Today, I'm going to talk about what I intend to do over the next four years, but perhaps the most important reason to put me back in is so that Laura will be First Lady for four more years.

He [Kerry] said he's only going to raise the tax on the so-called rich. But you know how the rich is, they've got accountants. That means you pay. That means your small business pays. It means the farmers and ranchers pay. That's the wrong medicine for this economy, and we're not going to let him prescribe it. (Applause.)

-- It's just a small minority of people who hate…

…They don't believe two consenting adults should have the right to be in love and share their lives together and be legally protected by the state for doing so…

…They're not patriots. They're hate-triots.

On Wednesday, the campaign shattered its previous online fundraising record, raising over $3.3 million dollars in one day, only to crush it on Thursday with a total of $5.6 million raised - bringing its two-day total to $8.9 million. At times during Kerry's speech, johnkerry.com received over 5,000 hits per second.

The campaign also succeeded in energizing people in states across the map. On Thursday night, more than 200,000 Americans gathered with friends and fellow supporters at over 5,000 house parties to watch Kerry accept the nomination.

"Mr. President, they're just horses."

"God, they're so fast... They look like they could strike at any moment. You sure that's not a bear or a puma? Someone get Dick Cheney out here... Help! Help!"

Regardless of one's political affiliation, this was a fascinating scene. On display were the unique parts of radio that can be seen but not heard. This was not like watching Howard Stern cracking wise in an enclosed booth while his guests remove their clothes. This was two people sitting eye-to-eye engaging in a frank discussion. Talk radio may not always be like this, but yesterday, with these two foes seated no more than three feet apart, eyes locked, it was.

Mr. Kerry proposes spending $650 billion extending health insurance to lower- and middle-income families. Whether you approve or not, you can't say he hasn't addressed the issue. Why hasn't this voter heard about it?

-snip-

Somewhere along the line, TV news stopped reporting on candidates' policies, and turned instead to trivia that supposedly reveal their personalities. We hear about Mr. Kerry's haircuts, not his health care proposals. We hear about George Bush's brush-cutting, not his environmental policies.

It seemed like luck had run out for Lucky the rabbit. Strapped to a powerful explosive with a lit fuse, she was tossed into a lake. But Lucky lived up to her name. The explosive didn't blow up, and the rabbit was pulled out of the water.

Now Lucky's college-bound owner and his friend face misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty after photos of the July 13 incident surfaced on the Internet.

"I think that a lot of people are judging us without knowing us at all," Sigmon told the San Francisco Chronicle. But asked why he fitted Lucky with the explosive, he said, "Um, that's a real tough question to answer."

Protein° Chromo™ is a patent-pending colour clock that helps your body understand what time it is.

SAVAGE: Who does she think she's talking to, a college group of junkies? Boo, hiss -- get the cane for this liar. Get her off the stand, this moron. You fraud. Fifty-thousand dollars a pop for this crap at colleges.

SAVAGE: Aw, shut up! We all have freedom! Or else a dirtbag like you wouldn't be up there! ... They make $50,000 a speech to a bunch of junkie college students, they scream about no freedom and oppression in America! Fifty-thousand dollars, running around to all the potheads around America. Oh oppression, oh oppression -- oooohhh Klu Klux Klannnnn, oh bring me home ... oh Ku Klux Klan that man from Texas ... oooh the white sheets are rustling ... oh gimme the freedom ... ooooh Ku Klux Klan ... $50,000, please.

They granted her a fake degree, an honorary deg -- an honorary degree you buy. They give you one, I earned a real one from a great university, so I know what it is to earn a real doctorate, and I respect 'em. But I spit on people with honorary degrees. They're worthless. They're like mail-order degrees but cheaper.

Officials looking into the removal of classified documents from the National Archives by former Clinton National Security Adviser Samuel Berger say no original materials are missing and nothing Mr. Berger reviewed was withheld from the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

[snip]

Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said officials there "are confident that there aren't any original documents missing in relation to this case." She said in most cases, Mr. Berger was given photocopies to review, and that in any event officials have accounted for all originals to which he had access.

In the final race of the Democratic Speechstakes, the favorite, John Kerry, scored a resounding victory over his main challenger, John Kerry.

Those idiots had the convention director's mike pumped in over their coverage and the guy kept yelling "Drop the damn balloons! Jesus! LEt more confetti go!!" And on and on. It was just shocking. Those bastards.

And who was the FIRST person they cut to after the speech?

ED F*CKIN GILLESPIE.

Woodruff and the idiot sitting next to her were going on and on about how Kerry didn't mention his time in the Senate at all.
If anyone happens by Judy on the way out of the convention, would you mind slapping her upside the head?

You are chosen basically if you answer in the affirmative to one question, which is I will essentially say what the Kerry campaign and DNC want said. And so, many people don't have to be asked, you know. It's just your tenor or your style answers that question. But aside from a handful of folks, Ted Kennedy and a couple of others, Jimmy Carter, who really are essentially free to say what they want, most people who speak are selected with the purpose of delivering some aspect of the Kerry or DNC message. And so you really fit into a slot. And – so that's the basic concept. And amazingly enough, even the upper-level folks, the Kennedys and the Carters, seem to have fit into their slots pretty effectively.

