cross-posted from Street Prophets
Yesterday in Denver, Matt Stoller caught an ad for a party given by AT&T for Blue Dog Congresspeople.
Recognizing a golden opportunity, a bunch of progressive bloggers led by Glenn Greenwald, with press credentials all, tried to attend the party to do interviews. But the press was excluded, they were told, and they could not enter. This was not exactly acceptable to a group of people who have all spoken up for Constitutional freedoms in the recent FISA controversies and who consider warrantless wiretapping to be a very serious issue. Here was a wiretapping telecom courting Congresspeople with no press coverage whatsoever. Interview they must.
So they stood outside and did the best they could to see who was attending and to speak with them as they entered the party.
From Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, Party Crashing AT&T and the Blue Dogs: The Best Government Money Can Buy:
So Christy, Pach, John Amato, Egregious, Ian Welsh, Dave Neiwert and Stoller headed for the party. Using my HarrietCam flip video, I was Glenn's videographer as he asked one guest after another why they were there and what their connection to AT&T and the Blue Dogs was.
It was remarkable. I've never seen anything like it, really. Glenn would announce that he was from Salon.com, ask them if they would be interviewed about the party, and nobody wanted to say who they were or even acknowledge that they knew what the party was about.
Almost every single person we talked with had the good sense to be ashamed of being there, but that didn't stop them from going in.
Glenn Greenwald, as you might expect, has plenty to say about the evening. Here is his essay, AT&T thanks the Blue Dog Democrats with a lavish party (and here is a snippet):
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.
The only other media which even attempted to cover the AT&T/Blue Dog event was Democracy Now -- they were also barred from entering. I was on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman this morning to discuss what happened. They put together a 5-minute video montage, including our efforts to enter the event and interview the guests, which they broadcast before my segment. The video and my segment can be seen and/or heard here -- it begins at the 1:00 mark. A transcript will be posted shortly.
Thanks, you Stand Up Guys, for insisting on sunlight last night.
Oh, and best comment to Dave Neiwart’s piece on this (No. 27, by LindaR):
Blue Dogs + AT&T = Things to do in Denver when you’re red.