The Democratic National Convention Reaction

[CelticMuscle]

What's been your reaction to the debates in Boston this week?

[brent]

Odd poll choices. I was going to vote for Kerry, and now after listening to much of the platform being rolled out, I am even more resolute in that decision. Bush allowed 9/11 to happen, and IMHO that's enough reason to get rid of him. As for speeches, I have to go with Rev. Sharpton. His speech was so inspiring, I may have to see if I can become an honorary african american.

[glammaman2000]

where was"i'd vote Democratic if they nominated a jujube"?good to see Bill again,though(didn't he look well?)

[BigSteve6ft3]

I'm with Brent and glammaman on this one. There are definitely some poll choices missing. Such as:

"No, the DNC didn't change my mind, because I had firmly made up my mind to vote for Kerry long ago."

As far as speeches go, I think both Kerry and Edwards gave pretty respectable ones.
I had been a bit disappointed at the Democrats' decision to avoid outright Bush-bashing during the convention, since there's so much that needs to be openly bashed instead of swept under the rug. So I was glad to hear Kerry hit, however briefly, some of the major anti-Bush points in his speech tonight.

[brent]

When I heard that they wouldn't be Bush bashing I was upset too. After all, it's one of my favorite sports! However, after hearing the inspiring speeches, and ideals, I think Kerry made the correct decision. the DNC seemed like one high note after another. When it comes to negativity, the GOP will win every time. So it's best that the convention focused on ideals, where they can't match us!

PS I still think Sharpton was the best.

[ethernet_jock]

I didn't pay any attention at all to the DNC as I rarely pay attention to such things anyway. Generally it's just a big party for those guys to kick their campaigns in high gear and they tend to contain very little good information.

Basically - the day I heard (many months ago) Kerry say something along the lines of "We need to quit building firehouses in Baghdad while shutting them down here"... that was about all I needed. I know that Sadam Hussein was a very bad man and I know that he needed to get his ass kicked... but beyond that... those people don't want us over there. They don't need us, and we're not helping... our kids are dieing every single day for this shit... for what? It's time to come home and work on some domestic policy any president that brings our kids home to defend our country instead of someone else's oil is a president I want to see in office.

So yeah - I'm with Brent... had already made up my mind.

[Mdlftr]

I saw Kerry on TV last night

His speech was great: upbeat, positive, and had plenty of info on his positions and "who he is."

I defy Bush to find 12 people who can stand up in public and say that they ever saw him in Alabama during his National Guard duty!

Re: lack of Bush bashing at Dem Con: While I enjoy blood sports as much as the next guy ( ) it's time for Kerry and Edwards to take the high road and continue to show America what they stand for, and what they will bring to the Presidency.

Instead of focusing on failed policies of the past, they are telling us (and the undecided voters) what will be in the future in their administration.

All Bush can do, strategically, is continue his politics of negativity and hope that he can get Kerry's negatives down below his. Most Americans are not happy with Bush's job performance as CinC. The Democratic job now is to convince the undecided voters to vote FOR something positive, like Kerry-Edwards, and not just AGAINST Bush-Cheney.


Mdlftr

[glammaman2000]

if Bush had served in the National Guard,people would have remembered him for the same reason Paula Jones remembered Clinton's dick(&she'd seen plenty)HE'S THE FRIGGIN'PRESIDENT!"wasn't he that guy in the back of class who kept falling asleep?"

[Mdlftr]

Originally Posted by glammaman2000

if Bush had served in the National Guard,people would have remembered him for the same reason Paula Jones remembered Clinton's dick(&she'd seen plenty)HE'S THE FRIGGIN'PRESIDENT!"wasn't he that guy in the back of class who kept falling asleep?"

...and who was two brain lobes short of sentience?!

[couldn't resist the low road!]

Mdlftr

Whenever I see Bush speak I can't help but notice the resemblence to interviews with TV wrestlers... Words come out in groups of three or four... or five if he's in top form. Is he trying not to over tax our listening ability or can't he hold thoughts any longer than that?

[glammaman2000]

...is that i can't listen to him speak!he's reading from the teleprompter(the edjimication president)&he can't form a complete sentence!"the evil evildoers do evil doings to do deeds that evil "...AAAH!it sounds intelligent,IF YOU"RE IN THE 3RD GRADE!it's like having Lassie as commander-in-chief!("i think he's trying to tell us something..?")&of course,afterwards,his handlers can say,"what he said wasn't what he meant,what he MEANT was..."they got away with that one with Reagan,&at least he could memorize a script!i hear Kerry speaks French.English,too!

