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Crooks and Liars (22 unread)

Late Night Music Club with Ed Shaughnessy and Buddy Rich

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 11:30pm EDT by driftglass

Enclosure: [download]

My old man (now many years dead) was deeply flawed in many ways. But one thing he always did was make sure I stayed up with him to watch “The Tonight Show” whenever Buddy Rich was ripping skins.

Thanks, Dad.
No Way! No How! No McCain!

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 11:20pm EDT by Nicole Belle

She hit it out the park, no doubt about it.

More to come later…
Dennis Kucinich At The DNC: Wake Up America!

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 9:30pm EDT by Logan Murphy

Enclosure: [download]

Download | Play Download | Play

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich spoke at the Democratic National Convention today and there is little doubt his was the most enthusiastic and hard hitting speech thus far. Dennis always comes armed with truth and facts, and today was no exception.

From illegal wiretapping, Iraq and high gas prices to playing the fear card, he blazed through the laundry list of Bush hackery and crimes and pounded the message home — Americans to wake up and vote for Barack Obama.

“…Wake up America! The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up America! The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing. Wake up America! The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up America, they want your Social Security. Wake up America, multi-national corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs are being lost, wake up America!”

Now that’s the spirit! We need to hear more of this during the convention. The American electorate needs a good dose of reality. If this speech doesn’t get you fired up, nothing will.
Chuck Todd: Don’t believe the PUMA hype

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 9:05pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

Chuck Todd makes an observation Monday night that many of his colleagues fail (or refuse to) acknowledge: That the influence of the PUMA crowd is greatly exaggerated, and the Republicans have their own “PUMA problem” with Ron Paul and his supporters.

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“I think what’s happening is we’re in our Denver bubble. There’s 1/3 of the Democratic establishment here who would be big time players had Clinton won, and they can stoke this a little. The McCain campaign is stoking this, releasing this ad. And there is a small core group, but I think they have a louder voice than they do a volume of numbers. So, look, I think we’re gonna look back in a few days and say ‘these PUMAs are really no different than these Ron Paul folks that we’re gonna run into in St. Paul.’”

(Nicole) While it’s nice to see Todd employ a little balance given that his network indulged freely in their Hillary Derangement Obsession and could not go five minutes nor a single guest without asking about Hillary Clinton (don’t get me started on Chris Matthews–his record was 45 seconds without a Hillary question), he truly wasn’t being honest about the PUMA phenomenon. These PUMA detractors aren’t Democrats, no matter how badly the media wants to drag this out and create these fantasy dramas. The PUMA operation is very clearly a GOP game as much as Operation Chaos:

PUMA (originally “Party Unity My A**” and now officially a more sedate “People United Means Action”) was one of the original angry Hillary groups. Started by Darragh Murphy and depending on whose story you read Will Bowers, PUMA fed on the anger over the actions of the Democratic National Committee over the Florida and Michigan delegations. The PUMA PAC website features a graphic that now says “Obama National Committee” rather than Democratic National Committee.

As Amanda at Pandagon discovered, Murphy donated money to McCain in 2000. She has never donated money to Clinton. Disenfranchised Clinton supporter? I don’t think so. And Rumproast has documented how the PUMAs have sought to make themselves sound much larger and more organized than they are. 60 of them about to take charge of the convention? Not bloody likely.

Eric Boehlert at Media Matters adds:

Fact: Many in the press have portrayed Clinton’s planned convention address, as well as the fact that her name is being placed into nomination, as an unprecedented, heavy-handed power grab.

Fact: It’s not. In years past, Democratic candidates who won lots of primaries and accumulated hundreds of delegates (sorry, Howard Dean and Bill Bradley) have always been allowed to address the convention and very often place their name into nomination. It’s the norm. It’s expected. It’s a formality.

This newly manufactured media attack on Clinton is just the latest in a long line of press grenades thrown her way this year. But this time, she’s not the only victim, because the media’s concocted story line is being used to unfairly skewer Barack Obama, too.

So to the C&Lers still wanting to get your Hillary-hate on…think about it. This is not coming from Hillary Clinton. Hell, the RNC held a “Happy Hour with Hillary” party without her last night. This is all about GOP operatives fomenting disunity in the party (and their buddies in the media only too happy to go along to get a more interesting coverage) and using you to do it. PUMA = GOP = Operation Chaos. PUMA ≠ Hillary Clinton. Don’t give the GOP the satisfaction of watching their plans succeed.

