Division I regional track finals
Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > August > 25
Monday, August 25, 2008
Omarosa taking in Denver
Central State University graduate and Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth was seen taking in Denver, according to press reports.
The reality show favorite was seen at the hot Mile High City restaurant Mezcal.
She plans to return to Ohio to campaign for Barack Obama.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment |
TweetDiverse points of view
DENVER - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown took a friendly swipe at the lack of diversity in the news media during a breakfast talk with delegates to the Democratic National Convention Monday.
“This is the most diverse political convention in the history of the United States,” he said. “Look around this room and you can see that.”
While the room wasn’t full, if it had been 50 per cent of the 186 delegates and alternates would have been women, 50 would have been black (27 percent), five Hispanic American (2 percent) and three Asian American (1.5 percent).
“I want my white, male middle aged friends at the media table who look like me, I want them to take note of the diversity,” Brown said to a roar of applause from the audience.
He was quick to note that “we also need a lot more diversity in the United States Senate.” Brown was right on both accounts:
If Barack Obama is elected president, there will be no blacks remaining in the Senate. There are two Hispanic Americans and one Asian American. While it isn’t an all-boy’s club, it’s close. There are only 14 women senators.
The diversity numbers in the media are not nearly as bad as the Senate, but they by no means are at parity with the general population.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors conducts an annual census of newsrooms. The latest count shows that only 13.5 percent full time journalists at newspapers are minorities, less than half the percentage of minorities in America.
ASNE’s survey is an outgrowth of the 1968 Kerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerner_Commissionner Commission report, which was critical of the lack of coverage of black communities and the lack of minority journalists in the wake of the Newark and Detroit riots.
Ironically, all of the speakers at the morning delegation breakfast were white, middle-aged males, like Brown and like the table-full of reporters he took a jab at.
Not all the reporters in the room were at the media table, though. There was at least one other journalist - a woman, Brown’s wife, Connie Schultz.
Jeff Bruce is the journalist in residence at Wright State University. You can reach him at jeff@jeffbruce.net.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment |
TweetCops, cops, everywhere cops
DENVER - Somebody’s making a killing on body armor in this town. Everywhere you look, there’s Robocop with two or three of his buddies hanging out.
They’re on the streets and rooftops. On foot and on horseback. On motorcycles, even bicycles.
On Sunday, they were clustered en masse near the entrance to the Pepsi Center in a face-down with protestors. The upshot of that was to cause a more-than hour-long delay for delegates, media and convention volunteers trying to make their way through the security checkpoint.
The cops came to the party with automatic weapons, face shields, and Kevlar vests. The demonstrators were armed with signs, drums and body odor. But, hey, it was sizzling outside.
Eventually the protestors packed up and moved on to march downtown, and a small army of black-suited police greeted them there, too.
Extraordinary security has become the norm at political conventions. In 2004, during the first conventions after Sept. 11, it was at least as intense from my recollection, with SWAT teams on rooftops, bomb-sniffing dogs at subway entrances, massively guarded security checkpoints, and machine-gun toting cops on nearly every street corner.
It felt like a return to Soviet-era Eastern Europe.
To enter the convention grounds today, I stood in line with dozens of delegates, workers and journalists at a steel-gated checkpoint while Secret Service agents inspected credentials and rooted through purses, briefcases and camera bags. A few hundred yards later, yet another checkpoint, with metal detectors and more searches.
Think airport security on steroids with lots more cops and guns. Lots more.
Earlier, I had traveled to convention headquarters at a downtown hotel where my bags were tested for explosive particles before I could enter. All I wanted was breakfast and a few bumper stickers. Sheesh.
The entire area around the Pepsi Center is ringed with tall, steel barriers with police patrolling the interior and the occasional chopper doing airborne surveillance.
Is this overkill?
The history of political conventions has shown that things can quickly spiral out of control. Think the riots of 1968 in Chicago when thousands of police clashed with protestors who ignored orders to demonstrate in designated areas.
The name of the local group that organized Sunday’s demonstration: Recreate 68.
Jeff Bruce is the journalist in residence at Wright State University. You can email him at jeff@jeffbruce.net.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
TweetSomebody’s got to pick up the tab
DENVER — And now a brief word from our sponsors…
The Ohio delegation to the Democratic National Convention began its first morning breakfast with words of thanks to the generous folks from Dominion, the Virginia-based energy company, which picked up the tab for a Sunday afternoon outing at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
There, conventioneers were treated to the musical delights of Sheryl Crow, the Dave Matthews Band and Sugarland.
