Culled from various emails, here are some debates upcoming in various Democratic primaries; expect fireworks.

Citizens Union is sponsoring a debate between Marty Connor and Dan Squadron, Wednesday, September 3, in the 25th Senatorial District.

St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, between Court and Clinton Streets
Brooklyn Heights, 7:00 -9:00 PM

In the 21st Senate District, Kevin Parker, Simcha Felder and Kendall Stewart will debate one another as well. That should be of interest.

Thursday, September 4, 8:00 PM at the 41st AD Democratic Club, 2942 Ave R cornier of Haring Street one block east of Nostrand

Also, while we were all in Denver, there were several debates between Steve Harrison and Michael McMahon for the NY-13 Congressional seat. One such debate, if that's the right term, can be read on the web site of the Brooklyn Paper, here. While you're there, also check out the Connor-Squadron debate in the paper's editorial rooms.

You won't, however, be treated to a similar experience in the Tenth CD race between Ed Towns and Kevin Powell, for the simple reason that incumbent Congressman Towns didn't quite deem it worth his while to actually debate his opponent. There are two transcripts, one for Powell's endorsement interview, one for Towns.

Ed. note: I took about 200 or so photos, about sixty of which are usable. Here are some, originally published on Daily Kos and Culture Kitchen.

I've been schlepping the camera around Denver since Monday, and thought I'd share.

On arrival. Denverites - Denverians? - are fantastically friendly.

Ralph Nader, no, thanks.

"Dude, Katie Couric's standing right behind you".

During Obama's speech, joy and tears. It was amazing.  read more »

Maybe I am just like my father, since he was hardly ever satisfied. He held a lot of standards, sometimes they were outrageously high. He was a frustrated political activist and so am I. One time -way long ago- the government of Trinidad and Tobago convened a Commission of Inquiry into possible subversive political activities (and elements) on both islands; my dad was one of many targets. In the end they deemed him a “clever intriguer” amongst many things; but he wasn’t incarcerated; thank God. I thought of my dad on the first day of my first trip to Denver, Colorado -for the Democrat’s convention. He could always see through political phonies. It has always been tough for me to attend conventions -both here and back there- and that’s why I am never really excited about going. But I go nonetheless; I often wonder why: especially when I am like a fish out of water whenever I go.

I got to Denver around 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning last, and couldn’t find transportation to my hotel. You see, the DNCC placed me more than an hour’s trains ride from the convention: some reward for the one who many say is New York City’s top blogger; don’t you think? If only it were true; then I would get some respect; no? Maybe this was just back-handed punishment for the many attacks I have laid on electeds (especially the black ones) in the past; payback is a bitch isn’t she?

By the time my plane touched down, I needed a meal, a shower and some TLC (tender loving care). I missed my home already; you see, my “girls” (my daughter and her mom) treat me like royalty most times/lol. I am generally the king of my castle; here I could have settled for White Castle: and about a dozen of their lil square cheeseburgers. There were very few people around, and most seem to be as ignorant as I was, relative to transportation.

I called the hotel to find Gatemouth; his phone kept ringing like the one in the song: “By the time I get to Phoenix”. At Denver’s airport, shuttles stopped running after 11:00 p.m. on Sunday nights. It had been nearly twelve hours since I had left my house; there was a delay at JFK airport, and I had to “in-transit” through Phoenix, Arizona. I was tired. My six foot and one inch frame, plus my long legs which got cramped while seated on those non-roomy planes, had left me feeling like a pretzel. Phoenix was 108 degrees hot when we landed. Do you know that you pay for blankets, pillows, food and drinks on airplanes now? Soon they will be making you pay to use their tiny-assed bathrooms. I can’t wait for that innovative move!  read more »

Those who have played chess professionally will immediately get the meaning of my title: exclam!
It refers to when a player makes a brilliant move within the game; a move so good that it has the potential to change the outcome from there on in. You see, in the game called chess -one of the oldest in the world- we record each player’s move(s) with symbols; and once you see an exclamation mark in brackets or parentheses (!) recorded next to a move, you are supposed to take a long hard look at the move and its relevance to the later outcome of the game. It sets the stage for the post-game analysis and for later evaluation. At the end of this presidential race in early November, we will all look back at John McCain’s gambit of yesterday and we will all see the genius in this move. Whoever advised him to make this selection deserves a raise. Win or lose it was a brilliant move.

