Being trapped in the bunker that is the Xcel Center's press filing center, I'm not too sure how much, if at all, it's being covered on the prime time news out in the real world, but as I type there's a tremendously tense situation happening just a few blocks away from where the Republican National Convention is taking place. Hundreds of protesters are being held on a bridge near the intersections of John Ireland and Kellogg Boulevards. (See picture.) But if you're not seeing that news on your teevee screens, no worries -- the protests are being Twittered to an extraordinary degree. In fact, protesters are making good use of mobile and flexible social tools that are empowering them to organize and stay one step ahead of police.

Some voters may still be working out their reaction to Sarah Palin's hard charging speech last night, but her address and its sustained needling of Barack Obama certainly won insta-plaudits on the online right; Former Reagan aide Peggy Noonan's had a hit mic incident yesterday when an MSNBC microphone seemed to catch her off-air calling the McCain campaign "over" after its Palin pick, and the clip went what can only be called really, really viral; Palin's dig at community organizers in last night's speech ("I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities") has set the left-leaning blogosphere aflame; and much, much more.

Online fundraising seems to work best when underlying receptivity to a message combines with a sense of urgency. Thus, last week, immediately after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his VP pick, his campaign received a huge wave of donations -- $4.5 million in the first 24 hours, reportedly. That was the Republican base waking up.

Now, I suspect we are going to see an even bigger haul for Barack Obama today and tomorrow. If the Palin pick woke up the conservative evangelical community that, until now, was lukewarm on McCain, the hard-edged speeches from last night's Republican convention, which were watched widely (compared to Tuesday night, when GOP ratings slumped) by voters of all stripes, are not just firing up the Right. That's why I predict Obama will bring in $10 million today and tomorrow.

Just after four o'clock this afternoon, police began pouring into St. Paul's Rice Park, which should be familiar to you if you've been watching MSNBC's live coverage of the Republican National Convention. History tells us that there's always a good dose of performance involved in political protests. And today was certainly no different. You had protesters angling to get captured in the camera frame as Chris Matthews hosted "Hardball" and you had Matthews endeavoring to ignore them. That's nothing particularly new. Much of the same happened, most notably, back during the heavily-reported protests around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968.

But in what seemed to me like a particularly modern twist, the police officer above cheerily captured video the action on his digital camera as he and his baton-wielding colleagues filed in to surround the park.

Why was a biotech lobbying group busy handing out "I Blog for McCain" t-shirts in downtown St. Paul today? I investigate.

In St. Paul for the Republican National Convention, I trekked up a great big hill earlier this evening to check out the Liberal Lounge, a gathering place for left-leaning bloggers and activists this week about a half mile from the Xcel Center. It's quite a neat trick -- Living Liberally gets to tap into its network wherever it happens to have a need. Considering they now have Drinking Liberally chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, that's certainly a rich resource for a growing progressive group.

After a long hiatus abroad and working on a new project, I came home this August to a barrage of inquires regarding the usage of mobile phones in this year's election. While I had been following all of the news enthusiastically, I had very limited access to my US text messaging abilities and thus could not take part in what has been going on first hand.

This does not mean that I do not have my thoughts which, as someone removed from the process for a while, I hope may be somewhat refreshing.

We point to some great sites to best equip you for viewing the Republican National Convention happening in St. Paul this week; videos of an earlier Sarah Palin debate performance are flying around the Interweb as both preparation and inoculation; we have a look at the little known Tigh-Roslin ticket; and much, much more.

In which the Republican veep nominee becomes assimilated by the internet, for better or worse.

Ron Paul supporters gathered in droves in Minneapolis yesterday just 10 miles across the Mississippi River from where the official Republican National Convention is taking place. The occasion? A highly-charged "Rally for the Republic" meant to send a clear message to the Republican establishment assembled in the Twin Cities this week. Now, the Texas congressman might be best known to us for developing a devoted digital following. But wandering through the Target Center last night it was difficult to doubt Paul's ability to rally the masses off the Interwebs.