[brent]

My big complaint is that he always talks down to you. It's like that's how people explain things to him, so that's how he explains things to us. "You see, Sadam was a bad man..." I am no longer 3, stop treating the whole nation like we all are 3 years old!

I think it cycles around to the idea that he's not really the President at all, he'd been groomed as the heir apparent by his handlers and was thrust into the position by the political machinery and they're still pulling the strings. Poor stupid little man anxious for immortality as the President who solved the world peace problem but he's just enabled the military industrial complex to gain more power, really boogered up the international political situation and damaged our nation's reputation forever. He must be removed.

[brent]

Originally Posted by LeatherGryphon

I think it cycles around to the idea that he's not really the President at all, he'd been groomed as the heir apparent by his handlers and was thrust into the position by the political machinery...

If I've said it once, I've said it several thousand times: I want to see Bush talk, while Cheeney drinks a glass of water. I'm wondering if you'd only hear gurgling?

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by ethernet_jock

Generally it's just a big party for those guys to kick their campaigns in high gear and they tend to contain very little good information.

I was there. Yep -- big party. Got about 4 hours sleep a night, met lots of important people, had a blast and now have lots of work to do. Oh, and I have to write some more stories for this site

For those interested, I was also honored to receive National Stonewall Democrats "Stonewall Leadership Award" this year. I was speechless, which is saying something for me. It was a total surprise.

I'm gay. GWB and the Republican party have done nothing for me but devalue my citizenship. 86% of Democrats in the House voted against the court-stripping bill titled the Marriage Defense Act, while 92% of Republicans voted for it. 95% of Democrats in the Senate voted against the FMA, while a similar proportion of Republicans voted for it. The poll-taker can talk about business and money, but I know which political party and which political candidate will represent me. I AM AN AMERICAN and I will not be relegated to second-class citizenship without a fight.

'nuff said,

Scott

[glammaman2000]

for representin'.

[brent]

Originally Posted by Corwin

...The poll-taker can talk about business and money, ...
Scott

Scott, you are one of my heros. I wish I had the time to be more active. However, I want to dispel this myth that Republicans are good at handling the economy. Look at how well the economy did under Clinton, and how badly it performed under Reagan, and both Bushes. These polls are created by right-wing nuts like CNN's Bill Hemmer, or Fox's Bill O'Riely, to mislead the public into thinking the Republicans know anything about running an economy. Let's not hand them this issue either.

[viamanmax]

The economy appeared to be health but was actually failing during the clinton years due to overvaluation of many technology companies. Right during the end of the clinton years caused the economy to fall to slightly below what its value should have been. In the last year our economy has improved more than it has in any of the last twenty years. One can only blatently say that bush killed the economy if one also blatently ignores the facts.

[glammaman2000]

any serious person in the financial services industry knew that the tech bubble was pure speculation.(the stock kept going up because the stock kept going up:it had nothing to do with the REAL value of the companies)but Bush decided to blow the Clinton surplus(the 1st since WWII!)in a mad vote-buying scheme(given that he JUST squeaked in)he could have saved it for a rainy day.& THEN IT RAINED!let's open up the Mexican border,let's put Social Security in the stock market,let's cut off birth control to poor countries where they have more kids than teeth&want to kill US because their kids are dying&they know we have money!let's give a tax break to businesses that buy an SUV(but only the REALLY BIG gas-guzzling ones.."the Bush energy policy"!)let's drop the Kyoto treaties&the nuclear test bans so we can re-write them&take credit for it OURSELVES!(that'll make friends)i could go on&probably will...

[brent]

Originally Posted by viamanmax

... In the last year our economy has improved more than it has in any of the last twenty years. One can only blatently say that bush killed the economy if one also blatantly ignores the facts.

Yeah, facts like Clinton had interest rate increase after rate increase, I don't think the breaking tech bubble would have been near as bad if Greenspan could have eased off the rate increases for a while. Then Bush comes into office. He got 13 consecutive rate decreases, he was able to spend like no president like ever before. Bush turned Clinton's surpluses into record deficits, he will be the first president since Hoover to loose jobs, I know a bunch of people that have lost jobs in the last year, and there are members here being laid-off. What facts should I stop ignoring? Maybe you should do some real research of your own, and not depend of Fox or CNN.

