Al Sharpton is THE man.

[skippy]

That speech ruled even though he went too long. He just went out there and told it like it is. It's about time somebody at that convention put W. in his place.

[Nimrod's Son]

Did he happen to mention Tawana Brawley?

[sppunk]

Sharpton is a great man, although I dislike him. He gave a very good speech, and took it straight to President Bush, which I like to see.

[sawdust restaurants]

Sharpton is a tool and an embarrassment to the Democratic Party.

[Shattering Glass]

what he said.

[sppunk]

Originally posted by sawdust restaurants
Sharpton is a tool and an embarrassment to the Democratic Party.

He's a tool indeed, but he isn't an embarrassment. He spoke to the hardcore Dems tonight ... and said what they wanted to hear.

[sawdust restaurants]

Originally posted by sppunk
He's a tool indeed, but he isn't an embarrassment. He spoke to the hardcore Dems tonight ... and said what they wanted to hear.

You know why the GOP kicks the Democrats' ass in so many media wars?

They, unlike us, stay on message. I love to hear the hardcore Dem stuff as much as anybody else, but not at the convention, not on national television, not this year. We can't afford it.

It's a shame, really, that it's two of the most respected people in the party--Kennedy and Sharpton--who can't understand that. And before you say that Kerry and Edwards have been vetting people's speeches--do you really think anybody tried to pull rank on a 30-year senator and a 30-year civil rights leader?

[sppunk]

Originally posted by sawdust restaurants


You know why the GOP kicks the Democrats' ass in so many media wars?

They, unlike us, stay on message. I love to hear the hardcore Dem stuff as much as anybody else, but not at the convention, not on national television, not this year. We can't afford it.

It's a shame, really, that it's two of the most respected people in the party--Kennedy and Sharpton--who can't understand that. And before you say that Kerry and Edwards have been vetting people's speeches--do you really think anybody tried to pull rank on a 30-year senator and a 30-year civil rights leader?

Sharpton is taking Jackson's place ... and the Democratic party needs that niche filled for some reason or another. Jackson is lame now, so Sharpton is now in his shoes. And Sharpton's speech wasn't prime time, so the only ones watching were us. Not the national public audience.

[Shawn Osmond]

Originally posted by sawdust restaurants


You know why the GOP kicks the Democrats' ass in so many media wars?

They, unlike us, stay on message. I love to hear the hardcore Dem stuff as much as anybody else, but not at the convention, not on national television, not this year. We can't afford it.

It's a shame, really, that it's two of the most respected people in the party--Kennedy and Sharpton--who can't understand that. And before you say that Kerry and Edwards have been vetting people's speeches--do you really think anybody tried to pull rank on a 30-year senator and a 30-year civil rights leader?

You're such a typical Democrat. The Democratic Party talks all this shit about supporting minorities but in the last 2 elections now they have nominated a white male for President and a semi-conservative white male for VP. So basically you're saying it's ok for minority leaders like Sharpton to be *******d in the party but you would never want them on the ticket or on the main stage in primetime because mainstream America wouldn't go for it? Then what is the reason for including them in the party at all? If Democrats really believed in promoting the welfare of minorities, they should have had one on the ticket by now.

But no, you're saying that the party "can't afford it" this year. So winning the Presidency with people who look and talk alot like the opposite party is more important than showing America that minorities truly are a part of the party and belong in very important positions. Standing up for your party's hardcore ideals is how you "stay on message". Not trying to hide the message in order to simply gain votes.

Don't worry, most Democrats on this board are just like you and sppunk. I doubt most of them would ever vote for Sharpton for President. And yes, I'm a Democrat.

[severin]

Originally posted by Shawn Osmond


You're such a typical Democrat. The Democratic Party talks all this shit about supporting minorities but in the last 2 elections now they have nominated a white male for President and a semi-conservative white male for VP. So basically you're saying it's ok for minority leaders like Sharpton to be *******d in the party but you would never want them on the ticket or on the main stage in primetime because mainstream America wouldn't go for it? Then what is the reason for including them in the party at all? If Democrats really believed in promoting the welfare of minorities, they should have had one on the ticket by now.

But no, you're saying that the party "can't afford it" this year. So winning the Presidency with people who look and talk alot like the opposite party is more important than showing America that minorities truly are a part of the party and belong in very important positions. Standing up for your party's hardcore ideals is how you "stay on message". Not trying to hide the message in order to simply gain votes.

