Back in 2004, our good friends at the Tank had an idea. They wanted to offer a space to work for the bloggers who were coming from around the country to cover the Republican National Convention. At their old space up on 42nd street, they hosted a couple dozen bloggers with wi-fi and some pizza every few hours. Usually in the afternoon, a hat would be passed around and someone would fetch a case or two of beer. It was actually completely awesome and so many freindships were forged that week.
This year in Denver, the idea that was born in NYC four years ago has gone huge. The Big Tent is orders of magnitude larger than the effort at the Tank, but the idea has remained largely the same, namely to provide a welcoming space for bloggers to work, to socialize, to network and just generally have a good time. The Big Tent is exactly what it sounds like, a big, two story tent that offers wifi (there is none in the Pepsi Center) food and drink, and even some stuff like free massages (no, I'm not making that up) and a stage upstairs that hosts some great panels and discussions all day every day.
It's our office and our lounge and our meeting place and the folks who put it together have done an awesome job.
Yesterday, I and several other folks here were interviewed by MSNBC about the space, the convention and the work we are trying to do. Take a look. You can see it here.
11:43: Phillip has posted the video in the post above this one. I know I will watch it at least a couple of times more. Enjoy!
11:26: Still waiting on video of the speech- will put it up as soon as it's available.
11:07: What a speech! Hillary hit a grand slam with this one. What a classy human being, great role model, great Senator, great Democrat, and great human being she is. Take that, PUMAs!
11:02: Hits McCain on womens' pay and that Twin Cities line is priceless!
11:01: Hillary passes the first lady torch to Michelle- major classiness on her part
10:59: Some great applause lines here- cheers to Hillary for hitting this out of the park.
10:51: Sisterhood of the travelling pantsuits!!! AWESOME!
(ed note: the room I was in inexplicably decided to conduct a test on it's TV right as Hillary was supposed to start, so I missed the beginning-anyone want to fill in?)
10:34: Bill Clinton in the house!
10:30: Schweitzer: We can't drill our way out of this energy crisis even if we drill in every one of John McCain's backyards- haha
10:22: Montana Gov Brian Schweitzer is speaking now- you know it's a good year for Democrats when red-state Dems aren't afraid to take prominent roles at the convention.
10:15: Deval Patrick is hitting the anti-education Republicans theme- good stuff. The wingnuts are always calling Democrats anti-military, but I'd like to see the phrase "anti-education Republicans" become part of our everyday lexicon.
10:05: Ted Strickland: George Bush took office on third base and stole second- lol!
Hillary's been on a great roll lately- her line yesterday regarding McCain's PUMA commercial was priceless. Looking forward to lots more like that right now.
According to multiple sources, Aurora police made a routine traffic stop Sunday morning at 2:38 a.m. and arrested 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell. Sources say he was driving a rented pickup truck. The Secret Service says two rifles were found in his truck along with methamphetamine. Another law enforcement source says he was told at least one of the rifles was a "sniper rifle."
A second source told CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass authorities told officers they are concerned they may have come upon a possible "assassination plot."
That arrest then led authorities to a second man staying at the Cherry Creek Hotel at 600 South Colorado Blvd in Glendale. When authorities knocked on the man's door, they say he jumped out of his sixth floor window, landing on an awning and running from the scene. They say they soon found him with a broken ankle. He too was arrested.
Could be nothing. Could be something potentially significant.
My first impressions of Denver are that this city, during a major party convention at least, pack just as much weirdness per square mile as my own beloved NYC.
Today I ha to stroll from the Big Tent, where I'll most likely be spending most of my time for the week (you can actually work here), to the place where the DNCC is actually doling out media credentials, about a 20 minute hike. In the space of one block along downtown Denver's main drag, the 16th street mall, I ran into a group of PUMA types, I counted 13 of them followed by at least 50 media folks. Not 20 seconds later, I ran into our own Charlie Rangel strolling down the street and surrounded by mostly convention goers snapping pics. At the end of the block I ran into a group of folks holding signs reading "Homo Sex Is A Threat To NATIONAL SECURITY" and "Time Is Running Out: OBEY JESUS!" These folks were being protected by probably 30 Denver cops who were quite nonchalantly, yet dutifully defending their right to be ignored by the thousands strolling by.
