Senior Democratic officials are expressing serious concerns about the political risks posed by Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High tonight.
From the elaborate stagecraft to the teeming crowd of 80,000 cheering partisans, from the vagaries of the weather to the unpredictable audience reaction, the optics surrounding the stadium event have heightened worries that the Obama campaign is engaging in a high-risk endeavor in an uncontrollable environment.
A common concern: that the stadium appearance plays against Obama’s convention goal of lowering his star wattage and connecting with average Americans and gives Republicans a chance to drive home their message that the Democratic nominee is a narcissistic celebrity candidate.
"We already know he is a rock star; we already know he can bring 85,000 people together in a stadium. He has done it multiple times. He needs to talk to people who haven’t made up their minds yet," said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.
"It’s likely that the campaign would do it differently if it had to do it again because the decision was made before the European trip," said a senior Democratic elected officeholder who has worked closely with the Obama campaign.
The GOP narrative of Obama as celebrity took root during that trip, where the Illinois senator played to large crowds of adoring Europeans. (more )
DENVER — Following his wife’s lead, former President Bill Clinton offered a full-throated endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama Wednesday night, saying he is "ready to be president of the United States ."
"Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama ," Clinton said to a boisterous Democratic National Convention and a prime-time television audience. "That makes two of us. Actually, that makes 18 million of us— because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November."
Clinton’s speech was designed to end talk of bad blood between the ex-president and Obama following Hillary Clinton’s withdrawal from the presidential sweepstakes.
His remarks were as much about preserving his presidential legacy as they were trying to smooth Obama’s general election path among hard-core supporters of his wife, the junior senator from New York .
"This is his legacy, both Hillary Clinton as a plausible candidate for president, and Barack Obama ," Stanley Greenberg , a former Clinton pollster said before the ex-president’s speech.
Clinton has appeared cool and distant toward Obama since Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race, barely communicating with him and offering lukewarm comments about him when asked.
Many political analysts and voters— particularly African-Americans— believe that the man some called "the first black president" tarnished his legacy by appearing to inject race into the primary contests. (more )
A helicopter can be heard circling over Invesco Field in the early morning hours.
A security fence has been erected overnight that encompasses more than the immediate area around the stadium. Side streets are blocked off and also fenced off, with bright klieg lights set up everywhere.
The media tents have been set up earlier, as are all the satellite trucks. A SWAT team could be seen hanging out near one entrance.
A hapless female security guard tried to talk her way pass a security checkpoint, where a police car is parked across the way past a fence.
"I was trying to get some coffee to a friend inside," she said. "But I can’t get in."
Inside the perimeter, police officers in golf carts and patrol cars can be seen driving by. An SUV with police officers hanging outside the vehicle pulls into one of the blocked off streets to the stadium. The markings on the SUV indicate that it’s with Wheat Ridge police.
A big white tent has been set up across Dick Connor Avenue, with a smaller tent set up on one side. But the entrance to the street is also closed off by a fence, with a couple of police cars parked inside the barrier. (more )
Gen. David Petraeus, top commander of coalition military forces in Iraq, recently sat down with Newsweek to do a “valedictory” interview before he takes up his new post as CENTCOM commander next month.
Newsweek reported that while Petraeus recognized that al-Qaeda in Iraq has been significantly diminished, he refused to say the terror group had been “defeated.” Moreover, Petraeus acknowledged that the recent successes in Iraq may have been possible without the surge:
Petraeus is careful not to credit all the progress to the surge of U.S. troops in 2007. The sea change came last year from a series of movements now known as the Awakening. […] So would the Sunni Awakening have succeeded without the surge? Possibly, he concedes.
Yet, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) disagrees with Petraeus, who McCain recently named as one of “the three wisest people” that he would rely heavily on as president. Last month during an interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, McCain dismissed the notion that security in Iraq may have improved without the so-called “surge” of U.S. forces there. (more )
The Rocky Mountain News reports that the Secret Service, ATF, and the U.S. Attorney’s office are investigating a possible plot to assassinate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Details of the efforts by the Denver-area police so far:
Aurora police arrested a longtime drug user Sunday afternoon during a routine traffic stop where the man was seen “weaving,” sources said. Two possible other accomplices also were arrested, according to police. Police found four weapons, including two rifles and two handguns, in a rented pickup.