Don't worry, most Democrats on this board are just like you and sppunk. I doubt most of them would ever vote for Sharpton for President. And yes, I'm a Democrat.

hell, i'm not even american and i think i get the point where you don't.

the dem's have made a point of avoiding Bush-Bashing at this convention. this is because people, esp. swing-voters, don't want to hear what bush did wrong, but what the dems want to do to improve everyday live. bush - bashing is counter-productive in this special voters-mood. and so it has nothing to do with the race of sharpton (if you might have read the above statement thoroughly you'd have seen that kennedy was also mentioned), but with his style, which is hurting the dems more than helping them.

[sickbadthing]

Too bad I missed it. I think the man likes to speak to hear himself talk.

Er, I mean stand up for his fellow men.

[Debaser]

Originally posted by sickbadthing
Too bad I missed it. I think the man likes to speak to hear himself talk.

Er, I mean stand up for his fellow men.

Thank you.

Tonight I want to address my remarks in two parts.

One, I'm honored to address the delegates here.

Last Friday, I had the experience in Detroit of hearing President George Bush make a speech. And in the speech, he asked certain questions. I hope he's watching tonight. I would like to answer your questions, Mr. President.

To the chairman, our delegates, and all that are assembled, we're honored and glad to be here tonight.

I'm glad to be joined by supporters and friends from around the country. I'm glad to be joined by my family, Kathy, Dominique, who will be 18, and Ashley.

We are here 228 years after right here in Boston we fought to establish the freedoms of America. The first person to die in the Revolutionary War is buried not far from here, a Black man from Barbados, named Crispus Attucks.

Forty years ago, in 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party stood at the Democratic convention in Atlantic City fighting to preserve voting rights for all America and all Democrats, regardless of race or gender.

Hamer's stand inspired Dr. King's march in Selma, which brought about the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Twenty years ago, Reverend Jesse Jackson stood at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, again, appealing to the preserve those freedoms.

Tonight, we stand with those freedoms at risk and our security as citizens in question.

I have come here tonight to say, that the only choice we have to preserve our freedoms at this point in history is to elect John Kerry the president of the United States.

I stood with both John Kerry and John Edwards on over 30 occasions during the primary season. I not only debated them, I watched them, I observed their deeds, I looked into their eyes. I am convinced that they are men who say what they mean and mean what they say.

I'm also convinced that at a time when a vicious spirit in the body politic of this country that attempts to undermine America's freedoms -- our civil rights, and civil liberties -- we must leave this city and go forth and organize this nation for victory for our party and John Kerry and John Edwards in November.

And let me quickly say, this is not just about winning an election. It's about preserving the principles on which this very nation was founded.

Look at the current view of our nation worldwide as a results of our unilateral foreign policy. We went from unprecedented international support and solidarity on September 12, 2001, to hostility and hatred as we stand here tonight. We can't survive in the world by ourselves.

How did we squander this opportunity to unite the world for democracy and to commit to a global fight against hunger and disease?

This court has voted five to four on critical issues of women's rights and civil rights. It is frightening to think that the gains of civil and women rights and those movements in the last century could be reversed if this administration is in the White House in these next four years.

I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.

This is not about a party. This is about living up to the promise of America. The promise of America says we will guarantee quality education for all children and not spend more money on metal detectors than computers in our schools.

The promise of America guarantees health care for all of its citizens and doesn't force seniors to travel to Canada to buy prescription drugs they can't afford here at home.

We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told that we were going to Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction. We've lost hundreds of soldiers. We've spent $200 billion dollars at a time when we had record state deficits. And when it became clear that there were no weapons, they changed the premise for the war and said: No, we went because of other reasons.

If I told you tonight, Let's leave the Fleet Center, we're in danger, and when you get outside, you ask me, Reverend Al, What is the danger? and I say, It don't matter. We just needed some fresh air, I have misled you and we were misled.

We are also faced with the prospect of in the next four years that two or more of the Supreme Court Justice seats will become available. This year we celebrated the anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education.

The promise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.

The promise of America is that government does not seek to regulate your behavior in the bedroom, but to guarantee your right to provide food in the kitchen.

The issue of government is not to determine who may sleep together in the bedroom, it's to help those that might not be eating in the kitchen.

The promise of America that we stand for human rights, whether it's fighting against slavery in the Sudan, where right now Joe Madison and others are fasting, around what is going on in the Sudan; AIDS in Lesotho; a police misconduct in this country.

The promise of America is one immigration policy for all who seek to enter our shores, whether they come from Mexico, Haiti or Canada, there must be one set of rules for everybody.

