The Obama team stunned us all with their decision to move his nomination acceptance speech from the 19,000–seat Pepsi Center to the 76,000–seat Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos. Today, the Dems’ Convention Committee announced another exciting twist, in the form of three special performances: Kanye West, Wyclef Jean, and N.E.R.D.

Rolling Stone reports:

This year’s Democratic National Convention Committee revealed that a trio of hip-hop artists — Kanye West, Wyclef Jean and N.E.R.D. — will perform when the party gets together in Denver. A native of Barack Obama’s Chicago, West was likely included to keep all those politicians’ egos in check. Let’s just hope Obama’s speech doesn’t run long, otherwise Democrats might be in for a long night. Wyclef is becoming as well known for his humanitarian work with Haiti as his music, so his appearance at the convention makes sense. The most left-field pick is N.E.R.D., though the Democrats obviously view the band’s single “Everybody Nose” — with its chorus of “All the girls standing in the line for the bathroom” — as a shocking indictment of the current administration’s futile War on Drugs.

Other celebrities slated for attendance include Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, but let’s pray that Scarlett isn’t performing.

From Chris Barnett at the Secretary of State’s office, w learn that potential candidates best get crackin’:

Today at 4 p.m. is the deadline for candidates to submit the signatures of enough eligible Rhode Island voters to get on the ballot this year, according to Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis.

Rhode Islanders can track the progress of all of the candidates who are vying for a spot on the ballot by visiting the Secretary of State’s web site.
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Every morning Mollis will update the number of signatures that have been certified for every candidate in their quest to appear on the ballot.

Signature papers already have started to trickle in to local boards of canvassers, according to Mollis. Among the candidates who appear to already have made the cut are House Majority Leader Gordon Fox and House
Finance Committee Chairman Steve Costantino, both Providence Democrats. [As we know, Daily Dose Maven David Segal will too].

The Secretary of State has until July 18 to finish certifying the names in order for candidates to officially be placed on the ballot for the September 9 primary or November 4 election.

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Ericka J. Atwell, a senior at Rhode Island College, was impeached from her position as the school’s Student Community Government Deputy Speaker in March, but she’s decided to give politics another go…with more on the line. After having been found guilty of circulating candidacy petitions on behalf of other students—an action forbidden by RIC SCG bylaws—the 22-year-old has filed to run for District 27 State Representative as a Republican against incumbent Representative Patricia A. Serpa.

Atwell’s Republican primary challenger, Thomas K. Jones, questions the wisdom of his party in endorsing this controversial young woman. “If the Republican Party is going to be taken seriously in Rhode Island,” he told the ProJo, “We need to run serious candidates with a track record of being involved in their communities.”

Atwell, who learned a great deal about political integrity during her internship with Governor Carcieri, explains, “I’ve moved on to bigger and better things. I loved serving the students and working with the administration, but I learned that sometimes you have to cut your losses and move forward.”

In an earlier version of this post, I alluded to an inside rumor about Ericka J. Atwell campaigning in a mini-dress and heels. I apologize for including this piece of gossip, although it did come from a fairly credible source. As a young woman active in politics, I often resent the extent to which I must dress more formally and frigidly than my male counterparts in order to be taken seriously, and it would be a shame to propagate rumors about a young female candidate—rumors that very well might be aimed at discrediting her based on her age and appearance—when I myself am so familiar with this struggle. I apologize for including that tidbit.  If it’s true, however, it’s still hilarious, not to mention totally inappropriate.

Last night, Ari and I watched Elia Kazan’s 1947 classic A Gentleman’s Agreement, the story of a journalist, P. Schuyler Green (Gregory Peck), who pretends to be Jewish for a magazine series on anti-Semitism. When his son, Tommy, faces hateful words at school, Green is forced to explain to him what it means to be a Jew, and the importance of the separation of church and state. His simple words in explaining the Jeffersonian idea to Tommy drive home the simplicity of this idea, even in 1947. Have we made backwards strides?

Tommy: What’s anti-Semitism?
Phil: Well, uh, that’s when some people don’t like other people just because they’re Jews.
Tommy: Why not? Are Jews bad?
Phil: Well, some are and some aren’t, just like with everyone else.
Tommy: What are Jews, anyway?
Phil: Well, uh, it’s like this. Remember last week when you asked me about that big church, and I told you there are all different kinds of churches? Well, the people who go to that particular church are called Catholics, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Protestants, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Jews, only they call their churches temples or synagogues.
Tommy: Why don’t some people like those?
Phil: Well, that’s a tough one to explain, Tommy. Some people hate Catholics, and some hate Jews.
Tommy: And no one hates us ’cause we’re Americans?
Phil: Well, no, that’s another thing again. See, you can be an American and a Catholic, or an American and a Protestant, or an American and a Jew. But look, Tommy, it’s like this: one thing’s your country, see like America or France or Germany or Russia. The flag is different, and the uniform is different, and the language is different. […] But the other thing is religion, like the Jewish or the Catholic or the Protestant religion, see that hasn’t anything to do with the flag, or the uniform, or the airplanes. Got it?
Tommy: Yup!

