Reporting Live From Tampa the RNC Wrap Up: Clint Eastwood Steals the Show in a Bad Way

For those who don’t know, political conventions are elaborate, very scripted multi-million dollars productions designed to project a compelling message drawing you to the presidential candidate.. Here at the RNC in Tampa Bay, tons of resources were devoted to trying to make people forget about the ‘legitimate rape‘ comments made earlier this month by prominent Republicans like Todd Akins.

The RNC Convention was designed to make you forget that GOP candidates like Tom Smith of Pennsylvania were running around equating out-of-wedlock pregnancies to rape. The RNC convention was designed to make everyone forget that a youthful looking VP Presidential hopeful, Paul Ryan focused on defining ‘legitimate rape’ and would prohibit an abortion under any circumstance..

In spite the ‘diversity of speakers’ on stage at the RNC it was still pretty much a sea of whiteness

The RNC Convention was designed to make the overwhelmingly white, GOP seem vastly diverse. It seems like these guys found just about every person of color they could think of to take the stage and say a lil something about how they love Mitt Romney and how great republicans are. They found some conservative Black and Brown folks who are relatively unknown and have absolutely no pull in their respective community to act like they have the masses on lock..

When they ran out of Black and Brown speakers they made sure to get some multi-racial funk, jazz and gospel bands along with singer Bebe Winans to take up the rear and perform to a crowd that was over 95% white and in more than a few instances quite hostile to people of color.

The camera people were instructed to pan to people of color in the audience, with RNC handlers strategically moving Black and Brown bodies to camera ready locations throughout the building.  On top of that signs and hand-held fans that read Hispanics for Mitt were handed out to all-white delegates of Kansas. Global Grind Editor-in-Chief Michael Skolnik was the one who was tweeting live and first reported this, was in utter shock that the GOP was orchestrating this fake diversity.

The RNC was designed to get an ultra hard-right, xenophobic, evangelical base to warm up to Mitt Romney, who just a few months prior they considered a fake conservative whose religious background (Mormonism) was dooming him to hell. The call to action was to humanize Mitt, make him likeable and have him be the friendly face of a Leave it Beaver 1950s bygone era that the GOP is determined, to return to. When they say Take Back the Country.. it’s code for ‘do whatever it takes policy-wise and economic-wise to put ‘minorities’, gays and women back in their subservient place. It’s code for ‘get rid of all safety nets and let the poor fend for themselves‘.

Mitch McConnell

The over arching theme for the RNC was if you’re poor, jobless and deep in debt, its your fault for not working hard enough. In interview after interview we did with folks like; Herman Cain to Ann Coulter to Rick Santorum to Newt Gingrich to countless surrogates the party line was ‘poor people are poor because they wanna be poor’… I want folks to read that again and reflect on that for minute..

I had a chance to Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, when I asked him if he thought some of the GOP policies would hurt the economically disadvantage?  I asked him what would you say to someone in the hood who is struggling about getting on board with some of the GOP Policies.. McConnell, looked at me and did not answer. His handlers and secret service rushed him away even though we were standing face to face. This philosophy of blaming the poor for their plight is rooted in a prosperity religious bent many here at the RNC seem to hold. The thinking is, if you are somehow economically bad off, it’s because you don’t have enough faith in God..

The RNC had been very strategic in using culture and cultural icons to put a friendly face to their intolerance. They have two highly produced movies they put out.. One was put together by the late Andrew Breibert, a former FBI informant Brandon Darby and Citizens United where it bashes the Occupy Movement, and erroneously makes the case that Occupy was a big money backed organization designed to help Obama and the Democrats. The movie depicted members of Code Pink as key members of OWS, something that is so far off the mark, that eveb Stevie Wonder can see it..

A scene from Obama 2016

The other movie, Obama 2016, was put together by former Ronald Reagan staffer Dinesh D’Souza and Gerald Molen who produced Schindler’s List. Itwas designed to demonize President Obama and show the root of his supposed rage by tracing it back to Kenya. The film says Obama grew up to have a strong disliking for colonization and colonial powers. As a result, the film suggests that Obama hates America and basically wants to get revenge on white folks. It’s a very sophisticated, polished Willie Hortonizing type of flick.. The RNC also produced some high-polished videos on welfare which needs to be banished and education which needs to be privatized.

