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Uninvited Guest: Michael Moore Takes Boston By Storm
Rising Star: Senate Candidate Barack Obama Delivers Rousing
Keynote at DNC
Son of Republican President and Wife of John Kerry Address
DNC
Medea Benjamin Dragged Off DNC Floor in Handcuffs For Unfurling
"End the Occupation of Iraq" Banner
Maya Angelou, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee Pay Tribute to Fannie
Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Raytheon, Citibank, Chase Manhattan and Fleet Boston Help
Finance the Most Expensive Convention in History
Uninvited Guest: Michael Moore Takes Boston By Storm
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore blasts the corporate
media, President Bush, Ralph Nader's candidacy, and the invasion
of Iraq. We hear the full speech he gave at the Take Back
America meeting in Cambridge across the river from the Democratic
National Convention.
On the opening night of the Democratic National Convention,
just before Bill and Hillary Clinton took the stage, a massive
crowd of cameras and papparazzi burst into the FleetCenter.
In the middle of the crowd was filmmaker Michael Moore. He
was not an official guest of the Democrats--in fact he was
directly not invited to the convention. Some observers say
that's because his blunt and spontaneous style would be too
risky for a convention that is more scripted than most Shakespeare
plays. Furthermore, Moore has said in recent days that he
has not endorsed John Kerry, but rather the movement to remove
George Bush from power. Moore made it into a skybox at the
FleetCenter after an invitation from the family of former
president Jimmy Carter. During Carter's convention speech,
Michael sat two seats down from Rosalyn Carter inside the
skybox.
Everywhere Moore has gone in Boston, massive crowds have
followed him. In fact the Kerry campaign is probably quite
happy that the filmmaker is leaving town today. Moore is actually
heading into George W. Bush's backyard in Crawford Texas,
where he will introduce a showing of his film Fahrenheit 9/11
at a football stadium. Moore says he has invited the film's
star, President Bush, to attend the show. While Fahrenheit
9/11 has now topped the $100 million mark, no theater in Crawford
or the surrounding towns would show the movie, until last
week when it was picked up by a theater in Waco. That's why
Moore decided to do his own screening near Bush's Crawford
ranch.
Yesterday, more than 2,000 people lined up in Cambridge to
hear Michael Moore speak at a forum with Howard Dean. Only
500 or so were able to get in. Democracy Now! was there.
Rising Star: Senate Candidate Barack Obama Delivers
Rousing Keynote at DNC
Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for US Senate from
Illinois, delivered a rousing speech at the Democratic National
Convention that some say secured his status as a rising star
within the party. Obama is favored to win the Illinois Senate
seat that would make him only the third black U.S. senator
since Reconstruction.
This is Democracy Now! Breaking with Convention: War, Peace
and the Presidency. We are broadcasting from Cambridge Community
Television just across the river from the FleetCenter where
the Democratic National Convention has hit the halfway point.
Yesterday, Democrats backed the official platform that John
Kerry will campaign on for the next 3 months. In years past,
the platform has been the subject of intense debate among
Democrats. But this year's convention has been marked by extreme
choreographing and dissent from any of the dominant positions
has not been tolerated inside the FleetCenter. There is no
minority or dissenting platform, as there has been in conventions
past. The platform accuses Bush of rushing to war in Iraq
without adequate international support but also pledges to
expand the military and special forces. Tonight John Kerry's
running-mate, John Edwards, addresses the convention.
Last night, one of the most celebrated and legendary figures
of the Democratic Party, Senator Ted Kennedy, shared the stage
with a young rising star who was just one year old when Kennedy
was first elected to the Senate. Barack Obama is the Democratic
candidate for US Senate from Illinois. Political analysts
say his speech last night secured his status as a rising star
within the party. Here is Barack Obama.
- Barack Obama, Democratic candidate for U.S. senate.
Son of Republican President and Wife of John Kerry
Address DNC
We hear speeches by John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry
and Ron Reagan, son of the late Republican president Ronald
Reagan on the floor of the Democratic National Convention.
Among the speakers at last night's Democratic National Convention
was Ron Reagan, the son of the late president and Republican
icon Ronald Reagan. He spoke about stem cell research, which
offers potential help for sufferers of Alzheimer's disease
and which afflicted his father for years.
John Kerry and his party's platform endorse stem cell therapy
while President Bush has imposed and defended restrictions
on embryonic stem cell research. While Reagan began by saying
he had not come to make a political speech he ended his address
by essentially calling for people to vote for Kerry in November.