On the next block I ran into a group of folks (left my camera at the Big Tent. Dammit!) carrying a banner that read "Clintons for McCain". I counted 9 of them. They were all wearing McCain gear and carrying McCain signs. They were surrounded by another 40 or so media folks and a couple dozen conventioneers. They were chanting "Biden supports McCain!" to which the converntioneers replied each time "Baloney!" It was quite the spectacle. The interesting thing, aside from their rather puny numbers versus the media throng around them was the fact that they appeared exclusively to be, to my trained eye, republicans. These weren't disgruntled Hillary supporters. They were GOP media bait and the media was biting in a major way.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you may well see on TeeVee tonight angry "Hillary supporters" chanting for McCain on the streets of Denver. Don't buy it. It's total bullshit staged for the media types dying for it. To see it from across the street, as opposed to from the lens of a camera focused on the rather curiously phrased banner ("Clintons" for McCain?), was to see a rather sad spectacle, 9 folks total, that the assembled media couldn't seem to get enough of.
Many of you have written over the last 24 hours or so about the story in the Times. I've not posted about it yet as I'm not so big on self promotion. But, I do have to point out the utter hilariousness of finding myself (and my pooch) on the front page of the Sunday Style section. Me. STYLE section. Those of you who know me personally will get the humor there. Those of who don't only have to look at the picture:
And as an aside, it's hard to imagine anything more hilarious than Phillip Anderson of The Albany Project--aka Daily Kos's own lipris--posing with a brew, a dog, a Mac, and a baseball cap in his usual (how shall we say this?) casual apparel under a blazing Fashion & Style masthead.
This isn't exactly something I ever imagined would happen to say the least.
That said, the real focus of the story is about how bloggers such as myself and Pam Spaulding (of the terrific Pam's House Blend) and John Odum (of the Vermont blog Green Mountain Daily) have been raising money for the trip out to Denver. We're really just stand ins for hundreds if not thousands of other folks doing the same thing, though often in very different, ever creative ways.
Which brings me to the big thank you. I'm currently packing for a flight tonight to Denver. I would not be making this trip if it weren't for the generosity of so many folks in this community. I mean what I say in the Times article above when I say that it was truly humbling when people were willing to pitch in to make this possible.
Thank you all so very, very much. You made this happen.
You've got to love this. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are coming to Denver as part of a plan called "Not Ready 08." Really. Two guys who really, really wanted to be President but lost are pushing something called "Not Ready". Savor that for a minute. You can't makes stuff like this up.
When Democrats gather in Denver next week to nominate Barack Obama for president, they'll be joined by such uninvited guests as Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.
The two former presidential candidates will be among two dozen or so Republicans in the city hoping to get their party's message out during a week dominated by Democratic festivities.
Their slogan? "Not Ready '08: A Mile High and an Inch Deep," a play on the nickname for the high-altitude city in the western United States.
It gets better. The RNC even has a website for this thing. It's called NotReady08.com. There's a problem though. It seems that NotReady08.com is, um, not ready:
The contribution to the Democratic committee planning the Denver convention, which was first reported in today's New York Times, gives Golisano a skybox and 50 tickets to the gathering at Invesco Field where Democrats will be promoting their presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama.
One million dollars for a skybox and 50 tickets? Not bad, I guess.
Maybe Golisano will make me one of his 50 guests...
It's official. Hillary Clinton's name will be formally entered for nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's name will be placed in nomination along with nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama at the Democratic convention in Denver, an emblematic move intended to unite the party after a divisive primary fight.
Democrats will officially nominate Obama at the convention but the state delegations will do a traditional roll call for his vanquished opponent as well.
The arrangement - which the rivals-turned-allies agreed to after weeks of negotiations - is intended to help the Democratic Party heal after a bruising primary while mollifying still-disgruntled Clinton backers and acknowledging the former first lady's groundbreaking presidential run.
Clinton and Barack Obama just issued the following statement:
Since June, Senators Obama and Clinton have been working together to ensure a Democratic victory this November. They are both committed to winning back the White House and to to ensuring that the voices of all 35 million people who participated in this historic primary election are respected and heard in Denver.
To honor and celebrate these voices and votes, both Senator Obama's and Senator Clinton's names will be placed in nomination.
