Friday, September 5th, 2008

Vibe.com@RNC :: Day 4: The C-Word

John McCain walked onstage at 9:11pm, to chants of “USA! USA!”

Outside, 400 more were being arrested as National Guard guarded the entrance to the Xcel Center, bringing the total to 818 for the week, a count smaller than only the 2004 Republican Convention held in New York City.

Eleven minutes into McCain’s speech, two protesters from Code Pink–sitting behind stage left near the nowhere that networks MSNBC and Al-Jazeera had been assigned to–began shouting “U.S. Out Of Iraq!” The crowd at the Xcel Center interrupted McCain’s speech again with more cries of “USA!”

And then it was all McCain’s stage.

He didn’t try to match the fervor of VP nominee Sarah Palin’s address the evening before. Instead he tried to portray himself as an experienced, determined fighter and above all, a break from the recent Republican past.

He spoke sometimes as if he wished the Bush II administration had never happened. He pointed the finger at corruption, big government, oil companies. “We lost [people’s] trust when we valued our power over our principles,” he said.

He received one of the biggest cheers of the night when he said, “We’re going to recover the people’s trust by standing up again for the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics.”

But he also reached out to new constituencies, “the Latina daughter of migrant workers”, urban children in failing schools. He even proposed bridge pay and job retraining for unemployed workers, a proposal that labor and Democrats began making during the Reagan/Bush I years.

Still, his major domestic initiative, what he called “the most ambitious national project in decades”, was an energy plan that depended most of all on new oil drilling. Wednesday night, Sarah Palin offered her own semi-pristine Alaskan North Slope wilderness as a place to start as Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, the only elected African American to address the RNC, coined a new phrase: “Drill, baby, drill!”

This is hardly seems the kind of domestic agenda that can reinvigorate a new Republican Party. This year, less than 2% of the Republican delegates were African American, less than 5% were Hispanic, and the count of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders not from Hawai’i was negligible.

Throughout the week, black and brown Republicans spoke about how frustrated they were to see the party going backward in time. Efforts to bring communities of color into the party, after all, had been a major initiative of Karl Rove and RNC Chair (and former Harvard Law classmate of Obama) Ken Mehlman. In 2004, 44% of Hispanics and 11% of African Americans voted for Dubya.

Yet since the retirement of J.C. Watts, the Republicans have had no prominent national elected African American. Their delegate total this year is the lowest in 40 years.

And although McCain has been well-respected in the Hispanic community for his stance on immigration reform, over two-thirds are expected to vote for Obama.

Michael Steele–who had won the support of Russell Simmons in his failed 2006 bid for the Senate–was candid in interviews this week. The lack of outreach is a recipe for disaster.

Ask the 20-year old white mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma, John Hammons–where Hammons says, per Merle Haggard, they still fly the American flag and respect the college dean.

He was 13 when 9/11 happened, and it became one of the formative events of his young life. But he calls himself not a “neoconservative” but a “new conservative”, distinguishing himself from older culture-war Republicans.

His generation, he says, views the nation and the world differently. He says his best friends are Vietnamese and Dominican, Buddhist and non-Christian. His town is now only 61% white. And as a young person, he too has been moved by the historic nature of Obama’s candidacy, even though he’s a solid McCain Republican.

“We’re letting go of some of those irrational fears that we have,” he says. “When you do something from fear, you regret it.”

John McCain asked the Xcel Center crowd to stand up and fight with him. He flipped an Obama line like jiujitsu, saying, “Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me-first country-second Warshington crowd: change is coming.”

But in the Grand Ole Party, it may be that change is not coming fast enough.

posted by @ 6:22 am | 2 Comments

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Vibe.com@RNC :: Day 3: Red Meat

Props where they’re due: Sarah Palin came in with expectations lower than a bug, and delivered like a ninja.

Her mission: set herself up as the mother-next-door, then lance Barack Obama as an uptown liberal.

Boom boom.

She trotted out her son Track, who is about to deploy to Iraq. Her daughters (with no appearance from Bristol’s baby daddy). Her part Yup’ik Eskimo husband, the world champion snow machine racer. Even her infant with Downs Syndrome.

Before a crowd in which the only hand-painted signs either read “Palin Power” or “Hockey Moms 4 Palin”, she retold her single hockey mom/pit bull joke. The Michigan delegation, outfitted in hockey jerseys for the occasion, went craaazy.

