Having never been to a political convention, one stark characteristic is instantly apparent: there's one set of convention activities for politicos, delegates, non-Barack Obama celebrities; and one set for everyone else. The Kanye West party sponsored by the largesse of the recording industry? Yeah, that's for members of Congress. What do members of Congress care about the man who, as The Game famously put it, came back from a fatal accident to beat-making and rapping? "No idea," said my friend Alex last night after Sheryl Crow's performance at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the majestic concert venue cut into the face of the Rocky Mountains. That was supposed to be a delegates-only thing. But it turns out sneaking into this stuff isn't too difficult.
I should mention: hi, I'm Spencer Ackerman, national-security correspondent for the Washington Independent and noncommissioned officer in the Firedoglake blog empire, and I'm here in Denver to spend Radar's money.