Ciao Charlotte. Y'all Come Back, Ya Hear.

Charlotte and the democratic convention were a trip.  Glad we were a part of the love fest, as conventions nowadays tend to be.  The week taught us that Americans remain optimistic about themselves and their country.  Still much like FDR saw the nation in the turbulent 1930s:  "The saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities -- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion."  Onward and upward...

10-4: Keeping the Peace in Charlotte 24/7

One of the top jobs in Charlotte this week had to be in the country's fast-growing security industry.  To be fair, the city was hosting a political convention headed by the US President, which demanded its own level of secret service security.  Alongside the triple S corps, we learned that 4000 police and security officers, plus sheriffs, deputies, Homeland Security officials, and the NC National Guard, were enlisted for the week.  Police teams came from the Charlotte area and around the country -- Chicago, Milwaukee, Louisville, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Myrtle Beach, New York, Richmond, among others -- and they were everywhere 24/7.  On foot, on bikes, on horseback, in patrol cars, in helicopters.  They rode around, rested in alley ways, flanked demonstrations, controlled access to streets, hotels, and public buildings, arrested drunks and disorderly citizens, and creatively directed traffic on main streets.  Even I had a brief moment of Zen with a young officer at the illegal immigrant demonstration we saw.  As things heated up, and police were preparing to arrest the illegals, I hustled around trying to get good position for photos.  A young officer, one of about 100 on the scene, barked at me to step on the crowded sidewalk, and out of a closed-to-traffic street.  I looked down at my feet, no more than 12 inches from the sidewalk as he ordered me to move.  I looked him in the eye.  He looked half my age, which he was.  I asked him if he was serious.  He nodded.  I asked him to please let me do my job (people took me for a photo journalist), and pointed out that the sidewalk was packed (with cops mostly, I pointed out).  There was nowhere to go, and my 12 inches of street were in no one's way.  He repeated his order.   I sighed and complied:  Lucky me.  As I swung through the sidewalk crowd, I nearly bumped into an encircled Rosario Dawson, the actress who had come to support the rally.  Despite my good fortune, the presence of so many cops was unnerving, foreshadowing some kind of police state. By week's end, you had the feeling they were getting restless, ready to arrest anyone, even each other.  The Charlotte sheriff chasing the Georgia cop chasing the Chicago patrolman chasing the Richmond police on bikes chasing the Carolina park patrol on horseback chasing the state National Guardsman in camouflaged Hummers. It could happen, you know.... (Top photo Charlotte Observer)

The President in the House

President Obama's speech set the convention crowds afire, and set a new record on Twitter for political tweets:   52,757 per minute from the more than 35 million viewers nationwide.  We had no time to tweet,  what with all the flag-waving, photo-taking, hand-holding, and high-fiving going on.  Call us a couple of twits.   It was a thrill to be among so many people from all over America.  Some on the edge of their seats, some deeply reflective, some just looking forward in anticipation, hanging on every word. Few if any were seen with their smart phones or tablets.  They were engaged.  We were among six to seven hundred people in the convention ballroom.  It sits right atop the big NASCAR Hall of Fame, whose fans mostly are expected to vote for the other guy. If a few of them make a pit stop for the President, it could make the difference in the race. Obama's speech sought to motivate the faithful, and he delivered it in the cadence of winners. Good communicators speak at about 124 words a minute....poor ones at up to 200.  Most of us speak at about 165.  Unless we're silently tweeting those 140-character updates and headlines....

Ashley Asks (Nicely) What Pisses You Off...

She apologized for using the phrase, then said it: "You work hard when you fight for things you believe in.  Ask yourself, pardon the expression, what pisses you off."  Ashley Judd, actor and activist, was on the panel discussing a tough issue -- forced prostitution in Asia and how the plight of young women there led to her involvement in a group called Population Services International (PSI).  We attended the panel event Thursday because it focused on human development and poverty issues, subjects touching on UN Millennium Development Goals we knew a bit about.  Miryam's job at the UN had human trafficking on its agenda, and my job had scientific development at its core.  The panel touched many bases, from the perspective of Ashley and the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai, ex-Foreign Minister of Britain David Milliband, ex-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and Michael Elliot, ex-Time editor and head of the ONE campaign against poverty.  Some key messages:  1) "Afro misery" is old school thinking:  Seven of the world's fastest growing economies are African.  2) Many people think America spends way too much to help other countries in their development.  In fact, while America is the world's top contributor, it spends just 1.1% of its gross national product on international aid.  Britain's share is lower, 0.5%.  3)  China is very active in Africa -- "cell phones and the Chinese are the biggest changes over the past decade," noted Zimbabwe's Prime Minister. Thousands are in his country building roads, bridges, plants.  4)  Celebrity activists have clout -- Ashley had lunch with Melinda Gates, Bill's wife and Foundation partner, and even got to eat Melinda's ice cream dessert. PSI gets funding from the Gates Foundation.

