A Letter from an Ohio Citizen

A Letter from an Ohio Citizen

Flip-flop no more: This letter I received today, along with other discussions heard and observations made this morning, confirms that there is now a fresh consensus among most Democrats. After John Kerry's speech at the Democratic Convention last night, there is unity and support for both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Kerry; even among those who were skeptical at the beginning.
_____________

I wanted to write and tell you that tonight, in Hudson, Ohio, the boyhood home of John Brown, we had a convention party at a fine restaurant that drew 500 plus attendees. This gathering was the largest of its kind in the entire state of Ohio, and was put together by a wonderful woman named Chic Canfora, the sister of Alan --one of the wounded at Kent State. It was a rollicking good time, and was a grand display of grassroots citizens of every stripe that are ready to relieve our land of the sickness that is Bush.

The sight and sounds of John Kerry's comrades tonight, led by Max Cleland was almost too much to take. I honor these men's service, as I know you do. I shudder to imagine how the right will attempt turn this obviously genuine display of loyalty and duty into something unholy. But we know they are less than dogs , so try they will.

My friend, you know that cleansing the White House of these Constitutional criminals is what people like me have worked for. You also know that I (as I think you did too) had questions about John Kerry as our candidate. But I learned things tonight about John Kerry that I didn't really hadn't known or understood. I know, without question that our battle for the Constitution is our obligation and is just. But now I know that having Kerry as the leader of that battle is a sound choice. We are doing the right thing.

One last thing. If we are victorious in this election, it will be the doing of everyday people--people who took a stand when the stand was dangerous. People like you. From my family and me, thank you. I love what you do.

JOHN KERRY SPEECH

JOHN KERRY SPEECH

Here is a preview

July 29 Convention News

July 29 Convention News

"..it is time to reach for the next dream..."

What is in tonight's convention nominating-film about John Kerry?

Michael Moore gave his own speech today in Cambridge at an "alternative" convention.
"One thing I do know about Kerry, he will not invade a country like George W. Bush did."

Joe Gandelman has a post commenting on and leading us to internet writing by blogger Dan Bricklin titled "DCon Bloggers: What Has Been Learned From Convention Blogging?" You can find a follow-up by Dan here. I would love to see Joe Gandelman cover the Republican Convention as a blogger.

Matt Drudge says Ron P. Reagan will rip away at Bush (and not just about stem cell research) in an upcoming Esquire article.

Boston Police are dealing with DNCC protestors, some who are not particularly choosy about which candidate to protest. One group set fire to a two-faced effigy--one side showing Bush, the other Kerry.

See writer Anick Jesdanun's perspective titled "Convention Bloggers Are Feeling Their Way".

I think I could do a whole blogpost about the incredible lack of lustre and "hip" in the music and entertainment at this year's convention.


TODAY'S SCHEDULED SPEAKERS:

Thursday, July 29
Stronger at Home, Respected in the World

Madeline Albright, Former Secretary of State
Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
Wesley Clark Speech TEXT...VIDEO
Max Cleland, Former U.S. Senator from Georgia
James Clyburn, U.S. Representative from South Carolina
Alexandra Kerry, Daughter of John Kerry
John Kerry,DRUDGE HAS BROKEN PEEK
Vanessa Kerry, Daughter of John Kerry
Joe Lieberman TEXT ...VIDEO
Ed Markey, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts
Juanita Millender-McDonald, U.S. Representative from California
Eleanor Holmes Norton, U.S. Representative from the District of Columbia
Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Representative from California, Democratic Leader
Jim Rassman, Green Beret rescued by John Kerry in Vietnam
Louise Slaughter, U.S. Representative from New York
(joined by Congressional Women)
John Sweeney, President of AFL-CIO
Mark Warner TEXT...VIDEO

Anti-War or Anti-Bush?

Anti-War or Anti-Bush?
Examining the state of democracy and social justice in America today, do we really have the luxury of that choice?

What should be our priority?

At the Chronicle, Debra Saunders writes a piece titled Herding Cats. She cites a general feeling of anxiety and a lack of exuberance in many convention delegates who believed the war in Iraq was wrong from the beginning. The feelings stem from the DNC strategy of backing away from harsh critiques of the war during this convention. She quotes from a recent letter written by Rabbi Michael Lerner stating that he believes the forces of peace are being isolated in the name of winning an election.

If setting an example of civility was the reason to tone down the speech-rhetoric, then why, as Ms. Saunders suggests, did the crowds go wild upon hearing little Ilana Wexler mock Dick Cheney in her "time-out" speech?


The Question

Saunders says: the Democratic Party is at odds with itself: Its members are hungry to win, but not enthusiastic about how they're getting there. Conventions usually fire delegates up, but many here instead have to cool their passions down. You see, the nominee's support of the war has left his many anti-war supporters in a dicey position. They've had to decide: Are they more anti-war or more anti-Bush?


I think that's a great question. Do we really have to make that distinction when making our choices in November? Are anti-Iraq war Democrats satisfied with what they've heard over the course of the last four days? The DNC strategy seems to be to attract as many new swing-voters as possible, believeing they will have full and uninterrupted unity from the anti-Bush crowd. Yet, some in the left wing are feeling they've been taken for a bit of a ride and wonder how sincere Kerry and Edwards are about the issue of peace, given that they both voted for the Iraq resolution in October, 2002. Has the DNC taken their left base for granted assuming they "hate" Bush more than they love peace?

How did we get here?

I am not sure what the fallout of this political strategy will be, but I can say that I haven't completely agreed with it for quite some time. I've wanted a Democratic candidate who could make an obvious distinction between himself and George W. Bush. I thought Howard Dean had done the best job and that's why I'd supported him steadfastly, at least until I realized the powers-that-be (and the primary voters) had decided against him. It's odd, though. The reaction I saw to Dr. Dean on Tuesday night as he came out to give his convention speech reminded me that he had been one of the candidates who had appealed to our better senses when the Democratic party in America seemed lost. He was our compass. (I credit Dennis Kucinich as well).


Where are we now?

David Broder quotes a Boston Globe survey (of 400 delegates) where 80% say they opposed the decision to start a war in Iraq and 95% oppose it now. The DNC can try to convince journalists covering the convention that they've eliminated internal differences, yet I wonder how many delegates would agree with my thoughts from last summer?

My thoughts

As for me, a progressive, I'm one of those "Imagine"-style dreamers a la John Lennon. And I know I'm not the only one. I realize that if I sit on my ass on Election Day and gripe about the DNC failing to rip the Iraq war to shreds during the campaign, that I may well be partly responsible for the re-election of a man who never gave a second thought about 50% of America when he lied to them and pushed an unnecessary war upon them and when his (majority) ilk in Congress shoved unwanted liberty-sucking laws down our throats.



Regardless of my stand on the Iraq war, if a marmot approached the podium tonight to give his acceptance speech, I'd be sure to get off my tail on election day and pull the lever (or touch the election screen) for him rather than having to know my lack of participation may have contributed to four more years of the democracy-killing Bush.


