I'm of two minds about these protesters, but the coverage of them on FOX is hi-damn-larious. It is to seriously giggle. They clearly did not expect to see the vitriol towards Pravda, er...FOX News from the "far left" protesters (why are all Democrats "far left" in FNC's eyes? Do they think that moderates stay home or just don't exist?), or they wouldn't have sent relative newbie Griff Jenkins (gawd, if that doesn't sound like a frat boy, I don't know what does) out amongst the riff-raff to ask them if they believe in freedom (of speech). Dude, they're protesting. That IS exercising their freedom of speech. That they choose not to validate the Republican Party's official propaganda arm isn't exactly ignoring freedom of speech.

Griff is shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that there could actually be people protesting at the Democratic National Convention who might not support Obama (because aren't all Democrats lemmings like the unquestioning party-over-country Republicans?), even though he acknowledges that the protest includes Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney and her supporters. Critical thinking skills are obviously not a job qualification for a FOX on-air personality. In fact, it probably helps if you don't have any.

And to be fair--as much as I hate to be--to FOX, I'm not sure how well these protesters come off. I personally stopped going to anti-war protests because the message seemed to get more and more diluted by those who brought their own agendas (including those who just got off on being anarchists). As Will Rogers famously said, "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!" and there's clearly some truth to that viewing the protests.

Speaking of protests, Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny just told me about a fabulous one:

Word is that SEIU is bringing truckloads of key rings and keys to Denver to distribute to [..] conventioneers, in accord with the suggestion we've all been hearing that they come equipped to honor the (Who Knows How Many) Homes of Young Johnny and the Lovely Cindy McCranky. But a poster on one of my listservs came up with a killer idea to take it one step further: Every time McCranky's name is mentioned, everyone in the auditorium jangles their keys!

It would make great TV, so the media would love it. The public would love it, and be reminded of who the McCrankys are. And Young Johnny and his cohorts would go nuts-- a bit of payback for 2004, when the GOP cleaned the Dems' oh-so-respectable convention clock.

Man, that would be one hilarious prime-time burn to have FOX News explain that one to their audience.