Secrets of the City

Aaaaaargh. Run for cover…..

Oh shit. I wonder how many cities they ask though……

I’m hoping that there is not a Bush in the Whitehouse still!

What do you think Meatloaf would have said about 1 out 31. Ain’t it bad?

Oh man… I mean… Seriously… We HAVE to have some kind of Bush twins contest. Something just ridiculous. Just despicable.

Oh Jesus.

Kind of a mixed bag on conventions. On the one hand, a lot of visitors and great publicity. On the other hand, protestors, security. But hell, even protestors and security guards spend money, so bring ‘em in, we’ll have a gay old time. We won’t have the Twins anymore so we’ll need the visitors.

Now if only we could find a way to schedule some sort of special election and get all the Republicans in the two cities to vouch for their quota of delegates to be actual residents we might have a chance at electing a Republican in the core cities. Maybe. Nah, who am I kidding.

It would be excellent business for the escorts on TCUncovered. They’ll make lotsa money!

Why can’t the Republicans have their convention in one of the many thriving Republican cities in one of the many thriving Republican states? Instead, they seem intent on subjecting blue cities in blue states to their nonsense.

Alright, let’s keep it clean, kids. I’m watching this time bomb slowly tick down — each comment gets just a little bit worse and this thing is gonna explode any second.

Nah, there are plenty of red cities/states on that list: KC MO, Atlanta, Memphis, San Diego, etc.

Besides, they have to spread out now — they’ve milked 9/11 for about all they can get.

Let them show up with their Abramoff dollars and we’ll give them plenty of chances to spend them here.

Three comments in the unlikely event the RNC chooses Minneapolis:

1. The organizers of the zombie pub crawl should take full advantage of the opportunity for national exposure — it’s like a Michael Alig (a/k/a Party Monster) version of the Battle in Seattle.

2. Which media pundit would you most like to see dressed up as Scott Seekins? I vote for Sean Hannity.

3. Hide your girlfriends, Anderson Cooper is on the way.

Who’s got waterballons?

You mean boyfriends, my dear.

Zing!

i’ll be sure to head out of town on vacation if we do get it – i can only imagine the scene at downtown at bar close.

Calm down children, I’m sure the adults will provide something to keep you occupied while they conduct their business..

..maybe a locally televised xtreme gameboy marathon and free ‘Dew for everybody, I dunno.

Hotlineblog says Twin Cities are in the top 5 of 31 possibilities.

Remember the “Free State” that folks set up down by Minnehaha Falls in “Summer of Love” 1998 to protest the 55 expansion’s effect on sacred Native American oak trees? The National Guard eventually cleared out every dreadlocked Puck and Hickory who was living in those tents or abandoned school buses to make way for roads and light rail.

Do you miss ‘em? Nothing like a Presidential GOP convention to bring the protesting class back to town!

Of course, if you mix those folks with the group that protested the IMF meeting in 2001(?) and left jars of potentially dangerous chemicals at various downtown fooderies, and finally add your garden variety frenzied-GOP-delegate-on-vacation, you’ve got a recipe for one Hell of a summer!

Hold me

Please not in downtown – I have to live here.

Maybe in 08 I’ll have moved somewhere else, though.

All I know is the second I see that limo roll in I’m rounding up my gay boys to start a riot. And they will.

Oh God, I seriously hope they hold it here. It would be an absolute media circus, and what’s more fun that that?

On the plus side, the Republicans have more money to lavishly spend on the vices they tell their constituents are so reprehensible that they should be illegal and punishable with death by stoning. With the extra money generated in the city we could invest in more of those crazy liberal things like clean water, public transportation, and education.

On the con side, I can barely keep my breakfast down when I have to drive past the Rush Limbaugh billboard in the morning (the guy who verbally blasted the ACLU every day until HE needed them). If I have to over hear that much Bush-style blathering as I walk the skyways all those mornings, I don’t know what kind of damage my intestinal tract might sustain.

