Republican National Convention

[Townsend]

As promised ... dancing vaginas protest at RNC

http://leanforward.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/28/13530562-as-promised-dancing-vaginas-protest-at-rnc?lite

As activist group CodePink promised, it brought a bit of political theater to its protests at the Republican Convention in Tampa. The anti-war group had a number of activities planned, including one against former Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice.

To protest the "GOP's War on Women," the group donned homemade vagina costumes. Earlier this year, a Michigan state legislator was banned from speaking on the House floor after saying "vagina" during her objection to a new abortion bill.

Rae Abileah, co-director for CodePink, previously told Lean Forward that the idea was to "do something a little more creative and flamboyant," while working to "send a strong message to end the war on women."

[guido911]

MOre dumbassedness...(language and required whining)

[Townsend]

Mitt Romney is the candidate in case you were wondering.

NJ just shoved him over the wall.

[Teatownclown]

The Republican and Democratic Party Conventions are just television ads....

MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2012
From Miami Beach to Tampa, 40 years of fearing and loathing democracy
The last time they held the political conventions in Florida was 1972. It was the summer that I turned 13 years old, and I was falling in love for the first time.

With politics, that is.

Forty years ago, Miami Beach -- a half-day's swamp drive across the sweltering Sunshine State from the hockey-rink home of the 2012 Republican convention – was the pulsating heart of U.S. politics. Terrified by the violence and unrest of the 1968 Democratic confab in Chicago, both parties saw the beachside city, with its gated, spread-out rococo resorts, hippie-friendly police chief and its distance from the hubs of campus protest, as the last safe place in America.

Indeed, the GOP convention was utterly forgettable but for the sight of Sammy Davis Jr. hugging the awkward President Richard Nixon. But the Democratic gathering in mid-July was a completely different affair.

The hook was that the party bosses were threatening to derail the likely – but far from assured – nomination of the anti-war, anti-establishment candidate Sen. George McGovern, even though the South Dakotan had won the most primaries.  The "McGoos," as the left-leaning McGovern acolytes were beat back the challenge – but what sideshows!

"The streets of '68 are the aisles of '72!" shouted gleeful reformers, as recounted by author Rick Perlstein in his epic tale of the era's politics, Nixonland. Battles over the party platform and issues like women's rights and abortion were waged not behind closed doors but on the podium, where America heard a delegate plead for gay rights for the first time. The cast of characters in Miami Beach included Abbie Hoffman, Shirley MacLaine, Arthur Miller...and George Wallace, all of recorded, in a purple haze, by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

It was impossible for me to avert my adolescent eyes. The tiny 9-inch black and white TV set in my bedroom flickered until 4 in the morning, when the delegates stopped squabbling long enough for the networks to finally play the Star Spangled Banner and cut to the test pattern. On the final night, a roll call for vice presidentlasted for hours as votes were cast not just for McGovern's doomed choice Thomas Eagleton but Yippie Jerry Rubin, newsman Roger Mudd, even Mao Zedong.

It was crazy. It was messy. It was weirdly beautiful. It was democracy.

And so they made sure it never happened again. When Nixon trounced McGovern – who'd given his acceptance speech at 2:45 in the morning, because of the whacked-out VP balloting – in November, leaders of both parties took extraordinary steps to guarantee that TV viewers would never see dissent, a.k.a. free speech, a.k.a. democracy. Platform fights were moved out of prime time and into what Mitt Romney would call "quiet rooms."

The notion of debating policy in the public forum of a convention became a quaint relic of the era before television and before the Vince Lombardiazation of American politics, before winning wasn't everything but the only thing.

I've thought about 1972 a lot this week, especially when I saw that Romney's forces down in Tampa were using the excuse of Tropical Storm Isaac to go extreme lengths to keep shut down challenges from a small band of a couple of hundred delegates supporting libertarian Ron Paul – who hasn't fully endorsed the ex-Massachusetts governor.

The Republican Party has already imposed a rule that a candidate's name can't even be placed in nomination without a majority of delegates in 5 states (Paul has but three). Now, Team Romney wants to move up by one day the roll call of the states – where the candidate actually claims the nomination, a one-time highlight that's going the way of the manual typewriter – because it's afraid Paul's small band of backers will raise a ruckus.

The funny thing is that conventions are where candidates are supposed to show voters there the kind of guy who can stand up to the Iranians or the Chinese or the American enemy du jour. Yet here is Mitt Romney, practically cowering  under a table at the idea of giving the Paulities 10 minutes to talk about the gold standard or their fence to keep Americans from fleeing to Mexico.

How sad.

It's been a long, strange trip in the decades since reporters saw Hunter Thompson peeling out from the driveway of his Miami Beach hotel in his red convertible, a six-pack of beer in the front seat. Democracy was in his rear-view mirror.   

