Want to see your ad here, or elsewhere on the page? email ads@(you know the rest) Trolls and sockpuppets begone! If you don't know what that means, kindly take a gander at our rules.
The Progressive Political Blog for Colorado
(HOME)
Denver Open Acupuncture
a sliding scale community acupuncture clinic
1345 East 22nd Avenue
Denver, CO 80205
303-837-8166 email
Jennifer Gross, L.Ac., M.Ac.O.M.
I'm sitting beneath one of the big monitor. Only the secret service are higher up. About 30 minutes ago I had a temp floor pass and said hi to Aaron sitting next to Morgan Carroll. I'm blogging this from my iPhone.
I was able to snag what was supposed to be a real swanky seat with the Denver Dems, but it turns out that section is directly behind the stage. Whoopie!
The most fun on the floor was speaking briefly with rep Degette and delegate Anthony Graves. I wanted to ask about rumors of his next move, but got kicked off the floor as I didn't have a seat. What rumors he asked? Apparently the ones Aaron is spreading.
How do we look on cspan or where ever you're watching?
I finally got a chance to listen to the radio piece that included us. I was excited as the "journalist", Adam Burke, called me incessantly first wanting to meet to do an interview, then later wanting to meet at the Big Tent and on the floor of the Can. In other words, I busted my butt to meet with this guy. With him and another "journalist" in tow I pushed my way down to the Colorado delegation having to argue with people that yes indeed I should be seated here. Then he wanted more interviewing down at the blogger lounge. I have no idea what Aaron went through to meet with this guy, but it was probably similar. You know what we got for all that work? According to Adam Burke, our site is "uncontroversial fluff".
You know what's controversial? Having to argue with people who have never heard of you to get the seat with the delegates the DNCC told us we'd have. What's controversial is having to push your way though a mass of people so crowded that the fire marshals are having a conniption fit. This, I expect was caused by moving the Deleware delegation onto the floor at the last minute causing the aisles to be that much smaller. Indeed, the fire marshal did at one point keep even delegates outside the building from getting in due to the overcrowding.
And yes, all of this was reported on SquareState. It seems Burke couldn't get past the pretty pictures.
Controversial is being the credentialed blog for Colorado yet it's easier find hens teeth than get in touch with the delegates I'm supposed to be seated with. Getting a call or email returned from the state party is more rare.
Controversial is a reporter calling me 6 times a day to meet with me, asking to meet more and more and more. Controversial is working for Colorado Public Radio while Colorado Independent is underwriting your radio station for a few weeks now, and he's never heard of them.
But, all of that was left on the cutting room floor.
I have to give it to the new-comer at Colorado Pols for getting the better part in that radio piece. How interesting that Ken Salazar jumps on the bandwagon with Catie Couric to go interact with real live bloggers. (See them in their natural environment. Don't get too close folks, they can and will bite.) Salazar's lacky immediately jumped at the chance for an interview. As we've actually called out Senator Salazar on his many ill-thought votes and his abysmal approval ratings, I wonder what kind of reception we'd get from his lackey?
Perhaps this is the reward I get for calling it like I see it when it comes to the traditional press and Burke didn't take too kindly to that. Sorry if our stuff looks like fluff to you, but it seems like your story went about as in-depth in covering our blog as everyone did back in 2004.
The most important panel I attended today at the Big Tent at the DNC revolved around the next energy policy of our future president. Talk about celebrity power: T. Boone Pickens was part of the panel and attendance in the Tent was the highest I've seen it all week. It was moderated by John Podesta, a former Clinton Chief of Staff. The third person on stage was Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club.
In a nutshell, the Pickens plan doesn't go far enough. It doesn't go far enough because his plan doesn't address climate change in any meaningful way. It is an energy plan and one that could be described as transitory to 100% renewable. But he doesn't present it as such. He presents it as the end game. If his plan, or something close to it, is the end game, climate change will effect us in ways we can't imagine today. Read on if you want more details.
In 1983 at the beginning of the oil shale bust, when seemingly overnight the oil companies and their legions of carpet baggers left Colorado, a young hispanic State legislator named Federico Pena ran for Mayor with the campaign slogan of "imagine a Great City". Many scoffed at his campaign slogan as not having substance and only an election gimmick. Republicans and critics howled as they labeled the articulate and energetic Mexican Mayor and his coalition of progressive supporters as "Feddy and the Dreamers".
Our wildest imaginations have become our fallen aspirations in Denver. Thank you Mayor Pena for imagining a great city with hope we could believe in and the commitment to get it done.
George Bush was Vice President and his son Neil Bush was a member of the board of directors of Denver-based Silverado Savings and Loan during the 1980s' infamous Savings and Loan banking crisis. Silverado's collapse cost taxpayers $1 billion and devastated the Colorado economy into a deep recession that many old timers still call: The Denver Depression.
