The week before the convention we wrote of Boston's plan to install over 100 security cameras on buses and around the Fleet Center. On the third day of the convention we wrote about the lawsuit over Boston's plan to search all passengers on mass transit. We said:

So, to the citizens of Boston, whom the media has reported as being "fine" with the searches, remember that what you don't object to now, may stick around a lot longer than you think. Once we give the Government new powers, it rarely gives them back.

The prophecy has been fulfilled:

An array of security measures that raised the hackles of civil libertarians, but that law enforcement officials believe make the city safer, are also likely to stay. The Boston Police Department plans to move its new surveillance cameras from around the FleetCenter to high-crime neighborhoods around the city. The MBTA says it retains the right to search the bags of passengers, although it doesn't expect to do so with any regularity.

by TChris

One of the great barriers to equal justice is the inability of poor defendants to afford a lawyer. The Gideon decision was supposed to level the playing field, assuring counsel for criminal defendants who can't hire an attorney, but the chronic underfunding of public defender and other assigned counsel programs has betrayed the promise of that landmark decision.

Recognizing that those accused of crimes have no voice in state government, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts spoke on their behalf this week, ordering indigent defendants in Hampden County released from jail if they aren't furnished with a lawyer within seven days. After 45 days, charges must be dismissed (subject to refiling if the state gets around to furnishing the defendant with counsel).

The decision is expected to force the state legislature to raise the hourly rate of pay for court-appointed lawyers. Current rates, ranging from $30 to $54, haven't significantly increased in twenty years. Lawyers can't pay their overhead at those rates, providing them with no incentive to take appointed cases. The state's other alternative is to increase funding for the Committee for Public Counsel Services so that it can hire enough lawyers to meet the demand for indigent defense.

by TChris

It's good to see the Bush administration abandoning its "tough on crime, lock 'em up forever" philosophy in favor of an approach that gives criminals the opportunity to reform. Only that apparent change in thinking can explain the decision to make W. Stephen Thayer III the deputy chief of the Transportation Security Administration's Office of National Risk Assessment -- one of the top management positions in the TSA.

Thayer's fast-moving career — U.S. attorney at 35, state supreme court justice at 40 — came to an abrupt halt March 31, 2000, when he resigned from the state's highest court in a deal with New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin.

In return for Thayer's resignation, McLaughlin agreed to drop plans to indict him. In a public report, McLaughlin criticized Thayer for participating in deliberations on a case he had disqualified himself from. He also said he would have sought felony or misdemeanor charges against Thayer for allegedly trying to influence the choice of a judge to hear his wife's appeal of their divorce and threatening fellow justices if they allowed his conduct to be reported to judicial oversight groups.

Thayer's qualifications for the TSA job? He helped the American Conservative Union organize a task force to lobby the government regarding CAPPS II, the disastrous program over which he now presides.

Until now, the Bush administration hasn't been keen on job programs to rehabilitate offenders. It's nice to know the administration has had a change of heart.

The mainstream media may or may not appreciate the blogger coverage of the convention. We're happy we made #1 of Radiofree Bloggerstgan's 10 best list, written by Liza:

1. Jeralyn Merritt hits it right out of the park. Her writing is outstanding, vivid in imagery yet succint in detail. When I read her posts, I feel like I am there. These are going to be invaluable "snapshots" of this historic convention.
TalkLeft: The Hall is Packed

"We just got back with our double strength espresso. We're wired and ready to go. This hall is packed to the gills. There are people sitting in the stairwells. Getting out now would be next to impossible. For the first time, we bloggers are all hunched over our computers and the gabbing has stopped. The delegates are listening to the speakers."

"Joe Biden's speech is too long, but they don't care. They are standing and clapping. When we think Biden, we think Rave Act and how he snuck it into the Amber child alert bill. We wouldn't support him for dogcatcher. We can't even fathom that he was almost a contender for President. But, the people here seemed to really like him."

All of these are more than just reporting at it's best. They go beyond journaling, reporting and memorializing. What we have in these blogs is definitely a new form of expression and witnessing. Even, maybe, a new literary form. So who's on your list?

As we said before we arrived in Boston, our goal was to convey the energy and resolve to win --to make our readers feel like they were experiencing what we were experiencing. Thanks to Liza for making us feel like we succeeded.

