Live-blogging the speech tomorrow!

[TayTay]

As we all know, Sen. Kerry will be delivering a major speech at Faneuil Hall tomorrow (April 22nd.) This is what a recent e-mail said about this upcoming speech:

Decades ago I stood up to the Nixon administration and spoke out for a change of course in Vietnam. Four days from now, I will be delivering a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall on the critically important topic of war and dissent. It's time to remind America that, when a stubborn president has America headed profoundly in the wrong direction, only citizen action can change our country's course.

There will be 3 of us there to live-blog this speech on DKos and on other boards. We will be trying to send things up to KG's board on DemDaily (and will be sending pics to her site as soon as we can as well.) This should be an interesting event. The main post will be on DKos (High traffic board) and we hope to have that up at around 10:45 am (EST) or so in the morning. (I am TayTay over there as well.)

So, wish MH1, Whometense and I luck as we attempt to live-blog this speech. There will be no live audio or video feeds going out, that we know of, so we will be trying to keep everyone informed of what Sen. Kerry is saying, what the crowd reaction is like and so forth.

Needless to say, this both exciting and innovative and gives us a big happy. But any number of things can go wrong, so there is a lot of be nervous about as well. This is, I guess, the yin and yang of trying new things. We shall see.

We will have an IM connection into the hall. Contact Vektor (via PM) to share if you want to keep up on IM. Please check into (and recommend, please!) the DKos thread. Vek is helping us out by organizing the IM names and sharing info with MH1 in the Hall via chat.

Wish us luck! We have butterflies in the belly, but are determined to give it a shot. Join us tomorrow. It'll be fun. Stop by and talk to us at DKos. Speech starts at 11:00 AM (EST). We all hope to hear from you.

Nervous but excited!

Tay

[babylonsister]

1. You folks are great! I'll be looking for you and you all will do

just fine! Ah, to be a fly on the wall at Faneuil Hall!
Thank you all! :yourock:

[TayTay]

2. Recommend that diary on DKos!

Otherwise, I shudder to think.

This is exciting. We will also have people in the crowd and are heavily relying on them to report in on the event later on in the day or weekend. (And they will be the ones with the pics!)

It should be an interesting, exhausting and exciting weekend. Wish us well.

[babylonsister]

3. Can I do that w/o being a member? And I wish you all well;

you are all very bright people who will do Senator Kerry proud! :patriot: :hug: :thumbsup:

[beachmom]

4. No you can't -- join dKos today, right now!

Arghh -- I think it takes 24 hours to activate, but try right now. Either way, you'll be ready for the next time Kerry needs props on dKos.

That goes for everyone without a dKos id.

[babylonsister]

7. OK, I just joined. I'll be available for future help but will

be with you all in spirit!:patriot:

[Island Blue]

25. You still might be able to use Kos tomorrow morning

I just recently (re)registered and I don't think it took a full 24 hours to get clearance. Double check in the morning - you might be good to go by then.

[Dr Ron]

15. No membership needed at Democratic Daily

I assume you all know that you can come over and post comments at Democratic Daily without having to join.

There are obvious advantages of posting at Kos due to their size, butI hope everyone also keeps in mind the advantages of supporting the largest pro-Kerry blog. While we might not be as large as Kos, The Democratic Daily is not without significance. We're received links or mentions from National Journal, Real Clear Politics, CNN, Time, Crooks and Liars, Talking Points Memo, Talk Left, Opinion Source, Juan Cole, Buzz Flash, Alternet, Daou Report, Memeorandum (virtually daily), Megite (also pretty much daily), and even a front page link on Kos recently. Plus there's many smaller blogs which regularly link to The Democratic Daily (and I'm sure there are some more major ones I'm leaving out). Plus we receive hundreds of hits a day from search engine searches for "Kerry" and multiple other topics. Hopefully by the time the 2008 primaries are here we'll be in a position to get our message over the noise of the anti-Kerry blogs and to the media and public.

[beachmom]

16. That's excellent, Dr. Ron (about the links)

Yes, I will definitely toggle all over tomorrow morning -- you're right that if you guys get quite a few comments, then anybody who ventures there will think "wow, there's a lot of action on this blog". Will see you tomorrow.

