Good Morning.

While you’re enjoying yourself this Summer Weekend, don’t forget about us here at JJP.

Be sure to drop those links, engage in some debate, and give us some good trivia and gossip too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

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First, the good news - Ford showed up.  I didn’t think he would show his face at a conference of progressive bloggers, after he slammed us on the “Today” show last Monday.  He actually admitted he said what he said, but took great pains to say he didn’t mean to offend anyone.

I call bullshyt.

Second - there isn’t any more good news about this debate.  We all thought Markos was going to hand him his ass, again. Meet the Press II, it WASN’T.

The bad news is that the whole shebangabang was nothing more than a love fest between Harold and Markos.  They kept allowing him to wander down memory lane when he was asked direct questions.  It was more of “where can we find common ground” bullshyt.

I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t have jack in common with a SNAKE.

The best part should have been when the floor was opened up for questions.  Finally, after much pontificating, someone actually asked the Dark Sith about his voting record when he was in Congress.  You know, the record that shows he voted for the Bankruptcy Bill, all four Iraq War Authorizations, proposed the privitization of Social Security and never met proposals for school vouchers he didn’t like.  He was asked how could he express how he was concerned about the economy, housing, education, and whatnot, when he voted for legislation that laid the foundation for this massive f-up that is the economy?

“I’m proud of my voting record.  I represented my district,” said the Dark Sith.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that was the CPL’s “W-T-F?” moment.  I saw red.  At my table was a Texas campaign manager named Rudy Malveaux, who is as street as you can get, who said to me “Go up there and challenge him; I got your back.”  Which wasn’t no trash talking, either.  I grabbed my suit jacket and headed up to the mike; Rudy paving the way.

I wasn’t going to get ghetto, y’all.  Honest. I was going to ask the Dark Sith if he remembered he’d been graded on the CBC Monitor Report Card and ask him if he remembered his grades. But before I even decided I was going to confront the Dark Sith, another enterprising soul had already slammed Kos for the decided lack of diversity throughout the conference - at that point, I saw the Dark Sith looking into the sea of faces to see if he saw Black People.  Rudy is hard to miss; he is a big, Steve Gilliard looking brother who could kick ass while eating a ham sandwich with one hand.  I was one of three sistas in the room.  All told, there were about ten of us, including Congressional Candidate, Kevin Powell.  We had a chance to talk about how he’s strategizing to take out Ed Towns (ca-ching, J. C. Watts!), so that was the highlight of this mess. Kevin actually said, “I can’t believe they let Ford tell all those lies like that.”

Which was sentiments echoed by many political candidates who are here in Austin, and attending Netroots Nation - plus heard the kick-ass speeches by Wesley Clark and Howard Dean last night.

Anyway, the mike got cut just as I reached it.  The Dark Sith saw my angry behind and made a fast exit off the stage, where he immersed himself in a sea of white reporters to shield himself from Rudy.

Rudy was not to be deterred.  “Yo, Markos!” he yelled.  Markos came over and was introduced to me. He even gave me a hug.  I told him I did CBC Monitor Report Card and did he know that Harold Ford was rated “Derelict” as a Congressman?  That the concerns he had about housing, credit, finance, economy - he’d actually helped to vote legislation in that caused it?

“These are good points to have made,” Kos said. 

 ”But, why did you allow him to lie like that?” I asked.

“You coming to the big tent party tonight?” Kos asked.  I smiled, thanked him and walked off.  When I got back to my table, several white bloggers asked who I was and who did I blog for.  When I said JJP, I got mad props.

“You looked upset and like you were going to kick Ford’s ass”, they said.  I didn’t know I was that angry.

What’s even better, the Dark Sith saw me and ran like the lil’ byotch he really is. I won’t go into details about how he brought Snowflake into the discussion; if you watched the live feed, you saw it.  This SOB didn’t answer questions and was allowed to lie about how effectively he represented his district.  Personally, I think Memphians would have a lot to say about that.

Oh, well, the food was good, anyway.  But I’m so disappointed in what was not a debate, but a bullshyt love fest between two people whose purpose was to highlight their differences and debate why one position was better than the other.  We didn’t get that.  And Netroots Nation should know that this post is my evaluation of that session.

While Kos didn’t exactly blow me off, he didn’t answer my question, either.  Either you’re progressive, or you aren’t.  And Ford was forced to prop Obama; though it looked like he choked on the words, but the more he does it, it will either start to sound more sincere, or smells like bullshyt.

