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Buzz, perspectives, insight and news from AlterNet

Michelle Obama Rallies Women for Barack
Posted by Adele M. Stan, The Media Consortium on August 28, 2008 at 5:00 PM.

DENVER--Today's meeting of the Democratic Women's Caucus featured a surprise guest: Michelle Obama.

The potential first lady is making a concerted effort, it seems, to reach out to the different women's constituency groups in the Democratic party, including those closely allied with Hillary Clinton. (Earlier this week, Michelle Obama spoke to a gathering sponsored by Emily's List, the organization that bundles donations to fund pro-choice candidates.)

In today's remarks, Ms. Obama offered Hillary Clinton some major props, saying, "Thanks to her, my husband is a better candidate." The ballroom full of women echoed with cheers and applause. "Thanks to her," Michelle Obama continued, "his campaign is a better campaign. And thanks to her, my daughters -- and all of our daughters -- have the freedom to dream bigger dreams..."

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Poll-Watch: Big Convention Bounce for Obama?
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet on August 28, 2008 at 4:21 PM.

As Steve M. over at No More Mister Nice Blog points out, there's been quit a bit of hand-wringing about the degree to which the Democratic Convention is moving Obama's campaign forward. But according to Gallup's daily tracking poll, the head-to-head numbers have swung 8 points in Obama's favor in the past 3 days, and the senator now leads by 6 points nationwide.

(click for larger version)

Of course, we'll have to wait until we get some data collected after Obama's speech tonight to see what the real effect is. And we'll have to see who McCain picks as VP -- probably later this evening -- before we know how the dust will settle.

Rasmussen's tracking poll over the same period shows a more modest one-point bump, giving Obama an insignificant lead over McCain (they're tied when "leaners" are included).

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Protesting in the Name of Democracy in the Mile High City
Posted by Linda Milazzo, CODEPINK Women for Peace: Action Blog on August 28, 2008 at 4:01 PM.

At the very core of patriotism is the desire to preserve and enhance democracy. For true patriots - those who take their love of nation beyond the confines of their cushy sofas and wide screen TVs - there are no limits to their efforts to hold leaders accountable to uphold the Constitution and safeguard its inherent freedoms. Thus, for the past three days that I've been in Denver - in the hotbed of this mecca of "this is what democracy looks like," I've witnessed the GOOD and the NOT so good.

The GOOD are the thousands of Americans who have traveled from every part of this country to engage in actions to spread their personal messages of democracy: peace above conflict, government's responsibility to provide for its citizens, and an immediate stop to the constant rape of our resources and our once fine name by those who base success on the depth of their fortunes rather than the depth of their humanity.

This week, in addition to the official Democratic delegates attending the Convention INSIDE the Pepsi Center, where thankfully many progressive delegates - most members of Progressive Democrats of America - are pushing social values to end the corporatism that has left millions unemployed and homeless, and millions more verging on joining them - there are thousands of activists of ALL AGES and all socio-economic backgrounds who have joined the fray. These activist patriots are working OUTSIDE the Pepsi Center to push socio-political agendas more in line with what MOST Americans want and NEED today - universal single-payer healthcare, high standard public education, affordable housing, food safety, safeguarding the environmental, ending the military and prison industrial complexes, AND MORE!

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Is the Love Affair Over? McCain Gets Combative With Reporters
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on August 28, 2008 at 2:54 PM.

John McCain became a media darling by offering extraordinary access to campaign reporters. The candidate and the journalists would spend hours hanging out on a bus, enjoying the gabfests, on and off the record, about any subject that came to mind. The media ate it up, and rewarded McCain with the kind of fawning, sycophantic coverage most politicians can only dream of.

Asked during the primaries if he'd maintain his signature style if he got the Republican nomination, McCain told reporters, "You think I could survive if I didn't? We'd never be forgiven." McCain even had a sofa installed on his plane, in order to make his chats with the media more relaxed.

That was, of course, before Karl Rove's team took over the McCain campaign operation. Howard Kurtz recently had a good item detailing the remarkably curtailed access the senator now offers reporters, and the ways in which McCain replaced "straight talk" with stale talking points. To see just how dramatic a transformation this has been, take a minute to read this fascinating interview between McCain and Time's James Carney and Michael Scherer:

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We Mourn the Loss of Del Martin: Hero, Activist, and GLBT Rights Pioneer
Posted by Anna, Feministe on August 28, 2008 at 1:54 PM.

This is some sad news.

Call me sappy (and putting aside my complicated feelings about marriage), but it makes me happy that she got to marry her long term partner before she passed.

Del Martin is best known for co-founding the Daughters of Bilitis, which was the first national lesbian organization in the United States, but was also involved in the National Organization for Women (where she helped combat homophobia within the organization), the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, and, later in her life, in Old Lesbians Organizing for Change.

