Top Ten “That’s What She Said” Moments From Star Wars

Whew… needed a break from political blogging.

Associated Press Low-Balls Attendance For McCain/Palin Event

Interesting choice of words by the Associated Press.

More than a thousand people jammed the streets to see McCain and the Alaska governor…

“More than a thousand?” People going in had to register, so there is a hard count of the people who were inside. 12,500.  It’s anyone’s guess at how many were outside and couldn’t get in.  Why would the AP so blatantly low-ball the number?

Obama Resorts to Lies About Republican Convention

This is the beginning of an Obama fund raising letter:

Owen --

John McCain and the Republicans had all week to make their case—and they didn’t do it.

The whole Republican convention went by without offering a single idea about how to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.

Along with that, Obama keeps saying that nobody at the GOP convention spoke about the economy.

That’s an outright lie and there’s plenty of recordings to prove it.  The Republicans talked about lowering taxes, policies to make us energy independent, regulatory reform, and on and on and on as ways to improve the economy.  I know that Obama disagrees with the Republicans on these issues, but to say that they didn’t talk about it is a flat out lie.

Video of Protesters During McCain’s Convention Speech

Scott Walker at the GOP Convention

J. B. Van Hollen at the GOP Convention

Sorry about the crappy lighting. 

McCain, Palin, and Me

This morning we decided to ditch school and see the next president of the United States.  Well, actually, I gave our two older daughters the opportunity to do their schoolwork ahead of time so they could have an excused absence to witness history.  The older daughter agreed, but Daughter #2 was dissecting flowers in science today and did NOT want to miss it because she was dissecting the roses Owen gave me for our anniversary last week.  My mom also made the trip, so there were three of us.

As soon as the kids got on the bus this morning, Mom, Daughter #1, and I got in the car and made the half hour trek to Cedarburg.  We found what we thought was a great parking place, parked and got out.  A lady came trotting toward us and told us we had to pay $10 to park there.  There were free spots on the street, but we paid the stupid $10 because we really just wanted to get in line.  Capitalism at work, I guess.

The line was already pretty long when we got there at 8:00, and we got to know the people around us quite well while we waited two hours to get going.  They didn’t let people in at 8:00 like they said they would.  From what I understand, after about half an hour, the line extended 7-8 blocks behind us.  Later, I heard that the line extended nearly a mile.  I’m not sure, though.  There were two lines entering at two different streets, and there were a LOT of people.  While we were waiting, we saw some protesters, whose song and dance (really, there was music) did little to change the minds of the people waiting in line.  One McCain supporter shouted, “Get a job!” and the protester lifted his McCain mask off his face and said, “Believe it or not, I get paid for this.” Nice.  I’m sure his mom is proud.  Another McCain supporter began shouting “Obama sucks!” over and over.  At that point, I turned to my daughter to explain to her that neither person did anything to advance his cause by yelling stupid stuff.  Their energy could be better spent in productive ways of getting their points across.  Jim Burkee’s family also came by handing out stuff and talking to the crowd, which was indeed a much more productive way to try to change things, even if I like things the way they are.

We finally got in right at 10:00.  I say “in,” but really we were out because there was no in, we were out.  At one point, Representative Pridemore was standing in front of me.  Representative Mark Gottlieb seemed to be the MC, and the mayor of Cedarburg, Jim Sensenbrenner, and JB Van Hollen all spoke.  Bonus points to JB for being upright, since I know Owen saw him in Minneapolis last night.  I’d post pictures of them, but I think we’ve seen them enough to know what they look like, no?  Someone from Concordia did the invocation, and he said he was going to present Governor Palin with a Concordia hockey jersey (do they call them jerseys?  Sweaters?  Whatever), which read “Palin” on the back with the number 2.  He also talked about a colleague whose father wanted him to give his Medal of Honor to John McCain.  This really touched people, who murmured among themselves how special that was.  Then we waited something like 20 minutes with nothing but music playing until the bus arrived.

This was all very much like the Bush visit awhile back, blue bus and all.  The candidates came out of the bus, kissed hands and shook babies and got on stage.  It appeared to me that there were a lot more handmade Palin signs than McCain signs.  One of them seemed to have a manifesto on it, however, upon closer inspection it read, “Gloria Steinem says, ‘Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton.’ Wisconsin says: ‘Thank God!’”

Governor Palin spoke first and disappointingly just paraphrased, and often just simply quoted, her convention speech.  That would be fine if we hadn’t just watched the same lines from the comfort of our own living room couches just two days ago.  Then McCain spoke, and he was really in his element.  This is really where he shines.  He was behind a podium, but it was like he had a list of things in his head he wanted to tell us, and he used his own words to get it done.  Sure, some were talking points, but it was so much more natural and funny than his speech last night.  If he could have given that type of speech last night, it would have been great.  Americans would have seen a different John McCain from the forced, nervous presentation he gave then.  Cindy McCain stood by the whole time, and I felt badly for her that she was wearing her cast again.  I had noticed last night on TV that she was shaking hands with her left hand, but there was no denying the hot pink cast she wore today.

