St. Paul’s Police Department is planning to spend $1.9 million dollars on chemical irritants for the Republican National Convention. It will only spend $1 million on chemical masks. (Maybe protesters can borrow masks from our returning Olympic Team.)

The U.S. Department of Justice is giving St. Paul $50 million to spend on security costs. Denver, host of the Democratic National Convention, receives $50 million, too.

The majority of the money will be spend on overtime, training non-St. Paul officers, and private guards.

Police spokesman Tom Walsh told the Star Tribune that there weren’t a lot of “toys” being purchased.

Meanwhile, across the river, Ron Paul’s “Rally for the Republic” has grown into a three-day mini-convention. His organizers have given up on getting Paul a speakers slot at the RNC. But Paul will be sending at least six delegates.

“We’re not just looking at this November,” Marianne Stebbins, a longtime GOP activist who ran the Texas congressman’s campaign in Minnesota, told the Star Tribune. “There’s 2010, 2012—the Republican Party is not a barge that you can turn around in a single year.”

generation, yes. single year, no.