AddieStan

In light of fears that the GOP will exploit the suffering of Gulf-Coast people to its own favor, Michael Tomasky says , not so fast: Now consider a flood, especially in the aftermath of Katrina, and especially a flood hitting an urban area, a situation that finds many African American people being interviewed on television, as is the case today. Your average American is not going to bring information to this picture that will make her conclude that the Republicans are the party to handle this. She will think, without even really knowing that she's thinking it, that this is a matter for the Democrats to take care of – that the Democrats will handle this situation with more empathy and, post-Katrina, more competence. CLICK HERE TO READ TOMASKY'S 'GUSTAV AND THE HARD-WIRED MIND'

http://digg.com/world_news/Police_gasssing_protestors_in_St_Paul_h2o_hoses_horses UPDATE: Joe Johns of CNN said the police were responding to a small group that broke away from the main protest in order to break windows and "generally make a nuisance of themselves."

Your blogstress is most gratified to see that, two-and-a-half years after the fact , the extreme and unconstitutional level of surveillance and free-speech impediment resorted to by New York City Police during the 2004 Republican National Convention remains of interest. Today, Jim Dwyer 's page-one piece from yesterday's New York Times ranks among the paper's "most e-mailed" articles, meaning that it's making the rounds beyond the paper's usual (and significant) readership. Before anyone thinks wistfully of the possibility of a presidential candidacy by New York's mild-mannered Mayor Michael Bloomberg , your Webwench humbly asks such a one to reconsider in light of the news of the widespread and worldwide spying done by New York's finest in the year leading up to the convention. And beyond the spying was the nasty little tactic of detaining people just before they were to begin their protests, only to release them without charge some 24 hours...

Future shock NEW YORK, NY--Favorite line from the president's speech: We are on the path to the future and we are not turning back. Nice to know we plan to keep the planet moving in its orbit. (And somebody got paid, probably rather well, to write that line.) Speaking of Alvin Toffler, his biggest booster appeared in the dignitary stand along with the vice president and his family, and former New York Senator (and vice presidential candidate) Jack Kemp. The biggest booster of Toffler's Future Shock ? Why, defrocked House Speaker Newt Gingrich, that's who--and he's obviously in some stage of rehabilitation. In fact, one might say that Newt is on the path to the future and he's not turning back.

Grabbing the apple NEW YORK, NY (Madison Square Garden)--A reporter colleague from a very reliable publication tells your blogstress that she witnessed a young woman dressed in a garment festooned with anti-Bush slogans roughed-up by security personnel before they knocked her down and dragged her off. She appeared to be one of the Axis of Eve protesters. She was standing, watching the proceedings when she was attacked, says your blogstress's source. Throughout the Garden during the course of the convention were security guys who looked like Secret Service, with the curly-cue wire coming out of their ears and everything, but who actually worked for the GOP operations team. Many of them applauded throughout Bush's speech tonight. I saw one of them block Al Franken's path, apparently for the hell of it, on the first night of the convention as the comedian tried to report from the floor. After he turned Franken away, a colleague of his said, "I'm sorry sir, you can...

Drop another bomb on your mosque NEW YORK, NY--Noting with interest the song chosen to close the convention, your cybertrix thought the lyrics (above) to the piece selected were frighteningly appropriate to the ticket. What? Wait that's? You mean that's "love", not bomb? Are you sure? No, I'm sure I heard "mosque". You say it's "heart"? But the rest is right, right? Just one word? Oh. Let's try again. It's actually "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," which apparently has something to do with bombs, mosques and democracy in the Middle East.

We are so screwed NEW YORK, NY--Greetings from inside the hall where your president just spoke. With the hard energy of true believers piercing your blogstress's body armour (a rather arresting bustier that John Kerry, no doubt, would have declined to pay for), this your blogstress can virtually assure you: they're gonna win. (And we don't mean those guys nominated in Boston.)

