Congratulations to Sen. Obama!

Get ready. The job has just begun.

How's the crowd, Randy?

Attending the convention last night, the excitement was felt throughout the Pepsi Center. Anticipation grew as the great speakers fed the crowd's need for hope and change. In walking through the center, from the Tennessee delegation down to Florida, over to New Mexico and New York, everyone appeared to be ready to work together to win the presidency in 2008.

The Pepsi Center was packed. For most of the delegations, there were limited seats and the overflow sat in the nosebleed sections. The sound of 15,000-20,000 people with a common political interest was exhilarating. Notes to attendees, arrive early to avoid long lines for entry and don't leave the main arena area after 8 PM, you may not get back in.

As time got closer for Hillary Rodham Clinton to speak, the people on the convention floor were closer together than people on a New York subway at rush hour. I'm not sure those on the floor vying for a close spot cared, they just wanted to be near the action. I felt the same way until it got so close it felt like cattle going to slaughter. Time to head back to the Tennessee delegation.

Some of the Tennessee delegates were gracious enough to give me a few minutes. I just happened to find a group from East Tennessee. Dan Lawson, from Maryville, was there as a delegate from the 8th district. He had also attended the 2000 convention for Al Gore. Sylvia Woods and her husband, Harold, were there in their Hillary Clinton regalia. Both are hard working Democrats and members of the AFL-CIO. Sylvia is the recently elected Chair of the Knox County Democratic Party. Harold has been a leader in the AFL-CIO for 25 years. They have been married 47 years and still a very happy couple. Their advice, "A family that sticks together can get things done." Mrs. Woods also attended the last Democratic Convention in Chicago and Mr. Woods attended the last Democratic Convention in San Francisco. They worked and campaigned really hard to attend this convention together. I also spoke briefly with a delegate from Pulaski (Middle TN). He and his wife were both there as TN delegates. The Mrs. is a Super Delegate and a big HRC supporter. She traveled throughout the country with the HRC campaign. All of the delegates I spoke with said it was hard work campaigning for a delegate spot.

The Tennessee delegation seats aren't too bad. Only a couple of delegations back from the floor and there was a decent view of the box seats for Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and other political dignitaries.

The speakers leading up to HRC were great. I especially enjoyed Mark Warner (Governor of Virginia) and Brian Schweitzer (Governor of Montana). Word is Lilly Ledbetter's address to the convention was great. I somehow missed it trying to break from the crowd.

What more can be said? Hillary Rodham Clinton was awesome. Standing between the Tennessee and Texas delegations, you could tell there were still a lot of people wishing she were the nominee. Ms. Clinton is willing to step aside for Unity. She obviously still has an agenda, as many of us expect. She wants to work together to achieve the goals to turn around our great country, to bring us back to prosperity, to make us all equal, to provide healthcare for all, and more. Many thanks to Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is a true inspiration. Now lets get our candidate, Barack Obama, elected President of these great United States.

More photos in this Tuesday slideshow

Lot's of activity outside the DNC. Civic Center Park is about 1/2 to 1 mile from the Pepsi Center. The US Mint, the State Capitol building, the Denver Art Museum, and the Colorado History Museum all border the park area. Think World's Fair Park and KMA, oh the potential.

Finally, protesters. Oh, wait, you can't see the protesters. What you see are the press and/or lookie-loos.

More after the jump

The State of Tennessee Democratic Party DNC delegates met for a breakfast meeting (sponsored by AT&T) this morning at their hotel. Gray Sasser opened the meeting and introduced the featured speaker, Fabian Bedne. Mr. Bedne is the President of the Middle TN Hispanic Democrats and an Obama Alternate Delegate for TN to the convention. He discussed the traditional Hispanic community's distrust of the media, the importance of word-of-mouth sharing of information, as well as too much government power disrespects the constitution. Video of excerpts of his speech are at the end of this post.

Members of the Tennessee Federation of College Democrats are attending the Democratic National Convention. The two young ladies drove straight through from Tennessee, no overnight stops. Such dedication! The group is very excited about the election and will do everything they can to get out the college student vote, including annoying students so much they'll vote just to get them to shut up.

Saw it on the CNN crawl.

The O-Mail arrived at 4:45 AM. A Huffington Post item with an AP release arrived at 1:45 AM.

