CHRIS KROMM SUE STURGIS Executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies, Kromm is currently in New Orleans and posting on the group’s “Facing South” blog. He said today: “Gustav exposes how vulnerable the Gulf Coast still is three years after Katrina, from the levees to coastal land loss. Even if this one didn’t cause…

SHANNYN MOORE KELLY WALTERS Moore co-hosts a talkshow on KWHL in Anchorage. She said today: “Palin called into our show 45 minutes before going on stage with John McCain — and she said we were the only outlet she was calling. … Palin is against abortion rights even in the case of incest and rape…

Sen. Barack Obama speaks at Invesco Field in Denver to accept the Democratic Party presidential nomination tonight, the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the National March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Here are excerpts from King’s sermon “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break…

GWENDOLYN MINK Co-editor of the two-volume Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy and author of the forthcoming Feminism and Inequality, Mink is scrutinizing various portions of the Democratic Party platform on her blog. She was featured on IPA’s recent news release titled “Is Obama Clinton 2.0?.” ELIZABETH SANDERS Sanders…

Reuters recently reported: “Across racial and religious boundaries, Iraqi politicians … bemoaned Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama’s choice of running mate, known in Iraq as the author of a 2006 plan to divide the country into ethnic and sectarian enclaves.” VERA BEAUDIN SAEEDPOUR Editor of Kurdish Life and the International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Saeedpour…

Reuters reports: “The United Nations said on Tuesday it had found convincing evidence that 90 Afghan civilians, most of them children, were killed in air strikes by U.S.-led coalition forces in western Afghanistan last week.” SONALI KOLHATKAR Co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, Kolhatkar said today: “The war in Afghanistan…

ANISE JENKINS Jenkins is with the Stand Up! for Democracy in D.C. Coalition (Free D.C). She said today: “Non-voting U.S. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton speaks at the Democratic convention Tuesday night. She is the vice-chair of the DNC Platform Committee this year as she was in 2004. “Statehood for D.C. was dropped from the…

CLAUDIA FEGAN, MD Co-author of the book Universal Health Care: What the United States Can Learn from the Canadian Experience, Fegan is former president of Physicians for a National Health Program. She said today: “The reason I’m at the convention is that we have millions more people who are uninsured than when George Bush became…

JONATHAN TASINI Tasini is executive director of the Labor Research Association and editor of the blog “Working Life.” He just wrote the pieces “Biden and Bankruptcy” and “Is Joe Biden Good For Labor? Mostly, Yes.” DANNY SCHECHTER Director of the new film “In Debt We Trust” and author of the new book Plunder, Schechter said…

STEPHEN ZUNES Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus, Zunes will be in Denver for the first few days of the Democratic Convention. His recent pieces include “Obama’s Right Turn?” He said today: “One of Obama’s strongest distinctions from McCain was his wisdom and courage…