Your liberal pundits at work

post from Daily Kos on 24 August 2008 10:01:11 PM. © Daily Kos

Remember, Richard Cohen is supposed to be one of the Washington Post's "liberals":

"If you're a little bit critical of Barack Obama, you get really a pie of vilification right in the face," Cohen said, adding that his liberal critics "were born too late, because they would have been great Communists."

Cute. He's telling the peons to "shut up".

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/373858230/252

Digg this

FOX News Gets A Little Freaked Out By Convention
Protesters

post from Crooks and Liars on 24 August 2008 10:00:17 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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 [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/24/fox-news-gets-a-little-freaked-out-by-co
nvention-protesters/

Digg this

Official Monday Schedule

post from DemConWatch on 24 August 2008 09:48:00 PM. © DemConWatch

Democratic National Convention Podium Schedule
Monday, August 25, 2008 ? ONE NATION
Time Shown as local ? Denver, Colorado MST
See the Complete Schedule
3:00 PM - 7:00 PM (LOCAL)

Call to Order
The Honorable Howard Dean
Chair, Democratic National Committee
Former Governor of Vermont

Invocation
The Honorable Polly Baca ? Greeley, Colorado
Former Colorado State Senator
President & CEO Latin American Research & Service Agency

Presentation of Colors
Navajo Code Talkers Association
Keith Little, Frank Willeto, Bill Toledo, Jimmy Begay

Pledge of Allegiance
Angela Morgan ?Alexandria, Virginia
Served 9 years in the Marines and now runs a leadership development small business

National Anthem
Colorado Children's Chorale
Group over 30-years old ? Tad Koriath (piano)
Local children (7-14) performing throughout US & the world (China, Asia, Europe, etc.)

Welcome
Reverend Leah D. Daughtry
Convention CEO & Chief of Staff, Democratic National Committee

Video - ?Welcome to the West?

Introduction of and Report by the Credentials Committee
The Honorable Howard Dean
Chair, Democratic National Committee
Eliseo Roques-Arroyo
Co-Chair Credentials Committee
Former Executive Director, Democratic Party of Puerto Rico
James Roosevelt, Jr.
Co-Chair Credentials Committee
Pres. & CEO Tuffs Health Plan (HMO) and grandson of FDR
The Honorable Alexis Herman
Co Chair Credentials Committee
Former US Secretary of Labor

Introduction of and Report by the Rules Committee
The Honorable Howard Dean
Chair, Democratic National Committee
Sunita Leeds
Co-Chair Rules Committee
Chair of the DNC Indo-American Leadership Council
The Honorable Mary Rose Oakar
Co-Chair Rules Committee
Former Member of the US Congress, Ohio,
President of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee
The Honorable David Walters
Co-Chair Rules Committee
Former Governor of Oklahoma
President of Walters Power International

Video - Changing the Course of Our Nation
Featuring Ashley Baia -Native of Pennsylvania and an Obama field organizer mentioned in Obama's Philadelphia speech. Know as the "sandwich girl" who, at age 9, convinced her mother she liked mustard & relish sandwiches to save money while her mother was fighting cancer. She is now twenty-three.

Introduction of Convention Co-Chairs
The Honorable Howard Dean
Chair, Democratic National Committee
The Honorable Shirley Franklin
Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia
The Honorable Leticia Van de Putte
State Senator, Texas District 26
The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius
Governor of Kansas
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Member of the US House of Representatives, California
Permanent Chair of the 2008 Democratic National Convention

Turning Over the Gavel
The Honorable Howard Dean, temporary Chair of the Convention turns over the gavel to
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Permanent Chair of the 2008 Democratic Convention.

Remarks
The Honorable Doris Matsui, Parliamentarian
Member of the US House of Representatives, California

Andrew Tobias, Treasurer
Democratic Party Treasurer

Remarks by the Secretary and the Electronic Roll Call of Attendance
Alice Travis Germond - West Virginia
Secretary, Democratic Party
Member of the Democratic National Committee

Remarks ? Presentation of Platform
The Honorable Patricia Madrid
Co-Chair Platform Committee
Attorney General of New Mexico

Judith McHale
Co-Chair Platform Committee
Business Executive (former President, Discovery Communications; Board of DigitalGlobal)

Remarks
The Honorable John Hickenlooper
Mayor of Denver, Colorado

Congressional Hispanic Caucus
The Honorable Joe Baca
Member of the US House of Representatives, California

The Honorable Grace Napolitano
Member of the US House of Representatives, California

The Honorable Silvestre Reyes
Member of the US House of Representatives, Texas

Remarks
Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL - Pro-Choice America

The Honorable Emil Jones, Jr.
State Senator, Illinois
Amanda Kubik
Young Delegate ? North Dakota

