Amitai Etzioni asks the 9-11 Commission to expend more effort looking forward than backward, and makes some excellent points. They’re points we should insist our government to address soon, before it all goes boom.

For a change, there’s good news for the Florida elections. Drew of So Far, So Left reports on a ballot initiative that should improve turnout for our side.

The notion of the media being liberally biased dates back to the Nixon administration. It reached the point where Eric Alterman, MSNBC media columnist and author of the book “What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and News,” found that even most journalists assume the media is perceived as being too liberal. “They tend to bend over backwards to give conservatives more than a fair shake on most issues,” Alterman said in an interview with the Associated Press. “They feel pinned in, to a considerable degree, by the perception of bias.”

Alterman’s book quotes conservative leaders such as Rich Bond, former Republican Party chairman, comparing conservatives’ calls against the media to a basketball or football coach “working the refs” on the sidelines. And from Pat Buchanan: “For heaven sakes, we kid about the ‘liberal media,’ but every Republican on Earth does that.”

And William Kristol, whom Alterman calls “the most influential neoconservative publicist in America,” said, “I admit it. The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.”

First Ahmad Chalabi admits to falsehoods, now Kristol. I hope it’s catching. But it’s too much to hope that the media will respond to anything but the corporate bottom line.

Before permitting an Arizona reporter to interview VP Cheney, they asked the editor what her race was.

Next week: is she a lesbian? A feminist? An ACLU member? What’s her sign?

The Bush administration is putting its own spin on how the hamster wheel will turn following Vanessa Kerry’s revelation of her father’s heroic hamster rescue. “Mr. Bush once dropped the key to the family liquor cabinet down the garbage disposal on the morning after the twins’ senior prom,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “Rather than disappoint Jenna and Barbara’s friends, he retrieved the key while the disposal was running…”

Bush is mindful that that the Kerry campaign appears to have won a large part of the once-silent rodent vote after the candidate’s speech Thursday evening. A tracking poll that follows the furry mammals shows some hamsters are literally dancing in the streets — not to mention cyberspace .

The Bush-Cheney ticket, however, belittles the power of rodents in swing states like Ohio, where hamsters and gerbils are looked upon as a “coastal” phenomena. The GOP admits, however, it is looking at the snake-in-the-grass vote to push itself over the top in reptile habitats such as California and Arizona.

Within hours of the younger Kerry’s disclosure of its near-death experience, Licorice, the hamster in question, gave a personal account of the incident in the New York Times, despite admitting that “privacy is all that we hamsters have.”

There are, of course, some in the hamster community who expressed shock that a rodent was the recipient of mouth-to-mouth respiration — even if it was from a potential President of the United States. “I don’t think it’s right to mix the species like that,” POTUS, an independent hamster candidate for President of the United States reportedly told reporters.
Bush supporters in the rodent community are calling for a constitutional amendment to ban future close encounters of the human kind. “We have to protect the institution,” one rodent leader spoke up. “Once they start giving us artificial respiration, you never know how far humans are capable of going,” one Texas rodent noted.
In his New York Times version of the story, Licorice also reveals that the rescue did not leave him undamaged. “I have continuing health problems, including a partial paralysis on my right side that makes it difficult for me to drink out of a regular water bottle.” he says, “ And let’s just say there aren’t going to be any Licorice Jr.’s. One of the small pleasures of hamster life denied.”
Had Kerry known John Edwards at the time, chances are he might not have even gotten the small settlement he reveals is just enough to “arrange for a daily home health aide.”
Attorney General John Ashcroft says he will immediately launch an investigation into Kerry’s attachment to the hamster. “I smell a rat,” Ashcroft says.

As I, too, remain on the job hunt, I really like OnBackground’s Rejection of Rejection Letter.

Lotsa fun being made on the Right about the Kerry-Hamster story. The non-Right ones are better, though some critters don’t think so.

I wonder if they really plan to keep this guy off-camera till Election Day.

Remember, he’s supposed to be the bestest ever, per the Commander In Grief, so why are they keeping him under wraps?

(I also wonder whatever happened to all the best Iraqi bloggers, like Riverbend, Salam Pax and Raed In The Middle. Something worrisome about their absence…)

Now that I’ve managed to get the clean clothes separated from the dirty, I have time to take a look at the small suitcase full of loot I dragged home from the convention. Corporate sponsorship was alive, well, and partying hard all over Boston. You know who picked up the tab for all those receptions, events, and parties–corporations. I did note that speakers made few references to war profiteering or general corporate greediness other than an occasional dig at Halliburton and some mentions about not giving tax breaks to offshore outsourcers. I guess it’s not good to bite the hand that’s feeding you shrimp hors ‘d oeuvres.

I am hopeful that small-dollar fundraising will help reduce corporate influence. On the other hand, I don’t want my $25 and $50 contributions used to pour Glenlivet for convention delegates. Looks to me like corporations do have a place in the party: giving it.

Every single event I went to, with the exception of the convention itself, featured giveaways of some sort. Goodie bags took over a whole corner of my hotel room. Given our pace, I just threw them in a pile. Before I left Friday, I had about 10 minutes to go through the bags, ditch the paper, and thrown the rest into a suitcase. The list of loot follows. It’s impressive, even though most of it is useless junk. And I didn’t even go to very many parties, and certainly not to any of the exclusive ones. I can only imagine what people brought home after those.

List after the jump. I’m sure I missed a few things that I ate, gave away, or traded.
Read the rest of this entry »

This play, the latest assault on Our Noble Leader by those “freedom”-speaking appeasers of Old Europe, opened in Paris to wild acclaim by the usual liberal suspects. It revises Jean Anouilh’s update of Sophocles‘ Antigone, to refer instead to the Bush family. The vile French critics praise it as the MacBird of the new millennium.

In a masterpiece of miscasting, the producers tried to appeal to younger audiences by giving the title role to Jessica Simpson. This forced much rewriting, since her French is more like Homer Simpson’s. Often the king recites her lines as well, prefaced by “you’d probably say that….”, followed by her “Oui.” This makes much of the confrontation between them a monologue. That slows down the play since the actor is now 78, but at least they got a winner of their own Legion of Honor to play the part, longtime French favorite Jerry Lewis.
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Everybody’s gone home, party’s over. I’m wondering how to deal with my fling of identity as a convention blogger for 5 days now. From the Blogger Bash Goodie Bag: I’m wearing the blogger shirt. Somebody brought me a small one! I used the flash memory bar to transfer photos for a slide show during the final breakfast for our delegation. Thank you! It has been grand fun, and feels like time to get back to work now.

One of the delegates I sat next to on the floor was writing on paper about avoiding the seduction of war. What I felt was the seduction of the minds I have met. I have 11 new blog bookmarks I want to follow, luring me from the life that already strains to multi task and stretch minutes every day. I am torn between feeling affection for the sweet people I met and wanting to search out others on the pages, the hidden gems who aren’t here.

I can’t imagine how I’ll have time to contribute in a meaningful way as the campaign proceeds. Honestly, I thought I’d just fade away, reading submissions from others. Being here and meeting these people, reading their entries, going to a Democratic Gain Bloggers’ Panel (etc.@!) has influenced me deeply. I’m relishing the prospect of reviewing Christian Crumlish’s new book, for example.

I can’t just go back to the old life and pretend that I haven’t done this, though. Something has changed. And you might be interested… Today I started getting new spam: really violent hate mail against particularly highly placed democratic candidates, an electrical manufacturing newsletter (not my field), and a cool well-designed ad in Italian (really haven’t a clue!).

What have I done differently to warrant this? Well, blog. I’m not a political analyst, and won’t pretend to be. Working passionately for this does give me opinions, though!

I’ll keep reading and on occassion throw something in the soup. Best to you all.

That’s right kiddies, it’s time to Get Your War On again….

And if total wackjob spewingness is your cup of tea, there’s always Bad Barbara C and her Comstock Act.

