The Speech

Ok, I know a few of you watched it and have some hot opinions about it. My Random Thoughts:

• Her "cut government spending" schtick is pretty good
• Her rhetoric came off much harsher tonight than I expected. And she might want to be careful with that: Biden could really clean her clock in a debate simply because he's better at it.
• She stretched the truth a little bit ("He's worried that we won't be reading [the terrorists] their rights" and that "taxes will go up with [Obama].")
• "What's the difference between a soccer mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." Some speech writer needs to be fired tomorrow for borrowing jokes from the 1990s.
• She comes across as confident, but I'm not sure why. Kind of like a first round draft pick who hasn't played a down yet.
• But she's probably fun to hang out with. And she's hot.
• With today's greeting on the runway, McCain has met her three times.
• There is no question: The conservative masses will love her.
• Edit: I'll be dang. They had BabyDaddy up on stage with the pregnant daughter. This morning, WBAP's Mark Davis suggested that should happen, and I thought "no way." But they did. And, I'll agree, it worked.

"Son, Try Something New: Be On Your Best Behavior Tonight Or I'll Break You In Half"

"Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, greets Levi Johnston, left, boyfriend of Bristol Palin, center, the pregnant daughter of vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin."

State Senator Candidate Noriega and Longtime Wise County Constable Dennis Hudson . . .

. . . hang out together. Which has probably never happened before. Just stumbled on it on the local Dems web site.

The Death Star

As three of you know, I'm a stadium fan. Weird quirk, I know. I just like to go and see stadiums that I've seen on TV for years. But I haven't been down to Austin in quite a while and hadn't realized just how much they've changed the Darrell Joe Jamail Royal Memorial Stadium Field. First, look at that pick of the north end zone. I sat in that thing when it was one lower level and pretty much detached from the rest of the stadium. The other picture is the Godzillatron video screen they put in a couple of years ago. Those are guys in yellow security coats at the bottom of the picture to give you an idea as to how big it is. I might need to go visit that place.

Wednesday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Fake. But Funny.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Feels like Fall this morning. That's-a-good.
• A fantasy football draft (mine occurred last night - photo below) with 14 teams and 15 rounds can turn into a beating
• My league actually paid Yahoo $129 for its fantasy football package because it had some extra features we had to have that the free version didn't.
• The Star Telegram home page is still "Tracking Hurricane Gustav." I think it's in Cottondale now
• The Republican National Convention seemed very white last night.
• Lot's of Bird Hunting Talk at the courthouse yesterday
• I had another taillight go out on the family truckster. I actually had a spare replacement light from last week so I was able to change it on the spot. Never had that happen before.
• I'm not sure I understand the Burning Man celebration. It looks like a bunch of hippies. But I would kind of like to go see it.
• Obama got the expected "bump" from the Democratic Convention as he now leads McCain 50% to 42% in the Gallup Poll.
• I don't like going to bed at midnight and getting up at 5:00 a.m.
• I appreciate the banter in the comments between Right Wing and Left Wing but I don't think either side is subject to being persuaded to change
• I don't think we expect much out of life.
• "Glamour models Rosie Jones, Amy Diamond and Katie Downs march down Oxford Street in London wearing lingerie to promote the reopening of the Ann Summers store." In America, we settle for a ribbon cutting with big, fake scissors.
• A college president gets photographed holding a mini-beer bong over a coed's mouth in a boat and ends up being forced to resign with a $400,000 severance package? Sign me up.
• Nicholas Cage makes about three movies a year. Most of them bad. (Saw him briefly on David Letterman last night while I was channel surfing.)
• I drove through Granbury for the first time in years last weekend (home of Jarhead, I believe.) Man, that place is built up. Big time.
• The boyfriend of the pregnant daughter of Sarah Palin apparently had a myspace page referring to himself as a "redneck", dropped some profanity, and said he "didn't want kids." You knew that scrutiny was coming.
• Had a guy ask me last weekend when the NFL season started. If he didn't know, it probably didn't matter to him very much.
• It was still amazing how McCain went from a non-contender to the nominee overnight in the primaries earlier this year. Time magazine has a time line this week showing he won Florida on January 29th and most of the states on Super Tuesday on February 5th. And the election was over in a matter of eight days.
• Politics truly does give me Tired Head
• I haven't been to a rodeo since I was forced to because of a double date. It was a bad date and I still had to sit through the rodeo.

