Short Stories, Long Odds

Okay, so news is confused about what exactly has happened in Russia. Two planes crash almost simultaneously, hijack alerts, and the Federal Security Service (Russia’s leading intelligence agency) is keeping a lid on things until further notice. With all of this pending, time to evaluate some other news.

Why Rove and Wolfowitz were hired
After a solid month of mileage and political damage to Kerry’s campaign, the Bush administration came forward and publicly denounced 527 ads. The Swiftboat Veterans For Truth are a 527 group.

Now that you’re up to speed, Bush came out and said not only that 527 ads are “bad for the system” but also that Kerry served admirably and should be proud of his war record. And also, he hoped Kerry would join him in condemning 527 ads.

Kerry had thrown down the gauntlet before this happened and implored the White House to condemn ads that were running falsified attacks and smears on his war record. Its been well established that every major point the Swift Boat Vets tried to make were entirely based on lies, and the truth of Kerry’s war record is publicly available. Despite Bush’s assertions that the administration had no ties to the group, one of Bush’s top lawyers (Benjamin Ginsberg) just resigned from his re-election campaign after it came out he had given legal advice to the Swift Boat kids. Everything looked prime for Kerry, Edwards, Terry and company to come out swinging about it all, right?

Maybe Kerry challenging the Bush White House about these ads was ill-advised, because it seems to have backfired. Bush condemned 527s in a manner that included the Swift Boat Veterans - a Republican-funded 527 - but did not specifically single them out. This will appear to be six of one and half a dozen of the other to most average Americans. It is not. Bush condemned 527s, and MoveOn.org is a 527 group. In order for Kerry to see Bush’s raise, now he’s going to have to publicly condemn 527’s in general as well, and that includes MoveOn. Which he isn’t going to do.

If Kerry were to come out against 527’s in general, he would be turning his back on individual organizations that spent $60 million dollars in anti-Bush ads when Kerry did not have the resources to mount any sort of ad blitz, defensive or otherwise. Because most Americans will be ignorant to these details, I don’t expect him to do it, and really he’s screwed on this either way. What we’ve witnessed, ladies and gentlemen, is a bonafide masterstoke of political manuevering on the part of the Bush team, and everyone on the Democratic team has failed to counter it effectively.

If anyone doubts the kung-fu of the Bush campaign, they need only to read this article concerning Dick Cheney’s sudden softening and change of heart about homosexuality and gay marriage coming into the RNC. Notice its a “change of heart” and not a “flip-flop”. It made people like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council upset:

“I find it hard to believe the vice president would stray from the administration’s position on defense policy or tax policy. For many pro-family voters, protecting traditional marriage ranks ahead of the economy and job creation as a campaign issue.”

This begs the question - are unmarried homosexuals a viable source of income or health coverage? Do we plan on using them as currency whence the New World is established?

Anyways, it doesn’t matter how angry anyone gets about Cheney saying these things, because this was clearly orchestrated and it’ll work on at least a few levels.

Protests, legal confusion, bad Weather in New York City
This Sunday United For Peace and Justice is planning on having a big old-tyme protest march through the streets of NYC in conjunction with the Republican National Convention. They are having all kinds of legal problems getting the proper permits to assemble and have a big rally, although the march permit is finalized. As usual, Indymedia is all over UFPJ for not being radical enough. The UFPJ has said it will cancel the rally if they can’t get a permit. I might end up being there - right now I’m trying to figure out who is actually running the protests, and hopefully I’ll be able to determine whether or not I’ll end up as a feminist anarchist by the end of the whole thing.

More confusing and potentially worrisome are reports that The Weather Underground are going to be up to shennanigans. In case you don’t know, The Weather Underground attempted a violent overthrow of the United States government from the late 1960’s until the early 1980’s. During their operational period, they blew up government buildings and participated in all sorts of domestic terrorism. Some radicals will tell you that they never killed anyone, that non-activism was worse than violence, etc. I will tell you that they made explosives and blew up buildings and in general weren’t nice people. Their presence in the area adds yet another element of danger to an already tense situation.

On a sillier and annoying note, the Mouse Bloc is TOTALLY GOING TO FUCK UP YOUR BROADWAY EXPERIENCE, RNC DELEGATES. What can this possibly accomplish? “Hi, I hate you and what you stand for, and not only that, I’m going to prevent you from enjoying yourself in NYC. Oh, and our cause is supreme. Vote LaRouche.” Or I guess whoever the hell anarchists vote for.

This is more like the NYC I
83% of New Yorkers don’t want the RNC in their city. Many are planning to do things like imitate RNC greeters and hand out incorrect maps, and even to direct people to the parts of NYC that reflect the baser ends and results of Bush’s economic practices. It is highly likely that, at least to some degree, the White House’s attempt to further capitalize on 9/11 is going to go horribly awry, because people are PISSED. New York City is a liberal place by a huge margin (only 18% voted for Bush in 2000) and, well, the only way to properly explain what’s going to happen is to say it again: people are PISSED.