[fedupinBushcountry]

22. Will be there

:thumbsup: to The Democratic Daily.

[babylonsister]

26. Thanks, Dr. Ron! I'll be checking DD out, too. nt

[TayTay]

28. You will be hearing from us tomorrow

and will get the pics as soon as we can upload them. This will be just after the speech itself. Those of us in the 'press area' are not taking pics. It's just too distracting. So we won't get the cameras and uploads until after. But then you get them.

Ahm, OMg, I just wrote 'the press area' like it's a common thing for me. Oh dear. Surrounded by the Boston media. Oh dear Lord. Ah, could be worse. It could be Fenway and the Red Sox. Those sports reporters are really murder.

[babylonsister]

33. Enjoy this wonderful experience, TayTay and everyone else!

We'll be waiting!:hi:

[beachmom]

5. This is fantastic Tay Tay, MH1, and Whometense

This is about outscooping the snarky journalists!

And more dKos tips -- don't just recommend but comment also. Comment a lot back and forth because diaries make it on the recommended list not just by purely recommendations but # of comments on the diary.

Is this IM'ing AOL? I'm not familar precisely what IMing is about on DU.

[TayTay]

6. It's regular IM

that comes out of AOL. I think you can use it for free. I believe you can go and download the app on the AOl site and get a name and chat away.

Vek will handle that tomorrow. I won't be on IM. I will try and keep my brains focused on the speech and I'm just writing about what I hear and see. I do need everyone else to comment freely and recommend.

See, plenty of work for all tomorrow! We can't do this without you!

[ProSense]

8. Very cool!

:yourock:

[wisteria]

9. Wow live blogs!! Awesome! Good luck to all.

[sandnsea]

10. Terrific!

I was really hoping we'd get a live stream, just grr on that. But it'll be great to follow the blogging at least, I'm going to have to set my alarm. Thanks guys!

[TayTay]

11. It's exciting.

I get a real 'press pass' and everything. And I get to sit with the Boston media and whoever else comes. Gee those Boston media folks are so nice, ahm, wait a minute. They're not nice, they specialize in snark. Oh my God! What have I gotten myself into here? I will be sitting in the snake's den.

Hmmm, note to self. IF you see so-and-so try to smile.

[sandnsea]

13. Oh my gosh!!!

How exciting!

Try and smile?? Oh puhleeze, start practicing that move with your foot that accidentally sends somebody ass over teakettle!! (kidding, kidding)

[beachmom]

14. So comforting to know a Kerrycrat Citizen Journalist will be reporting

the news!

So, 10:45ish AM -- it's a date! I can stay for about an hour or so, before I have to go out. Hopefully that'll get the ball rolling and cover most of the speech. I take it you guys are going to do a GD thread, too, directing people to Kos? We should all recommend that, although it's not allowed to reference it here, we'll be on the look out for it.

I'm really looking forward to it, and hope that the "Kossaks" are intrigued enough to recommend. I mean, what ELSE is going to be happening at 11 AM on a Saturday?

[ginnyinWI]

12. You rock, as does JK!

:headbang:

[beachmom]

17. Beachmom is now freaking out about fickle DailyKos

Okay, Tay Tay's diary announcing that she was live blogging tomorrow died very quickly with just 10 comments. I checked the diaries that WERE on the Rec list, and counted for one of the smaller ones -- 72 recommends.

So who has a dKos login and can recommend tomorrow morning at about 10:45 AM? We need to ALL recommend and QUICKLY, and hope other Kossaks will join in. All that work that Tay Tay, MH1, and Whometense are going to be doing, it better be on the Rec list is all I can say.

I know these:

Beachmom
Tay Tay
KarenC
Patriot for Kerry
Kerrygoddess
MH1
Whometense
Aliencode
FrenchGirlinMA
Ron Chusid

That's 10, and just off the top of my head. Anyone else?

[wisteria]

18. I have an account, I'll rec. too. n/t

[europegirl4jfk]

19. I had an account ages ago

I just checked it, it's still working. I'm EuropeGirl over there too and I think I can be there tomorrow. It will be at 4:45pm local time here in Europe.

