The sweat equity (literally) of Alan Grayson supporters paid off Tuesday night when he announced to a standing-room-only crowd at campaign headquarters in Orlando that he had won the Democratic nomination for U.S. House District 8.  

Driving through the Chicago area today, I flipped off of PBS for a few minutes to search the AM dial, and ran across a clip of Dennis Kucinich's "Wake Up America" speech on AM 560. It was a long clip, and I didn't recognize the talk show host's voice from the few seconds when he interjected himself between parts of Kucinich's speech, so I hung around to hear the rest of it. What I heard was shocking, especially coming from a Jewish person.

Now that it is more or less clear that Hurricane Gustav will hit New Orleans and vicinity by Monday morning - ironically by the same time the GOP begin their cake-cutting and balloon-flying etc. etc. this is what Barack Obama can do when he gives his speech on Thursday....

Right now, on radios and televisions, websites and blogs across the land, the cry is going out: the province of Anbar is safe, thanks to the brave efforts of Coalition forces and their Iraqi partners. Iraqi security forces are ready and waiting to take over. This will free up American troops to rotate out of country and into the once again restive theater of conflict in Afghanistan.

In reality it's... not quite going down like that .

Let's check the news together below the break.

I didn't vote for him in the primary.

I didn't advocate for him in the blogosphere until he won the nomination.

But damn it, I'm fired up.  I'm ready to go.  

And I'm proud to be an Obama supporter.  I'm proud to say you will hear no condemnation from me about Barack Obama between now and November.  I am proud to aspire to be Obama's biggest cheerleader on DailyKos.

I've already given three reasons for supporting Obama.

Well, here are three more:

Almost all of the democrats involved in this are close friends and volunteers of my campaign.  They decided to investigate rumors of a racist, insensitive $3 bill at the Republican booth of the Washington State Fair.  When one of our volunteers, Carol Ronken, went to go photograph the booth, she was told to leave immediately.  Then security was called on her.  She said nothing until confronted.  Now, after the poor press hits, the party is claiming that "they had no idea" and "of course that isn't right!"

Yeah, right.

Casualties, financial costs, etc. Show your local neo-con these statistics when he starts saying it was worth it.

The War that has gone on for around half a decade has cost us much in blood and treasure, and popular opinion around the world. This war isn't just unjustifiable, it's fiscally irresponsible, morally wrong, and continually deepining the financial wounds in the American Economy, with a shower of salt upon them to add to the pain.

Wow, am I sick of the Democrats are divided stories.  I am really tired of the "will the Clinton voters come home to Obama?" and stories about how "Obama will have trouble rallying segments of the Democratic Party."

Where are those stories about the Republicans.  John McCain ran unopposed for the last 15-20 primaries, and rarely got 70% of the vote.  Numerous traditional values and veteran's websites are pledging not to back McCain. http://usvetdsp.com/

Numerous prominent conservatives are backing Obama.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Where are the stories about Republican disarray?

Cross-posted from NorthDecoder.com

Sitting here in the big tent the morning after, I have to say that I loved Hillary's speech.  It was beautiful, And from the perspective of an Obama supporter, I loved it last night.

I think she could have done more though.

Follow me on the flip.

Czech: otravný m.
German: ärgerlich de
Icelandic: truflandi
Italian: fastidioso
Japanese: うるさい (urusai)
Spanish: molesto es
Dutch: vervelend
Polish: irytujący

No matter in what language you say it, it all comes down to the same thing.

Milhouse: Why does Bart have a comic book?
Comic Book Guy: Your questions have become more redundant and annoying then the last three "Highlander" movies.

We all have things that annoy us. For me, my the most annoying behavior of others is when people try to speak for me, or claim to be able to do so.

<More after the break>

I don't care who trots up there at this convention.  I don't care what they say or how they say it.  I don't care if they burp, gurgle, or slap their thighs to a bluesy rhythm on the Suwannee River.

Just give me a line of Democrats on the ticket this fall.  Top to bottom - I'll punch that ticket.  I don't care what they stand for, and I'll worry about that later if I have to.  It's just me and the Democrats against all this shit the Republicans have flung our way over the years.

And it's not just the last 8 years either - get your memory back - it's all the years that they flung shit at us while Clinton was in office - the constant hounding of him, the $50 million investigation to get him, just to get him.

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.

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

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.

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).