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Has anyone at the DNC even taken a minute to look into her background? If they did, they'd find this: Though Dr. Ingrid Mattson appears moderate, she is insidious precisely because she maintains that facade while steadfastly refusing to criticize radical Islamists, claiming that there is no such thing as Wahhabism and that the term "Islamic terrorism" should not be used in the media. Most shocking of all, though, is how little concern she expressed about suicide bombings in an essay she wrote shortly after 9/11. At a CNN-sponsored "town hall" forum in October 2001, Mattson — with a straight...

AMERICAN law enforcement agencies fear Barack Obama will be the target of a violent attack by white supremacists at the Democratic convention in Denver this month. Ever since the Senator for Illinois emerged as the likely Democratic presidential candidate, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups have been making racist threats. In an interview on Fox News, Railton Loy, Grand Wizard of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan International, said of Obama's presidential campaign: "I'm not going to have to worry about him, because somebody else down south is going to take him out... If that man...

Coloradans and people from the Mountain West region may get the bulk of tickets for Barack Obama's speech, but not all states are happy about it. California - the largest delegation to show up in Denver for the Democratic National Convention - doesn't just want a seat for the speech at Invesco Field, they want seats. Plural. In a big way. "With respect to size and position, we need more tickets," said Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser for the California Democratic Party. "We are 20 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to win." The Obama speech ticket giveaway took off...

Link only due to publisher request: http://www.washingtonblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=20191

Tales from the Trail Tracking the 2008 U.S. campaign July 28th, 2008 Are you going to the conventions in St. Paul and Denver? This year’s nominating conventions are poised to be some of the most exciting and newsworthy in decades. And because of new technology and online distribution, entire elections can now hinge on moments captured not by traditional journalists, but by ordinary citizens and those closest to the action. Reuters is looking for participants in a new mobile journalism project that will capture this year’s conventions from the ground up. We will be equipping attendees with video cameras, and...

DNC protesters are planning on signing a "Doo Doo Accord" today in advance of the city council meeting tonight where the plan on demonstrating. Rocky Mountain News reported: Representatives of three groups planning protests during the Democratic National Convention will be signing what they're calling a "Doo Doo Accord" in advance of a City Council meeting where an ordinance that would ban protesters from carrying certain items, such as buckets of feces, is up for final consideration. The groups — Unconventional Denver, Re-create 68 Alliance and the Alliance for Real Democracy — are calling the accord a "Non-Pooliferation Treaty." "We're...

Barack Obama has invited Hillary Clinton to give the keynote speech at the Democratic convention in Denver, suggesting she is off the vice presidential list. Clinton's speech is scheduled for Aug. 26, the 88th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote in all U.S. states, The Los Angeles Times reported. Vote Both, a group pushing Clinton as a vice presidential candidate, told its supporters in an e-mail that she is clearly out of the running and its efforts would be dropped. Adam Parkhomenko and Sam Arora, two former Clinton staffers, said that lobbying Obama when...

(Wisconsin woman writes that denying her a seat would be undemocratic) Washington - Fighting an attempt by the state Democratic Party to unseat her from next month's national convention, Clinton delegate Debra Bartoshevich said that to "strip me of my status is undemocratic." That plea is part of a letter Bartoshevich sent this week to the Democratic National Committee — her formal response to the credentials challenge. The state party moved to strip Bartoshevich of her delegate status after she told the Journal Sentinel last month that she will support Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama if Obama is...

Barack Obama is a supremely arrogant man, and he displayed that arrogance in two separate episodes. First, Obama decided to move his acceptance speech from the Pepsi Center in Denver to the 76,000 seat Invesco Stadium. Like the 'create myself a new presidential shield' embarrassment, this story shows the level of Obama's narcissism. His only consideration seems to be gratifying his own ego. Never mind the fact that the DNC is already cash-strapped for this convention, or the fact that Denver police and the Secret Service now have relatively little time to prepare a comprehensive security plan. Just ignore minor...

Do we really want these chuckleheads running our country? Some of the Democratic missteps started soon after planning for the event began. The Democratic National Convention Committee decided not to take cheap office space and instead rented top-quality offices in downtown Denver at $100,000 a month, only to need less than half the space, which it then filled with rental furniture at $50,000 a month. And in a costly misstep, the Denver host committee, early on, told corporate donors that their contributions were not tax-deductible, rather than to encourage donations by saying that the tax-exempt application was pending and expected...

