Hi Christy, Thanks for sharing this. I’m wondering if you have a link to activities (such as the ATT party) this week. For the most part most schedule focus solely on the big speakers.

Which big MIC contractors etc. have a presence in Denver this week?

And now I really want a margarita!

Great report, Christy — it sounds like lots of fun.

I’m eager to hear what strategy Democrats have for catching up next year when the 111th Congress is sworn in, particularly for LGBT Americans who’ve been so demonized the past eight years. The agenda is full — DOMA, DADT, iENDA, adoption rights, federal recognition of legal marriages — and I wonder if we could have some omnibus LGBT bill in June 2009. Perhaps you’ll have a chance to ask national Democrats if they have a strategy to move forward on these issues next year?

And, Employee Free Choice Act, too, of course.

I would like to take an opportunity to express my complete contempt for Pat Buchanan right here, right now.

Video of Kennedy added to the prior post, credit to Scarecrow.

Eureka – there’s a calendar of events but I think the lobbyists like to keep there little soirees quiet … still here’s the best list I’ve found:

http://www.demconwatchblog.com…..endar.html

Evening Christy and Firedogs,

Christy, I am loving the FDL coverage – and so thrilled you are there.

and I love, love, love me one Andy Stern . . .and all that cash he put aside ($10M w/ $40M Labor total(?)) on accountability for promise breakers

pay no attention to that rather large purple beast comin’ your way Steny:D

Thanks Siun..)

Hi Christy, hi Spencer, hi Dave, hi Kombiz!

Please tell Kombiz how much I enjoy his DNC email blasts….

Why — what is Pat Buchannon doing now?

Thanks, Christy. Watch out for your hotel phone. Cindy Sheehan caught someone bugging hers.

Hey christy
*drooling* off to make a margarita

100% complete tool and toady,at least he has no children or grandchildren to shun him,like OReally

Ya all can thank Eureka Springs for opening the Digg! Don’t forget in all the excitement to Digg Christy’s post!

Hi Christy, Watch out for those Margeritas at this altitude they can catch up to you pretty fast.

expressing his belief(uhm talking points) that McGiggolo is winning

spocko left these suggestions in the jane blue dog thread:

I posted this earlier I also encourage anyone who knows who these people are to call them out. See below for other strategies to bust these parties.

How to get into the next Party

Glenn, Jane and Amy:

I’ve been on the other side of this “press can’t get into the party” game, or the “it’s private property”. game.

* If you can’t get in do the next best thing, expose the people who are keeping you out. (See tactics below)

* Get a guest list (with photos) or find someone who knows what the guests look like and then call out their names as they go into the party. “Congressman Blank of Texas! Why are you afraid to talk to the press?”

The goal isn’t to get them to talk to you, but to show their face while they are going into the brothel (er I mean event). Show their embarrassment about it and their fear of talking to the media. Did someone ACTUALLY cover their head with a jacket? Wow. That is what people do when they have been accused of a crime and are coming out of a courtroom. Not a good image for their progressive competition to have. Send this photo to the local press and the progressive competitor in their city.

Tactics to get to the “No Press” decider.

When the private security guy says you can’t come in ask,

“Okay. What is your name? How do you spell that? The company you work for is? And the name of your supervisor is? How do you spell that?”

At that point they will call over level one supervisor. When they arrive do the same with names, spelling and company then say,

“Fine, can I speak to the person ABOVE the security who made this decision? I think they actually want me to attend.”

At this point you should get a PR person or a party planner.

Keep pushing the “Who made this decision ABOVE you?” question. Keep getting names and spelling and who they work for who made the decision. If this sounds a little like Roger and Me that is correct, and if you remember that movie you will see just how poorly most companies handle this request for them to explain their policies to deal with the media. Those images make the brand look bad, and they HATE that. As you move up the decision chain you might get someone who figures out that it is not good PR to hide from the press. “I don’t understand why you are embarrassed to let credentialed press in?”

Also, when you get to the party planner or PR person you can ask to get a list of who is attending. They will decline. Ask if you can confirm the attendance of people that you spotted outside. If they are going to treat the event like an illegal activity then you need to treat your investigation like a prosecutor.