Think "HOPE". It's surely no time to lose it.

John Edwards spoke of hope last night in his convention speech. This election is all about hope, no matter what we think of the state of the Democratic party. We have to move toward a better day, and we are faced with a choice to either vote with hope in November or vote against it by voting (or abstaining) and getting four more years of slow death to our democracy. There will be time to make necessary changes within our party once we establish that we will be enabled to ensure the survival of the democratic process that will faciliatete that change. We must use our heads. We must have priorities.

I hope the DNC strategists haven't turned off more than they've attracted with their toned-down strategy.


Last thoughts and a question for you

Where there is an electoral overthrow of Bush, there will be hope.

We need to understand this clearly, whether we're for the war or against it.

As corny as this may sound, I love my country and its people and I cannot sit back and watch the Bush administration take us backward.

Can you?

A Reminder: "America"

America- A Reminder


photo by Iddybud


"It is said that America
is a land where dreams
can be transformed
into reality."



a reminder from Nancy from Arlington,
inspired by Tersea Heinz Kerry

July 28 Convention News

July 28 Convention News


Credit: Reuters photo
Practicing for his big speech

12 Generals and Admirals Endorse Kerry
• Lieutenant General Edward D. Baca (United States Army, Retired)
• Lieutenant General Daniel W. Christman (United States Army, Retired)
• General Wesley K. Clark (United States Army, Retired)
• Admiral William J. Crowe (United States Navy, Retired)
• Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn (United States Navy, Retired)
• General Joseph Hoar (United States Marine Corps, Retired)
• Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy (United States Army, Retired)
• Lieutenant General Donald Kerrick (United States Army, Retired)
• General Merrill "Tony" A. McPeak (United States Air Force, Retired)
• Admiral Stansfield Turner (United States Navy, Retired)
• General Johnnie E. Wilson (United States Army, Retired)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE SPEECHES

MARTIN O'MALLEY TEXT.....VIDEO
"My friends, for this generation of Americans
to have a rendezvous with destiny, we must choose.
We must choose to build a stronger America.
We must choose to defend the brave and generous America that our parents and our grandparents were courageous to choose for us.
America the beautiful, whose alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears;
oh, my friends, to govern is to choose.
And at this hour, the man and the mission have met.
The mission is America's security.
The man is here.
And the choice is ours."


AL SHARPTON- TEXT...VIDEO
"Mr. President, we love America, not because all of us have seen the beauty all the time. But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.."


DENNIS KUCINICH- TEXT...VIDEO
We have found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
I was mayor of Cleveland and I could tell you
that I've seen weapons of mass destruction in our cities.
Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction.
Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction,
homelessness, a weapon of mass destruction...
... racism, a weapon of mass destruction,
fear, a weapon of mass destruction.
We must disarm these weapons.


Senator PATRICK LEAHY- TEXT...VIDEO
"I'm Patrick Leahy and I'm from Vermont. I want to offer a friendly word of advice. If the Vice President is watching this speech on TV, he might want to change channels."


Retired General JOHN SHALIKASHVILI, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "OLD SOLDIER/NEW DEMOCRAT"- TEXT
"I know about the horror of war and thus join with others like John Kerry in believing that we must go to war only when all other efforts to resolve the threat to us have been exhausted. And only then, when going to war becomes absolutely necessary, then to go with full resolve and to use force decisively. But we should never go to war without a comprehensive plan for how to secure the peace once military victory has been won."


BOB GRAHAM- TEXT

JOHN EDWARDS-TEXT...VIDEO


Google: Convention

St Petersburg Times: SSH! DNC tells Bob Graham his speech is too Bush-bashing, tells Bob to tone down the obvious.


Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley took the stage tonight. Mayor O'Malley addressed the burden of homeland security on U.S. cities.
He says his message hasn't changed much in the last few years because the Bush Administration has made so very little progress. Seen by many as having star-potential in the Democratic party, his national profile was raised during this afternoon's speech. READ IT HERE.....SEE IT HERE

Guardian: The Convention in Quotes

Amy Sullivan on Barack Obama: "..maybe that's a little premature, but standing there listening to the roar of the crowd (only Clinton has received a louder ovation at this convention) after Obama brought down the house with his keynote address, with "Obama" signs blanketing the hall, I said to myself, "You're looking at our first black president."

Matt Stoller/BOP: The most impressive part of the speech was when Obama ripped into the red and blue state myth..

Michael Kinsley: "..Although Democrats sincerely believe that election was stolen from them, they have been cowed by the successful Republican campaign to make any reference to 2000 seem like bad form....the party that gets the most votes is not "out of the mainstream," whether getting the most votes is enough to win the election or not."




"Recently the Vice President used a really bad word. If I used that word, I would be put in a time out. I think he should be put in a time out."
--12-year-old Ilana Wexler of Oakland, CA, founder of Kids for Kerry



Google: Convention bloggers

Arianna Huffington: Blogger Heaven
That's why I am such a big fan of Internet-based reporters and bloggers. When these folks decide that something matters, they chomp down hard and refuse to let go. They're the true pit bulls of reporting. The only way to get them off a story is to cut off their heads (and even then you need to pry their jaws open).

And because of the nature of Internet journalism, they will often start with a small story, or a piece of one -- a contradictory quote, an unearthed document, a detail that doesn't add up -- that the big outlets would deem too minor. But it's only minor until, well, it's not. Big media can't see the forest for the trees -- until it's assembled for them by the bloggers. That's why the blogosphere has become the most vital and important news source in our country.."

NPR: Bloggers Offer Intimate View of Convention

Wired News: Stars of Convention: Bloggers

Don't miss BBWW's convention diary from "Faithful Correspondent/an Ohio delegate".

Alex Massie/Scotsman: Online pioneers bring convention coverage new audience
"..bloggers proudly like to argue that they are modern-day pamphleteers. The publishing medium may have changed, but the principle has not. Harking back to the 18th and 19th centuries, bloggers maintain that they are merely extra voices in an increasingly crowded media universe but that, since they write as individuals rather than for corporations they can express themselves with a freedom denied to many journalists.."

At ABC, Mark Halperin reports: Steven Spielberg was an adviser on John Kerry's convention biographical video that will be shown Thursday night. Spielberg made recommendations to James Moll, who produced the film. Spielberg, who had been contemplating producing the biopic himself, screened a rough cut recently and offered up his ideas.

Dean-Dems for Kerry: Boston street-kudos are still going to Howard Dean. These Kerry-supporters are unashamed to tell you they are Dean-democrats.


Tom Tomorrow: Saw Josh Marshall yesterday, crouched down behind Al Franken, listening in as Franken and Sean Hannity went at it. After the interview, Hannity said to Janeane Garofolo, with mock outrage, "You called me a creep?"

"You are a creep," she replied. Hannity continued to smile broadly, as if he just couldn't believe these crazy liberals.


