Political Irony

The twin cities of Minneapolis / St. Paul are hosting the Republican National Convention this summer, but they are having a big problem. They can’t find enough volunteers to work at the convention. In response, they are putting out the word that party affiliation is not important. “This is not about being partisan; it’s about putting our [Minnesota’s] best foot forward.”

Unanswered is the question of whether you can wear your Obama t-shirt while greeting Republican delegates at the airport, providing information at hotels, or staffing a booth.

The convention needs 10,000 volunteers, but so far they are 4,000 short. They are going so far to offer prizes for people who sign up the most volunteers. Note that the Democratic convention has the opposite problem — they have too many volunteers signed up (25,000) so they are limiting each volunteer to only 4 hours of work.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/20653709.html

Two weeks ago we reported on the strange goings on in New York concerning the congressional seat formerly held by Vito Fossella (which incidentally is the only New York City congressional seat held by a Republican). Things were pretty strange then, but they just got even stranger. If I were a tele-evangelist, I’d claim that the supreme being is punishing the Republicans.

To refresh your memory, Republican Congressman Vito Fossella was stopped in Virginia for running a red light. He was also drunk, and was on his way to visit his second family, complete with an out-of-wedlock daughter. Vito Finito, as the tabloids put it. Next the Republicans can’t find anyone to run for his seat, but after frantic searching they finally settle on Francis Powers, a wealthy businessman. This despite the vow of his own son (also named Francis Powers) to run against his father as a Libertarian.

Yesterday, Francis Powers (senior) died of a heart attack.

At this point, if I were thinking of running for that seat as a Republican, I’d strongly reconsider. But the Republicans don’t have much time — the filing deadline is July 10.

The Bush administration founded the Arab language TV station Alhurra and radio network Sawa, to provide “an American perspective on world events and counter the wave of global criticism that had been building against the Bush administration since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.” We have funded their studios in Springfield, Virginia, with around $500 million in our taxpayer’s money to promote US propaganda. So how are they doing?

Well, a watchdog group says that those stations air anti-American and anti-Israeli viewpoints, has showcased pro-Iranian policies, and recently gave time to a militant who called for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. They also provided coverage for a conference of Holocaust deniers in Tehran (with their own reporter telling viewers that the Jews had provided no scientific evidence of the Holocaust).

How did this happen?  Well, the president of Alhurra, Brian Conniff, does not speak Arabic and so is unable to understand anything broadcast by the radio and television stations he is supposedly managing. Maybe he was picked for his journalism experience. No, he has no prior journalism experience (he worked previously as a government auditor). Did he hire other people who could do the job? No, his news director, Daniel Nassif, has no journalism experience either.

When the watchdog group visited the stations, they found “an untrained, largely foreign staff with little knowledge of the country whose values and policies they were hired to promote. There appeared to be little oversight of the daily operations.” According to William Rugh, who served as US Ambassador to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates “There is no adult supervision there by people who know what is on the actual broadcasts.”

These problems have been known for some time, and Congress even threatened to withhold funding last year, but despite assurance that the problems have been solved, they continue to this day. Even if you agree with the Republicans ideologically, you can still be opposed to them running the country, because they are clearly incompetent to do so.

http://www.propublica.org/feature/alhurra-middle-east-hearts-and-minds-622

© Matt Wuerker