Which was the debate THAT WASN’T.

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Marcy Wheeler over at Firedoglake has been blogging up a storm about this. She’s thorough and detailed and relentless.

My points are simple.

• The U.S. has one in four prisoners in the world. The world!
• One in 100 U.S. adults are behind bars
• Most of the growth in U.S. prison population has come from non-violent drug offenses
• Hundreds of thousands of people, our people, are systematically imprisoned for trivial violations of the law. Families and communities are destroyed, begetting a cycle of despair and disenfranchisement with an incredible human, social and economic cost

Karl Rove is a bad person. He has engineered the manipulation or theft of several elections. He helped usher in eight dark years of the Bush presidency. But more simply, homey broke the law by having the audacity to ignore a subpeona from the United States Congress. He not only skipped out. He left the country.

Meanwhile, a brother in California is late to a meeting with his probation officer and goes right back to prison.

Rove must be held in contempt and must go to prison, preferably an overcrowded, unhygienic, violent outpost where he can experience a small taste of the horror that he’s helped inflict on others.

Go on over to MeetTheBloggers.org and sign the petition.

One more thing. The mass incarceration syndrome affecting America destroys communities. Take a step to help rebuild the Gulf Coast community by signing this ColorOfChange letter to bring Katrina victims home and engage them in a civic works effort to restore their community.

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Good Morning.

So, we made it to the weekend. How many folks here are going to see Batman…and, don’t front, how many of us are going to see Mamma Mia? LOL

Well, in between work, and planning the weekend activities, stop by here at JJP.

Drop those links, engage in debate, and give us some useful trivia and gossip.

And always, have a peaceful day.

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Howard Dean is about to speak in a few minutes, but so far the conference is on point as advertised.  What’s happening at present is that in the African American Caucus, there were as many Black people as there were people of different ethnicity.  I wonder if the saying about when Black people get together, we’re planning a rebellion…

Right now, I’m sitting at a table with two brothas who are political activists and campaign managers in the Lone Star state.  The hiliarity is ensuing before Howard takes the stage.

There are also a good deal of politicians here… Baratunde is opening up right now with a comedy routine, LOL….JJP is representing big time!

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Sometimes, you see these ‘ Memes’ developing within the MSM, and you gotta say,
OH HELL NO.

The latest?

When is Barack Obama gonna turn into Bill ‘ Bojangles’ Robinson and entertain us?

Think I’m kidding?

From Jack Cafferty:

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

Obama in danger of taking himself too seriously?
Posted: 01:24 PM ET

One of the jobs of American presidents, whether they realize it or not, is to make us laugh……..

But what about Barack Obama? The writers for the late night television shows admit they’re having a tough time coming up with jokes about the presidential front-runner. Letterman and Leno lampoon John McCain on a regular basis, but not Barack………

Maureen Dowd:

At first blush, it would seem to be a positive for Obama that he is hard to mock. But on second thought, is it another sign that he’s trying so hard to be perfect that it’s stultifying? Or that eight years of W. and Cheney have robbed Democratic voters of their sense of humor?

Certainly, as the potential first black president, and as a contender with tender experience, Obama must feel under strain to be serious.

But he does not want the “take” on him to become that he’s so tightly wrapped, overcalculated and circumspect that he can’t even allow anyone to make jokes about him, and that his supporters are so evangelical and eager for a champion to rescue America that their response to any razzing is a sanctimonious: Don’t mess with our messiah!

If Obama keeps being stingy with his quips and smiles, and if the dominant perception of him is that you can’t make jokes about him, it might infect his campaign with an airless quality. His humorlessness could spark humor………

I’m watching MSNBC, and you have Tweety asking if Obama were an elitist because you can’t joke about him.

Then I have to suffer through David Gregory actually having as a discussion point: Should Obama tell more jokes.

I get the Memo. You believe Barack Obama needs to ‘entertain’ you.

If you need Black folk to ‘ entertain’ you, call up Flavor Flav, Eddie Griffin, Mo’Nique and any rapper you want.

SENATOR Barack Obama is NOT here to ‘entertain’ you.

He’s NOT trying out to be the next host on Showtime at the Apollo.

But, what’s REALLY the problem here?

The Raving Black Lunatic took this subject on, quite well:

Shuffle, Shuffle, Dance, Jig Dance
Where is Barack Obama’s funny bone?

1. Do we really need more laughs?

Okay, this is an easy one. If I understand correctly, the media are saying that after the bumbling sideshow that our government has become over the past eight years, they think we need more stuff to laugh about?