See if you can tell which is satire and which is seriously gone.

editor and publisher reports that the nation’s top newspapers approved of kerry’s acceptance speech:

an informal e&p survey of some of the nation’s top newspaper editorial pages found broad praise for sen. john kerry’s acceptance speech at the democratic national convention on thursday night.

one paper that found fault, the washington post, called the speech a “missed opportunity,” noting that he had “elided the charged question of whether, as president, he would have gone to war in iraq.” and the chicago tribune opened with: “well, not bad.”

but other larger papers found much to admire. the dallas morning news, in president bush’s home state, said, “all in all, it was an impressive performance and one that should serve kerry well in his quest for the white house.”

the philadelphia inquirer said kerry did a “solid job” linking domestic proposals to “family values,” borrowing one of bush’s themes…

Read the rest of this entry »

While billions flow through Iraq with corruption sufficient to gag a pack of camels, some serious works getting done by a non-profit agency with a great hearted guy in charge.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see a thinking man’s political ad for a change? Such as…

The economic picture is brighter for some:

As crude oil traded at more than $42 a barrel yesterday, near a 21-year high, Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest publicly traded company, reported record profits. Its second-quarter earnings of nearly $5.8 billion were up 39 percent from a year earlier.

Royal Dutch Shell Group, the world’s No. 3 oil company, reported a 54 percent increase in second-quarter net income yesterday.

In a break with most historical precedents, Exxon also managed to not only reap booming profits from producing oil but also from refining and selling gasoline at service stations.

Others did okay, too:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil and gas producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Friday posted a 35 percent increase in quarterly profit on higher energy prices and lower costs.

Refining looks lucrative, too:

ConocoPhillips, the largest US oil refiner, said second-quarter profit soared 75% on improved refining margins and higher energy prices.

And then there’s this:

SAN RAMON, Calif. — ChevronTexaco Corp.’s second-quarter profit more than doubled as high energy prices extended a recent roll that is shaping into the most prosperous stretch in the oil giant’s 125-year history.

The San Ramon-based company said Friday that it earned $4.13 billion, or $3.88 per share, for the three months ended in June. That compared with net income of $1.6 billion, or $1.50 per share, at the same time past year.

The results included a $585 million gain from the company’s sale of some Canadian assets and a $255 million benefit from changes in income tax laws governing some of ChevronTexaco’s international operations.

Even after subtracting those special items, ChevronTexaco’s earnings would have been $3.09 per share - beating the consensus estimate of $2.72 among analysts polled by Thomson First Call.

Revenue for the period totaled $38.3 billion, a 31 percent increase from $29.3 billion last year.

Analysts will say China’s increasing demand for oil is the chief reason for this price rise. But other factors may provide a larger impetus for the record profits. The threat of sabotage to the world’s second largest oil producer, Iraq, is key. After all, the last time record profits were recorded were during the military buildup to the first Gulf war in 1991. The other factor complements that. Taking advantage of the speculative fears, everyone, from Big Oil to refiners and distributors, piles on added costs to the consumer because the market will bear it.

I’m sure it’s mere coincidence that record oil prices seem to occur every time Texas oilmen and their pals get in the White House. I wouldn’t suggest that the Bush family pattern of oil influence should be suspected of cronyism. It’s just circumstantial that Dick Cheney is tied to Halliburton, Condoleeza Rice to Chevron, and Bush’s chief fundraiser has been energy giant Enron’s Ken Lay. None should suspect Cheney’s secret energy policy meetings with energy execs proposed anything favorable to anyone.

To highlight the lack of evidence, Bush’s campaign ought to include the bumpersticker slogan “Bush/Cheney: You can’t pin anything on us, copper.”

Other recent economic news should boost optimism about the economy, though:

The House of Representatives has declined to limit the massive tax cuts on millionaires. The cuts for millionaires average $120,000 per person a defeated proposal would have cut that to $24,000.

That defeated proposal would have raised $19 billion in revenues to reduce the record budget deficit.

And there’s Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan weighing in on wages for the rest of us, which Nathan Newman provides a nice graphic of.

General Glut describes what wages have done in 2004.

But remember that pessimism isn’t patriotic in such a great economy. Ignore the fact that healthcare costs have soared out of reach of 1 in 7 Americans, dipping only when popular support for a national healthcare proposal was gaining ground from 1988-1994. Once the insurance industry defeated that, the costs grew to a peak in mid 2002. But don’t blame the insurance industry. They couldn’t possibly be responsible for the rising costs. What a silly notion that is. Record profits for health insurers can’t be the problem. It must be the trial lawyers, right?

Of course, this roaring economy could be endangered if the working poor starts voting and organizing. Fortunately, a visionary with Presidential ambitions in 2008 had the sense to put a stop to that.

Oh there’ll always be disgruntled guys like Fred in NYC trying to distort things to the pessimistic view. But they’re just troublemakers and ne’er-do-wells who blame others for their own failures. From Ohio to Michigan to Iowa to Oregon to Colorado to South Carolina, the job losses simply means those workers weren’t doing their jobs well enough. The same is true of the 23% of the homeless population that are military veterans.

The bottom line? Despite all the malcontents and lazy folks, the economy’s booming and opportunity’s all around for the taking. Work’s more fun than sex these days, and God won’t punish you, even if you work solo or with your neighbor’s wife.

Clearly, if the working poor had simply invested their food stamps in shares of Chevron-Texaco when Bush was elected 5-to-4 by the Supreme Court and made up their minds to never be sick or injured, then everyone would be better off today. Working hard will also keep their minds away from temptations like voting, which could damage Big Oil and ruin our economy forever.

“My name is George Bush and I approve of this fantasy.”

Patriotboy points out below that the Bush campaign is sending out letters complaining about Whoopi Goldberg making fun of his name. Apparently the Kerry campaign hasn’t released that footage.

In the interest of full disclosure of questionable taste from entertainers participating in campaign events, let’s see the footage of this event:

Dennis Miller and Wayne Newton each spent about 20 minutes performing as the Resch Center slowly filled for the president’s speech.

Miller, who has made no secret of his political leanings, mostly aimed his barbs at Democratic figures. He did note that Sen. John Kerry had needed “rotator cuff surgery, probably from repetitive stress injury (raising and lowering his hand) to change his votes.”

And he joked about the penchant for back-slapping and hugs in the Democratic ticket. “Those two cannot keep their hands off each other,” he said. “Maybe they should use the bumper sticker ‘Hey, get a room.’”

ed for link

Unhappy Workers Should Take Prozac –Bush Campaigner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A campaign worker for President Bush said on Thursday American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones — or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better.

“Why don’t they get new jobs if they’re unhappy — or go on Prozac?” said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

The comment was apparently directed to a colleague who was transferring a phone call from a reporter asking about job quality, and who overheard the remark.

When told the Prozac comment had been overheard, Sheybani said: “Oh, I was just kidding.”

While recent employment growth has buoyed Bush’s economic record, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has argued the new jobs are not as good as those lost due to outsourcing in recent years.

Nearly 1.1 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office in January 2001.

i got nothing. who jokes about this kind of stuff? like popping Prozac is going to help someone find a job that doesn’t exist anymore… if they could even get a prescription for it with the substandard or nonexistent health care plan those low-quality jobs tend to provide.

Digby has the latest on the reaction from Indies and Republicans moving towards Kerry.

The neopsychconpathics are winning this poll against Kerry. Go forth and display his strength, wouldja? Skippy provided that, and passed on the news from Eschaton that the media’s dropping the ball on the Sandy Berger case, where it appears nothing’s missing at all… except the manipulative spin.

PGL over at Angry Bear notes who was sitting next to Theresa Heinz Kerry and what it’s intended to remind us of.

I agree with Chuck that among the strongest statements in Kerry’s speech, perhaps the best, were his comments on faith. Chuck certainly deserves the positive mention the Los Angeles Times gave him. (He and Shelley Powers also provide us outlook into Missourian viewpoints.)

Michael Moore’s next project will be monitoring the vote in Florida this November:

The filmmaker, whose “Fahrenheit 9/11″ documentary won wild praise from Democrats and scorn from Republicans, said Wednesday he will take cameras to Florida precincts on Election Day to document any polling-place abuses that might occur.

“Together, we will guarantee to every Floridian their vote will be counted this year,” Moore said to a crowd of Florida Democrats attending a state delegation breakfast at the Democratic National Convention.

The 2000 presidential election remains a bitter memory for many Democrats in Florida, especially black voters who feel they were disenfranchised by irregularities at the polls. George W. Bush won the presidential contest after he was declared the victor in Florida by 537 votes, giving him the state’s 25 electoral votes.

