So Bush started talking last night. As he started listing all of his proposed domestic issues, I started to zone out. More this, more that, spend here, spend there, ZZzzzzz..... Presidnet Bush looked uncomfortable and I was wondering to myself, "Is this the best they could do?" Then the President started talking about the WOT. He became more animated and passionate. This was a subject that he felt strongly about. When he mentioned his awe at the ability of families that had lost members during the war, but said that Bush was in their prayers, his eyes actually misted up with emotion. Then it hit me: this is how Bush connects with people. He's not a silver-tongued speaker in public, but when speaks on topics that move him, his spirit and passion shine through. People think to themselves, "I may not agree with him, but this is a good man. And he's not saying these things for effect; he actually believes him."

How is his speech going to play? I don't know since I didn't stay up to watch the mindless idiots focus group of undecideds. My guess is that when swing voters compare Bush's obvious sincerity and compassion to Kerry's faux populism and elitism, Kerry won't come out ahead. Just my opinion, of course. We'll find out if I'm wrong on November 3.

Update: Stephen Green gives his take. Other than being far more eloquent, his views are pretty comparable to mine. Excerpt:

There was no overriding theme to President Bush’s speech, except for the unspoken one: “This is who I am.” No, wait -- let me amend that. The unspoken theme was, “This is who we are.” As Americans.

For all its faults, for all its overtly- and overly-religious tones, this small-l libertarian prefers George BushÂ’s America to John KerryÂ’s. I donÂ’t care for NASCAR. IÂ’m not much for country music, Sundays at church, blue-eyed soul, or faith-based initiatives.

But Bush made me feel welcome all the same. No, wait – let me amend that statement, too. Bush made me feel like his place is somewhere I’d like to spend some time and get to know the locals. You know -- down a few beers, chat up the natives and learn their quaint customs.

I donÂ’t feel as welcome, as at home, in the America Kerry painted for us tonight.

Update: Kevin posted the text of the entire speech.

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Zell Miller gave a rousing speech last night, detailing the many reasons why he supports Bush over John Kerry. Sullivan must have recoiled in horror at all of the nice things said about Bush because the following is even more strident and out of touch than Terry McAuliffe's screed against Miller:

THE MILLER MOMENT: Zell Miller's address will, I think, go down as a critical moment in this campaign, and maybe in the history of the Republican party. I kept thinking of the contrast with the Democrats' keynote speaker, Barack Obama, a post-racial, smiling, expansive young American, speaking about national unity and uplift. Then you see Zell Miller, his face rigid with anger, his eyes blazing with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats. Remember who this man is: once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the negroes. His speech tonight was in this vein, a classic Dixiecrat speech, jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric. As an immigrant to this country and as someone who has been to many Southern states and enjoyed astonishing hospitality and warmth and sophistication, I long dismissed some of the Northern stereotypes about the South. But Miller did his best to revive them. The man's speech was not merely crude; it added whole universes to the word crude.

Andrew, stop pretending that you've somehow had an epiphany that's made you, regretfully, unable to support our current president, and that you've come to the conclusion that John Kerry will be a more able Commander-in-Chief. Eight years of Bill Clinton may have deluded you to think that a presidential candidate never means what he says, so Bush must have been kidding when he stated his belief that marriage means one man wedded to one woman. In fact, your cognitive dissonance was so pronounced that you managed to disbelieve Bush every time he said it. Then you discovered that Bush actually meant what he said.

"Ohmigod! How do I reconcile what Bush said and what I refused to hear, despite many repetitions? Hey, I know! I'll go batshit crazy on anything and everything Republicans say, except when they support gay marriage. Yeah, that's the ticket. No one will notice my hysteria and rank hypocrisy."

Surprise! We noticed.

Update: John Cole, as usual, is far more eloquent in his Andrew smackdown.

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Normally, I'd think that what Alpha Patriot links to in this post is a joke, a parody. However, the fact that the linkee is Blogs for Kerry, which doesn't appear to be a satire site, I'm inclined to think the Left is even more unhinged than I thought they were, and that's frigging pantload. Excerpt:

Blogs for Kerry proposes a book burning party on (appropriately enough) Oct. 29 -- Joseph Goebbels' birthday. The idea is to burn "Unfit for Command" by the Swifties, as well as any books by Hannity, Sammon, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc.
...
There is only one comment, and it points out that purchasing books will only cause people to print more -- nothing about the fact that suppression of ideas on a Nazi propagandist's birthday isn't exactly what the Democrat Party stands for.

Or is it?

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Girl gets raped by her older brother. Repeatedly. Girl tells parents who ask her to hush it up so that no one will know. Girl become pregnant. Parents murder girl to protect the family honor.