Barack got involved in politics because he was motivated by his work in the south side of Chicago, helping the local communities that had been devastated by the closure of steal mills. Our campaign is dedicated to continuing Barack's message of working in local communities, and today the Obama campaign and the DNC took it one step further as national delegates participated in a number of Delegation Service Projects across Denver. One group of Colorado delegates spent the morning at the Denver Rescue Mission, where they toured the homeless shelter and prepared lunch for the people there.
3:30 There is going to be a full delegation tonight, and the word isn't completely out about what this blogger is doing here. Trying to explain that sitting near the DSL plug is what I am supposed to be doing.
Senator Clinton's name is being put into nomination.
Next to me they are setting the camera and microphone height to fit Pat Waak. It looks like she will be answer to the roll call. I am told to expect Colorado to be called "in the C's". We'll see if American's Abroad and American Samoa get their spots or if they jiggle that around at all.
Senator Obama is being nominated. Anyone want to take bets on the outcome?
Senator Salazar is seconding the nomination. After the jump there will be more including a picture of him with a large animal.
Helping put Colorado in play in 2008 is the support of local leaders around the state. Here's an example from Fort Collins, the largest city in Larimer County -- a county critical not only to Obama, but Mark Udall and Betsy Markey as well.
For Lisa Poppaw, Barack Obama represents the change she believes the nation's political system needs more than anything.
The Fort Collins City Council member is helping register voters on Obama's behalf and is bringing her high-school-aged daughter, who can't vote yet, to see Obama speak at Invesco Field at Mile High Thursday night.
Poppaw said her job for Obama, as a state voter registration co-chair, doesn't have anything to do with her own elected status, but that status does give her a chance to talk to voters.
"My role is to just make sure if there are opportunities to encourage people to get involved with the process, get registered and get your voice out there, that I take advantage of it," she said. "On occasion I have the opportunity to speak to people and to encourage them to register and to get involved." [Ed. note: Link added]
This is going to be a steam of consciousness blog, aka live-blog, from my experiences on the floor, not 30 feet from the podium seated with the colorado delegates
9:30 And it's over. We had Adam Burke from Colorado NPR interviewing me and Aaron throughout the day, asking us about our experiences. A story should be playing on NPR tomorrow morning.
9:11 Korean Methodists from Aurora are speaking now. i really don't get it.
9:06 Getting bigger... And now the big finish. Everyone is one their feet. She clearly wanted to bring everyone together. There was a lot of purpose behind her words, but I didn't really feel it was the speech of her lifetime.
8:55 Mrs. Clinton's speech is hitting all the points, but there better be a big finish.
8:46 Everyone is on their feet. This is my view
First I was for Edwards, then Obama, but this preview and stuff and the music is getting to me -- in a good way. Chelsea just introducer her as her hero and mom.
8:36 I think Hillary Clinton is next, or this video is just a teaser. Some Clinton signs are coming out, but it seems each delegation has a "handler" who's telling people not to hoist those yet.
8:27 A bit of stage crafting, that I'm falling for. When Schweitzer mentions how McCain is more of the same, there are a bunch of red signs that delegates raise that read, "More of the same". At first I didn't say anything during the first wave and was criticized. The delegate said to me that I'm in trouble, so I raised an angered fist the next time.
Gov Schweitzer talks about not having four more years of petro-dictators. I had to stand for that. YES WE CAN!
random thought A few more years than I'd like to admit to, then first lady Hillary Clinton spoke at my graduation. (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). To be honest, I didn't pay too much to her speech then, as I was looking forward to a whole new stage of my life. I'm waiting in anticipation for what comes.
(thanks again for the seat Debbie! - promoted by johne)
As a delegate to the National Convention, it has been a very busy time. This morning began with our Colorado delegate breakfast. I couldn't stay very long since I had to rush off to a special event - in my car (ugh).
Michelle Obama's Womens Issues Town Hall: Sen. Obama's campaign called me last night to invite me to a round table on women's issues with a focus on health care. It was a very movng morning with stories from working women that have families and struggle to make ends meet and live in fear that they will have a serious medical emergency in their family.
"I was unhappy and upset that she lost, but I'm going to be voting for Obama in November," said Carol White, 68. "He's a brilliant leader and we have to have unity in the party to win the election."
Meanwhile two 20-year-old convention delegates from Michigan -- a key state won by Clinton whose votes were initially excluded from the primary race -- said Obama would have their support.
"I'm disappointed, hurt and angry about Hillary, but I'm not deluded," said Brandon Hayes. "Four more years of a Bush presidency under McCain would be a disaster for our country."