Off to the airport. More later...Much more.

Update: We just found this nice compliment from Dave Cullen at Conclusive Evidence on Liza's top ten pick:

The New York Times is ready if Osama is captured tonight. [link via Instapundit]

We're sitting in the bar at the Onyx Hotel near the Fleet Center. It's packed, and there's wi-fi. It's midnight Boston time, and all we hear is "great speech."
We've got an early flight home so we passed on the parties--and instead will bring you some reactions from the bloggers:

First, the Conmmand Post has the transcript up. Alan has been doing the difficult job of blogging objectively.

Ezra Klein at Pandagon:

I believe, truly, that this is the perfect speech for John Kerry. It addresses every slander against him and absorbs the vulnerable edges into positive portions of a great man. This is phenomenal.

Stunning. He did it. I didn't think he could, not after Obama and Clinton and Edwards and Cleland. But he did it. He gave the perfect speech for this moment, for this race, for this crowd. He couldn't rely on his charisma and so he instead told the country where it needed to go. He couldn't do flash so he did substance...and he did it. There's nothing I can say beyond that...I'm sorry...I just don't have the words for it. I'm inspired. I'd forgot what this felt like.

The negative: Instapundit wasn't impressed. He even thought the delivery was bad. But, what a break with tradition. Instapundit is allowing comments on the post.

More to follow. Add your own favorites in the comments.

Kerry is here. He's pumped. He's happy. Check out his face. The crowd is wild. Everyone is on their feet shouting "Kerry, Kerry, Kerry." The bloggers are all typing fast and furious now.

I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."

We're here to make America stronger at home and respected in the world. Tonight I am home."

He's passionate. He clicks with the audience.

His delivery is perfect. We've never seem him this good. He's done it. He's over the top with this crowd:

I will be a commander-in-chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a Secretary of Defense who will listen to the best advice of our military leaders. And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States....."My fellow Americans, this is the most important election of our lifetime. The stakes are high...

He's preaching to the choir now.

The film bio was well-received. We liked the parts about Teresa best. Now the war brothers are coming out. All are dressed the same, what's up with that? Navy shirts and tan slacks. Now Lieutenant Jim Rassman is speaking. "No one asked me to join this campaign. I volunteered."

"He will make a great commander in chief." There's that phrase again. A clear intent by the campaign to let the voters know that Bush doesn't own the phrase or the title or the job. It works.

Max Cleland comes on now. Great reception. The crowd comes alive. More than alive.

Max wants to tell us how he came to know and love John Kerry. It's a speech filled with passion, passion that grows as the speech continues. Early on:

The Bible tells me that no greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friends. John Kerry's fellow crewmates--the men I am honored to share the stage with--are living testimony to his leadership, his courage under fire, and his willingness to risk his life for this fellow Americans. There is no greater patriotism than that.

Later:

My fellow Americans - John Kerry has never let me down. he'll never let you down. He is an authentic American hero. He is the next captain of our ship of state. And he will be the next President of the United States.

The crowd cheers wildly. Mission accomplished.

George Bush certainly can't match that kind of military patriotism and courage. Most of America believes he was awol. A rich kid protected by his admission to the National Guard. And even then, he may not have shown up.

When it comes to patriotism, Kerry wins hands-down over Bush. Bush the pretend Texas cowboy. Kerry the hero and leader.

It's our choice.

Vanessa Kerry is first. She's sure of herself and polished. "My father loves this country and is ready to lead it." and "At my father's core is integrity."

Alexandra comes next. She begins with a funny story about her father once saving her hamster. The sisters have different styles but both are warm and emotional. They're a hit with the crowd.

They certainly help to humanize their dad and they bring some warmth to the campaign. They and Teresa show their personalities, something Laura Bush and her twins have not done so far. Will it be too late? Will the voters become attached to the more approachable and open Kerry women? Or do the women behind the man not really matter in the final analysis?

It's the last night. Here's an open thread to discuss the convention. What did you think? Were you satisfied or disappointed? Was there enough discussion of substantive issues or was it too focused on personalities? What was missing? What did they do right?

Nancy Pelosi's speech has a recurring theme: Democrats have it right.

She hits on education and every child's right to have a world class one. She trashes Republicans for outsourcing jobs. "Invest in America and in our people."

