08/28/2012 archive

The first day of the Republican Party Convention in Tampa, Florida was mercifully brief due to tropical storm Isaac. Isaac is now a hurricane and bearing down on the Gulf Coast as a eerie reminder of hurricane Katrina seven years ago and the disastrous Bush regime handling of the disaster. Today the convention hits its stride and was called to order by RNC Chair Reince Priebus at 2 PM. The afternoon covered adoption of the rules and platform. The rules have been changed to stifle other candidates like Ron Paul, who has been denied a speaker’s spot, and former vice presidential nominee, Sara Palan who was not invited.

Tonight’s highlight will be the keynote speech delivered by New Jersey’s own bully-boy governor Chris Christie and the speech delayed from possible future First Lady, Ann Romney with Mitt close by to cheer her.

To fit all of these folks into the 4 hours, all the speakers were told to edit their addresses to fit the time they were allotted, in the case of the first hour that’s less than 10 minutes. That will be quite a feat.  

Here is a list of speakers and the times they are supposed to appear with my take on what they’ll say:

7 p.m.

• House Speaker John Boehner: The Orange Smoking Man wants to throw Obama out of the bar. Then he’ll cry
• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus He’ll reenforce the litany of lies
• Video and Mayor Mia Love (Saratoga Springs, Utah), U.S. congressional candidate: She is the first black woman to run on the Republican ticket. Her roll will be to appeal to black women. Good luck with that one, honey.
• Janine Turner: Actress turned tearless activist who will no doubt insist that Obama was born on Mars in Kenya or someother milder form of birther bs.
• Former Sen. Rick Santorum: Rick will focus on attacking welfare. He still Googles well.
• Host, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: House rep from Washington with a Down Syndrome child will end the  firsthour with coffee and donuts.

8 p.m.

• Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), accompanied by Jack Gilchrist: She need a “crutch”?  Gilchrist is the businessman who insists he did it all by himself despite the millions federal assistance and contracts he received.
• Gov. John Kasich (Ohio): Will talk about the great job he’s done trying to suppress workers’ rights.
• Gov. Mary Fallin (Okla.): Looks like she’ll be touting “Drill, baby, drill” theme.
• Gov. Bob McDonnell (Va.), accompanied by Bev Gray: Gray is an architect. I doubt they’ll be talking about transvaginal probe design but that would be a more interesting speech.
• Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.): [Another anti-union speech about how collective bargaining rights destroyed the economy]

9 p.m.

• Gov. Brian Sandoval (Nev.): He’ll attack Obama’s Welfare Waivers after requesting flexibility.
• Sher Valenzuela (small-business owner, candidate for Delaware lt. governor): Another GOP candidate that built her business with 17 million in federal loans & contracts.
• Senate Republican candidate Ted Cruz (Texas): He has the delusional notion that the Hispanic community is conservative & opposed to amnesty.
• Former Rep. Artur Davis: Former Democrat now Republican who claims voter ID laws do not violate civil rights or suppress voter turn out.
• Gov. Nikki Haley (S.C.)

10 p.m.

• Mrs. Lucé Vela Fortuño: Puerto Rico’s First Lady who will introduce Ann Romney
• Mrs. Ann Romney: The “Queen of Equestrian Mean” will deign to address “you people” with hubby Mitt leading the ovation
• Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.): Certainly the highlight of the night will be this blustering buffoon who would love to have you believe he saved New Jersey.
• Benediction by Sammy Rodriguez: Finally, a rousing “amen” from a Hispanic Evangelical. So far no Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Just in case you’ve never had that talk with your parents or spiritual adviser.

In the next 4 and a half hours all the actual events of the 2012 Republican National Convention will take place including the acceptance of credentials, adoption of rules, adoption of resolutions and the platform, and the roll call for the nomination of Willard “Mitt” Romney to be the Republican Party candidate for President of the United States (and the roll call for the nomination of Paul Ryan to be the Republican Party candidate for Vice-President of the United States).

Everything else is just propaganda.

And the only bit that has least little news worthiness to it is whether the Ron Paul supporters will get any air time.

Ron Paul’s Faithful Continue To Make Noise; Floor Fight Tuesday?

by Liz Halloran, NPR

August 27, 2012 05:57 pm

Surrounded by microphones, cameras, scribbling reporters, they recounted their outrage at the RNC’s decision to deny seats to duly elected Ron Paul delegates from Maine and other states.

