I turned on C-Span to look at the convention, and realized the roll call was beginning to start...

Glenn Greenwald's current piece in Salon nails the bizarre disconnect at the heart of John McCain's plan for America:  

McCain will move the US to a posture of global military confrontation.

McCain will continue and expand the Bush tax cuts, particularly for the rich.

Is he insane?

I wrote a snarky convention diary yesterday which drew a little return fire, which was mostly meaningless one liners. You are a dickhead etc. It did not accomplish the purpose of starting a discussion of why we support Obama and why we believe in him other than he is a democrat and we have no choice.

When Obama began his run for the White House, I like many Americans was truly inspired. I thought we were going to turn the page on the old politics and begin the renewal of America. But the Democratic Convention is beginning to suck the hope out of me.
Apparently, there are enough Democrats holding out because 'their candidate'  did not win and they are hell bent on turning the Republicans loose on us again. Eugene Robinson makes a valid point in his new article "Democrats, Snap Out of It":

If they want to win in November, Democrats have one task to accomplish this week: Snap out of it. Somehow, tentativeness and insecurity have infected a party that ought to be full of confident swagger.

This Convention should have been about the celebration of a new generation of voters looking to the Democratic Party for leadership. It should have been forward looking, revving us up for our fight against John McCain. Instead we are looking back to rehash a primary that has long ended.
It should have been about firing up a historic grassroots movement to go door to door and wake up America's voters to head to the polls to vote for Democrats. This is a sad state of affairs.  Wake me up when the catharsis is over.

When talking about American elections one of the most common lamentations is that we have poor turnout. The commonly held belief is that we need to make voting as easy as possible to increase turnout. To this end, a number of options have been considered including internet voting and entirely mail in elections. Is this really the right approach? Are the elections in which these options have been used actually showing higher rates of turn out, and if so is across the board or only among certain demographics? Several studies have been conducted to examine these questions and the answers are not as straight forward as might be expected.

Time to Take Em to the Woodshed.

Once the Convention is over.

Once Barack Obama is the official nominee.

It is time to DESTROY the Republican brand by calling it out, once and for all.

We know what Bush has done and what McCain will do.  We’ve heard about the houses, the non-knowledge about the economy, the indifference to the millions of Americans who are suffering because of Bush/McCain’s policies.  It’s time to point out that these guys are desperate.  It is time to TELL the American people what’s at stake for these guys.  It’s time to take them to the woodshed.  More below the flip.

Just watched Lilly Ledbetter's speech. I'm glad she got a chance to tell her story on this stage. Those of us who tried to help pass the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act know it well-- as a Goodyear tire manager, she spent 19 years making less than her male counterparts for the same job, at which her performance was praised.

The Supreme Court denied her back pay (though it was awarded by lower courts), saying that she should have filed suit 180 days after the first instance of discrimination. But at Goodyear, like at many companies, it's against company policy to discuss wages. And who would ask that of new coworkers in the first six months on the job anyway?

Lilly mentioned that her case was filed on behalf of everyday working people who face this inequality all the time. For women and people of color, unequal pay is almost a given. Congress had a chance to right this wrong with the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Unlike the weak rhetoric against the Act claimed, it would NOT increase frivolous lawsuits (that's the same tired argument that gets rolled out all the time against legislation that helps consumers and working people). It only reinstates the same rights we had under the Civil Rights Act of 1964-- you wouldn't have to find out about discriminatory pay after only 6 months at a new job!

Here are the three bare essentials to know who/what John McCain is, in his own damning words:

Mike Montoya, a 51-year-old online book salesman, firmly committed to McCain and the GOP, interjected with a complaint that the Obama campaign has claimed racism
"every time there is something critical said about him... If he is going to be President, he has to put his blackness behind him."

(my emphasis)

I just saw this in an article at HuffPo and it blew me away

Link for to read entire article after jump...

"And in the end, after all that’s happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago.  He’s the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail’s pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he’d struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father’s love."

In keeping with the F### the AP theme, I am cutting and pasting the entire article here in lieu of my ordinarily thoughtful analysis:

Forget all you've been reading about Biden's foreign affairs experience, about Obama's need to fill in supposed gaps in his resume, about McCain dissing Obama for not choosing Clinton.  The overriding reason Biden was chosen is smart and simple:

Biden is in a unique position to challenge McCain's alleged maverickness.

Omigod. We suck. We are the only western nation without a Federal voting system. Why isn't the UN sending in observers?

Here's a sampling of today's election news:

Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes

A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges.

The problem was identified after complaints from Ohio elections officials following the March primary there, but the logic error that is the root of the problem has been part of the software for 10 years, said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.

(psst. keep this on the down-low. i think someone kidnapped our very own markos and replaced him with someone who is doing the i-so-so-told-you-so jig right there on the front page:)

We really, really don't want to pick someone who plugs a supposed gap in Obama's armor. You pick Wes Clark, and people won't see "phew, national security is covered!". Nope, they'll see, "Obama is trying to compensate for his lack of national security creds!" And whether it's Sam Nunn, or Joe Biden, or anyone else who supposedly patches up a weakness, the end result would be what Gore had to endure in 2000 -- "He picked Joe Lieberman to compensate for Gore's 'Bill Clinton' problem."

Well, like most everyone else, I'm waiting to hear who Obama has chosen. So, in the interest of keeping the Mothership afloat (please don't forget to add your Recommend to that diary), feel free to add your predictions and impressions here.

Once y'all began throwing percentages into the mix concerning how many houses F.O.O. collectively owns, my brain imploded, and I had to resort to naughty words on my calculator. So, I don't have a final number - sorry!

In all seriousness, I hope no one was offended by my attempt at "fun" last night. The Senator McCentury "gaffe" was just too rich to just leave hanging. I know many wish they could own their own home; like I said, I'd go back to apartment living in a heart beat. Home ownership nickels & dimes you to death, and it's been a pain in the arse in my experience.

Today's "This Date in History" should be near & dear to baseball fans; hi, Keith! On this date in 1989, Nolan Ryan got his 5,000th strikeout.

In the tradition of Mr. Bull Snort, I'm going to f*ckin' do tomorrow evening's Countdown diary "live," so I'll be here when the fun begins. Hop on the fun train when you can!

AND, don't forget to join me here Sunday evening between 8 & 8:30 for my "devotional" diary. Y'all think Kossacks are going to get tired of "seeing" my mug around here?! Oh well...

Here we go for Countdown tonight!

This from a Democratic Underground blogger One house, One Spouse, Obama, 08

Over the past several weeks some of us have gone into a blue funk as we have witnessed Obama's substantial lead shrink from 10 points to 1 to 2 points.  My wife says that if he should loose in November, we will go broke paying for my therapist.  The tab could run more than the sum total of McCain's houses!

Dear folks, you've got to me. I barely recognize my dear Daily Kos. I propose that you use this diary as a Vice President speculation open thread, and spare the rest of us the two paragraph (or two line) diaries. Who knows? If we need to, we can make this into a mother ship for speculation. But if you are thinking of posting another three paragraph diary about the VP, please post it to one of the new open threads below instead.

UPDATE! PLEASE READ -

This diary is getting unwieldy - please head to one of these ---

#2 Alex

#3, swampsparrow

#4 HoosierDeb, and this one is brand fresh new, with lots of room!

I will be heading off soon, and won't update again tonight. Open thread rules reminder - pictures really slow things up, so fight that temptation!