BC Student Detained by Secret Service
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Sahni, 21, "It was the most humiliating experience of my life," Sahni said. story and photo from the Boston Globe |
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But It Will Be Blogged
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Sahni, 21, "It was the most humiliating experience of my life," Sahni said. story and photo from the Boston Globe |
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During the Democratic Convention the Dowbrigade (seen here with some Basically, get over it, Bloggers. Conventional media is here to Bloggers are different. We specialize in Perspective. At an event One of our personal dreams for the maturation of the Blogosphere is Between events, we analyze, ridicule, parody, and recycle what others We will never replace conventional media, nor should we want to. We |
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As unlikely as it may seem, last night there was a rare blue moon hanging That blue moon was shining over our left shoulder like an albino basketball A caller named "Gunnar" who was a member of a motorcycle gang and an Hey Gunnar, the prospects that Kerry will repeal all helmet laws are But the caller got me thinking. The Democratic Party has nominated a What marvelous times we live in. |
Somehow, now that The Man is up on the stage, giving “the most important speech of his life”, it seems like almost an afterthought. But we came all this way, we may as well blog it.
He opens with, “My name is John Kerry, and I am reporting for duty.” This line gets big reaction. He goes on to talk about his mother….always a safe topic, and his Dad. He cadences are relaxed and the emotion is coming through.
We know that Kerry’s rep as a speaker is “arrogant” and “aloof:” but his tone and inflection always sounded pretty natural to us. This is probably due to our spending too much time in effete Eastern universities.
And yet, he seems to be missing that magical empathy with his audience of truly great public speakers. They seem to sense when the audience is about to burst into applause, and pause perfectly, to let the wave of enthusiasm wash over him before going on, as if on cue, just as the sound dies down. Kerry acts that instinctive timing, at least tonight, and occasionally hurries on onto the applause, his words lost in the previous wave of approbation.
Ohh, he just promised to appoint an Attorney General who WILL uphold the constitution, bringing the biggest reaction so far. “Outsourcing” seems to be a powerful negative buss word, eliciting a chorus of “Booos”.
Looks like he’s had some dental work lately, he;s flashing those pearly whites like he wants to show them off. He is now lauding his running mate, an obligatory nod, but it sounds sincere. Camera on Edwards, smiling, thumbs up, projected onto the Jumbotron.
He is starting to drone now, not even pausing to make sure we are still with him, half of each tag line is lost in the applause and no cheat-sheet press copy of the speech to follow along or quote as was the case with the majority of the speakers.
But the crowd seems to be eating it up. Good line “The United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to”. Why does he continue talking through the cheering? We can’t hear a word! Is he afraid if he slows down and pauses during the cheering breaks the speech will go so long people will get bored and leave? Is he on a tight schedule because of planned commercial breaks?
“I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as President.” We heard you John, you can move on now.
John just said “Help is on the Way”, which makes much more sense to us than the variation Edwards launched at us repeatedly last night, “Hope is on the way”.
“The future doesn’t belong to fear, it belongs to freedom”
One of the reasons political oratory has seen such a decline in recent years is that politicians, even obviously smart ones like John Kerry, are being forced, or are forcing themselves, to use a limited vocabulary and relatively simple syntax. Someone must have told them they need to talk in language ALL Americans can understand.
But we remain romantically attached to the idea that one of the many roles of President is to raise the level of political discourse, to educate and uplift his fellow countrymen, and to capture with eloquence and even poetry the simple yet profound songs of the American soul.
Suddenly, all around Blogger’s row, a cascade of babble in half a dozen foreign languages has broken out. There are television lights to the right of us and more to the left. What’s happening is that during these few precious minutes that Kerry is on the big stage in the background, every single foreign correspondent in the joint (most of whom seem to have been located up here in the nosebleed section with the Bloggers) wants to grab some face time on camera with The Man visible and audible in the background. They are just jabbering away a mile a minute, making it almost impossible for the Americans in the vicinity to hear the words of their next President.
C’mon guys, you don’t see the Dowbrigade going over to YOUR countries and talking during a presidential campaign speech.
Kerry is talking about jobs now, he is mixing emotional appeal and designed applause lines with a few specific details of the policies he proposes
“We WON’T raise taxes on the middle class, and I will roll back the tax cuts for the wealthy” Well, that takes care of tax policy
“Treat teachers like the professionals that they are” There’s a line a teacher has to love, although we hope that treatment includes a healthy raise.
“Now I’m going to tell you something that Teddy Roosevelt never said….go to JohnKerry.Com“
“Rather than claim that God is on Our Side, I am going to pray reverently that WE are on GOD’S side” GREAT line….
