What does one say when, by acclamation, a man whose background and experience may be more American than most who have been nominated to be the Presidential candidate , is chosen to represent the his Party? How might one find words for this moment? Overwhelmed with feelings, does an individual shout, Hooray? Through the tears of happiness, might we exclaim, "This is incredible!" Can we communicate the sensation. The possibilities are phenomenal. This historic moment is fascinating. Oh joy; oh bliss. Perchance we can believe not only in change, but also in the beauty of people dedicated to a cause. Possibly each of us can have faith in unity. We can perchance, begin anew. Hope is alive. The dream survives. The impossible is probable.
It is important to express a deep, sincere, and special gratitude to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Every one of us might acknowledge our earnest appreciation for those Clinton supporters who cast a delegate ballot for Barack Obama.
Let us each wish upon the stars in the skies and those in our eyes. Democrats, Independents, Republicans who remember the intent of our forefathers, let us do what we must to ensure government is again, of, by, and for the people.
One of the perks of being in person at an event like the Big Tent and the DNC Convention in general is getting access to some really cool events you can't get to anywhere else. No, I'm not talking about the after-parties; those actually tend to be fairly lame, imho. I'm talking about the really informative morning and afternoon sessions where activists have the opportunity to learn things you can't get elsewhere.
Today, the New Leaders Council (not in any way affiliated with the odious DLC) put together a lunch meeting where a pollster from DemocracyCorps (Greenberg) presented for the first time their latest Mountain West polling data, just made available here on their site (PDF only). It's an awesome wealth of material that confirms what most of us DFH bloggers have been saying for a long time: Obama is our best candidate with great coattails; there is no "Hispanic" problem; the best way to win swing voters is to play to progressive strengths; and John McCain has a serious uphill road to hew in the Mountain West.
The praise for Hillary Clinton is flowing all over Blogdom and the mainstream media. The general consensus is that the speech accomplished its mission which was to bring the Party back together.
I must admit like many others I thought it was one of the best speeches I have heard her give. When she had finished I was prepared to join the stampede and write an essay praising her words--that is until I found out what was going on behind the scenes. Then I realized Hillary Clinton has nothing on her husband, who was known as "Slick Willie" for his ability to charm people who would not realize they had been had until it was too late.
Maryscott's Question of the Day yesterday regarding whether we are here to serve ourselves or others prompted me to dust off a question I'd set aside a few weeks ago.
I have always been a volunteer. Maybe I have a hard time saying "no," maybe I have the idea that I have the responsibility to make some little corner of the world a little better than I found it, maybe it's something completely different, I've never really stopped to analyze my motives, but volunteering is an integral part of who I am.
Perhaps it's something in the water I drank when I was a child.
A recent study showed the wide variety in volunteerism levels between American cities. Minneapolis, my hometown, was at the top of the list, with a volunteer rate of 39.3% while Miami ranked dead last, and the other large Florida cities were also near the bottom of the list.
That thing the other weekend, with St. Randy of the Meg-Bux Brokeback Cathedral, holding court and grilling the presidential candidates about their sectarian bona fides STILL sticks in my craw. It made me physically ill to watch both of the aspirants for the highest SECULAR office in the land guzzling the Holy Jizm. I wanted to hurl, either my lunch, or handy, palm-sized stones.
Yet ANOTHER fucking "Faith-based blowjob" for the "god-blighted," delusional twits in their churches.
Both candidates got on their knees and sucked and swallowed the 'Kingdom Cum' with downright disgusting enthusiasm...
Is the Sacred Baby-batter sweeter for it emanating from the Holy Scrote?
What a shameful performance!
Squirt & gulp: The sound of Democracy cravenly genuflecting before the false altar of theodesic 'god-head'...They both 'swallow.'
There has been much talk whether the Democrats have been "tough enough" on criticizing the Bush Administration. The chattering class has been in deep debate about whether the Democrats are throwing enough red meat out to the hounds of the Hastings ravenous for some eye of Bush and tongue of Cheney.
Oh, those Democrats can be so mean calling Bush incompetent. Ooh, that's nasty. Or clueless. Ouch. Or a cowboy. Smoking. Or a failure. Vicious.
But the one thing you won't hear Democrats call Bush is exactly what he is: an insane, murderous, treasonous war criminal who should be tried and executed for his crimes.
Tonight Hillary Clinton, I thank you. Your speech was sensational. The words were welcome. A call for unity could not be more needed. I believe only you could make this plea in a meaningful manner. As grateful as I am, and indeed, I am truly pleased that you spoke as you did. I wonder if this pronouncement, as presented, will solve what some see as the dilemma of the disaffected. Will your words alleviate the concern too often expressed about the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama?
TerenceDC posted an article today on Booman Tribune simply titled Hillary.
In it, he wrote:
In the first two sentences, she unequivocally supported Barack Obama. Then she talked about her campaign -- about the people she was in it for -- and then she laid it on the line with one question: "Were you in it for me? Or were you in it for them?"
The answer was clear: You've got to be in it for them, and if you're in it for them, you've got to elect Barack Obama.
But you saw the same speech. What do you think?
On the basis of what I heard last night from the pundit brigade...GOD how I loathe most of them!!!...and a quick morning survey of the media/blog reactions, her motives are still being deeply mistrusted by a large portion of the so-called "Democratic" segments of this society.
So I started to write a reply to TerenceDC's post.
What sort of tone should Senator Obama set, as he addresses the conventionnation world tomorrow night in Denver? Should he ....