Ret. Rear Admiral John Hutson,
Pres. Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord ? lifetime Republican

Reg Weaver
President, National Education Association

The Honorable Manuel Diaz
Mayor of Miami, Florida

Video - Changing the Course of Our Nation
Featuring Gabrielle Grossman
New Hampshire Obama Supporter "U2 mamma for Obama"

Remarks
The Honorable Lisa Madigan
Attorney General, Illinois

The Honorable Dan Hynes
Comptroller, Illinois

The Honorable Alexi Giannoulis
State Treasurer, Illinois

Randi Weingarten
American Federation of Teachers

The Honorable Amy Klobuchar
US Senator, Minnesota

Musical Performance
John Legend (vocals & piano) and accompanied by:
Agape Choir - International Spiritual Center, Culver City, CA
Trans-denominational Spiritual Community founded by Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith

Video/Remarks
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Permanent Chair, Democratic National Convention

Video - First Time Delegates: Renewing America's Promise

America?s Town Hall ? Economy
Moderator: Senator Sherrod Brown - Ohio,
Panelists: Ned Helms, Lisa Olivares, Dr. Laura Tyson, Jon Schnur

Remarks
Margie Perez
New Orleans jazz singer & song writer from Musicians Village

President Jimmy Carter Segment
Jimmy Carter/New Orleans Video
Acknowledgment of President Carter

Remarks
Maya Soetoro-Ng
Half-sister of Barack Obama
High School teacher - Hawaii

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Remarks
The Honorable Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Member of the US House of Representatives, Illinois

Mike Fisher & Cheryl Fisher ? Beech Grove, Indiana
Mike ? Amtrak tech & Cheryl ? hospital tech (hosted Obama for lunch)

Tom Balanoff
President, SEIU Local 1 (Chicago)

Senator Edward M. Kennedy Tribute
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg
Daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy

Video - Edward M. Kennedy Video

Remarks
The Honorable Miguel Del Valle
City Clerk of Chicago, Illinois

Candi Schmieder
Delegate Chair, Iowa County Convention

Jerry Kellman
Hired & supervised Obama at Developing Communities Project - Chicago, Illinois

Introduction of Jim Leach by
The Honorable Tom Harkin
US Senator, Iowa

The Honorable Jim Leach
Former Republican Member of the US House of Representatives, 1st District, Iowa

Introduction of Claire McCaskill by
Austin Esposito
Son of Senator McCaskill

The Honorable Claire McCaskill
US Senator, Missouri

Video - Michelle Obama Package

Introduction to the Michelle Obama Package
Craig Robinson
Older brother of Michelle Obama

Remarks
Michelle Obama
Wife of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama

Benediction
Don Miller -Portland, Oregon
Best-selling author & public speaker focusing on Christian spirituality

Recess
The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius
Governor of Kansas

Read The Full Article:
http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/08/official-monday-schedule.html

Digg this

The McCain Junior High Reaction to Obama’s
Choice of Joe Biden

post from All Spin Zone on 24 August 2008 09:45:00 PM. © All Spin Zone

While I predicted the choice of Joe Biden by Barack Obama several days ago, I need to say that was a prediction, not my choice. As a prediction, it makes sense to me. I’m sure Joe Biden will fight real hard in the campaign and all that stuff, but he’s not my favorite guy to represent “change.” I’m more likely to agree with my colleague Richard on that score.

Still, this is about spin, and I’m all about examining the John McCain reaction to the Biden choice. And that reacdtion so far has been straight out of Junior High. What’s the first thing the McCain camp did? They talked about Barack Obama’s misstatement. Here’s Obama’s slight gaffe: Obama, in introducing Joe Biden, said “the next President,” then immediately corrected himself to say “the next Vice President of the United States.” How many gaffes have we seen where McCain has completely misstated something and never corrected himself, waiting for his staff to say something like, “it doesn’t matter whether John McCain knows his ass from a hole in the ground, he was a POW!” Purely a Junior High reaction on the McCain camp’s part, and McCain himself should wake up soon to what these folks are doing on his behalf, or he’s going to get the votes of all those AV nerds and about nothing else. No, this wasn’t the only Junior High style reaction by the McCain camp. Check out his ads.

Here’s the first advertisement since the Biden choice, where McCain decides to take Joe Biden’s words from the primary campaign and use them against Obama. I have to say, I’m not sure who this is supposed to convince. Throughout our history of electoral politics Democrats have run against Democrats, and Republicans have run against Republicans. And there’s been unity afterwards, more or less. This is just another extension the McCain camp’s decision to treat this election as if it were for Junior High class President. Yeah, the messages here have about as much substance as a slew of text messages by 13 year old schoolgirls. Maybe the schoolgirls would be more entertaining, though.

