DNC Parties Hearty!

Tonight, the official work of the Democratic National Convention is almost done. There is only one major thing to do, Barack Obama's acceptance of the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States, but there will be remarks, salutes, and entertainment preceding that.

One important presentation is a salute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, as today is the 45th anniversary of his 1963 "I have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. One line is that speech is, "Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado."

Tonight's venue is the open stadium at Invesco Field at Mile High, which can seat about 75,000. The agenda highlights includes (all subject to change, not in order of appearance, and times are EDT):

(7 - 8)
Video & Remarks - Howard Dean (former Governor of Vermont) and Chair of the Democratic Party; Tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, featuring his daughter Bernice and oldest son MLK, III; remarks by Governor Bill Richardson (NM); and live performances by will.i.am, accompanied by John Legend (piano), Agape Choir, and band; and singer / songwriter Sheryl Crow.
(8 - 9)
Remarks by U. S. Representative Mark Udall (CO), Governor Tim Kaine (VA); and Albert "Al" Gore, former Veep. Plus, a live performance by Stevie Wonder.
(9 - 10)
Retired Generals Tribute by Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration (Ret), accompanied by additional generals; remarks by a wounded Iraq veteran, John Kuniholm, granddaughter of late President Eisenhower, Susan Eisenhower, and Senator Dick Durbin (IL); plus something called, "American Voices Program" with a list of people.
(10 - 11) Video / Remarks -
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
And, perhaps, some unannounced tributes to Obama and Biden.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi who is Permanent Chair, Democratic National Convention and who opened the Convention, will adjurn the Convention.

TONIGHT'S FULL SCHEDULE. For official Obama / Biden Web site, click title of this post.

Last Night, former President Bill Clinton set the agenda for the 2008 Democratic Electoral Campaign, which will launch officially tonight with Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech. Clinton wrote his own speech. He presented the two major things that must be restored in the next four years to keep America moving forward, not slipping backward as it has in the last eight years, assuring: (A) the American Dream for every American regardless of race, gender, religion, physical or mental abilities, or sexual orientation, and (B) America's political standing among the other nations in the world.

He emphasized that we must keep our military superiority, but it is more important to lead through the example of America's principles of democracy than to use our military might as the solution to international problems. His words: Lead through example, rather than as an example.

I like to lay it out this way in broader terms. Under our unique Constitution every American is guaranteed individual freedom (vote, live, work, earn a sufficient wage, own private property, marry, procreate, travel, move, to be religious, or not, etc.) without governmental interference; a judiciary grounded in the Constitution (interprets rather than legislates); a legislature that makes laws for the benefit of all, not the few, and sets policy based upon Constitutional rights, not upon a legislator's individual values; and a Chief Executive who upholds the Constitution, setting the ultimate example for other nations based upon the overreaching A and B main points above. For the Commander in Chief, Clinton emphasized not allowing any torture, unlawful imprisonment, or denial of Habeas Corpus to any individual, citizen or not, who is connected to the U.S. in any way. By default, that includes those at Guantanamo Bay, but Clinton didn't specifically mention Gitmo. He emphasized no abuse of military personnel.

Also, last night, Senator John Carey took care of some lingering "what ifs" from the 2004 campaign, and former President Clinton confirmed former First Lady Hillary's remarks from the previous night.

I was thrilled at the reception Senator Clinton received the night before, but her husband's was stupendous. To put it bluntly, the delegates showed that they still love him, and probably wish he was their candidate this year. Using a baseball metaphor, the former President hit the ball out of the convention center many times. Way out.

Most importantly, he reaffirmed his and Hillary's overwhelming support for the nominated candidates, Senators Barack Obama and Joseph Biden. Shortly afterward, Senator Biden accepted the nomination for Vice President, and gave his acceptance speech - - good and solid just like him.

Mimi's Back!

