KC joins national day of protest against Prop 8

Call this spontaneous grassroots combustion: A national demonstration protesting the passage of Proposition 8 in California and same-sex marriage bans in Arizona and Florida has been set for Saturday.

In Kansas City, the demonstration will be held at 12:30 pm at J.C. Nichols Fountain, 47th and J.C. Nichols Parkway next to the Plaza. The KC protest is being pulled together by the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Kansas City, the local ACLU, PROMO and the Four Freedoms Democratic Club. The Pitch has more.

The nationwide protest is a product of true grassroots organizing, born of a blog, Twitter, Facebook, and word of mouth.

I'll be at the demonstration. Will you?

What's going outside of the Republican National Convention?

It's hard to get a clear view of what exactly happened yesterday outside of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that most of the demonstrators on Monday were peaceful, but that some were violent. The newspaper published one photo of windows being smashed and a video of what looks like the same group of protesters, pounding on a bus labeled "RNC Staff."

However, the police outside the convention also appeared to target journalists and commentators and to do so with little reason. An AP photographer, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two of her staff were arrested. CNN commentator and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile was hit by pepper spray. At this time, it is unclear exactly what happened to Brazile, except that she was pepper sprayed.

This video shows Goodman's arrest. Judging by this, all Goodman was doing was asking questions about the arrest of her two producers.