Arms are for hugging.

It wasn't the police presence that bothered me. It was the presence of the National Guard and Army Reserve, in full Iraq-War regalia -- that totally outraged me.

Given how empty St. Paul is compared to Denver, their use of military force has been completely out of line and bordering on abuse of power. Seriously. Compared to the RNC in 2004 (which was in New York City, and which I covered also from the outside), it feels like nobody came to this year's RNC.

Charles Schultz, the creator of the cartoon strip "Peanuts" was born in St. Paul. There are statues of the strip's characters strewn all over downtown. This was my view yesterday as I blogged: empty streets, Linus' back and if you see across the street, extreme right obscenities paraded in trucks and buses.

There were virtually no delegates to be had downtown (I asked to speak to several random delegates and they all declined). But the crazy extremists of the Republican Party where out in full force.

I love how they captured Dick Cheney's mouth.

I can't remember now if this is the first time in history where the president and vice-president of the US do not attend their party's national convention. I honestly can't remember if it also happened with Clinton in 2000.