UPDATE: Anecdotal evidence supporting what I’ve said from Todd at MyDD:

Hillary delegates are not happy. I ran into a woman as I was entering the hard perimeter on my way into the Pepsi Center collecting signatures to a new petition demanding a public roll call. As she told me:

We circulated the 300 petition to get Hillary a roll call vote and they gave it to us but now they’re trying to nullify it…They want everyone to do a ballot at breakfast, turn it in behind closed doors. We believe all the people who voted for Hillary should be represented.

This is the same sentiment I heard from Hillary delegates at the California delegation breakfast this morning, particularly Gloria Allred, who was protesting having been “gagged” from organizing a gathering of Hillary delegates and from speaking at the California delegation. What she said she wants is for every Hillary delegate to be able to vote for her on the first ballot. The reason she intends to vote for Hillary: she represents thousands of Hillary voters and she owes it to them. But also, she feels it is her obligation per DNC rules. Whatever the technicalities of it, every Hillary delegate I spoke to expressed the desire to vote for her, to express their support for her, but not to the exclusion of supporting Barack Obama ultimately. This is what most “Democrats in disarray” storylines don’t seem to get. These delegates are excited to support Barack Obama, they’re all for him, but they want the opportunity to vote for her publicly and they see some sexism in the prohibition from being able to do so (why no roll call vote for Hillary when it’s been done before.)
Biden: It’s About The Supreme Court

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 8:39pm EDT by Cernig

Enclosure: [download]

McCain’s Supreme Court position, in pop-ups

Joe Biden’s ability to out straight talk the faux-maverick is definitely an asset for him. He sees what’s important right now and isn’t afraid to put it plainly.

Biden said U.S. President George W. Bush’s two conservative appointees — Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito — have pushed the nation’s highest court far to the right.

This, Biden charged, has threatened civil liberties and set back efforts to desegregate schools and obtain equal pay for women.

“Other than ending the war in Iraq, the single most significant thing that Barack Obama can do — and I hope I’ll be able to he help him — will be to determine who the next members of the Supreme Court are going to be.”

… During the next four years, Biden said, citing life expectancy estimates, there may be as many as three vacancies on the nine-member court.

“It’s not merely the woman’s right to choose (to have an abortion) which is at stake,” Biden told a mostly female crowd of several hundred people.

“It’s whether or not you are going to be able to have a fair shot at a fair wage,” Biden said. “It’s whether or not you are going to able to demand that you are treated equally in every aspect of your life.”

Those PUMAs who have said they’ll support McCain would do well to reflect on Biden’s words and McCains.

When National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru asked McCain whether he admires any Supreme Court justice in particular, he answered “of course, Antonin Scalia…I admire how articulate he is, but I also from everything I’ve seen admire Roberts as well.”
Desperately Blaming Biden

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 8:00pm EDT by Cernig

Enclosure: [download]

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t BillW)

The Washington Post yet again manages to produce an op-ed only fit to wrap fish in, as neocon Michael Rubin - ex of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, the Office of the Secretary of Defense as an advisor to Rummie, political adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority and unpaid hack for propaganda articles produced by the Pentagon’s PR firm, the Lincoln Group - blames Joe Biden for eight years of Bush administration foreign policy failure in a desperate attempt to label Biden as “Iran’s favorite Senator”.

Here’s how Rubin’s logic works, as explained by Ilan Goldenberg of Democracy Arsenal:

Rubin makes a convoluted and nonsensical argument that A. Joe Biden supported engagement with the reformist Khatami government of Iran during the late 1990s and first half of this decade. That B. During that time trade between Iran and the EU increased. That C. A National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran had stopped working on its nuclear weapons program in 2003. From this he deduces that it’s Biden’s fault that Iran has moved ahead on its nuclear weapons program because it used increased trade with Europe to fund a nuclear weapons program. What???

… Rubin basically takes a bunch of unrelated facts and uses them to conclude that Iran must have spent 2000 to 2003 working furiously on its nuclear weapons program and that it did it with money from Europe that somehow Joe Biden was responsible for. Yup, putting those rigorous analytical skills that he learned that the Office of Special Plans to work.

Rubin also forgets to mention little details. Like the fact that under this Administration trade with Iran has actually increased ten-fold and is at its highest levels since before the Iranian revolution. Or the fact that the 2007 NIE concluded that Iran did in fact stop working on its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and was still years away from building a bomb.

