St. Paul Mayor Expresses RNC Regret

McCain Expected to Be A War Hero Tonight

I kid. I'm sure we'll get more of that. But McCain also expects to say other stuff and apparently, he has some sort of vision. I wonder if they'll get some class tonight:

CNN: McCain is set to speak during the 10 p.m. ET hour and will lay out his vision for America.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, will all have significant roles in the lead-up to McCain's speech.

Graham is one of McCain's closest friends in the Senate, while Ridge was said to have been on the Arizona senator's shortlist of vice presidential prospects.

According to prepared remarks, Ridge will discuss McCain's "unique qualifications for the presidency."

"I speak to you about a warrior who has sometimes stood alone ... and always shown the way ... in fighting for the most vulnerable of our citizens, for the country he so dearly loves and for the founding principles we all so deeply cherish," he is expected to say.

In the meantime, here are some media myths about McCain.
Also heard at the convention today, McCain may not free Ms. Mooseburger for interviews. She may just do town halls. No Meet the Press, no TV news shows, no scrutiny.

Upside of the Pit Bull in Lipstick

Here's one upside, the haters finally found love, someone who gets their drilling juices flowing, someone to wrap their arms around -- Ms. Mooseburger, who shoots game from a helicopter and loves a moose stew.

Now that they have a direct object of their affection, and they don't have to be jealous of Obama anymore, they may lay off the petty stuff -- Obama is an secret Muslim terrorist (although I think Rudy was alluding to that last night), Obama's plane is missing a flag (not true), Obama is not patriotic, Obama doesn't sing during the national anthem, Obama wasn't born in the U.S., and the rest of it.

Now, the haters have one of their own to love. Kisses.

Palin's gem of a daughter, Piper, who for me, stole the show with her spit comb, is now campaigning on a video at McCain's daughter's blog.

Here's that spit comb. 

Republicans Learn McCain is a War Hero

Observations of the republican convention:

They sure do savor war.

Why is Joe Lieberman still posing as a democrat?

Younger people have no idea of John McCain's "maverick" history. All they see is an old guy that everyone says is a maverick and it's just. not. clicking.

They have amped up Sarah Palin as high as someone can be amped. She's like the saving grace. She has to be.

Lieberman, the should've been veep, dismissed Obama as an "eloquent" young man. But I suppose that's what conventions are about --slamming the other guy. I'd prefer Obama's experience, cool head, intelligence and leadership over McCain's experience any day. A leader he is not. 

Laura Bush used the phrase: "change we can really believe in" when referring to her hubby. I cackled.

These people really cheered Bush. I don't know what's with all these pundits saying that the republicans don't like Bush. They clearly did.

So far, I haven't heard anything other than Sarah Palin is Golden and John McCain is a war hero. It looks like the republican strategy is to sell personality. McCain's guy, Rick Davis, said earlier that they believe Americans will vote on personality, not issues, which proves how severely out of touch they are.

Palin will woo the people who wouldn't have voted for a democrat anyway --and the PUMAs, those ladies (and a few men) who find the slogan NoBama appealing. 

Palin is against choice, for banning library books, for creationism in the classroom, for abstinence education, against polar bears, against science (she doesn't believe in global warming) for drill here drill now even in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She's a fringe conservative as far as I can tell. But she loves a mooseburger. 

Sign in Wasilla 

Bush Says McCain Ready to Lead

Uh oh. 

Republicans Debate Palin

Republicans Pushing Obama Supports Killing Live Babies

Thanks to Sarah Palin, the issue of abortion is front and center, and despicable wingnut republicans at the convention are saying Obama supports killing live babies. It's not true. It feels silly to have to write that. Here's the truth.

Brody: Real quick, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. I gotta tell you that's the one thing I get a lot of emails about and it's just not just from Evangelicals, it about Catholics, Protestants, main -- they're trying to understand it because there was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee. And they're basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill.

Obama: Let me clarify this right now.

Brody: Because it's getting a lot of play.

Obama: Well and because they have not been telling the truth. And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported - which was to say --that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born - even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level. What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe vs. Wade. By the way, we also had a bill, a law already in place in Illinois that insured life saving treatment was given to infants.

So for people to suggest that I and the Illinois medical society, so Illinois doctors were somehow in favor of withholding life saving support from an infant born alive is ridiculous. It defies commonsense and it defies imagination and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive and it's an example of the kind of politics that we have to get beyond. It's one thing for people to disagree with me about the issue of choice, it's another thing for people to out and out misrepresent my positions repeatedly, even after they know that they're wrong. And that's what's been happening.

More here. 

Right to lifers are attempting to undermine Roe V. Wade and using extreme tactics. They do this because they know many of their supporters are ignorant and easily exploited. This comes from Factcheck.org:

Obama's critics are free to speculate on his motives for voting against the bills, and postulate a lack of concern for babies' welfare. But his stated reasons for opposing "born-alive" bills have to do with preserving abortion rights, a position he is known to support and has never hidden.

Here's background:

Anti-abortion activists accuse Obama of "supporting infanticide," and the National Right to Life Committee says he's conducted a "four-year effort to cover up his full role in killing legislation to protect born-alive survivors of abortions." Obama says they're "lying."

At issue is Obama's opposition to Illinois legislation in 2001, 2002 and 2003 that would have defined any aborted fetus that showed signs of life as a "born alive infant" entitled to legal protection, even if doctors believe it could not survive.

Obama opposed the 2001 and 2002 "born alive" bills as backdoor attacks on a woman's legal right to abortion, but he says he would have been "fully in support" of a similar federal bill that President Bush had signed in 2002, because it contained protections for Roe v. Wade.

We find that, as the NRLC said in a recent statement, Obama voted in committee against the 2003 state bill that was nearly identical to the federal act he says he would have supported. Both contained identical clauses saying that nothing in the bills could be construed to affect legal rights of an unborn fetus, according to an undisputed summary written immediately after the committee's 2003 mark-up session.

Whether opposing "born alive" legislation is the same as supporting "infanticide," however, is entirely a matter of interpretation. That could be true only for those, such as Obama's 2004 Republican opponent, Alan Keyes, who believe a fetus that doctors give no chance of surviving is an "infant." It is worth noting that Illinois law already provided that physicians must protect the life of a fetus when there is "a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the fetus outside the womb, with or without artificial support."

Cheney to Speak at Republican Convention

Ewwwww. 

Thousands to Protest at Republican Convention

Minnesota Latinos for Obama

The republicans picked Minnesota to hold their convention, thinking that it's a toss-up state. 

Tim Pawlenty may be governor and he may be McCain's vice president, but Minnesotans are progressive as a whole and no way will Minnesota vote for McCain. No way. 

CNN: 

Tens of thousands -- from anarchists and immigrants to advocates for the poor -- plan to use the streets outside the Xcel Center as a national podium, transforming downtown St. Paul into a marketplace of ideas.

"There are some groups that are going to be here just because this is a big stage," said Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. "But I think the majority of groups are here because they really want to demonstrate to the delegates that they want to see some sort of changes in the party platform."

Protesters and police expect the opening day of next month's four-day convention to be the biggest -- with a huge anti-war march.