Open Thread

Chat away... Busy until 5 or so.

Facts Are Stupid Things

The AP says that Obama would be the first black Democrat to serve in the Senate.

Convention Coverage

Steve G. is unhappy with blogger coverage. I'm not quite sure what he expects, though I never had any particular expectations. After spending hours just trying to find out where to go, get credentials, get through security, and getting the convention wifi working, most of us were just happy to spend some time getting a feel for the actual convention. I'm not really there as a journalist, I'm there as an activist/political junkie like many others. My Personal Convention Diary probably isn't all that interesting, but on the other hand the Event Inside is nothing like the Event On TV, so trying to give a wee bit of that flavor seems appropriate.

But, anyway, since drudge is excited that Michael Moore sat in a "presidential box," I'll report that story as far as I know it. The skyboxes are only accessable through a fairly well-guarded separate escalator. The corridor outside the skybox was more mobbed and more chaotic than just about anywhere else in the convention - unsurprisingly everyone's trying to scam their way into there, and it was a bit full. From what I understand, Moore's gang was wondering around trying to find a skybox they were supposed to go to and someone in the Carter box pulled them in. So, this was not a case of "Jimmy Carter invites Moore to his box." I don't think Carter knew he was there until he arrived about an hour or more after he gave his speech.

But, Moore was more than a little thrilled to meet Carter, and the reverse appeared to be true as well. One of Moore's security people teared up a bit during Carter's speech.

Covering the Coverage

One thing it's impossible to do while here is get a sense of how everyone is seeing the event. It's strange, really -- even though I'm seeing the thing live that's really only half the picture. What matters is how it's being presented and packaged to the public.


Drudge is reporting that the ratings for the convention are low. I'm not surprised, given the way the media has packaged it (what I saw beforehand). They say it doesn't matter. They're only going to cover an hour here, an hour there, sandwiched between sitcoms. Then, 4 years from now they'll use it as an excuse to say the event doesn't really matter, while sending another 15,000 people to cover it...

More Convention

beep....kerchunk....yeeeeow!!!

I see what you see, if you're watching C-span at least. Some speakers, some fun, a bit of show. The crowd begins to encroach. Our territory! We bloggers need our seats! But, we can't say no. Have a seat. Take our plug. Get some juice. Take your video. Where's my jacket?

brrring. Tom Tomorrow calls. Long day. Tiring day. Following Michael Moore around. Mini-posse. Cameras - hit head, ouch! Michael! Michael! Hemmer sez, people want you dead? What the fuck! Fuck you CNN! Fuck you Hemmer!

Tom Tomorrow, well, we can call him Dan, sez, find your way up. Carter here, Carter there, Carters everywhere.

Up I go. Amy Carter. Lovely, hospitable, friendly and nice and charming beyond all requirements.. The Carter suite is my suite. Drinky-winkies, strangely absent from the Fleet Center, magically appear in the Carter skybox (And all of the skyboxes). Dan is there. Michael Moore. Al Franken. The unbearable darkness of fact-checking.

Meet Franken. Faux pas, perhaps? Snarky comment made. Not snarky against Al - snarky with Al. Perhaps misinterpreted. No big deal.

Carter speech. Knife. In. Twist. Smile. Brilliant. Leaders cannot mislead. Meet Mrs. Carter. Meet President Carter. They begged for an honest man, and they drove him out of town. Bastards.

Later. Hillary. Big Dog. Post-convention, find the party.

Off to the Oregon-NC delegate party. Connection unclear, but cheers to those at Cheers.

Jacket lost. Shit happens.


Pictures to come. "National Treasure" (no, not Atrios). Three heads, maybe four. From the back,

A more perfect union

United we stand. Divided we fall. Clinton reminds us what's important and which candidate can best bring this country back from the abyss: John Kerry.

The President Speaks

Bring your Gore on.

Mistakes

For all my minor bitching and moaning, the DNC really has been great to us bloggers. Sure, certain bits of information were a bit late in coming, and generally finding out anything is harder than it should be, but in the end they seemed to come through with everything.

But, as cool as that is, we don't really matter. It's nice that they're nice to us, and hopefully bloggers will continue to matter more/some. But, the DNC has a serious problem here - the media facilities for most members of the media, and I don't just meen the Sheboygan Weekly Reader, I mean the New York Times, really really really really suck. There are a shortage of power outlets. A shortage of ethernet connections. Print/radio media have to trade off small numbers of floor passes between them. Air America is stuck in the radio ghetto, instead of having one of the few cushy real radio booths.

As a friend in radio just told me, (quoting roughly), "We spent weeks trying to get a table here. Two weeks ago someone from the RNC sent us an email to set everything up, asked us for list of desired guests so they could schedule them for us, etc..."

I would have thought that one lesson they should have learned is that, for better or for worse, you have to treat the media well. Really really well.

It's All About the Parties

Often the question is asked -- just why do 15,000 media people show up somewhere for a week, and spend the entire time writing stories about how they shouldn't be bothering to cover the event?

Because they're here for the fun.

Some of us believe that the pair of conventions could provide the media with a platform for communicating to the American people just what the difference between the two parties are, and to discuss what direction our country should be taking.

The media, however, are desperate for a simple hook or gotcha event - something which would be genuinely newsworthy. Like an expensive haircut. Oh, and more free drinks.

(sorry, that post was completely mangled the first time)

Tales From the Convention, Round 1

We don't belong to an organized political party. Clearly. But, hey, I suppose that makes it a bit more fun. Security throughout Boston is crazy - crazy in a pointless way. They're checking driver's licenses in many Boston hotels. I don't mean checking them against a list, I mean just looking at them. That serves no purpose that I can understand.

