Did anyone else catch that report on NPR yesterday from Don Ganyea, their White House correspondent (unfortunately for Don, no relation to Eric - different spelling)?

For the audio on realplayer, click here.

Unbelievable. It even made me forget how angry I was at the douchebag in the BMW convertible in front of me, having a delightful conversation on his cell instead of driving and making the goddamn green light at Venice before it turned, costing me 2 minutes I will never get back again. Thanks, buddy.

Anyhow, it chronicled the current differences between Bush and Kerry campaign rallies, and how basically if you can't ostensibly prove you're pro-Bush/Cheney then party officials will deprive you of tickets to the event. If you're not a registered Republican, they ask you to sign a written pledge of support for the Bush Campaign and its platform (of course, they didn't go into how legally binding this may or may not be...)

Now, let's pause for minute. This would be the point where conservatives protest at how "left-wing" NPR's being, right? For simply reporting the facts - even if they aren't conducive to a conservative agenda or paint their candidate in a less-than-complementary (read: fascist) light. But can they deny this is occurring or isn't a pretty newsworthy detail? As Ali G would say, "BOOyakashA!"

Actually, the piece interviewed conservatives gathered at the event who saw no problem with this tactic - nothing contradictory to an environment of democracy, free speech and freedom of information. One guy, if I remember correctly, praised its business-like efficiency and beat any liberal to the punch of comparing the policy to the overall tight-lipped philosophy of the Bush Administration since our man in Crawford took office.

I think it was at this point that I completely lost interest in the douchebag in the beamer - just totally forgot he was there. Instead, I started having flashbacks of Ari Fleischer bully veteran White House press correspondent Helen Thomas.

Hey, there are a lot of dirty tactics in election-year politics, but this one just really, REALLY got under my skin. Legal? Sure, I guess...maybe. Although I bet the ACLU could bring a good case forward. But even if this practice of shunning dissenting viewpoints and undecided voters in favor of a wishy-washy, unrepresentative, unrealistic Bush love-fest were totally legal, it's still so ethically and alarmingly wrong on such a fundamental level. I can't believe even conservatives don't have a problem with this. Maybe that's why I'm not a conservative.

I guess the glass half-full is that the Bush campaign is obviously feeling the heat, and this tactic of screening rally crowds is a clear indication. They're nervous, and that's encouraging. And if you look at NPR's homepage, this is currently the second most-emailed story. But what if, after all this censorship, suppressing information, and skewing the facts...he wins? [gulp]

Get out and vote, that's all I have to say. A high-voter turnout is Cheney's I mean Bush's worst-case scenario.