"I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion," said Senator Barack Obama.
Senator Obama's campaign encouraged Senator Clinton's name to be placed in nomination as a show of unity and in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation's primary contests.
"With every voice heard and the Party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama President of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again," said Senator Hillary Clinton.
Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are looking forward to a convention unified behind Barack Obama as the Party's nominee and to victory this fall for America.
I'm talking about our Democratic infrastructure. If we are going to take our country back this November, we all need to step up to the plate in whatever way we can.
Nothing beats volunteering our time and energy, but for many of us folks doing the 9-to-5 thing, donating money also allows us to make a difference without having to move our collective tuckases out of our chairs. Please consider giving to or volunteering for one or more of the following organizations/campaigns:
Then there's the DNC. The national party is the only area where the Republicans have any cash advantage over us. You can donate, or even better, you can purchase a democracy bond, where you give a recurring contribution every month. While you're there, you can also participate in one of the most innovative grassroots strategies in a long time. It's called the Neighborhood Volunteer Program; essentially, they send you a list of 25 targeted voters in your area and between now and election day, you visit each one of them three times. Studies show this is a very effective way to reach people. For New York, this doesn't really matter on the Presidential level, but for those of you living in one of our closely contested NY Senate districts, this can be the difference between a Democratic and Republican Senate next year. And finally, don't forget to join Partybuilder.
Finally, on the national level, you can donate money to the DCCC or the DSCC. And definitely don't forget to contribute to Jon Powers, Eric Massa, and Dan Maffei through Actublue, right through the banner on the left side of our own Albany Project!
On the State level, we are incredibly close to overthrowing the Republican stranglehold on our legislature. You can donate to or volunteer for the New York State Senate Democratic Campaign.
Ourside of party organizations, there are independent organizations helping Democrats everywhere, to which you can also support. One great example is MoveOn. They are important because while is seems like Obama is going to run a mostly positive campaign, MoveOn has no qualms about running devastating attack ads against McCain over the television airwaves. On top of that, MoveOn will give you a free Obama bumper sticker.
And finally, if you really have a lot of cash on hand, you can consider donating to one of the State Democratic Parties of swing states. Some examples are Ohio,Colorado, or Virginia
Can we make a Democratic landslide this November? Yes. We. Can.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is moving on two fronts to make transparency a linchpin of his campaign, opening his fundraisers to reporters and clamping down on the Democratic National Committee's fundraising from Washington insiders.
The moves, announced on his second full day as the party's de facto presidential nominee, are designed to drive a campaign message of change versus more of the same, aides said.
His likely opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), closes his fundraisers to the press. Beginning last night, Obama will open all of his fundraisers to at least a pool reporter, who will share the information with the rest of the press corps.
Beginning Thursday, the DNC will no longer accept checks from federal lobbyists or political action committees, mirroring the strict standard Obama adopted for his presidential campaign.
This is a huge move in many respects, at least the optics of it, but it also is yet another sign that the days of big, transactional giving are numbered. Obama is uniquely positioned to make such a move and the DNC is in a fine position to take his lead. Barack Obama has raised close to 300 million dollars so far and he's done so in a rather spectacular way. So far, nearly 1.5 million individual donors have given to the campaign. The vast majority of those donors gave online and the average contribution was just north of $90. 94% of all those contributions were under $200.
Those are truly stunning numbers. The number of donors is so large that the FEC simply can't process them with their current spreadsheet software. Obama has built an army of small dollar donors. In fact, Democrats have built such an army, millions of people who are perfectly comfortable donating money to candidates online. This, friends, is a sea change in the way that such campaigns are funded. While there are still plenty of individuals out there who will "max out" to candidates in one lump payment and there are still "bundlers" who corral large numbers of such donors, their importance is being greatly diminished. They may even be approaching irrelevancy given the demands often attached to such giving. The donor who gives $100 online doesn't expect lunch with the candidates or demand special favors in return. They are, however, "invested" in that candidate.
This is a very, very good thing.
And don't think for a second that the Republicans haven't noticed. They are beginning to freak out about the ease with which Obama can raise large sums of money from his vast army of small donors. And numbers like these should scare the pants off of them:
• If each of Obama's donors gave him a modest $250, he'd have $375 million to spend during the two-month general election sprint. That's $186 million a month; $47 million a week.