Damn, there he goes talking through the applause again, we missed a couple of points. The fact that that annoys us is a good sign, we guess. Some of the other bloggers seem to be looking at a version of the speech on their screens; maybe we missed it in our INBOX.
“Our best days are still to come” For a final, climatic line this one leaves us limp, that that is even a question smacks of whistling past the graveyard.
So it over, that’s it. The nation, and the world, has been introduced to Sen. Kerry If he can manage to keep from shooting himself in the foot over the next 100 days, he has a good chance of emerging as the most powerful man on the planet. But a lot can happen in 100 days.
We will wait a day or two before we really try to figure out what all this means and how we feel about it. Right now we are so exhausted we could sleep right here in this hard wooden stadium seat. We want to slink down the stairs and into the cool night air, and make our way home to bed and the beautiful Norma Yvonne. But first the balloons…
And here they come……..
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The secret is that the real reason we leapt at the chance to get our It must have been 1960, the first time we saw them. We would have Balloons!! Everywhere! More balloons than we had ever seen or Somewhere in our seven-year-old mind we knew that someday we would BE And now, hot damn, WE ARE THERE, and there are the balloons, wrapped |
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Another hot topic among the bloggers is the proliferation of "psuedo-blogs" Much in evidence these days, of course, are politician’s blogs. Not Politician’s blogs are invariable created, written and maintained by So the wealthier one go out and hire an established blogger (or ‘Ho, These "blogs" are barely identifiable as such, consisting mainly of More difficult to categorize are the many many blogs being created by Bloggers are reluctant to admit these journalistic blogs to their community But more importantly, they are being edited. Even if the editor We have been hanging, occasionally, with a blogger from the Philadelphia Not only the prink media is desperately delving into the blogging pool. Reporters It is becoming increasingly clear to the Dowbrigade that it is because First, we are undocumented workers, threatening their jobs by working And second, we represent the first realistic threat in decades to expose What they have been feeding us for many years is one specific world |
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Okay, here we go. Back in our seat in Blogger’s Row, where fistfights We have notes for a good half dozen As a member of the Freshman Class of Major Party Nominating Conventions, First of all, the various aggregators set up to collect and collate The buzz around the Row is that for the really astute political analyses In fact, we hope the aggregators are still up and running a MONTH from We doubt that many of the Bloggers here will also be among the anointed Plus, we absolutely MUST add the invited Republican bloggers to the The possibilities for using aggregation to collect and juxtapose information |
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In a related vein we have noted that all of the prepared speeches we If so, all we can say is that the Dems desperately need some new speech article from the New York Times
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The pre-Convention press coverage here in Boston made it sound like Understandably, locals mad They must have pulled this one a hundred times over the past few years, The forces or order cleared out 3,000 jail cells in anticipation of "The real question for me is why Boston was manipulated into believing from the Boston Globe |
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John Edwards just hit the stage, introduced by his wife. Predictably, the place went wild, although Al Sharpton created the most frenzy to date. His drawl seems more pronounced than in recent speeches. He starts by echoing Mellencamp.
“I grew up in a small town in rural North Carolina. My father worked in a mill all his life, and I will never forget the men and women who worked with him. They had lint in their hair and grease on their faces. They worked hard and tried to put a little something away every week so their kids and their grandkids could have a better life. They are just like the auto workers, office workers, teachers, and shop keepers on Main Streets all across America.”
The joint is packed tonight. The energy level has been cranked up several notches. Edward’s speech is lifting everyone up and sending waves of excited applause bouncing up and down the aisles, off the walls, into the balconies.
“And the heart of this campaign — your campaign — is to make sure that everyone has those same opportunities that I had growing up-no matter where you live, who your family is, or what the color of your skin is. This is the America we believe in.”
Lots of applause at that line. Now he is going into his “two different Americas” riff. Next he talks about “fighting for the kind of people I grew up with”, his way of spinning his years as a personal injury lawyer.
He seems to be rushing a little through this part of the speech, the specifics of the plan “John and I” have put together, mistiming his pauses and failing to anticipate the applause points. Could he possibly be nervous? Nah…..
“So now you ask how are we going to pay for this? Well, here’s how we’re going to pay for it. Let me be very clear, for 98 percent of Americans, you will keep your tax cut-that’s 98 percent. But we’ll roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, close corporate loopholes, and cut government contractors and wasteful spending.”
Big round of applause at this point. Censensus seems to be in favor of sticking it to the fat cats.
“I have heard some discussions and debates about where, and in front of what audiences we should talk about race, equality, and civil rights. Well, I have an answer to that question. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere.”
