Entry #2 from Boston: Damn, I'm tired!

I got back to my hotel at 2am this morning, and returned to my room which overlooks one of Dubya's alma maters, the Harvard Business School. (BTW, I think his concentration while there was Financial Mismanagement.) Anyway, I was supposed to attend the bloggers breakfast this morning hosted by the DNC, but I had a mystery ailment my wife speculated I got from tying my shoes too tightly. (Boy, is that pathetic or what?).

Anyway, I'm back on my feet and headed to the Ritz Carlton for a lunch honoring members of the Congressional Black Caucus. I'll be using an obsolete press pass that I have yet to renew to my podiatric-induced injury this morning. From there, I will likely head to a off-site session entitled: "Media and the Minority Community". Of course, my first question is what the hell is a "minority community"? And secondly, who the hell are they calling a minority? Every time I hear that word, my skin crawls, and it makes me think back to the 3/5 Compromise.

I also find it odd that in one breadth conservatives and liberals alike talk about "the global economy", but neglect to acknowledge the global complexion -- a decidedly melanin-rich one, making people of Caucazoidal extraction the new minority. That semantic beef aside, I will be interested in seeing the extent to which the growing concentration of media control is occuring and its impact on the de-democratization of the press. For indeed, to paraphrase an anonymous wise person, "Hegemony [political, cultural or commercial] and freedom of speech cannot co-exist."

Let me get going before I harangue any longer! But before I go, here's a list (to be fleshed out later) of where I went last night, with whom, and who I spotted:

I tagged along with long-time friend and former Capitol Hill running buddy, Nicole Venable, and her beau, Hassan Christian (all jokes about his name have already been made). Nicole, along with fellow lobbyist and friend, Laurel -- and husband Clint -- were generous enough to help this hapless blogger gain access to four high-filutin' convention-related receptions [read: alcohol-ladened pseudo-hoity, rump-shaker expos]! One party was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, another by the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the Black Caucus of Massachusetts, and AT&T et al. The last reception was for jazz afficionado and senior congressman, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) at Cheers "where everybody knows your name" [unless you're a Black actor, of course].

Though I missed this morning's bloggers brunch, I did run into the Napoleonic Howard Dean last night who was surrounded by three burly security guards who made Dr. Dean look like a Vienna sausage, albeit a surprisingly well dressed Vienna sausage. Donning a new dark suit complemented by a white shirt whose collar did not gouge his neck veins, Dean is now what I'd call "fashionably irrelevant."

Later on, I saw Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) [self-proclaimed lover of P. Diddy's 'Making the Band'], Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), and I actually shook my blogging booty with a very festive Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) whose staff implored me not to eblogerate the congresswoman. I told them that as long as they didn't take any compromising pictures of me surrounded by three girating white women sandwiching me in a Champagne and mussels-induced dance frenzy, I'd be kind to the liberal California congresswoman with the fancy footwork who "dropped like it's hot".

A fuller list of luminaries with whom I rubbed elbows is to come ASAP!

If for some reason I'm not able to bloggify again until the wee hours and you're suffering from insomnia, click here for the perfect cure!

Comments

[Victor]

There's a trademarked slogan at the top of this page that says "substance," which could refer to an infinite number of things. If we're talking about intelligent and substantial political discourse instead of the gloss of mainstream media, then the bitchy jab at Howard Dean betrays that ideal.

This blog calls him "Napoleonic" (short) and makes fun of his clothes, calling him "fashionably irrelevant." I'd say the latter cut-down is an apt description of the commentary. Political fashion, who's in, who's out, but irrelevant when it comes to substantial questions of policy and ideology.

The Dean grassroots is still reeling from the TV News smackdown in the primaries (context-free scream clip on continuous loop for a week after Iowa, talking heads doubting his "electability" and smirking at his supposed "gaffs"), but we're still around, looking for a way of making the DLC and corporate-lobbyist sugar daddies irrelevant.

Dean's a populist still fighting to give the party some spine to stand up to special interests. He even dared to say on MSNBC that media conglomerates should be broken up. When Dean said we should be "even-handed" in brokering peace in the middle east, that was called a gaffe. When he said the capture of Saddam Hussein didn't make us any safer, that made him a loose cannon. Howard Dean deserved better treatment than that, and he deserves better than that on this blog.

[Hassan]

YES, ALL JOKES ABOUT MY NAME HAVE BEEN DONE. Thank you.

-Hassan