The other advertisement? Why John McCain is going after the Hillary folks! The ad is called “Passed Over,” and the McCain folks purport to know how Hillary and her people feel about the Biden announcement. This is really ugly, if you think about it, that they pretend to know how a woman and her supporters feel, then try to take advantage politically, all the while with mock sympathy. That’s truly what it was, of course. (The McCain camp surely had advertisements ready even if Obama were to have chosen Colin Powell as a running mate.) I like Hillary Clinton’s reaction to the McCain ad with it’s faux sympathy. From CNN:

“Hillary Clinton’s support of Barack Obama is clear. She has said repeatedly that Barack Obama and she share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq, and expanding access to health care. John McCain doesn’t. It’s interesting how those remarks didn’t make it into his ad.”

CNN’s OnPolitics also makes the salient point that Mr. McCain just might choose Mitt Romney as a running mate, and the whiney attacks those guys made against each other were far more bitter than anything said by Hillary or Joe Biden about Barack Obama. McCain’s Junior High tactics of commenting on the primary campaigning in the other party has been done in the past, of course, though I don’t remember two seperate advertisements on the subject. Given the far more bitter ugliness between Guiliani, Romney and McCain, well, one hopes for McCain’s sake that one of his seven houses isn’t made of glass. Those stones will be returned, I’m sure.

What should McCain have done here? He should have left well enough alone. The American people are used to political parties having their time in the sun. The other party getting in the way of the convention strikes the American people not just as poor cricket, but as a juvenile move. No doubt someone will also take note that McCain’s people developed two different advertisements out of an Obama event that took about an hour the other day, one that had 35,000 people cheering wildly. Yeah, he should leave well enough alone. The “celebrity” of Obama is such that there’s a huge number of people in this country who are not going to like being poked in the eye by a bunch of juvenile McCain staffers.

So, is the McCain camp going to produce two commericals for ever big Obama appearance? Perhaps he could tout this as a jobs program for Republican-leaning campaign producers or something. All i know is that if the McCain camp keeps this pace up, they’re going to have no time to strategize about who should be their own candidate for Veep. That’s the interesting conversation that should be happening here.

I’m leaning towards Tom Ridge, despite the word in the last couple weeks that the religious right will have numerous cows over McCain picking a pro-choice candidate. Who you going to believe, Michael Smerconish, who claims Ridge will help McCain capture Pennsylvania from the Obama ticket who has PA native son Biden on it? Or are you going to believe FauxNews, which claims the RNC will never let McCain choose Ridge? I’ll believe neither. Ridge worked several years for Bush and instituted those stupid color coded terrorism warning thingies. The last thing John McCain needs is further association with Bush, so he’s not going towards Tom Ridge whatsoever, except in a Democratic campaigner’s dreams.

The Junior High School reactions by the McCain campaign to the Biden Veep choice is a mistake on the McCain camp’s part, not just because it makes the McCain people look exceedingly petty, but because it takes them away from the most important decision of their campaign. Oh, they are clearly going to blow it, and I just can’t wait.

Read The Full Article:
http://allspinzone.com/wp/2008/08/24/the-mccain-junior-high-reaction-to-obamas-ch
oice-of-joe-biden/

Digg this

Lovin' Biden

post from Open Left - Front Page on 24 August 2008 09:20:32 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

I'm not going to do the standard progressive blog post about how I'm glad it's Biden because even[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenLeft-FrontPage/~3/373848770/showDiary.do

Digg this

Convention News - Day 1

post from DemConWatch on 24 August 2008 09:07:00 PM. © DemConWatch

Bruce Springsteen will not be playing the convention. Or maybe he will be - and BonJovi too.

and there still may be other surprises on Thursday.

and Obama may make a live video appearance on Monday night.

Michelle Obama will get a walk-through of the Pepsi Center stage Monday morning.

John Legend Scheduled to Premiere 'If You're Out There,' opening the convention on Monday.

Hillary Clinton to speak at Invesco........ well, in a private suite at a party on Tuesday night.

And some Clinton delegates are trying to get her the VP slot.

Bill Clinton wants to talk about the economy. But he's on "national security" theme night. He's not happy.

The Secret Service does not expect long lines at Pepsi Center or Invesco.

The networks have all their toys in place to cover the convention.

Barack Obama?s presidential campaign is preparing for supporters to sleep outside of Invesco Field the night before he formally accepts the Democratic presidential nomination before more than 75,000 people. - CNN

We wrote on Friday whether 2008 is the end of the conventions as we know them. The NY Times says "Going, Going But Not Yet Gone".

Time Magazine profiles Matt Nugen, Obama's man in Denver. We wrote about Nugen in June, and noted that he was on the site-selection committee for the convention.