“I will be there. I will have my cameras there. We’re going to put up a huge spotlight and they won’t get away with it,” Moore shouted as Sunshine State Democrats jumped from their seats to cheer.

i hope someone tells him that he should put crews in Ohio, California, and a few other states that are still forging ahead with the use of touchscreens for this election.

this hasn’t been a great few years for the FBI.

there’s the publication of the Phoenix Memo, which indicated that agents at HQ could have been a little more open in their thinking at putting more information in the hands of the field offices so they could have pieced together the puzzle.

earlier this year, Senator Grassley (R-IA) wrote a letter to Director Mueller inquiring about the apparent lack of response to internal investigations about long-term agent misconduct (sex, crimes, narcotics abuse, gambling and embezzlement, and murder) as well as attempts to prevent the publication of the investigation.

now we have the Inspector General of the Justice Department positively concluding that the being a whistle-blower was a prime factor in the FBI’s firing of Sibel Edmonds, going hand-in-hand with a theory that the DNC threat warnings may have been faked, possibly to divert attention from any tough questions rising from Mueller’s letter to Congress, all in the same week.

maybe it’s just me, but i think i’d want to know if extremist groups, both foreign and domestic, had infiltrated the Justice Department and FBI in order to divert investigations away from the real suspects. i don’t know why any FBI manager wouldn’t want to follow up on these reports.

Hoover may have been a bastard and quite likely blind or beholden to the influence of the Mafia, but i bet he’s spinning triple-time in his grave now.

if both the FBI and CIA are suffering from such deep levels of entrenched apathy and cronyism that they are in serious need of ground-up overhauls, how can we trust that current intelligence is being correctly processed right now? and if we can’t, how do we fix the problem without creating bigger ones?

Related links:
TIME: Kenneth Williams: Man of the Memo
excerpt of 9/11 report about Phoenix Memo
10 possible chances to have foiled the 9/11 plot

From the Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — A comprehensive examination of the U.S.-led agency that oversaw the rebuilding of Iraq has triggered at least 27 criminal investigations and produced evidence of millions of dollars’ worth of fraud, waste and abuse, according to a report by the Coalition Provisional Authority’s inspector general.

The report is the most sweeping indication yet that some U.S. officials and private contractors repeatedly violated the law in the free-wheeling atmosphere that pervaded the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild the war-torn country.

More than $600 million in cash from Iraqi oil money was spent with insufficient controls. Senior U.S. officials manipulated or misspent contract money. Millions of dollars’ worth of equipment could not be located, the report said.

“We found problems in the CPA’s financial management, procurement practices and operational controls,” Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the inspector general, wrote in the report. “These results are not surprising: The CPA faced a variety of daunting challenges, including extremely hazardous working conditions.”

The report raises anew questions surrounding the occupation government under Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, who turned over control in June to an interim Iraqi government.

The inspector general’s hazardous duty defense is pretty lame, considering that similar investigations are occurring at the top of the military food chain, stateside.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has written Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging that the Air Force and its senior leadership be excluded from any further study of a deal to acquire aerial refueling tanker aircraft in light of their conduct in the scandal-plagued Boeing lease deal, which is now suspended.

McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and a senior member of Senate Armed Services Committee, told Rumsfeld in a lengthy letter dated July 28 that the conduct of Air Force leadership in this matter was “unacceptable” and their credibility can be “fundamentally called into question.”

The Arizona Republican - who for more than a year blocked Senate confirmation of 11 high-ranking Defense Department civilian appointees while the Air Force refused to hand over internal e-mails on the Boeing deal - said in his letter that the Air Force should be forbidden to enter into any agreement to lease or buy new refueling aircraft until an independent entity - “not funded directly or indirectly by the Air Force” - completes a new analysis of alternatives.

The White House brokered a deal with McCain last week to give him the documents he seeks from the Air Force and lift his hold on Rumsfeld appointees, but his letter to Rumsfeld made it clear that the Air Force’s troubles with McCain were far from over.

McCain said Air Force Secretary James Roche had repeatedly provided Congress “inaccurate information” overstating the need for new refueling tankers to replace the fleet of 35-year-old KC-135 tankers, including claims that “corrosion is significant, pervasive and represents an unacceptable risk.” An investigation by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board concluded that Air Force claims of unmanageable corrosion “were overstated.”

‘Cost overruns’ (as they were euphemistically called) are nothing new to the military contracting process. They became an ongoing problem during the Cold War, especially during the Reagan years, when gazillions were injected into the defense budget and supplies of spare parts grew so fast the military had to scramble to find room for all of the overpurchasing.

The Bush administration has taken its cues from that era in many ways. Knowing that a full military revamp is necessary to prepare it for modern threats, it’s now throwing money at the problems, instead of doing the necessary overhaul required. The pervasive culture of buying to give the appearance of forward motion has wasted hundreds of billions, with both presidents content to be the biggest deficit spenders in history, despite the inevitable waste and fraud that results.

The inspector general is making lame excuses for a problem that requires address from the top down. And despite concerns I may have with his other issues, on this one, I’m happy to see Senator McCain going toe to toe with the White House.

You should be, too. After all, that’s your money being abused.

I’d fallen asleep with the tv on on September 10, 2001 and awoke as the news flashed across the airwaves about the first airplane hitting the World Trade Center. Riveted, I watched as the second tower was hit. And listened, as the Pentagon plane struck.

I managed a high-end apartment complex in Portland, Oregon and, at that moment, needed someone, anyone, to share my shock and grief. I wandered the halls, knocked on a couple of doors, and relayed the horrific news. By the time most of the tenants headed out to their jobs, I had a sign posted, indicating where they could go to donate blood. For the next week, I felt like I was in a daze.

I recall the love that flowed from around the globe to all of us. I remember the worry I felt for an online friend who I knew was a NY city police officer, who disappeared from our online forum for nearly two weeks. I remember, too, the surprise and anger I felt when I heard that, in a few places, some folks cheered our losses that day. Our major media reported that reaction came from ‘the Arab street’.

Since then, I’ve become convinced that the reactions of a few dozen people here and there is hardly representative of all the people in any nation, city or neighborhood. I’ve grown more skeptical of the national media when it issues such blanket statements without supplying evidence to make their case.

From that began the germ of an idea that real streets existed that were more representative. In American culture, it used to be characterized as ‘Main Street USA.’ Though I worked on blogs from November 2001 on, this one, The American Street, was being developed from the time of those difficult days.

Along the way, I was fortunate to be invited to a local tavern twice a month where a few Portland bloggers would discuss current events. I met Jeff and Fred and Mary there, and Magpie, of Pacific Views. As Fred was active in the Democratic Party, he invited another official to one of those meetings, which was how I met one of our DNC correspondents, Jenny Greenleaf.

She and BeckyG have done an impressive job relating their DNC impressions, doncha think?

Which brings me to three key points this post was meant to address.

1) I appreciate the readers we have here, the longtime ones as well as those directed this way by Convention Bloggers, politics.Feedster.com, politics.Technorati.com, CyberJournalist.net, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle in the past week. (Those who assembled those feeds especially have my respect and gratitude for their inventiveness). You readers, as much as the bloggers here, are the American street… so tell us what you think. What do you like that we write about and what turns you off? How can we improve your visits here?

2) While the convention reigned, we over-focused on those team members providing live coverage. I hope the other team members didn’t feel slighted by this temporary focus. We have a slew of great bloggers here, so please take a few minutes and look at The Street Gang in the sidebar and visit the blogs of those you haven’t heard much from. There’s plenty more they’re covering that will hold your interest. Go. Visit them.

But looking ahead, longer term, the November election is a mere 96 days away. So what should this blog become after that? Any and all ideas are welcome, no matter how off-the-wall they are.

3) In the beginning, there was no Internet. For most of us, the Net we utilize is no older than its eleventh year. Isn’t it amazing what the past decade has wrought?

Consider that the White House online communications development occurred while Clinton was in office. I only went online in late ‘97 and its impact on my life has been profound. Because of the Net, I’ve communicated with people across the globe I’d never know the least about otherwise. I’ve learned how to research better and faster than ever before. And the power of the Net has seen me through some of the darkest and most amazing days of my life.

It put me in touch with authors like David Neiwert, Josh Marshall and others, foreign policy guys like Gideon Rose (who publishes Foreign Affairs magazine), professional experts in numerous fields, humorists, activists, regular folks and oddballs, all kinds of people. I have gained wisdom from many and have felt awe at some of the writing and thinking and art I’ve seen.

I was led to blogging by the mad genius of Christopher Locke, through which I read The Cluetrain Manifesto, and was also led to Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Halley Suitt, Jeneane Sessum, and the brilliant socio-artistic expressions of Mark Woods. Which led to Shelley Powers and Mike Golby. Which led to… well you get the drift. Politics barely entered the picture at the outset.

