BOSTON (Reuters) - Teresa Heinz Kerry, in the spotlight on the second night of the Democratic convention, said on Tuesday her husband John Kerry was a fighter who would vigorously defend America, restore truth-telling in the White House and "always be the first in the line of fire."
It is currently 9:32 p.m. ET. Yahoo states the Reuters piece was posted "1 hour, 15 minutes" ago.
TalkLeft has great pictures of the ridiculous protest cage. Stupid ass idea, especially since there are plenty of protest-friendly streets in the area that could've been designated for the task.
The cage is design for one purpose -- to discourage the act of protest. And for that reason, it's blatantly unamerican.
Same as the protest Atrios captured here. 150 stupid anarchist protesters (what, we're all supposed to suddenly embrace the abolition of government?), followed with a like number of cops on motorcycles, helicopters hovering overhead, and cops on bicycles and on feet watching at every intersection. Again, overkill designed to discourage similar protests.
And security. Security! During the Gulf War I did plenty of security around Army posts in Europe. We were given mirrors to check vehicle undercarriages as they entered various installations. We had no idea what we were looking for. It was all for show. We weren't given live ammo. Had we been attacked, our only method of self-defense would've been throwing our rifle at the enemy.
I have no doubt that the SWAT teams, MPs, and police surrounding the Fleet Center and around Boston are armed with live ammo. But fact is, it's just as effective against a terrorist attack as our empty M16s. An enemy determined to die for its cause won't worry about getting gunned down after delivering its attack.
Our subway train was halted at a subway stop for a spot inspection. Police "inspected" our bags, peering quickly into each opened bag. As though we'd have three sticks of dynamite and a ticking clock sitting at the top of the bag. Bomb-sniffing dogs would've been more convincing. Heck, just regular dogs would've been more convincing.
Do people feel safer? I don't, but then again, I recognize the folly of defending against an unconventional enemy. Intelligence operations are still the greatest defense against terrorism.
What we're seeing is the largest CYA operation in the history of this country. If god forbid we are attacked, the government will be able to claim it did everything it could to prevent that an attack.
Rep. Chris Bell represents the Texas 35th CD, for just six months more. He was redistricted out of a job by Tom DeLay.
Bell is also the force behind the ethics complaint against DeLay, the first after a five year truce brokered by DeLay and Gephardt to avoid filing any charges (and also prohibiting outside groups from filing such charges).
The irony is obvious -- at a time when Congress is controlled by a cabal of congressman just as corrupt, if not more so, than anything accomplished by Dan Rostenkowski or Jim Wright -- Democrats led by Gephardt rolled over and played dead afraid of the retaliatory ethics complaint. Bell, with nothing to lose, had no qualms.
On the ethics complain
The Ethics Committee has had the Bell complaint for several weeks, and there's been plenty of speculation about how it will handle the matter. It could reject the complaint, select a subcommittee to investigate, or refer it to an outside investigator.
"I want the committee to investigate the matter. It's all I ask. If [DeLay] has nothing to hide, then the investigation will show that," Bell said. His staff have put together a thorough package dealing with abuse of power (involving the FAA and Homeland Security in an effort to track the fleeing Killer D's during the redistricting saga), the use of prohibited corporate money for state legislative battles in Texas, and the exchange of legislative favors for campaign contributions (Westar's perks in the Energy Bill). And they could've added more...
Last week, a decision on the complaint was delayed 45 days. Many of us saw it as a bad sign, but Bell is actually encouraged. "They could've swept it under the carpet. I take it as a positive sign that they are taking the complaint seriously."
Interestingly, while some Republicans initially threatened retaliatory ethics complaints, they were quickly swatted down by the GOP leadership. And indeed, the parties agreed that frivolous complaints would not only be swatted down quickly, but their filers would suffer sanctions. A good sign indeed.
November 2004
Redistricting was designed to eliminate seven Democrats. Three are gone -- Bell, Turner, and Rep. Hall who switched parties to survive. That leaves five endangered Dems, Sandlin in TX1, Lampson in TX2, Edwards in TX17, Stenholm in TX19, and Frost in TX32. They are all brutal battleground contests.
Rep. Bell diplomatically avoided talking about their individual chances, but was nonetheless increasingly optimistic about their chances.
"The gap with Bush is closing. That helps Democrats in the state," he said. "I feel a lot better about things as time goes on." He also noted that since Texas is not a battleground state, there would be no compelling reason for Republicans to stage a serious GOTV effort, also potentially helping the state's endangered Democrats.
