“For me this is a season of hope,” Kennedy declared, “new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few. New hope.”

“And this is the cause of my life,” he went on, his voice strengthening and reaching his familiar cadence. “New hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American — north, south, east, west, young, old — will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.”

A video tribute to the senator preceded his speech and was introduced by his niece, Caroline Kennedy, whose early endorsement of Obama proved crucial in his drive to the nomination.

Watch the entire Kennedy package on this C-SPAN video:

Here’s a transcript of Kennedy’s speech, provided by the DNC:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Caroline.

My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here.

And nothing — nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.

I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States.

As I look ahead, I am strengthened by family and friendship. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days and the hardest days. Together we have known success and seen setbacks, victory and defeat.

But we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. And I pledge to you — I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

For me this is a season of hope — new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few — new hope.

And this is the cause of my life — new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American — north, south, east, west, young, old — will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

We can meet these challenges with Barack Obama. Yes, we can, and finally, yes, we will.

Barack Obama will close the book on the old politics of race and gender and group against group and straight against gay.

And Barack Obama will be a commander-in-chief who understands that young Americans in uniform must never be committed to a mistake, but always for a mission worthy of their bravery.

We are told that Barack Obama believes too much in an America of high principle and bold endeavor, but when John Kennedy called of going to the moon, he didn’t say it’s too far to get there. We shouldn’t even try.

Our people answered his call and rose to the challenge, and today an American flag still marks the surface of the moon.

Yes, we are all Americans. This is what we do. We reach the moon. We scale the heights. I know it. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. And we can do it again.

There is a new wave of change all around us, and if we set our compass true, we will reach our destination — not merely victory for our Party, but renewal for our nation.

And this November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans, so with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.

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Insurance giant American International Group (AIG), for instance, gave each convention $750,000 shortly before getting an $85 billion loan from the federal government in September — one of more than a dozen companies, including banks, hedge-fund operators, securities firms and auto industry titans hobnobbing with party insiders for a price just before the dam burst.

Donors from other sectors, including pharmaceutical companies, high tech firms and labor unions, gave $118 million to both conventions — $61 million for the Democratic National Convention in Denver and $57 million for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The private donations totaled nearly four times the amount provided to the host committees by the federal government, CRP noted.

“If the executives who have come to Washington, hat in hand, looked familiar to members of Congress, maybe it’s because they met over the summer at the conventions,” CRP executive director Sheila Krumholz said.

Krumholz’s organization summarized the link between convention cash and bailout seekers thus:

Embattled insurance giant American International Group (AIG), which received an $85 billion loan from the government just weeks after the GOP convention, gave $750,000 to each gathering. And AIG isn’t the only high-profile company that sought a handout from taxpayers after writing a big check toward the summer’s political gatherings. Others included Citigroup (which spent a total of $600,000 on the conventions), Goldman Sachs (which spent $505,000), Ford Motor Co. ($100,000 to each convention) and Bank of America (which spent $100,000, entirely on the Democratic convention). The federal government took over Freddie Mac just weeks after the mortgage-buyer split half a million dollars between the two conventions.

CFI digs down to tie a massive donation from a foundation controlled by auto financier Kirk Kerkorian to a proposed $15 billion bailout to the auto industry, as well as other car-maker entanglements:

Kirk Kerkorian, whose Tracinda holding company controls MGM Mirage and gas producer Delta Petroleum, acquired about $1 billion in Ford Motor Company stock between April and July 2008, making him the company’s largest private shareholder. On August 22nd, his Lincy Foundation (both his holding company and the foundation draw their names from daughters Tracy and Linda) contributed $3.5 million to the host committees … In mid-October, after Kerkorian’s Ford stock had lost approximately half its value, he sold a small percentage of his shares and said he intended to dispose of the rest. Both the price of his holdings and his future role in the auto industry could be affected by pending proposals for a federal rescue of the industry. Ford Motor Company also donated $200,000 for the conventions, half to each host committee. (Separately, General Motors provided 735 new cars to the Democratic and Republican party convention committees for the use of elected officials and other VIPs.)

Rounding out the biggest industry donations, pharmaceutical, high tech and big labor, CRP found:

Joining the finance sector, pharmaceutical manufacturers, computer and Internet companies and labor unions also helped produce the conventions. The drug industry spent more than any other industry, giving $9.8 million, split nearly evenly between the two parties. While pharma seemed to hedge its bets, computer and Internet companies, along with individuals in the industry, favored Republicans, giving their convention $4.1 million compared to $3.1 million to Democrats. … Unions representing government employees, which ranked among the top 15 industries underwriting the conventions, were the most partisan, giving all of their $2.7 million to the Democrats’ gathering in Denver.

