Madison Avenue cuts back (kind of)

On the night of November 4th, I was as excited as anyone to go to my friends’ election party and watch history unfold. It’s official; America is not completely lacking in poor judgment (at least ~67 million of us aren’t). But with the passing of Prop 8, and Detroit on its knees, recently it’s felt like the day after the wedding, as my co-worker Molly puts it. I’ve never actually had a wedding myself. But I imagine that it’s this big whole exciting affair with friends, drink, a very expensive flowers. Then you wake up the next day, hungover, stuck with some very expensive apparel that you’ll never wear again, and depending on your relationship with the in-laws, quite possibly $50K in the hole. Welcome to November 18th, except the deficit is quite a bit larger.

That is of course, unless you’re seen on Madison Avenue shopping in the middle of the afternoon. Still, even the other half has to cut back a bit, just to be, “you know, a good person.”

“Drill baby, drill” a hole in my head

In the week or so since I’ve last attempted a post, the world has changed… sort of. Barack Obama gave a historic speech on the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington, Sarkozy brokered yet another peace deal with Russia, and a $2,500 515-square foot studio in Manhattan’s financial district is still a big bargain.

I suppose I would be remiss in not commenting on last week’s gathering of what could possibly be whitest group of people since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yes, the RNC came to town with lobbyists, hockey mom and pregnant high school senior in tow.  Despite the effective cancellation of Day One, the Republicans came with full force, the highlight of which was obviously the introduction of Governor Sarah Palin.  Senator McCain’s choice reeks od his desperate need to bring news to his campaign, and initially I sort of laughed it off.  I was clearly mistaken.  My assumption that American would see through her role as the ultimate box checker, woman (check), NRA membership (check), mom (check), mom with disabled kid (check), husband in the union (check), MILF (check), has come back to haunt me.  Or rather, haunt my daily quest for real news.

A mere 36 hours after the US government took control over the nation’s top mortgage lenders, what occupies
the top center news slot of NYTimes.com?  The economy? Iraq? Climate Change? Spring 2009 Fashion Week? NO! Instead, it’s a story on the implications of whether or not Senator McCain and Gov. Palin hug.  Are you serious!?!? If we’re going to replace a discussion of the issues with this non-stop coverage of Sarah Palin, let’s at least get the juicy stuff.  In all seriousness, I am troubled by our infatuation with this woman.  It’s as if at the very point were about to begin a real national discussion about something other than Britney Spear’s poor parenting skills, we were interrupted with reports of go-go boots and chants of “Drill baby, drill.”

That’s right, if you want to put your country first, forget about extending the tax shelter for the development of the wind and solar industries, don’t worry about the economy or climate change, just grab a bucket  of freedom fries, sit back and enjoy the spectacle.

Hittin’ the Streets: Protesters in Denver

During the convention one can’t miss the protests going.  It seems like things are actually quite tame for the most part, meaning no tear gass necessary, but I thought I’d share some of the more amusing sights.  These ladies attempted to legitimize their support of John McCain, and accused Obama superdelegates of election fraud.  Their evidence?  A documentary one had seen a few days before.  The clip starts after someone asks if Barack should have chosen Hillary as his VP?

Mrs. Obama, where did you get those beads?

I had the privilege of attending the LGBT lunch yesterday, where Michelle Obama was a surprise guest.  Not allowing my sense of decorum to undermine my ability to get a close up photo of this amazing woman, I scurried toward the front and center of the ballroom.  When Rep. Barney Frank and some mean looking secret service guys told all of us wanna-be photographers to sit back down, I seized an open seat- front and center- next to Mayor Simmons of Cambridge and about 10 feet away from Michelle.

Michelle Obama

She gave a nice address, but I kept noticing the three strands of huge beads/ plastic pearls around her neck.  I refrained from asking about them- since there was no Q&A and I wasn’t going to waste my two words as she walked away to comment on costume jewelry.  Instead, I waived as we made brief but memorable eye contact.