Speak Softly, Carry Big Stick

More than a century ago, Teddy Roosevelt advised America to speak softly and carry a big stick.  Today that advice has morphed into what's called "smart power" in international relations -- the mix of military power with diplomatic, economic, institutional, and alliances to get things done. We attended a panel Thursday that looked at America's role in the world, and how it's changing.  The panel included  Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State; Michele Flournoy, adviser to the Secretary of Defense and a woman in the small entrusted circle involved in President Obama's decision that ended the life of of Osama bin Laden; and Senator Diane Feinstein of California, who chairs the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence.  Two men, including the recent ambassador to India, also were on the panel... Key messages we took away:  1) Foreign policy issues are complex because they no longer just involve countries. They involve "non-State actors" like terrorist groups which demand concerted cooperation and "21st century tools" to root out.  A "cold war" mentality and belligerent tones hurt us.  2) New or reinforced US "power" approaches include posting more foreign service officers in hot spots, and requiring more cooperation between the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and State Department to coordinate action.  3)  Coalitions and alliances are increasingly important tools, especially when it comes to global trade and commerce -- 90% of trade goes by water, and two-thirds of all the oil transported is by sea.  4)  South America is a tough place for foreign policy -- "damned if we do, damned if we don't," said Albright.  5)  At 75, Albright remains feisty and engaged in the political debate:  "When I was Secretary of State, I had all my partisan instincts surgically removed.  But they grow back."  6) Though the forum was well attended, foreign policy is low on the political totem pole for this election.   For us, with a son in Afghanistan, it's crucial that the US gets it right and keeps the right man in charge.

Thank You, Mr. President

We got the call at 1:30pm today, the one from the POTUS about his relocated speech.  "I want you all to know how much I regret that we're not all going to be together in one place this evening," he said.  'It's disappointing, I know.  My staff are crestfallen, and I know it's been especially hard for those who were waiting for tickets, and had expenses to get to Charlotte."  He then thanked us and all the volunteers who had received credentials for his stadium speech.  "I could not be prouder or more thankful for the work you and everyone's been doing....We will do everything we can to get you to an event near your home towns, try to get you a front row seat, between now and November."   Not much later, we got our invitation to attend the President's speech at a special "Watch" party tonight on the big screens in the convention ballroom.....

Calling Rush: It's Raining in Charlotte

Just for the record, the thunder, lightning and rain hit Charlotte in the mid-afternoon hours. Bike taxis were in high demand.  No way the stadium would have worked out for the President's speech, if only because of the tons of security and news media that had to be set up far in advance.  We took the rain as a sign from above that the decision to relocate was a good one -- even if it meant we were on the outside looking in.  Please pass this note on to Rush Limbaugh or anyone else striving to make you believe that the President feared an empty stadium, so they moved his speech to smaller quarters (20,000-seat arena).  So not true, and a disingenuous try that will do nothing to help solve our country's problems.  We know for a fact that people waited in line hours to get the speech credentials in the first place, and many came here on their own dime from other states for the chance at their piece of history.  We will meet many of them tonight at "Watch" parties being run all over Uptown, in pubs, hotels, theaters, and the convention ballroom, where we were invited to go.  No tux needed....  Fact Check Correction:  Contrary to what I thought yesterday, Fox TV News -- promoting itself as "America's only fair and balanced political coverage" - must be in town, since we caught their SUV making the rounds in Uptown today. Optimistic, too.  Driver looked to have his window open, despite the downpour. Guess the air can just get a bit too hot in there. 

A Bad News/Good News Call from POTUS

If Thursday is sunny and bright, we will be bluer than blue.  The credentials we have to attend President Obama's speech Thursday cannot be honored, we learned today.  That's because organizers had to move the speech from the 70,000-seat Panther stadium to the convention arena, which seats 20,000 max, on account of likely bad weather.   Instead the POTUS (President of the United States) will call us -- and 50,000 others who had speech tickets -- Thursday afternoon in a conference call.  No clue how that will work yet.  We are told he will offer his regrets and a future opportunity to attend a Presidential speech before November.  The news capped an all-around bummer day for getting into places and events.  Everywhere we turned -- the ImaginOn theater where the Daily Show is set up, or the museums, or the hotels -- we needed special coded tickets, like a coat of many colors.  Either you had to get the passes waaaay in advance ( last year) or the place was booked for an "invitation only" or
"pre-registration required" event that neither sob stories nor money no longer could buy.  Miryam got turned away at the heavily fenced-off site of the Daily Show, which I hope makes Jon Stewart's free spirit squirm.  Lesson learned:  we are looking to either officially join a caucus or form our own the next time around.  To get in the party events, it helps to be in the party.....