Help from the swing states How disheartening to see yet another moderate carry giant buckets of water for the president. Tonight we witnessed pro-choice New York Gov. George Pataki laud President Bush just as the latter was to restate his regressive social agenda. Particularly annoying to your blogstress was the show of bringing to their feet the delegations of the three swing states about which Pataki told 9-11 stories. The stories were about truly touching displays of support: one thousand Oregonians coming to the city right after the attacks to take 1,000 hotel rooms in their bid to revive New York's economy; the young Pennsylvanians who gave up to a Brooklyn firehouse the $900 in savings they had set aside for a trip to Disneyworld; the Iowans who sent 100,000 quilts to rescue and recovery workers at Ground Zero. The annoying part was in the fact that Republican state delegations were taking credit for the acts of thousands of people, a few of whom just might have been Democr...

Vote Bush or Die NEW YORK, NY--It took quite an effort for your cybertrix to get herself inside the convention hall this eveing. And it took her a while to figure it out--why she was dragging her handsome behind. Then it came to her: Tonight she would watch a speech delivered to rabidly admiring crowd by the man who will likely be president for another four years. And you know how she feels about that. Yes, siree, remember you heard it here first: These guys are going to win. In contrast with the Democrats, the Republicans' message is tight. As Roger Simon said tonight on Lou Dobbs , the message is, "Vote for Bush or die." Simon boiled the message down to its essence: "[I]f you vote for John Kerry, a man who misunderstands terror, who's an appeaser, who will sell out our country, Al Qaida will come to your home and kill you."

Well, the food was good NEW YORK (Central Park)--Okay, so one person's evening is your blogstress's morning. There was this party to recover from, the one at Tavern on the Green sponsored by the scary California delegation. (Think Orange County, not Hollywood.) Your blogstress, having a background in journalism, certainly saw the food as the draw, and what a spread there was. No mere morsels here, but piles of jumbo shrimp, and pieces of lobster and a carving board and the most delectable smoked salmon your cybertrix has ever tasted. Your Webwench was so lost in the ecstacy of gluttony that she left her iBook in the coatcheck, and had to turn back once she reached Broadway to fetch it. (And that was after she had left her Washington Blade press credentials in the Ladies Room, for all those Orange County beauties to admire.) The rightful owner of the pass that got your blogstress into this fête , a friend with such a rarified position that his identity must remain secret, g...

Who's on first? NEW YORK, NY--One of our favorite blogs is TVNewswer , so imagine your blogstress's dismay when, this morning, she found an item from Hotline posted there, as if they had broken the story, about the delegates to the Republican National Convention chanting "Watch Fox News!" on the convention floor. The discerning readers of AddieStan , of course, were hip to the chant two--count 'em, two--days ago, thanks to your blogstress's powers of observation and aural fixation. See postings from August 31st , item titled, "Fair and balanced".

The anti-Obama Alan Keyes talks to AddieStan about Mary Cheney, sex organs and journalists NEW YORK, NY--After Dick Cheney concluded his manly-man speech, your blogstress made for the door; a nicotine break was surely in order. And as she re-entered the building (after removing all her jewelry and her black leather jacket and opening her handbag and all but displaying her fillings), who should your cyberscribe run into but Alan Keyes, the erstwhile Senate candidate, late of Illinois. Earlier today, Mr. Keyes kicked up some dust when, during an interview with Sirius radio (see "Republican Party Imploding" on Daily Kos), he described the vice president's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, as a "selfish hedonist", a charge that brought an immediate response from the Log Cabin Republicans, who "blasted" Mr. Keyes for condemning the child of a candidate. (See the Washington Blade ). "First of all, that is not what happened," Mr. Keyes told your W...

Boogie on, Reppie women Managing to make it into Madison Square Garden just as the vice president was arriving, your blogstress got herself positioned in front of a video monitor just in time to watch Republicans dancing to the strains of "Soul Man". There was much bouncing and bobbing, and hands-in-the-air waving, as well as some two-stepping by folks in cowboy hats. In short, not a proud moment for this white girl. Now Zell Miller has taken the stage, looking like a man in the throes of demonic possession. Remember when he was happy and funny--and a Democrat--in '92? Maybe it wasn't the same guy. In the meantime, your cybertrix is performing a magic act of sorts in order to publish her blog. Just as the vice president began to speak, her publishing tool, Blogger.com, crashed. (An omen, perhaps?) And so your Webwench publishes by noodling around under the hood. And the last hood under which she noodled was that of a '78 T-bird.