Along the way, I’ve met (online) a retired nurse who re-upped her license to go to Kuwait to assist a plastic surgeon reconstruct faces of Iraqi children damaged by our war. In my earliest AOL days, she knocked me off their service with a complaint about a ‘bad word’ I posted there… four years later, after a computer meltdown, she gave me a brand new Dell as a gift. I’ve relied on the technical wizardry of Al Muhajabah and Nurse Ratched at Open Source Politics and Fred, Jo and Praktike here to get these blogs running and well-maintained, as my html skills aren’t enough to meet the demand. And donors got me through a tough patch in May, when life threw fresh curves at me.

I’m part of that second America John Edwards speaks of. At my best moments, I’ve briefly reached the bottom of the middle class. At my worst, I’ve briefly existed at the top of the homeless class. I’m a pretty good carpenter, maintenance man, property manager and was an excellent social worker. But there’s a lot of fly-by-night employers and seasonal layoffs in some of those professions and social work pays peanuts, so that’s the breaks I got from my poor choices of careers.

But the point is that I’m increasingly certain of one thing from this Internet experience. Survival is enhanced and civilization is advanced by the communication and networking that occurs. And while the political class marvels at the fundraising potential of this medium, I’m struck by its greater possibilities.

We can overcome differences and even emnity when we communicate. We can factcheck the media, or face them head-on (as Jon Stewart does here). We can bypass the political processes by reaching to people in other communities and other lands. We can remind each other of our greater capacities for good. We can reach out to friends, or to strangers in need, with a helping hand.

The Net, this blog, and the technology are amazing, but they are nothing without the essential element of the collective humanity, with its talents and woes and soulful deeds that interact within. I am humbled by the generosity of all who have chosen to participate.

You, I, we, bloggers and commenters, are surely the American street. Or the global street. Stick around; perhaps together we’ll find the next destination on it. Where the street goes next is anyone’s guess, but it’s been a lovely ride so far, because of the fine company on this trip.

John Kerry’s speech on Thursday night did more than introduce him to the American public. For the first time he talked in an extensive way about his own faith and the role he believes religion should play in public life:

My friends, the high road may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And that’s why Republicans and Democrats must make this election a contest of big ideas, not small-minded attacks. This is our time to reject the kind of politics calculated to divide race from race, group from group, region from region. Maybe some just see us divided into red states and blue states, but I see us as one America – red, white, and blue. And when I am President, the government I lead will enlist people of talent, Republicans as well as Democrats, to find the common ground – so that no one who has something to contribute will be left on the sidelines.

And let me say it plainly: in that cause, and in this campaign, we welcome people of faith. America is not us and them. I think of what Ron Reagan said of his father a few weeks ago, and I want to say this to you tonight: I don’t wear my own faith on my sleeve. But faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to Sunday. I don’t want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God’s side. And whatever our faith, one belief should bind us all: The measure of our character is our willingness to give of ourselves for others and for our country.

What a great statement. Americans, I think, will appreciate these remarks. The personal faith that John Kerry spoke of seems so much more profound than the insincere faith so many politicians (on both sides of the political aisle) seem to adopt purely for political gain.

Don’t miss The Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson’s post on the DNC blog about how people of faith can become involved with the Kerry campaign.

Wow. Balloons, confetti, great speech by Kerry. We all ended up standing on our chairs dancing. Really unstable chairs, too.

The energy in Fleet Center was palpable–at least on the floor. Tired as I was, I perked up as soon as I got there.

Kudos to Becky for going to the Wyden interview. I was a wimp.

I have a LOT more to say about the convention and the Democratic Party. Will you still be interested now that it’s over? If so, I’ll write it over the next day or so.

I am scheduled to go to a DNC meeting tomorrow if I can get in. The vice-chair of our state party will try to get me into the room. Should be interesting. I’ve been working my way up to this level so I could figure out what’s going on. Once I understand how it works, I’ll be able to come up with strategies for effecting change. It’s probably a 5-year plan.

Thanks for reading my posts and making me feel welcome on the blog.

James Ridgeway thinks so:

It looks like the FBI’s Boston field office faked a threat of domestic terrorism just before the start of the Democratic National Convention by leaking “unconfirmed” reports of white supremacist groups readying an attack against media vehicles in Boston. Fox News, for one, reportedly was wildly trying to disguise its trucks by covering up its logos.

The effect of this probably was to make the press even more suspicious of anti-war demonstrators than it already is—to even view them as possible terrorists, and if not actual terrorists, then a crowd within which terrorists could operate.

[…]

Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, which tracks the far right, told Glynn Wilson of the serious-minded Southerner Daily News blog, “We have had no indication whatsoever, not an inkling, that there is any kind of violent action planned by the radical right in Boston. We follow these groups quite closely.”

Within hours of Kerry’s very presidential appearance at the Democratic National Convention, George W. Bush did something extremely unpresidential; he whined about a comedian making fun of his name. Usually, such demeaning tasks are given to campaign staffers because these things are not considered worthy of the attention of the Commander in Chief. Tonight, however, the Leader of the Free World felt that it was important that such a message come from him.

Could it be that the President and his handlers saw the convention tonight and panicked? Did someone say, “The President needs to touch his base, right now.” Why would they lead with such a trivial issue? Is it the best argument they have?

Note: although this is addressed to the General, it is not satire. This is what BC’04 sent.

From: “President George W. Bush”

To: JC Christian
Subject: The Real “Heart and Soul” of America

Dear JC,

As I write, there are 96 days until an historic election, and the campaigns are hitting full-swing. In recent days, I’ve been in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Iowa and Missouri. Everywhere I go, the crowds are big, the enthusiasm is high, the signs are good — we are on our way to victory.

My opponent has been spending some time with his base as well — most recently, he attended a gala with his Hollywood friends. Evidently, things got a little out of hand. My name came up a few times. And now the Senator refuses to release a tape of that whole enchanted evening. Could be that his friends, whom he said conveyed the “heart and soul of America,” actually embarrassed themselves and the candidate.

[…]

One of the General’s readers, Will Z., pointed me to a great bit of satire from Sojourners Magazine. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Sojourners, it’s a magazine for what I like to think of as “true Christians,” people who worship the Jesus of the Beatitudes, the Prince of Peace, the compassionate Christ rather than the angry, vengeful, warmongering, ùbercapitalist Jesus preferred by the Christian Right.

It’s a great piece, written in response to a letter that Bush/Cheney ‘04 sent to churches urging them to act as surrogates for the campaign. I’ve posted only the response below. Click here to read the full article.

To: Bush/Cheney Re-election Campaign Headquarters
From: “Rev.” David Batstone
Re: Our Service to the King

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Kingdom:

I can’t tell you how inspired I am by your detailed plan of action leading up to the November election. Being an evangelical pastor, I wasn’t sure how I was going to mobilize my congregation to make a faithful commitment in the realm of politics. But rest assured, we are following diligently the 22 duties you so generously offered, so that God’s will may be made manifest in the re-election of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for four more years.

As per your request, I sent yesterday a directory of our church membership to your campaign headquarters here in California. All addresses and telephone numbers are up-to-date, which I trust will be quite useful for your field team as they seek to make personal connections with our flock.

Our pastoral staff even put stars next to the names of those members who have given more than $1,000 to our church during the past year. We do not have an especially wealthy congregation, but as I reminded them last week in my sermon, if a poor widow can give a mite, so might we open our hearts and checkbooks to the burning Bush of Texas, whom God has led to Washington for our sakes.

I do not suffer fools lightly, and for the sake of the gospel will continue to preach boldly words of political action. From now until October, at the close of each service we will have a call forward for those wayward individuals who have not yet registered to vote. My elders stand waiting, registration form in hand, for the Spirit to move those hardened by other political leanings, or perhaps lukewarm in their service to the King.

No, brothers and sisters, we will not hide our light under a bushel. We have restructured our Sunday School programs for the fall to reinforce the importance of Christian citizens taking on the mantle of conservative causes. Your Voter Guides will be distributed to each member of the church - the young marrieds as well as the seniors - and will become the focus of our Bible studies during the Sunday School hour.

You will be pleased to hear that our planting of seeds already is yielding fruit. By its own inspiration, the Visitation Committee announced its plans to suspend visits to the sick and elderly for the months of October and November (except in those cases of impending death). Instead, these faithful souls will use their hours of ministry going door to door in the neighborbood surrounding the church, handing out your Voter Guides and, if God opens hearts, asking for our neighbors to volunteer for Bush/Cheney ‘04.