Thanks to The Angry Liberal, I connected with Josh Marshall's writing about a question he decided to ask filmmaker Michael Moore as he quickly passed him at the Fleet Center in Boston. Josh's impromptu question, in a nutshell, was to ask Mr. Moore what he made of the obvious and deliberate absence of Bush-attacks during the convention. Mr. Moore's said he liked the convention and when it came to the DNC's choice to tone themselves down on attacking Bush: "You don't even have to say it. Everyone knows how bad it is." (Thanks to Moore and blogdom, everyone does know how bad it is.) Regardless of current polls, I think this goes along with the belief that the election is Kerry's to lose. I think bloggers are owed a tremendous debt by the DNC for keeping it real out here exposing "the emporer whose clothes (and brains) aren't there".

On Monday, I'd written the following: "..Why wouldn't the Democratic party press for primetime coverage by the major networks on Tuesday night? I would think, other than Kerry and Edwards' speeches, the speeches by these two men, Dean and Reagan, would be of great interest to many Americans. Certainly more so than "According to Jim" or "Big Brother Five"....right??" At Liberal Oasis, Bill Scher has asked the same basic question: Obama or Big Brother 5? What's wrong with this picture? See Liberal Oasis for some other really good at-the-convention coverage, including an interview with Representative Jan Schakowsy of Illinois.

TNR: Unite and Conquer-

"They need a divided America,but we don't."

-Bill Clinton, from Monday night's Convention speech


To hear Bush tell it in 2000, the country had been divided into conservative and liberal camps by a philandering, pandering president--and the borderline ran between those who were happy living in immoral times and those who wanted to move on. Obama and other Democratic speakers this week have taken a different approach. According to their rhetoric, the country is, in reality, united; it only seems divided because pundits and Republicans make it that way.

THE COMPETITION: As I mentioned on July 26th, the Republicans are in Boston to counter any of the the Democrats' anti-Bush rhetoric to date. They plan to unveil an 11-minute video today that captures Kerry's changing positions on Iraq since 2001.

MP3 of "If I Was President" by Wyclef Jean . the song you heard at the Democratic Convention today, can be heard here.

Lyrics:

If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...
If I was president

An old man told me, instead of spending billions on the war,
we can use some of that money, in the ghetto.
I know some so poor, they use the spring as the shower,
when screaming "fight the power".
That's when the vulture devoured

If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...
If I was president...

But the radio won't play this.
They call this rebel music.
How can you refuse it, children of moses?

If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...
If i was president

Tell the children the truth, the truth.
Christopher Columbus didn't discover America.
Tell them the truth.
The truth
YEAH! Tell them about Marcus Garvey.
The truth YEAH! The truth.
Tell them about Martin Luther King.
Tell them the truth.
The Truth.
Tell them about JFK

If I was President
If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...

(more to come)
___________________________________

TODAY'S SPEAKERS:

*This Washington Post site will take you to text and videos of previous speeches.

Wednesday, July 28
A Stronger More Secure America

Steve Brozak, Ret. Lt. Col., USMC, Candidate for U.S. Representative from New Jersey
Elijah Cummings, U.S. Representative from Maryland
Cate Edwards, Daughter of John Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards, Wife of John Edwards
John Edwards, Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee
Bob Graham, U.S. Senator from Florida, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan
Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Greg Meeks, U.S. Representative from New York
Martin O'Malley, Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland
Harry Reid, U.S. Senator from Nevada
Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania
Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico
Al Sharpton, 2004 Presidential Candidate

July 28 Non- convention Views Around the Web

July 28 Non-Convention Views Around the Web

Charlie Reese: Not only is our own government becoming ever more secretive and slip-sliding toward authoritarianism, but the American people, whipsawed by demagogues and fearmongers, are becoming dangerously intolerant of people with different political ideas...We must never allow the government to destroy freedom in the name of protecting it.

BBC: Medecins Sans Frontieres leaves Afghanistan- Aid agency says it will pull out of Afghanistan because of the killing of five of its staff and the risk of further attacks. The Nobel prize-winning organization is unhappy with the government probe into the murders. There seems to be an unwillingness on the government's part to act to arrest suspected murderers. The organization weathered 24 years of upheavals, even during Taleban rule. This deadly current insecurity with inefficient (or unwilling) authority is something they could no longer bear or risk. Who can blame them?

This comes from the Voice of a Veteran blog:

Telemarketing Target

The conversation went something like this:

Republican National Committee (RNC) rep: I’m calling to see if you are willing to support Republicans with a contribution. We noticed that you haven’t given anything to the party for a long time.

A Vet: Yes you are right. I've been an Independent for years, and I’m now a registered Democrat.

RNC rep: May I ask why you switched parties?

A Vet: How much time do you have?

RNC rep: (pause…) Well, was there a particular reason? And can we get you back?

A Vet: The answer to the second question is “no.” The answer to the first question (abridged version for blog readers) is that I am a veteran, and the Bush administration has ignored or played lip service to veterans and our military including our reserves and national guard. I’m especially concerned with this administration blowing off veterans’ health care, lack of support to disabled and homeless veterans, and the shameful misuse of our military for preemptive warfare without evidence of WMDs or ties of Al Qaeda to Iraq. Somebody in the Republican party is taking veterans’ support for granted, just like they always have, and forgetting that millions of voting veterans are involved in this election – many of whom now feel like I do.

That’s just for starters.

RNC rep: Thank you very much. Good afternoon.

A Vet: Good bye.

The Politics of Fear

The Politics of Fear

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself four more years of George Bush."

--Franklin D. Roosevelt Ted Kennedy

July 27 Convention News

July 27
Convention News

Teresa Heinz Kerry for President!

-Full text of speech here
-Teresa on women and politics

WP: Dems Show Unity Against Bush

THE SPEECHES


Photo credit: Ron Edmonds AP

USA Today: Obama condemns politics of division

Barack Obama- FULL TEXT (WP)
"Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America."

Howard Dean- FULL TEXT (CLG)
"We’re not going to be afraid to stand up for what we believe. We’re not going to let those who disagree with us shout us down under a banner of false patriotism."


Ted Kennedy--FULL TEXT (NYT)

Ron P. Reagan Speech VIDEO FULL TEXT ... RON REAGAN'S QUESTION

Ilana Wexler was smart, adorable and a wisecracker to boot. (LA Times article)



Howard Dean delivers emotional speech to 500 supporters Dean claims Kerry won't win the election despite his wife, but that Kerry is going to win the election because of his 'fantastic' wife. One line in the article quoted from Will Marshall, president of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute, made me scratch my head, because common sense tells me people usually "go" with what makes them feel good: "There was almost a collective decision in the Democratic mind to say, ‘OK, this guy (Kerry) will do'...Kerry was the beneficiary of a kind of sober decision by tens of thousands of Democratic activists that the most important imperative was to beat George Bush, not to indulge in votes that made you feel good..."

At MEDIA MATTERS, read how FOX News' Bill O'Reilly lied about Howard Dean's Iraq position.

WP: Howard Kurtz on FOX's Convention. Kurtz also provides a footnote from the bloggers at BOP.


