didn't even occur to me that this was really him until I saw that it was indeed Robert Smigel behind the puppet. Unfortunately, I didn't think fast enough and this was the best shot I could get. I'll definitely be watching for this on Conan. Apparently Triumph has been reporting for Late Night from the RNC all week.

RNC Photo Dump

I was lucky enough to check out some of the excitement that took place downtown St. Paul on opening day of the RNC. Most are shots from the protest march that swarmed the streets in a continuous loop. Very interesting and entertaining stuff, to say the least.

The only thing CNN cared to report were the arrests made on 300 self-proclaimed "anarchists" that were smashing windows and damaging police cars. They made up a very small fraction of the thousands of participants who chose to protest in a civil manner. Other than some tear gas that was launched a couple blocks from where I was standing, I never saw anything get out of hand. CNN's coverage would have you believe this took place in a third world country. To be honest, I wish I could have caught some of that. Oh well, tomorrow is the final day of the convention, so more drama isn't unlikely.

Anyway, here are some shots. Many of them look much better enlarged, so by all means, click on any of them for better results!




















"Your dicks are THIS big?!"



HATE MOBILE!







Colonel Sanders hates fags!

































At one point, just to my right, I spotted The Daily Show's Larry Wilmore taking some shots of his own. Also "Mr. Brown" from The Office. Very cool!









GOD BLESS



And one shot from the Take Back Labor Day festival, where Tom Morello had a solo act.

Elvis Dump

#216. Elvis of Today

#213.




#212. Still more airbrush experimentation.




#211.




#210. More airbrush experimentation.




#209.




#208.




#207.




#205. Airbrush experiment I didn't quite understand.