Hayes fellow delegate Kelly Bernero chimed: "We're not going to shoot ourselves in the foot in November. Hillary rocks but any true Democrat will vote for Obama."
I am over at the "Big Tent." I hear that somewhere in this room Sean Penn is wandering around the room. But celebrity is in greater supply at my table than spots on the power strip, and I am going to use the electricity while I have it.
I took a walk through Civic Center Park and spoke to veteran activist Keith McHenry about what he saw last night. McHenry was one of the original founders of Food-Not-Bombs, and has a colorful history that includes two years in prison for charges including, "felony conspiracy to distribute free food in violation of a court order."
McHenry says he saw the undercover cops right away. They were all body builders in new black t-shirts wearing new bandanas and playing the role of agent-provocateurs trying to goad the crowd to follow them into a confrontation with the police on the West side of the park.
According to McHenry the planted police entered the street and the readied riot police pushed them back into the park from that side. As the crowd then tried to move to the East a second wall of officers closed from that side and started hitting protesters with pepper spray and making arrests.
Later he said he saw the body builders standing around a police van with uniformed officers, chatting together and watching the proceedings.
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's (R-Colo.) re-election appears to be in peril a little more than two months before Election Day, according to a new poll conducted exclusively for Roll Call.
The survey also found the presidential contest between presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) was essentially tied in Musgrave's eastern Colorado 4th district - territory that has historically been a Republican bastion.
Democrats descended on Denver this week for their nominating convention as a way of signaling their commitment to making the Centennial State - and the Mountain West as a whole - competitive in the presidential race. The poll done for Roll Call seemed to bear that out, as McCain led Obama by just 2 points, 48 percent to 46 percent.
Meanwhile, Musgrave trailed Democratic challenger Betsy Markey 50 percent to 43 percent in the poll conducted by SurveyUSA for Roll Call. Seven percent remained undecided. In an equally troubling sign for Musgrave, 51 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of the three-term Congresswoman, while 31 percent viewed her favorably.
The poll of 618 likely voters was taken Aug. 22-24. It had a 4-point margin of error.
The survey found that Markey had a big lead among female voters, 53 percent to 38 percent. The two women were essentially tied among male voters.
More importantly, Markey had a huge lead in two voter groups that will be essential in deciding the election: independents and moderates. She led by 30 points among independent voters, 59 percent to 29 percent, and by 41 points among self-described moderates, 67 percent to 26 percent. Musgrave will have to close the gap in those two groups in order to have a chance at making the race competitive heading into Election Day.
Since this poll has Obama down by two points, compared with other polls that have him even or up slightly, Markey's margin might even be bigger than 7%.
Moderates and Independents abandoning the wingnut Musgrave is great news -- let's hope it's a trend!
Coordinated Campaign volunteers, tighten your shoelaces and go knock on doors!
Today I was invited to the Hispanic Caucus for a morning of tribute, blogging and comraderie with the Hispanic legislators of our country at the invitation of fellow Kossack, Obama Super Delegate from Colorado, fellow garden blogger and Colorado DNC committeewoman...Green Chile Democrat.
John and Ken Salazar were the featured lead-off speakers which included a visit by Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton. Speakers included Senator Menendez of New Jersey, Congressperson Loreta Sanchez of California who all spoke of the dynamics of increased voter registration for the emerging Hispanic communities and demographics in America.
Just in from Talia who has a friend who is a paramedic on the scene that the DPD will "release a large amount of teargas on the crowd at 16th and Stout for crowd control."
The EMS is now upwind from the 16th street mall.
I told you the cops were goons, and gonna beat the hell outta some people that don't deserve it.
IIRC, this 2nd version of the Freedom From Religion Foundation is up at 13th and Court. I might have the streets wrong, but it's visible from Speer, east by a few blocks from Colfax.
(Dan Caplis couldn't make enough as a two-bit ambulance chaser, so the Rocky pays this professional conservative liar to serve up more spin about Obama - promoted by Zappatero)
Echoing a smear other conservative media figures have propagated, co-host Dan Caplis of 630 KHOW-AM claimed in a Rocky Mountain News column that Sen. Barack Obama "is the most radically pro-abortion candidate in our nation's history."
Read more of Dan Caplis' lies below.......
a young hispanic State legislator named Federico Pena ran for Mayor with the campaign slogan of "imagine a Great City". Many scoffed at his campaign slogan as not having substance and only an election gimmick. Republicans and critics howled as they labeled the articulate and energetic Mexican Mayor and his coalition of progressive supporters as "Feddy and the Dreamers".
I am over at the "Big Tent." I hear that somewhere in this room Sean Penn is wandering around the room. But celebrity is in greater supply at my table than spots on the power strip, and I am going to use the electricity while I have it.
