Interesting accounts of police abuse in New York during the RNC. Looks like Ray Kelly’s thugs are on the prowl. I guess that answers the questions I had about people from New York I haven’t been able to reach recently.
Conventions? What conventions?
A few weeks ago a friend emailed me expressing some surprise that I hadn’t written about the Democratic National Convention in Boston. And again I haven’t written anything substantial about the Republican National Convention either, nor will I, unless something big and surprising happens. Why indeed?
Well, there are a couple of reasons.
The first, and probably most important, is that I’m in Canada now. As such the effects of US politics on my life are no longer what they used to be. Sure, the links I post are often about connected subjects, but links are small things and only require a (usually) one-sentence snide comment to complete them. It’s something that’s quickly done, and they themselves leave very little doubt as to where I would stand, were I an American. As it were, however, I don’t vote in the US, nor do I pay any taxes to fund whatever the President wants to do anymore, nor am I, or any of my future descendants, going to be drafted to be sent off to a dusty death in one of the Middle East’s choice hell-holes because President whoever decides that it must somehow be done for either bogus or real reasons. I don’t have a stake in this, really.
Another reason is that political conventions, in my era, are largely staged affairs where no surprises can occur. The candidates are known and have been for some time, each delegate has carefully been vetted for loyalty, and all in all it’s a pretty empty show of jingoism featuring mostly small-town people in clownish red, white and blue costumes. Talk about wrapping yourself up in the flag! And of course don’t forget the balloons, the demagoguery of most of the speeches, and the pomp and ceremony. They’re tightly scripted strategic shows of the flag with each side claiming to be more patriotic than the other, and frankly as a Canadian I’m quite bored by it all. Our Canadian conventions are not so spectacular, but at least genuine points of policy are discussed there, which is something I’ve hardly found to be true in the case of the US ones. Those mostly feature handpicked speakers chosen to reflect whatever the party chairman wants the message to be, whether that reflects the true state of the party or not. And more often the party in question spends a considerable amount of time trying to masquerade as very different than what it really is.
So, why bother, really? I’ve been catching some of the RNC coverage here (nice job trying to make a right-wing party appear moderate, but you’re not fooling anyone), but missed the DNC altogether as I was busy moving. So far I really don’t see anything that doesn’t fit within the “staged” paradigm anyway, so tempted as I am to spend some time spewing venom on the spawns of Satan speakers at the RNC I’ve decided instead to sit comfortably in my Canadian home, relieved that I’m not paying for whatever decisions will come out of this largely empty show, now or later.
George W. Bush’s enthusiasm for the military was so great, he posed for official pictures wearing a decoration he was never entitled to wear.
George W. Bush’s enthusiasm for the military was so great, he posed for official pictures wearing a decoration he was never entitled to wear. He was not, however, so enthusiastic as to sign up for combat duty during the Vietnam war.
At least one of 300 Swift boat vets who
At least one of 300 Swift boat vets who So, how many of these “signers” are merely fraud victims? And if a fraud has been committed, who commissioned it?