“Why won’t you give the list to me? Are you embarrassed? Should congressmen be embarrassed for attending? Is something illegal going on? If you don’t have anything to hide why is everyone coming in afraid to talk to the press?”

And finally, even if you don’t get any further than you did this time, you will have gathered names and footage that can be used in the future by progressives who are running against them.

Interrupting and talking over Rachel Maddow and Gene Robinson. Noron finally turned her entire body to Gene and asked him a question directly, so as to exclude Pat from the debate.

KO shut him up as they went to break, though, pointing out that even though Pat sez the McCain “celebrity” attacks are working, the Gallup daily tracking poll shows that, in fact, they are NOT working.

oh sweet on Obama & Michelle courting

McCain explicitly played the POW card in response to an inquiry from Leno about his houses. Buchanan thought it was appropriate.

He is so extra credit

gotta love Michelle … what a woman!

spew……………chum

that was the cutest picture of her as a tot in the yellow dress, what a look!

Hi, Christy!

We need to turn the sparse videos & pix that you guys got of the people going to the AT&T bash, and make a card deck out of them. Pass them around or post them somewhere so we can get each of them ID’d. I think that’s going on right now, isn’t it? And then advertise these Blue Dogs, maybe with a “For Sale” sign hanging over their heads?

Bob in HI

When your mom says “She’s the most remarkable person I know” you have GOT to be doing a lot right.

what a couple…………….

yup

Michelle’s brother wearing Oregon State Beavers colors—YIKES…BEAVERS!

i got an email (via listserv) report of this meeting from an activist who crashed it. don’t know what the understanding is on reposting it (have emailed for permission but no reply yet), if kirk is around he may know. will try to post it when i can for another view. let’s just say that J’s take on this party is not quite as critical as glenn and jane’s take on the att blue dog party.

He is the basketball coach

OOOOH, Michelle’s mom and I share a name… Even if she spells it “like a girl,” with an A…

I see you’ve been watching MSNBC! Scripted, indeed! The man is a former speechwriter, for pity sake! Even Noron had the sense to say, “Well, it’s a speech; of course it’s scripted!” The idea that Michelle Obama’s speech would or should be given extemporaneously is just utterly stupid. No excuse for it, amongst other things.

And just gave them a shout out!

I know- YIKES- BEAVERS

spew alert

Tax and accounting loopholes that largely benefit rich taxpayers and companies cost the U.S. government $20 billion a year even as the pay gap between chief executives and employees has widened, two groups said on Monday.

The biggest loss comes from a “stock option accounting double standard” that allows corporations paying executives stock options to deduct more than their actual expenses, they said.

For example, when UnitedHealth Group Inc paid CEO William McGuire 9 million stock options, it put on its financial statement that the compensation cost the company nothing, according to the Institute for Policy Studies and the group United for a Fair Economy.

But it claimed a tax deduction of $317.7 million, the groups said.

That practice alone costs the U.S. government $10 billion a year, the groups said.

A practice known as deferred compensation — which allows executives to defer an unlimited amount of pay — costs the government $80.6 million a year, while other loopholes bring the total lost tax revenue to $20 billion, the groups said.

I cannot urge y’all strongly enough to switch to the C-Span coverage. NO TALKING HEADS!!! It’s refreshing in ways I can’t begin to explain to you…

wow … that’s a moment, eh?

No more tissues. Now’s the time for big smiles!

She’s beautiful
and you can sure see the resemblance between the siblings’

I second that… It’s the only way I could watch it at all. Plus the commercial break time is filled with great clips…and the music is much better.

Amen Sistah Marion Amen !

Well, maybe some tissues, but for happy sniffles…

Suggestions? Buy extra batteries.

Telephoto lenses to pick up what the Blue Dogs and their corporate sponsors don’t want the voters to see. Use them later to look at Long’s Peak.

Get chummy with the designated Dem lawyers then push the “Can we talk to you?” envelope.