Where's Fox? Check the CNN Grill

With 15,000+ media outlets in town, we figured all of America, plus much of the world, would have their foot soldiers on the streets. But after trekking around, there was no Fox News to be found.  Fox radio was there, but not the national cable folks as far as we could tell. We learned later (from the Pew Research Center)  that Fox TV did not cover the convention much at all in Charlotte, but instead ran negative reports about Obama and team on its nightly shows.  In fact, Pew reported, eight of every ten "news" reports about the President that Fox aired this summer were negative.  Talk about stirring up the news.... turns out, though, that MSNBC, the liberal "voice", was just as bad.  Pew analysts found that most of its reports on Romney were negative.  I guess it is okay sometimes (figuratively speaking)  to shoot the messenger.  When the stakes are so high, it takes some digging to find the golden nuggets of truth.  Truth is, there is little objectivity in network news because they need to entertain viewers as much as inform them.  That said, one of the most popular hangouts for journalists, celebrities, and VIPs in Charlotte was the CNN Grill, the temporary studio set up for the convention. CNN took over a restaurant and turned it into a television studio with a bar and tables.  Food and even margaritas were gratis...  Took special passes to get in, which  we learned about waaaay too late.  Jesse Jackson got in, then posed with a young Charlotte boy on the way out.

Late Night Police Escort

We began the day in the midst of a demonstration, and we ended it at the sight of another.  Protesters marched down Tryon Street, taunting police and chiding democrats during the keynote convention speeches.  While we were tucked in the Rock Bottom cafe, police set up barricades and sent dozens of bike officers to the street outside the windows. Earlier that day we had seen the beginnings of the anti-movement, when a converted truck sported protest images and signs.  Some marchers were from the self-proclaimed "America's media watchdog", a conservative group called the Media Research Center that bashes the "liberal media", democrats and their kind.  Others from Occupy Wall Street and related groups railed against capitalism.  Police escorted protesters along the demonstration rout, many reportedly taunted by marchers along the way.  Turns out there was more smoke than fire -- police outnumbered protesters by the time the demonstration died down.  No surprise that things ended just about the time Michelle's speech did. (bottom photos Charlotte Observer)

Actors Masquerading for Republicans?

One thing is clear:  somebody has to be (a) extremely devoted and passionate, or (b) simply a jerk,  or (c) being paid a lot of money to stand on a soapbox out in the rain proclaiming the cause.  The causes with the loudest voices on the streets of Charlotte had "anti" prefixes.  Protesters were against legal abortion, illegal immigration, gays, Wall Street, non-Christians, and of course Obama.  Most followed the rules of peaceful civil demonstrations, holding signs and trying to chant in rhythm and rhymes ("Power to the People, We are not Illegal")..  But a few protesters were exceptionally obnoxious, so much so that you had to wonder if they were being paid to be disruptive.  An anti-abortion crusader walked through the James Taylor concert crowd holding a giant poster vividly depicting what he was against. He tried to time his moves while Taylor sang "Sweet Baby James". Simply Gross.   Another protester on the corner of Tryon and Trade demonstrated why gays and lesbians could not be successful at reproduction. He and his team of amateur biologists used plastic props and a microphone to show how "penetration" simply could not happen.  Simply Gross.  Other protesters preached selectively from the Bible to castigate sinners around them, using karaoke set-ups or the hidden mikes that hawkers use at state fairs to sell veg-o-matics.  They set up shop right outside the Epicenter of people traffic to read from their prepared scripts for hours at a time, looking and sounding like a hired dee-jay behind glass.  Jobs are at a premium, and passersby were kind....I opted to shoot a photo of a more upbeat message on a Catholic church.