Went to an informal breakfast with Congressman Waxman. Another person who realizes it's increasingly necessary to go around the mainstream media to get some stories out.

Stopped by briefly at the official DNC Blogger Breakfast. Too many boring speeches, so we went off to an event sponsored by the New Democrat Network discussing the right wing money/media machine. Here's Obama:


Bumping into various people randomly. Timmy Russert was walking down the street. Said hello to Tomasky and Michael Wolff waiting in line to get into the convention (Actually, the Fleet Center security isn't actually all that bad, it's the rest of Boston which is just silly).

Had lunch with Kos and Sam Seder. On the way out came across some fun protesters. Here are the protesters and their fun sign:


There were about 150 protesters and almost as many police on motorcycles following them:


Sitting up here in the nosebleed seats which is blogger central. The wireless network they provided appears to be just about working. Walking in I passed radio row, a rather depressing places with no view of the convention where the radio hosts have been placed. Here's Franken interviewing Brock:


More when there's something fun.

Here

Okay, finally made it into the convention. Went to some events this morning about which I'll have some fabulously exciting things to say in a few minutes...

A Short History of 21st Century Iraq

Stephen Soldz provides a well-documented history of Bush's War on Iraq, and finishes it off with a question that should be answered by all of our war-flogging friends:

To conclude, imagine yourself an Iraqi. You've suffered terribly under a ruthless dictator. The Americans invade your country under false pretenses. They promise democracy but don't organize elections. They appoint exiles to rule you, exiles who spend most of their time out of the country and the rest in a few highly protected areas. The occupiers break into your homes in the middle of the night and arrest your men, who then disappear, with no accountability. They shoot Iraqis at roadblocks and from convoys. They declare war on the second most popular man in the country, announcing his death in advance. They open the economy to US corporations and give them sweetheart contracts, ignoring local business. Then they write hundreds of laws and establish commissions limiting any future government. They build permanent military bases on your soil. Then they turn your country over to a former associate of Saddam Hussein, also a former CIA agent, known for his ruthless brutality. Imagine that was your country.  What would you do?
 

New Voters Pick Kerry Over Bush, 50-40

In a poll conducted July 8-20 by the Pace University Poll and Rock the Vote, 50% of newly registered first-time voters would like to see John Kerry as their next president while 40% chose Bush.  The poll had more good news before the convention:

The first of these surveys shows only 39% of new voters say the country is headed in the right direction, whereas 50% say it is headed in the wrong direction. In addition, new voters give President George W. Bush a job approval rating of 49%, which is below the threshold political scientists conventionally consider safe for an incumbent.

Helpful Travel Hints

Just because something looks like shampoo, does't mean that it is.

This has been your helpful travel hint of the day.

Eschaton -- now with more Easter Eggs than ever!

It's a Job

So, it appears that I'm staying in the dumping ground for local TV news people from around the country. The laryngitis kept me mostly in tonight, but I did take a few moments to belly up to the bar and listen in for a bit. Was eavesdropping on a crew from what I believe was a Fox News affiliate from somewhere. Not too much to report, really. I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising, but apparently appearing on TV every day in front of tens or hundreds of thousands of people is just another job to bitch about like any other. I was a bit surprised by the extent to which it sounded like the "personalities" were just wage slaves like everybody else.

On the other hand, the prima donnas were on display at the Yankees-Red Sox game which was on TV. There's no question that the celebrity of the axis of Russert is absolute poison. Smug Tim, Tom, and Katie were hamming it up in their prime Fenway seats. Celebrities, not journalists.

Have another tax cut

No, have another beer. Please.

Jerry Bailey is precisely the kind of taxpayer President Bush had hoped to bestow his tax cuts on: an entrepreneur brew-pub owner, a job provider, not overly rich by Washington area standards but well off enough to pay a hefty sum to the federal government each year.

But after three tax cuts in three years, the part-owner of Loudoun County's Old Dominion Brewing Co. is not exactly celebrating his gains. Sure, his federal tax bill was trimmed, by a healthy $5,600, according to a rough calculation by Clint Stretch, director of tax policy at the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.

But other factors having nothing to do with federal taxes have clouded Bailey's situation. This year, the property tax bill on his Bethesda home will reach $6,725, a $950 increase over his payment four years ago. The annual cost of his 56-mile-a-day commute has jumped more than $300 since 2001, and the long, slow decline of business profits these past four years has left Bailey far behind, no matter what his federal tax payment may be.

"I'm not paying any taxes at all because we're not making any money," Bailey said with a sigh. "I loved paying taxes. It meant we were doing all right."

Arrived

I can't say I'm actually *in* Boston, as the hotel I was provided with (provided with, not paid for), is only in Boston if "seeing the Boston skyline" counts as being in Boston. All in all it's a decent setup, though as an urban type I hate not being right in the middle of everything. Ah well...

PoMo Blogging

There's something a bit weird about sitting here at the airport blogging while watching a CNN report about bloggers on the news monitor.

Things to Keep Track Of

Some things to pay attention to so we can keep score for next month's show in New York -- the amount of time devoted to and number of Republican guests put on as commentators to talk about the Dem convention.

Away Soon

Still open to yet more exciting party invitations. Who wouldn't want the status of having the world's most famous anonymous blogger at their party?

But, anyway, blogging will continue, internet access permitting. Still waiting for the promised secret-key-to-convention-WIFI...