A guy came over and asked me who I was and I told him I was a colmunist for The Nation and he told me I had to leave. I thought he was kind of rude, so I asked him his name, thinking it might go into Altercation the next day.

Okay, he wandered into an area where he was not wanted and was asked to leave. Rather than just doing so he let his ego take over and demanded the name of the person who was supposed to be there and who had asked him to leave.

In the midst of this the person who had asked him to leave, and whose name he had demanded, went looking for a cop. Alterman was following and ran into one who wasn't very happy with life, especially life that involved putting up with Eric Alterman at that particular moment.

Six weekends in jail plus a $1000 fine plus costs should set things about right.

Ok, here's what happened.

I came to New Hampshire with the Creative Coalition for a panel tomorrow morning and was supposed to be in the auditorium for the debate but because I am a journalist, they were told I would have to wait in the spin room. When I got to the spin room, which was an empty gymnasium, I noticed that there were chairs located on a balcony above us. So I went up there--no one asked me for my ID or anything--and went over to the bar and asked if it was a cash bar, because I had no idea what kind of event it was. I was told it was an open bar so I asked for a glass of wine and a glass of water and went to sit down and wait for the event to begin.

A guy came over and asked me who I was and I told him I was a colmunist for The Nation and he told me I had to leave. I thought he was kind of rude, so I asked him his name, thinking it might go into Altercation the next day. He refused to answer me I asked again. He refused again. But I was following him out when he went to get a cop. The cop told me to leave the room and I did. We left the room, past where the people were handing out badges to go into the reception and I figured the entire drama was over. But the cop kept yelling at me to leave. I didn't understand. I thought I had left. I asked him to stop yelling, I had left. He kept telling me to leave. In retrospect, I guess he was kicking me out of the building and I didn't understand, but it was really mystifying and annoying and I told him I wanted to speak to his commanding officer.

We went over to the commanding officer and I, calmly and politely, sought to explain that I didn't know why this cop was continuing to hassle me. The first cop kept interrupting me as I tried to explain myself and finally I turned around and said, "Can I please finish a sentence here?" That's when the first cop decided to arrest me. He handcuffed me behind my back and took me outside.

(A funny aside, Congressman Ed Markey happen to walk by then and came over to say hello to me and stuck out his hand for a shake. I had to say, "Sorry, Ed, I'm being handcuffed." He laughed, and told the officers that he would vouch for my character and walked away.)

Anyway, I never refused to leave and the only time I raised my voice was when the first cop would not let me explain what I had thought was a massive misunderstanding to his commanding officer. Once I was arrested and brought to the Goffstown station, I actually had a pretty nice time with the cops there, who were very friendly and understanding of my situation. When they learned I was a writer and planned to write about this incident, they wanted to make sure that I knew that the cop who had arrested me was not one of theirs, but was from another town and had been working on an "reciprocity" arrangement.

I paid a $30 to be released and the whole thing took about 45 minutes. I filed a written report with the police explaining that I thought the arresting officer had treated me unfairly, and I do think this was the case, but I now think it was based on a misunderstanding on just where he wanted me to stay and where he wanted me to leave.

In any case, I spoke to CNN and I believe they will correct some of the misimpressions created by their first story. Just to be clear, I did not refuse to leave seven times and I did not, as far as I know, raise my voice, except for that last time.

For the record, I also don't remember anyone reading me my Miranda rights, though I don't know if that is ultimately going to matter. I have a court date in July but I am hoping to be able to clear it up before I leave tomorrow because it strikes me as mosty, a misunderstanding.

Most of the Goffstown cops are OK [neighbor where I used to live in Manchester was on Goffstown PD, and her husband was on Manchester PD .. and across the street we had a State Trooper!].

What Eric said, that 'they wanted to make sure that I knew that the cop who had arrested me was not one of theirs, but was from another town and had been working on an "reciprocity" arrangement.' makes me smile, because of the smaller towns have some real doozys. I know some of them, too. :)

what seems to be clear, from the email, is that, upon being asked to identify himself, the individual refused to do so. perhaps, had he, everything else could have been avoided.

This is so funny, but there is a sad side to this too. It is very sad that someone who went to all of these hi-falutin' universities cannot interpret exit poll results. Like the CNN exit poll results from 2000 -- 7% of Nader supporters voted for Perot in 1996. Only 2% of them voted for Clinton in 1996. 1% voted for Dole. Appearantly Alterman is so insanely "smart" that  first grade math has been purged out of his cranium. Alterman, you do not have any evidence to support your allegations. The 2000 NBC exit polls asked Nader supporters who they would vote for if Ralph didn't run -- NO ONE! If anything Nader helped Gore by attracting Perot voters. Gore ran a very bad campaign and did not mobilize black voters and distanced himself from Clinton who had a 60% approval rating. He lost his home state and Clinton's home state. The benefit of having a Dixiecrat nomination is that they should win some Southern states. Of course, that would involve running a competent campaign. Gore is solely to blame for losing. Sour grapes... get over it!

I think this is the same Stanford arrogance that I have to deal with every day in the Silly Con Valley. Yes, you have a Ph.D. from Stanford, so you can fabricate your own facts. Yes, if Gore was elected, we would be dropping roses on Bagdad from B-52 bombers.

It is such delicious irony that this drama queen got arrested. I will be laughing for the next 20 years about this one. ROTFLOL!!!

I mean, how can anyone support a liar like Hillary. When she announced her election bid she said she would end the war in Iraq, stop the genocide in Darfur, stop global warming (even though the UN says this is not possible), provide universal health coverage and so on. Oh brother... Then she continually votes to FUND the war. Does anyone realize that when the Democrats say they will end the war, this means there will still be 70,000 U.S. troops in Iraq? This is straight outta Orwell, folks!

Hillary has supported the war from day one and even has speeches on her web site claiming that Iran is a threat and it would be OK to have military action against them, so long as Congress approves?!? (check it out if you don't believe me!) She is a hawk war monger on the payroll of the defense industry. Period. Oh, and we will get that health care the Democrats have been promising since JFK. Really, this time it will happen... How stupid can you get?

Hillary vs. Guiliani/Romney is about as Tweedledee vs. Tweedledumbarse as they come, folks. Wise up! I'm glad Nader will run if Hillary does, but will back off if Obama runs. Obama is decent -- he has been against the war since day one. About 10% of Democrats are actually populists and leftists. The rest are sold out pawns. But I already know the DNC will nominate Hillary. They play that way... They like the centrist Dixiecrats too much.