She also co-authored several books, one of which, Lesbian/Woman, was read outloud to me by my best friend in her bedroom when I was 13 and was trying to figure out what being queer was all about.

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Karl Rove is Running McCain's Campaign; Still Meets With Bush Often
Posted by Matt, Think Progress on August 28, 2008 at 12:51 PM.

Despite the fact that he talks "fairly regularly" with top advisers to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), former Bush political guru insists on denying that he is an informal adviser to McCain's campaign. But in a new article, Time magazine highlights how "dialed in" Rove is with McCain's campaign efforts:

In private, Rove speaks regularly with the McCain campaign, where his former protégé Steve Schmidt is now the manager. He's also dialed in at the Republican National Committee, run by Mike Duncan, another former aide. And he still lunches two or three times a month with President Bush.

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The Best Convention Speech You Missed
Posted by Josh Dorner, Sierra Club on August 28, 2008 at 11:57 AM.

While most of the excitement last night was focused on Senator Clinton's speech, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer gave an electrifying (and highly animated) speech outlining a strong, clear vision for a new energy future.

Given his strong performance, it came as no surprise that Schweitzer was mobbed by bloggers and camera crews this morning as he strode through the Big Tent.

Here's some excerpts from his speech:

On the crises we face:

Right now, the United States imports about 70 percent of its oil from overseas. At the same time, billions of dollars that we spend on all that foreign oil seems to end up in the bank accounts of those around the world who are openly hostile to American values and our way of life. This costly reliance on fossil fuels threatens America and the world in other ways, too. CO2 emissions are increasing global temperatures, sea levels are rising and storms are getting worse.

On an "all of the above" approach:

It's not a question of either wind or clean coal, solar or hydrogen, oil or geothermal. We need them all to create a strong American energy system, a system built on American innovation.

On drilling:

We simply can't drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain's backyards, including the ones he can't even remember. That single-answer proposition is a dry well, and here's why. America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, but has less than 3 percent of the reserves. You don't need a $2 calculator to figure that one out. There just isn't enough oil in America, on land or offshore, to meet America's full energy needs.

On the solution:

Invest $150 billion over the next 10 years in clean, renewable energy technology. This will create up to 5 million new, green jobs and fuel long-term growth and prosperity.

Full text of the speech is here.

Columngate: The Media's Latest Alarmist Non-Story
Posted by Jill Hussein C., Brilliant at Breakfast on August 28, 2008 at 11:03 AM.

Oh, fer cryin' out loud.

I wonder if the MSM are going to go out this far on a limb next week when the Republicans party as New Orleans gets hit by a hurricane again.

Case in point:

Boston Globe:

Barack Obama will take a significant political risk tonight when he accepts the Democratic nomination for president in a 76,000-seat stadium on a stage set with faux-Greek columns, accompanied by a cast of world-famous pop stars and fireworks.

[snip]

The white-washed plywood columns in particular became the fodder for much merriment yesterday, as aerial photos of the stage set made them look like a papier-mache Acropolis.

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Protesters Fight for Separation of Church and Dems
Posted by PZ Myers, Pharyngula on August 28, 2008 at 10:04 AM.

The Democratic National Convention is going on in Denver, and I'm really not at all interested in what's going on inside the convention center: it's a bunch of people saying feel-good platitudes to get themselves elected, all studiously avoiding saying anything substantial that might annoy a voter. It's much more interesting to see what's going on outside the convention, where people are trying to make their real opinions heard. That is actually a bit troubling.

The Coalition of Secular Voters protested the interfaith alliance garbage. This demonstration went well, but was largely ignored, of course -- the democratic leadership has their sights set on yet another faith-based political experience.

The primary reason that we chose to demonstrate at the Interfaith Gathering was because repeated appeals had been made to the organizers of the event to include a non-religious speaker among the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist speakers, but all of these appeals were turned down. In addition, the organizer, Leah Daughtry stated, "Democrats have been, are and will continue to be people of faith - and this interfaith gathering is proof of that."

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With the Dem Nomination in Hand, Time Portrays a Darker Image of Obama
Posted by Michael Shaw, BAGnewsNotes on August 28, 2008 at 9:02 AM.

As the convention pivots, turning its attention to the nominee, I'm concerned in advance as to how the traditional media will frame (poor choice of words, I hope) Barack Obama.  If the cover of TIME's convention preview is any indication, however, we're in trouble.  (By the way, I have examples in hand of three more convention-related publication covers that will really trouble you.  I just need to find a scanner from the middle of the media/blogging beehive I'm in to bring them to you.)

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Say What You Will About Bill Clinton, He's Still a Helluva Politician
Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo on August 28, 2008 at 8:02 AM.

It's a village law that whatever rules are normally applied to politicians are never to be applied to Bill Clinton. A sub-section of that law is that whenever he adapts to their laws, they will immediately be changed. Here's another case in point, from Boehlert.