• During the same September to Nov. 4th period, McCain will have about $85 million to spend since he has decided to take taxpayer money to help finance his campaign activities.
• Obama has more than 1.5 million donors; McCain has a few hundred thousand. If just a million of Obama's donors sent him the maximum donation, $2,300, he could raise $2.3 billion.
Right now, this phenomenon is most visible at the federal level, most specifically with the presidential race, but I do believe that will change. In the last two cycles, tens of millions of donors have been made comfortable with the idea of contributing small amounts to candidates via the internet. Once that threshold has been crossed, and now that entities like ActBlue are working working with state level candidates, I think it's only a matter of time before we see these same patterns of giving make their mark in races further down the ticket. In a state like ours, this is an unalloyed good.
For those of you following the events at the much talked about Rules and Bylaws meeting down in DC today, and I do pity you if you are, here's a stream of live video from the meeting as it happens. Happy geeking!
Anyone know what this Democratic National Convention issue is about? From Kos:
There's no justification for snubbing the Albany Project, Blue Jersey, Cotton Mouth, Left in Alabama, and Michigan Liberal. That they continue pretending that there's no problem at hand, and that regular blogger credentials are the same as the State Blogger Corps credentials betrays a lack of respect for bloggers and a gross insult to our intelligence.
I haven't been following the convention/bloggers conversation that closely, but this made me wonder what's up.
(The update on "state party officials" also makes me wonder.)
Room 8 has been chosen as NY State's credentialed blog for the Democratic National Convention--the two-person delegation will be myself and Rock Hackshaw....
For a change, I sympathize with the "progressives". Room 8 is not in existence to do political work (although some of the bloggers here clearly do contracts for their friends or for hire) and is neither "an effective online organizing tool" nor "an agent of change". Our application wasn't even really a group submission--Gur coordinated very little, and Rock Hackshaw and I (apparently no one else was interested), each had to submit separate forms, and mine was a goof--I told them I was essential to accomplishing their goals because the netroots lefties were going to be represented in droves, and I was a rarity: a partisan Democratic blogger who could reach out to centrist voters, and was therefore exactly what they needed. With Rock handling base mobilization, together we were New York blogging's dream ticket, and just as compatible as Hillary and Barack (or, for that matter, Hillary and Bill).
I never in a million years expected to be selected. I guess it helps when your co-publisher writes an influential national political blog...
The DNC seems confused--they put out an APB asking for one kind of blogger, and, at least in NY and NJ, selected quite another, and, even by that criteria, Room 8 seems a strange choice.
I've always wondered how the actual Democratic National Committee gets chosen, and this piece by Liz Benjamin explains a lot of it:
But the governor more than made his presence felt at the [state committee] meeting, abruptly calling for the halt of a scheduled vote on the state's slate of DNC committee members that was supposed to take place Thursday afternoon and angering a number of rank-and-file Democrats in the process...
New York has 14 DNC committee member positions, two of which are automatically held by the state party leaders (that would be Chair June O'Neill and Executive Committee Chair Reggie LaFayette, since Co-Chair Dave Pollack stepped down).
The positions carry a four-year term that starts immediately after the national convention, so the lack of action last week doesn't affect the current members ability to attend the festivities in Denver.
Paterson apparently wants his own selections considered for those positions, hence the conflict that leads to the article.
You can find a 2004 roster, though I'm guessing that Clarence Norman is no longer a member. These folks are superdelegates, too.
We are all progressive bloggers on this site and as such that makes us savvy and intelligent followers of our political process. That is why we need not stretch our brains too thin to get them wrapped around hidden agenda the core intent of Republican Florida Gov. Crist interference into the Democratic Presidential Nominating process. What is disturbing is the lack of savvy and intelligent understanding of Democratic Michigan Governor Granholm's participation in Crist's scheme. On the surface their jointly declared call for a do-over primary sounds only fair. The shoe drops however when Crist clarifies that his state will not pay for the new primary!
