Monday Afternoon

Old news, as Your Humble Blogger is aware, and it’s not even News You Can Use. Still, here are my notes from the early part of Monday.

Before I start, though, may I point out that there are three stages of ‘public’ at this thing: the hour that’s on the networks, which will be watched by many millions of people, the two hours before that on PBS, which will be watched by a few million people, and the three hours before that on C-Span, which will be watched by a handful of nutbars like myself, and a few people trying to decode the third-letter-of-every-fourth-word alien mind-control messages. Closed captioning helps. Anyway, since I pay for broadband rather than cable, I streamed the video, which not only meant that the inevitable technical problems denied me the first half-hour including the invocation, but also that I had to take notes with a pen on paper like some sort of wild animal in the wilderness. So here are my notes, in the unpleasant bullet-point format...

• There’s a big difference between the ready-for-prime-time speakers and the not so much. People are shouting, sounding shrill. Of course, they’re talking into a huge arena that is three-quarters empty, and people there are walking around and chatting with each other, paying little attention to the speaker. Good practice for the Senate, I suppose.
• Rosa DeLauro (CT) has to pretend that people care about the platform. I wish! Even the delegates are taking a pass
• Tom Vilsack (Governor of IA) says nukular. Dang. I hate that.
• Gosh, that’s funky music for Secretary Perry. I love when he reminds us that the Republicans in 2000 told servicemen and their families ‘Help is on the way.’ Ha. Ha. He says that soldiers and marines bear the brunt of Our Only President’s “stunning miscalculation.” I’d love to see this theme pushed; of all the betrayals, the betrayal of the poor saps in uniform and their families is the worst. “We must isolate the terrorists, not the United States.”
• Hilda Solis is on about ports and containers. Says ‘nuclear’ properly, at least. Kennedy went to the moon, we can protect the ports. “Democrats will never surrender the freedoms that generations of Americans have died defending.”
• What’s up with these America Remembers things? They’re pretty low-quality. I mean, I love the history, but couldn’t we do a little better?
• Antonio Villaraigosa is talking about poverty! Remember poverty?
• Oh, my, Bill Lann Lee. Well, he was treated pretty badly. Oh, grrr, he’s using the ‘woman’s right to choose’ without modifiers. I hate that. Women have the right to choose lots of things. If we’re talking about reproductive rights, say so.
• I do like Roberta Achtenberg. “Safety without liberty is servitude.”
• I like the repeated phrase “Our platform affirms...” It’s clearly the language we’re supposed to use, and it’s a good choice. Better than claims, or argues, of course, but also better than states or says.
• Edward McElroy, AFT. Whining. A bad speech.
• Gloria Feldt, Planned Parenthood. Claims that P.P. has never before endorsed a presidential candidate. Is this true? If so, is it because of some change in the law?
• Phil Angelides (Treasurer of CA) is great! Terrific use of his hands. “...lifted out of poverty...” “... open       w       i       d       e       the doors of college education...” It’s nice to see, particularly after Bill Richardson’s odd refusal to use his hands at all, leaving him to emphasize phrases by shukling. This guy also has lovely doubles and triples, great rhythm. I want the transcript of this one.
• Marca Bristo speaking on disability policy. She appears to be both nervous and in great pain. Also, she may be straining to control one of her hands. At any rate, it’s terribly dramatic, not because of what she’s saying, but because of the strain she’s under.
• Kendrick Meek (Rep. from Florida) is not ready for prime time.
• The MTV people—hunh? That video is unbelievably dopey! Nice rack on that one voter, though.
• Michael Negron, the winner of the dumb MTV contest is a pretty good speaker. Quite a short speech, though, and nothing in it about John Kerry at all. Just a screed against the current administration, and some stuff about how His Generation isn’t really apathetic.
• Oh, my, it’s Mumbles Menino. In case you missed it, he said “mumble mumble mumble mush mumble mush mush mumble.” We should take hahht. America stahhhhhted right heeeeyah. And then I think he went through the aisles selling Sammy. Beeah heeeah! Beeeeeeeeeeah!
• OK, that’s funny. They put a Texan after Mumbles as an antidote.
• Must write whole entry about the music.

That brings it up to the network hour. I’ll see if I get a chance to write about the big speeches, but I’m clearly falling further and further behind.

                           ,
-Vardibidian.