I know that it is fashionable among the cognoscenti to hate Bill Clinton, it has been since he came on the scene. But rank and file Democrats still love him and they were happy to see him tonight. Like Hillary, he's the ultimate pro, and he has a legacy to protect and a wife who is one of the most important people in Democratic politics still. There was never any chance he and Hillary would replay 1980. It's never been their style.

He did something important tonight by reminding Americans that he too was derided in 1992 as being too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief, which to all but a few die hard wingnuts, looks pretty ridiculous in retrospect. In doing that he laid the mantle of his own credibility as president on Obama, which despite the cable babblers who've never gotten it, is substantial to the American public.

I hear that he's going to be campaigning alongside Barack in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania and that's smart. Say what you will about him, he's still a helluva politician.

In Wake of Deadly U.S. Airstrike, Jeremy Scahill Questions Dems on Obama's Afghanistan Policy
Posted by Jeremy Scahill, Democracy Now! on August 28, 2008 at 8:00 AM.

The mood inside the Pepsi Center on night two of the Democratic National Convention was jubilant. Hillary Clinton brought people to thunderous applause as she called for a unified party to defeat John McCain.

But while the Democrats celebrated, a half a world away grief and sorrow continue to plague a village in western Afghanistan that was victim to a stunningly lethal air strike by U.S. forces last Thursday. This week, a United Nations team released the findings of its on-the-ground investigation. And what they found was horrifying.

Some ninety Afghan civilians were killed. Among the dead, as many as sixty children between the ages of three months and sixteen years. It’s believed to be the single deadliest US strike against Afghan civilians since the US first attacked the country in 2001.

Here in Denver, the horror of this story could not be further from the hallway discussions of those inside the Pepsi Center ... But Afghanistan will play a major role in the general election, where Barack Obama will make his plan to increase the US military deployment in Afghanistan by several thousand troops a centerpiece of his foreign policy vision. The Obama campaign is painting Afghanistan as the good war.

Read the rest of the transcript here.

Flashback: Biden on 9/10/01 Warned the 'Real Threat' May Come in 'The Belly of a Plane'
Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress on August 28, 2008 at 5:57 AM.

Before 9/11, the Bush administration’s national security focus was on missile defense, not terrorism. In fact, on 9/11, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was set to deliver a speech that focused “largely on missile defense.” Writing at the Huffington Post, Joe Cirincione — president of the Ploughshares Fund — recalls this quote from Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) on Sept. 10, 2001, warning against the Bush administration’s approach:

We will have diverted all that money to address the least likely threat while the real threats come into this country in the hold of a ship, or the belly of a plane, or are smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vial in a backpack.

Cirincione writes, “If George Bush had listened to Joe Biden instead of Donald Rumsfeld, the history of the past seven years would have been very different. We might have prevented 9/11.”

We Interrupt This Convention Coverage for ... When Animals Attack!
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet on August 28, 2008 at 5:00 AM.

So, Barack Obama got the Dem nomination. Quite a shocker there.

In other news, the BBC has a story of a brave Rottweiler saving a child from the iron jaws of a marauding pit bull ...

A South African Rottweiler has helped rescue a two-year-old boy who was being mauled by a pit bull terrier.

The pit bull attacked Tshepang Taeli as he was walking with his grandmother in Oakdene, south of Johannesburg.

The dog was dragging the toddler down the road and would not let go, despite being kicked and beaten by residents.

One of the neighbours, Ricky Veludo, came to help and then went to fetch his dog, Blade. "He fought the other dog to free the child," he told a local paper.

"Blade is very protective," Mr Veludo told Die Beeld newspaper.

The boy was then rushed to hospital where he is recovering from bites to his face, legs and stomach.

Rottweilers get a bad rap (as do pit bulls, I should add -- there's no such thing as a bad dog, just bad and/or stupid owners), but they are sweet, loyal and loving creatures. My father's old pooch, Ella, a Rottie, is as devoted and steadfast as a beast can be.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, a student zoo-keeper might be alive if he had had such a creature at his side. But he didn't, and he was partially eaten by a ten-foot snake ...

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Trick or Vote: Dracula Encourages Folks to Participate in Democracy
Posted by Mike Connery, Future Majority on August 28, 2008 at 4:06 AM.

This post comes from Future Majority, a national blog credentialed to cover the youth vote and youth organizing at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

What is the one day of the year that you expect a stranger to knock on your door? Halloween. And what's comes less than a week after Halloween? Election Day. What does that make Halloween? If you are a member of the Bus Federation or one of its partner organizations, it makes Halloween the best day of the year to launch a massive door-to-door canvass to Get Out the Vote (GOTV).

That's the pitch that Jefferson Smith, one of the founders of the Oregon Bus Project, gave to a group of young activists, insiders and media in Denver today at their Trick or Vote Launch Party.

Trick or Vote is exactly what it sounds like:

(Funny video of vampire talking about Trick or Vote after the flip)

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