Yowza! Fay keeps on punishing Central Florida.

National Weather Service says the Melbourne area has been hardest hit and has received 18 to 24 inches of rain, depending on location. They could get 3 to 4 inches more tonight, possibly.

Here's wishing all our old friends down there the best of luck. I'll bet Fletch is glad to be back in Tennesse, at least right now.

Welcome to Denver, part two?

Denver has set aside holding pens inside a dilapidated warehouse with no toilets, no water, no fire sprinkler system.

The location was determined unfit for storing voting equipment.

What the heck, they're only protesters. Not really human.

What's Denver doing about these types of activities?

[Denver] Officers also are antsy about the recent death of a man found dead in a Denver luxury hotel on Monday near a pound of cyanide.

Nancy Pelosi is strong:

"The President has failed in his economic policy, and now he wants to say, 'but for drilling in protected areas offshore, our economy would be thriving and the price of gas would be lower.' That hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to relieve the pain of consumers at the pump and to promote energy independence."

Two weeks later, Nancy Pelosi is weak:

"Reversing her position, Pelosi said she was willing to schedule a vote in the House of Representatives on legislation to expand offshore drilling, if the bill addressed other energy issues, such as extending tax credits for solar and wind energy and releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve."

Take the poll at Russ McBee's.

Tom Hayden was there in 1968, in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. He was one of the Chicago Seven charged with inciting the riots.

As regards to '68,

"It simply didn't have to happen," Hayden says of the Chicago chaos, 40 years later. "It takes two for a riot to occur. And if it wasn't for the FBI advisers, Chicago '68 would not have happened - repeat, would not have happened."

In regard to '08,

"...there's really no comparison to 2008, he says."

In '68, the Democratic Party was prolonging a war where hundreds of young men were dying every week. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated shortly before the convention.

Let's hope both sides will stay calm this time around. A preview, Yippies with 'peace bats'.

Isaac Hayes has passed on leaving many of us with great memories.

He was born in Covington, TN, and began recording at Memphis' Stax Records.

He later wrote a string of hit songs with songwriting partner David Porter, including "You Don't Know Like I Know", "Soul Man", "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby", and "Hold On I'm Comin" for Sam and Dave. Hayes, Porter and Stax studio band Booker T. & the MGs served as the main production team for much of the label's output during the early and mid-1960s.

Then, of course, there is Shaft, for which he won an Academy Award and two Grammys.

He'll be missed.

It is not surprising Rush's Music has been providing services to the community for Fifty Years. The Rush family's knowledge and kindness was appreciated by so many. It appears the more recent owners have carried on their values well.

Congratulations! Fifty years!

Don't let your child be robbed of their "Total" education.

Support your local Band, Chorus and Art Teachers!

Why are we so often reacting instead of planning?

A Gang of 10 Senators, five Republicans and five Democrats, are proposing a new energy plan.

A bipartisan group of 10 senators offered an energy plan Friday aimed at producing more domestic oil via offshore drilling, reducing energy prices, and aiding the troubled economy.

The Gang of 10 include Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Saxby Chambliss, a R-Ga.; John Thune, R-S.D.; Ben Nelson, D-Neb.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Mark Pryor, D-Ark.; Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.; Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.; and Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

Drilling bans along the Pacific coast and the Northeast would remain in place under this compromise.

Only in the Southeast? Alrighty then.

Obama is willing to support the effort. Earlier in the day he was proposing $1,000 "emergency" rebate checks. Guess that wasn't enough.

Can we hope Congress will hold off on any decisions until after the Presidential election? Then we might have a new President with four years to actual devise a thoughtful solution without oil companies influence. Nah.

Our President held a hastily planned press conference this morning, before heading off to Kennebunkport.

Violence is low.
Iraq forces are becoming capable.
Progress is reversible.
"Degree of durability in gains."
"its reasonable to expect "further reductions in our combat forces, as conditions permit."

There are still approximately 147,000 US troops in Iraq. There have been 4,125 US troop deaths since the beginning of the war, 85 of these were from Tennessee. There have been over 30,000 US troops wounded in the Iraq War.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan 561 US troops have given their lives for Operation Enduring Freedom. According to the Washington Post, "Nearly twice as many U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq so far this month, marking the lowest death toll of the Iraq war and the first time that the American military has suffered more casualties in Afghanistan than it has in Iraq ."

