This evening’s convention speakers were interesting to say the least. As I sat down to watch the convention coverage tonight I looked forward to Laura’s speech, but I did not expect nearly as much excitement as last night.

I will start my recap of tonight’s speeches with Senator Elizabeth Dole. She opened with traditional “Republican” strength:

We live in a time of stark contrasts. Four years ago America was about to tumble into recession. Today our economy is recovering. Four years ago, 911 was just an emergency phone number. Today, it is a call to arms. For Republicans, through these changes and challenges, who we are and what we believe has never wavered.

but then, I feel, by sticking to those strengths, she became redundant. Maybe it was her purpose at the convention, but the “blank isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend” got very, very old… Very, very, quickly.

Marriage is important not because it is a convenient invention or the latest reality show — marriage is important because it is the cornerstone of civilization, and the foundation of the family. Marriage between a man and a woman isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

We value the sacred life of every man, woman, and child. We believe in a culture that respects all human life - including the most vulnerable in our society, the frail elderly, the infirm, and those not yet born. Protecting life isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

…

Two thousand years ago a man said, “… I have come to give life and to give it in full.” In America I have the freedom to call that man Lord, and I do. In the United States of America we are free to worship without discrimination, without intervention and even without activist judges trying to strip the name of God from the Pledge of Allegiance; from the money in our pockets; and from the walls of our courthouses. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The right to worship God isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

Her speech was just a little bit too ultra-boring for me, but then again, I have never really been too much of an EDole fan, so I will end my recap of her speech with the following:

Boring speeches are not something Republicans invented, and they damn well better not defend them.

The next speaker I am going to highlight tonight is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and let me say, he did an awesome job.

My fellow Americans, this is an amazing moment for me. To think that a once-scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become Governor of California and stand in Madison Square Garden to speak on behalf of the President of the United States that is an immigrant’s dream. It is the American dream.

I was born in Europe … and I’ve traveled all over the world. I can tell you that there is no place, no country, more compassionate, more generous, more accepting, and more welcoming than the United States of America.

Those two paragraphs will mean more to any immigrants listening than anything else Arnold had to say this evening. Then he covered those people who might have a disagreement or two with the Republican agenda,

Now, many of you out there tonight are “Republican” like me in your hearts and in your beliefs. Maybe you’re from Guatemala. Maybe you’re from the Philippines. Maybe Europe or the Ivory Coast. Maybe you live in Ohio, Pennsylvania or New Mexico. And maybe — just maybe — you don’t agree with this party on every single issue. I say to you tonight I believe that’s not only okay — that’s what’s great about this country. Here we can respectfully disagree and still be patriotic — still be American — and still be good Republicans.

Arnold made several good points throughout his speech but I think he made some of his best points in the following excerpts.

There is another way you can tell you’re a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people …and faith in the U.S. economy. To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don’t be economic girlie men!

…

The President didn’t go into Iraq because the polls told him it was popular. As a matter of fact, the polls said just the opposite. But leadership isn’t about polls. It’s about making decisions you think are right and then standing behind those decisions. That’s why America is safer with George W. Bush as President.

He knows you don’t reason with terrorists. You defeat them. He knows you can’t reason with people blinded by hate. They hate the power of the individual. They hate the progress of women. They hate the religious freedom of others. They hate the liberating breeze of democracy. But, ladies and gentlemen, their hate is no match for America’s decency.

We’re the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children.

We’re the America that sends out missionaries and doctors to raise up the poor and the sick. We’re the America that gives more than any other country, to fight aids in Africa and the developing world. And we’re the America that fights not for imperialism but for human rights and democracy.

Then he closed by pumping up the crowd to a near frenzy.

Ladies and gentlemen, America is back! — back from the attack on our homeland — back from the attack on our economy — back from the attack on our way of life. We’re back because of the perseverance, character and leadership of the 43rd President of the United States — George W. Bush.

