Kerry hit a home run with his speech.  Sweet.

I feel so much better voting for him now.  Hopefully he won't fuck things up.

The difference between Kerry and Bush:

KERRY:  "Help is on the way."

BUSH:  "Help Enron/Ken Lay."

Convention-ness

I haven't heard a whole lot of the convention, but I've been reading the speeches and such online.  My impressions:

1.  Apparently Clinton walked out on stage to the strains of "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow."  Bah.  His speech was great, though.

2.  I'm still really upset over the "free speech zone" stuff (see below).

3.  I heard Ron Reagan's speech on NPR Tuesday night.  He sounded like a 1950s educational film narrator... I suppose he comes by it honestly.  Maybe it's genetic.  At any rate, it was wonderful and slightly surreal to hear a Reagan tacitly endorse a Democrat for President.

4.  Barack Obama has been the talk of the convention.  His life story is inspiring and his speech was fantastic, but before I jump on the "Obama's gonna be the first Black President" bandwagon I want to see how he acts once he's elected to Congress.

5.  Al Sharpton.  What a guy.

Rev. Sharpton deviated from his prepared remarks and gave a speech that really expresses what many Americans are really thinking.  Tellingly, the DNC doesn't even have a transcript of Sharpton's remarks as actually delivered archived on their site.  They've gone out of their way to sanitize the convention and stifle criticism of Bush, keeping in line with their longtime tactic of winning votes through ball-lessness.

Sharpton's remarks were brilliant.  For all of his faults he is very compelling, and has no fear.  We need to extract that quality from Sharpton, distill it into a liquid, put it into a hypodermic syringe, and inject it into the collective asses of Kerry, Edwards, McAuliffe and so forth.  That fearlessness, that passion, that willingness to fight for your beliefs are what win elections.

Reverend Al... thank you for your guts and your honesty.

Sullivan (one of my dawgs from monkeyfilter) tipped me off to a new blog:  Florida Politics.  Good stuff.

DemCon 2004

It's pretty sad when the San Diego Comic Con has more credibility than the Democratic National Convention.  At least we found out the title for Episode III at the former event.

I don't really watch TV, so I'll probably miss most of the convention coverage.  But here are my impressions:

THE GOOD:  Ron Reagan, Jr. (who is a pretty impressive guy) is speaking, which is kind of cool.  Plus, John Kerry's daughter Alexandra is also speaking, and she looks rather fetching in a see-through dress (that last link may not be safe for work).

THE BAD:  Al-Jazeera was forced by convention officials to take down their sign.  Here's a news flash for America:  Like it or not, Al-Jazeera is a legitimate news organization.  Chill the fuck out.
THE UGLY:  The "free speech zone" thing is still on.

BOSTON A federal judge has called a fenced-in "protest zone" at the upcoming Democratic National Convention "an affront to free expression" -- but rejected an effort to block its use.

Judge Douglas Woodlock also agreed with protesters' lawyers that the area, more than a block away from the convention site, looked worse than a concentration camp, with razor wire on a chain-link fence, and overhead netting.

But Woodlock indicated he had Secret Service information about possible protest tactics that made the site necessary, especially in a time of terrorism.

Is it just me, or do tactics like this put the lie to the term "democratic?"

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On a different note:  I watched Bill Clinton's valedictory speech at the 2000 convention.  I didn't really care for Clinton as a president, but I am always deeply impressed when I see him speak... he may have been one of the finest political orators of the 20th century.  For all his faults it was nice having a president who could speak extemporaneously, largely wrote his own speeches and had a natural rapport with an audience.

That being said, he does have a tendency to become a little mawkish, to reach for the cheap shot and the easy rhetoric.  To wholeheartedly embrace the cheese.  He's at his best when he resists this temptation.

So I was watching him, excited about seeing the performance of a master political speaker at the top of his game.  And then he got to the end of the speech, which started off brilliantly constructed:

"My fellow Americans, the future of our country is now in your hands. You must think hard, feel deeply and choose wisely. And remember, whenever you think about me, keep putting people first..."

"Yeah, Bill... good stuff."

"... keep building those bridges..."

"Uh-huh. Uh-huh."

"... and don't. stop.  thinking about tomorrow!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

And of course, they started playing that horrible, horrible song as he left the stage.  That son of a bitch.