There's a bright side to how bad we think our economy is? Last week, in Zimbabwe a loaf of bread cost more then $100 billion.

Gono [Central Bank Gov.] acted because the high rate of inflation was hampering the country's computer systems. Computers, electronic calculators and automated teller machines at Zimbabwe's banks cannot handle basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars.

Inflation is running somewhere between 2.2 million percent and 12.5 million percent, depending on who you ask. Yikes!

Los Angeles City Council has decided to fight obesity in the South side by not allowing any new fast food restaurants in the next year.

"Thirty percent of adults in South Los Angeles area are obese, compared to 19.1 percent for the metropolitan area and 14.1 percent for the affluent Westside, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health."

Hey, Tennesseans, look out! We, along with Alabama and Mississippi, have the highest obesity rate in the country. (Stop the animated map at the year 2007.) Will the governor put a moratorium on fast food restaurants in the whole state? I think not. Our unemployment rate will sky-rocket.

Effective July 1, 2008, the CDC is funding a program in 23 states "to develop a state plan for nutrition, physical activity, and obesity (state plan)". Tennessee received funding. Alabama and Mississippi did not. Heh.

Apparently FPL only used 25% of the money customers voluntarily paid for renewable energy projects on anything related to renewable energy. Most of that was spent on out of state renewable energy credits. The majority of the money was spent on administrative, marketing and management expenses.

After allowing the company to collect over $11 million in just less than five years, the State of Florida decides to do an audit. Florida will now decide whether the customers are due a refund or if FPL gets a second chance to invest in renewable energy projects.

This is just one reason I am wary to make a donation through a business. You can pay money to a local utility to help the less fortunate pay their bills. You can add a dollar or more at your local grocer to donate to a variety of charities. You can drop a dollar in a can to help a local cause. How do you ever know where your money goes? Is it just a feel good moment gone bad?

Good news! "The city [Denver] also announced today that none of the equipment purchases include nonlethal weapons that discharge "slime" or "goo" to immobilize persons or vehicles or that use microwaves or sonic waves to induce pain or discomfort in targets.

Not that I'll be protesting. I just don't want to accidentally get slimed while strolling through Denver. Of course, I don't want to get hit with a billystick or rubber bullet either.

Want to attend the festivies on the last night of the convention? You must be serious.

"Every single person is going to be a level of seriousness," Hildebrand said. "You know, 'Tell us how you're going to get there from Maine. Tell us how you're going to get there from Florida. Give us a sense of whether or not you're really serious about this. If you're not, we're going to provide someone else with this.' "

You'll probably be more likely to get a ticket if you sign on to perform volunteer activities for the campaign. Contact your local Democratic Party office.

"I think it's fair to say that we don't have any specific credible threat information with regard to the convention, you know, from a terrorist standpoint."

Let's see, Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, he got to watch Saddam Hussein get arrested, he has a degree in accounting, and he worked undercover in Chicago. Oh, and he was a "legal" attache in Baghdad.

Let's hope all of the additional security personnel in Denver do get to go there, see the Rocky Mountains, and go home.

Heckuva job, Jimmie!

Read this New York Times article and tell me you don't want a chocolate chip cookie.

Tips: They're better warm. The dough should be chilled 12-36 hours. Make them big. For something extra, use really good chocolate.

McCain, Obama first joint appearance in a church?

From TalkLeft,

We should keep religion and morality out of politics. It's a private matter that should stay private. What's next, debates at churches? Televising prayer breakfasts instead of congressional hearings? This is a slippery slope.

Sheesh.

H/T egalia.

The Orlando Sentinel posts an article on "Winning Strategies for Obama, McCain in Florida".

Florida generally tends to lean Republican. "Republicans carried Florida in eight of the past 11 presidential elections..." Nothing unique here, Republicans carried most of the states in the past 11 presidential elections.

The writer's tip for Obama, Maximize turnout.

However, it appears the one time Florida did not follow the Republican trend was Bill Clinton's second term, 1996. The 1996 election had the lowest voter turnout of the past 12 presidential elections and Florida went for Clinton. Could it really have been a great economy that won Clinton the election in Florida? I guess the writer's tip may be good after all since Obama will not win based on a good economy this year.