Now change “Jew” to “Muslim,” and we’ve got a lesson pertinent to most present-day Americans.

Or so read the headline yesterday on one of my favorite blogs, History Is a Weapon. And when you look at the late Senator’s resume, he’s left us little reason to mourn. Here are a few of his most remarkable achievements:

• Fighting integration;
• Opposing Martin Luther King day;
• the Helms-Burton act, the centerpiece of the embargo against Cuba;
• Disputing ALL Affirmative Action programs;
• Voting to bail out the savings and loan industry AND to slash school lunches for impoverished children, medical care for disabled veterans, prescription drugs for the elderly, and wages for working families;
• Hating all gay people;
• Supporting apartheid in South Africa;
• Routinely fighting against AIDS research from the beginning, blaming people suffering from the disease for it;
• Leading the fight to discontinue Pell Grants for inmates;
• And, in 1993, singing Dixie to the first African American senator, Carol Mosely-Braun, and promising to make her “cry.”

I think HIAW sums it up well, when they proclaim: “Hell burns hotter tonight.” Want some more inspiring food for thought? Check out “ The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” a speech given by Frederick Douglass in Rochester on July 5, 1852.

If you thought the Rhode Island General Assembly was shenanigan-prone, think again - our neighbor to the north has got us beat (at least for this week), and Wonkette’s got the scoop.

First, there’s the heartwarming tale of a Lowell, MA legislator who gets his jollies by dressing like a homeless man and groping women in public thoroughfares. Not so crazy, you say? Well, when Representative Genital-grabber was caught, he apparently ran off, knocked over a hot dog stand during the ensuing street chase, and, when cornered, gave the police the name of a different state legislator. Fantastic!

Next, we have a legislator from yon Taunton-towne who took his opposition to Jessica’s Law a little too far. Describing how the law would force young victims of abuse to testify, Rep. James Fagan noted that, as a defense attorney, he would rip the little victims into vomit-and-tears-drenched shreds. Here’s the video:

The honorable Matt Jerzyk has a post to this effect over at RIFuture, as does Sir Ian McKellen Donnis at N4N, but I feel the need to reiterate: what’s up with the AG? While 42 other attorneys general signed on to support the Free Flow of Information Act, which would create a qualified federal shield law for reporters, Patrick Lynch did not. Lynch, who on June 19 was elected president of the National Association of Attorneys General, does justice (no pun intended) to that organization’s alias: the National Association of Aspiring Governors.

I think a lot of Rhode Islanders take for granted an important lil’ Rhody anomaly: most states have district attorneys and attorneys general, these being two distinct positions and offices. We’re small enough that the two positions are lumped into one office. Our attorneys general, therefore, spend the majority of their time and energy prosecuting criminals and upholding severe criminal justice policies rather than representing the larger interests of all our citizens.

In March, I was privileged to attend the 11th Annual Liman Public Interest Colloquium at the Yale Law School. In keeping with the topic of the conference—”Liman at the Local Level: Public Interest Advocacy and American Federalism”—we had the opportunity to hear from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Ohio Solicitor General William Marshall, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and James Tierney, Director of the National State Attorneys General Program. These four fellows have used their positions as state and city attorneys to compensate for the failings, negligence, and misguided decisions of the federal government and judiciary.

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You’re right, it makes no sense, but General Colin Powell—formerly Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—will deliver the keynote address for the U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games—currently taking place at the University of Rhode Island—tomorrow night at the Providence Performing Arts Center. The speech will take place at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a Question and Answer period. Tickets are on sale at the PPAC box office and cost $20 for adults and $15 for students 18 and younger.

And, the ProJo reports:

Schedule permitting, Powell may also lead the games’ first “peace walk ” by about 1,000 competitors and their coaches in downtown Providence tomorrow afternoon. The walk is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. from the park on South Main Street near the Licht Judicial Complex and proceed along the river walk to Burnside Park. Since the games began, in 1993, the goal has been to eventually hold a “peace summit,” said Dan Doyle, the games’ founder and executive director of the Institute for International Sport, which sponsors the games. The peace walk is the first in a series of events meant to lead up to the summit, he said.