Labor, not surprisingly, favored the Democrats overwhelmingly, CFI notes:

The Democratic convention also benefited from substantial labor union support. In fact, five of the top ten organizational donors to the Denver host committee were the Laborers’ International Union, Service Employees International Union, National Education Association, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and American Federation of Teachers. The committee received $8.3 million in $100,000 or over contributions from unions. The Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee received nothing.

Here’s a CFI-generated list of DNC donors who ponied up $100,000 or more, not including wealthy individuals. And here’s a similar list of RNC donors who topped $100,000.

Check here to see which organizations gave to both the Democrats and the Republicans for their conventions. And here’s a table showing individual donors or family trusts.

Barely six and a half weeks ago, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) had just concluded on an historic high note, the polls were tied, and we’d never heard of Troopergate, aerial wolf-killing, John McCain was running an honorable campaign and the economy hadn’t yet locked up.

Relive those innocent days in this 15-minute video released late last week by the Obama campaign. “Four Days in Denver” follows Barack and Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and their families behind the scenes:

The back of a commemorative DNC T-shirt sold by the Denver Police Protective Association bears the slogan 'We Get Up Early to Beat the Crowds - 2008 DNC.' (Photo/Ernest Luning)

The group called for an investigation into the T-shirt and asked officials to “discipline” those involved. In addition, the group demanded that “police training regarding civil liberties be reevaluated, because it clearly has not achieved its intended effect.”

The front of a commemorative DNC T-shirt sold by the Denver Police Protective Association bears the logo '68 with a slash through it, representing opposition to demonstrators' interest in reviving the spirit of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. (Photo/Ernest Luning)

Nearly 2,000 of the shirts have been distributed, a DPPA employee said Thursday afternoon, and 100 more are on order. The shirt was given away to Denver Police Department officers and has been sold to officers from other departments for $10.

Denver Det. Nick Rogers, vice president of the police union, told the Rocky Mountain News on Thursday he hadn’t received any complaints about the shirts and said it’s common for Denver police to produce commemorative T-shirts after big events.

During the DNC, police arrested 154 protesters. On Tuesday, the Denver District Attorney declined to prosecute a Denver officer caught on videotape shoving a Code Pink demonstrator to the ground with his riot baton during the DNC.

From the Recreate 68 statement:

The people of Denver were assured by the city that it would respect First Amendment rights during the DNC, and that that police officers were being trained to do so. The actions of police during the DNC, which involved numerous violations of people’s right to freedom of speech and assembly, put the lie to those promises. And now this appalling, tasteless t-shirt shows why. The members of Denver’s police union clearly have no respect for the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Here’s the video shot by the Rocky Mountain News of a Denver officer slamming a Code Pink demonstrator to the ground:

If you haven’t been under a rock lately, you know that the Bush Administration is proposing a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street. What you might not know is that there have been 258 parties this year alone for members of the House Financial Services Committee — the very folks who are making crucial decisions about this legislation — a number of them hosted by lobbyists for the finance, insurance, and real estate industries.

Some of the more interesting lobbyist-hosted parties uncovered by the intrepid crew at PartyTime include:

• Sushi reception hosted by the Eris Group, a lobbying firm that represents banks, Freddie Mac, Morgan Stanley and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Cost of a raw fish plate: $2,000 for a host, $1,000 for a PAC and $500 per individual.

• Summer happy hour thrown by REIT (National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts) PAC and InsurPAC, the PAC for the Independent Insurance Agents of America. A fruity drink with a paper umbrella will run you: $1,000 suggested donation.

• Beer tasting with a Citigroup Management Services lobbyist. A plastic wrist band will set you back: $250 for a host, $100 to attend and $1,000 for a PAC.

Colorado’s own 7th Congressional District Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Golden) serves on the House Financial Services Committee. PartyTime has no record of Perlmutter receiving or attending lobbyist parties to cushion his campaign war chest.

A recent communique from the National Guard Bureau reveals that Army units from four states were in the Mile High City to assist federal and local law enforcement authorities with security and crowd control operations.

Units from Georgia, Nebraska, Utah and Wyoming worked with soldiers from the Colorado Army National guard during the massive political event:

As with almost any National Guard mission, units were prepared to assist military and civilians alike if authorities called upon them, task force officials said. They explained that in a civil support capacity, Guardsmen are capable of providing medical and security support, in addition to other specialties reserved for catastrophic events, such as site decontamination, personnel evacuation and medical triage.

…

Prior to setting up their equipment, the Guardsmen practiced donning and doffing their specialized personal protective gear and setting up and moving any external equipment in order to ensure they were ready to respond to an event if called by authorities.

Although military officials are still mum on just how many soldiers were stationed in Denver during convention week, The Colorado Independent reported leading up to the convention that the the state’s Army National Guard was planning to station at least 500 soldiers in facilities surrounding the city.

