Pending charges from the Republican Convention against Amy Goodman and two producers from Democracy Now! were dropped on Friday.

The St. Paul City Attorney’s office announced Friday it will not prosecute Democracy Now! journalists Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman also issued a statement Friday that “the city will decline to prosecute misdemeanor charges for presence at an unlawful assembly for journalists arrested during the Republican National Convention.”

Both announcements come two weeks after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention where over 40 journalists were arrested while reporting on protests taking place outside the convention center.

Found a new video blogger worth watching, who did a particularly good job of summing up the comments Sarah Palin brought to the Republican National Convention. His show is "ill doctrine" on blipTV. So here is Jay Smooth...

A Look Black at the Republican ConventionI was looking at the Anchorage Daily News for something else, and saw this - At first I thought it was an attempt to be ironic - I mean - did you see the Republican Convention?  A little short on people of color -- but finally decided it was just a typo.  

There is yet another large confrontation going on in St. Paul/Minneapolis re: the RNC.  At the moment there is a standoff between the police and protesters on the John Ireland Bridge, and some disagreement on how long the protesters are permitted to demonstrate in their parade - 

Live blogging at the Minnesota Independent.

I take back everything I've said in the last few days about having mixed feelings about the Democratic Convention. I've been watching the Republican Convention, and am currently watching Giuliani's keynote speech.  I feel much better about the Democratic Convention now.

I don't know where to start. From his attacks on Obama for voting present (which I'll grant you is different from McCain - who generally just doesn't show up for any vote that he's not interested in) to his somewhat contorted  notion that being a senator and a community organizer isn't "real experience" but that being a mayor of a city of 7,000 is, to -- well, the mind reels.  Obviously Giuliani has never tried to be a community organizer.

Why can't he ever ever ever think of anything that isn't related to 9/11?  Now he's finding the Democrats negligent for not talking about 9/11 during their convention.  Golly - that really was quite a while ago.  You'd kind of think that it might be reasonable to talk about - um - the present.