There are some items up on News Unfiltered that may interest the community.
Will McCain stand up for Ohio jobs?:
John McCain will visit Ohio today amid new revelations about his role in a deal that will cost Ohio more than 8,000 jobs. Yesterday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer revealed that while Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, McCain, and former DHL lobbyist and current campaign manager Rick Davis, played instrumental roles in helping DHL and its German parent company take over operations in Wilmington, Ohio in 2003, despite concerns about the local impact of the deal. Both companies hired Davis' firm to push the deal through Congress, with DHL-Airborne Express paying Davis and his business partner $185,000 in 2003 and $405,000 from the German company Deutsche Post for other work in 2004 and 2005. [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/6/08]
Last month, under pressure from the A.C.L.U. lawsuit, the city released a list of expenses related to the convention showing that the police were preparing for large demonstrations and mass arrests and that the department had spent $2.1 million on protection equipment for its officers, $1.4 million for barricades and $850,000 for supplies related to the arrest and processing of suspects.
In disclosing the cost breakdown, city officials denied rumors that had circulated for weeks that they had contemplated buying exotic nonlethal weapons that fired an immobilizing goo, or that used radiation or sonic waves to incapacitate people or vehicles.
Republican taunts about tire gauges have met their own challenge as Democrats are "pumping up" a stunt of their own.
Today, the Democratic National Committee is launching an "Exxon/McCain ’08" campaign, complete with a gas-pump logo and garish red buttons, bumper stickers and yard signs.
http://www.democrats.org/...
Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family Action is praying for “torrential” rain at Invesco Field at Mile High on Aug. 28, the night Barack Obama is to accept the Democratic nomination for president. “Why would I pray for that?” he asks in an online video. “Well, I’m still pro-life. And I’m still in favor of marriage being only between one man and one woman. And I'd like the next president, who'll select justices for the U.S. Supreme Court, to agree."
There are some items up on News Unfiltered that might interest the community.
The DNC released a new video, "Puppet Masters" on the horrors behind McCain's energy policy:
The Democratic National Committee today released a new web ad called "Puppet Masters" that shows who's pulling the strings on John McCain's energy policy. The video features an animated John McCain puppet appearing on stage to oppose Senator Obama's plan to give middle class families a $1,000 rebate funded by a windfall profits tax on the oil and proposing gas tax gimmick of his own that won't reduce the price of gas, but would line the pockets of his friends in Big Oil. As McCain talks, the video reveals the puppet masters pulling McCain's strings: the Big Oil lobbyists advising and raising money for his campaign.
Arranging a haphazard acapella group for the convention. Participants preferred are those in the Denver area now, or who are available here at least 2 days before the kickoff.
See my other diary if you want to lose ten IQ points a second while trying to figure out what I'm talking about.
One time, back in 2007, a certain presidential candidate said, "Every four years somebody trots out a white paper, they post it on the web. But the question we have to challenge ourselves is do we have the political will and the sense of urgency to actually get it done. I want to be held accountable for getting it done."
Well, the day's come to start the process of holding our leaders accountable for getting it done. And by 'it,' I mean showing us the country we've wanted to see for the past eight years. But we can't just leave it up to our elected officials; the push for change needs us to make sure our politicians are "gettin' it done."
By Donna Smith
American SiCKO
National Co-Chair, PDA Healthcare Not Warfare campaign
CLEVELAND -- It was the last place I thought I would feel marginalized as a patient or a citizen. But perhaps it was first place I should have expected it during a campaign season all about controlling the message.
My Party's platform planning committee didn't want to hear from me or from any voice that diverged even in small ways from the carefully orchestrated message of the elite in our midst. So when the "listening tour" came to its crescendo on Friday in Cleveland, there were no high or low voices, no off-key notes, simply safe and easily digested harmony.
The stanchions and velvet ropes that separated the audience from the Democratic National Committee's platform planning committee members on Friday were not necessary for crowd control -- but certainly required for mind control and message control.
"We are the DNC -- you are not. We are the powers that be -- you are not. We are in the front of the room and controlling every moment of this open and inclusive listening tour -- you are not. We are special enough to be heard -- you are not."
I'm still at the PDA (progressive Democrats of America) conference. It's been very refreshing to see how bottom-up the meeting has been with extraordinary efforts to include ALL the participants in attendance.
American's watched in astonishment as Germans and the people of the world in utter excitement embraced Barack Obama.
The media worked to create a negative perception in our minds about this reception. Was this another negative for Obama? Be very afraid the world leaders and the people of the world like and trust him.
All over our country, folks have come out to listen to what Obama has to say. Barack is a strategist and long range thinker. I bet he would be amazing to play chess or poker with.
A little over three weeks from now, this town will be swamped. The question is, what can you do that will be fun, won't get you tased, and that won't get you put on the no-fly list? Answer: I don't know.
I asked myself that same question, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought about the advantages that come with this convention being based on home turf. So after the fold I'm going to bleg something from Denver people, and people who will be in Denver for the convention at least three days beforehand.
The rough idea, for one part of this effort, is to converge flashmob style on a crowded convention sidewalk somewhere and pull off something so Crowd Theory 3.0 that people are left there wondering what the hell just happened... something like, I don't know, this:
But with a different song, and different singers, and a different location, and different camera angles, and etc... Observe the crowd reaction (and don't be 'The Crossword Guy').
Well John McCain may have to swallow his great idea of a commercial.
What is so remarkable is the young lady in the advertisement appears to black.I will not ask why she was there but I will congratulate her on asking the question as captured in the NY TimesMcCain Says He Is Proud of ‘Celebrity’ Ad
Mr. McCain – who has not taken questions from his traveling press in a week – made the remarks after a young woman at a town-hall-style meeting here asked him if he had "flip-flopped" from his earlier pledge to refrain from mudslinging. She asked specifically asked about the new Britney Spears commercial. "I was like, Oh-Kayyyy,’’ she said of the ad, stretching out the word, apparently to indicate skepticism.
"Campaigns are tough, but I’m proud of the campaign we’ve run,’’ said Mr. McCain, whose campaign has broadcast a series of negative ads about Mr. Obama.
"All I can say is we’re proud of that commercial,’’ he said.
The DNC has presented it's response ad and I love it!!!
"Senator Obama is honored to have earned a strong lead among Hispanic voters, but neither he nor the Democratic Party are taking a single vote for granted," said Frank Sanchez, Obama for America National Hispanic Leadership Council Chairman. "We know we have a lot of work to do, and this bold and unprecedented commitment to engaging and empowering Hispanic voters in our political process is an important step toward the November elections."
Now we have the good news that Hispanic voters will be given the opportunity to enjoy the Denver convention live in their own language on TV and radio as well as on line.
There are some items up on News Unfiltered that may interest the community.
Speaker Pelosi praises today's court ruling:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on the decision by U.S. District Court Judge John Bates to uphold congressional subpoenas in the contempt of Congress citations against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten: "As public officials, we take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution seriously and today's landmark ruling by the U.S. District Court is a great victory for the American people, the rule of law and balance of power. We must restore our nation's fundamental system of checks and balances, and today's ruling begins to restore that balance."
I came across this link yesterday, not quite sure what to make of it:
A top Obama aide told party leaders in a conference call last night that Clinton has accepted the offer to be the featured prime-time Tuesday night speaker, a high-profile slot that some of Clinton's own people have floated in recent days.
Aug. 26 is the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1920.