I cannot recall a time when our flock was so focused on a single mission. In no small part we have you to thank. The campaign potlucks you demanded did not even seem like a duty; after the meal, we sang songs of praise for the divine blessing given our nation under Republican leadership. Thanks be to God, I now know how the people of Judea must have felt when He bestowed on King David His eternal wisdom to guide His people in a “united states” of Israel.

Do not fear, my brothers and sisters. On that day of judgment in November, when that great roll is unscrolled, rest assured that you will find each of our names recorded in the Republican column.

Since one of my moderate colleagues was dumped from reporting on the convention, I’m filling in with up to the minute impressions of the Beantown abstract impression of pacifists wrapping themselves in the flag. Oh, and since the Veep choice has been formalized, I’ve added another new Poll to my sidebar. Y’all stop by and vote.

What does it mean when people are huddled in blankets in the cold, sleeping in Lafayette Park on the doorstep of the White House itself and the number of families living in poverty has risen by three million in the last four years?

America can do better. And help is on the way.

- John Kerry, July 29, 2004

During his acceptance speech tonight John Kerry spoke of his desire to help those who are homeless in America. Is this a true promise or campaign rhetoric?

There are two ways to answer that question.

First, you don’t get votes for talking about homelessness in America. Speaking about the issue at all shows us something about John Kerry’s character.

John Kerry is also the primary sponsor of bi-partisan legislation in Congress to create a National Housing Trust Fund. The fund would be created to build affordable rental housing in communities across America. Kerry has made this legislation one of his top priorities in Congress. Visit the National Housing Trust Fund campaign web site to learn how you can help get this bill passed.

Yes, hope is on the way.

I have been posting more pics over at Seeing the Forest. Scroll down, there are a few batches.

When you’re up here in Bloggers’ row, it’s hard to follow the speeches. The sound is boomy and indistinct; if you’re not following along with the text, you’re going to miss it; if you are, you’re looking at a sheet of paper or your computer and not at the speaker.

Tonight’s energy is different than that of any of the other nights of the convention. It has the excited crowd energy of a rock concert. Each speaker is met by a more thunderous ovation echoing around the now completely packed Fleet center. People are sitting in aisles, steps, each other — out in the corridor they’re clustered eight deep around the HD flatscreen monitors.

When Carole King sang “You’ve Got A Friend,” it sounded as if every voice of this 35,000-large crowd was singing with her. You can bet that when John Kerry comes out, the applause will erupt and fill the air with thunder.

No one is even out on the stage right now and the crowd is going wild. My chair is vibrating with the sound — and I’m on the seventh floor.

The Left Coaster’s Steve Soto had an interesting conversation with Joe Trippi here at the Convention: Trippi told him that he believed that if Kerry didn’t opt out of public funding and instead took the $75 million, it could be a pivotal decision leading to a Kerry loss.

Our view of Lieberman from Bloggers’ Row. Note that Lieberman finally said something smart (”Barack Obama proved that the American Dream is alive and well.”) He was actually a better speaker than Clark was, but the crowd became very mellow when Lieberman spoke. When Clark spoke, they went crazy.

A view of “Bloggers’ Boulevard” on the 7th floor of the Fleet Center. You can see Hunter Thompson (or an impersonator) on the left.

last night on msnbc’s convention after hours with joe “what’s this dead woman doing in my office” scarborough, ron reagan jr. finally said out loud what the rest of the media (and the politicians) should have been saying for almost three years now.

turning to joe “i never touched the body” scarborough, reagan said something to the effect of (and here we paraphrase badly, which is, of course, the very definition of paraphrasing in the first place):

the problem with the war on terror is that ‘terror’ is a concept, so it’s like the ‘war on obesity,’ you’re fighting against a concept, and not individuals.

and to give joe “she had lots of medical problems before this” scarborough credit, he agreed.

we would refine rr jr’s complaint a bit more precisely, ourselves.  ‘terror’ is actually a technique, not a concept.  “loving all mankind” and “the will of the people” and “more fun than a barrel of bloggers” are concepts.  terror is a specific technique used by, admittedly desperate and crazy people, in lieu of standing armies and icbm’s. 

it’s rather like declaring a war on ‘garroting,’ or on ‘torture,’ or on ’surprise attacks.’  these are tools of war. 
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The coffee is kicking in…. Let me gush a bit. This has been the experience of a lifetime! I feel incredibly privileged to be able to participate in something so central to our election process. The event may be scripted, and the conclusion foregone, but the experience of meeting and hearing from the people who would like to be running our government gives me renewed hope that we can indeed build the kind of America I want to live in.

Meeting some of the bloggers I’ve read for years is a treasure as well. Politics has helped to initiate the next stage of internet communities–bringing the virtual into the real. Kudos to the DNC for making bloggers welcome and embracing our contribution to the national discourse.

That all sounds a little bit pollyanna, but I really believe we have a chance to change the conversation. At breakfast today, Howard Dean urged us all to get involved, run for office, and save the party from irrelevance. I’m proud to be on the team.

As I read the posts and comments on blogs, I often see the comments along the lines of “the Democrats need to do this” or “why don’t the Democrats do…”. Just who is “the Democrats”? Isn’t that us? I wonder how many of the posters have taken the simple step of becoming a precinct person or

Just as the God, guns, and greed coalition took over the Republican Party 20 years ago, I think progressives (liberals) can take back the Democratic Party. The success of internet fundraising can liberate the party from relying on corporate dollars. The people streaming into the party as a result of the Dean campaign and the general revulsion for Bush is bringing in a transfusion of new blood. Eventually, the dinosaur will roll over, yawn, and stumble to its feet. Then watch out, because a change is gonna come!

Democratic News Service invited Jenny & me, as Oregon delegate bloggers, to interview our Sen. Ron Wyden. I snagged another delegate (TV analyst) to ask about pertinent committees, and hey—Commerce—internet law!

So, maybe some freedom of the press issues? On the way into the Fleet Center, we passed these police, who were grinning and hamming up posing for me. I don’t look like press. When a large TV camera tried to do the same thing, the boss who came out to stop them looked scary! I stopped shooting immediately. Freedom of the press isn’t so much of a priority issue for me when it is so immediate. It made me wonder what kind of security threat justifies that? What’s the logic?

We went in for the interview, joined by Natasha, http://www.pacificviews.org/ who came with a question about energy and David Weinberger, www.hyperorg.com/blogger, who canvassed for Ron ~20 years ago.

Ron Wyden spoke eloquently. I’m convinced that he’s an informed advocate. David stretched a cute analogy about the teeter-totter of civil liberty and the collective security needs of society. “John Ashcroft’s preference is all totter…” It’ll be fun to follow these bloggers I’ve just met. And I’m glad Ron Wyden is encouraging us.

At the Democratic Gain training Bloggers panel, the message was clear: every campaign must have its own blog! And must include comments! Give the people a voice with a blog, then ask for their time and money.

The reward is– Steer a lot of activity, $, volunteers. More people will run and participate. People who like to read books will run for library board seats, instead of people who like to burn books. People will be less afraid of information, maybe even less afraid of us seeing what police look like.

Thank you Ron
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If blogging about blogging is ‘in’ at the moment, let’s give credit where it’s due, to the first guy to blog the convention…. of 2000…. Ken Layne.

Look at all the trouble you started, Ken. Now go wash your hands.

I watched Kerry rehearsing his approach to the podium this morning. He was playful, clearly exuberant, and said, looking out on us, “This is great. This is a great hall.” He walked about and then came back to the podium, where he made a show of gesticulating and making broad dramatic gestures while silently mouthing his speech, just to get a laugh, which he did. Then he said something like, “Fourth Estate, your reign is about to end!” which is a strange joke to make in front of the press, but nobody seemed to mind.

At some point, you reach convention saturation. Maybe some folks can absorb more than I can, but by this morning, I’d pretty much had enough of running around Boston, standing in crowds of people, and listening to politicians. I’ve seen Howard Dean four times now, and although I’m nuts about him, that’s enough in one week. I’ve heard all of the power women of the Democratic party speak at least once. I’ve heard that we’re going to work hard and we’re going to elect John Kerry. I think I’ve got it.

Yes, there were things to do, trainings to attend, caucuses to caucus. Other than our delegation breakfast, I skipped them all today, retreating to quiet and solitude in my room for the afternoon. I feel like I’m falling down on the job as a blogger. Oh well. To make up for my dereliction of duty, I’ve posted some more snapshots. They’re probably of most interest to Oregonians.

