DNC Day 6

I didn't get much sleep last nite (15 minutes of meditation) 'cuz I helped transcribe video for the multimedia folks, then at 6AM (NOT one of my favorite times) I went to the lobby to help with handing out the INSIDE/OUT publication (see previous blog posting) to the delegates.

I ended up not going out, but stayed up for awhile with some folks in the kitchen where I was making breakfast. I made some sort of joke about therapists, whereupon the lady in the room with me said that *she* was a therapist; who was *I* to make a commment about therapists (tongue in cheek). My answer, "a patient", got a smile and broke the ice.

Nice way to start the morning conversationally :-)

I then ended up napping until around 2, at which point Jan Wheeler and I decided to go to see the Take Back America program which featured Dean and Michael Moore over near MIT. The hotel presentation room only accomodated 300 people which was of course filled very quickly.

And we were late to the event and missed Dean inside. We didn't realize that when he finished his presentation he ended up going "out back" to an area that was between the hotel and the waterfront.

We tried to go in to see Michael Moore but again were told that the venue was full. However, on the "off chance" that he would also go out back eventually we made our way to the rear of the hotel. After a few speeches by the head of the UAW (John ?Wheeler? I think), a congresswoman from Indiana (first name Jan), another guy took the stage. I didn't hear his name, but apparently he was an MC who spoke on a number of topics of general interest (one was the high percentage
of single women who don't vote). After a while, he identified some media folks in the audience and had them come up to speak while waiting for MM.

First was Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine. I've seen her on a number of talk shows and have been meaning to subscribe based on her appearances. She's very eloquent and spoke on a number of topics, one of which was the lack of coverage by the "mainstream media", a topic obviously apropos to MM.

Next up was Amy Goodman of Democracy Now (http://www.democracynow.org/). She's on NPR daily (including the Pacifica station in Houston) and now on satellite and cable stations.

She also spoke of the (lack of) media coverage of Iraq and in particular the "drumbeat for war".

She also mentioned a very moving story about a soldier who served honorably in Iraq but performed a number of missions that resulted in the deaths of a number of civilians. He surived Iraq and had an honorable discharge but after one year committed suicide due to depression over his actions.

She was going to continue to even more moving serious topics but graciously stepped aside when Michael Moore came out.

He acknowledged her courtesy in letting her have the stage and then began speaking.

He spoke about Fahrenheiit 911 (F911) (naturally), emphasizing that the #1 reaction he got from people who had seen it was "why didn't we see this before"? Examples: eggs thrown on the Presidential limousine during the inauguration, the aftermath of some of the battle scenes in Iraq, and the famous scene of President Bush simply staring and then continuing to read a children's story after he heard about the attacks (he was in a school at the time).

On this latter event, Michael Moore obtained the footage at the schoolroom by simply going to the school and asking if anyone had videotaped it. Apparently *no one* in "the media" had even bothered to ask, and that piece of home video was one of the major scenes of F911.

His point: with a crew of independent cameramen and very little effort he was able to obtain and/or shoot video that *NO* media outlet had produced. His conclusion: the media is either controlled or very lazy.

He then went on to ask : do you hold your neighbors in contempt for their supporting the war and then changing their minds later on? The answer was a resounding "NO".

So then how do we continue to criticize the congress(wo)men and senators who initially supported the war and now oppose it?

And why is it not publicisized that 60% (yes, he repeated this statistic) of Democrats voted against the authorization for war?

And why did senators and congress(wo)men alike vote in a majority? Because they trusted the President, as it should be.

He asked a rhetorical question: "If we can't trust our President then what are we left with?"

At this point he had a "pregnant pause" .. I shouted out "CHENEY!". He did a double-take, looked over and pointed at me, and said "hey I'm just the warmup act! You'll be on next!" :-) and then continued on with his talk.

So I actually had a interaction of sorts with MM!!!!! I'm thrilled ...

He then went on to say that he ran into Bill O'Reilly of Fox News (he of the "O'Reilly Report") at a theatre somewhere, and that Bill R. had left before the movie was over.

O'Reilly has been after MM for awhile to appear on his program; MM agreed to appear on the "O'Reilly Report" if Bill R. would watch to the end of the movie.

