10 Questions About…

On Tuesday I went with my brother to the Ron Paul convention. It was an all day affair. We arrived about 5 minutes before Ron Paul spoke. First – there were no storm troopers in Minneapolis. I don’t even think there were any extra cops. They seemed to have more wrist bands but that was it. You could walk down the streets. It wasn’t scary. It was normal. Well, it was as if they had a big conference in town.

So from the local merchant’s perspective Minneapolis is hopping and St Paul has become like a police state. Now maybe St Paul is more welcoming now – but if Monday was any indication no one is making any money – well no retailers anyways. I did see a Hummer Limo outside a neighborhood restaurant (The Heartland), I assume that was convention-related so the people outside downtown are doing well.

Back to Ron Paul… I think the event sold out. Jesse Ventura spoke during the afternoon. I saw a little press on that – in fact I think that’s the only local press I saw about the event.

I have nearly the whole thing on YouTube. Here’s a quick look from the end of his talk:

After the gig we went to Kieran’s with some of Billy’s friends. I think the no-cover policy was the draw. But eventually we headed to the After Party at the Lone Tree, where Jimmie Vaughan played. Actually we first walked into the wrong Lone Tree where we did get to talk to a few people – many had come quite a ways to see Ron Paul. But once we figured out that there were two Lone Trees – or maybe just two entrances we went to the right one and found ourselves front and center right next to the band.

Here’s a video from the Jimmie Vaughan gig: