Convention link roundup.

Even more updates from Allah. (If you read this post yesterday scroll to the bottom for analyses of the speeches.) I had forgotten that Laura Bush mentioned that her father participated in the liberation of one of the concentration camps. First you have Guiliani explicitly connecting terrorism against Israel and Jews to Islamist terrorism in general, then Laura's comment, then Esther Jungreis giving the closing benediction. Yes, this is reaching out to the Jewish vote, but it is also - without any grandstanding gestures - demonstrating a deep understanding of Pastor Niemoller's famous quote.

More protestor infiltration of the RNC. More.
More minor RNC fisticuffs. Al Franken doesn't get it. He sounds like most of the 50ish liberal men I know who can't actually have an intelligent debate on the issues once they run out of talking points. They live in an echo chamber where all they have to do is throw out some anti-Bush cliche, and everyone around them nods sagely and looks concerned (believe me, hanging out on the Upper West Side, I get caught in many of these groupthink sessions). When anyone in the circle disagrees with them, they're stunned. Or they get angry and start churning out even more cliches, and if you still disagree with them, they start verbally bullying you.

Some audio of Don King at the RNC.

Oh yeah, there's still stuff going on outside. . . .
"Global village useful idiots."
More global useful village idiots. Yes! The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching you scream and rant! The whole world is watching Bush's polling numbers grow! I can feel Manhattan Island tilting . . . .
Handy map of protestor arrests.
Win Without War: another Commie front. Yawn.

Another account of Sunday's scuffle between Protest Warriors and UFPJ marchers. (Link to video at the top of the page.)
Another account.
More PW coverage.
AP photos.
Al Jazeera (probably inadvertantly) included many PW signs in their snapshot of the protests. Heh. More idolatrous confusion from the Great Satan.
Great article in NY Metro:

Responses began slow, with the simple "No more Bush!" Then the more specific: "Why don�t you get your own march?" And finally the unmelodic: "Transport Fascists out of our march!"

Before it was over, two Protest Warrior posters had been torn up by anti-Bush marchers, the conservatives had a police escort out of the march, and Tom Paladino, head of PW�s "flagship New York City chapter" was thrilled: "Get it all on tape! There it is! See! Free speech! That�ll be on our website! See! That�s exactly what we wanted. This is what the peace movement is about!" "No," a young woman with a "justice" t-shirt disagreed. "Actually, that�s not what it is about." But she didn't pause. She marched on, with several hundred thousand of her colleagues, as cops escorted eight Warriors to the sidewalk.

Mildly off-topic: everyone's favorite Beltway sex worker has some shocking totally counter-intuitive news for you:

On things people would be most surprised to know abouthttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif life in the Beltway: "People like to pretend that money and looks don't matter, but they do. It's supposed to be a big meritocracy, but people here are just as shallow as anywhere else."

I bet you didn't know that.

UPDATE: Alan compares blogging at both conventions:

the DNC felt like college enrollment crossed with a rock concert. The RNC feels like the Young Republicans crossed with a large professional association convention � maybe the American Management Association, or a real estate convention � money, with just touch of �what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.�

Immature self-important college kids vs. seasoned grownups who work for a living. Exactly. More:

The DNC treated us as oddities � the RNC seems (at my first blush) to be treating us like journalists. Not CNN, but journalists still. The placement on Radio Row is the first indication of this � my seating is no worse than Sean Hannity�s � and the liason they�ve assigned is another.

Who was it who said Bush is going around the mainstream media to get his message out? And more.

UPDATE: Yet more on being a blogger at the RNC.

Next installment here.