[heironymouspasparagus]

So I guess to make a more fair assessment, I would need to know how many tax bill the democrats have authored.

You would need to know SO much more than that.  You would have to know a little something about Ronald Reagan (Raygun...)  And then George HW Bush, Jimmy Carter, Jerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Dwight, Truman, Roosevelt.  And on and on... 

You would have to know about history. 

You would have to be able to read the Federal debt history page (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm).

You would have to know how to read a graph about some...any...economic activity (http://www.crgraphs.com/).

You would have to know why the latest Republicontin "proposal" to go back to the gold standard is just one more of incredibly stupid ideas.  Want a hint?  Goes to the fact that only about $6 trillion worth (at todays prices) of gold has been mined in the history of the world...  Ready, set, go!  Learn something!

Just so much....

[Teatownclown]

What a yawner. I should tape my outbursts....you'd love them. My friends are in stitches. We're going to have a drinking game (sorta).
Every time the word "Reagan" comes up, we're indulging.

[patric]

The GOP's ugly side revealed itself during the Republican National Convention last night, as an attendee in Tampa, Florida allegedly threw nuts at a black camerawoman working for CNN, taunting, "This is how we feed animals" before she was removed from the convention.

[Townsend]

The GOP's ugly side revealed itself during the Republican National Convention last night, as an attendee in Tampa, Florida allegedly threw nuts at a black camerawoman working for CNN, taunting, "This is how we feed animals" before she was removed from the convention.

Slate reported:

RNC Attendees Tossed After Reportedly Heckling Black Camerawoman

Here's a story from last night's GOP convention that Republicans could no doubt live without as they make their pitch to the American public this week. CNN reports:

"Two people were removed from the Republican National Convention Tuesday after they threw nuts at an African-American CNN camera operator and said, 'This is how we feed animals.'
"Multiple witnesses observed the exchange and RNC security and police immediately removed the two people from the Tampa Bay Times Forum."
The cable news network isn't giving the story a lot of play this morning, and only posted an item on it after Talking Points Memo first reported the news last night. Nonetheless, it is probably worth pointing out that the CNN post makes no effort to soften its lede with "allegedly" or anything similar.
The official statements coming from RNC organizers and the CNN brass last night provide only vague details of what happened.

Convention organizers: "Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated."

And CNN's statement: "CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment."

The first account of the incident, unsurprisingly, came via Twitter in the form of a tweet from former MSNBC and Current anchor David Shuster: "GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American CNN camera woman + saying 'This is how we feed animals.'"

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/08/29/rnc_attendees_heckle_black_cnn_camerawoman_toss_peanuts_at_her_report_.html

Diane Rheam was unable to get any kind of confirmation from her guests today.  Her guests are attending the RNC.

From what I understand the RNC has now allowed Bachmann and Fallin back in if they promise to stay sober.  Bazinga

[AquaMan]

As promised ... dancing vaginas protest at RNC

http://leanforward.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/28/13530562-as-promised-dancing-vaginas-protest-at-rnc?lite

Dancing Vaginas!! My GAWD! That is the funniest thing I've seen in years!

However, I had a little deja vu. It reminds me of some dreams I've had.

[Townsend]

Dancing Vaginas!! My GAWD! That is the funniest thing I've seen in years!

However, I had a little deja vu. It reminds me of some dreams I've had.

Except these vaginas aren't taunting you.

[AquaMan]

Except these vaginas aren't taunting you.

Taunt me, laugh at me, challenge my manhood, whatever. Just notice me!!

[Conan71]

Two people threw peanuts at a black camera woman.

Absolutely proves beyond doubt that all Republicans are racist.

Check.

[Townsend]

Two people threw peanuts at a black camera woman.

Absolutely proves beyond doubt that all Republicans are racist.

Check.

The story being tried is that they were referring to the media not race.

[AquaMan]

The story being tried is that they were referring to the media not race.

And the significance of peanuts? They were thinking of the press as squirrels rather than apes?

Conan, singularly, none of these activities means much. At some point, they aggregate into a personality. Its not easy to get seats at the convention. These aren't skinheads or trailer trash. These are workers in the party. It is getting uncomfortable to see them react to the well placed seeds of hate the party leaders have planted. Stuff like the press being their enemy (Rush even blamed the National Weather center for playing up Isaac to remind people of Katrina). Yelling "Liar" at the president during a State address. Censuring a representative for using the word "vagina" in the House. Liberals being godless and the president a closet Muslim. That's a small sample of stupid, sexist, racist, ignorant behavior.

Its even more embarrassing to see the press ignore the story.

[Townsend]

Its even more embarrassing to see the press ignore the story.

I will point you to twitter.  The press isn't ignoring it.