Turn on the Republican convention right now! Bush Sr.'s on!

He's a remarkable man married to a remarkable woman in a remarkable marriage. That's all I have to remark on.

Of all the speeches, I liked Clinton's the best. ;-)

Well, Obama was pretty damn good, too.

Anyway, I watched as much as I could, too.

Hee hee panzade...

Clinton's was second. He too is a great speaker.

September 3, 2004 -- THE world will little note nor long remem ber George W. Bush's speech last night. It wasn't his finest hour by a long shot, though it did feature a remarkably moving account of the sacrifices of the families of veterans who have fought for freedom since 9/11.

"I am awed," he said, "that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers ?- to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride? It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good. Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost. And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong."

And he provided a stunning grace note to end the convention with his tribute to this city's spiritual triumph after the terrorist attacks. "For as long as our country stands," he said, "people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose."

For the most part, however, the speech was rhetorically flat.

But it was a political masterstroke nonetheless.

What Bush did, and at length, was to remind voters that there's been more to his presidency than the war.

The president took his time to remind American voters ?- women voters especially ?- of the so-called "compassionate conservative" agenda on matters ranging from education to health care that has been almost completely obscured by the War on Terror.

The compassionate-conservative agenda is his big-spender agenda, and since he's been spending the dough, he might as well get some credit for it. So he took the credit.

He took credit for advances in the American educational system since he signed No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002. He took credit as well for the new prescription-drug benefit, which goes into effect over the next few years.

These are both pieces of legislation that rankle many small-government conservatives, so he took pains to advance other aspects of his agenda more pleasing to them ?- proposals for new types of Social Security and health savings accounts and the overhauling of the income-tax code.

He spoke as well to the social conservatives. They heard him promise to "make a place for the unborn child." More pointedly, he spoke twice against gay marriage ?- first by saying he supported the "protection of marriage against activist judges" and then by criticizing John Kerry for voting against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Bush attempted in the first half of the speech to reconstitute his domestic-policy coalition from the 2000 election ?- appealing simultaneously to soccer moms and the fan base for "The Passion of the Christ."

And by offering very specific proposals (including a plan to build 7 million new homes for less well-to-do Americans), Bush sought to draw a bright-line distinction between himself and John Kerry, whose own convention speech was remarkably free of specifics.

Bush's jabs at Kerry were delicate and good-humored. "There are some things my opponent is for," he said. "He's proposed more than $2 trillion in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts. To pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes ?- and that's the kind of promise a politician usually keeps."

But there was one scalpel thrust, when he quoted Kerry calling our allies in Iraq "a coalition of the coerced and bribed." Such allies, said Bush, naming some, "deserve the respect of all Americans, not the scorn of a politician."

Still, the president didn't go for Kerry's jugular by any means. Yet, only an hour after Bush finished, there was John Kerry live at a midnight rally in Ohio, going for the throats of Bush and Cheney himself.

In a speech angrier than Zell Miller's, Kerry raged: "The vice president even called me unfit for office last night. I guess I'll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of combat duty."

Several problems here. First, Cheney said no such thing. Second, Kerry sounds rattled, and that's just not a very attractive quality in a presidential candidate or a president.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long couple of months for John Kerry

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I was travelling and missed all of the dem convention.

This convention, however, was frightening.

We know from Schafley's recent statement that the entire procedure was tightly scripted "down to each comma". And that was evident - it WAS an infomercial, designed for a citizenship who have been trained to believe that Authority (one very particular sort of Authority only) is both benevolent and honest. And that it is the ONLY safeguard against chaos and evil. And that attending to any other view or thought is to put oneself immediately into the grasp of chaos and evil.

And running through it all was a vicious and vengeful hatred. Not of Kerry, he was just a handy and temporarily necessary representation. Krugman perceives the actual target...
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This is all so very familiar.

Pure and unadulterated crap.

Finn's back!

You betcha!

Texas. Sky, dirt, crawfish, girls in stars and stripes panties, albino guitar players, and a factory outside of Lubbock that makes standard-sized hats...they just look really big on a Texan's head.