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I'm using part of the title from Professor Hewitt's book because of this story. Apparently, there's a law in NM that requires first time voters to present some sort of identification. The law was passed in part because a 13-year old received a Voter ID card in the mail. Not surprisingly, the Democrats have become unhinged. Excerpt:

The statute, he agreed, requires that first-time New Mexican voters registering by mail provide identification at the polls if they did not do so at the time of registration.

But attorneys for Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and the state Democratic Party say the statute requires identification only from those who do not register in front of a person.

They say the order will create immense confusion and disenfranchise thousands of voters.

"There are thousands of people who could not possibly comply," Democratic Party attorney John Boyd said.

Cannot comply? Why the f**k not? If you don't have a valid form of identification, how in hell did you get a voter card?

When I was younger and more naive, I was simply confused by Democrats resistance to people providing a picture ID when they arrive at a polling place. Yes, I remember Jim Crow and trust me, this it ain't. Now that I'm older and more cynical wiser, I'm convinced that the primary reason Democrats don't want voters to have to prove who they are is because cleaning up the electoral process reduces the Dem's chance to game the system. Vote early, vote often. Vote even if you're dead. WTF has happened to the Democrat party? I know, I know, I've griped about this before, but it still bugs me. And I just don't get it.

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After sifting through interstellar noise for years, SETI researchers now think that they might have stumbled onto a signal that's artificial in design. Translation: it's possible that intelligent life created it. Of course, due to the vast distances beween stars, the life's entire race might be extinct now.

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Got home from teaching class last night and arrived just in time to see Zell Miller make John Kerry his bitch. My wife was watching with me and midway through the speech, she asked me, "How in the world is he ever going to get elected again?" I told her that Zell had already anounced his retirement from public office, but that he was one of the most popular politicians in Georgia's history. If he wanted to run again, the populace would elect him in a landslide.

My favorite part- okay, apart from putting Kerry's record under the microscope while simultaneously Roto-rooting his ass- was when Zell nearly challenged Chris Matthews to a duel. Matthews look surprised and a little bit intimidated. Good. About freaking time someone busted Softball's host in the nose. The Puppy Blender has more:

STILL MORE: Now Miller's on Hardball. Chris Matthews asks him if Kerry really only wants to defend America with spitballs. Matthews calls him a "conservative Republican." Oops! Miller: I knew you were going to be coming at me with all that stuff. This is a bunch of baloney that doesn't have anything to do with what I said. He's right. I change channels. [LATER: By changing channels, I missed seeing Zell nearly challenge Matthews to a duel, and Matthews backing down, according to several reader emails. Jacksonian America indeed! Reader Daniel Wilkins sends: "Chris M. looked like a dog getting a bath. I've never seen him so humbled."]

Update: Mudville Gazette offers the best analysis of the Democrat's spin on the convention so far:

Emerging theme of the Democratic response to the Republican convention speeches:

Schwarzenegger is not a Republican
McCain is not a Republican
Zell Miller is not a Democrat

Update: Kevin has more Miller bitch-slapping Matthews.

Update: Jay Tea was live-blogging Miller's speech. Excerpt:

10:15: Someone call the Audobon Society. There's a Georgia Hawk loose in Madison Square Garden, and it's pissed off. There's blood all over the floor.

Booing the UN, booing France...

Man, someone turned up Miller's fury up to 11. For too many years his party's leaders have been pissing on his cornflakes. He's not just burning bridges, he's blowing them up and all the roads leading up to them and poisoning the rivers. He's not only not taking any prisoners, he's putting heads on pikes. There ain't NO going back from what Miller's doing tonight.

All Zell, all the time!: From an interview at NRO:

MILLER: The Democratic tent has shrunk to the size of a dunce cap. There's no room for conservatives like me. We used to have moderates and conservatives in the party. Then they ran us all out.

Update: Dean tears Sullivan a new one.

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Since I was slack and missed the deadline last week, I'm posting two recipes this week. Let me know how they turn out for you.

Oreo White Chocolate Mousse "Cheesecake"

Ingredients
-------------
24 Oreo cookies
1/4 cup Unsalted butter

3 cup Whipping cream
1 Tbsp Unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup Whipping cream
1/4 cup Water
8 oz Semi-sweet chocolate
1 tsp Vanilla
1 lb White chocolate

Crust
------
1) Grind up oreos and mix with melted butter. Press into bottom of 10 inch
springform pan.

2) Melt semi-sweet chocolate and 3/4 cup cream in double boiler. Pour over
oreo cookie crust. Chill until firm.

