Speaking as an adult, I thought that President Bush came off better than I expected… but then I didn’t have very high expectations. He had some facts at his fingertips, and he was able to drop the names of foreign leaders into the conversation to highlight the personal relationships he’s manage to build with some of them. However, his body language was that of an impatient, even angry man who looked like he’d been called on the carpet unjustly. His hunched shoulders and dismissive turns of his head were not very presidential. Several times he stumbled or paused before answering…

“We shouldn’t be here,” said one Marine infantryman bluntly. “There was no reason for invading this country in the first place. We just came here and [angered people] and killed a lot of innocent people,” said the marine, who has seen regular combat in Ramadi. “I don’t enjoy killing women and children, it’s not my thing.” That’s what a small but more and more vocal minority in the US military are saying. Meanwhile, there’s a very, very large push on to get their absentee ballots properly postmarked and counted this time around. Either way they vote, O.K. by me, because…

Activist/protestor June Brashares shouted “Bush Lied, People Died” during the worship service/acceptance speech, and was quickly hustled out of the area. Another protestor, Jodi Evans, also protested and was also speedily removed. The onlookers gawk, smiling smugly, at the spectacle of a basher in Barbara Bush pearls getting tossed out of their little pep rally. This is a screen capture from the video. And yes, that’s a security guy’s hand, attempting to muzzle her as she passes by the press section and all their hungry, hungry microphones. Via MR in conjunction with Joshua Berman of the LA Weekly.

The Repubs’ tribute to Johnny Cash is causing a ruckus, some fans plan a protest tribute of their own – they’ll dress up as Cash and sing his songs. He was his own man, that Man in Black. I wonder what he’d think? The Cash estate have not objected, because the Cash tribute is part of a program honoring a longtime friend of the musician’s, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee).

Via The Smirking Chimp: Garrison Keillor lambastes the Right with near-Elizabethan virtuousity. The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious…

In res Pontifex Maximus et Chimpulus Bushii: This unctuous moralizing about family life and sexuality is pretty rich coming from a gang that has presided over the most widespread, elaborately concealed child abuse scandal in the history of religion. But then, rank hypocrisy has never been a bar to militant self-righteousness. Witness John Paul’s fellow public scold in Washington. Not content with the pope’s merely rhetorical flourishes, Bush takes a more pre-emptive approach to inconvenient women — condemning thousands of them to gruesome, entirely preventable deaths with a simple stroke of his pen. Now that is a mighty thundering from…

Something you need to know about Alan Keyes: he’s pro-life, he’s not modest about his achievements, and he probably shouldn’t write his own ad copy. And this is the guy the Illinois GOP thinks they might throw against Barak Obama? Is widely considered the most formidable defender of America’s founding principles in today’s political arena. Is generally conceded to be the winner of the 2000 Republican Presidential Debates, due to his remarkable eloquence and persuasiveness. Is capable of leading our country to widespread moral and political renewal, once all of America has a chance to see and hear, first-hand, his…

The widow of former President, and Republican icon, Ronald Reagan has told the GOP she wants nothing to do with their upcoming national convention or the re-election campaign of President George W. Bush. Whoa. So noted. They really ticked her off over a campaign ad they were all set to run during or just after the week of Reaganmania that used images of former President Reagan in a way that seemed to connect his presidency to Bush’s, or gave the impression that he would have approved of Bush’s reelection. Scroll down in the article for some more tasty fulminations from…