Bothersome tasks NEW YORK, NY--Her readers are suffering, your blogstess knows, while she neglects them to commit (eek!) legitimate journalism. Having spent the week, so far, slinking around after Log Cabin Republicans for the Washington Blade , your cybertrix is happy to report that she will return to full-time blogging this evening. Her public demands it!

Visuals: Who's working now? NEW YORK (46th St. between 6th & 7th Avenues)--A clean cut white man walking, holding a hand-lettered placard of white poster board: Osama still has a job. Do you?

Ahnold: cracking the code NEW YORK, NY--Because tout le monde will be dissecting the Terminator's address to the Republican National Convention, your blogstress will avoid wasting too much HTML on it. But speaking of code, she feels compelled to point out Ahnold's use of the "good people" line, which was no doubt a wink-wink to those disgruntled queers and freedom-loving women who resent their designation as perverts and baby-killers in the GOP platform. The Log Cabin Republicans had joined the Republican Pro-Choice Majority in trying to insert a "unity plank" into the platform, one that said "good people" can disagree on such issues as gay marriage and abortion. The measure failed, and though the platform committee inserted a bit of the language, it added a scrap so tiny as to render it meaningless. Log Cabin Executive Director Patrick Guerrero told reporters that he had lobbied speakers to address the contention over gay marriage in their spe...

What you didn't see in prime time NEW YORK, NY--Once upon a time, your blogstress gave a certain grudging respect to Elizabeth Hanford Dole for having a achieved so many things unthinkable by most women of her generation--a law degree, a cabinet post, the helm of an immense non-profit and, now, a seat in the United States Senate. Back when your cybertrix was but a young vixen toiling as a feminist, this Dole paid a visit to Ms. magazine, where we received her with genuine enthusiasm, thinking her to be a reasonable sort of Republican. As of tonight, Dole chose to roundly throw reason out the window with a speech that could have been delivered by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Approaching the podium to the tune of Tom Jones' "She's a Lady", Mrs. Dole went on to carry water for the gay-hating, anti-abortion and ostentatiously evangelical wing of the GOP. Offering such utterances as: "Marriage is important because it is the cornerstone of civilization," Dole we...

Fair and balanced NEW YORK, NY--In the convention hall, in the thrall of First Nephew George P. Bush (as Poppy onced called him, "the little brown one"), the delegates burst into a chant worth noting: "Watch Fox News!" Now your blogstress must hightail it out of here, since they're about to do a lockdown for the primetime speeches. And she'd rather watch the Terminator ruminate from the comfort of her hotel room.

Visuals: lies, jobs and alpha waves NEW YORK (6th Ave. near 46th St.)--This morning, while prowling for coffee, your cybertrix, still sullen from the previous night's use of 9-11 as a psy-ops exercise, she came upon a site for sore eyes. Attached to the back of a generic, perhaps rental, car, was a trailer labeled www.pantsonfire.net that featured an effigy of the president dressed in a flight suit with flames fashioned of nylon and wire shooting off the back. Later in the day, on her way out of the hall, your Webwench saw a young Asian-American woman with a delegate's credential fashion a sign on the back of a CNN paper fan that read, "I work for cheap", then crossed out the word "cheap" and scratched in "free". She stuck it on the side of a building. Then your cyberscribe came upon a a scruffy white-guy protester, clearly an army of one, who carried a piece of brown carboard scrawled with a diatribe that began, "Stop radio-controlling the ...

New York's night NEW YORK, NY--Oh, to be her blithely arch self, your blogstress cries. But tonight's doings at the Republican National Convention have left her bereft and at moments confused. Even before this evening's confab a disheartening trend had commenced when the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization led by some very smart young men, tossed in the towel on the floor fight they had threatened, and then even gave up on the floor demonstration that one of their leadership had intimated was immanent, unless your cybertrix had just thoroughly misunderstood him. The group did release an effective television advertisement , today, calling on their party to choose between the moderate and radical path. (See the Washington Blade .) With former New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani as the keynote speaker, tonight was clearly 9-11 night at the RNC. (Of course, with the convention located in New York, every night could be 9-11 night at the convention.) The brief remarks by ...