Check out this Byron York article, "RFK Jr. Uses the F-Word", at the National Review. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. allegedly told an audience in Cambridge, Mass. Monday that President Bush has brought fascism to America. There's a rant about Al Franken and Joe Conason in the same piece.

Can you imagine conservative columnists saying that Kerry may win because voters need a breather? Josh Marshall is seeing it happen in places like this one.


At Daily Kos:
- DNC: Keep it Bland
- Open thread on Convention Speeches

A FIRST: Jeralyn has a photo of Atrios at her site.

Amy Sullivan and Kevin Drum have some interesting blogging about the Convention at Washington Monthly.

Don't miss Tom Tomorrow's coverage of the Convention.

Jesse Taylor calls CNN's John King on one of his 'breaks' with reality (regarding the hall's response to Al Gore's speech last night).

According to Holden at Eschaton, actor Richard Dreyfuss got a standing ovation when he spoke about Dick Cheney as the "enemy of thoughtfulness" and urged the California delegates (at a breakfast in Boston) to "counter the Republicans" upon every attack and to "be consistent and in their face".

Today's Speakers

Tuesday, July 27
A Lifetime of Strength & Service

Tom Daschle, U.S. Senator from South Dakota, Democratic Leader
Howard Dean, Former Governor of Vermont, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Richard Durbin, U.S. Senator from Illinois
James Forbes, Senior Minister at Riverside Church, New York City
Richard Gephardt, U.S. Representative from Missouri, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Chris Heinz, Stepson of John Kerry
Teresa Heinz Kerry, Wife of John Kerry
Mike Honda, U.S. Representative from California
Ted Kennedy, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
Jim Langevin, U.S. Representative from Rhode Island
Carol Moseley-Braun, Former U.S. Senator from Illinois, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona
Barack Obama, State Senator from Illinois, U.S. Senate Candidate
Ron Reagan, Son of former President Ronald Reagan
Christie Vilsack, First Lady of Iowa
Ilana Wexler, 13-Year-Old Founder of Kids for Kerry

Strength and wisdom

"Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

--William Jefferson Clinton
26 July 2004

Who Is Barack Obama?

Who Is Barack Obama?


Photo credit: www.senatedem.state.il.us

Barack Obama will be the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention. For those of my readers who are not familiar with Mr. Obama, I thought I would provide you with some factual reference and links.

Mr. Obama is forty-two years old. He is an Illinois state senator. Last March, he won the Illinois primary as the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate. Many voters had been drawn initially by Obama’s early opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

William Finnegan has written a definitive piece on Obama at the New Yorker. He has written that Obama "was a black child, by American lights, but his mother and his grandparents—the only family he knew—were “white folks,” and his confusion was acute."

Born in 1961 to a white American woman and a black Kenyan student, Obama was reared in Hawaii by his mother and her parents, his father having left for further study and a return home to Africa.

Mr. Obama wrote his memoir titled "Dreams from My Father" in 1995.

He went to Columbia University. After college, Mr. Obama became a community organizer in Chicago.Obama left organizing to attend Harvard Law School, and in 1990 he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, he practiced civil-rights law in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation for a small public-interest firm. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, although he declined to pursue a tenure-track post, hoping to save time for politics. And when he got the chance to run for the state senate in his district, he jumped at the opportunity.

As Illinois state senator, Obama led a campaign for death-penalty reforms that resulted in unprecedented legislation, requiring the police to videotape all interrogations in cases involving capital crimes.

Mr. Obama's wife, Michelle, now works at the University of Chicago Hospital, as executive director of community affairs.

On a light note- According to Jay Rosen at Press Think, Mr. Obama, who is an unusually confident politician, has suggested he might need blogging tips!

Who is Viktor Bout?

Who is Viktor Bout?
..and why do they call him the "Merchant of Death"?

People are talking about Viktor Bout.

Laura Rozen, who has some excellent Convention commentary at her site, has been talking about Viktor Bout.

Douglas Farah was the first journalist to interview Bout.

If you don't know about Bout, check him out. It's another one of those extremely interesting stories we find floating through the blogosphere.

Readers' Choice: Washington Post

Readers' Choice: Washington Post



Please cast your vote my way.
Thanks!

Jimmy Carter Gives Heartfelt Speech

Jimmy Carter Gives Heartfelt Speech

The Honorable James Carter
President of the United States
Speech given at the Democratic Convention
Boston, Massachusetts
July, 26, 2004



Photo credit: cnews.canoe.ca

"At stake is nothing less than our nation’s soul."
--former president Jimmy Carter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He says he's doing everything he can to put John Kerry in the White House with John Edwards beside him. After seeing former President Jimmy Carter speak at the Democratic convention last night, I was convinced of his commitment. He waxed nostalgic for days past, when he believed that the goodness, honesty, compassion, decency, and competency of the government was more reflective of the nature of the American people. He stressed the fact that he preserved the peace for this country in the U.S. Navy under two other former presidents, a Democrat named Harry Truman and a Republican named Dwight D. Eisenhower, both of whom had faced active military responsibilities with honor.

They knew the horrors of war before they'd come to office.
They'd used restraint, wise judgement, and possessed a clear sense of mission due to their experience in the field.
They never put an American soldier at risk in wars in which the nation's utmost vital interests had not been threatened..
..nor did they mislead the citizens of the nation.

He stressed that John Kerry had shown up for duty and served with honor and distinction in the Navy. Like Truman and Eisenhower before him, John Kerry knows the horrors of war and the responsibilities of leadership.

In the war on terror, Jimmy Carter convinced me that he truly believed John Kerry would restore good judgement and maturity to our Oval Office. I think, after all is said and done this election year, there is no greater issue on the American mind than national secrity. After 9/11, we are a changed people who have lost our sixties-era innocence of belief that the world is going to be, by its own nature, existing in a state of permanent peace.

The fact that we are changed does not mean we are afraid. It means we are aware and alert to a reality we never fully knew existed before that beautiful autumn morning three years ago in New York City. Our finest Intelligence agencies didn't even grasp the reality. Knowing we are vulnerable to violence borne of such bitterness that exists ouitside our borders doesn't mean we need a war president to plot more unnecessary wars which will, no doubt, create more bitterness.

We have a great challenge facing us that should not be ours to face alone. This is an international challenge.

If our government cannot be truthful in their commitment to a measured peace or respectful, by its actions, for civil liberties and human rights, our nation shall fall from grace as an esteemed global leader.
The fall has already begun.
Our credibility has been shattered.
We are once again becoming an isolated nation, which not only endangers our freedoms as Americans as regular (now vulnerable) travelers of the world outside our borders, but takes us backward in the economic strides we've made in the world. If Americans are "safer" today because of Bush's wars, that safety zone doesn't go much further than the borders of their own American homes. We've made little progress in protecting our own homeland. You'd have to be delusional to miss the fact that new terrorists are being recruited and Iraq is on the brink of civil war while our troops still carry the full risk of their security issues.

Last night, Jimmy Carter said his words with bright-eyes and a smile that had the wisdom of many years of service to our nation and the good of mankind behind it. He told us that, "without truth — without trust — America cannot flourish".