In chess, we also have a symbol for recording a move that we can later deem a blunder (or too speculative); it’s a question mark (?). Sometimes recorders use asterisks (**); especially when they think this move will be the cause of the player’s obvious demise or downfall. Many writers have already questioned John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin (the republican governor of Alaska) as his vice-presidential running mate. They are all wrong.  read more »

During Hillary Clinton's speech on Tuesday, you probably saw that sea of posters bearing her name being waved by enthusiastic convention delegates. It was a very cinematic moment, big, dazzling, and generally considered a very fitting tribute to the woman who remains the pivot of this election.

It's the small print that gives a hint of how unified this party actually is.

One key reason why our team travelled to enver was to bang the drum and toot the horns on our top electoral goal in this state in this cycle, liberating the state Senate from its anachronistic republican majority. Bloggers at the national level as a rule don't pay too close attention to state politics, but in this case, we may have been able to change that, because this state election will have profound consequences far beyond our borders. Simply put, if the third-largest state of the country suddenly becomes a laboratory for Progressive policies after this election, much as we became one after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1928, it will resonate far beyond places like Islip and Poughkeepsie.

Consider, for example, the impact of Democratic control of this state on the financial sector, not a marginal consideration given that the country's largest banks are headquartered here and transact a disproportionate share of their business from their Wall Street offices and the New York Stock Exchange. That mortgage lending crisis didn't need to happen - and if we had had control of the Senate, it might not have.

These are the seeds of our national communications strategy: imagine a second California enacting Progressive goals and benchmarks for its territory, and then think about the impact of, say, California's vehicle efficiency standards on other states. In practice, Sacramento has provided something of a balance to Washington's rabid republicans, and Albany can do the same.

We as New Yorkers know that Joe Robach, Caesar Trunzo, Kemp Hannon and Dean Skelos are figures we'd like to not see in public office. People outside the state - and, in fairness, many of us even, due to the legislature's low profile - don't have the same appreciation of that. But hopefully, we have now changed that with a key constituency.

I'm actually sitting in Barry Goldwater Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, and it's really fun to be writing about John McCain from his own home turf. Or the turf that some of his homes rest on, apparently.

This morning, John McCain announced the choice of his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Trapper John calls the choice Worse Than Quayle. The New York Times says Old Man John is "shaking up the political world at a time when his campaign has been trying to attract women."

What's truly remarkable here is just how much Hillary Clinton continues to form the political dialogue of the Presidential race. From the lavish praise heaped on her in Obama's aceptance speech yesterday to now providing the obvious rationale for John McCain's selection of a potential chief executive - Booman notes John McCain's age and health issues, impolite, but necessary - Hillary Clinton is still driving the narrative of this campaign.

This year, the head of the New York delegation to the convention is, as he has been every four years since 1996, Sheldon Silver, the Speaker of the Assembly.

The man can't give a decent speech to save his life. How well he represents a state on the cusp of real change, given his ironfisted control of the Assembly, with all that implies - abysmal approval ratings, legislative gridlock, unaccountable legislators, the most dysfunctional state government in the union - is open to question. Whether Sheldon Silver is really the face we want to present to the world, when we have real superstars - Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer - really isn't debatable. He's not. If it's possible to exude stasis, Silver has managed it.

The head of the New York State Democratic Party is David Paterson, the governor. He should be the one to lead the party to the next convention.

Senator Schumer with Markos Moulitsas and contributing editor brownsox of Daily Kos.

The narratives emerging from last night's nomination spectacle are complex, but here's one that may be overlooked amidst all the unity hype and Clinton genuflection: speaker after speaker drew an arc of emancipation that stretched from women through native Americans to blacks and, now finally included in the line-up, gays and lesbians. John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, all mentioned the fight for equality that has taken gays and lesbians out of the shadows of American life, and embedded it firmly in the long history of other Americans fighting for equality before the law.

Considering that history - Bill Clinton signed the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, a discriminatory piece of legislation unconstitutional on its face, and even ran ads campaigning on that signature - that's a remarkable development.

And today, on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech, as America somewhat disbelieving prepares to elevate a black person to the pinnacle of power, the American family continues to expand. There's still a rocky road ahead, and we may never reach the conclusion of it; it's naive, for example, to believe that Barack Obama's nomination alone will exorcise forever the demons of racism. But today, this great, troubled nation of ours stands on the mountaintop and looks towards a promised land.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, rehearsing his glittering oratory.

Harlem Senator Bill Perkins, one of Obama's original (and at the time, few) backers in New York, in the Pepsi Center, having the last laugh.

Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) liveblogging.

Governor Christine Gregoire (D-WA), addressing the hippies bloggers.

Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana.

And here's our very own Deni Frand.

Via Albany Project, Craig Johnson in Denver.

