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.