Statement From DNC Chairman Dean and Convention CEO Daughtry on New York Times Sunday Story July 6, 2008 Email this Print this Blog this Digg this We are proud to stand at the helm of the finest Convention team we’ve known. As the arm of the national Party tasked with planning and organizing the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Democratic National Convention Committee has been at this for more than a year. And we take great pride in our work. That's why we were astonished to read in Sunday’s New York Times such a gross misrepresentation of the groundwork...

No more free pass for the Democrats. Join R68 and others as we march to end all illegal imperialist occupations in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Hawaii, North America, and others.............

Hold your horses their cowboy! It's not that type of fence ya'll (Yes, I said it. I'm from Texas sue me). Demos are not in support of a fence that'll keep illegal immigrants out of the country, but they are in support of a fence that'll keep undesirables OUT of their convention. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the DNC regarding the fence they have decided to set up outside their Convention arena. The ACLU is claiming that the demos attempts to keep other democrat protesters out is a violation of their 1st amendment right to peacefully gather. This...

Party officials say they're simulcasting the entire convention in Spanish. Al Garza says he's of Hispanic descent, and he's outraged. "I speak English, and I don't watch anything in Spanish...This is a nation that was founded and based on English." But Damon Jones with the Democratic National Convention says they're doing it for good reason. "Spanish is the primary language for the more than 35 million people in our country and more than 300 million around the world. So, we think it's a great message to share and a great step forward at being as inclusive as possible." Garza contends...

Denver jailers have agreed to hand over a policy-and-procedures manual that deals with the processing and treatment of detainees at the downtown jail to the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, the ACLU announced Wednesday. The handover of the manual marks a settlement in which the city pays the ACLU's legal fees of $5,000 but admits no wrongdoing, the ACLU said. The handover — due by June 25 — still could contain redacted, or blacked-out, sections, the ACLU said, which could send the matter back to court. The Denver Sheriff's Department did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Undersheriff...

<p>Denver police are stocking up on guns that fire a pepper spray-like substance instead of bullets - a less-lethal weapon used to disperse crowds - in advance of the Democratic National Convention.</p> <p>The department recently ordered 88 Mark IV launchers and projectiles at a cost "in the low six figures,"..</p>

The host committee for the Democratic National Convention faces a possible shortfall of $15 million, complicating logistics for the August event and forcing it to abruptly postpone a media walkthrough of the site scheduled for next week. The Democratic National Committee has asked the cash-strapped panel to raise $40.6 million by tomorrow to finance the event. Last month, the committee said it had just $25 million in cash, and it has failed to meet each of several fund-raising deadlines since signing a contract with the DNC last year.

Eight Denver hospitals and city police officers and firefighters are preparing for the worst today — a mass casualty, biological disaster — in anticipation of the Democratic National Convention. The incident — details of which began to surface midmorning — will involve volunteer "victims" who will be treated at area hospitals as though they were contaminated with a biological agent. Just after 9 a.m., the hospitals received a report of an "explosion" at the Pepsi Center, involving pesticides and an unknown number of injuries among 20,000 people in attendance. A few minutes later the hospital received a second report that...

Police and sheriff's departments around the metro area have committed more than 560 officers to help Denver during August's Democratic National Convention.The number likely will grow significantly, as some agreements aren't yet in place and officials at several departments refused to disclose anything about their involvement in the convention,citing security concerns.Denver police administrators are slowly locking up department-by-department commitments that will provide the city with the officers needed to patrol the streets and provide security for the convention,which is expected to draw 50,000 visitors Aug. 25 through 28.This week, the Aurora and Boulder city councils formally approved contracts to provide...

The ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit against the city of Denver today to try to force the city to disclose what kind of police equipment it is buying in preparation for the Democratic National Convention this August. Denver turned down the ACLU's request for the information about the purchase of police equipment earlier this year, saying that disclosure "could potentially disclose tactical security information of the Denver Police Department which would be contrary to the public interest." the city is actually going to spend closer to half of the $50 million on equipment and the rest on personnel. But...

The New Republic Bush's Last Laugh The Editors: On Obama vs. Clinton, Democrats need to choose or lose. In the recent history of presidential campaigning, April is the time when hope springs eternal. When every Democratic general election candidate--Michael Dukakis! John Kerry!--looks like he might have the stuff to pull off a landslide. It is the time to heal from the knocks and bruises suffered during the primary season. You raise money, you begin building a case for the fall, you vet vice presidential candidates, you start to knock around your opponent, and you still have time to head to...