Sustained applause and chanting.
“And we will have one clear unmistakable message for al Qaida and the rest of these terrorists. You cannot run. You cannot hide. And we will destroy you.”
He delivered this line as a quiet, deadly threat, the way tough guys talk soft sometimes so people have to listen close. The crowd exploded.
“We will double our Special Forces, and invest in the new equipment and technologies so that our military remains the best equipped and best trained in the world. This will make our military stronger so we’re able to defeat every enemy in this new world.”
More subdued cheering. There may be some unrepentent pacifists in the audience.
“And together, we will ensure that the image of America — the image all of us love — America this great shining light, this beacon of freedom, democracy, and human rights that the world looks up to-that that beacon is always lit.”
Pause for applause, but his voice lacks the ringing conviction we expected. Where are the great orators of our age? Declaiming hip-hop street poetry?
“So when you return home, you might pass a mother on her way to work the late-shift-you tell her … … hope is on the way.
When your brother calls and says that he’s working all the time at the office and still can’t get ahead-you tell him … … hope is on the way.”
New tag line – “Hope is on the way” – being repeated and chanted back and forth from the podium to the floor and back again. Somewhat puzzling. “Help is on the way” is more realistic and, well, helpful, getting folks to hang in their until relief arrives. Help is something solid and real, and to be welcomed. Hope, on the other hand, is an emotion, which may or may not be realized and rewarded.
“Join us in this cause. Let’s make America stronger at home and respected in the world. Let’s ensure that once again, in our one America — our one America — tomorrow will always be better than today.
Thank you and God bless you. “
Again, a little rushed and uncertain, as if the MC were waving and pointing at his watch from off-stage. Or perhaps he is nervous about being TOO good and upstaging his boss, the candidate, even 24 hours in advance; However, when it becomes appearant that this is the end of his speech, the cheers go up and the signs start to march around the hall.
The whole family scene is now playing out on the podium, wife, kids, waving and the band in the background. The crowd seems to love it. Yet we are mildly disappointed. This is the Edwards frenzy, the charismatic pull to ballance Kerry’s ascerbic seriousness?
Compared to any self-respecting Latin American populist the speech we just heard was a tepid ten minute tease.
Time to pack up the gear and head for the Blogger Bash.
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The Show goes on. Finally, a little popular culture. John Cougar Mellencamp Unfortunately, no one seems to want to admit the farcical aspect of Or a Shakespearean double-farce, depending on one’s frame of reference. 35,000 people play-acting at selecting a candidate, going through forms Even more recently, the Conventions we remember from our youth featured The major farce, in which this Convention forms the stage-setting second Any review of this piece of work which attempts to label it a farce Now, we know that our twisted political sensibilities place us well And to our way of thinking any possible political The Democratic and Republican parties, as presently constituted, are Howard Dean alluded to this himself when he spoke with the bloggers So he did, and said, and bit down hard, and the hand ended up slapping Be that as it may, is the fact that The political This time around, however, we feel somewhat differently. When It is still almost inconceivable to me that a guy like John Kerry, a George Bush, meanwhile, basically got the US government to pay for his Hell, that sounds like the sort of thing the Dowbrigade is famous for. But In addition, although neither of these men is ready to challenge the Even though Kerry doesn’t truly "get it", his basic decency and belief Finally, and the clincher in our computations, is our increasing conviction Accordingly, and after much forethought and trepidation, (for it is never easy for a Harvard man to endorse a Yale man for the highest office in |
Back on Blogger’s Row there is an air of restrained exuberance due less, we suspect, to tonight’s speaking agenda than to the Big Blogger’s Bash later tonight at an exclusive Greek restaurant in Charlestown where we are invited to meet “the future majority leaders of Congress”. Stay tuned for a report.
Bad news on the key front. Asking at the security checkpoint where we left our Ecuadorian good luck key ring on Monday, we were informed that at the end of the night everything gets turned over to the Boston Police. Theoretically, the Boston Police have a lost key room, somewhere in the bowels of one of their fortresses, and maybe someday we will discover where it is and win our way to reclaim our lucky key ring.
But not today. In the meantime, we have found a copy of the car key, another American birthright, and since we are moving into a new apartment next week it is hardy worthwhile to make a copy of the condo key for the place we are staying. But we’ll have to go back to the souvenir stand at the Mitad del Mundo Monument outside of Quito, Ecuador, where you can stand with one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one in the Southern in order to replace our lucky keychain and bottle opener. We hope we can do that soon, because we are getting too old to be opening bottles with our teeth.