Art Predator Gets A Little Political: what really happened at the RNC 2008?

You may have noticed that The Art Predator doesn’t traffic too much in politics. There’s plenty of that on the web already. Sometimes I offer articles of particular interest to me  which I post here as a reference for myself as well as anyone else who might be looking for that information.

The following is a rant about the reporting on the Republican National Convention written by a friend who I respect. Since we don’t have TV, we got all of our RNC news from NPR, the LA Times, from listening to some of the speeches, and from reports from listserves I’m on.  It seemed to me like the media presented an incomplete picture, especially when contrasted with the reports from the listserves by people who were there.

No matter how you might categarize yourself politically, we should all know the full picture of what happened at the convention, inside and out.

As another friend pointed out, at least satire is out there in the mainstream with the Daily Show’s Jon Stwart tackling Sarah Palin and the way gender card is beingplayed:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

My friend’s rant includes some useful links and information which may be of interest to some of the readers of this blog

From my friend’s rant:

The mainstream “liberal” media (read: conservative corporate media –
NYTimes, Washington Post, AP, Reuters, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and
the ultra right wing Faux News) HAVE COMPLETELY IGNORED what was
actually happening outside the RNC, except to report the apprehension
of “terrorists” who were making “bombs” and “collecting” human waste
(someone who had nothing to do with the protests who didn’t have a
toilet).

Peaceful marchers were cornered and tear gassed. Vehicles were
impounded without cause (like a Permaculture bus just trying to drive
into the city). The permitted protests and accompanying festivals were
shut down, tear gassed, raided and otherwise compromised by police
action.
http://the-uptake. groups.theuptake .org/en/videogal leryView/ id/722/

Journalists were arrested without just cause and their laptops taken.
If you think CHINA has a problem with allowing freedom of speech in
their country – have a real look at freedom of speech in this country:
http://the-uptake. groups.theuptake .org/en/videogal leryView/ id/689/

The National Lawyer’s Guild is pressing charges against the Twin Cities mayor and police dept.

Watching the RNC on the inside and watching the live feeds from the
outside just shows the COMPLETE disconnect politicians have with
reality. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING.

The news is NOT reporting the whole story – I suspect it’s because if
they start reporting on the real left, they’ll have to stop calling
Obama a leftist (he’s actually a centrist). I’m WAY LEFT of Obama, and
there are 100 degrees of political ideas in this country left of me!