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?" said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

-snip-

While recent employment growth has buoyed Bush's economic record, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) has argued the new jobs are not as good as those lost due to outsourcing in recent years.

Nearly 1.1 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office in January 2001.

Pakistan has arrested a top al Qaeda suspect wanted by the United States, Al Arabiya satellite news channel quoted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as saying.

"The Pakistani president said the arrested person is Tanzanian who is married to an Uzbek woman, and who is wanted by the United States," the station said.

Musharraf told Al Arabiya the suspect was arrested on Sunday, but declined to name him, the station said.

Al Arabiya said the suspect may be Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who is on the FBI's most wanted "terrorists" list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings by al Qaeda of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

I don't dispute that this is great news. It's a good thing to have him in custody, but why capture him on Sunday and then release the news on Thursday? Unless, it could be part of the July Surprise Chimpy had planned to distract from the attention on the DNC.

I think they were hoping for Bin Laden, and that would have been huge. But, as great as this news is, it's probably not huge enough to distract from coverage of Kerry's acceptance speech tonight, and its subsequent reporting tomorrow, however little of it there might be.

You know Al Jazeera is airing three hours a night of the conventions? Our networks are only airing one a night. Tuesday night had no major coverage at all -- only PBS and cable.

“The insufficient number of troops in Iraq has contributed to the deterioration in security.

“The failure of countries other than the US and the United Kingdom to send significant numbers of troops has had serious and regrettable consequences, not only for the Iraqis but also in terms of the burden placed on UK resources and perceptions of the legitimacy of operations in Iraq.”

-snip-

“The alternative to a positive outcome in Iraq may be a failed state and regional instability.”

The Republican National Committee has asked Miramax to distribute a short documentary, which it described as a compilation of clips of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry contradicting himself. RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie told a news conference Wednesday: "I reached out yesterday to Miramax, and we have sent them a copy of it and asked them if they would considering distributing this documentary across the country." A Miramax spokesman confirmed to the New York Daily News that he had spoken with Gillespie, but added: "We don't do short films."

Howie Kurtz, on Newsnight with Aaron Brown, says the 15,000 press reps at the Convention are in a "Boston bubble," and wonders not only "What are we doing here?" but whether, four or eight years from now the press (I think he really means television) will even bother to show up. Hell, if they don't, they won't be missed. They're doing nothing but sitting around chewing their cud and saying truly stupid, dishonest things (Tucker Carlson just said that "both parties are pretty moderate") and complaining that there is no news. They might find some stories if they went out and actually talked to people (as Stirling Newberry, Matt Stoller and many other bloggers are doing), instead of to each other.

Brian Munoz already saw the documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" in a theater, but he and some friends couldn't resist a chance to watch it again outdoors on a muggy summer night -- especially only a few miles from President Bush.

They were among more than 3,000 people -- three times more than originally expected -- who sat on lawn chairs, pillows or blankets Wednesday night, soaking in Michael Moore's film that lambasts Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq and his handling of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Authorities in Boston have designated as the official protest an area enclosed by a maze of overhead netting, razor wire and chain link fence. To some it resembles an internment camp, to others Guantanamo Bay. Today lawyers file suit to overturn the "free speech zone."

"[B]y the end, I half expected her to break out into 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina.'"

Halliburton Co. has lost $18.6 million of government property in Iraq, about a third of the items it was given to manage, including trucks, computers and office furniture, government auditors claim.

[snip]

Democrats accuse the Bush administration of favoring the company because of its former connections to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney earned forty-four million dollars during his tenure at Halliburton. Although he has said that he “severed all my ties with the company,” he continues to collect deferred compensation worth approximately a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, and he retains stock options worth more than eighteen million dollars. He has announced that he will donate proceeds from the stock options to charity.

The White House will project soon that this year's federal deficit will exceed $420 billion, congressional aides said, a record figure certain to ignite partisan warfare over President Bush (news - web sites)'s handling of the economy.

Either way, the White House was ready to emphasize that the figure is well below the $521 billion it projected for this year last February, and tie it to improvements in the economy.

Democrats have said Bush purposely overestimated this year's budget gap so he could take credit for improvement when the real figures came in.

This is what happens when something vaguely resembling “news” drops in the midst of packs of journalists starved for same—it gets chewed over ‘til there’s nothing left but the splintered, spit-out bones.

DEAN: No, that's not what they said. As a matter of fact, that's what they didn't say. And if you think they should, you should watch "Outfoxed." It's a great movie that says why people like you say things like that on this television station.

I ordered a Frozen Original Kreme, and this calmed the manager enough to retreat to her lair. Her minion busied himself with preparing the beverage, which indeed involved spooning a portion of gray powder from this canister into a pitcher.