That arrest then led authorities to a second man staying at the Cherry Creek Hotel at 600 South Colorado Blvd in Glendale. When authorities knocked on the man’s door, they say he jumped out of his sixth floor window, landing on an awning and running from the scene. They say they soon found him with a broken ankle. He too was arrested. […]
Police found a rifle in the man’s pickup and methamphetamine. The man allegedly made comments about Sen. Obama, but sources wouldn’t say what they were. It was enough, however, to make police believe the man might have been plotting to somehow harm Obama.
DENVER (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton will grab the spotlight at the Democratic convention on Tuesday in a speech designed to mend a lingering party rift and rally her frustrated supporters to Barack Obama’s White House bid.
Obama hopes her high-profile appearance can begin to heal the wounds of a bruising nominating battle and win over die-hard Clinton supporters still angry over his narrow triumph and choice of Joe Biden over her for his running mate.
The persistent drama cast a shadow over Monday’s opening day of the convention to crown Obama, 47, a first-term Illinois senator, as the party’s leader and presidential candidate in the November 4 election battle with Republican John McCain.
Obama had tried to ease the tension by giving Clinton, a New York senator, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, major roles at the convention. Bill Clinton will address the Democrats on Wednesday.
"There are going to be some of Senator Clinton’s supporters who we’re going to have to work hard to persuade to come on board. That’s not surprising," Obama told reporters on Monday. (more )
By Mark Clayton
The Christian Science Monitor
h/t Brightspirit
From five miles away, the Nevada Solar One power plant seems a mirage, a silver lake amid waves of 110 degree F. desert heat. Driving nearer, the rippling image morphs into a sea of mirrors angled to the sun.
As the first commercial “concentrating solar power” or CSP plant built in 17 years, Nevada Solar One marks the reemergence and updating of a decades-old technology that could play a large new role in US power production, many observers say.
“Concentrating solar is pretty hot right now,” says Mark Mehos, program manager for CSP at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Co. “Costs look pretty good compared to natural gas [power]. Public policy, climate concern, and new technology are driving it, too.”
Spread in military rows across 300 acres of sun-baked earth, Nevada Solar One’s trough-shaped parabolic mirrors are the core of this CSP plant – also called a “solar thermal” plant. The mirrors focus sunlight onto receiver tubes, heating a fluid that, at 735 degrees F., flows through a heat exchanger to a steam generator that supplies 64 megawatts of electricity to 14,000 Las Vegas homes.
Today the United States has 420 megawatts of solar-thermal capacity across three installations – including Nevada Solar One. That’s just a tiny fraction (less than 1 percent) of US grid capacity. But Nevada Solar One could signal the start of a CSP building boom. (more )
DENVER - Michelle Obama declared "I love this country" Monday as she sought to reassure the nation that she and her husband Barack share Americans’ bedrock values and belief in a dream of a better future.
In the first major address at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama described herself as a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, no different from many women. She told a boisterous crowd waving signs reading "Michelle" that she and her husband feel an obligation to "fight for the world as it should be" to ensure the promise of a better life for their daughters and all children.
Michelle Obama talked about tucking in her daughters Malia and Sasha 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," she said.
Michelle Obama’s mission was to humanize her husband and persuade skeptical voters to look past his unusual name and exotic background to envision him as the next president. Barack Obama has repeatedly faced questions about whether he’s a real American. (more )
I am a huge fan of tee shirts and pretty much wear them all the time. Most of the time, I like them to say something. Not necessarily serious all the time, but I like them to say something .
I couldn’t help but post these two and provide the link below the photos of the tees, so you ccan purchase if you care to.
DENVER - A cancer-fighting Sen. Edward M. Kennedy prepared to attend the opening day of the Democratic National Convention on Monday as presidential nominee-to-be Barack Obama unleashed a hard-hitting television commercial linking GOP rival John McCain with President Bush.
The ad was a sign that the Democratic gathering would be just as much about skewering McCain as it would be about unifying the Democratic Party following a protracted primary season that split the party between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Kennedy, who is being treated for a malignant brain tumor, is a beloved figure within the Democratic Party, and the Massachusetts senator’s last-minute appearance at the Pepsi Center is a way to unite the fractured party as the four-day convention opens amid signs of acrimony between Obama and Clinton delegates.
He plans to attend to watch a video tribute to him, though not address the convention.
"He’s truly humbled by the outpouring of support and wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world," said Stephanie Cutter, a Kennedy spokeswoman.