Belmar, NJ, just south of Asbury Park, is an apparent party town in the summer. The mayor has been blogging in order to get the word out to renters "about what is and isn't allowed in Belmar".

He included "humorous" comments about specific incidents:

like the group who left their marijuana-smoking water pipe out on the table while police responded to a noise complaint at their address.

Another entry regarded a fight between two ladies, one from Staten Island who kept holding her drink while fighting.

"Now, we're not sure if the glass was stuck to her hand cause of all the hair spray, or if this is a technique Staten Island girls learn in Brownies, but we are thankful she left her brass knuckles and straight razor in her other purse."

The mayor will be blogging no more. He has issued an apology, sort of. Guess he needed Rodney Dangerfield's help writing the jokes.

$85 million worth of household goods and supplies for Katrina hurricane survivors not distributed for two years, then marked as surplus and given to areas not affected.

“[FEMA] has proven to be, time and again, deaf to the immediate needs on the ground in the aftermath and long-term recovery from a major disaster,” Sen. Landrieu said in a press release this week. “I am planning a joint hearing for later this month of my Disaster Recovery Subcommittee and the House Homeland Security Committee to get to the bottom of how FEMA’s communications chain could again fail the Gulf Coast so tremendously.”

Our government has become quite ineffective. They can't see past the moment. We need to hold them accountable.

When picking numbers for the Tennessee Powerball lottery game, there are 42 possible powerball numbers, 1 - 42. Scroll down to see a picture of a Powerbal lottery playslip. I recently purchase three quickpick Powerball lottery tickets. The Powerball numbers were 10, 38, and 42.

Out of the last 162 Powerball drawings (January 3, 2007 through July 16, 2008 ), numbers below 20 were picked 92 times (56.8%) and numbers 20 and above were picked 70 times (43.2%). There are 19 numbers below 20 (45.2%) and 23 numbers 20 and above (54.8%). Prior to 2007, powerball picks of numbers 20 and above were picked more often, as you would think they might be as there are more numbers. In 2007 and so far in 2008, powerball picks of numbers less than 20 have been picked more often (see counts after the Read more). Did something change in 2007 or is this just a phenomenon that happens with lotteries?

Also, how is that in the last 7 powerballs, three of them were 17? In 2008, the most picked powerball number was? 17, picked 5 times.

Do they still pick powerball numbers with the ping pong balls or do they now use a computer?

Does any of this really matter?

Central Floridian, "Mike Meehan claims he never expected so many people to pay attention to the billboards that he put up around Orlando -- the ones that feature the Twin Towers burning next to the slogan: "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat."

Every picture tells a story, don't it.

This picture tells us weird (bad?) people are out there. Be careful!

Update: additional Orlando controversy, UCF student impeached from Student Senate for desecrating a sacred object (he took a Communion wafer and put it in his pocket for show and tell).

You can't make this stuff up.

While overall interest in the presidential campaign has swelled since last fall, backers of Barack Obama are more fired up and express more loyalty to their candidate than McCain's do, a poll by The Associated Press and Yahoo News showed Friday.

They needed a poll to figure this out?

John McCain is a lucky recipient of Social Security benefits.

Last week, McCain said the system for funding Social Security is "a disgrace" because it forces young workers to pay into a program that is unlikely to benefit them in its current form.

Can you turn down SS benefits? If so, shouldn't he? I mean, he's very wealthy, isn't he? I'm sure there are a lot of us who could use those benefits when the time comes.

The pilots union for US Airways said Wednesday the airline is pressuring pilots to use less fuel than they feel is safe in order to save money.

I think pilots should get the fuel they request. They are the ones flying the planes. They are the ones responsible once in the air. Give them, and us, a break.

Did you know? "...an average roundtrip flight costs about $299 worth of fuel per passenger, company officials said." How can an airline sell tickets for less than that?

President Bush lifted an executive ban signed by his father in 1990 to prohibit offshore drilling.

Congress has a separate ban on offshore drilling. Aren't we lucky Democrats are in control of Congress?

Politics at its finest. Will Congress cave as they have with so many things?

I don't suppose this is the first time The New Yorker magazine has caused controversy. Here's a little background on New Yorker politically incorrect covers.

Good satire or too much?

Reactions around the liberal blogosphere, TalkLeft, Politico, The Huffington Post.