“Our police and Public Works crews engineered an extraordinary behind-the-scenes collaboration preceding and during the Democratic National Convention which thwarted plans of those intent on disrupting our city,” Hickenlooper said in a press release, referencing stock piles of potentially hazardous material that the police confiscated before and during the Convention. “We are extremely proud of these two agencies for their intelligent planning and performance.”

Yesterday, District 10 City Council member Jeanne Robb added to the accolades, calling the police work “cool-headed,” in a newsletter to her constituents.

So far, only at-large City Council member Doug Linkhart has voiced his skepticism about the law enforcement, questioning whether it was necessary for riot-ready cops to move throughout the city hanging onto the exteriors of SUVs.

“I don’t know if that was necessary,” Linkhart told The Rocky Mountain News last week. “I would only bring out the heavy artillery when we need it.”

But while city leaders seem largely content with the police effort, many protesters and their lawyers aren’t. Today, members of Re-create 68 announced their intention to file suit against the city and the officers for violating their constitutional rights to peaceful protest by using excessive force.

Arrest of Code Pink supporter, Alicia Forrest, at the Democratic National Convention. (Photo/Jason Kosena)

Re-create 68 protesters and other activists plan to file suit against the city of Denver and the Denver police department for violating their constitutional rights during the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

At a press conference this morning, Re-create 68 co-founder Glenn Spagnuolo, three activists, and attorney David Lane, detailed their intent to sue the city and the police for illegally arresting and detaining peaceful protesters, brutalizing activists and illegally searching and seizing signs and other materials that belonged to protesters.

“The only people prepared for violence were the police,” said Spagnuolo, “The protesters were disciplined and did not respond to provocations.”

Lane said that the suit will focus on four instances in which police violated constitutional rights. One is the case of Carlo Garcia, a CU Boulder student who was thrown face down into the dirt during a protest. Garcia, who spoke at the press conference, said that he and other anti-war activists held signs in front of Rev. Fred Phelps, an anti-gay marcher who had launched a counter protest. The police asked Garcia to move, body slammed him to the ground, and held him in tight wrist cuffs for over an hour. Garcia was charged with interference. “Is this how our local government treats dissent?” he said.

Another instance is that of Alicia Forrest, a Code Pink activist who was allegedly brutalized by the police during a protest. The so-called Lady in Pink was shoved to the ground by an officer, who Lane says should be “criminally prosecuted.”

The third instance involves a protest on Monday night of the convention, in which several hundred people were corralled in downtown Denver for over an hour without apparent reason. A hundred of them were arrested while others were blasted with pepper spray. Keith Valentine, a CU Denver student, said at the press conference that he and others were “held as political detainees. There were no orders to disperse and no orders to leave.”

The fourth instance involves an activist “convergence center” in north Denver, where Recreate-68 organizers hosted meetings, stored puppets and painted posters. Police allegedly bulldozed an area behind the facility, where activists’ painted posters were drying. Alex Bryan, a protester, said he snapped a photo of police outside of the center, only to have the contents of his camera and cell phone deleted by one of the officers, who called him a “domestic terrorist.” Bryan says he was ticketed for “pedestrian use of sidewalk,” a charge that he doesn’t understand.

Lane, the attorney, said that the group will work to dismiss charges against protesters before formulating legal action, which could take the shape of a large class-action suit or a series of smaller suits.

“We will take them into federal and district court. We will seek damages. We will not tolerate this and we will go after officers,” he said.

DNC protesters who want to join the suit or who have information on police misconduct are invited to contact Re-create 68 at legal@recreate68.org.

Sign directing traffic to K Street, home to a row of infamous Washington, DC lobbying firms. (Photo/ M.V. Jantzen, Flickr)

It was one of the chief vows of the Democratic Party as it took control of both congressional chambers in 2007: to sever the cozy relationships between lobbyists and lawmakers brought to light by the Jack Abramoff scandals.

Congress passed sweeping lobbying and ethics reforms last year, and this was the first convention season under the stringent new rules. Yet, despite the enactment of the new regulations, campaign-finance watchdogs argue that much remains to be done to stem the abuses. The groups are pointing to the national conventions as evidence that ethics laws, both new and old, leave gaping loopholes still to be addressed.

“The law clearly had an effect,” said Josh Zaharoff, assistant director of campaign finance at Common Cause. “But there’s still very much of that element of companies using the conventions to gain access … Clearly these corporations saw it as a chance to buy influence.”

Zaharoff wasn’t kidding.

In Minneapolis last week, Republican leaders vowed to scale back the events surrounding their convention in recognition of those suffering from the arrival of Hurricane Gustav on Monday. Yet that call did little to break the partying spirit of convention attendees. Instead of scrapping the parties, many sponsors simply reconfigured them as charity events for victims of the storm.