…

Over at Romney’s native state of Michigan delegation area, a clutch of Ron Paul supporters who came to the convention as unbound delegates spoke of their misgivings about Romney.

“We personally think there’s not too much difference between Romney and Obama,” said Jacob Horward, 25, of Midland.

…

The Paulites say that there are more of them embedded in state delegations than Republican officials are willing to acknowledge, and they are trying to organize a floor fight Tuesday to take on new proposed party rules that would hobble outsider candidates seeking to seat delegates at future conventions.

Many of the pro-Paul delegates were chosen at state party conventions, and not through the allocation process based on the results of presidential caucuses and primaries. The rules change would require that delegates be picked based on caucus and primary contest outcomes; not by state conventions.

Here’s how ABC News described the proposed rule change, and an Indiana Republican committeeman’s strong reaction:

“The new rule, however, gives presidential candidates veto power over their own delegates, representing a big boost in power for the candidates and a reduction for states. If Mitt Romney, for instance, didn’t like a delegate slated to cast a vote in his favor at the convention, Romney could throw him out and choose an alternate.

” ‘This is the biggest power grab in the history of the Republican Party because it shifts the power to select delegates from the state party to the candidate,’ Republican National Committeeman Jim Bopp of Indiana said in an e-mail message to fellow committee members obtained by ABC News. ‘And it would make the Republican Party a top-down, not bottom-up party.’ “

Politico reported this schedule last night and Reince Priebus has vowed there will be no more changes.

2:00 p.m.

• Color Guard Knights of Columbus
• Pledge of Allegiance by former Gov. Tim Babcock (Mont.)/ Tom Hogan (Fla.)
• National anthem sung by Philip Alongi
• Invocation by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
• Opening procedural steps, appointment of convention committees

Welcoming remarks, and House and Senate candidates and RNC auxiliaries including:

• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
• RNC Co-Chairman Sharon Day
• Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn
• Convention Chief Executive Officer William Harris
• Chairman of Tampa Bay Host Committee Al Austin
• Republican congressional candidates
• State Delegate Barbara Comstock (Va.)
• Rep. Tim Griffin (Ark.)
• Republican Senate candidates
• Republican National Committee auxiliaries

And then all the official business that happens at the Convention

• Consideration of convention committee reports
• Committee on Credentials Chairman Mike Duncan
• Committee on Permanent Organization Chairwoman Zoraida Fonalledas
• Convention Permanent Chairman Speaker John Boehner, presiding
• Official convention photograph
• Committee on Rules Chairman John Sununu
• Committee on Resolutions Chairman Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va.
• Committee on Resolutions Co-Chairman Sen. John Hoeven
• Committee on Resolutions Co-Chairman Rep. Marsha Blackburn
• Roll call for nomination of president of the United States
• Roll call for nomination of vice president of the United States

6:40 p.m.: Recess

And that’s it.  No more reason to watch except for the speeches.

Our coverage will continue with TheMomCat around 7 pm for the evening addresses.

The Week has a pretty useful guide.

The GOP convention: A viewer’s guide

The Week

posted on August 28, 2012, at 10:25 AM

Hot speakers.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says in the 7 p.m. EDT hour on Wednesday, following a video of Ron Paul. Several other former Romney rivals will also speak: Rick Santorum (7 p.m. Tuesday), Tim Pawlenty (9 p.m. Wednesday), and Newt Gingrich (7 p.m. Thursday). There are also up-and-comers of note: Utah congressional candidate Mia Love (7 p.m. Tuesday), Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz (9 p.m. Tuesday), and Gov. Martinez (10 p.m. Wednesday). Here’s the full schedule.

Will it all be on TV?  Depends on what kind of TV you watch.

ABC, NBC, and CBS will only broadcast the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. speeches on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. PBS will begin its coverage at 8 p.m. each night. The big three cable news channels – CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC – will devote a lot more airtime to the convention, running intermittent coverage and commentary from the Tuesday opening until Thursday’s final gavel. Current TV will cover most of the convention, hosted by former Vice President Al Gore.