Love the thoughtful, considerate musings of members of the ‘party of tolerance and acceptance’.

Feh.

This seems to be a recurring story. Both the DNC and RNC flirt with every city every four years as a cheap media ploy. After the DFL sweep of 06 it will sure look silly to have an RNC convention here.

Although I would love to see Anderson Cooper at the Saloon. I ‘d show him 360 degrees of…

Bud, you finally have a real point! You are right. What can I say? While I disagree with your thinking, we really shouldn’t have a problem with hosting the convention here. And we really shouldn’t be expressing our disagreement with such disdain. You win… (this time)

Magic is happening on this site, you guys.

Hey bud, suck it. Can we define what a “party of tolerance” is? It doesn’t mean you tolerate every insult, every fool, every kick in the crotch delivered by the GOP and its media minions.

We are fed up with the GOP’s intolerance for gays, women’s rights, basic human decency, fiscal sanity, personal privacy, etc. And we express this disgust for the way our country has been hijacked by you peckerwoods exactly how you would when you’re pissed off, fed up and tired of being trampled by ideological jerkoffs like yourself. So take your party of tolerance cracks elsewhere. We’re “tolerant” of many things, but your intolerance is not one of them.

I see Chicago has turned the RNC down.

Plus I agree with bud. Starting gay people riots? C’mon.

I’ll pay everyone $5 to not do this.

I’ll see Rex’s $5 and raise him another $5.

ditto

while i agree with the sentiment to avoid going ballistic (especially on politics) i have to smile to myself just gazing into the void that is bud’s ressponse to mediawhore. we have a clear TKO here, folks. bud loves nothing more than to get the 99 percent liberal dander up around here, and he deserved a good kick in the shins, imho.

To perhaps steer it elsewhere, I love the idea of the Bush Twins being in town. But if this actually happens (I’ll give you 50:1 odds), another question: where would the event actually be held? The Minneapolis Convention Center? The Target Center? The Metrodome?

I’ll pay everyone $5 to not do this.

»» Submitted by »»» rex at 12:07 PM on February 16

don’t think for a minute that rex isn’t joking.

jesus. i got confused by my own double negatives.

don’t think for a minute that rex is joking.

better.

why would the bush twins come, unless daddy overturns the 22nd amendment? course, he just changes the laws after he breaks them.

Thank you, remember net radio. Perhaps the tone of my comment should have been more civil, but I stand by the content and the relevance to this conversation. I’m sick of the Republican jujitsu — taking our strong points (tolerance, war records, etc.) and spinning them back against us. If you want to know why Democrats have been getting their asses kicked in elections for the past decade, the reaction to my first post is a great example. Any time someone tries to stand up for our party or define our interests or just formulate a message, the school marms rise up and shout them down with clucking tongues. “Tsk-tsk, we don’t do that here!” If responding to a below-the-belt political jab isn’t allowed here, just change the name of the site to “The Ivory Tower,” and be done with it.

Again, I acknowledge that the tone of my message was a bit over the top, but I stand by the content.

As for where the Bush twins will be partying — it’s been well-documented that Jenna is/was a good friend of Vikings long-snapper Cullen Loeffler when the two were students at UT. Will Al and Alma’s will be getting more Viking business in the near future?

I lived in NYNY during the 2004 RNC Convention, and it was actually pretty fun. The convention was held in a week when many NYers traditionally leave the City for vacation, so work was light and there were ample opportunities to sneak out for protests and whatnot. My guess is that the MPD would be much more tolerant of protest than the NYPD, so a Republican Convention in Mpls could actually turn out to be an interesting civics lesson.

Rex, the 2004 Convention was based at Madison Square Garden, so my guess is that they would have it at Target Center. If nothing else, you’d have better proximity to hotels and LRT than the Dome (which might be too big) or the Convention Center (which would probably be too small).

yar, remember W’s “Victory Speech” at Target center–the day ~before~ the 2004 election? i was on 394 Westbound when it let out, it was gridlock , and i got the most vulgar harrassment (kids in the car) for my wife’s Kerry-Edwards bumpersticker. i guess neither party has a surplus of civility at this point.

