Perhaps the best lecture series offered at the Convention is the one sponsored by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). A close second may be the Progressive Democratic Coalition (I could be wrong on the name). At the AMT yesterday Representative Keith Ellison spoke about "Strategies for Battleground States" but his powerful speech also touched on the difficulty of being Muslim in America. He defended Islam as not only compatible with democracy but also argued that it is compatible with equal rights for women. Many questions were asked by attendees from all over the country and the world. Rep. Ellison argued that the continued fight in Afghanistan will be lost if it is only pursued as a matter of military force. He said many other interesting things and proved himself to be smart savvy and possibly a rising star in the Democratic Party. Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now spoke later in the day on "How the Corporate Media has failed the American People." Today's slate includes a lecture by Rep. Dennis Kucinich who will be speaking on "Ending the War in Iraq Now" and tomorrow Rep. John Conyers will discuss "Undoing the damage of the Damage Done by the Bush Administration."
On to the Convention: everybody must be familiar with the fantastic speech Hillary gave. I don't think anyone can seriously maintain any longer that she has not thrown her full support behind Barack. Thank goodness. Montana Governor Schweitzer was great as was PA Sen. Casey and again Dennis K. If you didn't watch it live, check it out on Youtube becuz he was on fire shouting "Wake up America!!!" Pretty good stuff.
This morning's breakfast lectures included Senators John Kerry and Clare McCaskill who said it was time to get outside "your comfort zone." She said that up until now many have been willing to talk to their friends and co-workers about Obama but now in the next 70 days, we need to talk to and engage with strangers too. She said that shyness is no longer an excuse and that McCain's strategy is plainly about trying to scare people about Obama. (Has anyone noticed that the RNC website doesn't even mention John McCain?) She said that the Republicans have nothing except fear to run on and then she urged us all to regard the urgency of NOW. The crowd was pumped up and breakfast ended at exactly 10am.
Time for a nap.
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