... go negative, as one of the icons of my youth would say?
Or, should Senator Obama ....
.....use humor, as Soupy Sales (my boyhood hero) would use?
Ahh, what's the use.....
.....whatever he does, the press and "helpful" Republicans will get on his case.
We'll see what course is chosen. But for now: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
Rick MacArthur, president of Harper's Inc has a new book out: "You Can't Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America."
MacArthur, on Democracy Now yesterday (transcript) with Amy Goodman, says among other things (watch/listen here), that the popular notion that any American can become president only reinforces the "destructive national delusion that widespread, up-from-the-ground, truly popular democracy, both political and economic, really exists in America." To assume that, he says, is equal to believing that Santa Claus exists. (Not unlike believing in "God": It may be comforting, but it is wholly irrelevant with respect to 'reality,' effect, or consequences.)
Friends, things are really, truly, completely, wholly, totally fucked up (yo!) if the members of the actual 'ruling class' (to which class MacArthur indisputably belongs) are dismayed by the catapulting propaganda.
Below is something a blowhard with my name and my face and my keystrokes mused about in May.
If Senator John McCain were the DEMOCRATIC nominee for President, the Republican Party, in the guise of Rush and Sean and Anne and Michelle, would destroy him as follows:
Don't look at what people say: look instead at what they do. My father drummed this healthy advice incessantly into my head as a child, and it has never yet failed me as a guide to human feelings and motivations.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the latest poll, the latest 24-hour news cycle, the latest back-and-forth rhetorical volley that we lose sight of the big picture. And that big picture says one thing: despite the false protestations of confidence, the GOP is really, really desperate.
Forget anything you're seeing come out of the mouth of any GOP operative. Forget any crowing you may or may not be seeing about the latest Gallup poll. Forget any false humility or concern you hear from this Democrat or that. Just look at what's happening.
You know, sometimes we like to dick around with a little ditty, a little anecdotal preamble before getting to the point of the Question of the Day, but I'm just not up to giving you a piece of my mind, a little snapshot of what's been leading me to it, what BROUGHT me to this morning's Q, so how's about I just hit you right between the eyes, shall I?
I had the incredible privilege of hearing, seeing, and being with the glorious Michele Obama a few weeks ago. Near a month earlier, I listened intently to the speech she shared in Miami. It was in the twilight of the day when Michelle Obama presented just a bit of the story she told the nation this evening. Although, at that event, the entirety of her narrative was yet to be revealed, I knew then, that this woman was, is wondrous. I said so when given the chance.
(The Liberal Lion has spoken...time for live bloggin'... - promoted by durrati)
So you are Barack Obama, poised at what will be a defining moment of both your life and that of the republic, having weathered a withering summer barrage of negative false attack, having been forced to wax all conciliatory with two of the most gargantuan bruised egos in the history of politics, having a belly still rumbling from yesterday's greasy brats - and running dead even in the polls with a two-ham-fisted right wing warmonger who can't open a friggin' e-mail.
What is black and white and read all over? Associated Press reports written by the "respectable" albeit some would say disreputable Ron Fournier. Few Journalists foment interest in this Presidential election in the way this whimsical writer does. His prose is not dry. Detachment does not define the Washington Bureau Chief. Conventional standards, set by the information industry, might label this laudable lackey as less than logical. For logic is rarely found in flaming rhetoric. Fournier describes his approach as "accountability journalism" and "liberating . . . the truth," as well it should be.
As I sit here charging my laptop at Google's fantastic "retreat" at the Big Tent, I'm still trying to take it all in. Being among so many creative and talented bloggers both here and at Netroots Nation earlier this month is a truly humbling experience: there's nothing quite like the synergy of so many people all working, each in their own unique way, to advance the progressive cause, largely without institutional backing of any kind.
It feels, in a certain sense, like we've arrived. The movement our network of creative and passionate individuals has created already seems to be just as powerful and influential as anything on the Right. The Big Tent, after all, is the place to be in Denver this week, with top-notch panels and presentations and the best creative and online media networking opportunities anywhere. We've helped elect a swatch of more and better Democrats from Jon Tester to Jim Webb, officially pushed Joe Lieberman out of the Democratic Party, and provided a bulwark that was instrumental in defeating the DLC wing of the Party in this year's primaries.
Int. Gondola - Traveling Down From Mount Prospect, Estes Park - Day
(As I stand making stupid chipmunk faces at my four year old, A MARRIED MAN in his 60's smiles at the GONDOLA OPERATOR who is 16.)
MARRIED MAN: Must be a pretty great summer job, huh?
GONDOLA OPERATOR: Yeah. It really is.
MARRIED MAN: Must meet a lot of people.
GONDOLA OPERATOR: Sure.
MARRIED MAN: This your full time job?
GONDOLA OPERATOR: Well, I work for the rec. department in the mornings, mowing lawns for the high school and stuff from, like, six to eleven, then I come over here in the afternoon and do this until five.
MARRIED MAN(with a smile): Then you go out and chase the tourist girls, I bet.
GONDOLA OPERATOR(slight blush): Not really.
MARRIED MAN: Oh, I don't believe you.
GONDOLA OPERATOR: Well, I'm pretty thrashed.
MARRIED MAN(still pressing): You're never too tired...
GONDOLA OPERATOR: Yeah, well... I've got a car I'm trying to fix up.
MARRIED MAN: Staying out of trouble.
GONDOLA OPERATOR: Something like that.