Really?……………………………………………….
_______________________________________________________________

2. Racist jokes are easier

I think it’s interesting that so many white comedians feel like they can’t come up with acceptable jokes about Obama without offending someone. It really shows how uncomfortable and ignorant most white people are about black people. …………………………………………………………………

The problem for most white comedians is not that Obama doesn’t do anything that is funny. It’s not that there is nothing humorous about his campaign. The problem is that they lack the skills to find the funny stuff. They don’t understand black people and their culture enough to make a joke that doesn’t involve rims, grills and gold chains. That’s the real problem…..
_______________________________________________________________

3. That nigger better be funny

And we’ve arrived at the real reason I wrote this post. It goes beyond the idea that people in this country should have had enough laughs thanks to George Bush. No, it goes to the idea that Obama needs to make white people comfortable with him, and the easiest way for them to get comfortable with a black man is if he’s making them laugh.

Serious black men confuse and frustrate white people. Well, unless they are criminals. Serious thugs are easy for white people to understand and deal with. They fit into the proper box. The one with bars…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Black people are not here to entertain white people. We are not here to make them laugh, we are not here to make them cry, we are not here to make them angry. We are human beings living our lives just like them. We are under no obligation to make them “smile.”

Barack Obama is running to be the most powerful politician in America during one of the most unsettled times in this country’s history. And white folks are wondering if he is going to lose because he doesn’t make them smile?

Thank you.

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Barack Obama did an interview with Glamour Magazine.

GLAMOUR: An AP poll shows that while the positive ratings on Michelle are higher than those of Cindy McCain, her negative ratings are higher as well. I’m curious about how as a husband that makes you feel. Does it mystify you? And what do you want to say to those Americans who don’t know the woman that you know?

SENATOR OBAMA: It’s infuriating, but it’s not surprising, because let’s face it: What happened was that the conservative press—Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk—went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way…and treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans. And I’ve said this before: I would never have my campaign engage in a concerted effort to make Cindy McCain an issue, and I would not expect the Democratic National Committee or people who were allied with me to do it. Because essentially, spouses are civilians. They didn’t sign up for this. They’re supporting their spouse. So it took a toll. If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in day out, that’ll drive up your negatives.

Everybody who knows Michelle knows how extraordinary she is. She’s ironically the most quintessentially American woman I know. She grew up in a “Leave it to Beaver” family. She is the best mother I know. And our kids are a testimony to that, because she’s really had to raise them, oftentimes without me being there. She’s the most honest person I know, she’s smart, she’s funny, so yeah, it infuriates me. And I think that it is an example of the erosion of civility in our political culture that she’s been subjected to these attacks, and my attitude is that the people who have attacked her in the ways that they have…if they’ve got a difference with me on policy, they should debate me. Not her.

Rest of article is HERE.

Yes, there’s an obvious double standard with the treatment of Michelle Obama as compared to the Pill Poppin’ Piece-On-The-Side.

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Good Morning.

Well, hopefully today, we’ll get good stuff from the JJP colleagues at Netroots Nation.

But, while we await those posts, drop those links, engage in debates, and give us some useful trivia and gossip.

And always, have a peaceful day.

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For those who cannot be in Austin, Ustream.TV will be providing a lot of live video

All times listed are Central Time Zone

FRIDAY

Markos Moulitas and Harold Ford: Keynote Discussion on Party Infrastructure
Friday, July 18th 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
Keynote, Exhibit Hall 4
Time: Friday, July 18th, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
Room: Exhibit Hall 4

This discussion between Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, and Harold Ford, the current chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, will give attendees a chance to hear a range of views on questions such as where and how should we build infrastructure in order to create positive change in Washington DC.

Viral Video Comedy Workshop
Friday, July 18th 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Screening Series, Room 16
Time: Friday, July 18th, 1:30pm - 2:45pm
Room: Room 16
with: Laughing Liberally comedians Lee Camp, Katie Halper, Baratunde Thurston

How can humor help your video message go viral? Clearly, laughter plays a role in promoting progressive values—on TV and on the web. Comedians and online activists from The Onion, 236.com and Comedy Central discuss what makes humor work online, showcase their examples of successful video and offer feedback on videos brought by attendees.

“Crawford,” The Movie
Friday, July 18th 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Screening Series, Room 16
Time: Friday, July 18th, 3:00pm - 4:15pm
Room: Room 16

What happens to the 705 people of Crawford, Texas when George W. Bush moves to town? This award-winning documentary takes on the town the President “claims” as home and looks inside the lives of the residents and their mixed feelings toward their presidential neighbor. With Austin-based director David Modigliani.

