Your Thoughts on Kerry's Speech -- Open Thread

My first impression: a number of little stumbles over words, especially when evoking his mother and father early on. Fascinating to see his biggest applause lines: a dig at the Saudi Royal family, promising not to politicize the Constitution, and quoting Abraham Lincoln on God (we shouldn't claim God is on our side but rather humbly pray that we are on His). Most important, he was very passionate and human and convincing in calling our nation to its better angels. He was strong on specifics and almost Reaganesque in evoking the optimism and promise of what can be accomplished when Americans come together. Not great rhetoric, perhaps, but a great image booster for him.


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Today's round-up, so far, of celeb sightings...

Wesley Clark. Well, ok, I didn't SEE Wesley Clark, a friend did, but the interesting part of the story is that apparently he had only one person talking to him - no gaggle of oglers like the other big boys around here. The same source told me that he also saw Jesse "I'm all for civil rights until the gays want them, then I become a bigoted cracker" Jackson, who had a large gaggle of people following him (hopefully someone kicked him).

Senator Joe Lieberman. I did see the Senator, and have NO IDEA why he had such a big following. There was an ENORMOUS crowd surrounding the guy as he walked down the hall, cameras, microphones, you name it. Personally, I was never too comfortable with Lieberman as he can be a bit socially conservative some time. Yes, the man ran for vice president, but come on guys, he's not exactly someone worth ogling.

Congress John Lewis. Civil rights icon. Very cool seeing him. Former State Dept spokesman Jamie Rubin, married to Christiane Amanpour. The Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt. CNN's Bill Schneider. Bill Crystal, not Billy Crystal. DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, who squared off against Sean Hannity on Hannity's ABC Radio show.

I had a chance to speak briefly with Robert Reich today. I told him how much I loved his April article about the horrors that await us during a second Bush term, and I told him that the article was making something of a comeback online, being forwarded to friends by email, etc. He joked that the should have mentioned his new book at the end of the article to help sales!

I also got a chance to talk to Massachusetts State Senator Jared Barrios, who you may recall gave a wonderfully impassioned speech about his two newly adopted children on the floor of the Massachusetts legislature during the gay marriage debate in that state. Jared was doing an interview on Sirius radio, and he and I knew each other from when he used to live in DC. He was there with his drop-dead adorable press secretary Colin Durrant. No word on whether Durrant is family, but AMERICAblog sure hopes so!

And finally, this enormous gaggle of people go walking by, and in the middle of them is a black guy wearing a bizarre almost 1920s style suit (not really a zoot suit, but close to it), and I think a hat or something. I figured he had to be a rapper, as I hate rap, and know NOTHING about it. I was told by someone that he's Andre 3000 of the group Outkast. I've heard of Outkast, though barely. Whatever.

Later this evening I'll tell you about Corey Johnson's run-in with anti-gay bigot Senator John Cornyn, my brief chat with my friend David Brock, and my surprise visit with.... OMAROSA! Read More......

Afghanistan: The Forgotten War

Depressing news: Doctors Without Borders is leaving Afghanistan because of concerns for safety and to protest the government's refusal to arrest the killers of five of its staff. Doctors Without Borders almost never leaves any country, no matter how dangerous, and it's a serious blow to the government. DWB also criticized the American-led coalition forces for blurring the line between military and humanitarian needs. Buried in the article was an item I hadn't remembered: in May, the American military apologized for distributing leaflets that threatened villagers, saying if they didn't supply info on militants they wouldn't get any aid.


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"Fahrenheit" Soldier Investigated by Marines

The soldier who appeared in "Fahrenheit 9/11" and said he would refuse to return to Iraq is under preliminary investigation by the Marines to see if this potential refusal of an order violates any regulations and needs to be punished, according to USA Today. Marine Lance Cpl. Abdul Henderson says he hasn't changed his mind and now his unit faces a possible return to Iraq. Henderson says he would go to Afghanistan because he believes that war was justified. It's a difficult situation, but I certainly admire Henderson and, for example, Muhammad Ali, for taking a principled stand and paying the price here in the States rather than running to Canada as draft dodgers did in the Seventies. Mostly, I'm just glad it's an issue my generation never had to face.


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Your thoughts on Edwards' speech - Open Thread

Of course, I missed it. Wondering what you guys thought. Please comment away. Read More......

Kerry's daughter is NO Mary Cheney

You gotta love it, and it will piss you off at the same time. John Kerry's daughter is happy to admit that she disagrees with dad about gay marriage. She's all for it. Mary Cheney, on the other hand, is more than happy to sit back and give her tacit approval to dad's gay-bashing support of a federal constitutional amendment. It's wonderful, but sad, and very telling, that a straight woman is a better profile in gay courage than one of our own. It's time we replace Mary Cheney with a daughter who actually sticks up for our community.

365Gay.com:

John Kerry's younger daughter is emerging as a woman as outspoken as her stepmother telling reporters she disagrees with her father on same-sex marriage.

Sitting with her sister Alexandra in a question and answer session with reporters to the Democratic National Convention from across the country, Vanessa Kerry was asked if there were any issues on which she was at odds with her father.

'Gay marriage,' she declared, as some party aides winced.

'To be fair - I've been on the record about it - I personally believe in gay marriage,' the 27 year old Harvard med student added.

'He believes in civil unions, which is still equal rights under the law ... I respect his opinion enormously ... but if you want to get into the semantics of it, that's it.'

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Fish fry Bush

Excellent news for the salmon!  Let's hope the decision sticks.

U.S. District Judge James Redden issued a preliminary injunction to stop a Bush administration plan that would have reduced the amount of water spilled over four federal dams, beginning Sunday.

"This is the first time in all the years of litigating on the Snake and Columbia that a judge has actually stepped in and prevented the agencies from taking a step that was seriously harmful for endangered salmon," he said.

Bush-Cheney set new record, US incomes drop 2 years in a row

This does not sound good for a team that will try running on the economy.  I don't give a damn what official unemployment numbers are, the economy is still soft and the IRS numbers are very telling.  I know too many people who are struggling right now so the relatively low unemployment number means nothing.  It's no wonder people are saying that Bush is taking the US in the wrong direction.

The overall income Americans reported to the government shrank for two consecutive years after the Internet stock market bubble burst in 2000, the first time that has effectively happened since the modern tax system was introduced during World War II, newly disclosed information from the Internal Revenue Service shows.

Adjusted for inflation, the income of all Americans fell 9.2 percent from 2000 to 2002, according to the new I.R.S. data.

The unprecedented back-to-back declines in reported incomes was caused primarily by the combination of the big fall in the stock market and the erosion of jobs and wages in well-paying industries in the early years of the decade.

Falling incomes, rather than tax cuts, appear to count for the greatest share of the decline in income taxes paid. That is because the higher one stood on the income ladder the greater the impact was likely to be from the stock market crunch.