Next up were the Bush Twins. I must admit, I expected nothing more than Political Fluff™ and I was not disappointed. In fact, yes, I think I was disappointed. The Bush twins are recent graduates of Yale and the University of Texas, and I must say that their “speech” was one of the most unexpected items from either of the political conventions, and definitely not something I would expect from recent college graduates. Then again, maybe times have changed, and I have no idea how college graduates act these days.

They tried to be funny, and after reading the transcript (I could not bear to hear it again) I am still left wondering who they were trying to speak too, let alone joke with. Maybe they were aiming at the younger demographic and I just do not understand, and who knows, maybe they even hit their mark. I for one, thought they came out very juvenile, yet down to earth, and very, very, much like many of the young people of today. Maybe that was their plan?

The evening was capped with the speech from Laura Bush.

I am so proud of the way George has led our country with strength and conviction. Tonight, I want to try to answer the question that I believe many people would ask me if we sat down for a cup of coffee or ran into each other at the store: You know him better than anyone - you’ve seen things no one else has seen - why do you think we should re-elect your husband as President.

As you might imagine, I have a lot to say about that.

I could talk about my passion, education. At every school we visit, the students are so eager. Last fall the President and I walked into an elementary school in Hawaii, and a little 2nd-grader came out to welcome us and bellowed, “George Washington!” Close, just the wrong George W.”

When my husband took office, too many schools were leaving too many children behind, so he worked with Congress to pass sweeping education reform. The No Child Left Behind Act provides historic levels of funding with an unprecedented commitment to higher standards, strong accountability and proven methods of instruction. We are determined to provide a quality education for every child in America.

I could talk about the small business owners and entrepreneurs who are now creating most of the new jobs in our country… women like Carmella Chaifos - the only woman to own a tow truck company in all of Iowa. The President’s tax relief helped Carmella to buy the business, and modernize her fleet, and expand her operations. Carmela is living proof of what she told me. She said: “If you’re determined and you want to work hard, you can do anything you want to. That’s the beautiful thing about America.”

I could talk about health care. For years, leaders in both parties said we should provide prescription drug coverage in Medicare. George was able to bring Republicans and Democrats together to get it done.

I could talk about the fact that my husband is the first President to provide federal funding for stem cell research. - He did so in a principled way, allowing science to explore its potential while respecting the dignity of human life.

I could talk about the record increase in home ownership. Home ownership in America, especially minority home ownership is at an all time high.

All of these issues are important. But we are living in the midst of the most historic struggle my generation has ever known. The stakes are so high. So I want to talk about the issue that I believe is most important for my own daughters, for all our families, and for our future: George’s work to protect our country and defeat terror so that all children can grow up in a more peaceful world.

I for one, thought Laura did an outstanding job. Her speech was not over the top, nor was it too weak. I think her words came from her heart. Laura Bush is an amazing person, an elegant First Lady, and a wonderful human being. Heck, without her, I highly doubt George W. Bush would have been elected President in the first place.

Good Night all.

Fred L. Whipple, a pioneer in astronomy who proposed the “dirty snowball” theory for the substance of comets, has died. He was 97.

Whipple died Monday at a Cambridge hospital, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said Tuesday.

Whipple proposed the theory in 1950, saying that comets consisted of ice with some rock mixed in, rather than sand held together by gravity, as was widely believed. Whipple’s theory was an attempt to explain why some comets seemed to arrive at destinations earlier or later than predicted.

Whipple believed that as a comet approached the sun, its light vaporized ice in the comet’s nucleus. The jets of particles that resulted acted like a rocket engine that either slowed or accelerated the comet.

He also theorized that the glowing comet tails contained particles that originated from frozen reservoirs in comet nuclei.

Whipple’s theories were proven correct in 1986 by close-up photographs of Haley’s comet by the European Space Agency’s Giotto spacecraft.

Rest In Peace, Fred.

France intensified diplomatic efforts yesterday to save the lives of two journalists seized by kidnappers in Iraq, but reacted with extreme caution to a report that they were on the point of being freed.