Oh, here they are: Hillary deadenders, traitors and republicans, chanting on the streets. Not ready to move on, apparently.

Senator Clinton just called for and end to the roll call vote and moved that the convention nominate Barack Obama by acclamation.

The motion passed, and it was done: the Democratic Party has nominated a black man for the Presidency.

Inside the convention hall, yesterday.

Markos and Ned Lamont.

Scandal! In bed with Liza Sabater!

Last night, Hillary Clinton delivered the speech of her career, unified her party and kicked off the general election campaign in one fell swoop.

My friends, it is time to take back the country we love. And whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose.

(APPLAUSE)

We are on the same team. And none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines. This is a fight for the future, and it's a fight we must win together.

(APPLAUSE)

I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches, advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women's rights here at home and around the world...

(APPLAUSE)

... to see another Republican in the White House squander our promise of a country that really fulfills the hopes of our people. And you haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months or endured the last eight years to suffer through more failed leadership.

(APPLAUSE)

No way, no how, no McCain.

(APPLAUSE)

Barack Obama is my candidate, and he must be our president.

It's on.  read more »

I decided to walk today from the office that issues press credentials to the blogger center at the Big Tent, a stretch of perhaps twenty or so blocks. This in part because the local news coverage here in Colorado is focusing heavily on supposed Democratic dissatisfaction, a result of the hard-fought primary.

Fueling that dissatisfaction is the campaign of Republican John McCain, which just released this ad; it's currently running here on cable and network television.

Now, you'd imagine that if the resentment of followers of New York Senator Hillary Clinton were quite as large a strategic target that an ad buy targeted towards them would suggest, there would be a large presence here.

The problem is, there's just not. On that aforementioned walk, over a large stretch of downtown Denver that lasted something over half an hour or so, there was not one, not a single example, of disgruntled Hillary Democrats publicly protesting. Anti-choice activists, yes. Anti-war activists, yes. Pro-pollution advocates, plenty.

PUMAs? None that I could find.  read more »

David Paterson on John McCain:

If he's the answer, then the question must be ridiculous.

(h/t BarbinMD)

Having chosen to watch the speeches and presentations on the convention floor on C-SPAN, rather than MSNBC or CNN (is Fox even covering it?), I'm not getting the "analyses" and "punditry," but just the unvarnished, unfiltered show. And having watched it for one and a half nights so far, I have come to one conclusion.

It is excrutiatingly boring.

There are exceptions. Tonight, for instance, David Paterson was very good. Dennis Kucinich was terrific. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is someone to watch; look for her to run for President some day. There was a woman from North Carolina named Gloria Craven, who talked about the textile mill closing in her town, and people with no education and no future being laid off, losing their pensions and being unable to afford health care.

There were two Republicans -- Jim Leach, a former Congressman from Iowa, and Jim Whitaker, the current Mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska. They are so much better than Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman.

As I write this, Bob Casey has the crowd chanting "four more months." That's pretty good.  read more »

Rock Hackshaw in the Big Tent. We may yet turn him into a Progressive yet.

Heh.

Some random observations.

Air travel used to be a thing to look forward to, back when airlines advertised their wine lists and French menus. Today, flying from New York to Denver, or any domestic destination, means hours of squalid, starving confinement.

A Ben Smith sighting: Phil reports that he spotted Ben yesterday in the company of a man described as fat, ugly, bald and of generally rat-like appearance and demeanor. From this persons shifty stares at Phil, we deduce who the person in question might have been.

The unsubstantiated rumor that alcohol consumption affects flatlanders more profoundly at this altitude, spread as it is by mountain people seeking to confuse and frighten us, can now be treated as confirmed by experiment.

There was apparently a meth bust yesterday at a hotel, in the course of which the police also discovered a sniper rifle and some people with some really bad attitudes on Barack Obama. That hotel was the Denver residence of the entire Daily Kos front page, leading our friends from that blog to flee the hotel and get new quarters elsewhere.

Stay tuned for more random bits of fabulousness.

Last night, on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, McCain was asked how many houses he owns. You'd think his staff would have been able to complete the count by now, but apparently not. Instead of answering the question, he talked about spending five years as a POW.

It seems that every sentence out of McCain's mouth is the same -- it contains a noun, a verb, and Vietnam.

So apparently, here in Denver's Big Tent, Chris Mathews is less popular than a former republican Congressman speaking at the Convention on behalf of Barack Obama.

At least, that's what I'd deduce from the spirited howling that greeted the switch of the audio feed from the floor speech of Jim Leach to Tweety's idle chatter.