If only I could think of a witty riposte Blatham. But Vancouver, well B.C. is so....normal.

Well, we do have a local program and facility which provides medical staff, councillors (if requested) and clean needles for intravenous drug users. There's also a storefront operation a couple of miles away which sells marijuana...you just order from a diverse menu.

I really like normal.

Whatever happened to the safe-zone for streetwalkers? Was that ever approved by the city council?

That is how the conservatives want things, isn't it? I always laugh when I hear some of them longing for the way it was in the 50's. I bet Zell Miller would like it to be like the 50's again, with everybody, who's just like Zell Miller, happy and content.

No black people, no rock and roll, none of that nonsense about a nation of equals, everything and everybody in their place.

Ah. Sweet white music coming from the radio and a church calender hanging on the kitchen wall in every house in the neighborhood.

Poor things, they keep waking up in America instead of pre-war Germany.

Hey, look! It's Arnold!

That sure is a neat way to brush aside a thought out piece without having to come up anything on your own beside a one liner that has no substance. But then that is pretty well your party's signature these days.

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If it not your party, the point is still valid.

I don't think I have claimed to opened minded. My mind is made up and has been since Bush took over the office of President. If I watched it I would have only upset myself by having to listen to so many views and reupublicans spins that I disagree with.

From what I have since the close of the republican convention, Bush has said all the things I expected him to say. There was absolutely no way I was going to give arnold the time of day after that whole recall was a crying disgrace of democracy from the word go. The people in California voted to keep their governor knowing that the state was in the shape it was in and then after a bunch of sleezy republicans decided to run a "recall" they all the sudden get up all het to change their minds even though the state of their state was the same as when they voted at the normal election time. It made no sense at all. As for zell miller; I consider him an opportunitst "flip flopping" turn coat so I sure wasn't going to listen to him. Not long ago he was for Kerry, so tell me what changed? Maybe he got some kind of out of the public's eye reassurance that the republicans would run a competitive race in his reelection or something; I don't know but it don't matter. As for Mr. Cheney, there is no need to elebrate, he stinks from the inside out.

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Yes, revel, I agree that watching would have been a waste of time.

As I have said before, I voted for Bush in '00. He ran as a moderate, as a uniter not a divider, as someone not interested in nation building, etc. HIS RECORD shows otherwise, and it is his record that I am using to judge him.

I personally feel the unilateral pre-emptive invasion of Iraq was pre-911 devised, unjustified, ill-planned, and has made America less safe from the real terrorist threat initially by diverting attention and forces from Afghanistan and subsequently by alienating us from our allies and feeding the terrorist ranks with new recruits. We need to work with the rest of the world, overtly and covertly, to be truly safe, and Bush has made that impossible by generating such (justified) contempt and disdain. I truly believe we are less safe than we were 4 years ago, and we will be suffering the consequences of Bush's arrogant rash foreign policy for years if not decades to come.

Bush's domestic policy has been equally failed, IMO. His tax cuts never trickled anywhere, his education and environmental policies have been destructive, his court appointees reflect IMO un-American values, and, perhaps most disturbing to most moderate Americans, his alliance with extreme right wing religious fundamentalists has divided America deeply and generated social warfare unlike anything I have seen for decades. Americans have differences, racial, cultural, religious, etc., but to use those differences to divide us is unconscionable. We all want the same thing as Americans: equality and a shot at happiness. And we deserve those rights even if we do not all read the same bible.


Both conventions were "shows", more for the party faithful than anything else. I loved Kerry's speech; I am sure Bush people loved his speech. The election will be decided in key swing states, and that is primarily where the rest of the campaign battles will be fought.


As I said, I an neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I am an American, and as such, I truly believe Bush's arrogant, extremist, exclusive, divisive policies are taking my country in a very un-American direction. I hope, now that the shows are over, Americans will take a hard look at this (IMO) limited, dangerous man.

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If I owned Hell and Houston, I'd rent out Houston and live in Hell---Anon.