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that the Bush campaign
is now trying to lure Nancy Reagan to the Republican convention
next month in New York. The Chronicle says that initial inquiries
from Republicans have been rebuffed. Nancy Reagan, like her
son Ron, is opposed to President Bush's position on stem cell
research. Here is some of what Ron Reagan had to say last
night.
The final speaker of the night was John Kerry's wife, Teresa
Heinz Kerry. She was introduced to the podium by Chris Heinz,
her son from her first husband John Heinz - the late Republican
Senator and heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune who was killed
in a plane accident in 1991.
Teresa married John Kerry in 1995. She grabbed headlines
at the start of the convention this week after telling a reporter
to "shove it" when he questioned her about a speech
she had given. The reporter was Colin McNickle, an employee
at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the conservative daily owed
by Richard Mellon Scaife who is known as the "Funding
Father of the Right." He helped fund the attacks on President
Clinton.
The paper has long been a critic of her. Last year it ran
an article claiming that she was secretly funneling cash from
her private foundations to "extreme left-wing activist
groups."
Her address last night marked the first time a candidate's
spouse gave a prime-time speech during a convention.
- Teresa Heinz Kerry, John Kerry's wife.
Medea Benjamin Dragged Off DNC Floor in Handcuffs
For Unfurling "End the Occupation of Iraq" Banner
As Teresa Heinz Kerry gave her prime-time address that never
mentioned Iraq, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin attemped
to bring an anti-war message onto the floor of the convention.
Moments later police were dragging her out of the Fleet Center.
As Teresa Heinz Kerry spoke last night, on the floor of the
convention, Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange and CodePink
unfurled a pink colored banner that read "End the Occupation
of Iraq." That apparently was not one of the DNC-approved
messages of the night because within moments of the banner
being unfurled, police were called in to remove Medea Benjamin.
Benjamin was dragged off the convention floor and thrown
out of the FleetCenter. She said that the DNC was asked whether
they wanted her arrested and that they decided that would
not look good.
Maya Angelou, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee Pay Tribute
to Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party
40 years ago at the Democratic National Convention, civil
rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer took the stage to challenge
white domination of the Mississippi Democratic Party. The
Democratic Party paid tribute to her last night at the Fleet
Center.
Forty years ago, a group called the Mississippi Freedom Democrats
traveled by bus to the 1964 Democratic National Convention
in Atlantic City to challenge white domination of the Mississippi
Democratic Party.
In a historic civil rights showdown, they demanded to be
seated at the all-white delegation. The co-founder of the
Freedom Party was Fannie Lou Hamer, the granddaughter of a
slave who was raised on a plantation in Mississippi by her
sharecropper parents. Hamer became involved in the civil rights
movement when she volunteered to attempt to register to vote
in 1962. By then 45 years old and a mother, Hamer lost her
job and continually risked her life because of her civil rights
activism.
In a striring address, she testified before the Credentials
Committee at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. The
Credentials Committee meeting was to be televised, until President
Johnson held a “last minute” press conference
at the exact same time. Many felt the move was to keep the
public from hearing any negative comments about the Party.
But the move backfired because the press still covered the
event and was able to broadcast highlights on the evening
news.
- Fanie Lou Hamer, speaking at the 1964 Democratic National
Convention
Last night, the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston
held a tribute to Fannie Lou Hamer hosted by two people who
knew her well - Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.
- Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, speaking last night at the
Democratic National Convention.
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee at the Democratic National Convention
last night. Poet Maya Angelou also stepped up to the podium
to pay tribute to Fannie Lou Hamer. She was joined on the
stage by elderly members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party. This is Maya Angelou.
Raytheon, Citibank, Chase Manhattan and Fleet Boston
Help Finance the Most Expensive Convention in History
Sakura Saunders and Pratap Chatterjee of Corpwatch examine
the role of corporate money during the Democratic National
Convention.
The Democratic convention in Boston this week has cost 95
million dollars to produce, making it the most expensive political
party convention in history.
On top of that, Senator John Kerry has spent hundreds of
millions on television advertising for his presidential bid.
Most of this money has come from multinational corporations
and deep-pocketed Democrats - 564 of whom each have collected
at least $50,000 for Kerry"s campaign.
Sakura Saunders and Pratap Chatterjee of Corpwatch bring
us this report from some of the men and women who helped raise
the money.
Some of the companies that have provided major funding for
the convention include Time Warner, arms manufacturer Raytheon,
Citibank, Chase Manhattan and Fleet Boston, now part of Bank
of America.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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