Then she started it up. She tossed the red meat again, following the path of her warm-up, the king of the parade of the also-rans featuring Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee—Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani suggested Obama didn’t think Palin’s hometown Wasilla was “cosmopolitan enough”. (Obama has never said anything of the sort.) But Palin evoked old-school red-baiting: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer’, except that you have actual responsibilities.”

(Ain’t it funny how the meaning of ‘red’ has changed?)

Giuliani called Obama out of touch. Palin said, “In small towns, we don’t quote know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.”

She raised the experience issue. “Listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform—not even in the state senate.”

The partisan crowd—which even at its most alive seemed straining to fill the arena—roared like a kennel of red nose pits.

They had chanted “Sarah” all night. For Obama, they chanted “Zero”.

Palin even dissed Obama’s “Styrofoam Greek columns” and all but dismissed his supporters as brainwashed followers.

“In politics,” she said, “there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those who, like John McCain, use their careers to promote change.”

Palin came off like Tina Fey beyond her most Hillaryest, delivering her punch lines like a savvy fighter. All this after a week in which Republicans had set expectations so low by giving the press over to her daughter’s baby troubles, that Palin could hit it off a tee and get on base. She stepped up and blasted it over the next block.

And yet if this were actually a battle cypher, let it be noted Palin got through round one with a pocket full of writtens.

It’s hardly clear how Palin will do on October 2nd at Washington University when she is separated from her teleprompters and facing off against Joe Biden, who has years of debates under his belt.

All that is certain is that the next two months will be no friendly game of baseball.

posted by @ 8:42 pm | 6 Comments

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Vibe.com@RNC :: Day 2: Once Again It’s On

Day 2 of the Republican convention came off with a frenzy of activity in the Xcel Center to get back up to speed after Hurricane Gustav rained on the parade. Scheduling wasn’t clear for much of the day. Delegates and media struggled to figure out what was up.

By showtime tonight, seats in the Center were still empty, even for a night-capping speech by Joe Lieberman that seemed repurposed from his short-lived glory days as Al Gore’s second fiddle, history repeating as parody. If his career ended tomorrow it would still be too soon.

The shortened convention may serve as an official explanation, but certainly this was the smallest role a sitting president has ever been given in recent memory. President Bush II–beamed in via satellite from a safe distance in the White House–seemed overshadowed even by the presence of his father and mother. The big chill between McCain and Dubya will go down in history as colder than even the arctic cool that blew between Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 2000.

Meanwhile, those on Cheney watch got stinking drunk for yet another night. They could be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning by Thursday.

Outside, there was a light rain all day, accompanied by purple clouds of tear gas. What looked like mere police incompetence and bullying on Monday–when added up with actions both over the weekend and through today–now looks like a pattern of suppression.

Convergence centers were raided, continuing a daily operation that began last Friday before the convention. The Ripple Effect concert was shut down early, before Rage Against The Machine was able to make an unannounced performance. Crowds trying to leave were barricaded.

A peaceful Poor People’s March turned ugly when pedestrians and protestors alike were pepper-sprayed. Even trad media cameramen and reporters were badgered by horse-riding cops.

Long after the protests ended this evening, innocent bicyclists in downtown Minneapolis were still being stopped randomly by police–brought in from as far away as Philadelphia. (And we already told you how much folks love bikes in this town.)

Sample line of questioning:

Are you anarchists?

Uh, no sir, we’re heading to The Wedge to buy some locally-grown organic lettuce.

Perhaps the most fun to be had today was at the Ron Paul rally, where the speaker list ranged from the entertaining (Jesse Ventura) to the abhorrent (Grover Norquist). Attracting over 10,000 committed libertarians and confused liberals, the day-long Rally for the Republic was like a rock show without the rock. Paul even speaks like Underdog. Ventura, in the Hulk role, announced interest in running in 4 years. Paul-Ventura, 2012? There’s no need to fear.