Rubin then claims that Biden’s vote against Kyl-Lieberman was partisan politics because Biden said that he didn’t trust this Administration. Ummm…. Trying to prevent war with Iran is not exactly a partisan activity. It’s not partisan to fear that an administration that has a track record of escalating conflict and misleading the American public might do it again. That is in fact the exact opposite of partisan if you believe that war with Iran is against America’s interests.

But Biden was correct to advocate engagement with Iran’s more moderate political elements - as long as it wasn’t the Bush administration doing it. They poisoned the well by their bellicose statements. The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss takes up the argument:

What could have happened between 2000 and 2005 that might have undermined Iranian moderates, strengthened Iran’s own neoconservatives, and convinced the regime that a greater investment in military and nuclear program was prudent? Well, there was President Bush’s casting of Iran as a member of the “axis of evil,” which came three months after Iran had aided the U.S. against their mutual enemy the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to Ismail Gerami-Moghaddam, a member of Iran’s moderate Reformist Party, “Including Iran in the ‘axis of evil’ led the Iranian people to grow increasingly skeptical of American slogans”:

Our political rivals … attacked us. They said sympathizing with a country that puts us in the “axis of evil” will take you down a dead-end road, and they were actually correct.

And then later, of course, there was that thing where the U.S. invaded and occupied Iran’s neighbor Iraq.

The administrations (and McCain’s) bellicose statements are still working against US national interests now. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s utter failure on the Iranian economy, with runaway unemployment and inflation had left him very vulnerable. Despite moderates making serious inroads on his powerbase by attacking him on domestic issues, despite the received wisdom as little as a year ago that he wouldn’t manage to get re-elected, Khamenei has now backed him for a second term. And guess what his reasoning was.

Without referring to foreign states by name, the supreme leader accused “some bullying and brazen countries and their worthless followers [of wanting] to impose their will on the Iranian nation”.

“The president and the government have stood up to their excessive demands and moved forward,” the ayatollah said.

If Bush and his neocon WormTongues had listened to Biden, the US could have been looking forward to a relatively moderate Iranian president in 2009 as Ahmadinejad got buried under a landslide of domestic bad news. Instead, their bad judgement has meant he’s very likely to serve a second term. Unless, of course, it wasn’t bad judgement at all and their intention was always to help preserve his position. Nothing wins Republicans votes like a little Axis of Evil fearmongering and that would be harder without Ahman-nutjob.
Partying With The Blue Dogs

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 7:10pm EDT by Nicole Belle

I see Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald, but where’d Amato get to? Dare I guess he was trying to work that Amato mojo on some hot female Democrat delegates to get into the party?

Download | Play   Download | Play (h/t Heather)

Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow! looks at the Blue Dogs’ party at the DNC and how secretive they are being towards the press about their get together. Medea Benjamin and Code Pink show up as well to let the Blue Dogs know how they feel.

However, they’re not being completely discreet, as Matt Stoller points out at Open Left.   Gotta love that democracy in action.
The American Dream or Married To The Mob?

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 6:20pm EDT by Nicole Belle

Enclosure: [download]

Remember this interview with Katie Couric? We were all so focused on McCain’s inability to count property that a fairly large whopper of a lie went for the most part unnoticed:

Couric: Are you sorry about the way you answered the question about how many homes you own?

McCain: Well, I’ll continue to say I’m blessed, and very proud, that Jim Hensley, a war hero, a man barely able to graduate from high school was able to pass on to his daughter a…what he had struggled for and saved for. That’s the ambition all of us have for our children and our grandchildren. And if someone wants to disparage that, they’re free to do that.

Yeah, Hensley was the Great American Success Story. Funny thing about that… while there are some serious lowlifes on the right willing to smear Obama by association with terrorism in ads funded by nebulous shadow groups (although it must hurt Simmons where he lives that his kid donated the max to Obama), I’d say that there is more than enough ammunition in this whitewashing of Jim Hensley’s background to fill a few ads.

So it’s natural to ask: how was the Hensley fortune built? According to a 2000 investigation in the Phoenix New Times,

The Hensley saga… swirls with bygone accounts of illicit booze, gambling, horse racing, deceit and crime.

The story by investigative reporters Amy Silverman and John Dougherty is riveting - and remarkably untouched by the Corporate Media, even though it involves the car-bomb murder of a top reporter at the Arizona Republic named Don Bolles.

Jerome Corsi - a rightwinger who co-authored the infamous and election-changing Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry [and the recent Obama hit job Obamanation]- summarizes the Hensley saga and its extensive ties to the Mob…read on..

