Now we know why Minneapolis will host the RNC

Okay, I didn't think of this one myself.  A family member did.  Our city (Tampa) lost out to Minneapolis/St. Paul to host the RNC Convention next year.  At first, we assumed it was because the convention comes during hurricane season.  That's a logical reason to choose a city in the north rather than in Florida, right?  Then we figured maybe it was because the DNC was close to choosing Minneapolis/St. Paul for their convention and the RNC wanted to screw them.  That also makes sense.  But now we know the real reason--It's because our airport lacks adequate bathroom stalls to accommodate the closeted Republicans.  Now we know the real reason.

•  Put up a tip jar, friend.

  by magnetics on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:28:43 PM PDT

•  Wonder if the Delegates will Choose to

  take the Train to the Convention. Just in Case.

  by ROGNM on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:28:51 PM PDT

  •  Don't train stations have public restrooms?

    And in those places people have not gone through a metal detector.
    That would not be safe sex

    by homerun on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:37:26 PM PDT

    •  Um, Well, Try Telling That To Senator Craig.

      Allegedly, he like his bathroom breaks, a couple of blocks down the street from the Capitol Building, at Union Station.  

      An editor of the Statesman says the paper behaved responsibly and the story speaks for itself.  After news broke of Craig's arrest for lewd conduct, the Statesman published a new allegation from a 40-year-old man who says he had oral sex with the Senator in 2004.

      The man says the encounter took place in a bathroom in Washington D.C.'s Union Station.

      "We went to the urinals where we both unzipped," the man said.  "The restroom became  too busy to do anything.  So we zipped up and followed each other to the second restroom in Union Station where we began the same process."

      Craig responded to the source's claim in a recorded interview with the Statesman taken during their investigation a month before he was busted in Minneapolis.  In the interview, he said he is not gay and has never been to in a restroom in Union Station having sex with anybody.  

      Inside Edition

      by leonard145b on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:47:41 PM PDT

      •  Hey. Senator Wide Stance (R-ID) really gets

        around

        by homerun on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:54:05 PM PDT

        •  I like Larry Craig (R-My Own Private Idaho) n/t

          by blueintheface on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:35:48 PM PDT

•  I've also heard that many delegates...

  ...will be lodging at the:

  by turnover on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:32:55 PM PDT

•  Poor Minneapolis

  They've had a rough month.

  by Susan S on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:43:20 PM PDT

•  Susan S...

  someone's been playing around with your tags.  Someone put in a snark tag--you might want to delete it.

  < /snark>

  by Naniboujou on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:46:44 PM PDT

•  If you believe this story...

  I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you...

  by Rex Freedom on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 05:50:18 PM PDT

  •  Ouch.

    I guess we do need one, but...

    by SMWalt on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 08:06:41 PM PDT

•   The Real Reason Is. . .

   Nice post, not least because it does not take itself seriously. Somewhat more seriously, it is apparent that Minneapolis/St. Paul thinks it a legitimate police function (or at least one worth spending scare police resources on) trolling for (and, we may strongly suspect soliciting) gay sex in the men's bathrooms at the airport. Is there a less worthy allocation of police resources, simply in terms of the needs of the community? I think not. Is there one more offensive to a tolerant society that is sensitive to civil liberties, including the liberties associated with sexual conduct? Well, surely (e.g. systematic warrantless searches, unwarranted police beatings and false arrests, racially discriminatory police practices), but not that many; the police conduct in Craig's case, and his more anonymous fellow arrestees (of whom there are many) is objectionable, to say the least. In other words, when the RNC chose Minneapolis/St. Paul, it was choosing it city that it knew, or should have known, was not sensitive to civil liberties. We should not be surprised.

  by relehrer on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:03:22 PM PDT

  •  What ??? are you serious?

    Wait one mid-western minute.  I am totally ok with adults having consentual sex, however, I think having sex in any public setting is out of bounds and anyone doing so should rightfully expect running into legal ramifications.  I dont expect to find folks in a tryst when I try to use a public restroom.  good grief, get a room.  Is it too much to ask?

    by ratador on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:39:08 PM PDT

    •  Both of you make good points

      Propositioning someone isn't the same as actually having sex.  However, I've heard this is a big problem at MSP, so maybe they had to do something.  

      by Susan S on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:46:05 PM PDT

    •  A Mid-Western Minute's Comment

      Is a mid-western minute shorter or longer than a New York Minute? I presume longer, and that is said as a Chicagoan. Anyhow, you make a good point, but the issues are more complicated, I think, than you suggest. For starters, even if it were legitimate for the police to troll for gay men (looking for sex) in the men's rooms of the airport, there remains the question of whether this is an appropriate allocation of police resources, in light of competing demands (violent crime, domestic violence, child abuse). Second, what Craig was guilty of, if anything, was not in having sex, which you object to, but soliciting it. Third, one of the reasons that gay sex gets channelled into airport men's rooms and the like, is that the public display of gay affection or even gay couples is widely disapproved and discouraged, which is intolerant, even if the intolerance is not that of the Minneapolis/St. Paul police (Ok, it is not discouraged or disapproved in Boys Town in Chicago and the like,but generally it is). Fourth, there is a distinction to be drawn between the police arresting folks who themselves are soliciting gay sex, or folks who respond to police solicitations. Dollars to donuts, a good percentage of the arrests, though maybe not in Craig's case, are the result of police solicitations, which, I suspect, you do find offensive to civil liberties.  

      by relehrer on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 07:14:33 PM PDT

      •  while I am not

        privy to police budgets, priorities, etc,  Your point about it being more complicated maybe true, but I dont have a problem with the police keeping a handle on sex in public bathrooms.  that being said, I do agree with your sentiments regarding entrapment

        are the result of police solicitations, which, I suspect, you do find offensive to civil liberties.  

         Yes, police entrapment I do have a problem with.  In any case, I wasnt in the adjoining stall so I dont know who tapped their foot first or anything else.  I didnt even know tapping your foot in a restroom was the dance of love!  I do know that we have one moronic, hyopocritical republican senator pleading guilty as charged, and going down due to this.  I am ok with that.

        by ratador on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 08:07:44 PM PDT

    •  Prude...

      ;)

      by slave138 on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 08:04:58 PM PDT

•  breaking

  Craig's attorney show's doctor's certificate that Craig has restless leg syndrome.

  by seesdifferent on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:21:19 PM PDT

  •  OMG! That is funny. n/t

    by Susan S on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:39:47 PM PDT

  •  does that medicine work

    on restless third legs too?

    by elkhunter on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 08:10:48 PM PDT

•  the convention

  is going to be in st. paul, not mpls.

  by ratador on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:40:29 PM PDT

  •  And they'll get a reminder of our nation's

    crumbling infrastructure while trying to get there.

    by Susan S on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:47:39 PM PDT

    •  Oh by then

      Pawlenty will be out their showing the amazing progress on the new bridge.

      by ratador on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 06:51:29 PM PDT

•  Plus they saw the story

  about there not being adeqauate women's rest rooms at Channelside to accomodate both women wanting to use the rest room and the Carolina Panther Cheerleaders wanting to have sex there at the same time.

  That had to have been a real problem for them in the site selection committee.

  Florida Kossacks Rock

  Blog Florida Blue

  by gatordem on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 09:35:07 PM PDT