The Clinton Campaign announced that it filed its full list of 119 delegates and alternate delegates in Illinois, and six are openly LGBT. The Clinton Campaign filed to place Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Illinois primary ballot. It also filed its full list of Illinois delegates and alternates who have pledged they will support her if they attend the 2008 National Democratic Convention. The LGBT delegates are: Malissa Rainey ( 2nd District ) ; Aimee A. Pine ( 5th District ) ; Tracey E. Smith ( 6th District ) ; Rocco Claps ( 6th District ) ; Jose M. Zuniga...

Denver chief asks metro agencies to send officers. Denver won't have enough cops of its own to police the 2008 Democratic National Convention, so Chief Gerry Whitman has called on suburban police departments to help carry the load. In a recent letter, Whitman asked various metro area police chiefs to pledge forces for the convention next August... Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates has responded by pledging 300 officers - 50 percent of his street force - for five days. Denver police declined to release a copy of the letter or to discuss convention security plans. "We won't talk a lot...

A city councilman expressed outrage today that the council will consider a proclamation initially drafted by a protest group that calls for restricting police tactics during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. The one-page proclamation headed for a council vote next Monday is based on a compromise version of the original statement proposed by the Recreate 68 Alliance, which is organizing protests for the 2008 Denver convention. The group's Web site vows to make Chicago's 1968 Democratic National Convention — notorious for its brutal, bloody clashes between Chicago police and anti-Vietnam War protesters — "look like a small get-together...

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) is asking appropriators for $50 million to cover security costs at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. That amount is twice as much as New York and Boston got from the federal government for the conventions they hosted in 2004. DeGette spokeswoman Brandon MacGillis said she is asking for more to ensure that the host cities have everything they need. “The hope is they won’t use all this money,” MacGillis said. New York wound up spending about $50 million on security, and Boston spent $35 million, according to figures provided by DeGette’s office. DeGette was...

The following story is the first in what will be a long series of CQPolitics.com reports on what participants in the 2008 presidential nominating conventions can expect from the host cities: Denver for the Democrats (Aug. 25-28, 2008) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (Sept. 1-4, 2008 for the Republicans). In this kickoff article, Adriel Bettelheim, the regulatory editor for Congressional Quarterly’s CQWeekly, shares his knowledge about the city recently named as the Democrats’ convention pick. Bettelheim was a business reporter and then Washington correspondent for the Denver Post from 1989 to 1998. Democrats will find Denver a welcoming, if not distinctly emblematic,...

Democrats selected Denver to host their 2008 presidential convention, turning down New York in favor of a problematic but enthusiastic bid from a city in the increasingly Democratic Rocky Mountain West. ``Given the West's winning history, it's fitting that the next president of the United States will be nominated in Denver in 2008 and will be introduced to the American people in the Rocky Mountains,'' party chairman Howard Dean told reporters on a conference call with Colorado officials. Denver mounted a spirited effort to win the convention, organizing a sophisticated public relations campaign and enlisting help from Democratic lawmakers throughout...

National Democrats announced today that they have picked Denver over New York for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. "The initial euphoria and excitement was joined by anxiety about how much work we have to do," said Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Denver's selection brings the high-profile political gathering to the Pepsi Center in August 2008 -- exactly 100 years after the city hosted its first and only national party convention. About 35,000 delegates and journalists are expected for what business leaders hope will mean a more than $160 million boon for the city. "There is no question that the West is...

Denver Might Not Find Out If It's Hosting Convention For A Few More Weeks (AP) WASHINGTON -- It wasn't long ago that cities were clamoring to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention, eager for the media attention and economic windfall such high-profile gatherings typically produce. But Democrats now face a nearly intractable dilemma, choosing between Denver -- whose bid is fraught with logistical and financial problems -- and New York, whose billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has cooled to the convention and is refusing to underwrite its costs. He reiterated his reluctance Friday, telling a radio audience: "We'd love to...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Strippers and hookers are trying to get some respect in Sin City. The so-called sex workers demonstrated yesterday on the steps of the courthouse in downtown Las Vegas. They're calling for more legal protection and decriminalization of the world's oldest profession. Starchild, a 36-year-old former Army Reservist stood amid rallying sex workers in Las Vegas on Thursday and boasted of his bid for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. "And that ballot is going to say 'escort/exotic dancer,'" he said, beaming.