I’ve had two double lattes now and am off to the convention. I’ll try to write from there. Howard Dean came to our breakfast today and I’ll be commenting a bit on what he said. (I’ll give Howard this—in the four times I’ve heard him speak, he hasn’t said the same thing twice.)

I’m looking forward to tonight’s extravaganza! I have no idea what 100,000 balloons looks like!

The Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson, the new religious outreach director for the Democratic National Committee, has a post up on the DNC blog discussing her new job and what People of Faith for John Kerry are talking about at the convention. Check it out:

DNC: Kicking Ass - Guest Post: Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson

Brenda is a friend of mine from the Clergy Leadership Network - where she served as executive director. Click here for more information on her job at the DNC.

(cross posted from chuckcurrie.blogs.com)

If you’re truly interested in what our foreign policy should be doing and has been doing, Juan Cole’s Cheney Watch is must reading.

The question that I have, though, is why, if Dick Cheney is in fact so desperately worried about al-Qaeda, he hasn’t done more about it. Of the 1000 or so al-Qaeda operatives who fled to Pakistan, 500 or so have been captured, almost all of them by the Pakistani military. Although there are 20,000 US troops in Afghanistan, they have captured no top al-Qaeda leaders at all to my knowledge. In fact, it is difficult for me to understand what exactly they are doing there. The Pushtun warlords all around them are selling $2 billion of heroin annually to Europe, to which you would have thought the US might object (and isn’t it likely some of the $2 billion is going straight to al-Qaeda?)

Usamah Bin Laden and Aiman al-Zawahiri, who sat down in a room and planned out September 11 are still free. They are still plotting against the US and its allies. Chatter suggests that the bombings in Istanbul were encouraged by al-Zawahiri.

So let’s get this straight. The US has 138,000 troops stuck in Iraq, which was no danger to the US homeland. They are mainly fighting local clansmen who had never before had any beef with the US, prior to the American invasion of their country.

If Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are the SS of the age, then why aren’t 138,000 US troops combing Waziristan for them? Why haven’t they been captured?

He also had more yesterday that complements it well.

Professor Cole has never been more on target.

This morning, Bill Scher asked the questions about Black Americans being taken for granted by the Dems. He has loads of great pictures, too.

Btw, Bill’s still seeking to defray some of his convention costs, so while visiting his blog, wouldja toss a twenty (or whatever you can) his way?

Randy Paul sees the last vestiges of hope departing Afghanistan. So if it’s not going to continue to be a dreaded ‘failed nation’, what other options remain?

1) A living example of a Bush-imposed democracy, which continues to remind me of a puppet show (Punch and Judy perhaps).

2) A corporate state of, for and by the oil companies, with warlords bought off to keep the (eventual) oil line safe.

Whatever. The democracies Bush planned to install to influence the Middle East in that direction are impressing no one yet, except a few CEOs. Kabul and Baghdad will be islands in the middle of Bush’s failed notion-states. The post?war planning of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice is cumulatively about as talented as George Marshall’s littlest toenail. But then, George Bush would be lost in Ike’s jockstrap, too.

Here’s the counterpoint to the $250 plate Jenny & I shared on the floor at Revolutionary Women. This was a North End Walk In, Gosh-Send option to the junk inside the Fleet Center (sorry). Hot, delicious, cheap, crisp and greasy.

I invited a Ralph Lauren-shirted protester who walked in to join me & talk. Turned out he was paid staff for some branch of the Anglican Church. When he mentioned the huge population influx in Atlanta and I asked how it impacted his parish, he hadn’t a clue. He is a level removed and just travels, maybe freelances? Next it’ll be New York and he’s hoping for the Olympics in Athens. Who knew? Professional religious circuit riders of a new age!

Just another view of the action outside the hall…too bad the guy wasn’t keen on a photo.

…is worth a thousand words, since that’s all I’ve got right now.

Click here.

Gosh, I love it when Jeanne is on the mark. She gives the ultimate verdict on Obama…. and on us.

I’ve heard some young uns say it was the best speech they’d ever heard. That’s how I knew they were young, because anyone who heard Bobby or Martin or even JFK have previously been moved by the transcendant power of soul funneled through words to deeds.

Like Jeanne, it doesn’t matter to me what professional achievements Obama realizes from here; he stirred a deep longing in me like few have ever done, which suffices. I can only add that it also stirred a sadness in me, as all the previous inspirers died young because the haters get furious whenever racial justice is part of the message.

I hope Obama has a full and loving life, more than anything else. If we can get that far, maybe the vision of guys like this will actually have a chance, too.

Addendum: The networks didn’t carry the speech. If I was Kerry or one of the orgs supporting Kerry, like Move-On, I’d make a campaign commercial that uses the entire speech and run it 2-3 times in all 50 states around some popular TV show. It’d be spendy as hell, but I bet Soros or Theresa could afford it.

Okay, not all work…but it was pretty intense on Bloggers’ row last night. “–CNN’s asking for anything on Jesse?” “Yeah! I just sent it off-tell’em to look on–”.

And it got crowded. All the seats above were filled in by alternates from below and lots of visiting press lurking. The bloggers’ space is up in the nosebleed section, but at least there is one. Wireless was spotty, drifting in and out and the acoustics were impossible, so thank God for the advance feeds.

I lent my delegate floor credentials to a guy from DNC who gave me his Secret Service approved holographic ID, saying it didn’t get any better than that. I wish I could’ve used the access advantage of his ID -wonder what it was?

So, help me with the photo: ?, Tom Burka, Dave Johnson, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Janeane Garofalo, and me. Bloggers Bash!

Billmon says the Kerry agenda is likely to be limited by Congressional realities, so some discipline in managing expectations down would be useful.

I agree. If Kerry can restore environmental preservation, put a decent healthcare plan in place, and repair our human rights record from all that Bush damaged, I’ll consider him a huge success.

Like all Presidents before him, I really don’t anticipate a break in our oil habits because the Saudis have us by the economic shorthairs in that game. I think we had a shot at Iran becoming more democratic via popular resistance to its extremist government, but Bush blew that one by scaring every Muslim in the world.

I don’t anticipate an economy that roars like the late Nineties did; I believe those kinda economic revolutions only come once a lifetime. Folks who entered the work force in the Nineties got a taste of economic sweetness that may grant them unreasonable expectations no president could fulfill. (Freed-up Cold War funds and the Information Revolution gave Clinton advantages that can’t be matched.)

However, I don’t think lowering expectations is wise at the moment. The time for that is between Election Day and Inaugural Day. I’ll gladly take a bit of pragmatic progressivism over the compassion-lite non-conservatism of the past four years.

I was talking to a cabbie in Boston today and he said he couldn’t understand why we stationed troops in Saudi Arabia. Or why we supported the dogs in Israel. He was supposed to bring me to the Fleet Center but dropped me at Fenway, begging off because he had to go for dialysis.

Before he split, he gave me this videotape called “Jihad Gone Wild” and asked me to give it to Al Jazeera. It was really disappointing because the girls all look like tents.

I forgot to tip him. I sure hope he’s not sore at me.

(Inspired by Kevin Drum)

Russ Barnes leads us to the family values of an ice cream burner.

Hope Delayed At Security Kiosk Outside Fleet Center.

Investigative reporter Bob Dreyfuss is running a series about the 5 things the 9-11 Commission got wrong. He’s on Part 3, which is why they gave a free pass to Bush on the question of a link between Al qaida and Iraq. See if you can locate the incongruity:

Best, of course, is the one reported in a footnote (page 559, Note 75), citing a memo to Rumsfeld “that appears to be from Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith.” Says the commission: “The author suggested instead hitting outside the Middle East in the initial offensive, perhaps deliberately selecting a non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq.”

Scroll through and read them all.

So much energy has been spent on the Fear of Bush, concluding how bad things will be if he’s elected. But here’s the thing. The damage is done.

If Kerry repeals the tax cut for the wealthiest, they’ll still walk away with a hunnerd thou or more each. The profiteering done by Halliburton and others, profiting immensely while our soldiers sacrifice their lives, means their CEO and CFO and others get to keep their larger paychecks and bonuses, even if we go back to ethical bidding.

Thousands will be dead. Thousands who never attacked us except in defense of our invasion, and at least a thousand of our own. We will be more reviled as Ugly Americans because of so much Bush has done.

Fear him?