"Trust is the sacred covenant between a president and his people and when that trust is broken, the bonds that hold our republic together begin to weaken."

There was a time Mr. Carter felt that we understood the positive link between the defense of our own freedom and the promotion of human rights. He believes this has been severely damaged by extremism in our recent foreign policy, which has disunited our nation from our allies. He spoke of the fact that, for the first time since Israel became a nation, the Middle East process has come to a "screeching halt". Radical departures from pre-9/11 policies (which were based upon key American principles and values) have squandered our opportunity for much-needed world cooperation in the war on terror. Carter believes that John Kerry will recommit our nation to common-sense principles that should transcend partisan differences. such as commitment to human rights; historic self-confidence (vs. fear and war-mongering); and a political agenda commited to uniting the country. Above all, Mr. Carter stated that in the world at large, we cannot lead if our leaders mislead.

Mr. Carter's core message on national security defined John Kerry's mission well. The issue is "whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and integrity of the American people or whether extremist doctrines and the manipulation of truth will define America’s role in the world."

Jimmy Carter seemed confident and credible in what I believe was the best speech of the Convention to date. I believe he convinced many Americans that he truly trusts John Kerry to lead America back to greatness.

Future for the DNC? Kos continues the conversation.

Future for the DNC? Kos continues the conversation.

It's obvious the DNC and the campaign committees will still always exist in some fashion. But to what effect?

George Fall Down Go Boom Again

George Fall Down Go Boom Again



Yes, again.

July 26 Convention News

July 26
Convention News

Google News-'convention'

Google News-'Convention bloggers'

NYT/Adam Nagourney- Democrats Open Convention, Faulting Bush's Record (overview)

THE SPEECHES

NYT LINK

Rev. David Alston Speech FULL TEXT

WP- FULL TEXT:Gore's Speech

Command Post- FULL TEXT: Jimmy Carter's Speech

Clintons' Speeches:
WP: Hillary's Speech FULL TEXT


Credit: AP photo

Guardian UK: Bill's speech FULL TEXT

TalkLeft: Crowd Loves Rev Alston

Howard Kurtz- Bloggers: Gadflies or 'Pretend' Journalists?

ABC News: Bloggers Offer Inside View to Convention

At Press Think:
- Weekend Update: Blogging the DNC
- Dispatches from the UnJournalists
- For Party and Press, the Conventions Are A Memory Device: First Report From Boston

BOP/MattStoller: A Note To Jay Rosen: Conventions Aren't Failed, But They Play Failed on TV

"..this Convention is more than gossip.."

Wall Street Journal: Meet the Bloggers (photos included)

John Edwards has a case of "tired-nasty-voice" (we are not calling it laryngitis just yet). The word is that he needs to rest the pipes for his big speech on Wednesday night.

Telegraph- Labour MPs will join fight in US to dislodge Bush:
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will attempt to build bridges with the American Democrats this week by sending three allies to the Democratic convention in Boston. Ann Taylor, the former Commons Leader, Ross Cranston, the former Solicitor General, and Pat McFadden, the Downing Street political secretary, are travelling to the four-day "naming" ceremony. Meanwhile, some Brits consider Bush to be a complete and utter menace to the future security of the world and are working to help dislodge him from the Oval Office.


19-year-old Karl-Thomas Musselman (youngest delegate from Texas) has a lot of photos and information at his blog.

My fellow Liberal Coalition member 'Mustang Bobby' has posted the first Convention diary installment from his mother, who is a convention delegate from the swing state of Ohio.

Yahoo News: Stem Cells to Take Focus at DNC, Ronald P Reagan to speak Tuesday night. *No live coverage of Mr. Reagan's speech will be provided by NBC, ABC, or CBS.

Raleigh News- Networks have downgraded coverage of an event some say remains a linchpin of U.S. democracy. Is the image-making stage management of today's political conventions a setback for American politics? Do you believe it's true that the mainstream media already spends a lot more time on party politics than a lot of people think it's worth?

USA Today: Howard Dean will have a chance to address the convention during primetime on Tuesday. The major networks have dropped Tuesday (and Howard Dean, the "soul of the party's" speech) from their Convention coverage. The media helped immensely in destroying Dean's campaign (and image) by playing and replaying their crowd-roar-dampened version of "the scream" (not what the people in Iowa actually experienced), and now they will silence him altogether. Ron Reagan's speech will also be shunned by the major networks. Why? Why wouldn't the Democratic party press for primetime coverage by the major networks on Tuesday night? I would think, other than Kerry and Edwards' speeches, the speeches by these two men, Dean and Reagan, would be of great interest to many Americans. Certainly more so than "According to Jim" or "Big Brother Five"....right??

(more to come)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's Convention Speakers
*PBS live coverage 8-11pm, NBC/CBS/ABC will allow you to view for one hour, 10-11pm, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC and C-Span all plan to cover the convention from start to finish, within the context of regularly scheduled programming.*

Monday, July 26
The Kerry-Edwards Plan for America's Future

David Alston, Vietnam Swift Boat Crewmate of John Kerry
Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Representative from Wisconsin
Jimmy Carter, Former President of the United States
Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator from New York
Al Gore, Former Vice-President of the United States
Steny Hoyer, U.S. Representative from Maryland, Democratic Whip
Terry McAuliffe, Chairman of the Democratic Party
Kendrick Meek, U.S. Representative from Florida
Robert Menendez, U.S. Representative from New Jersey
Thomas Menino, Mayor of Boston
Barbara Mikulski, U.S. Senator from Maryland
(joined by all Women Senators)
Stephanie Tubbs Jones, U.S. Representative from Ohio
Jim Turner, U.S. Representative from Texas

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Competition: Transcript of Today's Republican Press Conference

Putting Myself in Colin McNickle's Place

Putting Myself in Colin McNickle's Place

It looks as if Teresa Heinz Kerry did say something in public on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse at that now-infamous campaign event about people acting unAmerican. Colin McNickle had a right to question her about the comments. Colin is publically known (by readers in Pittsburgh) to be shamelessly Conservative and he often uses a distinct mocking tone when he discusses the Democrats. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It is what it is. Colin is an editor of opinion and opinion columns, not a straight-on news reporter. He wasn't there to look for factual information; he was there to editorialize. I would imagine he was hoping for something incendiary. I understand how people like Colin McNickle might think. I'm not that much unlike him when it comes to the passion that moves us to write about politics. In the case of Teresa Heinz Kerry, Colin surely got that incendiary result. It may wind up resulting in him being looked at as a bit of a lout, but he'll have a lot to talk about, as will the right-wing red-meat faction.


Mr. McNickle
Photo credit: pittsburghlive.com

I'd love to know exactly what Mrs. Kerry meant when she said "We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics." Perhaps Colin McNickle wanted to talk with her to get further clarification. Did he step over a line that Mrs. Kerry deemed to be inappropriate?