Yesterday (Monday) MM ran into O'Reilly and this time O'Reilly said that he had gone back and seen the movie in its entirety (according to MM, apparently O'Reilly's wife loved the film ). MM gave him quiz on the spot (3 questions) all of which O'Reilly did not answer correctly.

But O'Reilly had an hour or so to kill and so MM agreed to appear anyway, under three conditions:

1) O'Reilly would agree *not* to turn off MM's microphone at any point (this happened on an OR interview awhile back, with a fairly famous liberal guest who Bill O decided had to be shut down).
2) For every question O'Reilly asked, MM would be able to ask one in return. OR's initial response was: "No one *ever* interviews *me* on *my show*, and MM said "OK, too bad" and then started to walk away.

OR then capitulated.
3) For condition #3, understand that both OR and MM have daughters.
The condition: OR had to answer ON CAMERA the following question:

"Would you sacrifice your daughter to secure Fallujah (?sp?) Yes or no?"

The interview was taped last night (Monday) and was aired today (Tuesday) at 8PM EST. We got back to the dorm in time to catch the very tail end of the program (I had Karen & Elise both tape the show back in Texas). The last part of the interview was when MM posed question #3.

OR refused to answer. MM said without hesitation: "I would *not* sacrifice my daughter to secure Fallujah".

Of course, the point is that there is a disproportionate number of disadvantged and minorities in the population of the frontline military, and why is it that only those seem to go to war?

He stated that he was not a Democrat, more of a "cousin", but that he felt it necessary to come to the DNC to try to get the Democrats to get a backbone and take a strong stand on civil rights, the war, and the controlled media. If the Democrats feel they need to move more to the right to win the election, then they're trying to become the party of the Right, and they already *have* a party! (Republicans!)

Finally, he said that the media definitely wasn't doing its job and that he had personally spoken to a number of news organizations who said (off camera) that certain stories were off-limits for coverage. He gave a specific example of a post-interview conversation with the crew of Matt Lauer's program on MSNBC.

After Matt L. had left the room and gone down the hall, the camera crew closed the door and told MM that they had personally seen memos stating that certain topics were not to be discussed and that producers who tried to cover "off-topic" stories were summarily moved to other parts of the organization.

He then started a chant of "DO YOUR JOB!" to the media and we all joined in.

In person he came across to me as being the same as on his TV appearances; a *bit* brash but one who is not afraid to ask hard questions nor afraid to answer them (this is a Good or Bad thing depending on your opinion of MM).

I have about 10 pictures (or so) of him not 10 feet from me. Wish I had a shot of him *with* me, but he had to rush off to another engagement.

On the way back we went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory and met some folks there who are working on the Electronic Voting Machines veriability issue. I got the card(s) of some of the ladies, one of whom said that an Amicus Brief has been filed in Ohio against Diebold. Since I have their contact info I'll probably be talking to them when I get back.

We all watched the convention on CSPAN in the lobby of the dorms. We got in after Dean had spoken but caught Barak Obama, the new up-and-coming senator from Indiana. He was quite charismatic and impressive; I can see why the Democrats featured him as a keynote speaker.

Next up was Teresa Heinz Kerry. I admit I haven't been following her much other than short bits on CNN, but a brief bio preceded her speech to the convention. Very impressive political resume, including a longtime activist in environmental and philanthropic areas. She was very eloquent in statements and even demonstrated (in passing) her command of five languages (English/French/Spanish/italian/ ???) And she stressed that she believed in John Kerry and made it very clear (by her presence, certainly) that she would definitely be highly active in a Kerry adminstration.

CSPAN did something somewhat amusing: after several key points were made the camera took a quick shot of Hillary Clinton. She appeared somewhat dour/sour and (perhaps) a bit envious.

For more details of today's event as recorded by the DNC see the DNC BLOG at:

http://www.democrats.org/blog/

Geez, if *I* had gotten a Convention Floor Pass for blogging I think I would have done a bit more ... hey, waitaminnut! Maybe I already have ! :-)

Last dorm event: a bunch of us watched the latest Daily Show in the lobby. They did their usual great job of absolutely skewering the Democratic Convention while showing *all* the high points (I know they did, I was there for 4 hours and they condensed the essentials into about a 3-4 minute segment). A lot of the Kucinich folks had never really paid attention to DS (some had), and I certainly was glad to see so many people be surprised as to how good DS (and Jon Stewart and crew) are at the "fake news".