[fedupinBushcountry]

20. I don't have an account

but I just registered, and will have it for future use.

I IM Vektor for the live chat, and am waiting to see what I have to do, I do have an AOL account.

What are all the blogs involved?

[globalvillage]

21. I'll be there.

[WildEyedLiberal]

23. I'll definitely be online all morning

Reporting for duty. :patriot:

[globalvillage]

24. You're my hero!

Well, actually JK's my hero, but you can be my heroine, except that would be THK, so I guess you're just really, really cool.

Hehe.
Have lots of fun.

:yourock:

[beachmom]

27. Okay, that's 13 and counting

I guess I'll stop being a worry wort. As long as there aren't a million diaries happening at the same time, we should be able to make it (there really are a lot of quiet Kerry supporters at Kos plus some people curious as to what he will say). But just like it was said upthread, everyone who will be around tomorrow and doesn't have a dKos id should go ahead and get one, and maybe it'll work by 11 AM tomorrw.

I'm really excited about this. Good luck to everyone going!

[TayTay]

29. Thanks Beachmom!

I hope it works out. We will start setup at 10:00 and I hope to post something in here before I really start to bear down to take care of business.

I have never done this before. Sure, I have commented during committee hearings, but never at a live speech. There will be distractions at first, but then I hope that the natural drama of the event takes over and it just happens. We shall see. This is a real shot in the dark and we are amateurs. But everyone has to start somewhere, so, what the hell, let's give a try. It might work out, it might develop problems, it might have hitches in it. But we will try. And we will learn from it.

[politicasista]

30. Good luck everyone!

I will try to be online around that time. Can't wait for pics and C-SPAN. :yourock: :hi:

[YvonneCa]

31. Thank you...

...I just got home, anxious to find out about the speech...and this is GREAT news! Thank you so much for helping us keep connected and know what is going on there. Good luck tomorrow. I will be here, on dKos and Dem. Daily... Recommending and kicking up a storm! :) I have a STRONG feeling that these words tomorrow are going to be important ones... course changing, even. I CAN'T WAIT !:patriot:

[ray of light]

32. thanks taytay. this is so exciting! KG and Kos are lucky to have you.

And I wish I could be there, but alas...the academic sweatshop calls...

[JI7]

34. will try to catch it

sounds exciting. and hopefully gives us a good experience if we ever want to do something like this in the future again.

[TayTay]

35. I hope so. I wish I could have live-blogged that Town Hall

I went to in Jan. If ever an event was illustrative of communications problems between elected Dems and 'the people' this was it. Geez.

I just had my scary wifi moment and it passed. So, I got my fingers crossed for tomorrow. (It's always a bit dicey.)

[jillan]

36. Good luck Tay, Whome and MH1!!!!

You guys will do great !!

Looking forward to reading what you blog.

Get some pics if you can, we need new JK pics.

I'll check into Kos and try and keep things positive.

And I don't need to say this, but HAVE FUN!!!

:grouphug:

[TayTay]

37. we will pirahna!

and thanks for all the good wishes. You good folks rock!

After the event is over and we have sent up pics, we are all going for lunch to the North End of Boston which is a Boston neighborhood with a lot of Italian eateries and bakeries. Lovely place to go in the spring. The food is good and the atmosphere is great, and well, the people simply could not be better.

Drop the wifi, take the cannolis. :rofl: Hmmmm, cannolis. Whatg, oh yeah, speech first, then cannolis. Hmmmm. :rofl: So if I get nervous tomorrow, you know what I will be thinking of to calm myself down. Hmmmmmm.

[Dr Ron]

38. Watch for changes from prepared text

If this speech is like Kerry's other speeches, most likely they will release a copy of the prepared text before his actual speech.

Most likely Kerry will add some good lines which aren't in the prepared text. Assuming there's not last minute media coverage those of us blogging from the outside won't know about these changes. That's one area those of you inside can be of the most help. Rather than trying to get out all the details of the speech, it might be most efficient to watch for things he ads and get those out to the blogs.