Few Americans have heard of Tar Sands Blockade, a Texas group that stages “direct action” raids–tree sitting, locking themselves to machinery–in an effort to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Given the fact that Bill McKibben holds Tar Sands Blockade out as a model for his followers to support and copy, and given that Tom Friedman has said he’d like to see McKibben’s coalition “go crazy” with anti-Keystone civil disobedience, this group cannot be dismissed as fringe.

Here’s a ten-minute video the group has produced to glamorize their crusade. In the last few minutes you’ll see a lockdown raid on a construction site, that is, an action where Tar Sands Blockaders rush in and chain themselves to machinery before they can be pushed away. Eventually they’ll be cut out of their self-imposed chains by police and arrested.

Here’s a case where the mainstream press has ignored a story that reflects badly on the left. I guess if Tar Sands Blockade wants coverage they’ll need to convince a couple of Tea Party types to join up.