I imagine Colin isn't much different than me, except for the simple fact I'm leaning toward the ideological"other side". One big difference, though, is that my side of the ideological fence hasn't had the "benefit" of the vicious Scaife machine that David Brock exposes every day on Media Matters.

So, how would I feel if I was treated this way by Laura Bush? What if Laura had told me to "shove it" after I'd pressed her, a candidates's wife, to clarify the meaning of some words she had actually used in a public setting?

It would depend upon the situation. Perhaps I'd be flabbergasted that she said she didn't use those words when I had just heard her say them. But I don't really know how Colin McNickle framed his questions. I couldn't look him in the eye or hear the tone of his voice. The cameras did a poor job of relaying what occurred between the two of them. I'll tell you this-as opinionated as I can be, I'd never be less than professional and respectful to the wife of any political candidate.

Colin's a big boy and he put himself out there for any comment Teresa Heinz Kerry decided she would make in reply to his pressing. Teresa's outspoken comments were likely based on the way she believed she was being addressed and judged by Colin McNickle. I don't know if she had prior knowlege of Colin's obvious prejudgement of Democrats, but something tells me she sensed it clearly. She's no dummy.

Maybe she's sick of the right-wing mouth-machinery (as exposed by fellows like Rob Stein) and figured it was time to tell them, point blank, that she was not going to suffer any more of it like a good Stepford soldier. (I can't imagine Teresa being anyone's good Stepford soldier and I admire her honesty).

Rush Limbaugh is harping about all these pleas for civility, yet I distinctly remember a prominent Conservative he respects highly telling us a few years ago that civility often must be left behind in the pursuit of civic virtue. His name is Clarence Thomas. You remember Clarence, right? He was one of those nine voters who had the final say in "the people's" 2000 presidential election. Let's not be hypocritical. This is a fight for the soul of America and we must not fear our necessary honesty if it means a threat to the destruction of the virtues we personally cherish.

I'd like to remind Colin, since he's asked, that there is, indeed, a difference between a liberal and a socialist. If he was asking Mrs. Kerry something goofy like that particular question, I don't blame her for having the fortitude to tell him to "shove it". You couldn't hear the actual exchange between them on the news..it was muffled. I'd love to see a transcript (there's an unofficial one at Rush Limbaugh's site). It seems to me, judging by Mrs. Kerry's words "No, I didn't say that, I didn't say that," that she felt that Colin was trying to turn her words around to mean something different than she'd intended.

To Colin, I would say-- Be happy! Teresa made you a media star today.

If I was in Colin McNickle's place, though, that's not the way I'd wish to become a media star.

______________________
See reader comments at ThePittsburghChannel.com. John D. of Pittsburgh says: "..it is about time someone told Colin McNickle off!"

Read Mr. McNickle Goes to Boston

The LA Times editorial staff sounds off about the shove it.

The Washington Times accuses Mrs Kerry of employing McCarthyism. (I found this to be delicious in its hypocritical nature, recalling the months following 9/11 when Ari Fleischer soundly warned our media they'd best be careful about what they said and anyone who disagreed with President Bush was labeled as 'unpatriotic'.)

Google: McNickle/Heinz Kerry

See MEDIA MATTERS story about FOX News' misrepresentations.

Bush to Bypass Congress on 9/11 Changes

Bush to Bypass Congress on 9/11 Changes

It's been reported that President Bush, where he believes he can, will use Executive power to restructure the nation's intelligence machinery, in keeping with those changes recommended 9/11 Commission. I don't argue that these changes may be needed as soon as possible, but I don't really trust the Bush administration anymore. I believe the heart of democracy lives in the People and is exercised through their Congressional representatives. So I don't see this as particularly good news. I honestly believe Karl Rove and Company have scrambled to find something they can use to steal convention-week headlines and to steal as much Democratic ammunition as possible. I want what my fellow American citizens want, which is the best and quickest way to make our ability to fight terror more efficient. I realize that John Kerry has submitted a list of 16 ways he believes Bush can act now, so this isn't an exercise in Bush-bashing. But how much liberty will Bush take with our liberties in making these Executive decisions? Bypassing Congress in too many of the decisions may show the no-confidence vote which Bush will have thrown in our representatives' direction. In showing he cannot trust the Congress to work together (revealing that he has been a failure at getting them united on issues), Bush could wind up proving himself to be the divider he never wanted to admit to being.

While I'm glad the President would care enough to work on a "fast-track" to implement the changes, I regret that, by having done so, he may have never given the People a chance, through enough Congessional involvement, to have had any input in the decision-making about how we will fight terror (as we must do together). Democracy in America is dying. How will Bush or Kerry, for that matter, save American democracy? Who will be better to salvage what's left of our democracy? We can be as safe from terror as possible, but it will not have forwarded the value or health of our democracy. Our democracy is what makes us distinctly American.

Quoting Ben Franklin, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty."

Bloggers Tell More, Networks Tell Less

Lehrer's Challenge to Network Anchors
Bloggers Tell More, Networks Tell Less.

From NJ.com:

What you can't do is watch wall-to-wall primetime coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC.

This year, the big three networks are planning to devote just three primetime hours to the Democratic and Republican conventions, from 10 to 11 p.m. on three out of four nights. Boston's big-ticket items include former president Bill Clinton's speech tonight, vice presidential candidate John Edwards' acceptance speech Wednesday, and presidential candidate John Kerry's acceptance speech Thursday, all at 10 p.m.

That's a 25 percent drop in airtime from the networks' already-paltry 2000 commitment, which consisted of four hours per party, doled out over four nights. (The lone holdout is PBS, which will offer live coverage of both conventions from 8 to 11 each night, courtesy of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.")

Said NBC News president Neal Shapiro, "With all due respect to everybody who wants us to cover more, if there's news there, I promise you we'll cover it more. The parties have done their best to take every bit of news out of the conventions."

[LINK]

Jim Lehrer, champion of the people, challenges the network anchors by saying:
"You guys are a hell of a lot more important than your bosses are willing to admit."

EXCERPT:

"I think that starting tomorrow, we're going to have four of the eight most important days we can have as a nation," said Lehrer, criticizing CBS's Dan Rather, ABC's Peter Jennings, and NBC's Tom Brokaw for not getting more air time. "I'm sorry. You guys are a hell of a lot more important than your bosses are willing to admit."

Addressing the challenges of covering politics in a politically polarized environment, CBS Rather stated that "fear has increased in every newsroom in America," and added that reporting on explosive issues can bring a torrent of e-mails and phone calls. That can lead to a situation, he said, in which journalists conclude that "when you run this story, you're asking for trouble with a capital 'T'. . . Why run it?"