WASHINGTON Feb 27, 2006 (AP)-- Eleven cities have shown interest in playing host to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, twice the number of cities that applied to get the 2004 gathering. The DNC initially sent out letters to more than 30 cities, giving them an overview and finding out their level of interest. The 11 cities that said they were interested: Anaheim, Calif.; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; New Orleans; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix and San Antonio. Some of the cities are in critical swing states like Florida and Arizona, while others are in population centers like New...

Dorismar -- aka Dora Noemi Kerchen -- has been many things: Playboy Playmate, calendar pinup, performer at a Democratic National Convention party and purveyor of sophisticated soft-core videos inspired by Girls Gone Wild. Now, she qualifies as an ''Alien of Extraordinary Ability'' -- but that legal designation may not be enough to get her back into the United States. The 29-year-old Argentine sexpot -- blessed with copious curves and a seemingly boundless capacity to promote them -- was deported with her husband/manager Alejandro Schiff on Jan. 5, after five years in Miami as an illegal immigrant and Hispanic media star....

DNC Chairman Howard Dean unofficially endorsed a move by gay Democrats to require the party to guarantee that 5 to 10 percent of their '08 convention delegates are gay or lesbian. "Of course that's a good idea," Dean said during a meeting with the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender caucus Friday evening.

Does anybody know where the Republican (or even Democrat) national conventions will be held in 2008? Has it even been decided yet?

WASHINGTON -- A Maryland congressman is urging his fellow Democrats to hold the party's 2008 presidential nominating convention in New Orleans as a signal of national support for the city after its devastating losses from Hurricane Katrina. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., made the suggestion after party officials announced that their 2008 convention will be held Aug. 25-28. Declaring New Orleans as the host city for the party's national convention, Cummings said, would demonstrate to its residents that the city "has not been forgotten." It would be reminiscent of when Republicans held their 2004 party convention in New York City to...

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said yesterday that his party's 2008 presidential convention will be held at the end of August, only a few days before the Labor Day kickoff of the general election campaign. DNC officials said Mr. Dean's decision to hold the national convention on Monday, Aug. 25, through Thursday, Aug, 28, "will allow the Democrats to host their convention after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing," which will be held in mid-August. "After consulting with Democratic leaders and recent presidential candidates, Governor Dean decided that the late August time frame was in the best interest of...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The 2008 Democratic National Convention will be held from Monday, Aug. 25, through Thursday, Aug. 28, after the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Democratic chairman Howard Dean announced Friday. Democrats will decide where they will hold the convention sometime after the 2006 midterm elections, party spokesman Josh Earnest said. Dean will appoint a committee to consider bids from various cities and come up with a recommendation, Earnest said. The late-August date will allow the Democratic nominee to raise and spend private money for almost a month longer than in 2004, when Democrats held their convention in late July...

Local Joint Terrorist Task Force investigators are keeping close tabs on a group of anarchists hellbent on creating a classless society - using armed resistance if necessary, the Herald has learned. Anarchist Black Cross Federation, an organization that FBI Director Robert S. Mueller calls an ``emerging revolutionary group,'' has active members in Boston who have distributed fliers against the war in Iraq, including one that reads: ``Synchronized bombing is a lie. But we can be more precise.'' The flier, released by Anarchist Black Cross Boston, goes on to list the address of Boston Police Headquarters in Roxbury, FBI headquarters in...

Going to a heated discussion tomorrow about CPAC paying tribute to the Swift Boat Vets and need the ammo. Thanks

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES Some of TV's major news anchors gathered on Sunday (July 25) at the Kennedy School of Government to discuss 'The Press and the Election.' Among the high-profile panelists were Judy Woodruff (CNN) (from left), Dan Rather (CBS), Jim Lehrer (PBS), Peter Jennings (ABC), and Tom Brokaw (NBC). (Staff photo Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office) On eve of Democratic National Convention, news anchors gather at KSG to discuss media and politics Shorenstein Center panel convenes Brokaw, Jennings, Lehrer, Rather, Woodruff By Beth Potier Harvard News Office A politically polarized nation and corporate concerns have applied increasing pressure on...