See movie site

SATURDAY

Hot Topic Panel
Saturday, July 19th 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Panel, Ballroom E
Time: Saturday, July 19th, 10:30am - 11:45am
Room: Ballroom E
With: Kevin Drum, Jeffrey Feldman, Michael “Hunter” Lazzaro, Pam Spaulding, Baratunde Thurston

Five leading pundits/bloggers connect to discuss a late-breaking issue of universal relevance. Topic will be announced at Netroots Nation.

Using Online Social Techniques To Build Your Blog’s Community
Saturday, July 19th 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Workshop, Room 18D
Time: Saturday, July 19th, 10:30am - 11:45am
Room: Room 18D
With: Josh Nelson, Matt Browner Hamlin, Jason Rosenbaum, Cherly Contee

Getting your blog in front of new visitors can be a challenge. Using new online social techniques as well as old-fashioned outreach can help! Discover hands-on techniques that allow you to join the blogosphere conversation, leverage traffic from social news sites like Digg and Reddit and put your blog in front of thousands of potential visitors. Learn how to build your own online community from a panel of bloggers who have worked on their own blogs; for non-profits; and for state, congressional and presidential campaigns.

Keynote: Lawrence Lessig
Saturday, July 19th 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Keynote, Exhibit Hall 4
Time: Saturday, July 19th, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Room: Exhibit Hall 4

Technology pioneer and professor Lawrence Lessig will address his current focus: a non-partisan reform initiative to fight corruption.

Meta
Saturday, July 19th 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Panel, Exhibit Hall 4
Time: Saturday, July 19th, 4:30pm - 5:45pm
Room: Exhibit Hall 4
With: Chris Bowers, Cherly Contee, Raf Noboa, David Waldman, James Rucker

In this blogosphere-focused panel, moderator Chris Bowers will pose two questions—one about the Obama/Clinton conflict in the blogosphere community and the second looking at how blogs compare with other forms of social media. After a panel discussion, audience members will be given a chance to ask additional questions.

Black Blogging Beyond Obama
Saturday, July 19th 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Panel, Ballroom G
Time: Saturday, July 19th, 4:30pm - 5:45pm
Room: Ballroom G
with: Brandon White (Super Spade), Leutisha Stills (CPL), Andre Banks, Kevin Myles, Gina McCauley

Black bloggers voice will be paid close attention given Obama’s candidacy and while the increased attention and addition of new voices are welcome; our collective voice is just as pertinent for issues unrelated to Obama’s campaign. As such, what steps should we be taking now to make sure that this message is not lost on each other and the larger blogosphere/media infrastructure?

Keynote: Rep. Donna Edwards
Saturday, July 19th 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Keynote, Exhibit Hall 4
Time: Saturday, July 19th, 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Room: Exhibit Hall 4

The evening keynote will feature Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD). The location for Netroots Nation 2009 will also be announced.

SUNDAY

Keynote: Van Jones
Sunday, July 20th 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Keynote, Exhibit Hall 4
Time: Sunday, July 20th, 10:00am - 11:00am
Room: Exhibit Hall 4

This morning plenary on eco-equality will be given by one of the country’s leading advocates for social justice and shared green prosperity. Mayor Gavin Newsom will provide an introduction.

Bloggers Brunch
Sunday, July 20th 11:15 AM - 12:45 PM
Special Event, Exhibit Hall 4
Time: Sunday, July 20th, 11:15am - 12:45pm
Room: Exhibit Hall 4
with: Adam Bonin, Josh Orton, Nolan Treadway, Cheryl Contee, John Aravosis, Mary Rickles

This informal brunch gives attendees a chance to dialog with a panel of bloggers and Netroots Nation staff members and talk about actions they can take from Austin to their hometowns. Breakfast will be served.

This should keep you busy. If you know of other things going down, rep it!

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The Obama campaign is kinda fired up it seems. $52M raised in June. Second best month ever.

More from Reuters

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised $52 million in June, the campaign said on Thursday, a jump from last month and more than double the $22 million raised by his Republican rival John McCain.

In an e-mail to supporters, campaign manager David Plouffe said the Obama campaign raised the funds with an average donation of $68. The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have a combined total of $72 million in the bank, Plouffe said.

The GOP has $100M in the bank BTW. The former stats junkie in me wants to know what the median contribution is.

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