Team:

See note below from our communications director, thanks for what you have done in last 24 hours, let’s keep it going.

From: Kevin McLaughlin
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 1:40 PM
To: Rob Jesmer
Subject: Nutroots

Rob-

2 things;

1) Our guys at the convention told us Noreiga and his out-of-state buddies spent the morning attacking Senator Cornyn

2) according to finance team, the fact that Dean and Pelosi came in to shill for Noreiga really fired up our supporters the last 24 hours. We have raised well over 10K and I think we could another 10k if we send out the email below again.

Talk soon,

Kevin

You know, it might be a good idea to hire someone (or two someone’s, since Rob Jessmer, Cornyn’s campaign manager didn’t even correct the misspelling in the e-mail) who can actually spell your opponent’s name. Especially your communications director.

As for the message . . . Noriega and the rest of the Netroots and Dem leadership who showed up bashed Cornyn!? STOP THE PRESSES! SOUND THE ALARM! TIP THE COW!

Anyway, I guess “Buck Smith”/David Beckwith must be earning his keep (and some Democratic schwag) by attending Netroots Nation.

Nonetheless, Kevin, you really need to learn how to (a) spell and (b) not make yourself look like an ass in the press (yes, I’m talking about that asinine comment about “Buck Smith” speaking for himself and all that other BS you pulled from somewhere near your nose that resembles an asshole when BOR outed Beckwith).

By the way, Kev: Since “Buck Smith” speaks for himself, why isn’t he posting on BOR any more?

In one post (referring to the “Big John” video), he commented:

“I personally believe Beckwith deserves a raise and/or a promotion for whatever role he had in that video . . .”

I want to see if recommending yourself for a raise on a blog works. So here goes:

Hey, TFN, I think I deserve a raise. How ’bout it?

Joe, same for you.

Pate got to get paid, son.

Boy, I hope it pans out well — or at least that I’m not forced to resign my positions in a few weeks when the media/blog heat has subsided.

(If this doesn’t work, I’ll try posting the request on a conservative Web site under a nom de plume.)

I keep telling myself I need to blog more — stretch my legs (or fingers) again after such a long hiatus from truly active blogging (a few times a week or month not counting). If we remember, I started blogging back in 1998 or earlier (this is before the term “blogging” was in use). But what’s the use in reminiscing? There’s too much to do now.

I need to start blogging again because I need to soon start blogging daily on the TFN blog (which is not open to the public yet).

Anyway, I’m doing my best, I guess. Just not forcing myself to pour out nonsense here every day of the week.

——-

So, as I was writing the last four paragraphs, the people I wanted to talk about first left Dolce Vita. They’d been sitting just next my friend Claire and me. They were discussing how Whole Foods gobbles up Mom ‘n Pop groceries (earlier they’d been talking about how we live under a fascist system and something about grammar). While I’m no great fan of Whole Paycheck, this seems to me to be a late-in-the-game argument: Mom and Pop were in serious trouble — if not already driven out of business — by larger grocery conglomerates far before Whole Foods became any sort of player. You’re about ten years too late, hippies. (Also, how can hippies afford to live in Hyde Park?)

—–

By the way, I’m apparently getting married.

—–

I’ve only been engaged since Saturday and I already hate wedding planning.

—–

Is it normal for one who becomes familiar with the intricacies of Texas politics to start voting against people just because they don’t like who works for them?

—–

Joaquin is eight to ten days away from graduating from Basic Combat Training for the Army. Then he heads to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for AIT for his MOS (88M, Motor Transport Operator).

—–

I suppose that is all for now. It’s starting to rain a little here at Dolce.

Joe lied to me. He said parking would be a breeze on Saturday. Fortunately, there was a breeze as we walked from 7th Street to the Convention Center on 2nd.

We couldn’t get into the main exhibition hall because we didn’t have credentials (oh-so-Democratic!), so we headed over to another hall to scour all the booths and peer into the delegate registration areas looking for extra convention bags. I “stole” five or six delegate convention bags — the bags given to delegates commemorating the Convention and filled with schwag — at the Convention in 2004. This time, we either got there too late and they’d been hauled away the extras or they learned from last year not to leave them out. Either way, we couldn’t find any with which to, as Misty said on Twitter, abscond.

After failing to sticky-finger any bags, we wandered among the rows of Democratic organization tables, where they hawked T-shirts, buttons and god-knows-what-else. We didn’t see Joe, who was supposed to be manning the HDCC table, but we did see the abandoned TFN table — they took down their table prematurely not knowing that today would be packed.

We headed to the main exhibit hall entrance to try to see what was going on. A guy offered us Guest Passes, so we walked a quarter-mile through the Convention Center to get to the guest entrance only to find that it was a big-screen feed from the main hall. Motherfucker.

They started the ceremonies and then broke in with Hillary Clinton’s concession speech (finally!), but the feed kept dying, Hillary kept freezing on the screen and the audio went dead repeatedly. We finally headed home.

Now we’re drinking at Dolce Vita and considering heading to the Helio Sequence show at Mohawk.

My brain feels dehydrated.

In the news.