Democratic Convention Bloggers

Democratic Convention Bloggers


Photo credit REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

• Convention Bloggers OPML XML site
• The Boston (D) Party DNCC blog
• Official Convention Site Dems2004.org
• Kerry/Edwards blog


Bloggers Confirmed as Credentialed

Kirk Johnson American Amnesia
Alan Nelson Command Post
Dave Winer Scripting News
Dave Weinberger Boston.com
Taegan Goddard Political Wire
Jay Rosen Press Think
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga Daily Kos
Rick Heller Centrist Coalition blog
Jerome Armstrong My DD
Aldon Hynes greaterdemocracy.org
Jeralyn Merritt TalkLeft
Matt Welch Reason.com
Mathew Gross Matthew Gross blog
Byron LaMasters Burnt Orange Report
Jessamyn Charity West Librarian.net
Natasha L.C Pacific Views
Tom Burka Opinions You Should Have
Paul McCullum Dinner for America
Jesse Taylor Pandagon
Patrick Belton Oxblog
Dave Pell Electablog
xian Power of Many, also blogging for Radio Free Blogistan, Greater Democracy
Bill Scher Liberal Oasis
Michael Feldman Dowbrigade
Peter Rukavina Reinvented.net (*See ReInvented's description of the credentialing process)
Gordon Joseloff Westport Now
Christopher Rabb Afro-Netizen
Joe Rospars BlogforAmerica.com, NotGeniuses
Allen Larson Larson Report.com
Matt Stoller BOPnews.com
Alison Teal hotflashesfromthecampaigntrail
Zephyr Teachout Blog for Victory
Nathan Paxton NateKnowsNada
Michael Andrew JREGrassroots.org
Dave Rock & Todd Beeton Dave & Todd's Wild Democracy Ride
Dave Johnson See The Forest
David Sifry and Mary Hodder Sifry's Alerts blog

Officially Credentialed, then disinvited:
*due to unforeseen lack of space at Fleet Center

Jude Nagurney Camwell Iddybud blog, Rational Liberal
James Landrith JamesLandrith.com
ANWR.com ANWR
Bill INDC Journal
John Tabin JohnTabin.com
Rob Galgano The Great Leap Forward
Justin Nawrocki Musings of a Drunken Monk


Others Who Will Be Blogging from the Convention:

Josh Micah Marshall Talking Points Memo
Matthew YglesiasMatthew Yglesias
Yglesias, Kuttner, Tomasky, Meyerson, Franke-Ruta TAP/American Prospect
Atrios Eschaton
Zoe VanderWolk Gadflyer.com
Cate Read CateRaed.com (delegate)
Karl-Thomas Musselman musselmanforamerica (Texas delegate)
Brian Reich Campaign Web Review
Erik Cornelius Dem Senatorial Campaign Comm. (Convention speech videos will be here)
Ana Marie Cox Wonkette
Dave Barry Dave Barry, of course!
Arianna Huffington Arianna Huffington blog
Jesse BerneyDNC/Kicking Ass blog
Faithful Correspondent BarkBarkWoofWoof (Ohio delegate)


• Hyperlincoln is dedicated to the best in blogging at the 2004 Democratic Convention. David Beckwith (Anonymoses) and I will be keeping you abreast of the best of the Convention blogging information as it comes in.

• Note: The new Convention Bloggers Website is up and running. I noticed an entry there about the 20 disinvited bloggers, a list on which, unfortunately, I wound up.

• Photoblogging Election 2004 was launched to make it easier for convention bloggers to do some of the things that professional journalists' companies do for them: index and archive images and retrieve them quickly for publication. They say they have prepared links to every DNC Convention blogger they know of.

• Politics.Feedster is another Convention blog aggregating resource.

• Technorati has a new website dedicated to covering the bloggers in real-time at the Democratic Convention and the news they will generate. Titled "BlogWatch", it will include CNN.com’s up-to-the-moment review of numerous Web logs covering the convention marks a first for convention coverage using Technorati, the leading monitor of blogs. CNN offers its own convention blog on CNN.com with updates from Candy Crowley on the platform and from CNN anchors, analysts and correspondents, including James Carville and Tucker Carlson, both of Crossfire.
Technorati has a politics-devoted news aggregator for up-to-the-minute blog news.

• There is an open Yahoo Group set up for anyone interested in talking about the convention.

• Hardblogger MSNBC Hardball

• Speaking of convention....Jon Stewart, whose Daily Show will cover the convention in their own (shall we say 'unique and delightful') way, speaks of Conventional wisdom in a conventionally wise way here. And there's nothing funnier than Ed Helms' timid-while-in-your-face challenges of "You're a jerk!" or "Labia! Urethra! Penis, penis, penis... vagina?" to a Boston cop from the "designated free speech zone" in Boston! I keep playing and replaying the (linked) video (titled "Freedom of Opression") and rolling with laughter.

Silly Ralph Nader prayer

Credit: ToothpasteForDinner

Kos is right-We'll be discussing this awhile

Kos is right-We'll be discussing this awhile

Kos has rightfully showcased his thoughts and a discussion about Matt Bai's article which appeared today's NYT Magazine. I haven't read anything as interesting, informative, relevant, and forward-looking in quite some time. Rob Stein's hard work has never before been made so clear to me. Mr. Bai does an excellent job of informing us about the campaign finance laws and the 527s that have come to take their place in politics today. Kos states that, after reading this article, 'it appears it will take the hard work, guidance and money of Democrats schooled in the art of innovation to shake the Democratic party free from its moorings'. I think we should all be as innovative as we possibly can be in the months and years to come. Working together, we can bring forth many ideas and keep alive the hope, among the best of those those ideas, to at last find our David who will slay the ugly Goliath. (as Matt Bai mentions in his Times piece). I'll be talking a lot more about this article.

5 Things Kerry Needs to Take A Solid Lead

5 Things Kerry Needs to Take a Solid Lead

With a presidential race that's so close you couldn't fit a razor blade between the poll numbers to cut through the frozen picture of polarization, John Kerry really needs to work at being more than simply the "Anyone But Bush" already supported by nearly half the nation's voters. He'll need to convince swing voters of a few things. Five things, according to Bill Scher (of Liberal Oasis) at today's Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Kerry will need to be:

1-Reassuring us that a President Kerry will be tough on terror. No matter how some may deny it, the political truth is that the mainstream needs to feel safe and they vote based on their own security. They also vote based on their pocketbooks (and wallets, to be gender-fair). That said...

2-Saying precisely what he'll do with and about the economy. (Note-Have you seen Billmon's essay on the economy at Whiskey Bar? It's mighty good blogfare).

3-Telling his life story in a positive and inspirational way. He may seem to be one of the 'elite', but as the JibJab boys have pointed out, he's "got three purple hearts."

4-Keeping the acceptance speech reasonably short while leaving his audience amazed (as in not snoozing).

5-Kerry will need to make some contrasts between himself and Bush to give his candidacy a rationale..but he shouldn't spend more time criticizing Bush than the time he spends on selling himself.

It's your moment, Senator Kerry. Rack up the supporters. Cha-ching!


Note: I think it would help if the media was to show the rest of the nation that folks from Massachusetts (Boston, particularly) are just as gritty and religious and down-to-earth as anyone from any little town in America. (Speaking of Any Little Town, for some real Boston flavor, there's a song by that name sung by a great Boston-based band called the Push Stars). The Push Stars are Boston Red Sox sportscaster Peter Gammons' favorite band. Which leads me back to John Kerry.