She moves on to seniors, and health care. "Health care is a right, not a privilege."

She gets very excited when endorsing Tom Daschle--the crowd responds. A very small portion of her speech is devoted to John Kerry. It's mostly a cheerleading call to Democrats--nothing wrong with that. She's really one of the few speakers who addresses the issues as well as the candidates.

Here's Jolting Joe. He's not moving us. But he never did. So far the crowd is lukewarm, politely clapping. His speech is filled with the same themes as the others: God, values, family, strengthening the military and homeland security. He too uses a "plowshares into weapons" analogy that Wesley Clark used. He ends with John Edwards' slogan about hope. Totally uninspiring. He was far more passionate in the debates and when he was determined to stay in the race. He's way too pro-war for us, but at least then we admired his passion.

Wesley Clark gives a great speech. He's getting thunderous applause. He's on fire like we've never seen him:

And this soldier has news for you. Any who tells you that one political party has a monopoly on the defense of our nation is committing a fraud on the American people....The safety of our country demands an end to the warped, doctrinaire, ineffective policies of that crowd in Washington. Enough is enough.

Now he's praising John Kerry. He includes God, family, moral values, physical courage. He mentions Bill Clinton and the crowd explodes with applause.

Clark says the magic words: John Kerry will be a great commander in chief.

He ends with, "America: Hear this soldier. Choose John Kerry."

The crowd is wild now. They are standing, even in the upper balconies. Great job, General!

We just got back with our double strength espresso. We're wired and ready to go. This hall is packed to the gills. There are people sitting in the stairwells. Getting out now would be next to impossible. For the first time, we bloggers are all hunched over our computers and the gabbing has stopped. The delegates are listening to the speakers.

Joe Biden's speech is too long, but they don't care. They are standing and clapping. When we think Biden, we think Rave Act and how he snuck it into the Amber child alert bill. We wouldn't support him for dogcatcher. We can't even fathom that he was almost a contender for President. But, the people here seemed to really like him.

We just finished updating our post on our interview yesterday with Sen. Durbin. To switch to a lighter topic for a minute, we had a great time at last night's blogger bash. It was at an upscale resturant called Meze. Bloggers were the guest of honor. We got green wristbands which allowed us to get free drinks all night. There were a few hundred people at the party--the non-bloggers had to pay for drinks at the cash bar. We got goodie bags with USB memory sticks and blogger buttons and other stuff. There was a large buffet table filled with excellent Greek food.

We mostly hung out with our fellow bloggers, but we chatted a bit with Eric Alterman of Altercation and the Nation, Mickey Kaus of Slate, some guys that have started an environmental site called DefenderBear.com, a guy who runs a New York performance artist space called Tank. We said hello to Janeane Garafolo of AirAmericaRadio. We didn't know a lot of people there. When we left at 2 am, the party was still going strong.

By the way, it's getting hard to write here. The Daily Show is interviewing Jesse Taylor of Pandagon right next to us. The media has been swarming us. Bright lights, microphones, cameramen, all squeezing into our overcrowded row. It's hard to concentrate. Here's Jesse and the Comedy Central guy:

A blogfan just came up to Markos of Daily Kos just to say hello. Yesterday, people asked him for autographs. All that attention must be wearing, take a look at him now (we just snapped this, he's sitting next to us.)

Other people we got to say hello to while we were here (all of whom we had met before): Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Greta Van Susteren, Larry Elder, Gloria Allred (who is here as an "honored guest"--obviously, Amber Frey hasn't testified yet in the Scott Peterson case.)

Update: It's now 7:30 and the speeches have started but not any great speakers yet. We need some coffee--there's a lot of tired bloggers at this table.

Among tonight's speakers are Wesley Clark, Madeleine Albright, Joe Lieberman, Joe Biden and Max Cleland. John Kerry will be the final speaker around 11 pm.

We just got handed excerpts of Kerry's speech tonight. We won't quote, but we can tell you to expect he will say he will reform our intelligence system. He will build a stronger military. He will implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. There will be lots of talk about jobs and family values.

A judge in California has been accused of conspiring with the prosecution to keep Jewish people off the jury in a death penalty case.

