The prepared remarks of Congressman Tom Udall, candidate for US Senate, to the Democratic National Convention:

Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is one of four Senate candidates speaking at the convention tonight in Denver. We're just minutes away from Jeff Merkley taking the stage and laying out his vision for 2009 and beyond. Jeff is very thankful to be given the opportunity to speak at the convention. Here's what he had to say:

"I am honored to have the opportunity to address the Democratic Convention and speak to my vision to partner with Senator Obama and make Washington work for working families again," said Merkley.  "Oregonians are ready for the kind of change Senator Obama will bring to Washington."

Full disclosure, I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley

Time/CNN has just released new battelground polls and it shows good news for Obama!

Colorado:  McCain 47, Obama 46

Nevada:  Obama 49, McCain 44

New Mexico:  Obama 53, McCain 40

Pennsylvania:  Obama 48 McCain 44

http://www.time.com/...

Youtube video embed not working, watch here:
http://therealnews.com/...

What a loser.

Many of us are befuddled by the reggaeton star Daddy Yankee endorsing John McCain.  

Daddy Yankee has an assault charge, as well as realllly racy and disrespectful lyrics.  Meh. Mainstream hip hop pretty much.

But even more befuddling is the fact that the McCain campaign is embracing his endorsement, when they cried super foul at Ludacris and his support for Barack Obama.

In case your were wondering, it appears as though Barack Obama is totally fed up with the mainstream media right along with us.   Last night while watching the convention, he even switched the station from MSNBC to CSPAN.  Barack's asking us to do something unprecedented in Presidential elections--to target (read:  boycott) the media.

I found the official boycott form on his website just now.   You can send it out in 3-4 quick clicks of your mouse.  The link is below and includes a sample letter provided by the campaign.  You can tweak it to your liking if you have the time or just leave it.

Yesterday was the deadline for submitting minor party candidates and replacing withdrawn major party candidates for the Oregon ballot this fall.  Below you will find my review of the races from the statewide elections to ballot measures and all the way down to state legislative races.  Take a break from convention coverage and read on!

Cross-Posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/...

has to be what the MSM is thinking right now. Think about that story yesterday involving Ed Rendell that claimed he bashed Obama with this:

"He is a little like Adlai Stevenson," Rendell mused. "You ask him a question, and he gives you a six-minute answer. And the six-minute answer is smart as all get out. It's intellectual. It's well framed. It takes care of all the contingencies. But it's a lousy sound bite."

That gave CNN the impression that Rendell would be attacking Obama, and so they cut to him during his speach. Rendell got out:

Now, as another Republican convention approaches, we are hearing more of the same: John McCain talking about alternative energy, energy independence and wind power. But if you look past the speeches, here’s what you see. Many of John McCain’s top advisers have worked as lobbyists for oil and gas companies. I guess that explains why he wants to give $4 billion in tax breaks to oil companies.

And just a little more Before they cut him off realizing they were duped. had to go to C-Span. Ha! What a bunch of fucks! So of course they had to counter with that BS delegate to feed their need for disunity.

More.....

Hillary Clinton gave the best speech of her life last night.  And in a simple phrase, she laid out the challenge and threw down the gauntlet for health care reform.

She said that it had to be UNIVERSAL, HIGH QUALITY and AFFORDABLE.

She hit the nail on the head.

analysis below the fold

i'm an anarchist, a democrat, a mystic and a kossack.  these are sometimes hard to reconcile... this (first!) diary of mine is an attempt to discuss the complexities of navigating these (superficially) opposed agendas.

so i've promised this post for a while (over at my blog), but it is in no way an attempt to decisively determine the right or wrong in this topic...

WHAT DO THE ANARCHISTS WANT THIS ELECTION CYCLE?

first off, the anarchists are no monolithic block, and there are always differences of opinions.  but make no mistake.  there are a lot of anarchists who are decidedly against the democrats and are disinterested in voting.  some are protesting the convention.

New York senator Hillary Clinton's speech Aug.26, 2008 at the Democratic National Convention in Denver was a classic political speech, in that she threaded the needle between those clamoring for her to support Obama, and those clamoring for her to stay true to her campaign.

I'm an Obama supporter, and I didn't feel like Hillary needed to apologize, not at all. I'm also realistic in understanding that Obama will never get a ringing endorsement from her. What he needed was for her to try and move her supporters over to Obama's column, and she did what she had to do. Will they move over? It's up to them, but she did what she had to do.

Normally I don't watch the news in the morning, but after last night's rousing speech by Clinton, I was curious about what the "pundits" were saying.  I'm assuming this Leslie Sanchez, from CNN, is some Republican mouthpiece I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet, until today.  

We REALLY need to bring down the Rethug presidential nominee John McNicotine.  The only way to fight back against his attacks on Obama is to attack his qualifications for the presidency.  Kerry should have done that against Bush.  Well, as long as the Rethugs insist on telling lies about our nominees, we need to spread the truth about theirs.

Part 2 of my Dem Convention Music Series!

Here's Part 1: Last Night's Convention Soundtrack: School of Funk!

The music for Tuesday night was kind of a grab-bag -- a bit of a let down from Monday night's funk-fest, if you ask me. There were many fills that I didn't recognize, and most of the ones I did know didn't really seem thematically related to the speaker they introduced (or to the one who was exiting... unless I'm totally unclear on the concept. Which is quite possible!) Some seemed vaguely familiar, but they didn't last long enough for me to place. It also seemed to me that in many cases there was a melody or other identifying element left out -- I kept thinking things like, "I know that bassline!" or, "that drumbeat sounds so familiar!"

It was basically like playing 'Name That Tune' in hell!

Follow me over the jump to see how I did, and feel free to comment with any fills you recognized that I missed. Thanks!

Crossposted at Miss Music Nerd.

First, I'd like to point out that even OBAMA turned to C-SPAN from MSNBC so he could see the actual speeches:

Obama grabbed a remote control to switch from MSNBC which had the camera on former President Clinton sitting in the Denver audience to CSPAN which was carrying Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's speech live.

I knew that man was smart! Hopefully even MORE people will start tuning in to C-SPAN!

My sister, a small-l libertarian, has been watching the conventions with me.  She doesn't like Obama's economic policies, but she finds a lot of problems with McCain too (especially in how he handles his campaign, not just what he believes in).  I wouldn't call her cynical, but she clearly doesn't hold high regard for our two parties.  This made for some entertainment in our watching the convention on C-SPAN (we couldn't stand listening to the network gasbags talk about themselves over the actual convention speakers).

So far the best speech at the convention by far was by Dennis Kucinich. It will be very hard for Obama to top "Wake Up America!"

Considering that Kucinich was given only 5 minutes and not the 20 minute keynote slot that he deserved, I'd go so far as to say it was the best 5 minute political speech in my lifetime of 58 years.

The Obama campaign made a big mistake putting Kucinich in the sub-prime time slot. So far Obama is running a "safe" campaign just like Kerry in 2004, and so far the polls show that Obama may get the very same result.

Here's the YouTube video of Dennis' speech.

Maybe I am dead wrong, but after watching Hillary Clinton's speech last night, it brought me back to reality. It made it crystal clear the reason why I support Barack Obama.
All the hype lately and all the hoopla about the Conventions have made me lose sight of why I choose to support Obama. I am not criticizing Hillary's speech, it was a good speech, but it was a political speech, just like so many speeches that have come before.
There were those who criticized Mark Warner and his Keynote speech, but I loved it, Warner's speech was, I think, what the whole Obama campaign stands for. Yeah, we are Democrats, but we need to be post partisan, it is imperative that we all work together, not only for the future of America, but for the future of the world.