As Democrats put the final touches on opening night, Obama’s campaign released an ad featuring images of McCain hugging Bush and the two smiling in spite of tidings of economic woe and McCain admitting he doesn’t know much about the economy. "We can’t afford more of the same," the spot warns. (more )
by Amanda Terkel
Think Progress.org
cross posted at AlterNet.org
According to OutSports.com, of the 10,708 athletes at the Olympics this year, just 10 have identified themselves publicly as being gay. Of the 10, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham is the only male gay athlete.
Yesterday, Mitcham won the gold in the in the 10m platform diving event, scoring an upset over the Chinese team, which was heavily favored to win. But as Maggie Hendricks at Yahoo’s Olympics blog notes, NBC never mentioned Mitcham’s orientation:
NBC did not mention Mitcham’s orientation, nor did they show his family and partner who were in the stands. NBC has made athletes’ significant others a part of the coverage in the past, choosing to spotlight track athlete Sanya Richards’ fiancee, a love triangle between French and Italian swimmers and Kerri Walsh’s wedding ring debacle.
In his press interview after the event, however, Mitcham stood with both his mother and his partner, Lachlan, thanking them for the support they’ve provided. (more with video )
Now that the Beijing games have wound up, we can get on to a sporting event with real significance: a Neocon Olympics to decide the most grossly wrong, stupid prediction by a Neocon pundit post-Iraq. Of course, it’s a very rich field. Being totally wrong about absolutely everything is the Neocons’ job, and they’ve been working overtime on it. Their proudest moment had to be in the lead-up to the Iraq war when Kenneth Adelman assured America that democratizing Iraq would be "a cakewalk." Indeed, early Neocons like Adelman and Richard Perle (who predicted that Iraq would settle down "at the first whiff of gunpowder") set the bar for disastrously wrong predictions so high that some have suggested that the trophy be retired in their honor. But doing that would mean shutting out all the more recent Neocon predictions. Their little mistakes may not have cost as many trillions of dollars and thousands of lives as Adelman and Perle’s, but give them time. They’re doing their best to push us into more disastrous wars, and with team spirit like theirs, they may yet succeed. Here are the top contenders:
1. "The Arab Spring Is Happening Now" by Abe Greenwald, Pajamas Media.
There are many unintentionally funny aspects of this April 13, 2008, article, such as the fact that two of the countries Greenwald cites approvingly, Turkey and Pakistan, aren’t Arab at all. But as with all good comedy, it’s the timing that makes this article such a winner. To see the joke, you have to remember that Neocons have been predicting an "Arab Spring" for years, in which democracy, once we’d introduced it to Iraq, would spread like a weed all over the Middle East.
Greenwald acknowledges that he and his friends were wrong to claim that "spring" would happen in 2005, but, he assures his gullible readers, they were just a little premature. It’s coming right now, he gushes, that blessed spring — it’s just a little late. Democracy is busting out all over, especially in Lebanon! The article’s subhead cited Lebanon’s "Cedar Revolution" as a sure sign of spring — the first Arab robin of the Arab spring, as it were — and the story featured a photo of a Lebanese woman wearing face paint in the shape of the Lebanese national flag. (more )
I’m of two minds about these protesters, but the coverage of them on FOX is hi-damn-larious. It is to seriously giggle. They clearly did not expect to see the vitriol towards Pravda, er…FOX News from the “far left” protesters (why are all Democrats “far left” in FNC’s eyes? Do they think that moderates stay home or just don’t exist?), or they wouldn’t have sent relative newbie Griff Jenkins (gawd, if that doesn’t sound like a frat boy, I don’t know what does) out amongst the riff-raff to ask them if they believe in freedom (of speech). Dude, they’re protesting. That IS exercising their freedom of speech. That they choose not to validate the Republican Party’s official propaganda arm isn’t exactly ignoring freedom of speech.
Griff is shocked–shocked, I tell you!–that there could actually be people protesting at the Democratic National Convention who might not support Obama (because aren’t all Democrats lemmings like the unquestioning party-over-country Republicans?), even though he acknowledges that the protest includes Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney and her supporters. Critical thinking skills are obviously not a job qualification for a FOX on-air personality. In fact, it probably helps if you don’t have any. (more )
This week, the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the University of Las Vegas organized a nonpartisan national clean energy summit in Nevada with Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), former president Bill Clinton, conservative energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and “a parade of public and business leaders.” The summit concluded with a series of consensus recommendations. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has a disappointing record on the summit’s top recommendations for the federal government.
