Late last night, Brian posted about a continuing and coordinated Denial of Service attack on the No on Prop 8 website. It coincided with a similar DoS attack on Florida’s No on 2 website which is also fighting to protect marriage equality.

More details have emerged since last night, and the picture is likely to remain in flux for some time. No on 8 has confirmed that this is a coordinated national attack, with participants not just in California but (at least) in Texas, New Jersey and Georgia. This is a federal crime, and the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies have been notified. As of less than two hours ago, the attacks are ongoing.

Via press release, an interesting point from the No on Prop 8 campaign:

“I’m sure we’ll hear a lot of denials today from the Prop 8 campaign, but this is clearly an orchestrated attempt to tear down what has become one of the largest grassroots movements in California electoral history,” said Patrick Guerriero, NO on Prop 8 Campaign Director.

One would expect to hear a lot of denials. Have there been ANY denials though? I haven’t heard about any. Or any condemnation. Or anything but tacit support for this sort of illegal behavior. The tactics from the Yes side have been spiraling outrageously out of control in recent weeks, so until I hear a full-throated condemnation of this illegal attack from the Yes on 8 campaign, I’m hard-pressed to believe they’re not giddy if not directly involved.

And I don’t mean a classic non-apology apology about how it’s an unfortunate situation. I want a full on not-in-our-name, don’t-you-dare-do-it-again, breaking-the-law-is-never-acceptable condemnation. Anything short is tacit approval of this sort of anti-democratic and illegal behavior. It’s implied and effective complicity.

I’m waiting. I look forward to it. I’ll be happy to hear it. But I’m not gonna hold my breath.

In the meantime, We need to double down in support of No on Prop 8. We can’t quantify what was lost in the downtime last night in terms of volunteers or money, but we can definitely throw down more of both. No on Prop 8 needs GOTV and other volunteer support and the Calitics ActBlue page is still accepting donations for Equality For All.

Whoever is responsible for this DoS attack thinks it will help pass Prop 8. It’s up to us to step up again and prove them wrong.

I proudly work for the Courage Campaign

Last night, the country was officially introduced to John McCain’s Vice Presidential pick, Governor Sarah Palin. She gave a speech full of vitriol, condescension and outright lies, but perhaps nothing was more shocking than her belittling insult of community organizers. Trying to minimize the work of Barack Obama, she said “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Shocking. Just a quick sampling of community organizers would include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Founding Fathers of the United States, and Jesus. Much, much further down that list would be organizations like the Courage Campaign, which exists expressly to empower online and offline grassroots activism. Because we know, like so many others, that concerted community effort is what it takes to bring about meaningful change in this country- something we could really use after eight years of Bush/McCain policy.

Well last night Sarah Palin laid out how the McCain/Palin ticket intend to run this country: With scorn and belligerence for anyone who tries to bring their communities together to make things better. The Courage Campaign has spent years trying to empower exactly the sort of grassroots initiative that’s vital to bringing about meaningful change. If we’re ever going to address the fundamental failings of our government, we need a new presidential administration that doesn’t try to squash the little guy.

And in a speech that neglected to mention education, health care, comprehensive economic reforms, or choice, we heard in Palin’s silence exactly her trouble with community organizing: An organized community is an empowered community. And an empowered community expects better. A fragmented community is more easily undercut by Republican fear mongering, more susceptible to being turned against itself by divisive, antagonistic rhetoric.  The condescending language from the McCain camp, even filtered through Sarah Palin (remember the speech was written before she was selected to recite it), reeks of a multi-millionaire’s elitist fear of a society willing to stand up for itself.

Last night, John McCain used Sarah Palin to spit in the face of everyone in this country who’s ever tried to bring people together to make the world a better place. Anyone who’s ever been in a union or professional organization. Anyone who was ever a member of the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, fraternities or sororities. Anyone who’s ever participated in a Christmas toy drive at their church. Anyone who’s ever supported the Salvation Army or the Red Cross. Everyone who’s ever volunteered to mentor children or serve at a soup kitchen. Everyone who’s ever registered voters, or wrote a letter to the editor. Anyone who’s participated in groups like Kiwanis or Knights of Columbus. Everyone who’s ever been a member of the VFW or other veteran groups. Anyone who’s ever volunteered for their local neighborhood watch or- much to Governor Palin’s chagrin- the PTA.

