Mr. and Mrs. Edelman Should Have Used a Condom

Sounds like you provided the only entertainment of the event.

There was a reason why Hunter lived nearly four hours away from Denver, you know. I was actually almost maced last night. Police came charging into a peaceful crowd of people while I was trying to do an interview, shooting mace and pepper spray at not only protesters, but at reporters and bystanders.

thru' your entire narrative. My teen age son looked at me wondering whether I lost it at last.

amk

I mean, Edelman!

Hysterical read!  That'll show 'em.  (And yes...Maher can be quite "unfunny" at times, tobacco jones or no.)

This vignette is dying for an R Crumb illustration.

Perfect!  Immediately thought of this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHJMp5bz9u8

And to think how much money those PR flacks make, and how much that agency brings in each year.  Sad.

Al, these people are total nazi control-freaks.

I could have anticipated everything that you described happening actually happening.

Bill M. is a mildly humourous corporate stoodge---on the same level as Dennis Miller, the Rethuglican brown-noser.

Good luck, and, please, don't get arrested.

It would be fun but I wouldn't want to see the "Get Al out of the Denver jail" fundraiser.

The control freaks that represent the leftwing of the US ruling class really do hate people like you--they just keep it hidden better than the rightwing of the ruling class.

(Remember when Kerry let the kid at UF get tased by cops for asking unconvienient questions? Kerry just stood there like slug, letting the cops electrocute the guy--and nazi folks in the US cheered them on.

These are the same folks that cheer the fireworks as the US airforce engages 'shock and awe' over Bahgdad--knowing full well that children are getting blown to bits.

Sick shit, but this is the world we live in. Be careful.)

Al, thank you for the best laugh!  I hope one of your readers is a friend of Jann Wenner's - Rolling Stone should publish you for the rest of the campaign season as an APOLOGY to The Field.  Such fun to have you as our "ambassador" to CrazyLand.

From a Commenter over on Jed's site re: Barack talking to his "girls" after the speech...

"I love you, Sweetie." -- Barack Obama to his wife

"At least I don't plaster on the make-up like a trollop, you c***!" -- John McCain to his wife

Any questions?

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

Thanks for your work, Al.

Can I pose a question?  If you've already dealt with the subject in some way, my apologies.  But I can't find a single mention of the DNC protests here.  While Narco News provides much-needed coverage of grassroots social movements and their repression by the powers that be in Latin America, how is it that this blog and Narco News totally ignores the voices from below in Denver - those third party candidates, anti-empire demonstrators, and folks on the political margins who are ill-served by the corporate media that you presumably detest?  Meanwhile the site's very publisher is in the same city, literally twittering about Joe Biden's arrival and filing reports like the one above?

You note the hyper-security culture and corporate sponsorship of the event, but to you it appears as just an annoyance.  Might be a logical point to provide some context, like that the city of Denver received almost $50 million to erect a mini police state around the convention (complete with fenced cages in case of mass pre-emptive arrests).  Or you might link to the report filed by Democracy Now yesterday in which they're blocked from reporting on a party thrown by AT&T for conservative Democrats, all of whom refuse to answer any questions.  DN has more excellent coverage in today's show.

Guess I'm a little mystified, because your post above and coverage of the DNC in general seems, at least to me, pretty far away from "authentic journalism." If the protests themselves are somehow beyond the scope of your work, I think Kai Chang, another progressive blogger, laid out some smart guidelines on how he would maintain his independence and quality of coverage during the convention.  That might sound patronizing (sorry?), but seriously what is are your methods and goals here?  Thoughts, folks?

LOL! Perfect!

Where the rubber meets the road.

LMAO!

It might have been a fair trade, for one night of Rolling Stone Stupidity, you get a story that will last a lifetime.

Exactly the kind of coverage of the convention I want....and can't  find anywhere else.  Thanks, Al.

(And yes . . . fascists through such dreadful parties.)

I wonder if his speech will give Obama a bounce up in VA.  Last poll I saw had Obama ahead already in VA, and with Warner being very popular there, I gotta think his speech tonight will help tremendously.

The last Electoral Votes map I saw showed that if Obama wins VA, he wins the election with the current polling.  Of course, we need to win be a large margin and the polls are fairly meaningless at the moment, but so far so good and every little bit helps!