Photo credit: Reuters

I turned on the game (Sox vs Yanks at Fenway) tonight and who do I see? None other than John Kerry throwing the first pitch and cheering from the stands. Asked by Mr. Gammons (during the game) if he'd make the troubling issue of steroid use in sports part of his platform, Kerry replied his major focus would be the war on terror, but commented that steroids defeat what sports are all about. Mr. Kerry also waxed nostalgic (already) about Grady Little (who was fired from the Sox organization following last season).

Bounced Bloggers

Bounced Bloggers

The LA Times covers the disinvited convention bloggers in today's Opinion section. They mention the Democrats won't release a list of whom they've accredited or de-accredited, so it's hard to draw definitive conclusions about the decision-making process regarding the choice few who were left behind. The Times then uses carefully-chosen excerpts from various initially-accredited blogs and provide a guessing game as to which bloggers were bounced shortly thereafter. It seems they are leading us to believe the more outspoken we are, the less likely it is we'll "fit in" to the conventioneers' hoped-for results, which may or may not be true. That's why it was put in the Opinion section, you see.

In my case, they used one of my headlines which had relayed similar ideas to those which had been put forth a few days later by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. I tend to write in the style of an opinion-columnist who does not subscribe to what Mr. Krugman has coined as journalism's "curse of evenhandedness", which is the belief that you must provide a counterpoint to nearly every one of your stated news facts. The result is often no more than a confused blob of flip-flops. If I am freed to say what others won't admit by being put out to "Conventioneers' pasture", so be it. I'm tremendously proud of my body of work. If I'm getting readers from my link at the LA Times today, I hope you will look at some of my archives and decide for yourselves.

In the NY Times today, Adam Nagourney writes that, at this convention, 'Mr. Kerry's most pressing task is not to make a case against Mr. Bush, but to sell himself to voters who either do not know him or do not like him.' DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe is quoted as saying, "This is not going to be about attacking George Bush. People know about George Bush. They want to know about John Kerry."

I believe this is true. People need to know about John Kerry. They don't know enough yet. I suggest many people "know" about George Bush already thanks to people like me. Heaven knows, you haven't gotten enough gut-honest truth from the mainstream media. Think of the lead-up to the Iraq war.

Even Mr. Kerry says he cannot promise there will be no Bush attack ads if he needs to 'fight back' in the near future.

Sometimes you've just got to say it the way you see it.

As I've stated before, I am disappointed not to be playing a part in this convention. I firmly believe the DNCC missed the boat when they sunk my credentials.

Thanks to Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly, here is the image of the quiz on the back of the Opinion section of the LA Times.

July 25 Convention/Blogger News

July 25 Convention/Blogger News

Are you Convention bloggers sniffing your press passes?

Blogger Quote of the Day:
"There's something a bit weird about sitting here at the airport blogging while watching a CNN report about bloggers on the news monitor."
-Atrios/Eschaton

TODAY'S CONVENTION EVENTS

Technorati's Guide to Following Weblogs During the Convention

See Technorati's FAQs about Blogging

According to Salon.com, delegates arriving for the Democratic National Convention were greeted today (around Boston Common) by 2000 competing protestors who were respectively against the war in Iraq and against abortion.


NY Daily News: Major Networks devoting only one hour a night, from 10-11pm (except Tuesday) for Democratic convention coverage. CNN’s “American Morning” is live from Boston tomorrow through Thursday at 7 a.m.; MSNBC’s “Imus in the Morning,” at 6 a.m., will include live convention updates; MSNBC.com will have continuous live, streaming video beginning today at 3:30 p.m. — likewise for CNN.com.

Newsday carries an article today by Press Think's Jay Rosen about blogging the convention.

UMass: UMass Boston and Harvard journalists to produce daily Newspaper at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (See Media Nation)

Joe Gandelman has done the best job, in my opinion, of covering Alex Jones' LA Times' statement about the blogger's low place in the information-chain. [Bloggers Are the Sizzle, Not the Steak]

The NY Times editorial on the Convention.

CSM: Old Boston/New Boston-A Work in Progress

Media Matters: Self-proclaimed non-partisan Bill O'Reilly urged listeners to vote a certain way in his convention preview. He stated: 'Daschle's "no good"; Pelosi's a "nut"; Cleland's "strange". Now, is that fair of Bill and FOX? Does that make Bill an outright liar or simply insincere as he tipsy-toes the unbalanced FOX line? You can hear an audio clip at the linked site.

BBC News Online: Bloggers go mainstream at US conventions
Excerpt: "We're not under a banner of [Fox's slogan] 'fair and balanced'. We are able to a little bit more flippant, more critical, more analytical. That is the nature of who we are, and that is why people read blogs." --Karl-Thomas Musselman

Karmalised has some interesting comments on the Convention-blogging.

At Wired.com, Adam Penenberg says: "I wouldn't be surprised if Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's The Daily Show were to mock a blogger -- or better yet, mock the mainstream media mocking a blogger." I'd really love to see that. I fully expect Jon, Ed, Rob, Stephen, or Samantha to do a silly segment on the blogger phenomenon. Rob Corddry sniffing his press pass at a candidates' debate comes to my mind. (Watch Debate and Switch here). Are the bloggers sniffing their press passes, I wonder?

(more to follow)

NPR has RSS

NPR has RSS

NPR has RSS feeds available now.

Who's doing the kidnapping in Iraq?

Who's doing the kidnapping in Iraq?

Juan Cole points out a UPI article by Claude Salhani that suggests the recent kidnappings of truck drivers in a bid to force the companies that employ them out of the Iraq market are being claimed by a shadowy group called the "Black Banners." They have detained six hostages in Iraq: three Indians, two Kenyans and an Egyptian, all nationals from "neutral" nations.(In an update, two Pakistanis have been kidnapped). Mr. Salhani claims 'the "war" in Iraq is suddenly taking a very different turn, and regrettably, not one for the better'. It's not yet clear how this economic warfare aimed at multinationals and their workers will effect the struggle in Iraq, but Professor Cole states what is clear is that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's "peculiar idea that Iraq is 'calming down' is ridiculous on the face of it." Our own soldiers continue to die. There are now over 900 dead.

Richard Clarke Calls 9/11 Report "Toothless"

Richard Clarke Calls 9/11 Report "Toothless"

...because the commission had a goal of creating a unanimous report from a bipartisan group, it softened the edges and left it to the public to draw many conclusions...News coverage of the commission's recommendations has focused on the organizational improvements...Putting these recommendations in place will marginally improve our ability to crush the new, decentralized Al Qaeda, but there are other changes that would help more...Even more important than any bureaucratic suggestions is the report's cogent discussion of who the enemy is and what strategies we need in the fight...In pulling its bipartisan punches, the commission failed to admit the obvious: we are less capable of defeating the jihadists because of the Iraq war...Unanimity has its value, but so do debate and dissent in a democracy facing a crisis.

[LINK]