I've been complaining for the last few days that the Republicans were succeeding with the "Democrats in Division" story, and specifically using it to divide the Clinton and Obama coalitions, and that the Obama campaign was failing at defense. I was getting angrier as I saw more slights against the Clintons pile up, and I noted some Obama supporters taking offense at various statements by Hillary or Bill Clinton. I was beginning to fear that the divisions in the party might become permanent, dooming Obama's chances, and I didn't understand why the Obama campaign wasn't proactively shutting down the news stories that were popping up.

But after Hillary and Bill Clinton's speeches, and watching the Gallup poll show a dramatic rise for Obama today based on yesterday's post-Hillary results, I've begun to wonder if Hollede was on to something with his The Real Head Fake diary.

Nick D over at Buckeye State Blog discussed this earlier today (read "Inadequate DNC Space for Bloggers"), but I feel compelled to talk about this a little more.

Last night, around 9:45PM, I received an email detailing the press logistics for the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.  The email covered a variety of topics from transportation to credentialing information and...

...That email also stated that a section of the Invesco Field press box would be reserved exclusively for credentialed bloggers and space in the press box would be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Let me repeat that again...space in the press box for bloggers would be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Once again, using the words of the convention organizers...

Internet access and power hookups will be available in this workspace free of charge - a service that is not being provided for other media in the press box. Seating in this space will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Using the information provided in that 9:45PM email, several bloggers (myself included) made our preparations to be in the press box at Invesco Field to reserve our space because after all, the email from the DNCC said "Seating in this space will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis."

Well, today, Nick D, myself, and more than two dozen other bloggers who are currently sitting in the Invesco Field press box have learned that first-come, first-served doesn't mean first-come, first-served when it applies to credentialed bloggers at the Democratic National Convention.

First-come, first-served means that if you're a credentialed blogger; and if you got up at 6:25 in the morning; and if you were among the first credentialed bloggers to arrive in the Invesco Field press box, then you're limited to 30 minutes in the press box.

Not only that, but once you're "rotated" out of the press box, you have to wait for one hour before you're allowed back in.

That is what first-come, first-served means in the blogger section of the Invesco Field press box.

Now, I ask you...if the DNCC went to the Washington Post, the New York Times or the Denver Post and said, "We're out of space here in the press box, so we're going to institute a 30-minute system where we rotate you out of the press box, make you wait an hour, and then bring you back into the press box for another scant 30-minute period,"  what do you think the reporters from those news organizations would say?

Well, I don't have to tell you that the reaction to such a system would be less than favorable and that's exactly how the bloggers in the Invesco Field press box are feeling.

For folks like me, who arrived early and got our space, we feel disrespected because we read the email and we made our plans according to the email, but now we're finding out in a very disappointing way that this particular email from the DNCC isn't worth the electricity used to blast it out to the 120 bloggers credentialed by the DNCC.

To borrow a line from the movie, "Mommie Dearest", How sad is that?

From huffingtonPost:
Meanwhile, in the past few hours we've spoke to a number of 30 Rock staffers in Denver, New York, and Washington -- some of whom thought it more productive to speak to us than attend to the on-going live DNC coverage -- and the common wisdom is:
1) Nobody can believe how much Keith Olbermann is getting away with, even if he does draw ratings;
2) As an Olbermann protege, Rachel Maddow is attracting negative feelings from staffers, since she stays mum on many of these catfights, but "there's still time" to represent;
3) MSNBC head Phil Griffin is alienating staffers by publicly defending Olbermann while privately bashing him, and it's left many wondering when that will leak (oops);
4) MSNBC publicist Jeremy Gaines appears increasing stressed out and can be seen "shaking" with a phone attached to his ear dealing with reporters;
5) You don't want to run into Chris Matthews anytime soon, especially en route to the bathroom, because he has zero pleasant things to say right now;
6) Joe Scarborough is definitely stressed, but he's managed to calm down a bit today and can be seen laughing and gabbing;
7) None of this is helping ratings, with MSNBC scoring the lowest numbers against Fox News and CNN in convention coverage.

With all this infighting at MSNBC and Keith O the left's  lunatic version of Bill O reilly-  Someone needs to send tweety, shuster and KO to the back of the bus!

Dailyshow now mocking them!
  http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index. jhtml?videoId=183498&title=media-ana lysis-unity

KO does not want any opposing views period anywhere on MSNBC , is even trying to get Tom Brokaw fired and had this house pets on dailyKos start a petition to kick Joe Scarbrough off MSNBC.  yeah babe , lets do a Bushy only in reverse.  