And then it was done.  McCain and Palin shook a lot of hands on the way out, so many, in fact, that we left before they did.  We took some pictures in front of the “Straight Talk Express,” then we left.  Daugther #1 had to go back to school, and Mom and I had to eat lunch.  When we took Daughter #1 to school, we found someone there who had gone, but the line was too long so he left.  He heard that an estimated 30,000 people showed up, though it appears not everyone was able to make it in to hear the speeches.  It was fun, and I’m glad we went.  Except for the business that owns the parking lot, I’d be glad to stop in Cedarburg again sometime.  Maybe.

UPDATE:  Mary-Eileen was in Cedarburg today, too.  We might have been at the same parking lot.

Yes, I’m The Short One

Link.

Classy Feldstein

Cool.

I was really, really disappointed to see at least two protesters interrupting senator McCain in the Xcel Center. That’s simply not called for. They were hastily removed, thank goodness.

The rest… not so much.

Loyal Reader

Yes, I also found a good friend, loyal reader an blogger, Joey.

Convention Night

I’m back at the hotel.  I have some pretty cool video that I’ll get up when I have time.  Unfortunately, I have a real life ("unfortunately"!?!?) and I have a meeting at 0900 tomorrow 111.4 miles away from my hotel, so I’ll have much more tomorrow evening.  Couple of quick notes....

- McCain’s speech was.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… sorry, dozed off for a sec.  What was I saying?  Oh yeah… it was a good speech.  Good content.  Good delivery.  McCain just isn’t the barn-burner type of speaker and never has been, so it was about what I expected.  On the content, I thought it was good.  I squirmed in my seat a bit when he spoke about school choice because it isn’t a federal issue, but appreciated the sentiment. 

- I hooked up with Lance Burri.  No, literally “hooked up.” We didn’t use protection, so I think he’s going to have my baby.  These conventions are wild. 

- OK, just kidding on the last one.  We spent some chatting and discovered that we’re practically twins.  He got a picture of us, so I’m sure I’ll be called the “short one.” Smart guy.  Nice guy.  A true asset to Wisconsin. 

- I also met Mike Schramm from WisPolitics.  We’ve emailed for years now, but this was the first time we met in person.  Great guy. 

- We had some protesters that crashed McCain’s speech.  I don’t know how they got in.  I have video of it that I will get online eventually.  I thought it was pretty classless.  Why is it that lefty protesters are so afraid of free speech that they have to interrupt others?  Jerks. 

- OK, I need to get some sleep.  More tomorrow.  Oh.... so much more.... stay tuned!

Rain!

So our lawn is what the pros call “dormant,” or rather, that’s what the lawn guy says when he leaves nastygrams on the door because what’s the purpose of having him come if we’re not going to water the lawn and at least attempt to make it look at least a sage color if not a full blown green?

It’s been raining all day long.  So we can say that either God is crying tears of joy because of Palin’s speech or punishing us for Palin’s speech or we can avoid politics altogether (can we please?) and just say it’s nice to see the clouds after this gloriously well-weathered last few months.

Did you get a lot of rain today? 

McCain’s New Stage And Other Stuff

I’m back at the Xcel Center for the convention.  I had a bit tougher time getting parking this time.  The protesters were boring.  Bongo drums and chanting and the like.  I expect that they will get more entertaining when it gets dark, but I’ll be in here.  I’ll try to remember to head over to the windows in case I can catch some video. 

Speaking of video, here are a couple of short clips for you.  The first one is a shot of the main security entrance.  You can see the long line of metal detectors and such.  If you look at the reflection in the glass, you’ll also see my tummy.  The second one is of the newly constructed stage for John McCain’s speech.

I did a bit more wandering today.  I tried to get up to the press level with my “special” press pass, but they wouldn’t let me.  Usually “special” means “better,” but in the case of the press pass, “special” means that we ride the little bus. 

I have noticed one difference from yesterday… the stores are getting slammed.  There are a few little stores selling McCain and Republican gear (hats, shirts, buttons, etc.).  Yesterday, there were people in them, but just a few.  Today, they are crammed full with big crowds around them of people who couldn’t get in. 

Also, security is stepped up.  It was heavy yesterday, but it’s HEAVY today. 

One final though.  I forgot to set my starting lineup for my fantasy football teams.  I’m going to do that quick

Rep. Scott Newcomer Responds to Palin Speech

Utility Execs Give Doyle $23,750 Before Doyle Softens Opposition to Nuclear Power

At least he’s being bought for a good thing this time. 

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - A new study has found executives of a Florida utility gave Gov. Jim Doyle almost $24,000 weeks before Doyle softened his stance against nuclear power.

Florida Power & Light Co. owns the Point Beach nuclear power plant near Two Rivers. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s review of Doyle’s campaign finances found 30 executives and one of their spouses from Florida Power & Light and their three other nuclear power plants handed Doyle $23,750 on June 27.

Doyle has long been an opponent of nuclear power. But in August he said he was now open to studying the option.

Hat tip Little Miss Sunshine.