Hopes for the release of Georges Malbrunot, 41, and Christian Chesnot, 37, rose as the deadline set by the Islamic Army in Iraq and extended by 24 hours, neared expiry last night. However, Iraq’s leading organisation of Sunni Muslims confessed to fears that the men would be executed.

The report that the journalists would be freed “imminently” was broadcast by the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite channel. The League for the Defence of Iraqi People’s Rights previously claimed to have received an assurance that the men would be spared because of France’s “honourable” anti-war position.

They are intensifying diplomatic efforts? They are trying diplomatic efforts with terrorists? Terrorists are anything but diplomatic. It sounds more to me like they are holding “secret talks” to see what material objects they can trade for the lives of these two men. That’s about as honourable as the French get, and we all know it.

President Jacques Chirac’s government is adamant that there can be no question of withdrawing the law, but extraordinary diplomatic activity, some of it acknowledged by France to be taking place “in secret”, has followed confirmation that the men are hostages.

They needed confirmation that the men were hostages? The journalists were seized by kidnappers, what did they think? Did they really think they were all gathering in Najaf for a some whine and cheese?

Young Han tried to register to vote in the New York town where he attends college but got a letter telling him to cast an absentee ballot where his parents live, more than 2,000 miles away. In Virginia, Luther Lowe and Serene Alami were told much the same — their campus addresses at the College of William and Mary were deemed “temporary.”

With so much emphasis on getting young people to the polls this election, the issue of where college students can register to vote is getting more attention. And some students — who believe they should have the right to vote where they live most of the year — are getting organized.

“We plan to push this issue,” says Han, a 21-year old junior at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, who’s originally from a Seattle suburb. “Students are being disenfranchised.”

On a national level, like voting in the presidential election, it should not matter where the student is located within the United States, but why on earth would citizens of any community want to allow local college students to influence their local elections?

For the first year of college I attended Univerity Of Hawaii at Hilo. Should the many non-resident students attending college there be allowed to decide the election for sheriff or state representative? If so, why? Non-residents are exactly that, NOT RESIDENTS. Why should they be allowed to decide issues important to the local residents when most if not all of the non-resident students will be heading home, or off to greener pastures, once their education is complete?

Ultimately, O’Loughlin and fellow researchers have found that students who attend college in states that force or “encourage” them to vote absentee are less likely to vote.

This alone is no reason to allow non-resident students the opportunity to decide issues that will effect the community for many years to come. Get a grip people. Students are not being disenfranchised. They are being lazy. They can make their vote count as much as everyone else if they take the time to vote absentee. They are foolish if they think they are being disenfranchised.

A militant Iraqi group said it had killed 12 Nepali hostages and showed pictures of one being beheaded and others being shot dead, the worst mass killing of captives since a wave of kidnappings erupted in April.

The announcement of the killings, made in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site on Tuesday, came as France intensified its efforts to save two French reporters held hostage by a separate group as a deadline set by their captors neared.

The Nepalis were kidnapped earlier this month when they entered Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners for a Jordanian firm.

The killing of men from a tiny country that has had nothing to do with the invasion or occupation of Iraq will send shockwaves through foreign companies doing business here.

“We have carried out the sentence of God against 12 Nepalis who came from their country to fight the Muslims and to serve the Jews and the Christians…believing in Buddha as their God,” said the statement by the military committee of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna.

They were not killed for supporting the United States, they were not killed for assisting in the rebuilding of the new Iraq. They were killed because the members of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna are cowards. It’s as simple as that.

Tonight was the opening night of the Republican National Convention, and I must say, it was a great night for Republicans. I watch the conventions because I am a news junkie, not because anything they say will sway my vote, as my mind was made up a long time ago. I watched the Democratic convention for the same reason, I am a news junkie. I hate not knowing what is being said, and done. I know, it’s a sickness. Do I need help? Nah. I balance myself with plenty of the Boomerang channel playing in the background as well.