Tuesday’s Quote of the Day from Mayor E. Denise Simmons

“Republicans would sooner lie for credit than tell the truth for cash.”
- Mayor of Cambridge, MA speaking at the Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Tammy Baldwin lunch

Mayor Simmons and I

Sheila Jackson Lee wows MN delegation

Keeping with the theme of my last post, fabulous black women, I want to share a few words about this morning’s Minnesota delegation breakfast. At the convention each delegation has a ~2 hour breakfast meeting before the day’s events start. These usually feature a variety of speakers. Today we heard from Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (who speaks daily), Ashwin Madia (MN Congressional District 3 candidate), LA Mayor Villaraigosa, Hawaii Representative Neil Abercrombie and a few others. But Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of the 18th District of TX stole the show. I’ve always admire this woman, ever since I was a dorky teenager watching C-SPAN. Naturally I chased her down to get a photo- thus missing Madia’s address, but I’ll catch him at lunch.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and JSR

Rep. Jackson Lee is a fascinating and dynamic woman. She, like so many other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, supported Hillary Clinton- but she reminded us that the time for unification has come and recalled the rich history of inclusiveness in our party. Unfortunately my digital camera only allows 3 minutes of video, so here are a few snippets:

“Oh I’m gonna do a dance up here”
Sheila on what we need to do post-Convention:

She Nailed It!

Michelle Obama’s keynote address tonight speaks for itself so I won’t belabor it with too much voice-over. She showed us the warmth of her character and depth of her devotion to Barack, her family, and this country. I’ve heard the Obamas described as elitist and somewhat aloof. The characterizations of Michelle have been harsher and even more misinformed. Tonight I hope Michelle lay much of that to rest.

The crowd held thousands of "Michelle" signs

Wolf Blitzer Wears Good Shoes

One of the perks of being a delegate to the Democratic National Convention is the easy access to the political A-list, random celebs, and the media. While shamelessly using my floor privileges to scope out the scene and get close-ups I stopped by the CNN live podium to get some snapshots of Donna Brazile, Anderson Cooper and company.

Wolf, Anderson, Donna...

I was pleased to notice that despite the fact that one might never see any of their footwear on television, Wolf was sporting some black Ferragamos. Though I’m bleeding much liberal blue these days, there will be no chastising of Mr. Cain’s footwear from my end.

Wolf enjoys overpriced Italian loafers, and that is fine with me

Pro-life crazies interrupt Caucus, Blacks unfazed

8/25/08 – Denver, CO

Just a few short hours into the DNC Convention, a minor drama broke out during the African-American caucus meeting. In the middle of one of the speeches, an otherwise inconspicuous young man we’ll call random crazy white dude (RCWD), stood up and shouted, “Barack Obama supports black genocide.” The caucus replied with a drowning chant, “OBAMA! OBAMA!” and convention security promptly removed him from premises before he had the chance to further articulate his point. I initially imagined that perhaps this gentleman believed that Barack lacked a strong enough stand on Darfur.

The truth would emerge a few short minutes later, when another young man (RCWD #2) shouted, “One third of abortions…” before we once again drowned out his anti-choice and untimely interruption. This of course clarified the first young man’s point about the so-called genocide. And since both nuts emerged from the same section of the theater the eruption was obviously not so random.

After RCWD #2’s spectacle, two officers stationed themselves in the lower left orchestra of the theater. Even so, I noted all nine exits, just in case a potential RCWD #3 emerged with more than a few word of propaganda.

To be clear, the African-American caucus continued and we did what we came to do. As a people we’ve certainly dealt with setbacks more debilitating than this. The Caucus meeting featured a host of speakers who addressed a variety of issues. But the message that stood out to me most came from Geoffrey Canada, President/ CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone. He reinforced the need for a comprehensive urban policy and detailed the successes of HCZ and noted Obama’s commitment to funding programs like it all across the nation. Mr. Canada urged those of us who grew up in poor inner-city communities like Canada’s in the South Bronx, to not measure success by our ability to leave. Instead, we need to reinvest in these communities and its people. We need to put more money into Head Start and other initiatives that ensure the preparation of our youth. And we need to be alarmed that in 2008- this great year of hope and change- nearly half of all African-Americans in some of our inner cities do not graduate from high school.

Folks, it’s the DNC National convention and I have the distinct privilege along with a few thousand others to witness this historic event. We are going to nominate Barack Obama for presidency of the United States of America. I’ll have more as events progress.

Oh and there are a lot of protesters around Denver, so I’ll definitely follow-up on that.