Tomorrow, Governor Sarah Palin should draw a full house for her time in the spotlight, family, future son-in-law and all. Another anti-war march is planned. Will that lettuce still be on the shelf?

posted by @ 10:20 pm | 0 Comments

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

B+’s Photos Of The DNC

Don’t miss these galleries at Vibe.com that chronicle last week’s events through the eyes of the brilliant B+.

posted by @ 8:50 pm | 0 Comments

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Vibe.com@RNC :: Day 1: Music And Teargas

Yesterday, as Atmosphere stepped onstage at Harriet Island to rock a crowd of 10,000–Slug sporting a fashionable “Obama ’08” shirt–riot police just across the Mississippi were firing tear-gas cannisters and preventing hundreds more from crossing the bridge to get to the show.

Earlier that day, 20,000 had marched through the concrete canyons of St. Paul, carrying signs like “To Work Hard and Overtime, It Is Not A Crime: Immigration Reform First 100 Days”, “School Is For Learning, Not For Recruiting”, and “Heck Of A Job, Bushy”. Encompassing anti-war, pro-immigrant, and anti-Bush groups, the march was larger than anything seen in Denver, more diverse and celebratory.

A marching band played near a giant inflated globe. In front of the St. Paul Children’s Museum, little girls stared at the horses the riot cops sat on.

By 2pm, the main demonstration dissipated. The family marchers left across the bridge to Harriet Island for the SEIU concert and rally, and the day-long skirmishes between the anarchists and police intensified. A few hours later, unsuspecting stragglers to the concert found themselves caught in a militarized zone.

Black-bandanna’d anarchists hurled rocks, bricks, and trash at the black-suited riot police. Riot police fired rubber bullets back. Some who wanted an afternoon of music in the park were left bloodied and angry.

Hundreds of arrests later, the concert on the Minneapolis side of the river ended. As the show attendees walked back into St. Paul across the Robert Street bridge, at the request of Hennepin County police, squadrons of riot police arrived to block them. It was as if, unleashed and having drawn blood, they couldn’t wait to get more.

This was the news on a day the Republican Convention suspended most of its business and focused on Hurricane Gustav.

Cindy McCain and Laura Bush urged the delegates gathered in the otherwise strikingly empty Xcel Center to donate to the victims of Gustav. Hoping not to be outpositioned, Obama–perhaps the first candidate in recent memory not to receive a convention poll bounce, even after delivering a keynote that clocked Super Bowl ratings–cell-spammed supporters with a text message asking them to give $5 to the Red Cross, and to “Please fwd.”

At the demonstration, one marcher had held a sign on which he drew the southern part of the U.S., added a big hurricane symbol, and inscribed “Republicans: There When It Benefits Them.” By the end of this unusual day, though, the irony had become meta: Republicans seemed to be stacking benefits like chips.

posted by @ 7:03 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

On Slate.com :: Randy Newman’s "Korean Parents"

Here’s my piece on Randy Newman’s “Korean Parents” and his new album, Harps & Angels. A teaser…

Post-racial may be the new black, but race humor is as perilous as it ever was. This summer, satirists—from second-time offender Don Imus to The New Yorker’s Barry Blitt—have found being funny on race hard to do. The latest entertainer to step into this spotlight is Randy Newman, whose new album, Harps and Angels, includes an uproarious song titled “Korean Parents.”

The song will probably not prompt boycotts the way Ice Cube’s “Black Korea” did months before the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Nor will it lead to confrontations with activists like those that Sarah Silverman faced in 2000 after telling Conan O’Brien that her friend advised her to avoid jury duty by writing, “I hate Chinks” on her form. She told O’Brien that she wrote, “I love Chinks! And who doesn’t?” If the race dialogue in this country—such as it is—has moved from culture-war rancor to lame meta-satire, perhaps that’s progress. But Newman, with “Korean Parents,” offers a more enjoyable way forward.

He has always shown a particular fondness for picking at the scabs left by America’s ongoing racial unease. Against the backdrop of Nixonland backlash, he devised a carny for 1972’s “Sail Away” who pitched slaves on a free ride across the Middle Passage. “In America you’ll get food to eat, won’t have to run through the jungle and scuff up your feet,” the carny sang. “It’s great to be an American.”

Read it all here…

posted by @ 6:50 am | 0 Comments



Previous Posts

Feed Me!

Revolutions

Word

Fiyahlinks


twitter_logo

@zentronix

Come follow me now...

Archives

We work with the Creative Commons license and exercise a "Some Rights Reserved" policy. Feel free to link, distribute, and share written material from cantstopwontstop.com for non-commercial uses.

Requests for commercial uses of any content here are welcome: come correct.

Creative Commons License