So Jim Hensley had dirty fingers in enough juicy pies of bootlegging, mafia, racketeering and even murder — while being defended by future Supreme Court Chief William Rehnquist, mind you — to even make a right wing hack like Corsi sit up and take notice? That’s some good stuff the media is completely ignoring.

And for the record, McCain, that’s not at all the kind of ambition I hope for my kids and grandkids.
Olbermann on Scarborough’s BS: “Jesus, Joe. Why don’t you get a shovel?”

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 5:30pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

An open mic caught Keith Olbermann last night telling Joe Scarborough to get a shovel and dig himself out of the horse crap he was dropping all over the airwaves about how confident the McCain campaign must feel right now. And thus a classic moment in live political news coverage was born.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather)
Write Your Own Caption

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 5:00pm EDT by Nicole Belle

Courtesy of the Dependable Renegade
Tonight Show: McCain plays POW card again

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 4:00pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

I swear the McCain campaign has made the conscious decision to play the POW card at every turn, practically begging the Democrats to call him out on it. There’s no other way to explain their strategy. McCain didn’t cheat at Saddleback because he was a POW thirty years ago. Alan Keyes couldn’t call out his inconsistency on abortion because he was a POW. You can’t call him out of touch on economic issues when he forgets how many houses he owns because he was a POW. You can’t mock his taste in music, because he was a POW. What are they going to use it on next?

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather)

LENO: “For a million dollars, how many houses do you have?”

SEN. McCAIN: “Could I just mention to you, Jay, that, at a moment of seriousness. I spent five-and-a-half years in a prison cell,” McCain said. “I didn’t have a house. I didn’t have a kitchen table. I didn’t have a table. I didn’t have a chair. And I didn’t spend those five-and-a-half years because, not because I wanted to get a house when I got out.”

Responding to the news last night while covering the convention, Rachel Maddow schooled Pat Buchanan on why McCain is running the risk of degrading his very salient and personal past into a “punch line.”

Even Maureen Dowd gets it:

“It’s hard to believe that John McCain is now in danger of exceeding his credit limit on the equivalent of an American Express black card. His campaign is cheapening his greatest strength - and making a mockery of his already dubious claim that he’s reticent to talk about his P.O.W. experience - by flashing the P.O.W. card to rebut any criticism, no matter how unrelated. The captivity is already amply displayed in posters and TV advertisements.”
Midday Open Thread

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 3:00pm EDT by bluegal

Enclosure: [download]

Crooks and Liars readers helped to make this video. Back in November 2007, we ran the story boards for this ad here on the Open Thread, and C&L readers responded with some great comments and input. The Oregon Democratic Party is debuting this final version this fall.

Open thread below…
Midday Open Thread - Who’s this “Amato” fella?

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 3:00pm EDT by bluegal

Enclosure: [download]

Originally spotted (with a different candidate) at The General’s. Open thread below…
John Amato On Maliki’s Demand For US Exit

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 2:00pm EDT by Nicole Belle

Enclosure: [download]

I get to talk to John Amato multiple times a day, but it’s easy for me to forget no matter how familiar and frequent that voice is in my ear, most other C&Lers don’t know what John looks or sounds like. But luckily for all you curious C&Lers out there, Jason Linkins, HuffPo’s roving reporter at the DNC, caught up with John in Denver and asked him his take on Maliki’s insistence that the newly negotiated withdrawal of US troops from Iraq is a “real” withdrawal:

Iraq and the United States have agreed that all U.S. troops will leave by the end of 2011, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday, but Washington said no final deal had been reached.

“There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date, which is the end of 2011, to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil,” Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

“An open time limit is not acceptable in any security deal that governs the presence of the international forces,” he said.

Maliki’s remarks were the most explicit statement yet that the increasingly assertive Iraqi government expects the U.S. presence to end in three years as part of a deal between Washington and Baghdad to allow them to stay beyond this year.
FOX News skybox in Denver flooded by sprinkler system

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 1:40pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Karma:

A sprinkler system partially flooded part of the Pepsi Center Monday morning.

The Denver Fire Department, which has a crew stationed at the center all week, was able to respond quickly before 5 a.m. when the sprinkler went off.

The sprinkler was located on the club level in a skybox which had recently been renovated to host a news crew. It appears the skybox belongs to Fox.

After going off, the sprinkler released 50 to 100 gallons of water per minute and 9NEWS crews estimate it was on for around 5 minutes.