We cannot welcome those to come and then try and act as though any culture will not be respected or treated inferior. We cannot look at the Latino community and preach one language. No one gave them an English test before they sent them to Iraq to fight for America.

The promise of America is that every citizen vote is counted and protected, and election schemes do not decide the election.

It, to me, is a glaring contradiction that we would fight, and rightfully so, to get the right to vote for the people in the capital of Iraq in Baghdad, but still don't give the federal right to vote for the people in the capital of the United States, in Washington, D.C.

Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question.

You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.

That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres.

We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.

Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of good men (inaudible) soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us.

This vote can't be bargained away.

This vote can't be given away.

Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

And there's a whole generation of young leaders that have come forward across this country that stand on integrity and stand on their traditions, those that have emerged with John Kerry and John Edwards as partners, like Greg Meeks, like Barack Obama, like our voter registration director, Marjorie Harris, like those that are in the trenches.

And we come with strong family values. Family values is not just those with two-car garages and a retirement plan. Retirement plans are good. But family values also are those who had to make nothing stretch into something happening, who had to make ends meet.

I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table.

But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

And I wanted somebody in my community -- I wanted to show that example. As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum, they didn't have to be a gangster, they could stand up from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of the United States.

As you know, I live in New York. I was there September 11th when that despicable act of terrorism happened.

A few days after, I left home, my family had taken in a young man who lost his family. And as they gave comfort to him, I had to do a radio show that morning. When I got there, my friend James Entome (ph) said, Reverend, we're going to stop at a certain hour and play a song, synchronized with 990 other stations.

I said, That's fine.

He said, We're dedicating it to the victims of 9/11.

I said, What song are you playing?

He said America the Beautiful. The particular station I was at, the played that rendition song by Ray Charles.

As you know, we lost Ray a few weeks ago, but I sat there that morning and listened to Ray sing through those speakers, Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains' majesty across the fruited plain.

And it occurred to me as I heard Ray singing, that Ray wasn't singing about what he knew, because Ray had been blind since he was a child. He hadn't seen many purple mountains. He hadn't seen many fruited plains. He was singing about what he believed to be.

Mr. President, we love America, not because all of us have seen the beauty all the time.

But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.

Starting in November, let's make America beautiful again.

Thank you. And God bless you.

[sickbadthing]

That's a nice speech and all but I can't help bet think of the Daily Show slogan "He's not Bush" platform the Democrats are running on. At least he went out and told Bush to go to hell.

[Debaser]

Originally posted by sickbadthing
That's a nice speech and all but I can't help bet think of the Daily Show slogan "He's not Bush" platform the Democrats are running on.

Even if that were true, that platform has me sold.

[sppunk]

I think his speech had one line that the Dems can point and clearly say it's a stinging remark to the current administration ... although campaigning on it would only backfire for Kerry:

The issue of government is not to determine who may sleep together in the bedroom, it's to help those that might not be eating in the kitchen.

Wow.

[mpp]

Originally posted by Debaser




I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.

I couldnt' believe he said this.

[Nimrod's Son]

Originally posted by severin
the dem's have made a point of avoiding Bush-Bashing at this convention.

I completely disagree. Before the convention they said that was the agenda, but Clinton, Gore, Sharpton, Kennedy and Carter all took many shots at Bush.

I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing, I'm just saying they certainly aren't avoiding Bush-bashing.

[sppunk]

Originally posted by Nimrod's Son
I completely disagree. Before the convention they said that was the agenda, but Clinton, Gore, Sharpton, Kennedy and Carter all took many shots at Bush.

I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing, I'm just saying they certainly aren't avoiding Bush-bashing.

But Bush's name has only been mentioned nine times!

[tsp gatmog]

Originally posted by sppunk


But Bush's name has only been mentioned nine times!

Let me guess, A FNC corespondant told you that.

[sppunk]

Originally posted by tsp gatmog


Let me guess, A FNC corespondant told you that.

No, the Republicans sent every newspaper in the nation a list of how many times the Dems spent talking, talking about Bush, security and domestic policies. They also counted the number of times they mentioned certain words like Bush, hope, unity, promise, etc.

I'm pretty sure every paper in the U.S. is laughing their ass' off at this ridicolous attempt to "sabotage" Kerry.

[tsp gatmog]

Its really patheric; FoxNews is the worst. Just watch that program for 5 minutes. Its very clear where they stand and its pathetic. I recomend you all see OutFoxed. Its DVD only, as far as I know, and I downloaded it and WOW. Very good stuff, most of which I know, but, like Fahrenheit 9/11, it lets the video speak for itself.