Oil is at a 5-month low , so OPEC might think about cutting production.
President Bush is going to withdraw about 8000 troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan.

What'd I miss?

Hat tip to Ka1igu1a over at Freedom Democrats.

Z42IYM Very neat article.Really thank you! Want more.

This isn't so much a diary as it is a special post. Following up on this recent diary I wrote about the Sarah Palin speech, I present a posting today by Democrat and economics professor Mark Thoma titled Do Democrats Need to Learn Some Respect? .

As we head into election season with rhetorical and hyperbolic guns ablazing, I find this short piece by Arnold Kling to be somewhat correct and refreshing.

Kling asserts that, for the most part, the difference is more rhetorical than anything else.

Says Kling:

So McCain and Obama will do a joint event on 9/11. Good idea?

In the meantime former Hurrican Hanna is dumping a lot of rain on us here in the North East. Have a great weekend!

Quite obviously, everyone wants their party/candidate/issue to win or otherwise gain power. I wish to discover at what cost people are willing to ensure their candidate wins. The trend I'm beginning to see in our increasingly hyper-partisan and polarized politics is that this line is shifting, but in the wrong direction.

Hat tip to Arnold Kling

An article in the WaPo looks at a debate going on at the state level in RI over Medicaid spending. Its state budget bursting at the seams, the state legislature is embattled over what to do with Medicaid, which comprises about a quarter of state expenditures.

Nothing doing in the news other than the Republican convention, which we all know what's going on over there.

My car is fixed, and I'm back home in Sandusky. Otherwise, I've got nothing.

Anything I missed?

And let's be clear : It was indeed a performance. These things always are.

She did well. Very well.

Now, I can disagree with a lot of what she said and for various reasons and still acknowledge that.

First of all, I disagree with her foreign policy tone. And no amount of rhetoric is going to change that. Not so sure how that plays with vast majority of undecided voters who are at best part-time status quo political spectators.

Palin's speech was aggressive and well-delivered. Here is a fact check of her and the other speakers yesterday. McCain is up tonight.

Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick is stepping down after pleading guilty to charges stemming from an affair with a subordinate.

The NFL season kicks off with the champion NY Giants facing the Washington Redskins tonight. Open thread...

Following up on post I made last week on the new Census Bureau Stats on income, poverty and health insurance, I read this WaPo Op-ed by Robert Samuelson.

Firstly, my quibbles:

Some writing on Gustav that inserts another perspective on the ordeal.

A few days ago, Paul Krugman, in typically rabid partisan form had another NYT Op-Ed on Gustav and FEMA.

The standard fare: the wonders of government bureaucracy cannot work without proper leadership (Dems who care) and the GOP simply produced a self-fulfilled prophecy with the Katrina debacle....nothing more. IOW, good and effective government needs people who believe in it and it will work great.

The RNC kicked off main events yesterday with speeches from Bush, Fred Thompson, and Lieberman. Tonight Palin will speak; I predict lots of interest from both the right and the left in what she'll say.

The Bush admin is planning an aid package for Georgia, up to $1 billion for reconstruction that could potentially include military aid.

Open thread. What's on your mind this Wednesday?

In my spectator role of this upcoming election, I've been becoming and increasingly and quietly intrigued about what could happen and what it could mean....in much the same way that I watch the analysts discuss the prospects of the upcoming NFL season. Former pros turned "analysts" and journalists are caressing their collective chin while scanning a multitude of factors to make the bold claim...namely that Team XYZ, in spite of current perceptions, is the "team to watch" or the "team to beat". See below for video.

Gustav thankfully appears to have been weaker than expected, and there seems to have been good preparation at all levels, from individual to state to federal. Damage is still being assessed.

The Republican convention will resume as planned. Yesterday there were protests at which a small "splinter group" [that's the police term] of anarchists began damaging property and were arrested .

This is kind of cool: a field designed so that special-needs kids, including those in wheelchairs, can play baseball . From the article: Smith helped raise some of the half-million dollars in private and county funding needed to build the field in 2004. She said she gets goosebumps whenever she watches the young players come across home plate. "The grin and smile on their faces just says it all."

Open thread -- what's happening today?

Scores of people who were apparently planning to protest the RNC's visit to the twin cities were arrested on Friday. The information is still sketchy at this point, but a joint St. Paul-FBI task force entered several homes with no-knock warrants and SWAT gear to detain and question members of "Food Not Bombs" and the "RNC Welcoming Committee". Of over 50 people detained, only 3 were eventually charged with a crime -- conspiracy to incite a riot. Others were preliminarily charged with fire code violations. Links:

Star Tribune
Salon (w/video)
NY Times

Today also starts the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Promoted by John

Does Sarah Palin believe in evolution?

Numerous bloggers have been asking variants of this question since Palin was selected as McCain's running mate. There are two issues here:

• what does she believe?
• to what extent does it matter?

Check out this video .

It shows two Democrats, including former DNC Chairman Don Fowler, laughing at the prospects of Hurrican Gustav hitting New Orleans during the GOP Convention.

God must favor the Democrats, says one of the slime balls.

Like I always say, It's all about the politics. It's all about the power. Nothing is sacred and all is fair game in the name of partisanship.

Pathetic. Video and more below the fold.

That's the question I wanted to answer for myself after following a few discussions here. I mean, I knew he was the Libertarian nominee for President, and a former Congressman. I also knew he authored DoMA because I'd looked up the rollcall vote for other reasons. But that was about it. So I moseyed on over to google and started hunting around... follow below the fold if you're curious.