The cause of the sprinkler is under investigation but early reports indicate it was likely bumped or the heat sensor may have been affected by equipment in the room.
Cindy McCain Travels To Republic Of Georgia To Exploit Wounded Soldiers

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 12:50pm EDT by Logan Murphy

Washington Post:

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, is headed to the Republic of Georgia, where tensions between the government and Russia have sparked international concern and have become an issue on the presidential campaign trail.

McCain announced to a group of fundraisers in Sacramento that his wife was headed to the country, but the campaign did not provide any details about the trip.

McCain has been very aggressive in his condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, and his campaign has been critical of Obama’s more measured response when Russian tanks first pushed into the country.

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker confirmed Cindy McCain is enroute to the nation and said she is visiting as part of the World Food Program. She said she will meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and visit with wounded Georgian soldiers. Read on…

Can you imagine the absolute outrage from the right and John McCain if Michelle Obama was going on a trip to another country at war to meet with their wounded soldiers? John McCain has already used the U.S. military as political fodder, and now he’s sending his wife Cindy to exploit unwitting Georgian soldiers too. I guess having a campaign adviser who also lobbies for Georgia sure has paid off.
Four arrested for plotting Obama assassination

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 12:00pm EDT by Nicole Belle

Enclosure: [download]

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t BillW)

CBS4Denver:

CBS4 has learned at least four people are under arrest in connection with a possible plot to kill Barack Obama at his Thursday night acceptance speech in Denver. All are being held on either drug or weapons charges.

CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass reported one of the suspects told authorities they were “going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a … rifle … sighted at 750 yards.”

Law enforcement sources tell Maass that one of the suspects “was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative.”

The story began emerging Sunday morning when Aurora police arrested 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell. He was driving a rented pickup truck in an erratic manner according to sources.

Sources told CBS4 police found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, wigs, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and 44 grams of methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas.

However, almost as quickly as news began to spread of this alleged assassination plot, the Feds came in and dismissed it.

Federal officials said verbal threats against Obama were made, but were not considered credible.

“This is a methamphetamine and firearms case that arose from a traffic stop made by an Aurora Police officer,” said Paul Bresson, an FBI national spokesman assigned to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week. “Firearms and methamphetamine were seized and a number of individuals are in state custody. The matter continues to be under investigation. We’ll provide more information as it becomes available.”

“It could also turn out that these were nothing but a bunch of knuckleheads, meth heads,” a U.S. government official said.
Mike’s Blog Roundup

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 11:00am EDT by bluegal

Qwerty’s Qoncepts: Giddy up.

Shakespeare’s Sister: McCain has “ties” to a well-known felon.

Zaius Nation: That rabbit trick never works, except…

News Media Tube: McCain’s election tactics remind us of…Zimbabwe?

Off the beaten path: 2 millionth weblog, The Missisippifarian, Betty Cracker, and Either Relevant or True (which at the moment has the best. blog header. ever.).

Guest posted by Blue Gal, who contrary to rumor, does not have a birth control device with Tom Brokaw’s name on it.
Saving Money With Universal Healthcare

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 9:30am EDT by Cernig

Uninsured Americans will spend $30 billion a year in out of pocket expenses and incur another $56 billion in government-subsidized expenses, says a new study for healthaffairs.org by Jack Hadley of George Mason University in Virginia and a team at the Urban Institute.

“The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket. Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders,” Hadley said.

Current estimates show that 47 million Americans lack any health insurance, and 28 million have gone without for some part of the year. The U.S. Census bureau is scheduled to release new estimates on Tuesday.

The study goes on to suggest that if the uninsured were covered, they would spend more on healthcare. An insured person spends about $100 dollars more a year, on average, out of their own pocket than does someone without insurance.

And in the meantime, Sen. Bernie Sanders has a sensible suggestion for a filler measure.

For a relatively small amount of money, we can provide primary health care to every American in need of it through an expansion of the successful Federally Qualified Health Center program. On a budget of only $2 billion a year, this program, which has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support, now provides primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling, and low-cost prescription drugs to 17 million people through 1,100 health center organizations in every region of the country for an average cost of $125 per patient per year. The doors of these centers are open to all, including patients with Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance, or no insurance at all, with sliding-scale fees.

… for a total of $8.3 billion a year, we could have 4,800 centers caring for 56 million people in every medically-underserved region of the country.

