Non-Partisan my ass

http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1093688450286120.xml?kzgazette?NEKP

Voter party rocks on without GOP Convention in NY blamed as possible cause of GOP absence at MTV-sponsored event.

Saturday, August 28, 2004
By Craig McCool


It was billed as a non-partisan event, but the Rock The Vote voter-registration rally Friday looked a lot more like a Democratic Party event as Democratic candidates took the stage between bands and handed out literature.Republicans were conspicuously absent.


Key local GOP members say it's because they weren't invited. "They were all asked," said organizer Aaron Wright. "Everyone from the state party and local party was called and couldn't make it. I'm very disappointed that nobody's here (from the party). It doesn't reflect very well on Republicans."

But Deb Buchholtz-Hiemstra, Kalamazoo County GOP chairwoman, said she was never told about the event.

"We would have been there if we had been invited," she said.

The state GOP had a convention Friday night, which could have drawn some candidates away from the Kalamazoo event. And the national GOP convention in New York is also a time conflict with the registration rally, she said, but even then, the party would have tried to get someone there, she said.

State Sen. Tom George, a Republican who represents Portage, is traveling to New York to see George W. Bush get the official nomination from his party. George said he was unaware he was invited to speak at Rock the Vote.

"They may have called my Lansing office," George said. "I wouldn't have been able to go anyway."

Rock the Vote, sponsored by MTV, enters its second day today at the Arcadia Creek Festival Site downtown. The two-day event had 26 musical acts on the bill, with speakers between sets to encourage those in attendance to register to vote -- not to vote a certain way.

"I don't want people to think that this is just a Democratic party event," Wright said.

Alexander Lipsey took the stage after the local punk group Maryz Eyez finished its set Friday afternoon. The Democratic state representative from Kalamazoo didn't use the event to campaign. He merely encouraged everyone to register.

Hip hop, punk and rock, the predominant musical styles on the Rock the Vote bill, are not known for pushing a conservative agenda. Mike Williams, a member of the hip-hop group Desert Eez that played Friday night, has spoken out against Bush in recent interviews. Derek Felter, whose rock band Mulligan plays today, said he wanted to play the show "because it's for a good cause."

What cause?

"Getting a certain someone out of power," he said. "Well, I guess that's my cause."

Buchholtz-Hiemstra said she had also gotten the impression in national media that many in the Rock the Vote movement were for "change, and that means voting the incumbent out of office."

"But if we had known there was a local vote registration event, we would have been there. It's always better if people are mobilized and interested and active in politics.

"So even if the event was leaning against us, we would have shown up."

Wait, an MTV-sponsored event didn't invite Republicans? NO WAY!!!

screw MTV, rat bastards

I still say we should've let 'em video BulletFest.

MTV makes the A list again...for Assholes. Fucking Assholes.

It may be loaded with a lot of freak wierdo liberal Dems, but damn, Western Michigan has some hot women and wild parties.

I wish I would've known about it.

I could have attempted to breed them out of existence.  

I was just skipping over MTV and they had Kerry's daughters on, ewwww...