I think John McCain, like John Kerry, served his country honorably in the Vietnam war, but unlike John Kerry, he remained an honorable, decent, respectable person, and his words tonight only helped to show the contrast between those who were honorable AFTER the war and those who were not. He started his speech by reminding us of the harsh reality of the war on terror.

The awful events of September 11, 2001 declared a war we were vaguely aware of, but hadn’t really comprehended how near the threat was, and how terrible were the plans of our enemies. It’s a big thing, this war.

It’s a fight between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable religion by disputing God’s love for every soul on earth. It’s a fight between right and wrong, good and evil.

One line I am sure will be passed over in most recaps of his speech will be this one:

And, as we’ve been a good friend to other countries in moments of shared perils, so we have good reason to expect their solidarity with us in this struggle.

Only now, with recent events, like the train bombings in Madrid and the two downed airliners in Russia, are other countries even beginning to realize the effects of terrorism in the world. It’s good that McCain mentioned that we have good reason to expect solidarity from other countries. We do.

The years of keeping Saddam in a box were coming to a close. The international consensus that he be kept isolated and unarmed had eroded to the point that many critics of military action had decided the time had come again to do business with Saddam, despite his near daily attacks on our pilots, and his refusal, until his last day in power, to allow the unrestricted inspection of his arsenal. Our choice wasn’t between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war.

It was between war and a graver threat. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents.

And certainly not a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls.

John Kerry’s hopes of being known, for the time being anyway, as a “war candidate” were dashed with the first major speech of the convention. John McCain made it all too clear who the real war candidate is, and he made sure we all knew those who make the ultimate sacrifice.

I said earlier that the sacrifices in this war will not be shared equally by all Americans. The President is the first to observe, most of the sacrifices fall, as they have before, to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. We may be good citizens, but make no mistake, they are the very best of us.

It’s an honor to live in a country that is so well and so bravely defended by such patriots. May God bless them, the living and the fallen, as He has blessed us with their service.

For their families, for their friends, for America, for mankind they sacrifice to affirm that right makes might; that good triumphs over evil; that freedom is stronger than tyranny; that love is greater than hate.

It is left to us to keep their generous benefaction alive, and our blessed, beautiful country worthy of their courage.

We should be thankful — for the privilege.

Imagine that. A former POW Vietnam veteran speaking highly of those in the Armed Forces and not once did he compare them to Ghengis Khan. Not once did he denounce ANY of our veterans, nor did he denounce ANY of those currently serving. He praised them all. As it should be.

Rudy Giuliani closed out the night with one of the most intriguing (and quite entertaining) speeches I have heard in a long while.

Terrorism did not start on September 11, 2001. It had been festering for many years. And the world had created a response to it that allowed it to succeed. The attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics was in 1972. And the pattern had already begun. The three surviving terrorists were arrested and within two months released by the German government.

Action like this became the rule, not the exception. Terrorists came to learn they could attack and often not face consequences.

In 1985, terrorists attacked the Achille Lauro and murdered an American citizen who was in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer. They marked him for murder solely because he was Jewish. Some of those terrorist were released and some of the remaining terrorists allowed to escape by the Italian government because of fear of reprisals.

So terrorists learned they could intimidate the world community and too often the response, particularly in Europe, was “accommodation, appeasement and compromise.”

And worse the terrorists also learned that their cause would be taken more seriously, almost in direct proportion to the barbarity of the attack. Terrorist acts became a ticket to the international bargaining table. How else to explain Yasser Arafat winning the Nobel Peace Prize when he was supporting a terrorist plague in the Middle East that undermined any chance of peace?

After the brief history lesson, Giuliani went on to praise the leadership of President Bush.

And since September 11th President Bush has remained rock solid. It doesn’t matter how he is demonized. It doesn’t matter what the media does to ridicule him or misinterpret him or defeat him. They ridiculed Winston Churchill. They belittled Ronald Reagan. But like President Bush, they were optimists; leaders must be optimists.