Filling
-------
3) Melt white chocolate and 1 cup cream in a double boiler. Cool to
lukewarm.

4) Add gelatin to water, heat and stir until dissolved. Pour into bowl.
Add 2 cups chilled cream and vanilla to gelatin/water mixture. Beat to soft
peaks. Fold into white chocolate mixture. Pour filling into crust. Chill
until firm. Serve.

Note: If you overwhip the cream, the mousse will become visibly grainy in appearance. It'll still taste great, but it won't be as pretty.
=========================================

Sour cream poundcake

Ingredients
-------------
3 cup Sifted flour
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt

1 cup Butter, in pieces(softened)
3 cup Sugar
1 cup Sour cream
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

6 egg(whites only)

1) Preheat oven to 325F

2)Combine flour with baking soda and salt. Set aside

3) Cream butter and sugar together. Add yolks and beat hard until smooth.

4) Alternate adding flour mixture and sour cream, blending with spatuala
or wisk. Add vanilla.

5) Beat egg whites until stiff peaks, but not grainy. Fold into batter.

6) Add to greased cake pan, and bake about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Update: I forgot to link to this post by Beth.

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I'm back. Thank you for your patience.

This week's PGH assignment: What is John Kerry's "secret plan" for the war in Iraq?

1) Have the Iraqis drive ambulances. The sound will alert John Edwards that it's time to sue.

2) Teach the Iraqis snowboarding. Then have those sonabitchin' Secret Service agents can knock them down.

3) Rename the War on Terror. Presto, change-o, the WOT is ended. The Vacation with Elves, though, will have just begun.

4) Give Ted Kennedy a job as a taxi driver in Iraq and tell him every insurgent is actually a campaign staffer in disguise.

5) Another plus from #4 is that Teddy'd find lots of heretofore unknown water in Iraq. I mean, the man has a gift.

6) "Secret plan? Stop bothering me. I've got far more important things on my mind. Hmm. Will it be the Cabernet Sauvignon or the Merlot with dinner tonight?"

7) Airdrop Band-Aids with purple hearts painted on them over the insurgent positions. As soon as the terrorist affix the third bandage to themselves, they'll develop an overwhelming desire to stop fighting and go home.

An unfortunate side affect of #7 is that every terrorist will feel obligated to start telling how all of the other terrorists committed war crimes. No one will care of course because, duh, they're terrorists.

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I know that Meryl has posted about the flood damage here in Richmond from Tropical Storm Gaston. However, I thought people might better appreciate how widespread the damage was by checking out the images here. It's a slideshow of 22 images. No apparent damage at my house, but I did have to park 200 yards away from my house and wade through 3 feet of water to get home.

Richmond built its floodwall in response to a couple of "hundred year floods" during the 1980's, which resulted in lots of Shockoe Bottom damage. Ironically enough, the flood wall contained the James River just fine. What no one ever considered is that the rain would fall hard enough, run down the streets to the Bottom and flood the living crap out of the area. The storm drains were simply overwhelmed, being unable to handle the massive influx of water.

Oh, and I hear that another hurricane/tropical storm is headed our way this weekend. Great. If anyone's looking for me, I'll be busy inflating a life raft.

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Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday I ask my readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign if they haven't done so already. And if you have volunteered and donated, then get a friend to join you. It's the only way to defeat the lying liberal media.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesday simply by putting up a post like this every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the president's re-election campaign. Be sure to visit these fine participating blogs:

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Ah-nuld really was a rock star at the convention. I'll be interested to see how it plays to the rest of America, but apolitical wife was impressed. Lileks had the best line, though:

Now the line about trusting the US more than the UN. Raucous applause. Chants of USA, which will strike Europeans as the modern-day sound of a Nuremberg rally. Well, theyÂ’d know.

Mheh. Haha. BUAHA::hand clapped over mouth::

The Bush twins. Still hot and getting hotter by the day. However, their speech writer should be forced to lick the crumbs off of Michael Moore's belly. Ugh. I liked the self-deprecating moments, but mostly it made me want to change the channel. To the Home Shopping Network. And that channel makes me want gouge out my eyes.

The First Lady was good. My guess is that her appeal will be greater among women than men. However, I loved the contrast between First Lady and First Lady wannabee. Trust me: the Burger Condiment King's wife does not measure up.

I enjoyed Lt. Governor Steele's speech a lot more than the Next Great Democrat from Michigan. Well done.

Good convention for the Republicans so far. Here's hoping that they don't screw it up. Not for nothing is the GOP called the party of the stupid, although it'll be tough to top the Dem's giving Howard "I have a scream" Dean a prime time slot.

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