The great democrat and friend of dailykos, Charlie Brown, is running for Congress in the beautiful CA-04 district in the foothills of the Sierras (currently misrepresented by the Abramoff-crony John Doolittle). Well, Charlie is having a birthday party at the Opera House in old-town Roseville, and we're invited! Actually, we're here :-)
We will be liveblogging for the next few hours with pictures and, hopefully, video. Please join us below and in the comments over the next few hours as we add more!
Just getting started. More soon! Film at (before) 11 :-)
Please show some love for Charlie with birthday presents: http://www.actblue.com/...
SacramentoDem is here! Maybe he can do some person-on-the-street interviews.
AmericanRiverCanyon is here and shot a few pics (it's a bit dark in here):
The fellow with the microphone is Charlie's Air Force Academy roommate and lifelong friend, Mike Nelson.
Late update: Back home in SF now and I have managed to upload a short video of Charlie talking to the crowd. I spent some time talking to Charlie during the party, and have talked to him on several other occassions over the past few months. I see something in Charlie that is rather rare - real humility. The guy is very real and humble. I almost hate to see him go to Washington to take on the sharks there, but I also see that he is made of pretty tough stuff. Also, Jan will keep him centered.
At the end of Charlie's remarks he mentions Cody Conway, an injured Iraq war veteran. I talked with Charlie later on about Cody, and what has happened to him in his attempts to get successful treatment from the VA, and after a few words I could see tears welling up in Charlie's eyes and could tell that he found it a bit hard to talk about. There's a story here, but you will have to wait until Monday, which is when Charlie's big birthday present, the one that many of you have helped pay for, is presented: a very moving radio ad. I will do a diary on Monday with the audio from the ad - I promised to hold off until the public release.
Anyway, here's the video. See if you agree with me about Charlie. Also, please do whatever you can to help him defeat Doolittle and help us take back the Democratic party.