Carville described it best. Can he make it worse? Of course. But that gives me reason to loathe him, not fear him. He’s a two-bit tinhorn lying thief who uses God, sucks up to money and Hell ain’t hot enough for him to get his just reward in the afterlife. That’s how to loathe the psycho, or how I loathe him, at least.

Fear’s what I feel when I’m broke. Or when my child or children are hurting. The worst Bush (or Bin Laden) can do to me is take my life and I wouldn’t give either the satisfaction of expressing fear over that. Not that I’m fearless; I feared both for a bit. I just reached a point of fear fatigue and it’s done.

Now the Democratic meme is “Hope is on the Way” which isn’t too far from “The Man From Hope.” I’m not good at hope. I wish they’d said “With Kerry, we might get lucky. With Bush, there’s only bad mojo.”

I can relate to luck. I hope Kerry gets lucky and gives a good speech. Hoping he will is beyond me because my hope doesn’t influence his speech at all.

But I’m lucky that Kerry is, as Carville says, a better man. And if we’re all lucky, he’ll be good enough to improve the world. Again.

Fafnir and Giblets encountered Wolf Blitzer at the DNC and Wolf inquired about blogs…

WB: How much thought goes into your “web blog” “posts”?

F: Oh we do not think at all when we post! That would defeat the entire purpose!

G: Blogs must be spontaneous intant reactions to the lightning events of the everyday! Giblets fires up a random news article, pounds his head against the keyboard several times, an hits the “publish” button for the purest of pure blog posts!

F: Otherwise you are not truly flowin in the electric consciousness Wolf.

WB: Do you think blogs are transforming the discourse in America, and if so how so?

F: Oh they definitely are Wolf. There is not much that can resist our transformin internet power.

G: We are MADE of the internet. We course with its febrile energy!

F: An we will make the discourse faster because blogs are faster. When someone starts talkin bout somethin that just happened five minutes ago someone else will say “oh I already heard about that yesterday, borin” an they will drop it cuz it’s borin.

G: When someone starts talkin bout somethin else they will change subject not in the middle of the sentence, but before the other sentence was actually spoken.

F: It will be just that fast.

It gets better. (Hat tip to Susie for directing the way).

(cross-posted at our own feelin’-a-might-poorly-ourselves blog).

our buds at resident bush alerts us to thomas defrank’s piece in the nydaily news:  nancy & ron reagan spell dubya trouble:

much to the dismay of the bush campaign, nancy reagan has just said no to appearing at the republican national convention next month.

gop strategists had hoped the former first lady and hollywood actress would make a cameo appearance onstage after a video tribute to her late husband, particularly after her bush-bashing son, ron, agreed to speak at the democratic convention last night… 

gop sources, meanwhile, confirmed his mother will not be at their aug. 30-sept. 2 convention - and some speculated her son might be behind the snub.

“i do not expect her at our convention but she knows she is welcome,” republican national committee chairman ed gillespie told reporters here yesterday.

“if all of you might just keep in mind for a moment the year that mrs. reagan has had and be a little understanding of that, i think that would be appreciated by the public and, i suspect, by mrs. reagan,” gillespie added.

republican officials refrained from publicly criticizing nancy reagan for the no-show. privately, however, some were upset as well as disappointed by the decision, which has been known to the white house for some time.

“i don’t think she could have missed the symbolic significance of her son going to their convention and her not going to ours,” a senior gop official told the daily news.

a downcast senior gop official confirmed nancy reagan had never committed to appearing at the convention, but was nevertheless dubious of the official explanation…

“the ‘not feeling up to it’ line is bull—-,” the official said. “something happened in the last month, and whatever it was was real.”

an 83 year old woman feeling bad after her husband just died? the slacker!

At the rural caucus, we also heard from Anna Greenburg, who did polling research in rural areas. Here are some of the more interesting polling info:

Rural voters are pessimistic about the direction of the country. 48 wrong track, 43 right track.

Bush’s job approval ratings, while higher in rural areas than nationally, have declined dramatically. His approval margin has fallen from a 25-point margin as late as last summer and early 2004. Now, the margin has fallen to 9 points.

Kerry’s ratings aren’t particularly hot, though. In rural battleground states, Kerry gets 43 percent unfavorable, 35 percent favorable ratings. 17 percent are neutral.

The gender gap in rural America is huge. Men favor Bush 56 to 39, a 17-point spread. For women, the numbers are 48 to 44, a 4-point spread.

One last statistic: Those with no guns favor Kerry 51-43. For those with 1-2 guns, they favor Bush 49-44. And, for the folks who keep 3 or more guns at home, the numbers are 64 Bush, 30 Kerry.

Today I attended the Rural Caucus meeting. It’s not something I would have picked on my own, but Meredith Wood Smith, vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon suggested it. One of the perennial issues in Oregon is the rural-urban split. Urban voters in Portland, the Willamette Valley and along the coast vote Democratic in huge numbers. Folks east of the Cascade Mountains vote Republican. Since I eventually want to run for DNC, I need to know about the rest of the state.

Several interesting facts about the campaign in rural areas of the country came out of the meeting. Read on…
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I put some convention pics up over at Seeing the Forest.

GOP spin meisters have taken offense to Barack Obama’s inspirational keynote address to the Democratic Convention Tuesday evening. The Illinois State Senator who is steamrolling toward the White House in 2012, by way of the US Senate, talked of a “United” States that seems out of reach to the GOP.

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.

Obama’s words had barely been released before GOP voices struck back.

“Hell, I’d admit to having imperfect attendance at the local NASCAR track before I’d admit to having gay friends!” says Bubba “Red Meat” Jones of Muleshoe, Texas.

“Red States and Blue States are as different as purple mountain majesties are different from amber waves of grain,” says Eldon J. Cornhusker, of Kearny, Nebraska. “No God-fearing Republican would send in a law professor to do John Ashcroft’s job.”

“I predict Obama won’t even get a single vote from the graveyards of Cook County this year…. some Democrat he is!” says Henry Hyde of Peoria, Illinois.

“Who says we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states? If John Ashcroft knowing that I checked out My Pet Goat keeps terrorists from invading our shores, I’m all for it!” says George W. Bush of Crawford, Texas.

“Our God is far more awesome in the Red states!” says the Rev. Clyde Q. Biblethumper of the First Church in the Bush, Heidelberg, Mississippi.

“Did you know that Obama rhymes with Osama?” John Ashcroft, Jefferson City, Missouri.

Andrew Sullivan apparently hasn’t been listening to Democrats much in the last few years. I suppose it’s not surprising. It’s so much more entertaining to listen to Republicans and the media talk about Democrats than to actually listen to them. And it’s rare to hear Democrats give speeches unfiltered by the yammering of pundits and stooges who tell you what you are supposed to think about it before it’s even delivered.

But, for at least a decade — and certainly in this election cycle — Democratic rhetoric has been hitting all the themes you are hearing at this convention. Sullivan notes self-reliance, opportunity, hard work, an immigrant’s dream, the same standards for all of us — and seems surprised that Democrats would say such things. (I would add tolerance, fairness, and compassion, among others.) Perhaps he never heard the phrases “…those who work hard and play by the rules,” or “our families have values. But our government doesn’t.” How about, “it’s time for a new approach that trusts people to make the most of their own lives and gives them the chance to do so.”

Some politicians do it better than others, to be sure. Those lines above are from Clinton and Edwards. Obama was very skillful at it also, as Sullivan notes. But, the themes are not new; they’ve been the staple of Democratic appeals since the early 90’s. It’s been many a year (if ever) since Democrats were standing on a stage anywhere shouting “bring down the state!”

Sullivan’s ongoing theme is that this Democratic convention is actually “conservative.” He seems to be preparing for the inevitable “I didn’t leave my party, it left me” rationale so perhaps it makes him feel better to think this. But, he is, of course, using the wrong word. This convention isn’t “conservative.”

It is mainstream.

For those of you watching this extravaganza on TV, have you ever wondered how the crowd produces all of those signs? Have you noticed that the signs change frequently?

Making sure the crowd looks good is the duty of the delegation whips. Each state has one or more. Jesse Cornett handles whip duties for Oregon.

The whips sit on the aisle, and they have to wear dorky fluorescent green vests. Every so often, convention staffers arrive with bags of signs, which the whips pass down the rows along with instructions on when to wave them. “OK, while Teresa Heinz Kerry is speaking, wave the We Love Teresa signs. When the speech is over, switch to Kerry/Edwards.”

The signage got intense last night: Kennedy, Obama, Working for America, We Love Teresa. At least 6 varieties sprawled at our feet.