Happy Birthday To Me
 
Well, to this blog at any rate.  The first posts on my Blogger-enabled slice of the internet date to July 21, 2002, making this journal two years old today.  Interestingly enough, the number two also describes the number of regular readers I have.
 
Here, have some cake.
 
Due to events in my personal life, my posting has diminished somewhat in the past few months.  Now that the election season is in full swing, I'm sure that I'll get back on some sort of schedule.
 
I'd like to spotlight some of my regular reads... some of these blogs are written by people I know offline, some are online friends or correspondents, a few are folks that I've gotten to know via Internet fora such as Monkeyfilter.  All are worth your time.
 
Tone Milazzo  Tone and I met several years ago through playing roleplaying games, but don't hold that against either of us.  He's currently an aspiring comic-book writer, and his stories (some of which you can find on his website, along with a blog) are pretty great.
 
Waveflux  Sorry Phil,but I'm gonna tell the story:  Phil originally found my site while searching for a translation of the German words found at the opening of the Def Leppard song Rock of Ages.  Phil's journal (don't call it a blog!)  has some of the wittiest writing I've yet seen on the Internet, and is a frequent read.
 
Casey G.'s Journal  I'm not writing her whole name, because someone was cyberstalking her recently and visited my blog in the process.  Anyhow, Casey's a former student who has become a close friend, and she's developing into a fine writer.  You'll find poetry and stories at her site.  She mostly rocks because she made a "glam metal" mix CD for me based on the post I linked in the previous paragraph.  Yay!
 
Creek Running North  Chris Clarke is the editor of the CA-based environmental magazine Faultline.  His "place blog" is brilliantly written and often surprisingly moving.
 
The Daily Chronicles of the Musically Challenged  I've known Renee since 1992 or so, went to college with her in both San Diego and Miami, worked with her extensively on a professional basis when I still lived in California... and only found out in the last week or so that she keeps a Live Journal.  Heh.
 
Tamara Eden's blog  Tamara has been a good online friend for quite a while now.  Her blog has some wonderful stories about her experiences as a student teacher.
 
American Leftist  I was reading AmLeft before AmLeft was cool.  I prefer Joe's commentary to that found on most other liberal blogs; he does a great job at posting stories that are underreported, as opposed to dwelling in the echo chamber that is the liberal "blogosphere" (Christ I hate that word, but unfortunately it's the only one that really applies).
 
The Blog That Never Was  My friend Nani Vaidhyanathan just started keeping a blog... but if her early entries are any indication, it's gonna be great, assuming she keeps it up.
 
pf  I met PF through the aforementioned Monkeyfilter, and have become addicted to his blog.  Go there, now.
 
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Here are some of my favorite posts here at the bone from the past couple of years:
 
Rule Number One: Tell Everyone About Fight Club  Wherein The Bone applies a leftist critique to the popular motion picture, proving in his own mind that Rupert Murdoch OK'd the film to bash anti-globalists.
 
Operation Supreme Court Freedom  Wherein The Bone mercilessly mocks Pat Robertson.
 
RIAA  Wherein The Bone meticulously documents the money trail leading from the RIAA to the Congressional legislators responsible for drafting the Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003.
 
Sons of Confederate Veterans  Wherein The Bone grows curious about a sign near his house.
 
The Gospel According to Mel  Wherein The Bone shows off his knowledge of theology and church history while deconstructing Mr. Gibson's opus.
 
The Bush Doctrine As Risk Game  Wherein The Bone  envisions President George playing the classic Parker Brothers board game.
 
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Thanks for reading.

My Pet President
 
Once, there was a President named George.  While the country he ostensibly governed was under attack, he spent seven minutes reading a children's book titled My Pet Goat.
 
Then, a bunch of people decided to post mock reviews of that book on Amazon.
 
Most of the funniest reviews have been deleted, but I backed them up into a Word document.  If you want a copy, email me at the address in my profile and I'll send you a copy.

Joe at the always-excellent blog American Leftist posted Langston Hughes' brilliant poem Let America Be America Again on the 4th of July.Because the occasional poetry posts are a schtick of mine, I'm reposting it here. (Evidently, Kerry is using lines from this poem on the stump, causing as least one asshole to point out the fact that Hughes was a leftist).

Let America Be America Again

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Langston Hughes