OK, so I'm trying to make myself listen to the Republican National Convention on NPR. It's a challenge.
I've already heard a couple of bullshit speeches, including one from an Iraqi woman who reminds us that Iraq "has been at war for the past 30 years... Saddam was at war against his own people." (Yes, and this would be around the same time he was our best bud and that photo of Rumsfeld shaking hands with him was taken. History is so inconvenient.). Then there was the guy who explained why the Patriot Act wasn't really a bad scary thing like those liberals keep trying to say it is. Somehow, I wasn't reassured. And there was something about these fake news programs that were making or showing at the convention — they have the format of traditional reporting, but they are publicity pieces. I want to find out more about this.
And NPR's reporter kept trying to interview Michael Moore, who is writing from the Convention for USA Today all week (I have so much more respect for them now!) but the Secret Service kept shooing her away — for "security reasons", although there was hardly anybody around.
I guess they don't feel there's any reason why they should make his job easy.
I'm sure Bush will get a post-Convention bounce out of this. He's got all those moderate speakers out there, after all, and he can deliver a good speech when he's prepared. But stilll, don't people notice there's something rather... hollow in all this? Invoking family values on the one hand, and bringing up scary bad guys on the other? Is fighting (or trying to look like we're fighting) terrorism all we can aspire to? Is there no bigger vision or plan?
"Bush... he's not as nasty as Saddam Hussein!"
Yeah, that's the ticket.