…

The RNC is offering its own live stream on YouTube, plus a bunch of interactive features through its “Convention Without Walls” Facebook app, but you can also watch the convention unfold live online at Politico, ABC News, PBS NewsHour, Fox News, and The Wall Street Journal – in fact, many of these sites have multiple simultaneous live streams, available for viewing on your computer, smartphone, or tablet (you can watch ABC’s three feeds at the same time via an iPad app). You can even watch a live feed of the anti-RNC protests, courtesy of Occupy Tampa, or real-time fact-checking from the Sunlight Foundation.

I’ll probably start out with MSNBC and switch to Current if I think it will help, but I may just have to retire to my fainting couch if there are any breaches in proper decorum and something exciting happens.

Feel free to chime in with your observations and outrages.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

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Lydia Netzer: The Man in the Moon

MOST technological advances are actually just improvements. One thing builds on the next: from shoddy to serviceable, from helpful to amazing. First you had a carriage, then a car, and then an airplane; now you have a jet. You improve on what is there. Technological advances are like that.

Except for the one that involved landing on the Moon. When a human went and stood on the Moon and looked back at the Earth, that was a different kind of breakthrough. Nothing tangible changed when Neil Armstrong’s foot dug into the lunar dust and his eyes turned back at us. We didn’t get faster wheels or smaller machines or more effective medicine. But we changed, fundamentally. What had been unknown, was known. What had been unseen was seen. And our human horizon popped out 200,000 miles. Forever, we would see the Earth differently, because we had seen it from someplace truly foreign.

This is why Mars is important. When we get a human to Mars – in the next few decades, NASA has predicted – our horizon will expand 1,000 times farther, and it will never go back.

New York Times Editorial: The Storm, Again

Tropical Storm Isaac is more than just a logistical inconvenience for Republicans gathered in Tampa: it is a powerful reminder both of Republican incompetence in handling Hurricane Katrina seven years ago, and the party’s no-less-disastrous plans to further cut emergency-related spending.

That is not something you will hear Paul Ryan talk about this week at the convention, nor any of the other lawmakers who make simplistic promises about the power of slashing government spending. But the budgets assembled by Mr. Ryan and warmly embraced by Mitt Romney severely cut spending for emergency preparedness, exactly the kind of money needed in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and scores of other states for this and future storms. [..]

One of the themes of the Tampa convention will be the failure of government, and the prosperity that will result if it is cut to ribbons. But in a different corner of the television screen, the winds of Isaac are a reminder of the necessity of government – its labor, its expertise, its money – in the nation’s most dire moments. It is hard to forget what happened to New Orleans when that Republican philosophy was followed in 2005, and it will be harder still to explain how it might be allowed to happen again.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour a cup of your favorite morning beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

August 28 is the 240th day of the year (241st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 125 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King addressed the crowds assembled on the Washington Mall from the steps at the Lincoln Memorial. His speech, “I have a Dream”, is forever embedded in history and our memories as one of the great moments in the fight for civil rights. But there were many other speakers, and in particular one great performance by the “Queen of Gospel”, Mahalia Jackson. Right before Dr. King spoke, Ms. Jackson performed “How I Got Over”.

Indeed, if Martin Luther King, Jr., had a favorite opening act, it was Mahalia Jackson, who performed by his side many times. On August 28, 1963, as she took to the podium before an audience of 250,000 to give the last musical performance before Dr. King’s speech, Dr. King himself requested that she sing the gospel classic “I’ve Been ‘Buked, and I’ve Been Scorned.” Jackson was just as familiar with Dr. King’s repertoire as he was with hers, and just as King felt comfortable telling her what to sing as the lead-in to what would prove to be the most famous speech of his life, Jackson felt comfortable telling him in what direction to take that speech.

The story that has been told since that day has Mahalia Jackson intervening at a critical junction when she decided King’s speech needed a course-correction. Recalling a theme she had heard him use in earlier speeches, Jackson said out loud to Martin Luther King, Jr., from behind the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” And at that moment, as can be seen in films of the speech, Dr. King leaves his prepared notes behind to improvise the entire next section of his speech-the historic section that famously begins “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream….”

There is no embeddable video of Ms Jackson from that day but here is the inspirational song she performed that day.

“I am not a number.  I am a HUMAN BEING!”

Below the fold lies painful, hurtful snark.  For those who may object on issues of taste and decorum, all I can say is “I warned you”.