The California Supreme Court is asking the attorney general’s office to explain why a convicted murderer’s death sentence shouldn’t be reversed based on allegations that a now-deceased Alameda County judge colluded with prosecutors to ensure a capi-tal conviction by keeping Jews off the jury.

The court on Wednesday issued an order to show cause based on defense lawyers’ claims that convicted murderer Fred Freeman’s 1987 trial was tainted when then-Superior Court Judge Stanley Golde allegedly told prosecutors to keep Jews off the jury because they would never vote to send someone to the gas chamber.

This is just another reason why politicians like Mass. Governor Mitt Romney who try to assure us that it is possible to create an error-free death penalty law are dead wrong. There will always be the chance of human error. There will always be misconduct.

Praise is due the Democrats who deleted the endorsement of the death penalty from this year's platform. Why isn't the mainstream media covering this more?

One more thing about the California Judge:

At the time of Golde’s death, in 1998, he was believed to have handed down more death sentences than any other judge in Alameda County, and possibly the state, since the punishment was reinstated in 1978.

By e-mail we're told that in an attempt to limit John Kerry's message, the Republicans will release a 12 minute video to embarass Kerry tonight, and that it will be all over the news tomorrow and this weekend.

Anyone know if this is true? What's the appropriate response if it is true?

Update: Minipundit advises it's true and you can watch it here.

Just as we arrived at the Fleet Center, the swat team came out in full riot gear. The protesters were burning flags and chanting. Here are some pictures --we were closer to the police than the protesters.

Update: Sullivan writes in to say there are some good protest photos here. We agree. We love the ones of the protesters dressed as detainees.

Update: Here's the news account of the "skirmish" between the protesters and police.

MSNBC is playing excerpts of the movie on John Kerry's life that will be played at the convention tonight. Kerry seems very relaxed in the clips we've seen. This is the first time we've been able to watch any tv during the day. Right now they are doing a segment on the history of the acceptance speech...talk about a time filler!

Update: We spoke too soon. Doris Kearns Goodwin was the analyst for the speech segment and she was great. She fit so many historical stories into her five minutes--and brought out that every speech is submitteed to focus groups. Several of FDR's greatest lines wouldn't have made it into his speeches if they had focus groups then---makes you wonder whether the riskless approach to politics itoday is progress or a loss for all of us. To us, it's the latter. We'd rather see a candidate go out on a limb, bring us some spontaneous passion, even flub a line once in a while, rather than the canned, over-vetted rhetoric we get these days.

We just moved hotels again. A record for us--4 hotels in 5 nights. Atrios sure gets this right:

Sorry for light posting, but just getting from place to place is taking forever right now and I have to go to lots of places...

Back soon, we're now headed over to the Fleet Center to settle in on Blogger Alley.

We expect there will be a lot of military support on display for John Kerry tonight. As one of the network anchors we were listening to last night after the Blogger Bash, which we'll write4 about later, asked, how will it play with a predominantly anti-war crowd?

We suspect that this crowd is so anxious to get John Kerry elected, they will realize the display is not for them, but for the undecided voters out in the heartland.

On the other hand, there have been no promises to bring our troops home. There will be none from Kerry and Edwards. The view seems to be, the U.S. made this mess, we'll clean it up.

We'd like to see an exit strategy. A date for a pullout. Sure, we have some obligation to fix the mess we created. But we also have an obligation to our sons an daughters to bring them home safe and as soon as possible.

Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Dennis Kucinich are the liberal conscience of the party. We know the public hears them--we know they have more support than that portrayed in the media. We want them to know we are listening--and so are millions of others. This year is for John Kerry and John Edwards; eight years from now, we hope the party and country is ready for a greater shift to the left.

Updated to include more details of interview: Wednesday night, just before John Edwards spoke, a group of bloggers were invited to interview Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL). We jumped at the chance since we think Durbin has introduced some of the best legislation in the past year and opposed some of the worst.

He has been a strong critic of the Patriot Act. He introduced an anti-torture amendmant. He co-sponsored the Civil Liberties Restoration Act. He fought for (and lost) proposed amendments to Sen. Feinstein and Hatch's terrible Anti-Gang bill.

Durbin has been in the forefront of the fight to protect our civil liberties. The interview took place at the press office in the Fleet Center. He had ten minutes and there were 8 of us, so we each took turns asking a question.

Here were the questions I wanted to ask him: