Thank you, BuzzFlash

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Well, this is pretty cool.

I learned last night that I have won BuzzFlash.com's "Wings of Justice Award" for this week. They said some very nice things about me, or more accurately, about my video from the Pensacola Tea Party (although I guess they felt like they had to create yet another nickname for me, "Pensacola Jeff," which I suppose is preferable to Keith Olbermann's "unemployed blogger named Jeff"). You can go read what they had to say if you like ...

I'm joining some incredibly illustrious past honorees, including Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Dennis Kucinich, Rachel Corrie, Kurt Vonnegut, my former classmate Jon Stewart, and of course President Obama and the First Lady -- plus my "new friend" Mr. Olbermann himself. I assure you that in no way do I feel worthy to be mentioned in the same breath, let alone with the same award, as all of those truly exemplary Americans, and so it is a tremendous honor and privilege to receive this award today.

Anyway, thank you to everyone at BuzzFlash for this award. I am indeed humbled and grateful.

Liveblogging Obama in Miami: photo post #2

Here, have some more pictures from today in Miami:

While many of us were waiting to get into the park, and continuing into the rally itself, a small plane flew in circles over Miami Beach and Biscayne Bay, displaying this banner for all to see. As I asked rhetorically in the crowd, "Why can't Republicans spell?"

The overflow section, where I finally entered, quickly filled up against the barricades and on the hill beyond.

An intrepid blogger's perspective. Here's where I sat on the ground beside Swampstyle's Oliver and listened to the speeches ... and looked at a lot of legs.

Here's what it looked like in the opposite direction, away from the speeches and the podium and the center of the crowd: a nice view of the MacArthur Causeway heading over to Miami Beach. The hydraulic lift is courtesy of the Miami-Dade police, who use it to get a better view of what's happening.

Hello, mainstream corporate media!

The view looking towards the stage (where the "CHANGE" banner is) featured a lovely view of some of the Miami skyline, including the distinctive Freedom Tower.

I spotted this remarkable sign being carried into the park and hurriedly took several pictures at that time, but fortunately, after the rally, people were lining up to have their picture taken with it, and I was able to get a good look at it. I spoke briefly with the artist, who told me he wants to show it and share it as much as possible before hopefully selling it on eBay.

The sun sets over a happy crowd of Democrats in Miami. At left in this shot is American Airlines Arena, home of the NBA's Miami Heat.

Waiting for the Metrolink train in downtown Miami, I thought the nighttime skyline looked especially lovely. Maybe it's because I have ... hope?

Liveblogging Obama in Miami: photo post #1

I took a ton of pictures at Bicentennial Park today and I've finally gotten through them in order to post the best and most representative of them. Enjoy.

Just a kind of artistic look at Hialeah, from the Metrolink/Tri-Rail transfer station, as a freight train passes below.

Excited Obama supporters await the MetroMover train in downtown Miami.

More excited Obama supporters, on the MetroMover train. Notice that there are smiles and diversity -- two things that are rare in Republican crowds.

Speaking of diversity, this is what America looks like, Republicans. All these folks are waiting patiently (if warmly) to get into Bicentennial Park to see Sen. Obama speak. (Sorry for the moisture on the camera lens.)

Another look at "real Americans," as Sen. Obama later mentioned in his remarks, waiting to enter Bicentennial Park.

The high-rise condominiums across the street from Bicentennial Park provided residents with a unique, if distant, vantage point for the rally.

The next First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, addresses the crowd. She's at the center, behind the podium with the "Change We Need" sign.

The next president of the United States (center, in white shirt and tie) speaks to the thousands gathered in Miami.

Here's a broader view of the scene as Sen. Obama speaks. He's at the podium at center-right.

Liveblogging Obama in Miami, part 2

Michelle Obama opens with, "I'm not used to Barack Obama-sized crowds." Hard to say how many are here ... I'll guess 30,000 or so. But it's hard to tell from my vantage point, well behind the bulk of the crowd.

Michelle continues, talking about how Barack has motivated millions of new voters, treating them with respect and intelligence. "I know in my heart that [my husband] will be an extraordinary president. Work for him, pray for him, and work for him some more."

The theme of this rally is early voting, which started yesterday here in Florida.

You know what's making it hardest to hear? The goddamn helicopters all over the sky ... I see at least five, mostly hovering. Great. Thanks, mainstream corporate media!

Liveblogging Obama in Miami, part 1

Looks like the best I can do, if I want to see what's going on, is to post via Blackberry. I have my laptop with me and a clear (albeit distant) view of the podium, but if I go somewhere to set up, I'll lose my spot. Decisions, decisions ...

So far, speakers have included Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and right now, former Florida governor and U.S senator Bob Graham. Nelson talked about Obama's great choice of Joe Biden as his running mate, and Graham is introducing Michelle Obama - onstage now.