Notice the “unobtrusive” surveillance and security, online and off, and send us comments. Not just police and private security. Rove’s Rats must be scurrying all over the Front Range sorting the physical and moral trash, looking for leaks, clues, dirt.

Take a day for yourself. Drive to Estes Park, drive the Rocky Mt. National Park, soak up a little sunshine and fresh air. Or have a few beers in Boulder. Recharge those batteries for the long haul to November.

It has been difficult for me in recent months to listen to the unfair criticism leveled at Michelle, I can only imagine how hard if has been on her family.

Well, lots of tissues… Here’s a box of Kleenex for anyone who needs one. [sniffle]

Estes Park is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It simply took my breath away.

c’mon michelle!

do it girl!

get on it!

nail that bird!

pbs

(my mom just called and said she and dad are coming down this weekend to help me do things i so need help with,am overwhelmed, and she had to go cuz the convention is on.)

Holy Shit Michele is phenomenal. It sure does not look like she is using a teleprompter – incredible puts a lot of feeling & emotion into the words

im a puddle again

“The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table.” This is a military town, in a lot of ways. I’m going to get another tissue…

damn … I want her as first lady!

marion at 46–thanks, i’ve had a rare multi-tissue day, but it had a happy hopeful highlight. so rare, great depths of tears and then solid rejuvenation.

i don’t say it much, but i appreciate your consistent lifts.

thanks.

Maybe up to Leadville the two mile high city

She has the Black preacher rhythm….really convincing. Biden looks really pleased.

She’s good!

Is it just me, or is this evening the first time I’ve really felt what it IS to be a Democrat in a long, long time? God knows 2004 didn’t do it… And 2000 not so much either.

wow

… and that is why i love this country

forking wow!!!

((((dmac))))

she needs to nail this landing.

hoping that adrenaline doesn’t get the best of her.

I watched her give a speech months ago and thought at the time it would be alright with me if Barack nominated her for VP.

Damn it…I truly hate to be the skunk at the party, but I am just so angry at my party right now, I’m having trouble being supportive, or even objective. While all of the heroes who put it all on the line are lauded, another set of heroes is outside, locked up in the free speech zone (aka: Freedom Cage). Unrealistic, probably, but I really want to hear someone address that, and I am not hellishly inclined to clap and cheer until someone does. That’s the kind of shit I’m fighting against, the kind of stuff their party does, not ours, and yet…here we are.

Why are peaceful protesters locked up in cages outside, Michelle?

Sorry.
(slinks off to the corner, brooding)

same to ya.

This is a landing that she will stick for a now-non-existent 10.

There have been quite a few pans on Biden. He appears to be totaly absorbed in Micheles speech and like there is a light on in there. It would be past mcshames bedtime

Why are peaceful protesters locked up in cages outside

Address that question to the folks who invented “free speech zones.”

she gave one here, and it was weak, adrenaline got hte best of hher, that’s why i said i hope adrenaline didn;’t get the best of her.

Stuck it!! for a 10!!

I’m with you, RonD.

Just getting here and haven’t read all the comments. That was a helluva speech. She’s a better speaker than I realized.

yep. she stuck it.

good.

precious kids!!!!

I don’t know if I’m doing this right, but Christy has a new post upstairs on Michelle’s speech.

you go michelle!! pitch perfect!!

I was hoping she was running and he could be her vp *g*

Boulder, 35 miles NNW of Denver, known as the People’s Republic of Boulder for its liberal politics, is a great, if crowded and expensive escape. The FBI must love it: vegans, readers of Allen Ginsburg and avid outdoors people are in abundance, even al fresco diners.

But don’t forget its political opposite is an hour and a half S of Denver. Colorado Springs, site of the US Air Force Academy and Pike’s Peak, is home to perhaps more fervent Believers than anywhere between South Carolina and Utah. Rove’s Rats may be using it as staging zone in lieu of Las Vegas.

Watch out for the meter maids, especially in Denver. And those hidden cameras, made in Guangzhou, which look like everything but a camera, are no doubt out deployed in abundance. Party at home.

I e-mailed the Obama campaign and Madam Speaker today and asked how they could allow such a thing at a Democratic meeting. I carefully explained that this is OUR country – all of it.

