My Summer Vacation-- the Texas Democratic Convention

[WolverineDG]

I just got home from Houston---6 long hours on lonely stretches of Hwy 59, but dammit, I wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world.

It started on Thursday evening, when I met up w/other DU'ers at the Hyatt....had to be flagged down by PDittie because was surrounded by many other DU'ers & I was only looking for 2!!! LOL!! Got to listen to lots of stories from the Dean Campaign...damn, that sounded like tons of fun & I'm sorry I missed out on that!!!

My first stop was at John's consumer law caucus, which I was late to due to the miscommunication over transportation. Too bad, because it sounded like it made the folks who came more aware of what was happening to consumers all over our state & nation & why we should all wake up to that!!! Good work, John!!! Keep it up!!!

The rest of the day was spent wandering around looking for my fellow delegates from Webb County. I met up with Lisa again at the Morrison rally, then headed off to my Senatorial District Caucus. It was my first time ever doing ANYTHING LIKE THIS, so of course, I was elected permanent secretary!! I understand that my SD isn't as contentious as the other districts, but still, wow, democracy in action!! it was great. :party:

I did find out that I had filled out my paperwork wrong, so I was not eligible to become a delegate; therefore, I will not be going to National, but the folks from my district who ARE going are GREAT!!!!!

Edwards' speech Friday night & Kucinich's speech on Saturday morning were the highlights of the convention for me. I've come home, ready & rarin' to get out on the streets & kick the Bush gang out of office!!!!!!!!!!

Hope everyone got home safely & hope to hear from you all soon!!!!

DG

[jobycom]

1. My own experiences

I spent all night Friday and all morning Saturday looking for DU name tags. Never found one. I discovered I'm a horrible schmoozer, and late Friday night and into the morning when I was trying to sleep I kept having young, attractive women pound on my door. While normally this is a fantasy of mine, none were actually looking for me nor did they seem to like the looks of my tired face and ragged hair as I answered the door. (Were any of you pounding on doors on the 6th floor of the Crown Royal? Curse you-- although you were cute!)

Edwards and Kucininch were fantastic speakers. I posted my reactions to Edwards the night of the speech. I saw Kucinich's the next morning. Fiery, but very odd. He would go into automatic mode, reciting the same phrase over and over, bumping up and down, completely unaware of the audience around him. Mostly it was a great speech. One thing I noticed that seems to be a regional thing-- he went off on Bush and cheap labor overseas at one point, then went into one of his bouncing, screaming repetitions on ending cheap labor, raising minimum wage, etc, and the crowd went wild, chanting and stomping. No one could hear what he was saying for a while, but he kept right on speaking, not giving any notice at all to the crowd.

Then his chants turned against NAFTA and the WTO. "We're gonna recall NAFTA, We're gonna recall the WTO," etc, over and over. This is in Texas. As more people could hear what he said, the clapping and chanting noticeably died down to about a third of what it was before, and people stood patiently waiting for his chant to move on. It did. He got off on unions and replacement workers, never missing a beat, still bouncing and screaming and working the microphone, and the crowd got back into it.

When I thought about it later, I figured he probably knew that he would get a mixed reception on NAFTA in Texas, where it has revived a lot of towns along both sides of the border, so he worked it in between issues he knew would get a lot of applause. Smart. He couldn't be accused of leaving out his unpopular positions, yet he worked them in in such a way they didn't break momentum.

Despite the odd delivery and the momentary lull (less than a minute) over NAFTA, it was fiery, breathless speech that had the crowd buzzing for long afterwards. I hope he can nail a speech like that at the National Convention. He has a way of laying out Bush's inconsistencies that make them obvious to people, and putting that before the public while Moore's film and Clinton's book are still fresh will give us more momentum.

I was telling a friend of mine about the speech later, and found out he knows Kucinich. He worked with him some on a military budget matter a couple of years ago. My friend likes Kucinich a lot, believes he is brilliant, capable, and honest, but says he chokes a lot of his speeches. He didn't choke Saturday.

[Lisa0825]

2. Hi Wolverine!!! It was nice meeting you!

I have barely posted since it was over, because I was so wiped out from it all! I partied every night, barely got any sleep, made it to every event I could during the day, and yelled my heart out during the speeches. I almost totally lost my voice by Sunday. I slept half the day Sunday, but had to go out and buy a new A/C window unit, and I somehow managed to pick out the one that was the biggest pain in the ass to install. So, I fell asleep right after installing it. Anyway, it's been fun reading everyone else's reports!:-)

Dennis K ROCKED! My district caucus went very smoothly. We had done a lot in advance, so we didn't have too much to do by Friday. Other than electing delegates, SDEC, etc. I went to the Democracy for Texas caucus, and David Van Os spoke there. He was terrific!!! I always enjoy his speeches, but he was REALLY on fire this time. (He must have been like that at several events Friday, because by Friday night, he was starting to sound pretty hoarse!) I had signed up last week to be one of his grassroots organizers (you commit to helping raise at least $250, and they send you a packet with bumper stickers, donation envelopes, lit, etc), and after hearing him again, it just really made me happy to be a part of it.

If anyone would like me to send them a Van Os bumper sticker, send me a donation, to help me meet my goal, and I'll put one in the mail!:-) You can check him out at http://www.vanosforsupremecourt.com/

Richard Morrison, was EVERYWHERE! I swear, he must have been cloned or something, because he seemed to make it to every event I attended and still had time to schmooze the crowd everytime I turned around! People seem to be really excited at the prospect of a good candidate challenging Tom DeLay. The Morrison volunteer brigade was out in full force. I was a delegate, but I ran by the booth several times to hang out.

Overall, I felt like the convention was really great... very motivating, and very positive. It was also really nice to see so many people I met through the Dean campaign again, and to meet my fellow Texas DUers.