Ed Kilgore is also working behind the scenes in one of the convention rehearsal rooms.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/08/convention-news-day-1.html

Digg this

Hispanics Still Overwhelmingly Reluctant to Back
McCain

post from MyDD on 24 August 2008 09:06:24 PM. © MyDD

Hispanic voters like Barack Obama and don't like John McCain. Take a look at the latest numbers across the Mountain West from Mason-Dixon (discussed as well in my last post), specifically the numbers on Hispanic voters: Hispanic Voters in the Mountain[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mydd/~3/373808159/0289

Digg this

Laughing Ponies: Che Guevara!

Original page via newsocialist.org.Che's life humorous? Let's see beyond the break! Part 1:Part 2:Part 3:[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/373910205/showDiary.do

Digg this

Regret or Accountability

This week ? once again ? a US air strike killed a large number of Afghan civilians. The numbers are indefinite, somewhere between 76 and 90; the precise details still being filled in by various investigations. But again, again ? bombs fell and famiies[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/24/regret-or-accountability/

Digg this

Pace's DNC Post 8/24/08

Okay so I thought yesterday was amazing and then along came today! Our day started bright and early rising at 6:45 am and we were out and about by 9 am this morning. Our first stop was a brunch sponsored by the National Federation of Democratic Women. This was a great event with women from all over the country. There was a possibility that Michelle Obama might make an appearance but she was not able to attend. With the announcement of Joe Biden as the VP the campaign has been scrambling. We hope to see her along with Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday.

After brunch we were off to lunch (turns out there is a lot of free food here (good food too - you know, Kimberly friendly) which was sponsored by the AFT (the American Federation of Teachers). Yummy! We sat with a couple from New York. The woman is a 5th grade teacher and her husband is a Political Science Professor at Elmira College. Small world. Got even smaller when we learned that their son lives in Clifton Park, NY where my dad grew up. They are friends with the Clintons and Howard Dean. We were networking :-)

After brunch and lunch within 2 hours, we had an hour or so to fill so we enjoyed exploring downtown Denver. We saw protesters, street musicians, and vendors selling everything they possibly can with Obama's face on it. We've discovered that Denver is a great city in terms of disability access. I heard an interview with the mayor of Denver earlier today and he was talking about all of the effort that was put into improving accessibility for the city. It worked! There is no place that I have wanted/needed to get to that I have been able to.

We thought security was tight yesterday, today it was even more so. You couldn't go a block without seeing at least two SWAT teams, Denver Police, Colorado troopers, and or rent-a-cops etc. Check out the photo with one of the SWAT teams. I suspect tomorrow will be even more intense security wise.

Next stop an AFL-CIO rally meeting. It was filled with impressive people with incredible stories. The man from one of the Democratic debates who spoke at Soldiers Field about how he and his wife lost close to everything including nearly 1/2 of his pension and 1/2 of his health care benefits spoke. They had to make a decision about which one of them would keep the health insurance. In the end, they chose him and he felt/feels awful. He is a proud man who has worked all of his life to support his family and it all comes down to working hard his entire life with very little to show for it. He is here to support Obama's presidential bid as he believes that Obama will be able to do something not only for himself but also for families across this nation, some 40 million of whom are uninsured or underinsured. His story brought tears to my eyes.

At the same event Ted Kennedy's son Teddy spoke about the importance of America's working class and its significance to the Kennedy family. I was surprised but he was actually quite eloquent. There is a rumor Ted Kennedy might be well enough to attend some of the events in the next few days, I'm crossing my fingers.

Following the AFL-CIO meeting, we whisked ourselves into the next door ballroom for the tribute to Congressman John Conyers from Detroit, MI. I have been lecturing about Conyers and his impact on Civil Rights for years, needless to say it was a thrill to be able to listen to him and his passionate support for Barack Obama. Conyers is simply man who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of not just civil rights but to human rights. It was a treat to say the least.

It was a jam packed day, upon our return to our hotel we saw our first celebrity, Al Franken who is staying here with the Minnesota delegation. His wife told us that they would be leaving on Tuesday to get back to his Senate campaign, with Tuesday being the primary they can't be away too long.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a very busy day. Our state delegation meets at 7 am (most of you know I am not a morning person so you can imagine how that will work out :-), and then we have several events planned including something called "Unconventional Women," the GLBT caucus and then the convention itself kicks off officially with Jimmy Carter giving the first Keynote speech. If time permits we may be able to make it to the Molly Brown House (of Titanic fame) and possibly the Downtown Aquarium which is supposed to be amazing.

Till next time, I hope you are all well and stay tuned for tomorrow night's post....

Read The Full Article:
http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/08/paces-dnc-post-82408.html