And, no, I’m not paying $20 either.

Those of us who missed Mayor Cicilline at Saturday’s Pride festivities should be placated by news of how he spent that day. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, gathered for their 76th Annual Meeting in Miami from June 20-24, unanimously passed a resolution calling for city-coordinated drug overdose prevention efforts.

The Resolution championed several strategies to reduce fatalities from drug overdoses, including:

• Supporting the distribution of naloxone – an opiate antagonist medication effective in reversing the respiratory failure that typically causes death from opioid overdose;
• Urging state governments to adopt “Good Samaritan” immunity policies that shield people who experience or witness an overdose and contact 911 from prosecution;
• Calling on the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund research to evaluate the effectiveness of overdose prevention interventions and develop model programs; and
• Calling on the FDA to take steps to facilitate the testing and approval of nasal and/or over-the-counter formulations of naloxone and to consider recommending prescription naloxone concurrent with strong opioid analgesics.

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Look, folks over at the Associated Press… I know things are bad. Real bad. Still, when you’re penning the End Times journalism pick of the week, write a decent headline.

Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.

Twist, damn you!

In other sad news, and a subtle reminder of how ridiculous this headline is, Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is dropping out five days before the the presidential runoff election there.

At a news conference, Mr. Tsvangirai, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or M.D.C., said he was unwilling to ask the party’s supporters to go to the polls on Friday “when that vote will cost them their lives.”

Mr. Tsvangirai’s decision came on a day when governing party youth militia armed with iron bars, sticks and other weapons beat his supporters as they sought to attend a rally for him in Harare.

Alright, alright, Rhode Island State Legislature, I get it.

I used to treat my finances the same way you are treating the budget. I liken it to the way I used to use my credit card. I’d charge and spend without really recognizing that eventually, I’d have to pay it all of. And I’d have to pay it with interest.

I remember the attitude I carried around with that credit card. And I get the sneaking suspicion that our elected officials have adopted the same ideas - Why pay now when you can pay later?

See, the framing of the budget issue makes it seem like the legislature is doing us a favor, like they are being fiscally responsible, like they are “cutting back” on unnecessary programs. In truth, they are screwing over, like, everyone in Rhode Island. Farmers, college students, any student, state employees, immigrants, and children, etc., etc., etc. (more…)

Just when you thought there was nothing else that Hillary’s minions could say or do to make you dry heave in terror (like, for example, claim that perennially pampered Florida voters are facing Zimbabwe-esque levels of political oppression), Harold Ickes has gone and done it.

Yes, it’s true that today’s DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting was an overall win for Obama, in that, shitshow* notwithstanding, the Committee decided to seat the FL and Michigan delegations with half-votes each, and to give Obama the uncommitted delegates from Michigan. Yes, Obama is still going to be the nominee, as he now has 2050 delegates, needs 2118 to clinch, and will pick up at least 40 between now and the final primaries in South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday, meaning that he needs only 20 of the remaining 200 superdelegates to finish the job. And yes, Hillary did indeed have every right to fight for her desired outcome, which her surrogates did in a losing effort to seat the Florida delegation with full votes before unanimously backing the half-vote compromise.

But Harold Ickes needs to get a grip. When it came time to talk Michigan, a state where Obama (and Edwards) had taken his name off of the ballot, where “Uncommitted” had garnered 45% of the vote, where turnout was absolutely anemic because there was only one candidate running (in Soviet Russia, election wins you!), Ickes had the gall to say that Hillary should get her delegates and Obama should get none, and then got so huffy about it that he threatened to take that dispute to the convention.

Huh? For a campaign that has been playing fast and loose with the word “disenfranchisement” it’s pretty befuddling to think that counting the results of an election with only one candidate on the ballot, where more people stayed home than voted, without any consideration of those factors is not basically the worst solution. Wouldn’t such a solution disenfranchise those non-voters? And what about all of the African American voters who went with uncommitted, you know, the ones who will be absolutely crucial to winning Michigan?

“Fannie Lou” Ickes cannot be bothered with such trifling matters. Here he is debasing himself in a duke-it-out with Sen. Carl Levin:

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And he looks good doing it, flag pin and all. Nice catch HuffPo. (more…)

Awesomely enough, this dude may actually beat out the front runner in today’s Oregon Senate primary. If he wins, and beats sitting GOP Senator Gordon Smith in November, Novick is automatically Captain Hook in the Senate’s annual production of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.

In other news about politicians’ hands, RI Congressman Patrick Kennedy broke his doing karate a month ago. F’real.