August 29, 2004
The Republican Convention doesn't even being until Monday, though the weekend's been jam-packed with traffic, cops, parties, cops, protestors, cops, and hungry, angry reporters talking to cops. I feel for the cops -- to their credit, with some notable exceptions, they're hanging in there.
I'm gonna try to save my specific "thoughts" for whatever story I'm supposedly working on right now, but I will say this: I didn't want the RNC here before, and now that it's here, I really hate it. It's a media ratfuck.
Besides, we haven't seen a police state like this since September 14th, 2001, and it feels awful. Me, I've spent the entire day with Republicans, some were charming, some were grotesque, and now I'm ready for them, as a group, to go home.
In real news: it's heinous arrests like this that are exactly why the RNC shouldn't be held here.
For the record, the little march on Saturday night took a full hour to travel past my East Village apartment, so if you haven't seen any demonstration coverage, well, you're getting short-changed by your local news.
Some other coverage and messages I've spotted in my RSS feeds:
· Welcome, Republicans!
· Photobloggers against Bush
· I saw this on 42nd Street this afternoon: protesters heckling The Lion King. It was hilarious. Sure, they'll come see our gays sing and dance for them on Broadway -- but they'll change the Constitution to make sure those homos can't get married. Anti-Bush Protestors Heckle Broadway Theatergoers
· There's lots of protester backlash. I wish my old pal Jeff would get ungrumpy about the protestors. We're fully conscious that we're disrupting our own city, at our own expense, because attendees need to see that there is a strenuous objection to the Bush presidency and candidacy. C'mon old man! You know the deal. Heh.
· And Matthew F. Yglesias (who I saw today at The Tank, liberal blogger HQ in midtown, thanks for the free much-needed donuts) said much the same today: why don't these protesters put on ties and do something useful? Well, my young pal, some of us are doing both -- lots of us are working for change and demonstrating for change, and really, we might want to not be among the 45 million or so uninsured Americans after the treatment we'll get when we get arrested.
· Bush can kiss my black ass.
Which, naturally, is something I really plan not to do. Can't afford the nicotine detox, really. And tomorrow morning: I'm hitting the convention floor. Then I think I'll have had enough, and I'm getting out of town. Honestly? I'm getting too old for this. It's hot. My feet hurt. And I don't like it here right now.
