PBS Democratic Debate

9:03 pm EST June 28th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 12 Comments

– Made it here just under the wire. Met a couple black conservatives (including LaShawn Barber). They do exist!

– Other coverage is here.

– Tom Joyner gets a big pop from the crowd. Apparently black media is powerful.

– You should be aware that Tavis Smiley made some incorrect statements about Media Matters today.

– The media room isn’t in the actual room the debate is happening in, but the Blackburn Center where the media is assembled.

– Tavis Smiley discusses the Covenant book, which I’m pretty sure most Americans have never heard of because it exists in one of those subcultures the MSM won’t cover other than as a curiosity.

– Deval Patrick (yay!) comes out to talk about Democratic superiority and warns about the dangers of compacency.

Question: Is Race Most Intractable Issue in US Today?

– HRC talks about the fact that race is still important, hits the rollback of Brown decision and Katrina. The question was almost a soft pitch over the middle.

– Biden talks about the importance of blocking Roberts, and importance of judges. Finally someone hits it. Now, frontrunners?

– Richardson is getting existential on the issue. Talking about the abstraction of race versus more granular stuff like HRC and Biden did. I don’t get it.

– Edwards discusses the “Two Americas”, makes sense and the first mid-speech clap. Easy one on voting integrity.

– Obama nods to legacy of Howard and racial fight (Thurgood Marshall). Talks about how racial equality makes united America, but progress to go.

– I wonder how the GOPers will answer this question – I mean, many of them think the racial issue is settled and not to be discussed. It will also be a lineup of lily white guys doing it.

– Good line from Kucinich – the right tells us to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps… then they steal the boots”

– Gravel goes off on the war on drugs. He’ll destroy the war on drugs. Okay.

– Dodd hits the issue from the education angle, and how its central to racial harmony. Would use tools as president to reverse the nutty SCOTUS decision from today.

– Responses limited to one minute. And it seems like a hard limit because the shut up Biden and that’s a miracle.

– This is the problem with these debates: they all agree on things like early childhood education (the current question), just within degrees. No sparks. Someone needs to grab a steel chair…. Sen. Gravel?

Obama: When you’ve got a bill called no child left behind, you can’t leave the money behind.

– It would be awesome if they gave Mike Gravel an Archie Bunker chair to sit in, because then he would be at home as the resident crazy guy.

– Hillary: It takes a village to raise a child. [AVAILABLE AT STORES NOW IN PAPERBACK!!!]

– Obama discusses homophobia with black America. He’s the only one I think who can be critical of black America’s problems, and I’m glad he’s doing it rather than mindless boosterism.

– Casey Latrigue from CATO, who’s right next to me, exemplifies the kind of silly thinking the right supports. Oh, the civil rights act passed we ought to pretend race is solved.

– HRC gets first standing ovation pop for comments saying that if AIDS rate among white women was as bad as it is wiht black women.

– Biden’s line about Barack getting tested for AIDS is INSANE……. and Rev Al’s facial response was GOLD. The media room was rolling at that whole exchange.

– HRC: The economy was working a lot better in the 90s. [WHEN MY HUSBAND WAS PRESIDENT, HINT HINT NUDGE NUDGE]

– I’m trying to figure out if this is the first debate to have the words “crack” and “cocaine” in them. I understand why, but….

– CONTINUED…

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Ann Coulter, Conservative Leader

6:59 pm EST June 28th, 2007 | News | 45 Comments

So says another conservative leader.

 

Even A Rigged Fox Poll Comes Out In Favor Of Dems

5:45 pm EST June 28th, 2007 | News | 10 Comments

Fox News: Imagine the Islamofascist hordes are attacking our borders and creating WORLD WAR THREEE – who do you trust, America?

Democrats.

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Lame Duck

3:28 pm EST June 28th, 2007 | News | 14 Comments

It’s been true for some time now, but now we’ve got some visual confirmation.

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Letter From Donna Edwards

8:40 pm EST June 27th, 2007 | News | 2 Comments

Here in Maryland we’re strongly blue, and as such there’s nothing wrong with an internal fight to get a good Democrat in over a bad one. I met Donna Edwards last week and Maryland will be better off to have her in congress.

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CREW Report On Katrina

8:34 pm EST June 27th, 2007 | Politics | 58 Comments

I wonder how long the right will keep up the pretense that everything went well and still wonder why they’ve lost public confidence and will never get the black vote.

Critically, CREW found that FEMA had created a “Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan” (SLCHP), which forecast a range of specific consequences, including:

* New Orleans would be flooded with 14-17 feet of water, the levee system inundated with at least 10 feet of water and the hurricane would move into Mississippi;

* One million people would evacuate, but flooding would trap at least 250-350,000; and

* Each hurricane victim would require a minimum of two Meals Ready to Eat, one gallon of water and eight pounds of ice per day.

The SLCHP included plans to:

* Evacuate residents and position resources pre-hurricane;
* Provide power, water and ice to hurricane victims; and
* Provide short-term shelter and longer-term temporary housing.

Nevertheless, despite the comprehensive SLCHP, post-Katrina FEMA documents demonstrate that the plan was never implemented. On August 28, 2005, the day before Katrina hit, FEMA Deputy Director Patrick Rhode sent an email to Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks Altshuler and Michael Heath, Special Assistant to FEMA Director Michael Brown, with the subject line, “copy of New Orleans cat plan” stating, “I never got one – I think Brown got my copy – did you get one?”

 

Mitt Romney’s Big Empty Room

7:35 pm EST June 27th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 14 Comments

The Mitt Romney campaign is promoting this video of a one-day fundraiser they recently held, trying to communicate energy and enthusiasm for the candidate. As the NYT reported yesterday they generated $1.5 million, a far cry from the $6.5 million they brought in a few months ago at a similar event. But what I noticed is that in order to communicate the “bigness” of the occasion they rented out Boston Garden and Fenway Park. But its empty. If you’re going to hold a big free event at a sports venue, I don’t think you communicate momentum by having an empty stadium.

Mittempty1
Mittempty2

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Superman Graduation

7:00 pm EST June 27th, 2007 | News | 7 Comments

How did I not come up with this?

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Mitt Romney Tied His Dog To His Car Roof

6:33 pm EST June 27th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 9 Comments

How cracked is that?

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The Republican Party Is The Iraq War Party

6:16 pm EST June 27th, 2007 | News | 39 Comments

I said that liberals shouldn’t believe a damn word coming from Republicans suddenly against the war because when push comes to shove, they blink. Dick Lugar is just the latest to shuck and jive. Only Democrats can stop the war. Only they can stand up to Bush.

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