Great article from the Houston Press:

Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

Now, 40 years later, the Republican National Convention is returning to Florida. On August 30, Mitt Romney will don a sleek suit and flash his Vaseline smile to a sea of pale-skinned delegates in Tampa. He will compliment the city on hosting the four-day, $123 million orgiastic event. And he will implore the crowd to obey the banners hung from the rafters: “Believe in America.”
…
While the mainstream media sucks down speeches by Romney and his new budget boy toy, Paul Ryan, Village Voice Media is honoring Thompson’s legacy by doing as he would have done in Tampa: dredging up the real, sordid story behind the convention.

It’s not something you’ll see on CNN. But screw Wolf Blitzer. We’ve got our own guides: pole dancers poised to suck rich Repub visitors dry, professional Sarah Palin porn impersonator Lisa Ann prepping for the performance of a lifetime, aging strip club owner Joe Redner fighting off cancer to flip right-wingers his middle finger one last time, and Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi returning to his home state to chronicle the madness.

“Florida has a lot going for it,” Mandvi says. “Tampa is the birthplace of Hooters, for God’s sake.”

Make no mistake: The RNC’s return to the Sunshine State is no fluke. For Romney, Ryan and the rest of the party, Florida is the future.

Since Nixon’s days, conservatives have transformed Florida into a hellish post-governmental wasteland. Here, super-PACs run wild through suburbs in foreclosure, people trust in only God or their Glock, and the poor are left to literally cannibalize one another on the nightly news. But hey, there’s no state income tax!

As in ‘72, Florida is the template for a right-wing takeover in 2012. Pay attention, America, because this crazy collapsed state could soon be yours, too.