Ansel,

There are 411 copublishers of Narco News, every one of which is welcome to write about whatever interests them, including if that is street protests in the city of Denver this week. In fact, copublisher Brenda Norrell has done just that, check it out.

I learned long ago to write only about what interests me (or one becomes as boring as most of the news media). The protests here in Denver promised tens of thousands but are, frankly, more like events of "tens of hundreds." There's little to distinguish them from every other protest since the beginning of the Iraq war. Are they "news"? If so, what is "new" about them.

If you think they're newsworthy, write an article about it and send it to us (or get a copublisher account and publish it yourself). But don't insist that I have to go out there and cover a routine that has become so predictable as to put me (and evidently others) to sleep. There was a live feed on the Internet of one of the protests yesterday that had more people watching it online than the few hundred that protested!

That said, what's interesting and newsworthy to me might not be to you. That's fine. We've created a space here where you can report on whatever interests you, too.

best,

-a

On the previous thread, about 2/3 a ways down in the comments, I did a little Twitter Training...

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/live-blog-opening-prime-time-c...

but there were a couple of new questions...

you can get your messages two ways: by continuouly logging onto Twitter or keeping the tab open and continually checking, or by getting a text message on your phone whenver whoever you "follow" sends out a new tweet...

to get the message on your phone, you have to actually register your phone (look on the Twitter sidebar for where to click to get to that page on the website), THEN you have to "turn the device on for updates" for each person you follow for whom you want a notification message...

"regular text messge rates apply...check with your carrier..." tee-hee

There are also desktop software programs that keep Twitter up on your desktop, but if you're just starting or just want to follow Al and a couple of other people, they aren't really necessary...

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

Vignettes like this are exactly why I coughed up hard-earned cash to send Al to Denver.

Mate, I can feel your indignation.

Art that has to be in a gallery to be art isn't art.

Ansel in Austin -

Elsewhere, I recall Al commenting on "how to protest effectively" -- how to protest in order to actually achieve change rather than to simply get arrested, look foolish on TV, draw the ridicule of mainstream media, and so on. Those comments were floating through my mind as I watched the FOX news debacle, and I was wondering how to think about it. Although I got a kick out of it, I kept thinking that it did nothing to convince "my in laws in Missouri" -- who hate Bush / Cheney and understand what they represent -- to do much of anything other than mutter "those damned liberals...". Seems to me that stuff like that is what makes it OK to dismiss liberalism.

I'm sure that Al has written up a perspective on this already, or maybe someone else could point me to an interesting perspective on effective protesting? (I can already imagine "go read rules for radicals 1.0 or 2.0; maybe I should). Anyway, I sympathize with many of the sentiments you share and that are mentioned here, although I think a lot of us within this corner of the web are deeply committed to *really* making some sort of difference rather to protest because that's what people do. The events of the last 8 years and prospective of 4 more like them have me deeply committed to faciliating real change in the US political system instead of just going through the motions. For me, helping a non-corporate backed candidate get elected is the first step, which means behaving a bit differently than if it were Hillary Clinton up there.

As for the "report above" I think that Al's report is completely within the gonzo spirit of Kai's friend Hunter S. Thompson, which is why I and I think others found it so funny.

I wonder if Hillary is nervous.  Seems to me, and maybe I've just been paying attention to too much lamestream media, but this is a pretty big night.  The statistics do seem to show that there are a good number of holdouts.  HuffPost yesterday had an article about how those voters, Democrats that they are, are theoretically easier to convert than others.  The likelihood of getting them on board is high...at least in a normal cycle, which this is not.  I tell ya, if this black man with the foreign name were running in a normal cycle, he'd lose for sure.  You can knock a few points off his numbers for that alone.  How fortunate we are to have this chance to elect him with the wind at our backs.

I think I'll watch on CSPAN tonite to stay away from the talking heads.

Since I am at my computer most all day, I use the TwitterFox extension in Firefox to receive updates from Twitter as they are posted. If you use Firefox, this is an easy way to stay up-to-date!

It is also possible to subscribe to an RSS feed of Twitter updates; just grab the URL from the RSS link at the bottom of any Twitter page and subscribe to it in your favorite feedreader to receive updates on that page.

