And it's only tangentially related to the convention, but what are you gonna do?
I've read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 a couple times, and I always found myself growing nostalgic for the era when political conventions actually meant something. I know both parties like to trot out their celebrity endorsers and try to prove to the opposition how much more they love America, but there's a reason the damn things aren't more widely covered on TV. With both contenders chosen months ago during the primaries, the only purpose the conventions serve is to further confuse the addled 5% of the populace who don't already know for whom they're voting, and to annoy the rest of us who decided on November 8, 2000.
I guess that's more then one reason. Curse my flip-flopping.
More importantly, after seeing coverage of last weekend's protests, can I humbly suggest to the organizers that they come up with some original music for the damn things? If I have to hear one more variation of "Hey Hey Ho Ho" or "What Do We Want? Something! When Do We Want It? A Time Frame of Relative Immediacy!", I'm going to hunt down Country Joe McDonald and force feed him about 25,000 mics of brown acid.
Joan Baez is still alive, right? Or what about Ian MacKaye?
From yesterday's NY Daily Snooze:
The hecklers began to counter-chant USA! USA!, but when the protesters joined in, the hecklers didn't know what to do next.
Helen, if it's Castlemaine, you're on.
But can we go dutch? Money's a little tight this month.
Michael: That's great. I love it. :)
As someone who hit the streets this past weekend chanting variations of, "Hey hey, ho ho," and "What do we want," I'll tell you why we keep using them - because they work. It takes no time at all for a crowd to pick it up because they all know it. But we did have some others:
"Like father, like son. One term and then you're done?"
"2, 4, 6, 8, separate church and state!"
We had others, too, but those were the biggies.
Bart: What we need is another Vietnam. Thin out their ranks a little....
Bart: What we need is another Vietnam. Thin out their ranks a little....Nah, most of them are too old to have to dodge the draft again...
Oh, wait. You did mean 'Chickenhawk Republicans', right?
Well this is a completely non-convention-related comment... I've moved house :). DQ is now at mu.nu, so come by for a beer sometime Pete!