Hitting Rock Bottom

We're wrapping up the day at the Rock Bottom cafe, as the rain keeps falling on shiny streets.  The pub is one of Carolina's micro-breweries with some pretty good food.  A spot with music over the speakers, a dozen flat screens set on different channels throughout the bar, free Wi-Fi. Takes the wonder out of America's multi-tasking culture.  Eat, drink, converse, tweet, update status, check a fact, post a comment, all in a blink of an eye.  Maybe it's good, maybe it's not so good.  At the forum the other day, the woman sitting next to me tweeted, photo-edited, facebooked and emailed for 90 minutes straight, all while supposedly taking in the discussion. Kind of common maybe, but for expats like us, kind of unusual too.  When you are out and about with people, it's best to give them your full attention.  The conversation in the room is always way better than those going on somewhere you are not.  Especially when you can eavesdrop on talk going on in the booth behind yours....

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Ground Control to Major Green

We finally found parking... $20 a day from the College Street entrance, and $10 a day from the 8th Street entrance 100 feet away.  That's why some people think we need Romney.....Today was protest time -- a group of illegal immigrants purposefully had themselves arrested to raise awareness of their cause and plight. They were undocumented migrant workers who've lived and worked for decades in Arizona and Utah, and they came to Charlotte with their family, friends.  They gained some along the way.  Actress Rosario Dawson (think "Seven Pounds with Will Smith) voiced her support, when she came across the demonstration on her way to chair a meeting of Voto Latino, a group she heads. Her timing was perfect -- she was interviewed just as the protesters were hauled off to jail in prisoner vans. She said she was inspired by their courage and their lives, and vowed to keep supporting their aim of amnesty.  Then she smiled my way, if all too briefly.  More on this protest as time allows.... it was an education in law enforcement and civil demonstrations.  At times there were more police, sheriffs, homeland security agents, and national guard troops around than protesters.  When I asked an officer why there was such a show of force, he said they wanted to make sure that the demonstrators were protected and could make their case.  When I asked why they needed so many officers, prisoner vans, and police four wheelers, he said that I would have to get that information from "Major Green."  I spent a good deal of time seeking out the Major to no avail....if you happen to see him, have him call or something.

We Prepare to Meet Michelle

First Lady Michelle Obama is the big story today. She came into town last night and rehearsed her speech inside the hall.  We are preparing to meet her, sometime around 10:30 tonight, somewhere in a bar or studio newsroom on the big screen.  By then, about three dozen speakers will already have hit the podium and viewers should be well rested from snoozes.  Our credentials do not get us into the delegate convention hall, so we must suffer the consequences of roaming around looking for the best place to enjoy the scene. Late night streetwalkers. (photo by Arca)

Day 2: We Feel a Party Coming On

We're headed to Uptown, looking to stroll around the city and see what we find. Yesterday we had time to see only a few city walkers on streets or in parks.  They included a dude in a colorful walking suit listening over a fence to a group singing "Amazing Grace" in a church yard on Trade Street.   Today, no one event on the schedule.  May look around for celebrities, or try to get interviewed by the Daily Show reporters walking around.  At the Bloomberg journalist forum yesterday, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were described as "complementary sources of news" by the national press secretary for the Obama campaign.  He meant not complementary to each other, but to network, cable, and web news sources.  But hey?  Aren't the Colbert Report and Daily Show broadcast on the comedy channel?  We have come a long way America.  Let's keep it up.

We Take Cover in a Port-a-Jon

James Taylor came out on time, exactly 5:15 pm.  Fifteen minutes later, the scramble was on for anything covered.  The rain gushed, and with fear of hail, they called the concert off.  Second one today -- Actor/singer Jeff Bridges and his band had been cut short by weather a couple of hours before.  Taylor had time to sing "Carolina", "You've Got a Friend", and a few other songs and then bid farewell.  But no "Fire & Rain" -- the headliner for the CarolinaFest 2012 had been rained out.  Meanwhile, Miryam and I had been rained in -- inside a Port-a-Jon, that is.  While crowds of people were running this way and that to look for cover, we eyed the row of portable toilets nearby.  A nod, a wink, and a dash for the door got us inside, dripping wet but now dry as a ....  about half an hour later we were inside a cab, headed back to the Hampton Inn where we started the day in South Park.  We nearly dried out by dinner time. An hour of P.F Changs later, we felt good and ready for the ride back to Albemarle and a slightly less hectic Day 2. (two Taylor photos courtesy of Charlotte Fest; all others by LHW)

Hats Off to Honoré

While waiting for the James Taylor concert to start, I met Honoré, a security guard on the scene. He looked like someone from someplace else, like I did. Turns out he came to Charlotte from the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) about ten years ago.  Now he's working towards his doctorate on the side, in international relations.  "When I go back to the Ivory Coast, I will run for president," he said.  He looked serious, too.  "Remember me," I smiled.  Later we met a taxi driver from the Congo, whose civil war left many refugees around the world.  He said he liked living in Charlotte because it was affordable.  Charlotte and North Carolina are home to an estimated 15-20,000 African immigrants, we learned.  No one knows for sure because census data record them as "black" and not African.