And a tip of the hat was also offered to Swedish Match, an international corporation specializing in snuff, cigars, pipe and chewing tobacco and lighters. They’re sponsoring the nightly scotch and cigar reception that begins at midnight.
Other events being hosted for delegates include a welcome party at the posh Curtis Hotel’s Corner Bar, morning bloody Mary receptions, post-gavel parties at the ESPN Zone, LoDo’s Bar & Grill, and other nightspots, and various trinkets. And that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of the invitation-only parties held nightly all over town.
As party Chairman Chris Redfern introduced a series of speakers, including U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and state Treasurer Richard Cordray, a slideshow backlit the lectern with a revolving series of acknowledgements for the sugar daddies. They included the likes of Verizon Wireless, Norfolk Southern, Hewlett Packard, Nationwide, Microsoft, American Electric Power, Duke Energy, First Energy, State Street Consultants, Citizens Bank, Johnson & Johnson, the Ohio Association of Realtors, various law firms and others.
Thomas F. Farrell, chairman, president and CEO of Dominion, told delegates that by sponsoring their entertainment it “gives us opportunities to share our thoughts with you.”
In other words, lobby.
Wait, you say, aren’t there rules against lobbyists showering our elected officials with such largesse? Yes, but there are loopholes you could drive a beer truck through.
So, when Ashley Judd mingles with delegates at Planned Parenthood’s “Sex, Politics and Cocktail” party this week, it’s perfectly legal. A Willie Nelson concert? No problem.
And entertaining the delegates is hardly the biggest tab being picked up here, and, for that matter, in St. Paul when the Republicans gather there next week. While, loophole-riddled, there are limits on direct contributions to candidates. No such limits are imposed on contributions to political conventions, which cost tens of millions to put on.
So, while Barak Obama refuses to take money from political action committees or lobbyists and John McCain wrote the law that places limits on donations to political parties, both men, through their parties, are clearly in hock to a host of business interests, labor unions and other special interests.
And now, back to our regular programming…
Jeff Bruce is the journalist in residence at Wright State University. You can email him at jeff@jeffbruce.net. For more politics, point your browser to daytondailynews.com/politics.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Democratic Convention
TweetObama, Biden to attend Tubbs Jones memorial service
The first post-convention trip to Ohio for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden will be a somber one.
Obama and Biden both will attend the memorial service for Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the U.S. House member from Cleveland, on Saturday, Aug. 30, Isaac Baker, Obama’s Ohio campaign spokesman, said on Monday, Aug. 25. Their wives, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, will accompany them to the service.
Tubbs Jones, 58, died last Wednesday, Aug. 20, of a brain hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm. The Ohio delegation to the Democratic National Convention had a moment of silence in her honor at their breakfast in Denver on Monday.
The memorial service is at 11 a.m. at the Cleveland Public Auditorium.
Chris Redfern, the Ohio Democratic chairman, told the breakfast gathering that they will pay special tribute to Tubbs Jones, the first black woman from Ohio to serve in Congress, on Thursday, the last day of the convention.
“She was an extraordinary leader,” said Refern. Buttons honoring Tubbs Jones will be distributed for delegates to wear, Redfern said.
“She was the kind of person you liked to be around,” said Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray, who spoke at the breakfast.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who served in the House with Tubbs Jones, said that Tubbs Jones would be proud that her son Mervyn Jones, Jr. was attending the convention despite his grief.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Post your comment | Categories: Democratic Convention
TweetDemocrats’ Web ad ties McCain to Bush
While Democrats in Denver were getting ready to whoop it up for Barack Obama, their presumptive presidential nominee, the Democratic National Committee wants to keep Republican John McCain in the news - not in a positive way, of course.
The DNC on Monday, Aug. 25, launched a new Web ad, “Totally in Agreement”, tying McCain to President Bush, part of the Democrats’ continuing strategy.
Here’s the ad:
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Democratic Convention
TweetMcCain ad features former Clinton backer
While Democrats in Denver at the party’s national convention are trying to show that backers of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are coming together, Republican John McCain’s campaign is doing his best to show that they’re not.
McCain’s campaign on Monday, Aug. 25, launched a new TV ad, “Debra”, to air in key states.
It features Debra Bartoshevich, a “lifelong Democrat” and “Hillary Clinton Democrat”, who now backs McCain, not Barack Obama, for president. Here’s the ad:
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment | Categories: Democratic Convention
Tweet