Here’s how McCain’s record stacks up against the top six recommendations:
#1. PROVIDE LONG-TERM TAX INCENTIVES for renewable energy production and energy efficiency, including clean renewable energy bonds. Modify other tax policies to reward clean energy investments.
McCain’s record: The renewable energy production tax credit has been key to the growth of the domestic renewable industry by supporting power companies, businesses, and individuals who employ wind, geothermal, solar, and other types of renewable energy. However, the tax credit has been allowed to expire three times in the past decade — in 2004, McCain introduced an amendment that would have eliminated the tax credit entirely. McCain’s continued opposition to the tax credit is putting the renewable electricity industry at risk again:
– March 2006 (Vote 42): Voted against extension of tax credits.
– March 2007 (Vote 98): Skipped vote to extend tax credits.
– June 2007 (Vote 223): Skipped vote to extend tax credits.
– December 2007 (Vote 416): Skipped vote to extend tax credits — extension failed by one vote.
– February 2008 (Vote 8): Skipped vote to extend tax credits — extension failed by one vote. (more )
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Emergency workers combed through the wreckage of a passenger jet Monday after it crashed outside Kyrgyzstan’s main airport, killing 65 people in an accident officials said was likely caused by technical problems.
The Boeing 737 was headed to Tehran when it crashed Sunday near Bishkek’s Manas International Airport, government officials said. Twenty-five people survived the accident.
The crew reported a technical malfunction only five minutes into the flight, and it crashed shortly after as it was heading back to the airport, Transport and Communications Minister Nurlan Salaimanov said. The plane burst into flames upon hitting a field about seven miles outside the airport.
Government spokeswoman Roza Daudova said the crash was likely caused by a decompression on board the jet. The plane belonged to the Kyrgyz company Itek Air, which is banned from operating in European Union’s airspace because of failure to meet safety and aviation standards.
The U.S. air base in the ex-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan supports operations in nearby Afghanistan, but Mr. Salaimanov ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash.
"Without a doubt, this was not a terrorist act," Mr. Salaimanov said Monday. (more )
Equipment vendor acknowledged software glitch in Ohio votes
DuPage County election officials were upset to learn their election equipment vendor has acknowledged a programming error that could cause votes not to be tallied, but they said last week that they are confident local elections were not affected.
Bob Saar, executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission, made public Friday a letter to Premier Election Solutions Inc. The commission was concerned to have learned of the potential problem from a newspaper article rather than the company itself, and members want to know how long Premier was aware of the software glitch, Saar said.
"If they knew about it for any period of time without notifying, without getting information out, that’s a serious concern," Saar said. "We’re going to be very aggressive with them."
Premier acknowledged last week that the software in its touch screen and optical scan voting systems could drop some votes when multiple memory cards are uploaded at the same time to a central counting unit. The problem was discovered in several elections in Ohio.
DuPage has used Premier equipment since 2001. Still, Saar said he is confident there were no problems in previous elections. (more )
Recent findings show that face transplants, which may still be considered medical oddities by some, are quite difficult to accomplish, but have really goods odds to be successful. The cases of successful face transplants of a Chinese man whose face was torn off by a bear and of a French-Caribbean man who was defaced by a rare disease give much hope to several people who find themselves in a similar situation.
Researchers said Thursday that the facts gathered from the recent cases show that face transplants can be a long-lasting medical intervention for those suffering from facial disfigurement. The two research teams, which revealed their findings in The Lancet medical journal, said that facial transplants are reliable and those who undergo the procedure aren’t facing a high risk of complications after the surgery and treatment.
The research report said that, although there were initial problems with tissue rejection, the two patients were able to accept their new faces, were not affected by the change at a psychological level, and rejoined society after the procedure.
The first case was of a 30-year-old man from China who was disfigured by a bear who tore off the right part of his face in October 2004. Two years after the horrific bear attack, the man underwent face transplant – his arteries and veins were reconnected and his lips, nose, sinuses were fixed. Researchers administrated him four different drugs to prevent tissue rejection and prevent infections. (more )
DENVER — Democrats gathering here for their nominating convention are significantly more nervous about Senator Barack Obama’s prospects this fall than they were a month ago, and are urging him to use the next four days to address weaknesses in his candidacy and lingering party divisions from the primary fight.
Mr. Obama’s aides said they had learned from what they described as the mistake of the 2004 Democratic convention — when aides to Senator John Kerry’s campaign sought to forbid convention speakers from going after President Bush — and would use their time to draw contrasts with Senator John McCain, particularly on the economy and his opposition to abortion rights.