Those people don’t count in the world of John McCain. Not only that, McCain opts to heap scorn rather than praise on those people who put in the effort to make this country stronger. Which really tells you all you need to know about John McCain: His greatest derision is reserved for the people working the hardest to improve America.

We have an opportunity to throw this back in John McCain’s face at every level. Because the people who care about this country are already involved in all the organizations above and more. Community organizers are the ones who run community political messaging. They’re the ones who run GOTV operations. And they’re the ones who can deliver on election day.

If there was any doubt that we would get a barnburner on unity tonight from Hillary Clinton, put that to bed. The California delegation went crazy for Clinton, waving Hillary signs that were distributed just ahead of Chelsea’s introduction and even holding a few homemade signs like “18 million cracks”. Obama/Hillary/Unity signs are spreading through now.

A few quotes out of the gates:

“The time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose.”

“This is a fight for the future and it’s a fight we must win together.”

“You haven’t endured the past eight years to suffer through more failed leadership.”

“Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president.”

Update This is a great mix of unification and reaching out to Clinton supporters who may be any measure of disaffected. She just finished and the crowd, at least here in California (I can’t see or hear any further) is insane. Signs and standing ovation as far as I can see. A few more great lines from an excellent speech:

“Were you in it for the marine…Were you in it for that mom…Were you in it for that young boy…Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?

“The genius of America has always depended on the strength and vitality of the middle class.”

“Democrats know how to do this. As I recall, we did it before with President Clinton.” (no idea what came after this, it was deafening)

“It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart.”

“My daughter got to vote for her mother for president. This is the story of America.”

“Keep going. Don’t ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”

“We’re Americans, we’re not big on quitting.”

“We need to get going by electing Barack Obama.”

So that’s day two and I’m exhausted and grinning ear to ear. Dave will be here tomorrow.

Update Final update before a pass out cold. Walking out from the floor after the Clinton speech, there were obviously media folks running around everywhere. And they were bolting exclusively for Hillary delegates, people with Hillary signs, etc. And they were ALL pushing essentially the same question: “That was really good and all, but is there really unity? I mean, really really unity?” This is crap. Tonight should pretty much put this meme to bed. There may be holdout PUMAs running around here and there, but the lesson from tonight from Clinton herself is that those people aren’t the ones who were every really committed to the Democratic party and its ideals to start with. And those aren’t people who are relevant to the party going forward. People can vote however they want to vote, but if they were in it because of the principles that drove the Clinton campaign, then they’d be with Obama now. There’s no equivocation from anyone on that stage tonight.

As far as Clinton, Obama ,and the Democratic party are concerned, the issue is done.

Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania got the crowd hyped with a “Four More Months” chant that’s still buzzing around the arena and- I bet- we’ll be hearing more of in the next couple days. He pushed hard on Biden as a native son of Pennsylvania- in case anybody needed a bit more convincing in the Keystone state.

He was followed by a true hero of the equality and labor movements, Lilly Ledbetter, speaking on Women’s Equality Day. She got huge cheers for her landmark discrimination case and big boos for big business. She kept with the importance of being responsible towards future generations, driving home how important it is that we “secure fair pay for our children and grandchildren” so that no one will have to go through what she has.

Mark Warner rocked the crowd as we expected he would, weaving all the week’s themes together. He spoke quite a bit about the power of collective effort and community as well as our responsibility to each other and our future. He spoke about education and energy and all the policy issues, but it all comes back to a fundamental defining mindset of Democrats. He lamented that Bush hadn’t “tapped into America’s greatest resource: the character and resolve of the American people,” and that Bush “failed to believe in what we can achieve as a nation.”

And that’s what it’s ultimately all about when drawing a line between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats not only think we have a moral obligation to stick by each other, but we know that it’s the smartest thing too. Warner noted that with the blessings of America “comes an obligation to our neighbors, to the common good.” And that’s the whole notion of not just democracy, but society in general.

That’s what we’re up against and why we’re Democrats. That speech made me homesick for Virginia just a little bit.

Update Governor Ted Strickland had a great line about Bush being born on third and thinking he hit a triple as opposed to making it to first and stealing second. The kids love it…I had no idea how much of a rock star Ted Strickland was. Good for him, good speech. Deval Patrick’s turn as the crowd starts getting into the mood.