The RNC tried to glitz things up, by calling on, Dirty Harry actor Clint Eastwood.  Someone had the bright idea, that the best was to humanize stiff, robotic Mitt Romney was to have the legendary actor sell his good virtues to America. That was a big mistake.. Clint threw away the script, abandoned the GOP game plan they spent hours and countless dollars perfecting and basically did some off the cuff type crap which in the end is likely to cost Romney major points in what looks to be a close election..

Clint Eastwood blew up the spot in a bad way w/ a bizarre conversation w/ an invisible President Obama

Clint came to the stage with slurred incoherent speech and bizarre monologue directed at an empty chair that he said contained an invisible President Obama. The whole ordeal was painful and  had everyone wondering the soundness of Mitt Romney’s business acumen. What kind of business man spends millions crafting an image only to throw it away with the recklessness of having an out of touch Clint Eastwood ‘steal the show’? At the end of the night instead of talking about Romney speech,it was Clint Eastwood that was trending on social media platforms that was being talked about endlessly.

What took the cake was when Eastwood, midway threw his act, pretended to slit the throat of Barack Obama..The cameras panned away, some cheered because they really want the President dead and others looked shocked..

Clint Eastwood’s behavior overshadowed Mitt Romney’s strongest speaker and secret weapon Senator Marc Rubio who was gonna set the tone for the GOP moving forward and with his Cuban background, remind everyone within ear shot that the GOP loves Latinos in spite of crazy anti-Brown People laws like SB 1070 and the crowd showing great enthusiasm and giving rousing standing ovations for folks like Az Gov Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

During last nights proceedings there were several disruptions both from members of Code Pink as well as upset delegates repping for Ron Paul. The Paul delegates held up signs stating how the RNC had been hijacked and Democracy was stolen. With each disruption the crowd would stand, clap and chant loudly USA, USA USA..

At the end of the day Mitt Romney gave what many deemed a lackluster speech. Skolnic pointed out that during the first part of the speech only the delegates loyal to Mitt were cheering, everyone else was either bored or unimpressed. It was only when he started talking about ways the GOP planned to make money did they warm up, and then only slightly.

Many are speculating that this election is gonna hinge not so much on undecided middle of the road voters which has long been the tradition, but instead its going to hinge on who can get their base out. The GOP has peeped that there is not a lot of enthusiasm for President Obama among key demographics and they are playing to that big time.. House speaker John Boehner spoke to this the other day when he stated loudly that he is looking forward to Black and Brown voters not showing up to the polls. GOP leaders are quick to point out that Obama has lost the enthusiasm of young voters, Black voters and Brown voters who are still upset that this his administration hs deported more than one million people, which means over one million families were broken up.

The biggest irony is even though the GOP has blatant anti-immigrant sentiments, they are hawking Obama’s deportation record while Black conservatives and even quite a few whites are actually stating that Obama has no agenda for Black people. I cannot make this stuff up folks. Look for this rhetoric to be given big microphones over the next few weeks..  Such talking points may not sway voters per say to the GOP, but it may lead to many staying home in November.

Obama supporters like to point out that the president has 94% of the Black vote and 80% of the Brown vote etc.. All that may be true. The problem is percentages don’t reflect actual numbers.. Obama may have 94% of the Black vote of those who actually show up to vote. There is talk that over 90 million people may NOT show up to the polls in November. That’s what Boehner is banking on. The RNC folks seem confident that if lack of enthusiasm for Obama doesn’t keep folks at home then the 26 states employing voter suppression tactics and laws will.

The bottom line is the folks I came across at the RNC are really angry and unrestrained in expressing and acting upon that anger. They are angry about the economy, and their way of life slipping before them. That anger has been directed toward folks of color, women, unions and students. I would not underestimate that anger.. lots of money being spent on the Presidential election, even more money is being spent on the local elections.. The GOP is pushing to win all those small seats that folks wanna ignore..

written by Davey D

Reporting from Tampa at RNC Day 2: Condi & Ryan..Rise of the Crazies

 

Ann Wright being removed from the Convention after disrupting Paul Ryan‘speech

Last night during GOP Vice presidential Paul Ryan‘s speech where he told blatant lie after lie, a former army colonel and US diplomat who served under George Bush named Ann Wright along w/ a woman named Laura Mills, of Code Pink unfolded a banner that read ‘Fund Healthcare Not Warfare-My Body My Health’..They were quickly surrounded by security and rushed off the floor as the crowd chanted USA! USA! USA!