Their vision was beyond the present and set on a future of real peace and true freedom. Some call it stubbornness. I call it principled leadership. President Bush has the courage of his convictions.

The highlight of the evening, however, came when he was speaking about John Kerry and his flip-flops.

He even, at one point, declared himself an anti-war candidate. Now, he says he’s pro-war. At this rate, with 64 days left, he still has time to change his position at least three or four more times.

Then he summed it all up and called it a night.

President Bush is the leader we need for the next four years because he sees beyond today and tomorrow. He has a vision of a peaceful Middle East and, therefore, a safer world. We will see an end to global terrorism. I can see it. I believe it. I know it will happen. It may seem a long way off. It may even seem idealistic. But it may not be as far away and idealistic as it seems.

Look how quickly the Berlin Wall was torn down, the Iron Curtain ripped open and the Soviet Union disintegrated because of the power of the pent-up demand for freedom. When it catches hold there is nothing more powerful than freedom. Give it some hope, and it will overwhelm dictators, and even defeat terrorists.

If the rest of the speakers at this years Republican National Convention speak half as eloquently as John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, then this will be a great week for the Republicans.

Former Mayor Bill Campbell was indicted on charges of racketeering, bribery and wire fraud following a five-year federal investigation into City Hall corruption, officials announced Monday.

Campbell, who was mayor from 1994 to 2002, was accused of taking cash payments in exchange for city contracts and accepting illegal campaign contributions.

I think those of us who live in the Atlanta Metro area have been expecting this for quite some time. I am not saying he is guilty or not, just that the charges are not unexpected.

I am about an hour or so late on this post, but I am posting it anyway.

Holocaust survivors and their families gathered at one of Europe’s largest Jewish cemeteries Sunday to remember more than 200,000 Jews from this city killed by the Nazis, a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the last transports from the Lodz ghetto to Hitler’s death camps.

On the edge of the 19th-century cemetery, some 1,500 people stood in silent tribute as a Jewish cantor and a choir chanted Hebrew prayers in honor of those taken in railway cattle cars to Auschwitz and other camps.

Survivor Eljezer Zyskind remembered the horror as the ghetto’s residents were rounded up and taken away.

“I can still hear the cries of little children torn from their mothers, crying, ‘Mama, mama!’” Zyskind said, his voice quavering with emotion.

The greatest thing we can do, in our generation, is remember. Remember the Holocaust, remember the horrific pictures, remember every event of every day. Let this information burn into our souls. Then, and only then will we truly be able to avoid something like this from ever happening again in the future.

A California man who once tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS has learned the diagnosis made eight years ago was mistaken and he was never infected.

Jim Malone spent years battling depression and losing weight, expecting to die at any time. He attended support group meetings and accepted free meals from an AIDS charity.

…

The clinic performed its own HIV test on Malone to confirm the first set of results and it came back negative, but that information was never shared with the patient, Pridmore said.

The mistake was uncovered by the VA’s computer system, which tracks HIV patients and conducts a periodic review of cases.

Umm… Ignoring the fact that this man’s life has been a living hell for the past eight years and he is probably sick from all the needless medications he was taking every day. They claim to make a periodic review of cases? A time span of eight years is “periodic” when tracking the cases of HIV patients? I highly doubt the validity of that claim as much as I doubt the competency of his doctors (both inside and outside the VA).

From Drudge:

MTV, ROLLING STONE and the rock and roll establishment — past and present — have cast their vote, and their man is John Kerry.

So on Sunday night when John Kerry’s daughters were announced to speak at the annual MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, the MTV youth were expected to welcome his daughter’s as pop culture princesses.

Instead, in an era of the unexpected, the daughters of the Democratic candidate were met with a resounding wall of boos at the filming in Miami.

Maybe, just maybe, the MTV youth was unhappy that ANY political comment was being made during the awards show. Maybe, this time, it had absolutely nothing to do with the people speaking, and everything to do with the fact it was not the proper place or time to pimp the vote.