The Hollywood Liberal

Late Late Nite FDL: Unconventional Love
Bless their little dark hearts, the Republicans don’t know what to do about the timing of of the RNC with the possibility of a hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast. How dare American citizens in need get in the way of a GOP Gala! With that in mind, from the bottom of my tie-dyed little DFH heart, I thought I would help them out tonight and suggest

Suggested RNC theme song, B.B. King - Nobody Loves Me But My Mother & How Blue Can You Get?

 RNC Dance lesson, with music by - Stereo Total

Bless their little dark hearts, the Republicans don’t know what to do about the timing of of the RNC with the possibility of a hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast. How dare American citizens in need get in the way of a GOP Gala!

With that in mind, from the bottom of my tie-dyed little DFH heart, I thought I would help them out tonight and suggest an RNC theme song as well as provide quick dance lesson. 

What’s on your mind tonight?

Crackdown Begins: Food Not Bombs House Among Saturday Raids Ahead of RNC
The police assault on civil liberties takes an early start ahead of the RNC.

McCain To Be In German Restaurant While Obama Gives Berlin Speech
Not sure what to make of this. While Obama gives his historic speech in Berlin today, John McCain will be lunching in a German restaurant in Ohio. Farah Hice, a hostess at Schmidt’s Restaurant and Sausage Haus in Columbus, just…

Election Central Morning Roundup
CQ changes its ratings on 14 House races — 12 in the direction of the Dem. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup….

The Week In Blog: DNC Edition

Heritage Foundation’s Conn Carroll and I did our regular The Week in Blog segment for bloggingheads.tv from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where we discussed the immense blogging activism and activity outside the convention hall, and I repeatedly banged my head against a desk when futilely trying to explain clean energy policy to a conservative.

Watch it below.

Top Alaska Republicans puzzled by Palin pick.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that the state’s leading Republicans are expressing shock and bewilderment over John McCain’s selection of their governor as his running mate: State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news. “She’s not prepared to be governor. How […]

The Anchorage Daily News reports that the state’s leading Republicans are expressing shock and bewilderment over John McCain’s selection of their governor as his running mate:

State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news.

“She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?” said Green, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?” […]

State House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was astonished at the news. He didn’t want to get into the issue of her qualifications.

“She’s old enough,” Harris said. “She’s a U.S. citizen.”

What Doesn’t Obama Want Us to Know?
It’s hard to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it, so many are amazed the Obama campaign is trying this technique. The fire Sen. Obama wants to douse was small until his aides arrived with gas cans. For months, conservatives have been trying to direct attention to the relationship between Mr. Obama and William Ayers. Bill Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, which planted bombs in the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon during the Vietnam war. He went on the lam after a nail bomb his group was building to kill soldiers and their wives at a dance at Fort Dix went off prematurely, killing three of the conspirators.

The Transformation of Obama
WASHINGTON — The setting invited comparisons to John F. Kennedy. The anniversary invited comparisons to Martin Luther King Jr. The stage invited comparisons to Zeus. The remarks themselves invited comparisons to every Democratic stump speech of the last 20 years. In substance, Barack Obama’s convention speech could easily have been given by Al Gore or John Kerry — and, in various forms, was given by Kerry and Gore. It was all in there: the lunchbox economic populism — based on the assumption that most Americans are filling their lunchboxes with scraps from dumpsters. The attacks on corporations, millionaires and other sinister job creators. The touching faith in the power of diplomacy.

Government Conclusions on Guantanamo Deaths Do Not Absolve Government of Responsibility
New York, NY – Late last week, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) released more than 3,000 pages of documents concerning its investigation into the deaths of three detainees at Guantanamo Bay on June 10, 2006.  The NCIS report concludes that the detainees – Saudis Yasser al-Zahrani and Mani al-Utaybi, and Yemeni Ali Abdullah Ahmed Naser al-Sulami – died as the result of suicide. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) just obtained a full copy of the report and will be working in the coming days to present an analysis of the government’s findings.

read more

LLN FDL - DNC Pirate Radio: A Change Will Do You Good
Sheryl Crow - A Change Would Do You Good. 

What’s on your mind tonight, matey?

Sheryl Crow - A Change Would Do You Good. 

What’s on your mind tonight, matey?

Reconstruction After Katrina: Brazen Housing Discrimination Continues
White parishes are zoning minorities out of neighborhoods all over New Orleans.

McCain: The Foam on the Surge
The Columbus Dispatch has an interview with John McCain yesterday, in the course of which he doubled down on his bet that the only thing he has to say is smear itself: I will repeat my statement again, that [Obama]…

Obama In Berlin
The speech: Late Update: TPM Election Central analyzes the speech here….

Obama?s speech watched by 38 million viewers.
Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) acceptance speech last night reached a quarter of America’s households, according to Nielsen Media Research. In all, with over 38 million viewers, “more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final ‘American Idol’ or the Academy Awards this year.” The AP notes that “Obama’s audience […]

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) acceptance speech last night reached a quarter of America’s households, according to Nielsen Media Research. In all, with over 38 million viewers, “more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final ‘American Idol’ or the Academy Awards this year.” The AP notes that “Obama’s audience might be higher,” since Nielsen didn’t estimate how many people watched on PBS or C-SPAN.

The Right Choice for McCain
The Republicans’ presumptive nominee for president, John McCain, could make an audacious and unprecedented statement Friday. He could electrify this already-historic presidential race by selecting a vice presidential nominee who possesses bona fide economic expertise rather than standard Washington dribble. He could pick a person who would inject curiosity and excitement and instantly shift the focus from Barack Obama to St. Paul, Minn.

Palin’s VP Selection Speech
Dayton, Ohio

OK I guess I will have to do this myself if I want to get anything done: I’m throwing my hat in the ring.
I’ve already been featured on the news, check it out. ( Press the play button to view)

full size version here.

The Hollywood Liberal for President

Hillary Clinton’s Speech Had Highest Ratings
Nielsen just released its ratings for the third day of the Democratic National Convention.  The key takeaways are:

• Bill Clinton and Sen. Joe Biden drew more viewers (24 million) than Michelle Obama (22.3 million) — but fewer than Sen. Hillary Clinton (26 million).
• Older viewers (age 55+) continued to dominate the TV audience Wednesday night, with 18.1% of all Americans in that age group — 12.5 million people — tuning in to the convention coverage.

VIDEO — Thuggish Cops Arrest ABC News Producer
See for yourself. Ugly stuff.

As Jane noted yesterday,

Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown’s Palace Hotel.

… Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a series of Money Trail reports on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

See for yourself. Ugly stuff.

(video via scarce)

SUPERTRAIN
The stop outside the Pepsi Center was shut down, but I believe it will be possible to take the SUPERTRAIN to Invesco Field this evening. Actually, I mean this afternoon as apparently we’re supposed to arrive way early.

Plan B Damned: My Quest for Emergency Contraception
Unless you have Plan B in your medicine cabinet, it’s highly unlikely you’ll get your hands on a morning-after pill the morning after.

Are Organic Foods Getting Too Pricey for the Middle Class?
Even Whole Foods and its upper-middle-class customers are feeling the pinch.