"Slowly I Turn..."

And here we go.

Last night in Denver, at the Mile High Station -- next to Invesco Stadium, where Barack Obama will address a crowd of 30,000 people on Thursday night -- AT&T threw a lavish, private party for Blue Dog House Democrats, virtually all of whom blindly support whatever legislation the telecom industry demands and who also, specifically, led the way this July in immunizing AT&T and other telecoms from the consequences for their illegal participation in the Bush administration's warrantless spying program.

Amazingly, not a single one of the 25-30 people we tried to interview would speak to us about who they were, how they got invited, what the party's purpose was, why they were attending, etc. One attendee said he was with an "energy company," and the other confessed she was affiliated with a "trade association," but that was the full extent of their willingness to describe themselves or this event. It was as though they knew they're part of a filthy and deeply corrupt process and were ashamed of -- or at least eager to conceal -- their involvement in it. After just a few minutes, the private security teams demanded that we leave, and when we refused and continued to stand in front trying to interview the reticent attendees, the Denver Police forced us to move further and further away until finally we were unable to approach any more of the arriving guests.

It was really the perfect symbol for how the Beltway political system functions -- those who dictate the nation's laws (the largest corporations and their lobbyists) cavorting in total secrecy with those who are elected to write those laws (members of Congress), while completely prohibiting the public from having any access to and knowledge of -- let alone involvement in -- what they are doing. And all of this was arranged by the corporation -- AT&T -- that is paying for a substantial part of the Democratic National Convention with millions upon millions of dollars, which just received an extraordinary gift of retroactive amnesty from the Congress controlled by that party, whose logo is splattered throughout the city wherever the DNC logo appears -- virtually attached to it -- all taking place next to the stadium where the Democratic presidential nominee, claiming he will cleanse the Beltway of corporate and lobbying influences, will accept the nomination on Thursday night.

More of the same as the corruptors line up to thank the corruptees for bending their knees and presenting their asses so assiduously. And of course the Bush Dogs had BossBush's Omerta Code fully in place.

Imagine, in 21st century America the only "reporters" worth the name come from blogs and they stand outside the fascist feast taking random pictures of people leaving and trying to ask questions and being cold-shouldered like 1950's crime reporters used to hang around outside meetings of Mafia bosses and take random pictures of people leaving while trying to ask questions and being cold-shouldered. Read the rest of Glenn's description and you will notice that it is eerily reminiscent of that scene at Sonny's wedding in The Godfather. Except nobody smashed Jane Hamsher's cellphone.

And still I feel I must remind you, this isn't Bush or Cheney. These are DEMOCRATS.

Supposedly.

Comments

[CMike]

... reminiscent of that scene at Sonny's wedding ...

Pretty good blogging there Mick. (Except, the scene is set at Connie's [Talia Shire's] wedding.)

[mick arran]

Of course it was. Brain fart? Late-night mindlock? Old age? As excuses go, I got a million of em.