McCain's choice is insulting!

How can we see McCain's choice of running mate as anything better than an insult? He has chosen a woman with absolutely no credentials for national office. Two years as Gov of a state with less than a million people? Come on!

The Republicans want to talk about Obama's lack of experience, then do this? The Republicans oppose affirmative action, but nominate a clearly unqualified woman, just because she is a woman (and not a bad looking one either!). I expect most women will be insulted by this choice, as it is obvious that the GOP thinks women will vote for anyone with the same plumbing.

This plays well with the GOP faithful, but if you are an undecided voter, how could this possibly make you think that McCain is showing good judgment here? How could you possibly think he is putting the country ahead of politics, as he wants you to believe his record shows?

Bad choice, particularly for a guy who would be the oldest Prez. in history.

Obamamania

Usually I would rather visit the dentist than listen to politicians speak. But Obama's speech last night has to rank with one of the great speeches in US History, at least in style. Certainly the fact that he is a great speaker doesn't mean he would be a great Prez, anymore then the fact that w is a horrible speaker is what made him a complete failure as Prez. But, if I were McCain watching that last night, I would be filling my shorts over the idea of having to share a stage in a debate with that guy.

To me, the most interesting thing were the crowd shots, and particularly the black people in the crowd. The looks of pride and joy, and the tears, particularly from older blacks who were alive 45 years ago when MLK made his great speech, and are now seeing Dr. King's dream coming true. It should make us all proud of the progress we've made in this country in 45 years. Sure, race relations aren't perfect, but look where we are now. Truly historic!

I know a few of you who read this blog where in the crowd. Please leave your comments, or email me them and I will post them.

Oh, and one more thing: Michelle Obama will be the hottest first lady ever!

I'm doing this joke first......

With the Republicans headed for St. Paul for their convention next week, you have to ask how they are going to manage the crowd of GOP congressman who will be lining up to get in to the Larry Craig Memorial Men's Room at the Minneapolis airport!

There, wanted to do that one before Jon Stewart does!

By the way, a gay friend of mine who lives in DC told me Mark Foley once hit on him!

DNC Photos

Hoping this works. I am embedding a file from Photoshop Express.

My Day at the DNC

I spent several hours walking around downtown Denver yesterday, to see what was going on outside the convention. It was real fun, but sorry, no stories of rioters or cracked skulls. Here are some of the things I did see.

MSNBC was doing the Chris Matthews show live from an outdoor stage right on 16th St. near Union Station. Of course, television cameras will attract all the crazies, so there was quite a bit of chanting in the background, primarily by people who believe w. was behind 9/11. And crazies attract cops, so there were almost as many cops in riot gear standing nearby. Everything remained peaceful.

Nancy Pelosi apparently has to eat, and must have done so in a restaurant on Larimer St. not far from the Pepsi Center. The whole street was closed off so she could get into her black SUV (what happened to the green convention?....I saw a bunch of black SUV's shuttling VIPS. I turned the corner to walk down that block, and it was closed with a cop escort of about 4 cars, and her vehicle. Everyone on the street knew this was for someone important, but no one knew who.

Obamamania is everywhere. And if you don't think Democrats like capitalism, think again. On every corner there was something new with Obama's likeness on it. Most clever was "Obama in a Bottle" sold from a car that had a, well, giant Obama in a bottle on a trailer behind it. Only $1995!

The streets around the Pepsi Center are fenced off so that you can't get within a quarter mile of it without credentials. That means the main protesters, the really out there folks, anarchists, nut jobs, conspiracy theorists......they have set up camp in Civic Center Park, which is sort of at the other end of downtown. There was a "Green Safe Zone" where a bunch of hippies were lined up for free food, and some angry rap music (is there any other kind) being performed, and, even among the anarchists, plenty of counter-culture stuff for sale.

Of course, not all protesters were from the far left. The anti-abortion crowd is also here, with trucks with billboards ("Abortion is an Obamination") or trucks that are billboards. Also saw some guys walking down the street with McCain signs.

Just down the street from where I sort of caught a glimpse of Nancy Pelosi there was a group of women who called themselves Missile Dick Chicks (see photo) who sang a song called "Shop in the Name of War", complete with choreography. Very amusing, but don't buy their CD.

Finally, there were cops, police, law enforcement officers, the fuzz, pigs, the heat......you get the idea. Cops everywhere. Cops on foot, cops on bikes, cops on SUV's, cops on horses (the horses are wearing protective goggles!). Large groups from all over Colorado on every street corner.

The general feeling, despite the police presence, was festive and fun. Most people were there to have a good time, or to do business. And even the protesters I saw seemed to be protesting in a positive friendly spirit, except for some in Civic center who were angry at the arrests of a group on Monday night. It was quite a fun way to spend an afternoon.

I took a bunch of pictures, and will put them on photoshop express later today, then add a link to them here. So check back later if you'd like to see the back of Chris Matthews' head.