Nancy Watzman of Political Party Time, a project of the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group focused on the federal government, trekked tirelessly from gala to gala in both Minneapolis and Denver — usually to be turned back at the door. She reported from Minnesota last week on a big-pharma-sponsored breakfast featuring an appearance by Rep. Michael Rogers (R-Mich.).

ABC’s Brian Ross discovered Mississippi River paddle-wheel boat excursions for Ohio’s GOP delegation sponsored by the chemical industry. Oil companies, he found, hosted the California delegation with a pig roast.

Despite Gustav, Ross concluded, “corporate lobbyists went ahead with their plans … to spend millions of dollars entertaining key Republican lawmakers and officials.”

The Democratic National Convention in Denver (DNC), meanwhile, looked like a party marathon. The DNC boasted more than 400 events sponsored by outside interest groups, according to a document created by Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a lobbying firm, and publicized by the Sunlight Foundation.

While many of those events were bare-bones, advocate-sponsored forums focused on issues, others were lavish, corporate-sponsored galas targeting members of Congress and other Democratic officials — everything from an AT&T-funded luncheon for the Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island delegations at the Pinnacle Club, a private event space high atop the Grand Haytt, to a gathering of Democratic attorneys general at the Ritz-Carlton, sponsored by AstroZeneca, a pharmaceutical giant facing numerous suits in federal and state courts.

Like many lobbying groups, the Poker Players Alliance sponsored events in both cities. To generate attention among many convention-related activities, the alliance brought along Hollywood stars. In Denver, for example, celebrities like Ben Affleck and Sarah Silverman were at the event. The alliance’s Web site does nothing to disguise the group’s intentions, saying it “is taking advantage of the concentration of delegates and members of Congress … to continue to lobby for the legalization of online poker.”

It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.

In the wake of a series of ethics scandals involving several Republicans’ illegal dealings with lobbyists — most prominently the separate episodes that sent former Reps. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) and Bob Ney (R-Ohio) to prison — Democrats in 2006 ran on a platform of distancing Congress members from the influence of moneyed interests.

“Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all levels of government,” reads a passage from the House Democrats’ “New Direction” agenda. “To do so, we will create and enforce rules that demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists and establish clear standards that prevent the trading of official business for gifts.”

That vow culminated in the 2007 passage of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, a law that prohibits members of Congress from participating in lobbyist-funded events designed to “honor” or “recognize” lawmakers at the conventions.

But the ethics committees in each chamber interpreted that law differently. The House panel claims that the rule applies only to events honoring single members, and not to those recognizing groups of lawmakers. Watchdog groups say the trouble is not with the law itself, but with this interpretation.

“The rules are actually very, very good — and very sweeping,” said Craig Holman, a campaign-finance reform lobbyist for Public Citizen. “The problem has been the enforcement. … When you’ve got different interpretations [of the law], you see lobbyists exploiting that as a loophole.”

Fred Wertheimer, president and CEO of Democracy 21, a campaign-finance watchdog, issued a statement last month warning lawmakers away from a corporate-sponsored Denver event honoring the freshman class of House Democrats. The ethics committee’s ruling, he argued, should not set members above the intent of the law.

“This so-called ‘guidance’ not only is an incorrect interpretation of the new ethics rule,” he said, “it makes no sense.”

Watchdog groups are also critical of an interpretation of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign reform act that allows corporations and other donors to make unlimited contributions to a national convention’s host committee. That ruling, passed down by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), reasons that the donations are aimed to booster the host cities, not the political parties — something many watchdog groups dispute.

“It’s party leaders who actually head the committee and make the decisions,” said Zaharoff of Common Cause. “[The companies] wouldn’t do it if it didn’t benefit them.”

Watchdogs want to amend these interpretations, or enact clarifying legislation if the FEC and ethics committees fail to revisit the current laws. Holman of Public Citizen predicted that Congress would take up the issue again next year.

“The FEC,” Holman said, “has a history of not closing the floodgates that they open. We’ll have to revisit it with new legislation.”

(Photo/Keith Bacongco, Flickr)

With a record 18 proposals on everything from oil and gas taxes to unions to the developmentally disabled to gambling, Colorado voters will weigh in on the longest ballot in Colorado since 1912 — and the largest in the United States this year.

Many of the ballot measures are as complex as the ballot is long. And, according to the Bell Policy Center, a research nonprofit in Denver, five would directly impact the state’s budget. Here’s the lowdown on the five questions on Colorado’s November monster ballot that would have the biggest fiscal impacts. (Listed in their order of appearance on the ballot.)

For more information on the 2008 Colorado ballot, read Colorado ballot chock-full this year and Colorado’s monster ballot longest in the nation.

For the entire list of measures with links to the Colorado Legislative Council’s “Blue Book” analysis, see: Colorado voters face longest ballot in 96 years.