Getting decent photos, too ... will post 'em as soon as possible.

Heading to Miami to see Barack and Michelle

As I write, I'm on a Tri-Rail train heading south to Miami. Barack Obama and his lovely wife Michelle are appearing at a rally in downtown Miami this evening, and I'll be there.

Liveblogging if possible, otherwise I'll take lots of pictures and catch up with coverage afterwards. In the meantime, if you're in Florida, go vote. If not, or if you've already voted, go volunteer. Either way, do something. Just two weeks to go ...

Too stupid to breathe: Gerry Watts

Just when I thought it was safe to read City Link again after they published last week's moronic screed about Sarah Palin comes another MBF (moronic brownshirt fuck) trying to defend the Sweetheart of the Red-eo, once again published in CL as a response to Dan Sweeney's excellent deconstruction of the Palin phenomenon. I shouldn't complain -- Sweeney warned me via e-mail. But still, the depth of stupid that is required to write such a letter (scroll down to "Reader's Corner") is truly remarkable.

Here's the letter, like last week's, in its entirety, which is the only way you fully can appreciate the essence of wingnut.

I recently read Dan Sweeney's Sept. 3 column ["Mixed nut"] and found it extremely insulting. I am a white, fairly moderate Democrat and a former Hillary Clinton supporter, though I will always support her. I would like to know what qualifies Sweeney to trash Sarah Palin and call her a nut? That is un-American and just plain not nice. What state has he ever run? Is he as smart as Palin? Barack Obama and Joe Biden between them have never run a business or been a CEO of anything. I find when people are attacked, it's because the attacker is feeling threatened. I don't see Sweeney attacking Michelle Obama for what she said about her country. Wow! What a first lady she would make!

I could give you a million reasons why I wouldn't vote for Obama. I just plain don't trust him. Talk about your Manchurian Candidate. Anyone can give a good speech. He gives a great one but says nothing. Where is his experience? No one can answer that but they sure attack Palin, who has more experience.

One thing no one can deny: John McCain is honest, patriotic and a true American. I didn't like when Hillary was criticized, when they tore down Bill Clinton and now this poor woman. What is so bad about being pro-life? Her baby would be dead if it was up to Sweeney. He is the nut.

Barack Obama is no JFK. Michelle Obama is no Jackie. For the first time in my life, I will be voting Republican on Nov. 4, as will my family — all 72 of them.

Gerry Watts
Boca Raton

One thing I'll give the Republicans credit for: they do a bang-up job of twisting words into something not meant by the speaker, but declared to be Bad and Un-American and Insulting by those in the know (meaning, of course, themselves). The Michelle-Obama-hates-America thing keeps on going, even though her exact quote -- "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country" -- never even insinuated that she hates America and, indeed, it's a fairly defensible position to take after, for example, the years of Reagan and Bush and the Clinton administration dogged by a right-wing Congress. Another example: the "lipstick on a pig" kerfuffle, wherein Barack Obama used that common saying appropriately and generically to criticize Huggy Bear's choice of Palin as a running-mate, but the wingnuts wailed and gnashed their teeth and rent their garments, contending that he was calling Palin herself a "pig." It must suck to be as delusional as a Republican.

But I digress ... let me get back to today's powerful stupid, courtesy of Gerry Watts.

First and foremost, you've got the PUMA issue right at the outset -- the (alleged) Hillary Clinton supporters who are So Fucking Mad At Obama that they won't vote for him and, in some cases, claim that they will vote for Huggy ... even though Sen. Clinton herself continues to urge her supporters to do the smart thing and vote for Sen. Obama, whose positions are so much closer to hers than are Huggy Bear's that it's laughable to even consider voting for Huggy.

Again, credit where credit is due: Huggy Bear chose a batshit crazy woman, true -- but he chose a woman, thereby intentionally muddying the water and trying to attract voters -- PUMAs and others -- who see Sarah Palin only as a vaginal-American and not as the borderline insane, secession-advocating, grudge-holding, silly-name-giving person she really is.

(By the way, my friend NTodd will be examining the PUMA phenomenon today on his radio show, PaxLive, at 3pm Eastern -- don't miss it!)

Dammit, I did it again ... okay, back to Watts.

Has Sweeney ever run a state? No. Have you, Gerry? No. Neither have I. But none of us are trying to be vice president, and for that high a position, generally it takes more than two years running a tiny (population-wise) state as a personal fiefdom, preceded by four years as the near-totalitarian mayor of a town small enough to fit completely in most Florida high school football stadiums.