Fairbanks Mayor Jim Whitacker just offered his endorsement of Barack Obama. Which is the second night in a row that an elected Republican has strongly endorsed Barack Obama. Whitacker made clear that he is first and foremost an American, and while he isn’t here to talk ill of John McCain, but that Barack Obama is “best able to meet America’s challenges and seize America’s opportunities.” He described Obama as a “pragmatic idealist” and lauded a “realistic and resulting wisdom whichis sorely needed in America today.”

He was followed by life-long Republican Gloria Craven, who after 30 years of blue collar labor lost her job and benefits. She was, to say the least, a bit perplexed when John McCain declared “we’re making great progress economically.” She’s living on her husband’s social security for lack of opportunities while he goes back to school at 62 years old. This is what the Bush economy has brought us.

Earlier, Governor Janet Napolitano chronicled the history of Arizona presidential aspirants and, well…it’s a big o-fer. Like she says, that’s a trend we need to continue. The past hour and a half or so has been heavy on labor leaders- AFL-CIO, SEIU, Change to Win. Congressman Xavier Becerra was mixed in there as well, continuing today’s California tilt

I spent a bit of time in the halls, running into Donna Edwards, Rahm Emanuel and a Bill Richardson stampede. In the meantime, I’m back with the delegation and the seats are shuffling. Congressman Sherman just arrived about the same time as Chairman Torres. Steve Westly is sitting behind me. Todd Beeton over at MyDD has the goods on a petition circulating among Clinton delegates to force a public roll call vote tomorrow morning. I haven’t heard much about it over here yet, but we’ll see.

UpdateGov. Sebelius: For McCain, “there’s no place like a home or a home or a home or a home…”

I’ve been sitting with Robin Torello who runs the Alameda County Dem Party, and in between lessons on how fantastic Alameda and its democrats are (I give Robin, it’s all true), we’ve been talking turkey about the Governor’s race, the CDP chair race, and the general state of affairs throughout the state party. We still haven’t come up with anyone who isn’t running for governor in 2010 except for us, so if you have any ideas, let us know in the comments.

Senator Boxer has arrived, two rows behind me. Sebelius thus far doesn’t seem to be enough to get the crowd calmed down, hammering the failed Bush policies that McCain advocates. She says “we can’t bring about positive change unless we fix our divisive politics” and brings out the classic “turn the page” line that I haven’t heard in a while.

Update The stars keep cycling through. Barbara Lee is here, John Garamendi and Gray Davis have come through, and John Chiang joined is sitting behind me with Steve Westly now.

Hillary Clinton introduced the hour of women in the Senate via video, and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland led off. The California delegation abslutely exploded (quite to the consternation of Campbell Brown it looked like) as Barbara Boxer took the stage and, perhaps unsurprisingly, turned the convention message into something relatively (cause really, this is a ton of speeches) fresh and compelling:

Elections have consequences and when we win in November, we will prove it. Instead of polluters, families. Instead of ignoring experts, we will fight global warming…

We will have a Democratic majority large enough to ensure healthy communities, because…

60 is the new 50.

Instead of a president with an exxon policy, we will have a president with an energy policy…

We can’t afford more of the same.

Sen. Boxer has been followed by Mary Landreiu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. We continue to hear the familiar refrain that “we can’t afford more of the same.” Boxer seized on energy and environmental issues which certainly resonate strongly in California. Senator Stabenow is discussing the jobs that we need to keep and create in the country.

Dennis Kucinich just exited after a great speech to chants of “Dennis, Dennis.” John Chiang just entered to rapturous response from the California contingent. Everyone was ready to support our newest Democratic Californian hero. This is his big entre into the national spotlight, and he was brief but nailed some great Democratic and Obama points that are familiar but can’t really be mentioned often enough:

We are working harder than ever but falling further behind…We know that path to the promised land and that Barack Obama will lead us there.

We choose to rise

We reject four more years of the same failed policies.

…poverty, access to healthcare and energy independence. Let those values be our calling.

As we segue into governors (Jim Doyle of Wisconsin and now Democratic Governor’s Association chair Joe Manchin of West Virginia), it’s exciting to see the love for Chiang. He’s done a great job of seizing on a crucial issue and really doing it right. He deserves this attention from the national party and it goes a long way towards raising California’s profile and, more important, highlights California issues and victories.