I’ll meet rex’s $5. This is just stupid. Another decent conversation ruined by diarehha of the mouth disease. Sometimes I just want to grab people and shake them and yell “Not everything is about your political opinions now SHUT UP!”

I assume the bid is directed at just Minneapolis so the Xcel arena is not possible? Can you imagine filling the Dome with what – 70 to 80,000 people for four days straight? There wouldn’t be a hotel room or free table for miles. FWIW, I think the DNC convention would be cool to have, too.

looks like we’ll be needing a new stadium!

discuss.

Kevin, unless someone has taken your screen name, you started with “Now if only we could find a way to schedule some sort of special election and get all the Republicans in the two cities to vouch for their quota of delegates to be actual residents we might have a chance at electing a Republican in the core cities. Maybe. Nah, who am I kidding.”

Is that not a political opinion?

Seriously, magic.

And did the payoff jump from $2 to $5?

Get Rybeck and tell him to say “no thanks!” Chicago did.

Salon.com:
2008: The Republican National Committee has invited 30 cities to explain why they’re interested in hosting the 2008 Republican National Convention. Chicago’s response: We’re not. A spokeswoman for Mayor Richard Daley says the city is more interested in thinking about a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

RT’s email is: rt@minneapolis.org

While ideologically it might be a tough pill for a liberal like RT to swallow, hosting the GOP convention would be a huge boost to the city’s economy. I don’t seen how a mayor could carry out the duties of his office responsibliy and work against bringing millions of dollars to town.

Spaceman,

That was an attempt at a joke. May not have been funny, but certainly nowhere near the level of spew put forth by some. Partisans of all stripes can agree that I am not a funny person.

Oh . . . okay. Anyway, I’m in complete agreement with your general sentiment: civility, in many cases, is lacking. I like Rex’s ‘diner party’ way of thinking. The internet allows for a different type of exchange, but unfortunately allows for a lot of jerkiness that would not be tolerated in other environments . . .

so anyway, I, like gerg, have a paypal account.

The Carrie with the red teddie here, not the other Carrie. (Sorry I used your name. I think you were here first.) I will now be known as CFKC.

Now that that’s cleared up, I propose a politic solution. We tell the GOP they can have their convention here, but we want something in return. Since traffic will be FUBAR while a president is here, we demand the GOP controlled federal government give us $10 billion for a complete light rail system so we all can get around during and after your visit.

After exacting our price, we can all go up to the North Shore for for a week and let them have the place in peace. As long as we get our light rail (and a nice big damage deposit) I say let them rent our city for a while.

Don’t forget, they could just buy it if they want, and then raise our rent, and then where would we all be?

A few thoughts:

I also live downtown.

I don’t like Republicans.

Not that I any more approve of the DFL these days – but people like THIS vote for Republicans.

The grungy, gutter-punk, drum-bangers will get themselves beat up and arrested for no reason or impact.

Lastly, I don’t like Republicans.

Why don’t they have their convention someplace where they’re welcome, like Burnsville? I’d like to keep them out of our city – - it’s a nice place to live, a great place to play, and they can only hurt that. I don’t want “free speech” corrals. I don’t want angry racists trying to walk through me on the sidewalk. I don’t want fat slobs bullying through lines to go to my favorite restaurants. I just don’t want these people around me. I live downtown BECAUSE I like being around people who enjoy art and literature and embrace diversity of background or economics. Bringing those people here lowers the quality of life for all of us.

I foresee a run on roofies, expensive flavored vodka, and clip-on ties in our city’s future.

Uh uh, we don’t want ‘em in Burnsville, either! I know it’s surprising, but Kerry won in lots of precincts out here!