OMG what a sweet family!! couldnt have been sweeter

The notion of a president with a young family really hearkens back to JFK.

i dare ya to say something bad Tweets

oh, ron, that’s not what this is about.

this is a program, like a sports banquet.

some things you have to take as they are.

and critique them on that level….

like the jesse jackson JR speech…..puke.

crap earl, you reminded me of my sister’s best frined who entered into service and they drafted to be an interrogator..he couldn’t do it and opted out as a ‘gay’..

brooks is an ass.

Yup. If you can ignore images of Jack Nicholson and the Shining, and don’t easily get motion sickness on winding mountain roads with puny guard rails, It.Is.Unforgettably.Beautiful.

the 10 is a totally different subject–lol.

Coverage about how good the speech was; audience rapt. Michelle and the kids = millions of votes.

We have already seen some change, no matter what happens next.

just got permission to post – it’s epu land so i may repost at some point. this is from Jesse:

So I managed to get into this.

Dressed in white with nice shoes, a walmart unofficial souvenier T shirt and my IWW button Jennifer and I approached the Convention center (Not the Pepsi center where the convention is actually taking place. Walked past a bunch of indiffent looking riot cops and tried to go to the “Union Event”. I was told that I would have to get someone from inside come out a get me, a not very likely proposistion.

So I went to the other side, smiled at the people holding pictures of the mangled fetus and asked some people at a table about attending the “faith based event” I was asked for a ticket and said I had none but really wanted to go, so they passed me through and told me to talk to some people about late registration.

Once in I asked directions to the Union event an was directed inside and down stairs. As I walked in I was given a bunch of stuff including an ID holder identical to the ones the delegates use With AFL-CIO stuff written on the neck thingy. Score! I slipped my red card into this along with a black sheet of paper as background. Once in, I through my IWW red sabcat T shirt over my shirt and handed out copys of the Industrial worker to all those who seemd involved in organizing.

The show featured Ted Kennedy Jr, George Sweeny, whats his name the predident of SEIU and others. It was an almost inspiring meeting, with people saying they were going to take back the country for the Unions and harking back to when unions were fighting a War end even using the name of Big Bill Haywood, although not mentioning the IWW as the Union to which he belonged. The only problem was that all this energy was being directed, not to any union organizing, but rather to electin Obama who was presented as the Unions last great hope and if he was not elected all would be lost.

Wow, if only that energy could be directed to genuing radical change for the working people.

Was it Big Bill or someone else who said, “To hell with politics, the strike is your weapon.

(slinks off to the corner, brooding)

can i sit by you? because that is where i am at too.

fyi – see my post above from jesse who crashed the union party. jesse is a true hero in my book. wish like hell i was there with them now.

Small victories. A few Gold Medal winning divers here. A few, “We had abundant translators for Xmlpktckck, Mr. President, but we asked and they told and now we don’t know WTF is going on.” Add a few weddings on either coast. Better yet, adapt Lysistrata for Capitol Hill: deny Congress all professional intercourse with gays and lesbians and watch it grind to a halt. Then even Lynne Cheney might be a tad less hypocritical and more accepting of individuality over rhetoric. Well, maybe not; she’s harder and righter than Big Dick.

FWIW, that was a completely separate event than the one I attended. That, I think, was a luncheon event that I didn’t get to — so much stuff going on here, it’s impossible to cover it all or hit the areas where we think we can even make an impact.

But Jane and I did get a lovely serenade from the Code Pink gals as we stepped out of the parking garage this morning and it was nowhere near the “free speech zones.” Also saw a big march down the main street just up from the blogger tent area yesterday — so there is a lot more going on here than is being reported in the mainstream press. Will see if I can find links to local news coverage on this, as it’s been a bit better than out-of-town reportage…

thanks for the update christy – i should have known that there would be many, many of these parties happening. it was from someone in the group i was with for the nyc rnc (kirk has worked with them more than i have). please don’t worry about trying to cover it all – if you report on the stuff that interests you the most that will be great (and i’m starting to get report backs from the protesters, hoping there will be a lot).