“The stakes of this election will be made very clear,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist. “We are going to define the choice.”
At the same time, acknowledging persistent unease with Mr. Obama among a significant segment of voters, his aides said they would use speeches and presentations during the next four days, including having Al Gore introduce Mr. Obama for his acceptance speech Thursday night, to offer a fuller biography and a more detailed plan of what he would do as president. (more )
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel on Monday freed nearly 200 jailed Palestinians — including a militant mastermind from the 1970s — in a goodwill gesture just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to begin her latest peace mission to the region.
The prisoners returned to cheers and applause as they entered Palestinian-controlled territory before heading to a massive rally attended by thousands of people at the headquarters of President Mahmoud Abbas.
The prisoners arrived in Ramallah after being released by prison guards at an Israeli military checkpoint near Jerusalem. The prisoners, some waving black-and-white checkered keffiyeh headdresses as they stepped off Israeli buses, kissed the ground before boarding Palestinian vehicles.
Among the 198 Palestinians freed was Said al-Atba, who has served 32 years of a life sentence for carrying out a deadly market bombing in the 1970s. Al-Atba, 57, was the longest serving inmate held by Israel and he is widely seen by the Palestinian public as a symbol of all the prisoners.
His brother, Hisham, came from Saudi Arabia, where he works, to join the hundreds of Palestinians waiting to greet the prisoners. (more )
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber in an explosive vest killed 25 people at a dinner banquet in western Baghdad’s Sunni Arab Abu Ghraib district on Sunday, police said.
The attack, the biggest in weeks, took place at the home of a local sheikh who was holding the feast to celebrate the release of his son from U.S. detention, police said.
They said women and children were among the dead, as were some men believed to be members of U.S.-backed neighborhood patrols.
Police colonel Dawood Suleiman in the nearby city of Fallujah gave the initial death toll as 21. A police source in Baghdad who declined to give his name later said 25 had died and 32 were injured.
Iraqi police said U.S. helicopters had flown in to evacuate the wounded.
Abu Ghraib is a largely Sunni Arab district located between central Baghdad and Fallujah on the highway heading west from the capital into Anbar province, an area once in the grip of al Qaeda but now controlled by U.S.-backed tribal groups.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities say suicide bombings are the signature tactic of al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants, who frequently target other Sunnis since Sunni tribes turned against them over the past two years. (more )
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops have transformed into a fighting force — one advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace.
The U.S. military suffered its 101st death of the year in Afghanistan last week when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., a 36-year-old from Marrero, La., died of gunfire wounds while helping train Afghan police in the northwest. The total number of U.S. dead last year — 111 — was a record itself and is likely to be surpassed.
Top U.S. generals, European presidents and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour.
"The U.S. is now losing the war against the Taliban," Anthony Cordesman, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a report Thursday. A resurgent al-Qaida, which was harbored by the Taliban in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, could soon follow, Cordesman warned.
Cordesman called for the U.S. to treat Pakistani territory as a combat zone if Pakistan does not act. "Pakistan may officially be an ally, but much of its conduct has effectively made it a major threat to U.S. strategic interests." (more )
DENVER — Will Hillary Clinton’s name actually be placed in nomination for the presidency on the third day of the Democratic National Convention?
And if the senator’s name is placed in nomination, will there be an actual roll-call vote? Or will a call be made for the nomination of Barack Obama by acclamation?
Those are the last open questions of the convention that will open Monday in Denver.
On Wednesday afternoon, at 1 p.m., Clinton will gather her delegates, alternates and allies at the Colorado Convention Center.
A crowd of 5,000 is expected, according to Clinton
A helicopter can be heard circling over Invesco Field in the early morning hours.
DENVER - Michelle Obama declared "I love this country" Monday as she sought to reassure the nation that she and her husband Barack share Americans’ bedrock values and belief in a dream of a better future.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Emergency workers combed through the wreckage of a passenger jet Monday after it crashed outside Kyrgyzstan’s main airport, killing 65 people in an accident officials said was likely caused by technical problems.
DENVER — Democrats gathering here for their nominating convention are significantly more nervous about Senator Barack Obama’s prospects this fall than they were a month ago, and are urging him to use the next four days to address weaknesses in his candidacy and lingering party divisions from the primary fight.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops have transformed into a fighting force — one advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace.