Hillary Clinton Suspended Voting; Nominated Barack Obama President - Video

This is a live capture video of Senator Hillary Clinton's dramatic entrance into the convention floor and with Representative Charlie Rangel and Governor David Patterson. The state-by-state voting was suspended and Senator Barack Obama is now officially the Democratic Nominee for President of The United States.

New Hampshire and New Jersey follow Clinton's call

The New Hampshire chair stood up and said that they were following Clinton's call and casting all of their 30 votes for Obama.

New Jersey stood up next and unanimously cast all of their votes for Obama to huge, raucous cheers in the hall. Z's gonna vlog on this ... watch for it.

Roll Call Voting In Process

It's 4:25 pm and we're in the blogger suite watching the roll call vote. We arrived after the vote began, but so far, the Michigan delegation has received the largest ovation. After all of the issues with seating MI delegates, they cast 125 votes to Obama and 27 to Clinton, with 5 not voting. We missed the FL vote. Darn.

Each state chair is giving proud facts about his or her state before they cast their vote. We're hearing about state hockey champs, which Senators were born where, etc. The floor is bustling and the blogger section is getting full. Thus far, there doesn't seem to be any real dissention, no fighting, etc. Votes are being cast for Obama and for Clinton without drama, except the excitement of nominating the next President of the United States. We heard earlier that the Clinton folks were trying to figure out a way to shut down the roll call vote in order to hold her voting in check and avoid any floor fireworks, but they apparently either decided not to or couldn't get the rules worked out.

As the voting closes and we get a final tally, I'll blog again. This is fun, y'all. Wish you were here.

A view from a cab - DNC Convention

I mentioned earlier that all of the cab drivers I've dealt with here have been fantastic. One of them was so interesting that I had to interview him on the spot. His name is Tawir Tawir and if I hadn't lost my cell phone, I'd have a great picture of him to show you. Tawir is a 40 year old man from the Sudan and he's been in the US for seven years. He's applied for US citizenship, but three years later, he's on his second fingerprint check. His name and the fact that he's a Muslim put him in a position to make immigration much more difficult.

Here's a recap of our conversation:

Ash: How do you feel, overall, about Obama and McCain?

Tawir: I like Obama, not because he's black like me, but because he means change. McCain just wants war, he will go into Iran, and make things worse.

Ash: Since you're a Muslim, how do you feel about Americans fearing that Obama might be a Muslim, when we know he's a Christian? Why do you think that's such an issue?

Tawir: Americans are scared of Muslims because of Osama bin Laden. The Jewish people fought Muslims for a long time and bin Laden gave them a chance to bring their fight into the open in the US. Israeli groups control the media in this country and that perpetuates the anti-Muslim feelings and that led us to Iraq. Or at least that's how I feel.

Ash: You're from the Sudan. Talk to me about the situation there.

Tawir: Darfur is Muslim, but this is not about religion. The government situation in the Sudan is not fair. There needs to be more in the Senate from Darfur. All politicians are from the Northern part of the Sudan. Americans are paying attention to the Sudan, but only to the Southern part and they are ignoring the Eastern and Western parts. The Northern part gets all of the politicans; the Presidents all come from the North.

There is a lot of oil in Darfur right now and that's why Americans are so interested in helping out. The Chinese control the oil in Darfur right now, but the Chinese people aren't interested in helping out the Sudanese people, only serving the government. The people do not get the money and the government does not spend the money on things the people need, like roads and schools, but only build themselves bigger buildings.

That pretty much concluded our interview, with just a short discussion of the party he had attended the night before for the Sudanese President, who is in town during the Convention. Apparenlty, there is a decent size Sudanese community here in Denver.

Tawir says that he will absolutely vote when he gets his citizenship. If he could vote in this election, he would cast that vote for Barack Obama.

At Blogger Lounge After DNC Convention - Hillary Clinton's Great Speech

I'm in the middle of uploading videos from being on the floor of the Democratic National Convention, or what we've come to know as the "DNC Convention". I used that term as a throw-away line but it was certainly less than accurate.

Being on the floor of the DNC while someone like Hillary Clinton is giving the speech of her life is a total blood-rush. The reason I go back to the Super BOwl year after year is for the rise of emotions at kick-off. It's a drug like no other -- well, not true.

This. The Clinton speech. In that arena. Equalled the Super Bowl at kickoff.

What was special about Clinton's speech -- what is the hallmark of any wonderful speech -- is the moment. It's that timing we only dream about. A matting of need and action. Of volume and hearing. Of energy and sprit. I have to admit, I've never thought of Hillary Clinton as a great speaker until today. It's not what she said -- there are transcripts to be had of course. But a transcript can't communicate the inflection or the expression or the crowd -- especially the crowd -- that listened and reacted to that speech.

How an audience reacts to any speech in my view is the measure of the greatness of the work. It makes total sense. Words move people. From that perspective, Senator Clinton moved a nation tonight. She gave a great speech that will go down in history as one of the greatest speeches because it met the moment and defined it.

DNC Convention - Rep. Rahm Emanuel Speaks

It is 6pm and Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel has just given a great speech with a clear voice especially since he was the lead of an awesome party last night.

Now, having taken the large group photo, the crowd chanted Obama! Obama! All this while Hillary Clinton waits .

DNC Convention - Third Day In Denver; At Specialty Media Center

As I write this, I'm sitting at something called The Specialty Media Center, sponsored and ran by Microsoft. It's a simple affair, with tables chairs and a computer setup in the back. There are two couch stations with plasma screen televisions tuned to CNN. It's a great place to upload videos or -- as I'm doing -- install this blog report.

Right now, it's 12:25. I'm about to upload a video featuring Cornell West and Tavis Smiley -- in fact, I'll do that now -- then will go to a hotel to get a lost credit card and then Walgreens and then Pepsi Center. I'm also worry about one of our group who's basically flown off-course dramatically and hurtfully.

It's the drama you didn't expect and don't want.

But that aside, this convention is a blast. It's the combination of the Super Bowl and The Olympics at once. Over the past three days, two of them active, I've met more movers and shakers than I can shake a stick at: Ed Gordon, Cornell West, Steve Doocy, Rep Jesse Jackson, Jr., Steve Westy, Jamal Anserson, Protesters, and the list goes on.

Last night you may have see the Michelle Obama speech, and the wonderful exchange between she and her daughters, and Barack. The convention's buzzing about that.

Today, it's Hillary's turn.

Janet Napolitano - Arizona Governor Interview at DNC Convention

At the DNC Convention, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano gave a small press conference where she talked about the ability of the Western States to bring votes for the Democratic Party as well as issues related to Native Indian Tribal Sovereignty, the selection of Senator Joe Biden as Vice President, energy, and future Super Bowls in Arizona.

Rep. Jim Clyburn On The Clinton Legacy & Black America

At the Yahoo! Politico morning breakfast, I could think of no better person to talk to about the matter of the Clinton Legacy and Black America, than Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. Clyburn said that the speeches by both Clintons and Senator Obama would define their legacies.

DNC Convention - First Day On The Pepsi Center Floor

Ken Salazar - Colorado Senator Interview at DNC Convention

Colorado Senator Ken Salazar was kind enough to give us a good deal of his time at the DNC Convention. This "mini-press-talk" consisted mostly of a discussion of Senator Biden, Colorado Water Rights, the energy problem and the economy.

Hillary Supporter Not A Democrat - DNC Convention Sunday

This video is of an interview conversation I had with a Hillary Clinton supporter who as it turned out was not a Democrat but an "independent" who was rather not rational. She was addressed by a real Hillary Clinton supporter who is a Clinton delegate, Mitch Mallett of Florida.

DNC Convention - Zennie62's Trip - Arrival In Denver

This is our first video during our DNC Convention coverage.

DNC Convention - More To Come From A Full Day

Right now, I'm doing some late night blogging after a full day which saw me get about three hours of sleep and then drive to San Francisco for my flight, only to learn that I was supposed to be in Oakland.

So with my visiting Mom as passenger, I got over to Oakland in good time and made the flight.

The flight itself was weird. It started with the need to change tires on the plane. Then it ended with the flight being diverted off course a bit making us about 20 minutes later than we should have been. Finally i got here -- needing sleep. The town was abuzz with the Obama / Biden news and the responses were mostly positive.

After some rest, we headed over to an awesome media party at an amusement park next to Pepsi Center. There, it featured a awesome fireworks show. While there, I met Steve Doocy of Fox And Friends Morning Show. A very nice person who actually is shorter than I thought he would be, which is not to imply that he's short, just shorter than I thought he would be. He told me that he gets up at midnight to get ready to do the morning show.

Yikes.

More news and other content from today on Sunday!

Obama - Biden | Barack Obama Offers VP To Senator Job Biden

Stanley Kurtz, If Obama's With "Weather Underground", I Am Too

National Review Contributing Editor Stanley Kurtz either has little to do, or has taken something which caused his intelligence quotient to fly South for the Summer. He's trying to link Senator Barack Obama to the alledged terrorist group of 1960s Chicago called "The Weather Underground" through the fact that in 2002, Obama and William Ayers, one of its members, were on the same board of directors of a Chicago non-profit.

There's one problem. Barack Obama was a kid in the 60s and not even living in Chicago. But I was in Chicago in the 60s and was born there -- proudly. So to look at Kurtz logic, I'm as much if not more a real Weatherman than Obama. In fact, why not count every Black male and kid in Chicago at the time!

See how silly Kurtz' argument is? More proof that conservatives are fishing for anything that they think will stick to Senator Obama on his way toward the presidency, even if it's just totally stupid.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones Passes

This is purely shocking to happen to someone I saw on television so much I felt like I knew her. And this just days from the Democratic National Convention. She was a tireless supporter of Hillary Clinton for President, and even as I'd wished she was behind Senator Obama at the time, I always respected her drive and example for young women.

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) _ Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, had a brain hemorrhage and was in critical condition with limited brain function, a doctor said Wednesday.


Tubbs Jones, 58, suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday, said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital in East Cleveland. The congresswoman had been driving erratically and her vehicle crossed lanes of traffic before coming to a stop, police said.


Tubbs Jones "collapsed when she suffered a very serious brain hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm that burst in an inaccessible part of her brain," Kious said during a news conference. A team of doctors who evaluated her determined she has limited brain function.


A brain aneurysm is a bulge in an artery in the brain. It can leak or rupture, causing bleeding in the brain.

Katie Couric Digg's The DNC Convention

Katie Couric's discovered "Digg" for the DNC Convention. See her video-blog here:

Christine Pelosi On Obama, Clinton, And The California Democratic Party's Denver Shindig Location

This is the first video kicking off our coverage of the Democratic National Convention and events leading up to it. This one was a $2,300 a plate fundraiser for Barack Obama at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA, Sunday August 17th, 2008.

As part of the event, an Obama Rally was held outside of the hotel. Two, perhaps three people with bullhorns were leading the crowd in "Obama" cheers, and one I recognized.

Christine Pelosi, daughter of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the author of the well-received book "Campaign Boot Camp" a guide to successful campaigning, as well as a California Superdelegate supporting Senator Barack Obama.

I asked Christine about having Hillary's name placed in nomination and she skillfully ducked the question as only she can do. Instead, she said she was looking forward to the voting process, and reminds us that she's been a delegate since 1996.

Then Christine informed me that the California Delegation will have its party Wednesday Night at the Denver Museum of Natural History. So, if you're coming to Denver and are a Californian with political connections, that's the place to be.

Clinton Should Not Be In Nomination: Ignore P.U.M.A

Hillary Clinton Should Not Be In Nomination: Ignore P.U.M.A

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's name should not be put in nomination for the Democratic Presidential Nominee at the DNC Convention for several reasons. But before I state them, let me explain that I have supported the idea of an Obama / Clinton ticket for some time. But these reasons have caused me to be less enthusiastic about that, and to reject the idea of her name in the nomination process.

1) Senator Clinton lost the primary. For reasons that have been explored in depth, Senator Clinton lost the primary delegate race to Senator Barack Obama, and Senator Obama gained more popular votes than Senator Clinton.

2) I did not like the way Senator Clinton conducted herself after the end of the primary. At first, she was working for party unity, but did not rein in some of her supporters and did not have her husband former President Clinton fall in line and support Senator Obama 100 percent.

It's as if they were really cool as long as they though they had a chance for Hillary to be Vice President, but fell off the wagon when it seemed that was not going to be the case.




3) Senator Clinton did not rein in her former campaign spokesperson Howard Wolfson, who incorrectly stated that she would have won the Iowa Primary if Senator John Edwards had revealed his affair with Rielle Hunter then, instead of last week. But the fact is that after Edwards dropped about 80 percent of his delegates went to Obama and his staff was pressuring him to back Obama, which he did.

There's an idea that the number of anti-Obama Hillary people out there is equal in number to the pro-Obama Hillary people. That's really not true at all. We not only saw that was the case during the votes at the DNC Rules Committee meeting, but in a deep look at organizations like "Party Unity My Ass" or "P.U.M.A".

First, P.U.M.A's founder Darragh Murphy (pictured) has been a supporter of Senator John McCain, giving him $500. It's clear that when she has the money, she will back a Republican candidate. Her claim of posting a lawn sign for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick aside, because it's a lawn sign and not cash, Murphy only contributed $250 more for a Democratic Candidate, Hillary Clinton, than for McCain.




The other person who's aligned with the P.U.M.A people is Will Brewer, who has a tendency of aligning himself with questionable people who are also in P.U.M.A.

For ezample there's Andy Martin and Webster Tarpley. Martin is the person who started the "Obama is Muslim" smear campaign. Tarpley is not a Democrat at all, but a Lyndon LaRouche supporter.

And Martin said to be an alledged Antisemite according to David Weigel .

(A charge Martin says is false and defaming in the same blog account.)

Brewer is also aligned with Harriet Christian, who showed her racism for the World to see in the now famous video clip included in my video commentary.

P.U.M.A is painted to be larger than it is. It only has a $50,000 budget as Murphy has reported on Hardball, not several million, and there's no evidence to claim over 2 million supporters. A P.U.M.A conference held on August 8th, 9th, and 10th, showed that only about 40 people came (count the number of name tags on the table then consider the size of the table an the people standing who have name-tags), even though they planned to draw over 250 people. When they did not meet that mark, the conference was booted from the original Marriot hotel and had to be moved to the Country Inn near Dulles Airport. (P.U.M.A. conference photo below from Rumproast)



Why -- as small as they are -- do we hear from groups like P.U.M.A? Because the mainstream media: the newspapers and the big three tv news networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC), and CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, have a vested interest in making the political race look like it's not a "done deal" and thus get you to watch more often.

So, they give people from P.U.M.A a platform, but the reality is that they're a divisive group that's not even part of the Democratic Party and has no business at the DNC Convention. They are to be ignored so we can get on with the business of growing the Democratic Party to victory in November.