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One of the best parts of being a member of the host state delegation at the convention is having front row seating during the convention. They didn't help my photographic skills, but I managed to get a few shots that I share with the world on the flip. Unfortunately, I 'lost' a lot of pictures while downloading to my computer. These are the ones I managed to save.
(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."
1,000 delegates to the DNC will be assisting on over 30 different metro-Denver community service projects on Wednesday, August 27th.
US Representative Diana DeGette and DNCC CEO Leah Daughtry, along with representatives from Volunteers for America, Metro Volunteers and Democrats Work, were at the Blair Caldwell Library today to announce where the delegations would be helping.
Michelle Obama, and Colorado First Lady Jeanne Ritter will be joined at the projects by a VIP list of superdelegates from around the country (including Democrats Work Advisory Board Members; President Jimmy Carter and Rep. David Price), and delegates and volunteers who want to give back to the city that has invited them into their homes.
A full list of events follows.
Update: And these are just the Denver Events! The Colorado County Captains have more events planned across Colorado. Join in on the Boulder trail blazing event or others in your home county.
Update: Sorry. Maybe Boulder wasn't the best example. One of the organizers suffered a loss in the family, and had to cancel the event.
Yes, our poor city town has huge dancing space aliens along one of it's main thoroughfares. Denver's not really a city, and is really hoping the DNC Convention will help it shed its cow-town feeling. At least from this view the space alien looks like it's welcoming everyone. Or, it's about to grab you and suck out your brain. I'm not sure which.
Unlike previous host cities that closed a large number of thoroughfares, the City of Denver's commitment to local mobility and convenience is evident in the minimal amount of closures for an event of this magnitude
Depending on which day we are talking about, and whether the event is at the Pepsi Center or Invesco, those minimal closures include parts of side streets like:
Monday's headline prime-time speaker will be Michelle Obama.
Tuesday, August 26 - Renewing America's Promise
Senator Hillary Clinton will be the headline prime-time speaker on Tuesday night.
Wednesday, August 27 -- Securing America's Future
The Vice Presidential Acceptance Speech
The headline prime-time speaker on Wednesday will be Barack Obama's Vice Presidential Nominee.
Thursday, August 28 - Change You Can Believe In
Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech
On Thursday night, the DNCC will throw open the doors of the Convention and move to INVESCO Field at Mile High so that more Americans can be a part of the fourth night of the Convention as Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination. Obama will communicate the urgency of the moment, highlight the struggles Americans are facing and call on Americans to come together to change the course of our nation.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a skirt is Chief Executive Officer of this month's Democratic National Convention in Denver.
While the media hounded Wright for his anti-American rants and while presidential hopeful Senator Barack Hussein Obama divorced him as his personal pastor, Obama's head will be crowned by Leah Daughtry, who ardently believes in the same Marxist "Black Liberation Theology" preached by Wright...
Last fall when the Republicans held a contest like this, they offered prizes to the top five, and they got a total of five entries... and one of those was this one:
From DemConWatch we learn that Bill Clinton is speaking Wednesday of the Convention. He will go just before the still anonymous Vice Presidential nominee. The best party to watch it will be at the Skylark Lounge, for Drinking Liberally Denver's 3rd anniversary.
More examples of the better part of more and better Democrats in Tennessee tonight. From Dailykos:
Who knew, Democratic voters don't want to send a bigoted, union-busting lawyer to Congress. Nikki Tinker was trounced today in the Democratic primary in TN-09. With 89% of precincts reporting, incumbent Steve Cohen leads Tinker 79% to 19%.
Hasan also told the paper the decision has nothing to do with stalking allegations made by his former girlfriend and publicist last year. No charges were filed, and the woman dropped her request for a restraining order.
This seems a weird mix for a concert during the DNC:
On Thursday, the Boulder-based radio show [Etown]announced an Aug. 26 concert at Buell Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Other musical guests scheduled to appear include David Crosby, Graham Nash and Ani DiFranco. More performers are likely to be announced in the coming weeks.
And now for your Friday Random 10
Sex Pistols - Nookie (Anarchy in the U.K.)
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes
The Fray - Hundred - should I be embarrased?
Ministry - Wkwj Why so much Ministry? Cause it revs me up.
REM - What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
The Soft Boys - (I Wanna Be An) Angelpoise Lamp
Yeah yeah yeahs - Cold Light
The Velvet Undergroud - It Was a Pleasure Then
JaciCee's diary on DailyKos points us to a ruling of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The ruling held that police who violate protesters' First Amendment rights do not have a qualified immunity shield to hide behind. The case relates to a protest in Albuquerque where police had used tear gas to disperse protesters that were allegedly blocking traffic.
Qualified immunity extends to government employees who are found to violate constitutional rights before those rights are well established in the courts.
The court determined there was "no question" that protesting a war is a constitutionally protected activity and the use of tear gas, pepper spray and physical force to disperse plaintiffs and protesters "could have chilled a person of ordinary firmness from continuing to participate in the demonstration."
The Denver police should pay close attention to this ruling, and be aware that they may be held personally legally liable for actions they take during the Convention.
Using the increased cost of covering Obama's speech at Invesco as their reason, ABC and other networks are threatening to give shorter coverage to the Democratic Convention than they are giving to the Republican Convention.
According to several broadcast executives, the networks will still cover all the major speeches. But beyond that, all options are open as they look for savings to balance out the anticipated costs surrounding the stadium event. The acceptance event is an unexpected departure from the traditional convention hall format for which they have spent months planning.