Plus there are many other ways to receive updates as well. Be careful about choosing to receive updates to your phone if you have a monthly limit on the number of text messages you can receive or if your plan charges you for each text message you receive.

Pam, you're an excellent resource!

One other option I'd recommend to anyone who uses the Web regularly is to get an RSS reader.  An RSS reader checks for updates on websites to which you subscribe and shows you any new information, updates, etc. Essentially, an RSS reader brings the Web you want to you -- it's one of my absolutely-can't-live-without programs.

I use NetNewsWire on my Mac. For those of you who use PCs not Macs, a quick Google search suggests Feed Demon though perhaps Pam or someone else would have alternate suggestions.

I "subscribe" to The Field (you can see below the Search box on the right hand side there is an orange button for "RSS Feed", that's what you click to subscirbe) the Field Hands site on ning, to The Jed Report, Al and Pam's Twitter feeds and many, many other sites.

I think I'll watch on CSPAN tonite to stay away from the talking heads.

I am major big-time pissed that I missed Obama's sister's talk by keeping my channel on MSNBC last night. Going to go C-SPAN tonight.

Geoff Garin, Former Hillary Clinton Campaign Strategist, on MSNBC ten minutes ago.

“She’s [Clinton] been fulsome in her support of Obama.”

It seems to me that the Clinton holdouts would seem more numerous and loud under the convention microscope since this is their very last chance to be heard.  There won't be another Dem event between now and the election for them to get an audience.  Even the press will tire of covering this non-story.

I just don't buy that these "delegates" really and truly represent the people who elected them.  They maybe number in the hundreds and comprise the very core itself of resistance.  I sincerely doubt it's possible to accurately extrapolate from their fanatical representation real numbers of people who will vote for JSM III rather than Obama.  This is the death throe we're .

Thanks for the reply, Al. I have friends in Denver right now. I agree there's plenty about the protest tactics and organization to criticize, but I'd still be there if I could reporting for indymedia or FSRN (school starts tomorrow here). I subscribe to Brenda's Uncensored blog. She is doing amazing, crucial work. Check out her Longest Walk coverage, folks.

Unfortunately, she doesn't have the same platform that you do and nor would I if I became a copublisher - you're permanently linked directly from the Narco News homepage, etc.. You only want to write about what interests you, okay, but your Fund for Authentic Journalism is a "support and funding mechanism for important journalistic work, which might not otherwise see the light of day." That's why I think acknowledging the protests and/or linking to others who are doing important work covering different aspects of the convention would be better progressive journalistic practice than to simply ignore these issues. You don't find the protests newsworthy. Evidently your being unpleasant experience at the Rolling Stone party is, though. So maybe some reference to the $50 million extreme security presence around the convention, intended to intimidate a lot of folks out of protesting in the first place, would be worthwhile?

Kurt Squire, there are two non-corporate backed progressive candidates in the running. There are corporate logos and gifts spashed all over the DNC and its participants, so neither of them are inside the convention. They're outside with those boring demonstrators.

Is it true that Planned Parenthood is giving away condoms that say "Protect yourself... from John McCain"? I want one!

Thanks for the Twitterfox tip!

Art that has to be in a gallery to be art isn't art.

You wrote:

...there are two non-corporate backed progressive candidates in the running. There are corporate logos and gifts spashed all over the DNC and its participants, so neither of them are inside the convention. They're outside with those boring demonstrators.

But neither of them chose to compete for the nomination of the Democratic Party.  And if they had, neither would have won it.

Kurt was trying to bring to your attention Al's earlier post titled Smart Dissent.  It's good reading.  You'll see that those protesting outside the convention center are practicing neither.

I'm on Ubuntu and use a piece of software called GWibber to keep track of the twitters. Unfortunately, the cellphone thing doesn't work here in Panama.

Thanks for the link to Al's post.  It's interesting reading.  I found it a little short on specifics, on how one is supposed to dissent effectively.

If the folks protesting outside the convention aren't engaging in "smart dissent," what are the people inside doing?

They're attending the convention, to which they were elected as delegates in their home states, and preparing to name Barack Obama the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, silly!