Which brings us to the experience question. Somehow, Republicans (and deluded alleged Democrats like you, Gerry) seem to think that Barack Obama just fell out of the sky when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. They conveniently forget, for starters, the nearly eight years he previously spent as a state senator in Illinois. He took office there in 1997, at which time Sarah Palin had been mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (population in 2000, 5,469; population in 1990, 4,028) for a year, after four years on the Wasilla City Council. By way of comparison, the average population of an Illinois state senate district is over 217,000. While Obama was a student at Harvard Law School, Palin was a sports reporter for an Anchorage television station. So, Gerry, you can take your experience argument and shove it up your ass. "Where is his experience?" Well, now you know -- if you followed my directions, it's up your ass.

And you say, Gerry, apparently without irony, "John McCain is honest." Well, maybe that depends on your definition of "honest." Can a candidate for president lie 60 times (to date) during his campaign and still be "honest?" If so, Gerry, then I guess you're right, by your standards. But I think most people would look at 60 lies and declare the person who told those lies "dishonest."

"What is so bad about being pro-life?" Well, frankly, nothing especially, I suppose. The problem is when the pro-life people tell the pro-choice people that they aren't allowed to make decisions about their own bodies. If you're pro-life, that's cool. Just don't tell women that you deserve to have control over their bodies! That's what Sarah Palin wants, you know -- for herself and her political cronies to have control over the bodies of American women. That's not pro-life -- that's pro-Nazi, Gerry.

"Barack Obama is no JFK. Michelle Obama is no Jackie." Nice strawman there, Jackie. Did anyone claim they were? No. You just made that shit up out of thin air so you could use your own strawman to oppose the Obamas. Frankly, Gerry, your argument skills suck ass. I mean, even fucking Jorge Velez, stupid though he was, could put together a cogent -- albeit fucking ridiculous -- argument.

And 72 members of your family? What are you, the Osmonds? Actually, given your hypermoralistic, shallow, oblivious opinions, that actually would make some sense.

Please shut the fuck up, Gerry Watts. Oh, and Dan Sweeney? Please ask your editors not to publish anymore batshit crazy letters from people attacking your column. I mean, I know morons like that are out there ... I don't have to be reminded how stupid they are every week in City Link! (Thanks in advance ...)

A simple thought

Last night and tonight, we have seen and heard the two greatest political speeches by women in American history.

Holy Crap!™

$20 million.

That's how much debt the Hillary Clinton campaign has. That's a lot of cash, especially for someone whose campaign is basically on its last legs. And the calls for her to withdraw are growing louder.

With nearly everyone -- including, privately, many on her own team -- contemplating when, not if, she will quit the race, the questions surrounding Clinton now go largely to her motivation. Publicly, her campaign argues that victories in West Virginia and Kentucky could shift the growing tide of momentum for Obama back to her by demonstrating that she has appeal in states that Democrats must to win to take back the White House in November. What is unclear is whether she hopes strong performances will make Obama consider her for the No. 2 slot or at least help her retire her growing debt.

"I don't believe that Senator Clinton is looking for a deal," Obama strategist David Axelrod said on the same Fox show on which Wolfson appeared. Saying that Clinton "competed hard" and is "playing it out as she sees fit," he said the Clinton campaign is capable of deciding how to leave for itself. "I don't think she's waiting for a cue or a signal from us or an offer of financial assistance. And I think that would demean her to suggest otherwise," he said.

Axelrod added: "I don't think even under any scenario . . . that we were going to transfer money from the Obama campaign to the Clinton campaign. We obviously need the resources we have. We have a great task ahead of us."

There was, Axelrod said, "a misunderstanding out there about that." After reports that Michelle Obama, the senator's wife, has rejected the possibility of an Obama-Clinton ticket, Axelrod flatly said: "That's false." He said there have not been overtures made to the Clinton team to negotiate her departure from the campaign.

I really don't have a problem with an Obama-Clinton ticket -- in fact, I think it's pretty much unbeatable -- but I just don't know if Sen. Clinton can come to terms with the idea in terms of her ego and sense of entitlement. However, I continue to be frustrated by the apparent need by the mainstream media to emphasize Michelle Obama's influence, in much the same way they focused on Hillary Clinton's influence on her husband's campaign -- and his administration -- in the early 1990s. I can't imagine that Mrs. Obama has "rejected the ... Obama-Clinton ticket," but even if she had, so what? It's not her responsibility! She's not the candidate! (Neither is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for that matter, but I'll save that for another post.)

But $20 million is a big hole to climb out of, and I see absolutely no reason that Sen. Obama should feel obligated in any way to help her pay that off, considering the vitriolic campaign against him that Sen. Clinton has run. I have little doubt that Sen. Clinton will spin the shit out of her expected win in West Virginia (not sure what will happen in Kentucky), but she's not going to be able to ignore the naysayers, or the facts, for much longer.