Next year in New York

[daylily]

I just read (in an essay by Ted Rall) that the republican national convention will be held in NYC next September. Ordinarily, the convention is held in July, but the republicans have decided to let their shindig coincide with all the 9/11 memorial events.
According to Rall, NYC is a bastion of liberalism and Bush and his supporters are unlikey to get a warm welcome. Rall also claims that police will be ready to violently squash any protesters.

I think it's disrepectful and exploitatvie to capitalize on 9/11 in order to whip up enthusiasm for the republican campaign.

NYC-ers, what do you think of this?

[IslandMamma]

As an ex New Yorker, I am outraged. Let's rehash what the evil-doers did in support of blasting the heck out of any sandy country with oil under it, and rub salt in the wounds of the thousands of people who lost family and friends on 9/11! What a great idea! Holy mega propagandist machine, batman! Yet another reason why the shrub needs to go.

Hey-- it's almost as good as suiting up and landing on an aircraft carrier to declare the end of combat in a war that has claimed more lives since that "heroic" day than in initial combat. Made for a good photo op. What, is Bush gonna dress up as a fireman?

Argh. Makes me wanna :Puke

[daylily]

What, is Bush gonna dress up as a fireman?

LOL! I wouldn't put it past him.

[merpk]

Ya' know ... I find it hard to get worked up over this.



First, though, have to say, as far as "rehashing what the evil-doers did," I have yet to meet a single person who doesn't rehash it every single day. It's in your face, no matter what you do.

The WTC was the end of the line for a subway line and a commuter rail line, and it still says so on those trains. If you ride the West Side IRT, and you go through the stations that are still closed, you get to see the huge girders they've put in to shore up the station walls, damaged in the collapse. If you ride a line that goes over a bridge, and you get to see the NYC skyline, fuggedaboudit. I still see people start crying on the W train sometimes when it goes over the bridge.

They were literally a part of your day, whether or not you ever went to them, and their destruction is still a part of your day, whether or not it's overt. That 4yo in the playground lost her mommy on the 92nd floor of Tower 2, and that toddler never met his daddy because he was on the 100th floor of Tower 1 when mommy was still pregnant.

Can't escape it. Literally.








So BFD that the Republicans want to come in and join what is already obsessively depressingly a part of daily life.




Bush already had all the photo-ops he needed, with the megaphone on top of the "Pile" of WTC rubble, in the pilot's suit on the aircraft carrier, making speeches and sounding vengeful ... I really don't think this will make any difference.

Besides, if they haven't found Osama yet and Iraq is still messier than the mess it is today, exploitation of 9/11 might even bite them on the proverbial ... behind.




They're just going to use the convention to milk whatever emotions they want for the cameras anyway. Nothing is actually accomplished at the convention under these circumstances, anyway (with an incumbent Republican president) except enormous publicity for the party and the already-obvious candidate.




Sorry if I can't get worked up over this. Don't like thinking of my city overrun with Republicans, either. But ...



[/morose rant]

[captain optimism]

We have the Democratic convention coming here to Boston, and everyone is psyched because of the money.

Thinking about Bush and NYC: Well, since the administration was really stingy about helping rebuild New York after 9/11, at least bringing the convention will bring some money into the city.