One option is to avoid running all the cables by anchoring the Convention from somewhere outside either building. The Politico story suggests that this would be desirable to the Networks because it would give them 'independence' from the Convention. I hear that there might be some group with a Big Tent that has already figured this out.
As was rumored late last week, and now confirmed, Barack Obama will be accepting the official Democratic nomination on Thursday August 28th, not at the Pepsi center, but at Invesco Field at Mile High. During a conference call, with DNC chairman Governor Howard Dean, Convention co-chair and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, and Anita Dunn, senior advisor to the Obama campaign, the three expressed their enthusiasm for this event, though understandably few details on logistics were available.
Security is of course a concern. Gov. Dean mentioned talking about this event with Denver mayor Hickenlooper. The mayor had expressed that if the Obama campaign wants to do this, they're going to find a way to do it. Of course, not all of the security details will be released. That's just the nature of security, Dean reminded.
Update - Wanna go to the speech? The Colorado Democratic Party's site has a page for signup. h/t to ColoradoIndependent
And there's even a way to get involved early, by participating or hosting your own platform meeting July 17th through 27th. Maybe we should host our own netroots platform meeting.
Today's New York Times reports that the Obama camp is unhappy at alleged mismanagement on behalf of the Convention's planners.
Only in the last month has the Obama campaign been able to take over management of the convention planning with the candidate claiming the nomination, and his aides are increasingly frustrated, as the event nears, at organizers who they believe spent too freely, planned too slowly and underestimated actual costs.
The Obama campaign has dispatched 10 people to Denver to help "get a handle on the budget and make hard decisions" about what has to be done and how to move forward, said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.
On yesterday's front page, Markos made the formal announcement about The Big Tent: space and a hang-out for the bloggerati during the Democratic National Convention here in Denver. How would you like another opportunity to hang out?
Not merely in Denver, but a mere 2 miles from Downtown, in the beautiful Baker Historic District, one of the oldest remaining residential neighborhoods in the City.
Continuing their efforts to broaden participation in the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the DNCC rolled out a preliminary list of "Convention Captains"; volunteers from counties around Colorado who will be reaching out to their areas to convene convention watching parties, community events, and service projects.
The DNCC had already planned "Delegate Service Days" where the visiting delegations would work with convention staff and volunteers from Democrats Work and other service organizations to do projects in and around the city of Denver. The "Convention Captains" will broaden out that effort to create a statewide day of service.
Captains were named for 11 of Colorado's counties, including most of the metro-Denver counties except for Broomfield. The DNCC is choosing Captains for the remaining counties and will announce them soon.
The Convention introduced the Captains at a press conference that was held by DNCC Chair Leah Daughtry, Colorado Gov. Ritter, and Kansas Governor and Convention Co-Chair Kathleen Sebelius. Notes from that conference follow...
For a couple of weeks now, I've been railing about the lack of a "donation" link on the Democratic National Convention website, especially given the much-publicized fund raising shortage by the convention "host committee". I mean, our presumptive candidate is a master at web-based fund raising. The Chairman of the DNC, the Good Doctor Dean, started the trend during his own primary run back in 2004.
I sent an e-mail to the link on the web site asking: why?
And I received an "out of office" auto-reply. Actually, it wasn't an "out of office" reply: that's just what the re: line read. It actually was a "we're far too busy to reply to e-mails" auto reply.
Now that one of the most remarkable primaries in our nation's history has concluded, attention is turning to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. In less than three months, the Mile High City and the Rocky Mountain West will host this historic event for the first time since 1908.
The Convention also coincides with Denver's 150th birthday - a
century-and-a-half of progress and innovation since its birth at the height of the Colorado gold rush. A hub of opportunity for people seeking new frontiers, people come here to Colorado seeking much more than gold these days. The spirit of visionary zeal and limitless possibility is as strong as ever in the New West. So it's fitting that as the Democratic Party marches toward its own new frontier, it will do so through Denver.
You don't have to be here in Denver - or on the Convention floor - to get in on the action though. The Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee has organized two interactive ways for people anywhere in America to get involved. We're convening a national conversation about democracy and community and invite everyone to participate.
The official route for parades is now released. The text is a little small but the route runs from Civic Center Park, west along Colfax, then along Speer up to Larimer.
Maybe Leah Daughtry was a bit optimistic when she assured a Denver resident at yesterday's town hall that getting around the city would be easy, but she wanted to make it clear that there were no traffic disruptions expected during this summer's Democratic National Convention.
Rev. Daughtry explained that the delegates would be rooted to meetings in their hotels until after the morning rush hour, would travel in shuttle buses and light rail during their mid-day commutes, and that the priorities of prime-time television would keep them in the Pepsi Center until late into the evenings.
Speculating that we would hardly notice that the Convention was here, convention CEO Daughtry told a gathering of about 100 residents and around 30 convention staff that it would be business as usual for the average commuter or diner.
Earlier, however, she outlined about a dozen very good reasons we will gladly notice that they are here, and the many ways that Coloradoans can participate in the huge event.
1,000 delegates to the DNC will be assisting on over 30 different metro-Denver community service projects on Wednesday, August 27th.
The DNCC had already planned "Delegate Service Days" where the visiting delegations would work with convention staff and volunteers from 
Maybe Leah Daughtry was a bit optimistic when she assured a Denver resident at yesterday's town hall that getting around the city would be easy, but she wanted to make it clear that there were no traffic disruptions expected during this summer's 
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