..... Mayor Thomas M. Menino and other convention boosters made minority inclusion a key commitment in their pitch to both the Democrats and the local business community as they sought to win a convention for Boston. To help steer contracts to these firms, Boston 2004, the host committee, compiled a directory of hundreds of small, women- and minority-owned businesses that wanted convention-related work. The vendor directory, which Menino said would be critical in helping companies benefit long after the July convention, has disappeared. .....The convention "gave nothing to the little people," said Jane Adams, president of Ambiance Limousines in Holliston,...

DISRUPTIONS The FleetCenter area is closed and mostly inaccessible. North Station and Lovejoy Wharf will close starting Friday July 23, at 8 p.m. North Shore commuter rail line will terminate at stations north of Boston with shuttle buses and subway trains providing connecting service. At Haymarket Station: - Green Line service will terminate - Orange Line is open - Bus service will not run after 3 p.m.

It was a perfect September day at the Minnesota State Fair and I was pleased to be on stage with Sen. John McCain. I was proud to be an American, active for the first time in our political process. What got me going is the "veteran phenomenon" caused by a rupturing of the wound in the American body politic called "Vietnam." That wound has never fully healed, and it started festering again when Sen. John Kerry saluted and announced to the American people that he was "reporting for duty" at the Democratic Convention in Boston. < . . . snip...

You know, the Republicans are the ones routinely denounced as "extremist" for their views on abortion, but take a look at that convention line-up, which includes lot of folks who aren't exactly fire-breathing pro-lifers: Rudy Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Laura Bush, Michael Bloomberg. Pennsylvanians should remember that not long ago, our Democratic governor, Bob Casey, was forbidden to speak at his party's convention because he wouldn't toe the line on abortion absolutism. This from the party that likes to talk about how much they love "diversity" - so long as it's their kind of diversity. Just like they like Catholics, so...

New York (CNSNews.com) - Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who was designated by the Democratic Party to lead the attack on President Bush this week, claimed Thursday that Democrats didn't turn negative at their party's convention in July. "Our convention didn't focus on George Bush, the person," Vilsack said at a Democratic press briefing. "We hardly even mentioned President Bush. What we talked about was how we could help ordinary Americans." Statistics compiled on certain Democrats' speeches in Boston tell a slightly different story. The Republican National Committee kept track of the comments and released a minute-by-minute breakdown of the speeches'...

It seems Sen. John Kerry made a strategic error in so strongly emphasizing his Vietnam service in his convention speech accepting the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Christine IversonNew York - RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke made the following statement today: "The DNC convention in Boston chose to look backwards past any discussion of Senator Kerry's 20 year Senate record so it's difficult to take their effort in New York seriously. But Democrats like those inside the Fleet Center have a right to be outside Madison Square Garden and the DNC is no different. Flipper the dolphin will be on hand to make them comfortable and help ensure a safe experience."

A storm of police clubs slams into protesters, who recoil clutching at bloody wounds. Tear gas casts an ominous fog around officers in blue helmets and riot shields. Nervous politicians lose control while screaming left-wing radicals and credentialed news reporters get beaten to the ground. The media burned these images of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago into our consciousness at the same time Americans came to realize just how much the Vietnam War was tearing the nation apart.         Troops Braced for Battle Anti-war activists had planned a peaceful, six-day festival of alternative lifestyles in the city’s parks, with...

Armed to the teeth for a DNC disaster that never happened, Boston police are sitting on a weapons stockpile of stun grenades, projectile launchers, rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas they may never use in a real-life crisis. Footing the bill: federal taxpayers. The city so far has submitted $1.9 million in expenses, including roughly $540,000 in police and fire overtime and $1.4 million for supplies and equipment, to the feds. The police department bought more than $160,000 worth of crowd-control firepower - including nearly $14,000 worth of ``Stinger'' rubber-ball-and-tear-gas-spewing concussion grenades - for a political shindig that...

More on the bounce that wasn't Something strange happened a week or two after John Kerry was nominated for president in Boston: President Bush went up in the polls. Not just in his job approval polls, but also in the head-to-head polls that now show him running ahead of the Massachusetts liberal. Presidential nominees usually get a pretty decent bounce in the polls after a week of nationally-televised self-promotion at their conventions; but Mr. Kerry did not. His national numbers rose an anemic 5 points or so (more in some of the key battleground states), but that bounce quickly fell...