Miryam Meets Marianne. Lou Meets Heineken

When the skies opened on Labor Day, we were on Trade and College right outside of the CNN Grill, the spot the cable network had chosen for its convention studio.  We ran into the first open doors we saw -- the Ritz Carlton lobby, to our surprise.  We were not alone, but still managed to find a table for two.  Right across from an informal meeting of the Black caucus.  We listened to the "meet and greets" of the well-groomed, well-schooled delegates from New York, South Carolina, Charlotte, and Chicago. One woman introduced her college son to everyone else, proud of his participation at the convention.  I settled down with a Heineken and Miryam checked out the lobby for an Uptown map.  No map, but she met Marianne, the woman with the son, who introduced herself to Miryam.  It was one of those lobbies you could nest in all day long.... Next stop:  James Taylor in concert. (top photo Charlotte Observer)

We Wave to the `Lamestream' Media

The crowd was waving, applauding, smartphoning photos, shouting to space.  We wondered what the fuss was.  Fresh out of the Bloomberg forum, we were not used to such frenzy. The crowd was oohing and aahing the Hardball guys from MSNBC, better known in Republican circles as the "lamestream media".  Kind of lame description...there is news and then there is opinion.  When they are mistaken for fact, that's lame. Luckily Miryam and I know the difference...we waved to Chris Mathews on the MSNBC studio stage, just below a restaurant-bar called Whiskey River, owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chris waved back (in our direction) and seemed to mouth the words "Hey Homey, Whazzup??"  He then proceeded to sit down and have his hair done before the show started.  We could not stay to listen because we were hungry and the skies were clouding up.  Time to move on down the road in Uptown. In any case, if we try to give equal time to all the news media in town -- more than 15,000 crews in all -- we would literally end up lame from all the hiking.

We Meet Robert & Crew from Amsterdam

It's always interesting how others see us, and how we seem them.  That's why I asked Robert Paques what he and his camera team were up to at the Bloomberg forum.  During the Q&A part, Robert had posed a pretty good question to the panel:  "In a world of Twitter, Facebook, Buzzfeed, Google, how important will week-long political conventions be down the line?  Are they not becoming old-fashioned?"  The given answers were:  (A) "Political conventions are just lame.  Things are not decided there anymore," said Matt Bai, chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine.  (B) "They are old-fashioned, and they are just wonderful.  Even though we know everything in advance, they remain eventful," said Al Hunt, the Washington Editor for Bloomberg News who, like me, covered the 1976 political campaign "without a Blackberry" and seemed especially in tune with the times. and (C) "The conventions may not be as important in news terms as they once were, but they remain generators of the day's multiple news cycles," said Ben LaBolt, national press secretary for Obama for America.   Neither the panel, the Amsterdam crew, nor the audience could determine the correct answer at this stage of the political game.  They all did agree, however, that Clint Eastwood would never again address a political convention, and that henceforth anyone attempting to deliver a convention speech that was not cleared in advance would be wrestled to the ground and beaten with a chair.  At least that's what it sounded like they said.  Olivia Ma, the news editor at YouTube, did note that the Eastwood speech continues to get big play ("in the millions") but could not say exactly where all the views were coming from....Oh yes, back to Robert.  He and his team are filming a documentary on America's political conventions.  He told me they have no buyer as of yet and are doing it on speculation.  "It's so unreal for us in Holland to have these kind of things," he told me.  I almost gave him a high five telling him about our life in Austria and the political system there. Viva Europe.  My hunch is that Robert is on the right track by documenting realtime politics.  Their original video, plus the Eastwood feeds, could turn out to be an Academy award winner.  I asked for his card to keep in touch on their progress. 

We Meet Ahmed & Other Egyptians

Turns out the forum was a gold mine for meeting people from other countries.  Egypt was among them, and we met Ahmed and friends from Cairo.  They had been integral pieces of the Arab Spring in Cairo and now were deeply involved in Egyptian politics.  The group was sponsored by the US State Department to attend the convention, mainly to learn a bit more about how election nominations are run in our kind of democracy.  Hillary knows her stuff.... The group came complete with interpreters contracted from Michigan (another swing state, by the way).  They were feeding reports to both the Egyptian state media and Al Jazeera, the Arab news agency whose stateside studio was housed about an hour outside of Charlotte.  I was told that was because there was no (affordable) room in the city inns.