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New York to Republicans: Get Lost

Ted Rall writes a very funny article about New Yorkers' reactions to the Republican invasion of their city next week--and their intended plans to ensure the delegates get lost as much as possible:

Rejecting ex-mayor Ed Koch's call to "make nice" with the party that used the deaths of 2,801 New Yorkers--most of them Democrats--for everything from tax cuts for the rich to building concentration camps at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib to invading Iraq to enrich Dick Cheney and his fellow Halliburton execs, some groups are encouraging liberal-minded New Yorkers to volunteer for the city's squad of official greeters.

Creatively altered maps of streets and subways will be handed out to button-clad stupid white men. Other saboteurs wearing fake RNC T-shirts will direct them to parts of town where Bush's policies have hit hardest. Rumor has it that prostitutes suffering from sexually transmitted diseases will discourage the use of condoms with Republican customers.

Given that New York City is so predominantly Democratic, you have to wonder why the Republicans chose it in the first place for their convention. The last time the Repubs convened in New York was 150 years ago. Here's the explanation:

White House strategist Karl Rove sees the continued exploitation of 9/11 for partisan political gain as Bush's key to victory in November. That means bringing the big bash three miles north of the hole where the Twin Towers used to stand, where most of the victims of 9/11 were burned, suffocated, impaled and pulverized.

Making hay of the dead is also the point of this confab's timing. The 2004 Necropublican National Convention is being held a full month later than normal, from August 30 to September 2. The original plan was to have Bush shuttle between Madison Square Garden and Ground Zero for photo ops to coincide with the third anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Bush's visits to the Trade Center site were quietly canceled a few months back after 9/11 survivors expressed revulsion at the idea. But it was too late to change the date.

TalkLeft has its convention theme song all picked out. It's the Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers of America. You can listen here--be sure to turn it up real loud. The live version from Woodstock is great too. Both are now on my mini ipod and will be New York bound.

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