The future of Texas Democrats
In many ways, Texas' demographic transformation mirrors that of California 10 years (or so) ago, driven by the rapid growth of the Latino population.
"Texas is trending more and more in that direction," he said. "We know the pendelum will swing, it's just a matter of when. It can be sooner, it can be later."
In California, the trigger that marked the shift from solid Red to solid Blue was provided by Prop 187 -- which announced to the state's Latinos that the Republican Party was hostile to their interests. Bell thinks the redistricting effort in Texas might provide the same sort of spark. "It was strenuously opposed by Texans. Very few people spoke out for it, and it has really hurt the governor's approval ratings."
As for Bell himself, it's clear he's itching to get back in the game. He may be out of Congress, but a statewide race appears in the cards. Asked for his plans, a staffer quickly interjected -- "He just wants to get back to Texas".
Given the lack of Democrats in any statewide elected position in the state of Texas, Bell has the pick of the litter.
Of the political displays around Boston, none was more poignant than the 907 boots on the ground in Copley Square.
Each boot was tagged with a name of a soldier killed in Bush/Halliburton's war in Iraq.
I once wore combat boots. These things affect me deeply.
And as Jerome notes, a sickening contrast to GOP efforts to turn Kerry into Dukakis.
But as I heard James Carville say today in a red-meat speech not pre-approved by the DNC (hence, not toned down), John Kerry is a better man than Bush. Kerry could've been one of those boots on the ground, in a previous war, against a previous enemy.
Meanwhile, Bush was playing pool volleyball with "ambitious secretaries" then, and filling up entire parks with empty combat boots now.
Had an eventful morning, lots of good stuff to post. None of it having to do with speeches. You can watch those on C-SPAN.
Internet is much better right now, as the organizers shut down the network to keep wi-fi leechers away. It was killing us last night, but this is good progress. Oh, and they added power strips. It's always the little things that matter.
Use this as an open thread while I gather my thoughts and get this bloggin' thing started.
Yesterday I wrote that the rise of the 527s meant the future of the Democratic Party was in doubt. If independent groups could do the things the party does better and more efficiently, why could the DNC itself as anything more than a shell organization?
Simon Rosenberg, whose New Democrat Network 527 is one of the organizations I cite as a better, more efficient political organization than the party, blogs why he thinks the DNC has a future.
The early line after the passage of McCain-Feingold assumed that the DNC would become a shadow of its former self. Stripped of more than 50 percent of its resources, it would shrink in significance and impact. The hundreds of millions of dollars of soft money lost would flow to other organizations, creating a new power Democratic electoral power structure with the DNC in the mix but not paramount.
I no longer believe this has to be the case.
Why? The $100 revolution, and the smart investments made by the DNC in improving its back-end and database capability. (Click here to read a recent article on the DNC's Datamart from the New York Times.)
Here's the math, first described by Joe Trippi. 45-50 million Democrats will vote in 2004. If 2 million of these 45-50 million, about 5 percent, sign up with the DNC and give $100, the DNC will have $200 million to spend this year. $200 million is much more than Bush has raised so far through his $2,000 a person model. $200 million would be an awful lot of money, and would once again make the DNC the biggest and most important actor on the Democratic/Progressive side.
More money is always more important, but for what purposes would the DNC use that money? Field organizing? As I've noted before, ACT has been organizing in the field long before the DNC or Kerry campaigns hit the battleground states. Advertising? Television is increasingly ineffective, and will continue to lose its dominance in the coming election cycles. Technology development? The DNC and its army of old school consultants are about to get lapped within the next four years. The amount of technological innovation in the open source movement currently ongoing is nothing short of spectacular. How about message? The Center for American Progress, George Lakoff, and the inevitable crush of new think tanks will take control of the party's message, the way Cato and Heritage have done so for the Right. Fundraising? Technology now makes bundling as easy as a click of the mouse, with the money going straight to campaigns, rather than through party committees.
So the question is still salient. It's obvious the DNC and the campaign committees will still always exist in some fashion. But to what effect?
I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday, and I was kind of anti-social as a result -- not the best state of mind for a convention, mind you. Feeling much better today.
dKos 8 endorsee Jim Stork has gotten a coveted convention speaking slot. It's at 4:25 -- an obscure time slot, no doubt, but a great honor nonetheless for a congressional challenger.
In eastern Oklahoma, Coburn gets 71 percent of the vote.
The primary is Tuesday. If these numbers hold, Coburn will avoid a costly, bloody runoff election, setting up an epic showdown against Democrat Brad Carson this November.
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