CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Republican National Convention Bloggers

Check out Republican National Convention bloggers, an aggregation point for blog coverage of the RNC in New York.

New York Welcomes The RNC

According to the New York Daily News, the signs aren't good for Republicans arriving in New York for the Republican National Convention:

In fact, neither are the buttons, pins, magnets, T-shirts, bumper stickers and even underwear.
The past few weeks have brought a slew of pro-Kerry - or more frequently, anti-Bush - paraphernalia to the streets and shops of New York, just in time for the four-day convention.

[. . .]

Even as they fly in, delegates will be welcomed - rather, taunted - by giant signs urging travelers to vote Kerry.

New York police arrested more than 250 bicyclists during a protest ride. The Associated Press reports:

Bikers chanted anti-Bush slogans, stifled traffic and, in some places, argued with motorists during the Friday night ride, which began at Union Square and drew thousands of cyclists.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said the bikers had caused "massive disruptions" and endangered motorists. Participants said their ride was peaceful and that the arrests were an excessive show of force.

Police had passed out leaflets to the riders warning them not to ride more than two abreast, and many of them ignored that warning, Browne said. Among the protesters arrested was one who allegedly threw a beer can at an officer, he said. The officer was uninjured.

On Thursday 14 AIDS activists were arrested after nine protestors stripped naked opposite the site of next week's Republican Convention. According to New York's WCBS TV:

Two clothed members of ACT UP climbed atop a media van parked on West 33rd Street and held a sign reading "W: Drop the Debt. Stop AIDS." Then nine others, standing in the street, removed all of their clothes; a tenth protested in her underwear.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when asked about the protest, joked "This is New York. Of course we have ... naked people on Eighth Avenue."

The Associated Press reported that Police officer needed 38 stitches for a leg wound he suffered when protesters unfurled a banner from the roof of The Plaza hotel.

I have no problem with people protesting anything. I simply cannot tolerate those goons that engage in violence and harm police officers.

Kerry's Florida Headline Indigestion

Betsy Newmark thinks this will give the Kerry campaign indigestion.

Under the headline "Poll: Many Democrats in Florida may vote for Bush," the Tallahassee Democrat reports that a new poll found 11 percent of Democrats willing to vote for Bush on Nov. 2, compared to just 5 percent of Republicans who said they would cross over for Kerry. According to the Tallahassee Democrat:

And while only 18 percent of Democrats consider themselves conservative, more than one-third of conservative Democrats said they will vote for Bush.

The Kerry campaign tried to put a positive spin on the poll:

Matthew Miller, a spokesman for Kerry's state campaign, noted that Mason-Dixon surveyed only Democrats and Republicans - not independents or members of minor parties - because the main purpose of the poll was to handicap next Tuesday's U.S. Senate primaries. Only Democrats and Republicans can vote in the Senate primaries, but all registered voters can cast ballots on Nov. 2.

There is more Florida headline indigestion for the Kerry campaign. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran "Veterans in Florida like Bush, poll finds," reporting on a statewide poll this week of 400 veterans who favored President Bush over Kerry 56 percent to 39 percent.

Kerry's Awful August continues.

Electronic Voting Machine Spoof

Check out "Electronic Voting Machine Spoof" at Cynical-C Blog.

This doesn't help my already suspicious view of electronic voting machines, but it sure is amusing.

Sexy New Poll

This poll finding Democrats out-perform their Republicans in bed by a two-to-one margin inspired Venomous Kate to conduct a sex survey. Go vote.

Thanks to James Joyner's "Beltway Traffic Jam" for the tip.

Toys Depicting 9-11 Attack Recalled

The Associated Press reports that toys showing an airplane flying into the World Trade Center have been recalled:

Lisy Corp., the wholesaler that distributed the candy, said Friday that the toys were purchased in bulk from a Miami-based import company.

The toys came in an assortment purchased sight unseen from L&M Import in Miami and included the toys depicting the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the twin towers, whistles and other small toys, said Luis Pedron, Lisy's national sales manager. The invoice said the toy was a plastic swing set.

"I hate to blame the importer. He probably did not know what he was getting. He brings them in 40-foot containers. But whoever made it knew exactly what they were making," Pedron said.

Pedron said Lisy did not notice the small plastic figurines until two people complained, but there is no mistaking what the toys represent: At the bottom of each is the product number 9011.

You really can't make this stuff up.

More Ketchup - Version 24

Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind has posted "Kerry's House of Ketchup #24."

Go read the House of Ketchup.

Kerry Campaign To Pull Ad Featuring McCain

Bloomberg reports that the Kerry campaign is pulling an ad featuring footage of Senator McCain rebuking President Bush during the 2000 primary campaign:

McCain said in an interview with the New York Times that he would ask the Kerry campaign to stop running the ad.

[. . .]

"John McCain asked us to take down the ad," Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter told reporters on a conference call. "We respected those wishes."

[. . .]

Crystal Benton, a spokeswoman for McCain, declined to comment. McCain told the New York Times that he wanted to put "anything disagreeable concerning the 2000 campaign behind me" and didn't want the Kerry campaign to use the footage against Bush.

[. . .]

The Kerry ad was a reaction to the ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which ran earlier this month in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The Seattle Times Endorses Kerry

The Seattle Times, the largest paper in Washington State, endorsed Kerry over President Bush, whom the paper endorsed in 2000:

Four years ago, this page endorsed George W. Bush for president. We cannot do so again — because of an ill-conceived war and its aftermath, undisciplined spending, a shrinkage of constitutional rights and an intrusive social agenda.

The Bush presidency is not what we had in mind. Our endorsement of John Kerry is not without reservations, but he is head and shoulders above the incumbent.

[. . .]

Our largest doubt about Kerry is his idea that the federal debt may be stabilized, and dozens of new programs added, merely by raising taxes on the top 2 percent of Americans. Class warfare is a false promise, and we hope he forgets it.

I don't recall newspapers endorsing presidential nominees until after both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Editor and Publisher called it a "surprising early announcement." It wasn't the first however, the Philadelphia Daily News endorsed Kerry on June 16th.

Why?

Are you tired of the endless blather about Kerry's four month war record? Do you wonder why we are not having a meaningful discussion about whether our present strategy of winning the war against terror by bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East is better than fighting the war using only the criminal justice system? Or do you wonder why we can't discuss for some alternative strategy for victory?

Herman Jacobs explains why we haven't been able to talk the future, or even the recent past, in this presidential campaign in "Kerry's Lost Opportunity." Jacob's explanation is contained in an Opinion Journal - Extra. It's long, but worth your time. Please read it.