Sorry for being away for over a month. I haven't actually been anywhere geographically, simply busy posting on my Mimi at the Movies blog, and a couple of my other movie pages. I'm usually not tardy from this blog during the height of the movie awards season, which really heats up after Christmas and climaxes with the Academy Awards®. This year everything was crowded together.

In addition, most of the political primaries were moved to earlier dates, and there was that big Super Tuesday. I voted, and pledged to myself that I was not going to post anything political until the candidates for both parties had been decided. So far, I have stuck to that. However, I am interested in following them, and that takes time, too.

The Democratic race will now probably go to the convention in June, unless either Senators Clinton or Obama get the required number of delegates to win the nomination outright. That doesn't seem likely without the votes from Michigan and Florida.

I hope the decision comes down to the convention. The TV ratings for the political conventions in both parties have been in consistent decline. It would be wonderful to have an old-time Democratic knock-down maneuvering convention like they used to be. What fun they were!

The Democrats must resolve the problem of the 300-plus votes in Michigan and Florida now lost to the candidates and the delegates lost to the Denver Convention. I think they will, but we may not know the final results of that debacle until the end of May.

There has been a lot happening in the world on which I wanted to comment, but I haven't had enough time to do it. I'll try to do better.

All Hail FOX, ABC and Walt Disney!

The Iowa caucuses are over. Obama and Huckabee are the clear winners in Iowa, but to start yelping that everyone else might as well quit now, as some media commentators are doing, is ridiculous.

What a circus of media hype. Where I live, we haven't gotten any political ads on television yet. So, counting only national news and commentary, only six candidates seemed to receive any substantial "face time" on television, receiving less on radio.

About the only ones we saw or heard about were Obama, Clinton, and Edwards on the Democrat's side and Huckabee, Romney, McCain and Thompson on the Republican's. I listed them in order as I perceived it.

Surprise. Surprise. The candidates seemed to have faired better in direct relation to the amount of exposure they received from the national broadcast media, not counting ads. Of course, I'm not in Iowa, but in the middle of the country in an adjoining state, and I'm only guessing.

However, I do hold an M.A. in Communication, and I know that big media in the U.S. can influence outcomes though purposely selecting images and words, and allocating time amount and slot to favor one candidate over another. I hope the researchers at the Annenberg Center for the Study of Journalism & Democracy are studying this, and will publish some statistics about the correlation of the amount of broadcast time, not counting ads, to winning candidates.

Fox News (owned by Rupert Murdock) prevented Dennis Kucinich, from participating in the political debate in Des Moines, Iowa, before the caucuses. Yesterday, ABC (owned by Walt Disney) announced that Democratic presidential candidates Kucinich and Mike Gravel, and Republican Duncan Hunter would not be allowed to participate on its prime-time debates tonight in New Hampshire.

The network purposely set benchmarks to narrow the participants in the debates, so much so that Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd immediately bowed out of the race after the Iowa results were announced. Are they gentlemen or quitters?

According to the AP, "Candidates had to meet at least one of three criteria: place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys."

Tonight, Republicans Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be allowed by ABC to debate. They start at 7 p.m. EST.

Shortly after their debate, which is scheduled to last 90 minutes, the ABC chosen Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Bill Richardson will take the stage for 90 minutes. ABC has chosen.

All hail FOX, ABC, and Walt Disney!

The airwaves belong to the American people. Yet, Americans must now pay a "provider" in order to obtain the programming from those airwaves, and a year from now they must have new, expensive digital receivers or they will be deprived of receiving anything. This is crazy stuff.

Even more important, never before has a network arbitrarily set rules to block Americans from making their views known in a national election. That was something unimaginable when I received a Masters in Communication, exactly 200 years after the establishment of the United States of America.

Kucinich has filed a complaint with the FCC. That won't do any good. The FCC is totally in the pockets of the huge media complex, the growth, or power grabs, of which the FCC is facilitating.

Americans want change. Well, Americans will get change, but it may turn out to be the worst kind of change.

Let's face it Americans, we are already you-know-what. This isn't an election, it's a media-driven circus.