Hi. I have been a reader of Daily Kos for a while - not as long as many here, but a little while at least. I don't write diaries or even comment much, because I have felt like I don't have that much to say about the politics being discussed here. I use this site as way to educate myself about what's going on. There are probably many people like me, here and other places, especially in this election season.

Recently, I have been thinking. I may not know much about the ins and outs of politics, although I would like to, and I may not have the experience in following politics to judge how things are going, but I do have this - my personal experience of what this election has been like so far. My view, as a first time close follower of a presidential election. And my view, as a young person who has been watching the effect that Barack Obama and his ways of involving people are affecting other young people around me.

I came to Washington.  I was 17, had graduated from high school the previous June, an event to which my mother had not come, because she was too drunk.  Strange that would be my clearest memory of such a milestone of one's life.  Still, when my sister found her unconscious a few day's later, and then without regaining consciousness she died only a few days beyond that, it struck me hard. Perhaps I was looking for meaning.

Somehow shortly thereafter I became involved with the efforts of the Bronx chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, an organization then led by James Farmer, to integrate the workforce of a hamburger chain.  And because of that, very early on the morning of August 28, 1963, I got on a bus which headed South to the nation's capital city.  Fortyfive years ago today.

A meme started by the RNC is spreading across the Internet, talk radio and cable, meant to undermine his acceptance speech and make him seem "foreign." They say Obama will deliver his address in front of a Greek Temple.

Here's Obama's stage under construction.

Here's something else.

Honestly?  There was nothing else on T.V. and I just had it on for background noise.  I wasn't really that interested but there is something mildly amusing about hearing each state pump themselves full of hot air.  Plus, this was the roll call that was supposed to be a last chance for Hillary Clinton to sweep away the nomination at the last minute (in the fantasies of PUMA dead enders), or at a minimum honor her with an historic entry into the official minutes as a nominee with delegates counted.  Anyway, things were crawling along, with Obama slowly inching his way to the required total, and with Clinton picking up a fraction of his votes in most cases (really PUMA? This is what you had in mind?), when something extraordinary happened.

The perfect storm is coming together for the Dems: Unity at the convention. Obama rises out of Mile High. The political Gods blow Hurricane Gustav to remind us about the shame of Katrina. All in the path of McCain's 72nd birthday, his Veep pick, and the opening of the Twins Dance in Minneapolis.

But will the Dems whiff at this moment?

W.E.B. died 45 years ago yesterday. Del Martin died yesterday.

In between them, and alongside them, and in ignorance of them, and because of them, and in schools and suburbs and strife-filled encounters, and in arguments we had so that one silent bystander would hear another point of view, we nominated a black man with a foreign father and a white mother to be president of the United States.

And two women led the charge.

And today, on this last day of rallying before we and ours depart to convince the rest of the country that this change is change we need, let us consider very briefly how we got here and who isn't here with us.

As I write this, I am listening to John Kerry's speech from tonight.  

"Are you kidding me folks?"

Wow - that was a great speech.

When I look at Barak Obama, I see my Uncle Rufus.  A good man.  A family man.  But a man with negroid features which barred him from the American Dream™.  

I was born in 1951, and lived between New Orleans and New York.  I am more than half white, but my uncle could not escape his blackness.  His daughters inherited none of his blackness.  I inherited none. Except maybe black shiny eyes.    I have "good hair", and "fine features."  My brother has "course hair." But fine features. Uncle Rufus had yellow skin, and thick lips.  He couldn't pass, but his daughters could.

The McCain ad which falsely accuses Obama of wanting to raise taxes, displays the lettering "HANG" above Obama's head in the ad. Details & image below.

Updated with video!

It's been an exciting week for me.  Last October, I moved back to Denver from the San Francisco Bay Area.  I did so to give my two small boys a better chance at a quality education and to provide a safer environment for my two mixed race sons to grow up in.  Please understand, as you parents out there surely do, they are my reason for being.

Everyone knows that tomorrow is the 45th Anniversary of the famous "I Have A Dream" Speech and the march on Washington led by Martin Luther King, Jr. On that day, King addressed a crowd of over 200,000 saying:

"This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

While this historic date cannot be downplayed, there is an anniversary tomorrow that is forgotten and has not mentioned in any news that I have seen:

The Death of Emmett Till

Barack Obama is going be the next President of the United States, and tomorrow night he is going to give his acceptance speech to the largest crowd in Mile High Stadium's history.

The noise at Mile High during Denver Broncos' games is legendary.  Opposing teams feel the power of the 12th man and crumble.  We have beaten better teams because Broncos season ticket holders bring everything they have to the game.  The Broncos know it, the opposing team knows it, and the guys that shell out thousands every year to share in the fight know it.

I am a Broncos fan and I lose my voice at least eight weeks a year trying to will my team to victory.  It usually works.  I scare the children with my voice, I pound my feet onto the steel bleachers until they SHAKE, and I try to share the power of 80,000 people with a shared goal.

VICTORY!

I'm sorry, but Pink Floyd's Echoes just kicked on to my Bose Stored system, (that's def as i get to upper-class, i own none homes, am struggling paycheck to paycheck w/ my partner.  it's great to read the Atlantic, my fave mag now, & see all the ads FOR WHAT I AM SUPPOSED TO BE.)

i am NONE of those things.  i love great music, & am a picky beast re great sound.

THIS IS NOT THE POINT TO ARGUE, even those of us, trying to get by, recognize the importance of high quality reproduction of music to get us through our daily lives.

I am not being facetious.  In fact, I believe, that there are millions of Americans like me, REACHING   JUST out of their sphere,

I've watched every day of the DNC so far, practically gavel-to-gavel. And I think several factors are going to come together as real post-convention polling starts rolling in.

I think we're going to get a plus-10 bounce out of this convention.

What do you think?

Everyone here is saying not to watch MSNBC, CNN, FOX, but CSPAN is even worse after the convention is over. There are tons of people flooding the airwaves with smears against Obama, constant refrains of Obama is not 'specific enough'. Nearly every caller has been bashing Obama on the air since the beginning of this convention.

From listening to all of these callers it sounds that nearly 90% of the comments are very negative towards Michelle and Obama, and a lot of them spread irrelevant rumors and gossip and untruths. I suspect a lot of these are conservatives and PUMAs highjacking the airwaves.

I don't know what to say.

I will be 38 years old in September.  I was born in Chicago, a city with racial segregation built into every neighborhood.  I live in the Southwest.  My roots are Scottish and Italian.  I am about as white as they come.

I am a liberal Democrat.

I am a bisexual woman.

Tonight my party voted, by acclaim, to make Barack Obama the first black Democratic Presidential candidate in American history.

And I am shaking.

Really.  I am not making this up.  

It was very unusual to have a lady barber those days.  

That lady was a pioneer. Like many pioneers, she was a person of strong opinions.

I lied, of course.  I had no intention of becoming a martyr.  

Listening to the pundits on MSNBC and CNN, you'd think the Democrats have done a terrible job at their convention.

If you've actually watched the speakers thus far, however, you will have come to a very different conclusion.

So I've decided: I'm not going to listen to the pundits on TV any more.