I have a bad feeling about those signs. Although some people collected them and brought them out of the Fleet Center, the majority were left on the floor.

At least some of them seem to have found a home. This morning’s breakfast tchotchke was a small poster, signed by Kerry and Edwards, made out of paper recycled from the convention.

Today’s theme is National Security & Vets’ Day. My Dad is a vet, Hubby too. I really care about this. I’ve been wearing Dad’s PT 109 pin for him. He won’t talk about it. Tech. Counter Espionage. You know, the good guys. Before computers & Arpanet.

We had Kerry pal, Vet Jim Rassman, NYFD Chief on 9-11, Iraq Vet Paul Rieckhoff, http://paulrieckhoff.com/ , Kerry sons, etc., with the full High Holy Days up& down standing ovations over breakfast. Then the briefing about roll call for the formal votes this evening. Very heavy breakfast, with memories of my summer Burn Unit job.

I deeply appreciated hearing what they had to say. I sat at the Vets’ table! Well, they joined us. Trying to recruit a shy husband, no doubt. Haven’t seen much of him and hardly any of MIT daughter. Really, whoever at home said the convention might not be worth coming to? Time is not a-wasting.

Jim Rassman talked about “Showing the Flag” meaning to draw fire, boating up & down a Viet Namese river. I hope I can clear some of the negative images from this morning, without dismissing the obligation to express gratitude to those who’ve paid the price.

They talked about stress disorders too. I wish health for them all.

Hey, remember Afghanistan?

You know, the war against the people who actually attacked us? That we “won” and walked away from because once again Mr. Cheney had other priorities? It’s so dangerous there now that Medecins Sans Frontieres is leaving.

I feel much safer now.

A blast ripped through a mosque where Afghans were registering to vote on Wednesday, killing at least two people, and the Medecins Sans Frontieres aid agency said it was leaving the country after 24 years because of security fears.

The attack in Ghazni province was the worst on poll preparations since three women election workers were killed by a bomb in Jalalabad on June 26, a day after 16 Afghans found holding voter registration cards were shot dead in the south.

U.N. spokesman David Singh said two people were killed in the Ghazni blast, one of them a member of the Afghan election coordinating body, and two election officials were seriously wounded. The U.S. military said six people had been killed.

Authorities have blamed all three attacks on remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and Islamic militant allies, who have vowed to disrupt a presidential vote in October and parliamentary elections planned for April.

More than 900 people have been killed in a wave of violence during the past year that has targeted foreign and local troops, aid workers and people involved in preparing for the country’s first free, direct elections.

MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, the Nobel prize-winning aid organization, said it was leaving Afghanistan because of fears for the safety of staff after five workers, including three foreigners, were killed in an attack on a remote road in the northwest in June.

The group issued a stinging rebuke of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, saying they had used aid work to help them win a “hearts and minds” campaign and garner support from Afghans skeptical of their intentions.

“MSF denounces this attempt to co-opt humanitarian aid, to use humanitarian aid to win hearts and minds,” MSF secretary general Marine Buissonniere told a briefing, adding that in doing so it had endangered the lives of aid workers.

Jenny Greenleaf’s recent post is a good demonstration of what I had hoped to see more of from the Democratic Convention bloggers than the ‘Hey, look at me, I’m on TV!’ we’ve been getting. As a delegate, she attended an event called Revolutionary Women that discusses women and politcs, providing coverage of an event unlikely to make it to the mainstream publications.

What I found to be particularly interesting was the statement I’m assuming Helen Thomas Renee Loth made, about a woman becoming President:

RT: We’ll see a black male president before a woman president.

David Weinberger in reporting his responses to yesterday’s Convention speeches said the following:

Barack Obama: The good news for Hillary is that she might get State Department when Obama is President in 2012.

Considering that Clinton is already in office, and Obama not even elected, I found this to be an interesting statement. About as interesting as the number of female webloggers given press credentials for the Democratic Convention in ratio to the male webloggers. I wonder how that ratio will be for the upcoming Republican Convention?

For all the vaunted equality that the Democrats claim as their own, I believe that the Republicans will elect a woman President before the Democrats. Though I will continue to support Kerry and Edwards in this election, I am going to re-think how I will use my vote for the other positions this Fall. I think it’s time for the Democratic Party to lose its free ride from the women in this country.

There’s a lot of talk at the convention about women voters, especially single women voters. Here’s why:

In 2000, 22 million unmarried women didn’t vote. If single women voted at the same rate as married women, 6 million more women would have voted, and tipped the election. When asked why they don’t vote, single women frequently answer that they don’t vote because their vote doesn’t matter, or because they believe politics is controlled by special interests.

Women voted in 3% greater numbers than men in 2000. Voter turnout was 61%.

Women voters tend to favor Democrats, with single women voters even more likely to vote Democratic. As you can imagine, it’s a huge part of the campaign strategy to register and turn out single women this year.

Click below to read about the Revolutionary Women rally.
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Yesterday we attended an event called Revolutionary Women. Sponsored by Barbara Lee, it featured a dozen or so panels/workshops followed by a star-studded rally. Revolutionary Women works to get women to vote and to elect women to office. The event was over at the new Boston Convention Center–apparently this is the first time it’s been used. Nice facility!

Unfortunately, all of the workshops were at the same time, so we could only attend one. We dropped into a packed house for a panel discussion on women in the political media. The panel featured Eleanor Clift from Newsweek, Renee Loth from the Boston Globe, and my favorite, Hearst Newspapers’ Helen Thomas. Liz Walker did an excellent job as moderator.

Highlights at the jump–attributions may not be totally accurate.
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Blogger als Berichterstatter?

The Pacific Northwest Flyfishing School is blogging the convention. And here at TAS, we’re defined as ‘Fun-Politics’. Ja ist das Sie girly Mann vollkommen.

Intelligent, bold. I like smart and well-informed, and what’s wrong with opinionated? It was what I liked about Eleanor and Barbara as first ladies and what I like about Teresa. It is what I’ll expect in a first husband.

The red suit is back, not the Reagan shoulders of the 80’s but the beautifully designed hand of luxurious fabric, exquisite turn of lapel, attention to detail that will defy/invite knockoffs! Nancy Pelosi and Teresa both have it, the new power. It is ours now! I love that they can be professional and revel in wearing pretty clothes that don’t diminish them as power brokers.

If this campaign is worried about the single women’s vote, how about more of those sons, speaking the service & duty phrases with the Adonis looks. And the yellow tie… what, 20, 25 years ago, with the red suits? I think every other man in Georgetown was wearing one that spring. Wonder of the off-the -shoulder dresses are coming back, too? Could be a salute to Ron & Nancy and I’d sooner do that than rename the Pentagon…or catsup as a vegetable.

We’re only mid-convention, will need to get back to the serious at-home campaign work in a couple of days, but I want to think for just a minute about inaugural gowns…

Looks to me like there will be a strong sense of Style returning to the White house soon.

BRAVO!

Our Digby discovered Neal Pollack covering the convention.

In light of Obama’s great speech last night, I was struck by this:

But I can say that I’m very impressed by Barack Obama, the senatorial candidate from Illinois. For many years now, I’ve been saying to myself that the Democrats need a strong black leader who isn’t really black. Obama strikes me as our Colin Powell, without the military record or the history of lying to the United Nations.

It seemed so unfair to poor Colin, who came out of the closet as a member of The Village People awhile back. However, in keeping with a meme I heard expressed at the DNC last night, I went searching for its visualization and found this…

I believe that opinionated Teresa Heinz Kerry said we need to do this before we shove it in a Mellon, which sounds like a great custom from wherever she’s from.

(Now go read Neal make fun of bloggers’ coverage…)

Jenny Greenleaf, Dave Johnson, Becky G, Tom Burka

Tuesday. Another long day. This is an endurance event.

Met really neat people, heard lots of speakers, ate more bad food, acquired more goodies, got to Blogger’s Lane, got internet access, listened to more speeches, stood up, waved signs, sat down, stood up, waved signs, sat down, stood up, waved signs, sat down….found bus, got to hotel.

More coming after breakfast. Wonder who will be there today?

Matt Welch, covering for Reason, had a face-to-face with Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. You remember Jerry, yes?

Thomas Oliphant, writing for The American Prospect, has an inside view of John Kerry.

Jeralyn notes a nice life-affirming deletion from the Dem platform.

Dave Johnson has words from Michael Moore’s talk.

Bill Scher has pictures and sections from fine speechifyin’.