Partisan?

It's tough enough to communicate when words are used carelessly or ambiguously. But when a word is used to mean the very opposite of what it actually means, it's almost impossible to communicate.

George Orwell wrote so many quotable things that it's easy to find something of his that supports your point of view, especially when it's removed from context. But I'd hope that we can all agree that this disappointing story (see the update) demonstrates pure Orwellian doublespeak.

Now it's partisan when both sides are invited to attend events? Events on issues that Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and all people of good will should be able to agree?

UPDATE (9/18/08, 6:51 pm): Sarah Palin has been disinvited from this event. How sad and entirely unnecessary. The Democrats who exerted heavy pressure on the organizers of the anti-Ahmadinejad rally (he's speaking at the United Nations) should be ashamed of themselves. I understand the difficult position that the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and its president, Malcolm Hoenlein, were placed in and their desire to keep the focus on protesting Ahmadinejad's being given a platform at the UN. But I'm disappointed that they caved into partisan pressure.

They invited Governor Palin, and Senator Clinton before her, for entirely nonpartisan reasons. It was the Democrats who made a partisan issue of it. If Obama were the post-partisan he claimed to be, he would end this nonsense by publicly encouraging the event organizers to re-invite Palin and follow the advice given by Senator McCain and attend the protest himself, or if he's otherwise engaged, send his vice-presidential running mate in his stead.