There’s been a lot of, frankly, ridiculous prophesying that Obama or Clinton will show up, but that has finally been put to rest by Obama tapping Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (he with the eyebrow) to attend on his behalf and Clinton’s all-but-certain withdrawal from the race on Saturday. Still, some people just never give up hope (it took him until the Clinton campaign announced its ending to get the picture).

Along with the convention there always comes a host of parties thrown by legislators, lobbyists, supporters of presidential candidates and, well, bloggers. While the Texas “‘netroots” (or “Texroots”) may not be the powerful political force they believe themselves to be, I’m certain they’re fun to get drunk with. Personally, I want to see Vince Leibowitz table-dance.

While I’d like to say that I will attend the Blogger’s Caucus or one of the many other parties, I can’t guarantee anything. See, after I have my double whiskey and three beers at Dolce Vita on the way home from work (usually between four and six) each day, I rarely want to venture out once I get home.

Not that it matters if I show up. I’m no big Texas political personality. In fact, I’ve only ever broken one story (this, obviously, doesn’t count because it was IRL rather than online), and most of the blogosphere probably still resents me for running Ray McMurrey‘s unsuccessful campaign against Rick Noriega (our campaign still being the best thing to ever happen to Rick).

So, maybe I’ll make it to a party — especially the Blogger’s Caucus — and maybe I won’t. No biggie. I’ll get drunk either way and no one will miss me.

UPDATE: Yes, that is a picture of me on the cover of this magazine.

Conservatives such as Noonan hoped that 9/11 would bring back the best of the 1940s and ’50s, playing Pearl Harbor to a new era of patriotism and solidarity. Many on the left feared that it would restore the worst of the same era, returning us to the shackles of censorship and conformism, jingoism and Joe McCarthy. But as far as Hollywood is concerned, another decade entirely seems to have slouched round again: the paranoid, cynical, end-of-empire 1970s.

He then goes through many film genres and compares recent films to those made in the ’70s. He even gives shout-outs to some of my favorite television shows: The Wire and Battlestar Galactica.

. . . [T]he first great revisionist sci-fi serial, Battlestar Galactica, helmed by an ex–Star Trek writer and featuring enough sex, violence, and religious fanaticism to set Gene Roddenberry spinning in his grave.

Most important, though, is that he questions the reason we have returned to such a style:

This last reality brings us to the question of how authentic our back-to-the-’70s moment really is. The Vietnam War was a cultural phenomenon in part because it couldn’t help being one—there was no way for Americans to keep the war at arm’s length, not with more than 50,000 dead, a million deployed over the course of the war, and every able-bodied teen and twentysomething at risk of conscription. In contrast, the Iraq War, a lower-casualty conflict fought by an all-volunteer military, takes place at a greater distance from the everyday lives of those Americans who don’t have a family member deployed overseas. The objective correlatives needed for a truly pessimistic era simply don’t exist for many Americans today. The last time around, we were participants; this time, we’re voyeurs.

It’s an interesting view. Read it yourself.

In other news, the Supreme Court has just ruled “that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.” This is just bad public policy that hurts the poor, minorities, the elderly and the disabled. Ugh.

The first is Bill Moyers’ interview with The Yes Men, a group that gives the most absurd presentations at official functions — and get taken seriously — proving the gullibility and out-right stupidity of major government and industry leaders.

The second is a YouTube video from the Texas College Democrats about Senator John Cornyn, Texas’ own Grinch.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Hans Klingler at 512/477-9821

Democratic Senate Candidate Noriega Asks “Netroots” Donors to “Step Up” And They Don’t
Dismal Three Day Online Fundraising Effort Further Points to Anemic Start for
Liberal Senate Wannabee

Austin- Today the Republican Party of Texas questioned Democratic Senate wannabee Rick Noriega and the commitment of his “Netroots” community in his quest for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat currently held by Senator John Cornyn.  Noriega challenged his “Netroots” community to step up and donate to his campaign to counter the successful events featuring President George W. Bush on behalf of Senator Cornyn.

“Rick Noriega has requested online money help to kick start his anemic campaign from the most liberal left leaning donors of the national Democratic Party.  Apparently with a whopping three day total of $2,045 via the internet these liberal donors don’t find his candidacy viable,” stated Hans Klingler, Spokesman for the Texas G.O.P.

Noriega has been relying on ACTBLUE, a liberal “online clearinghouse for Democratic action”, to appeal to their most ardent liberal base of donors for contributions to help Rick Noriega’s fledgling campaign.  Noriega’s last campaign contribution report filed in early October reported slightly more than $500,000 raised for this campaign.  Noriega is relying heavily on internet support for his financial contributions.

“Noriega and his liberal cohorts targeted $50,000 in three days and raised $2,045.  Basic campaign fundraising would tell you when you undershoot a small online fundraising goal 96% it probably does not portend good things in the future for your candidacy,” concluded Klingler.

Paid for by the Republican Party of Texas
900 Congress Avenue, Suite 300, Austin, Texas 78701.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Now go back to the subhead and the first sentence and reread that if you missed the misspelling the first time.

I had no idea Noriega had wings. Too many Red Bulls?

Probably a Freudian slip ’cause they know Noriega is going to sting Cornyn in the ass.

Just for their failure to write correct English (if you can’t speak it, get out of the country!), I’m going to link to Noriega’s online donation page, how ya like dem apples, TRP?