Today the DNC is launching an awesome and potentially very valuable new tool they are calling Flipper TV. They are archiving tons of tracker video on the Republican presidential candidates and accepting new video from activists and citizen journalists around the country. Even better, they storing them on blip.tv allowing users to easily download and edit or re-edit them. Very smart. From an emailed press release:
DNC Launches FlipperTV New Tool Makes Raw Video Footage of Republican Frontrunners Available Online
Washington, DC - As the Republican presidential candidates prepare to finally answer questions tonight directly from the American people at the CNN/YouTube debate, the Democratic National Committee launched FlipperTV, a unique, new online video tool that is part of the DNC's ongoing efforts to hold Republican frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and John McCain accountable for their positions and flip flops along the campaign trail.
For months now, Democrats have been tracking the Republican presidential frontrunners in the field, compiling a video library of candid moments as they campaign across the country. Found at FlipperTV, insert link, Americans can now watch and download this video and use the footage as they wish, putting raw material into the hands of the American people to hold these candidates accountable for their comments and actions.
By crowdsourcing, the DNC is seeking to engage people by making data available for their own personal use, enabling users to sort through the video and expose the Republican frontrunners' flip-flops, contradictions, and policy positions that show how our of touch Republicans are with the American people. FlipperTV will allow activists and voters to download video to their computers, edit it to create new user-generated video, and help catch Republicans flip-flopping and exaggerating their records.
"The idea behind FlipperTV is simple: let the American people hear directly from the Republican candidates unscripted and in their own words, and let them decide if they want four more years of Bush's failed policies or a Democrat who will bring change to the White House," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. "This video will come directly from the campaign trail, letting voters see who they truly are, not who their campaigns want them to be."
FlipperTV already has more than 80 separate events on video and will quickly upload new footage as it happens, starting with clips from tonight's Republican CNN/YouTube debate. Online video has played a critical role in the political process and in 2006 was essential to Democrats defeating Republicans like George Allen, Conrad Burns, and Lincoln Chaffee. Already, candid videos have captured John McCain singing the words "bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann" as well as Mitt Romney saying that instead of serving in the military, his sons are helping the country by campaigning for him.
This is a smart move in many ways and again shows that Democrats are using and deploying these new mediums and technologies much, much better than their GOP counterparts. I'm sure many of you have heard recently about the NRCC's user generated video contest that was to pick 5 winning videos attacking Democrats. The contest, described by Chris Bowers as a "massive bellyflop", received only 5 entries, one of which was this hilarious spoof, submitted by, um, Democrats. I'm not entirely sure it didn't go completely over the heads of the judges either...
I can understand why Wingnut Extraordinaire Tom Tancredo would skip a debate sponsored by Univision, the nation's largest Spanish language broadcaster (and fifth largest network overall) -namely that he's a single issue nutjob and that issue involves demonizing brown folks who speak Spanish. But, why on Earth is New York's Junior Senator skipping the debate, especially given that Hillary's campaign believe that they have the most to gain from engaging Hispanics in 2008? Seriously, what gives, Hillary?
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is going to turn down the Univision TV network's invitation to participate in what would be the first presidential debates to be conducted in Spanish, while the other major candidates are undecided.
Only the two Democratic contenders fluent in Spanish, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, committed Wednesday to coming to the University of Miami for the debates.
The rest are checking their schedules, except for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., an also-ran who made headlines last year by belittling Miami as a "third-world country."
"I can say with 100 percent certainty that we will not be attending," Tancredo spokesman Alan Moore said.
...
But Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said Wednesday the candidate plans to attend only the six debates sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee from July through January, when the primaries begin. Two of those debates will be simulcast by CNN in Spanish, while the two NBC-MSNBC debates will be rebroadcast in Spanish by the Telemundo network. ABC and NBC are broadcasting the other two forums.
"We encourage the Democratic National Committee and Univision to work together so that Univision will have a role in one of these debates," Elleithee said.
That's a dodge by the Clinton folks. It's also completely untrue given that Hillary has committed to the "candidate forum" hosted by PBS's Tavis Smiley as well as the NAACP forum on July 12 and also appeared at the Sojourners forum on faith and politics none of which are sanctioned by the DNC. So, what's going on here?
Given the often toxic debate on immigration taking place these days, Hispanics appear to be a key constituency for Democrats in 2008 and Clinton's people seem to know it. More about that on the flip...