The two women came in and sat among the delegates and then positioned themselves so they would be near the press risers where all of your mainstream outlets were filming, thus they would be seen quite clearly as they unfolded their banners.. Sadly most of the outlets turned their camera’s away and did not show the disruption, on live TV.. Not too many commented on the banner unfolding even though  the women who were removed , but not arrested held a press conference that was well attended after the speech where they fielded questions.. We had them on our Pacifica national broadcast shortly after Paul Ryan spoke……

Paul Ryan

As for Ryan’s speech, to say the least it was pretty bad and chock full of lies. The most blatant was him telling the crowd how Obama didn’t bail out auto plant in his Wisconsin district which he noted was forced to close.. The problem was that autoplant closed under George Bush..You can read about that HERE.

His other lies centered on manipulating money figures like saying Obama caused the credit to be downgraded when it was Ryan and his croonies who held the debt ceiling hostage. He then talked about how we did all this wasteful spending when he sat up in congress and voted to fund endless wars, Give Bush a blank check to fight terrorism, the whole nine.. If you want you can peep some of Ryan’s lies from last night HERE

Also just in case y’all forget, because good ole Paul Ryan didn’t mention it, Y’all do know that Ryan co-sponsored a bill with congressman Todd ‘legitimate rape’ Akins that would prevent women from getting abortions in the case of rape? .

Condi Rice

The person who was downright scary and we all need to pay attention to was Condoleezza Rice.. She came on and pretty much laid down the hawkish foreign policy stances that the RNC wishes to carry out…

Condi also had the nerve to conflate the Civil Rights struggle and the fight against Jim Crow with current privatization policies like school vouchers.. She sat up there and basically said if you can come from the south like me where you couldn’t sit at lunch counters to speak before the RNC, then you can see how great America is..In the words of Kanye West,That woman is Cray’..

Condoleeza Rice pulled out her Alabama card said with a straight face the Civil Rights struggle of today is school vouchers..I’m sure Condi’s friends who were the 4 little girls horrifically killed at the 16t street Church bombing are turning in their graves.. The Civil Rights struggle went from ending segregation to school vouchers??

True to form, Condi also never mentioned the massive flooding, power outages and evacuations taking place as she spoke in New Orleans due to Hurricane Isaac.. Remember 7 years to the date during Katrina, Condi was out and about shopping for shoes on 5th avenue while people were drowning..

We also heard no mention of the devastation caused by Isaac from Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Mike Huckabee and everyone else except the Governor Martinez from New Mexico who sent out a prayer.. The good Governor got a huge raucus applause when she immediately followed up her prayer request for New orleans when she talked about her 357 magnum..

A house underwater owned by a friend of the homie Silky Slim

Basically what we had last night was, as President Obama was declaring New Orleans a disaster zone, the RNC folks were literally dancing in the aisles to a funky jazz band.. They did at one pt show a Red Cross sign telling folks to donate for victims of Isaac..The RNC folks also got pissed when the Washington news director for Yahoo News called the RNC out for ‘partying while Black people were drowning in New Orleans’, Yahoo found themselves under pressure and homeboy was fired..You can here the actual remark HERE It was something he said under his breath that got caught on tape.PBS anchor Gwen Ifle is also under fire for defending the Yahoo news director statement..

To put this new Orleans situation into perspective.. check out the twitter time line of @Dee1music. he’s been looking for his parents who last he spoke we’re stuck in the house with 5 feet of water. He’s been on twitter all night asking for folks to see if they can get to the flooded house and make sure they been rescued..

Here’s some snippets of folks I interviewed around Hurricane relief including; Former mayor Rudy Giuliani, Congressman Joe Wilson ofSouth Carolina

Today sheriff Joe from Arizona comes to town.. He’s doing a big event at the local Zoo where he’s expected to tell the RNC how and why they need to apply more oppression to Brown folks..

Here’s what some GOP folks had to say about Republicans closing the women’s gap… This includes Rudy Giuliani,  former RNC chair Michael Steele, Senator Orin Hatch, Congresswoman Joe Wilson