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by brent

Yeah, facts like Clinton had interest rate increase after rate increase, I don't think the breaking tech bubble would have been near as bad if Greenspan could have eased off the rate increases for a while. Then Bush comes into office. He got 13 consecutive rate decreases, he was able to spend like no president like ever before. Bush turned Clinton's surpluses into record deficits, he will be the first president since Hoover to loose jobs, I know a bunch of people that have lost jobs in the last year, and there are members here being laid-off. What facts should I stop ignoring? Maybe you should do some real research of your own, and not depend of Fox or CNN.

Don't forget the unemployment rate -- 2 million jobs lost and the jobs that are being created don't have the same standard of living as the jobs lost. Personally, if we are going to blame prior administrations, I think we ought to blame George Washington for everything.

Personally, economic issues are secondary to everything else in this election. This is an administration that tramples on civil rights, detains people with no access to counsel or the courts, advocates torture, uses fear to divert the American public's attention, lies, went to war against a country that was no threat to us because of a personal vendetta, and has divided the American people like never before.

Hitler and Mussolini may have made the trains run on time, but I wouldn't want to have them as our President. And there are more similiarities between their regimes and the current regime for my comfort.

Scott

[brent]

Originally Posted by Corwin

...Personally, economic issues are secondary to everything else in this election. This is an administration that tramples on civil rights,...
Hitler and Mussolini may have made the trains run on time, but I wouldn't want to have them as our President. And there are more similiarities between their regimes and the current regime for my comfort.

Scott

Good point about economics being down the list this election. I am just sick of, "Well I support the Dems on social issues, but I have to vote Republican, because of the economy..." Interesting that you'd mention Hitler, I've heard for many people that GWB's grand daddy was Hitler's banker. Anyone have info on this?

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by brent

Interesting that you'd mention Hitler,

Godwin's law.

[glammaman2000]

on the horizon is pension funds.every cultural institution,every university,every hospital invested their endowment in the stock market.EVERY PENSION FUND!when the tech bubble burst,these funds lost,on average,1/3 of their value!the companies are required to make up this loss.IF THEY FAIL,the government(=taxpayers)has to make up the difference.American Airlines is already threatening to default on pensions as a way to avoid another bankruptcy.this could easily domino its way through the economy.WHOEVER the next president is,they'll have to deal with this.

[brent]

I just went to the Kerry Edwards office in my neighborhood, and signed up. I start volunteering tomorrow. Weird schedule? That's OK, we have... data entry... I'll tell you how it goes, for now I'm knee high in KE paraphernalia.

[Corwin]

G... I don't do finances -- I need SOME time to work out....

B.... buttons, bumper stickers, etc I have.... I'm on a big fundraising kick right now. Oh wait, that's almost like finances isn't it.

BTW... has anyone else noticed that Chris Heinz has a great chest?

Scott

[BigSteve6ft3]

Scott and Brent,

Hats off to you guys for getting involved and being willing to roll up your sleeves to help Kerry/Edwards get elected.

It is absolutely imperative that Dubya and his gang of criminals be removed from power. I truly fear for the future of democracy in America if those self-serving thugs manage to hold onto power for another four years.

Way to go, guys!

Steve

[brent]

FYI, Apple has posted all the DNC: 2004 speeches for free downloads on iTunes , brought to you by audible and C-Span . You will need iTunes, which is a free download for users of Widows XP/2000, or Mac OSX.

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by brent

FYI, Apple has posted all the DNC: 2004 speeches for free downloads on iTunes , brought to you by audible and C-Span . You will need iTunes, which is a free download for users of Widows XP/2000, or Mac OSX.

Barney Frank's speech was awesome, as usual. I liked Al Gore's speech -- he was funny. Jimmy Carter gave a good speech, but I thought his deliver could use more UMPH! Clinton was good, as was Obama and Sharpton.

Scott

[brent]

Since I had to work through out the week of the DNC, I couldn't hear all the speeches. Of the ones I heard, I like Rev. Sharpton the best. If you watched one of the cable news channels, you probably couldn't hear the speeches over the right-wing pundits (thank you God for C-Span). Also, many americans didn't have the time right then to listen to every speech. So now the rest of us can listen to them as we want for free, at our convenience! Burn them to CD for the car, export them to .MP3, or load them up on your iPod. How you want to listen to them is up to you, but I think every American should listen. The 911 Commission's report is also available for $7, but all the hearings are free. I'm still not a big enough nerd (yet) to listen through an audio version of the report. Yet...

[glammaman2000]

...we think bush is an asshole.assholes think"he's one of US!"he IS the great unifier!

[brent]

Thanks Glam, that's as funny as Kerry thanking Bush for, "Sending out the goons, who help motivate us."