Now for the greatest hits all in thise week! As the Democratic National Convention approached Keith Olbermann must have been feeling pretty good about himself. Over the past two years Olbermann has systematically gutted MSNBC of anyone that did not meet Keith's "high standards" for journalistic ethics. Rita Cosby - gone, Don Imus - gone, Bernard McGuirk - gone, Tucker Carlson - gone, Larry Johnson - gone, Dana Milbank - gone, Dan Abrams - gone.

MSNBC Drama Pervades Convention Coverage: Olbermann vs. Matthews, Attempts To Get Guests Banned.

This is the second entry in a series of posts looking at China as it relates to Wal-Mart in the aftermath of the Olympic games.

Today, we'll take a look at product safety.

Wal-Mart's business model is based on low prices. That means both how much they pay for a product, and how much they sell a product for. In the first post in this series, we looked at how this frenzied urge to reduce labor costs drove manufacturing to China. Today, we look at how Wal-Mart, based on the same desire for cheap goods, is responsible for a myriad of dangerous products.

When Wal-Mart goes looking for the cheapest products, or forces their vendors to do so, they don't consider things like safety, treatment of workers, or labor violations. They are looking for the lowest price, period. And as they pit factories against other factories to get the cheapest price, factories start to cut corners in order to keep their prices down and make an acceptable profit.

This has resulted in an astounding list of unsafe products reaching consumers, often with terrible consequence. Pet food sold at Wal-Mart, for instance, sickened or killed what could be thousands of pets. Wal-Mart had Aqua Dots on their top toys for Christmas list, but it turns out that when kids ate the little plastic pieces they went into a coma. Wal-Mart sold lead laced Christmas lights and Christmas trees and Key Chains. Wal-Mart was also selling salmonella tainted snack food that was made in China. This is just a small sample of the dangerous products sold at Wal-Mart. You can see a full  list of recalled products here.

The problem got so bad that it was announced just a few days ago that the United States would be posting product safety inspectors in three Chinese cities.

This is great news in terms of products coming from China. In the future, products coming from that country will likely be less dangerous. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the last post of this series, China is swiftly becoming a more expensive option for manufacturing, and this will only serve to make it more expensive. That means major companies like Wal-Mart will simply move to other countries with lax guidelines and cheap labor. It means Wal-Mart will continue to put its consumers at risk by manufacturing and selling dangerous goods.

This is going to be my last diary here.  But this is not one of those GBCW diaries.  Indeed, it is a "Goodbye Beautiful Blog" farewell.

I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging here.. it is the only place I have ever blogged at.  I used to be a regular reader of DailyKos, and of TPM... but have avoided those places ever since they jumped the shark during the primaries.  I came here because I was told it was a refuge of sorts for Clinton supporters.

I have watched as the site has evolved from Clinton supporters and Obama supporters to "Clintonistas for Obama" and original Obama supporters.  I am not an Obama supporter (I intend to decide on who will get my vote in late October), and have run into occassional skirmishes with some of you as a result.

But the reason for leaving is not that....

Mohammad Jawad was a child soldier in Afghanistan when he was detained by US forces there in the so-called War on Terror and taken to Guantanamo where he was subjected to various types of torture - recognized as torture, that is, except to the Bush Administration, who call it anything else.
You can sign this petition to help in his behalf here. Read more about him and the petition (at bottom) below:

The LDS Church has recently released a statement under the title: "The Divine Institution of Marriage"

Notably, in this statement, the LDS Church seems to be suggesting that it does not oppose rights protected under civil union or domestic partnership laws:

"The focus of the Church's involvement is specifically same-sex marriage and its consequences. The Church does not object to rights (already established in California) regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference."

If this is the official LDS Church position, it leads me to wonder why Gary Lawrence, the California LDS Grassroots Director, is distributing "Yes on 8" campaign literature (PDF) to Mormons that includes advice like this:

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

During the primaries, one of the ongoing disputes was over which candidate had a plan that would "really" provide health insurance to everyone in America.  That's in the past, and I think the past few nights of the convention have made it clear that the Democratic Party stands united in support of the idea that every single American should be able to receive health care.

But my friends, I have to acknowledge that the GOP has beaten us to the punch and once again shown itself to be the "party of ideas."  Yes, it's true, John McCain has come up with a plan that would make the category of uninsured Americans a thing of the past, and cheaply, too!  So in the spirit of putting country before party, and in furtherance of Barack Obama's message that there's nothing wrong with admitting when a Republican has a good idea, I feel compelled to share this one.