The DNC, First Impressions

My old friend Jerry Zremski, Washington reporter for the Buffalo News, is in town for the DNC, so I went to the Rockies game with him yesterday afternoon (he is, first and foremost, a baseball fan!). After the game, we walked around downtown for a bit. Denver is not one of those cities whose downtown is empty at night, but on this Sunday night it was a circus. Mostly just a lot more people than normal, but there were pockets of protesters of all ilk....we saw both anarchists and anti-abortionists.

The most striking thing was the show of force by the authorities. There seemed to be groups of 4 cops in full riot gear on every corner, and at one point an SUV went down the street with about 10 fully outfitted cops clinging to the outside. It looked like something you would see on TV after a coup in Africa. And the police have been brought in from all over the area, so if you are looking to rob a liquor store this week, the Denver burbs would be the place to go.

My friend Fiona was out marching with some people before joining us for the game (I don't know if she knows what she was marching for or against, but she wanted to participate). She said she wanted to march with the anarchists, but they couldn't get organized!

I am planning to go down there Tuesday afternoon and evening to walk around see what is happening outside. Hopefully I won't have to bail Fiona out of jail.

VP in Springfield

It seems to me that if Obama is going to go to Springfield to announce his running mate, that his choice should have been Homer Simpson.....or at least Mayor Quimby!

I can't wait to see them try to limit Biden to his allotted time during Vice Presidential debates.

Pollitcal Ad Bull

One would have to be a complete idiot to take at face value anything in a politcal ad run on TV. Of course, we have a complete idiot in the White House now, who was voted in twice, so there obviously must be quite a few morons in this country.

Most of the negative claims made about candidates in these ads are at best misleading, and often just plain lies. So, if you would like not to vote as a complete idiot, there is a great, non-partisan web site called Factcheck.org. They check the veracity of claims made in ads or speeches by candidates of both parties, and identify the bullshit.

The down side of Factcheck is that you will quickly realize that both sides are completely full of shit......but then, they wouldn't be running for office it they weren't!

There was no oil bubble.....RIGHT!

For the past year, as the price of oil broke through one big number after another, you could find someone, or, as oil reached $145, almost everyone, saying that is was not a speculative bubble. It was all fundamentals, as if suddenly in the past year China's economy had tripled. If you watch CNBC, which I love to do, you would see experts saying it was going to $150, $200.....oh, pick a number. And even the anchors on the network started to buy into the idea that increased speculation had nothing to do with it.

To me, this sounded like the internet bubble all over again (Yahoo is going to $1000!). When everyone believes something, and there are few naysayers, then you can be sure of one thing: there is a bubble, and it's near bursting. (Of course, I said the same thing when it $50, so how smart am I?) Remember, it was impossible for home prices to decline....everyone said so. What this type of chatter really indicates is that everyone has put in their money, which means there is very little money left to go into the market to rise prices higher. Once the decline starts, the amateur speculators run for the exits, while the pros switch to the short side.

As the price of oil skyrocketed, it was clear that those who might wish to go short were sitting out, not wanting to fight the trend. This meant fewer sellers, so the price had to rise with all the money bidding on contracts. Now the bubble has burst, and the shorts are back in, restoring some balance to the market.

How have things changed in the past few weeks? Look at the situation in Georgia ( the one the Russians are warring with). 2 months ago, all the market had to hear was the crazy leader of Iran say he hates Israel, and oil goes up $5 in a day. Now, there is a real war threatening an oil pipeline, and the price is actually down this week. In other words, the short term momentum players have found the momentum is gone, and have moved on to something else, at least for a while. Before, all news was bullish. Not so anymore.

Does this mean we will have $2 gas soon? Probably not. In fact, it could turn around again at any time. But, if you know how to read a chart, oil made a double top, and has broken through several key support levels, which would indicate a downtrend, so $5 gas is not likely this fall either. And the people who were sure the price of oil could never go down are losing their asses in a big way.

Do Republican drive Priuses....and is that the plural of Prius?

I was sitting on my patio reading earlier when a neighbor drove by in her red Prius, with an Obama sticker on the back bumper. Prius with an Obama sticker......isn't that redundant? Surely there are no Republicans driving around in hybrids. Isn't burning as much oil as possible part of the GOP platform?

Some vision on energy.

Here in America we are getting real visionary thinking during this election season regarding energy policy......and by that, I mean the kind of vision you can only have by sticking your head up your ass and looking backwards! Thomas Friedman is writes today from Denmark, where they have been looking the other direction.

We are addicted to oil, and more drilling will just bring false hope, more pollution, and lengthen the time until we come up with new ways to power our lives. And, by the time that oil goes to market, we can be driving cars that move by other means. But the Republicans are counting on Americans to be ignorant enough to think that drilling will make their SUV's affordable again. And why not: Republicans have depended on us to be stupid for years, and it has worked really well for them. And Obama is now taking the bait himself. We can forget about getting an energy policy that makes sense anytime soon.

New Dave Barry

Sorry I haven't written much lately. I've had a busy couple of weeks. However, here is some good news: Dave Barry is at the Olympics and writing daily for the Miami Herald. We can only hope that he will also be attending the political conventions. Personally, I've felt a void on Sunday mornings ever since he gave up his weekly column. So, for the next 2 weeks, I'll be going here for new Dave.