This upfront investment – which constitutes less than 0.5 percent of overall U.S. spending on health care – would more than pay for itself. The centers are among the most cost efficient federal programs in existence today. On average, medical expenses at health centers are 41 percent lower than in other health care settings.

Most importantly, from a financial point of view, by treating people when they should be treated, we can save billions by keeping patients away from emergency rooms and expensive hospitalizations.

What’s not to like?
Michelle Obama on the “great American story”

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 8:00am EDT by SilentPatriot

Monday was Michelle Obama’s night in Denver, and she delivered what must have been biggest and best speech of her life. Deeply personal and infinitely inspirational, Michelle explains the values and vision that she and Barack share and the America they want their children to grow up in.

“[Barack and I] were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.”

[…]

All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.

That is why I love this country.

And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

Full transcript below the fold:(via NPR)

As you might imagine, for Barack, running for president is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother, Craig.

I can’t tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I’ve felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life.

At 6-foot-6, I’ve often felt like Craig was looking down on me too … literally. But the truth is, both when we were kids and today, he wasn’t looking down on me. He was watching over me.

And he’s been there for me every step of the way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when — with little more than our faith in each other and a hunger for change — we joined my husband, Barack Obama, on the improbable journey that’s brought us to this moment.

But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey.

I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend.

I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president.

I come here as a mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world — they’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future — and all our children’s future — is my stake in this election.

And I come here as a daughter — raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.

My dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early 30s, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing — even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder.

He and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. It was the greatest gift a child can receive: never doubting for a single minute that you’re loved, and cherished, and have a place in this world. And thanks to their faith and hard work, we both were able to go on to college. So I know firsthand from their lives — and mine — that the American dream endures.

And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he’d grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working-class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

And as our friendship grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he’d done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down and jobs dried up. And he’d been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their community.

The people gathered together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to build a good life. They were parents living paycheck to paycheck; grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that they couldn’t support their families after their jobs disappeared. Those folks weren’t asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready to work — they wanted to contribute. They believed — like you and I believe — that America should be a place where you can make it if you try.

Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about “The world as it is” and “The world as it should be.” And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is — even when it doesn’t reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves — to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn’t that the great American story?

It’s the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in town squares and high school gyms — people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had — refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals.

It is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for our nation.

I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history — knowing that my piece of the American dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I’ve met all across this country:

People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift — without disappointment, without regret — that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they’re working for.

The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it.

The young people across America serving our communities — teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.

People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters — and sons — can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.

People like Joe Biden, who’s never forgotten where he came from and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again.

All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.

That is why I love this country.

And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

It’s a belief Barack shares — a belief at the heart of his life’s work.

It’s what he did all those years ago, on the streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work and after-school programs to keep kids safe — working block by block to help people lift up their families.

It’s what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard-working families, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work.

It’s what he’s done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades but with good jobs and benefits and health care — including mental health care.

That’s why he’s running — to end the war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy that lifts every family, to make health care available for every American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all the way from preschool to college. That’s what Barack Obama will do as president of the United States of America.

He’ll achieve these goals the same way he always has — by bringing us together and reminding us how much we share and how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn’t care where you’re from, or what your background is, or what party — if any — you belong to. That’s not how he sees the world. He knows that thread that connects us — our belief in America’s promise, our commitment to our children’s future — is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree.

It was strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago.

It was strong enough to bring hope to the mother he met worried about her child in Iraq; hope to the man who’s unemployed, but can’t afford gas to find a job; hope to the student working nights to pay for her sister’s health care, sleeping just a few hours a day.

And it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold Iowa night and became the first voices in this chorus for change that’s been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation.

Millions of Americans who know that Barack understands their dreams; that Barack will fight for people like them; and that Barack will finally bring the change we need.

And in the end, after all that’s happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He’s the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer, inching along at a snail’s pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he’d struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father’s love.

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they’ll have families of their own. And one day, they — and your sons and daughters — will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They’ll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country — where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House – we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.

So tonight, in honor of my father’s memory and my daughters’ future — out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment — let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Open Thread

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 12:15am EDT by Nicole Belle

As seen on the I-94 greeting motorists arriving from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, home to the Republican National Convention. (h/t B&C.com)

We’ve got a DNC Open Thread going, too…
Late Night Music Club with Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 12:00am EDT by driftglass

Enclosure: [download]

How else you gonna fire up Convention with an army of Progressives than with a Prog Rock Anthem?

Come inside the show’s about to start….

– Emerson, Lake and Palmer, “Brain Salad Surgery”