11th Round Of Fantasy Draft And I'm Beaten Down

This Day Has Made Me Insane

Yeah, the female readers are always railing on me for not posting pics of guys. So I'd thought I'd offer this peace offering of That Guy who attended the Evil Empire game this week in Austin. I can only wonder what that nutcase is saying to her. Something like, "You know, I like to take mustard and put it on the ham before I put the ham on the sandwich. Then I dip the sandwich directly in the ketchup. That just seems nature's way of doing it right, know what I mean? Because, really, ya just got keep on livin'."

A Decatur Player Make Week #0's Nomination List

Link.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Remember when I said on Friday that you should think to yourself "enjoy this moment" as you left for a three day weekend?
• Have any of you seen the very shocking Levi's commerciall where the couple has apparently just met at a bar?
• The Hurricane coverage was silly. The mayor of New Orleans called it "the mother of all storms" but this morning a Fox 4 reporter was showing how fierce the storm was by holding up "this strong plastic sign that had been broken in half."
• I had a lady drop a huge Profanity Bomb on me yesterday and she pulled away from a gas station. I think it was something about how I parked but I'm still not sure. I think I stood there for a full minute with Confused Head.
• I do feel kind of bad about posting the pics of the Baylor twirlers. But the photos first appeared on the Waco Tribune web site.
• For years you couldn't miss the Jerry Lewis Telethon if you tried. Now I can go most Labor Day weekends and be completely oblivious to the fact that it is on.
• The Tennessee/UCLA game last night was great. College football trumps all others.
• I'm attending a very delayed Fantasy Football draft tonight in the fair town of Paradise.
• Hey, the guy that does all the movie trailer voices (i.e "One man . . . . ") has died.
• All that tricked up fried stuff at the State Fair (this year's winner is Chicken Fried Bacon) is just dumb.
• I'm about halfway through "The Last Lecture" book which really isn't as moving as I thought it would be. He's almost a little too detached from his tragedy. (But he had an interesting point when he decided to just accept being charged $16.00 too much at a self check-out line. With such a short time to live, he simply didn't want to spend 15 minutes of his life with the hassle to get it back.)
• There are few joys in life as exciting as finding a restaurant with a salsa bar.
• With all the controversy over the pregnant 17 year old daughter of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin. I had completely missed all the rumors that the daughter may have also given birth to Trig Palin (who the presumptive VP says is her own infant son.) Don't know if it's true, but the Republicans sure don't need all of this distraction during Convention Week.
• And Drudge had a link to the picture of the babydaddy of the newborn-to-be.
• Seeing three ants on my kitchen counter is enough for me to use the equivalent of the nuclear option in killing them.
• What a horrific possibly DWI related wreck in Dallas over the weekend

Don't Ask Me Why I Drove Through Blum, TX Today

But that made me chuckle.

Uh, Oh

And Fox News reported a second ago that McCain knew about this before he chose her as a running mate. Not sure I believe that. But to Barack's credit, he said this topic was "off limits." Edit: Upon further reflection, this is really puzzling. Why in the world would McCain take on this problem if he didn't have to? (Assuming he knew, which I'm stil not convinced about.) And, as I read somewhere else, why would Palin accept the VP nomination when she knew it would cause so much scrutiny of her young daughter?

Saw this in 'convince' store

From Barry (by mobile)

Eight Years Ago

Random Hurricane Thoughts

• I'd forgotten what a goof ball the mayor of New Orleans is. And I didn't know he was still there
• I promise I saw Pete Delkus on Friday night project landfall of this new one on Thursday at 7:00 a.m. (I know, like all local weather guys, he's just reading off the press release of the National Hurricane Center but I can't believe that was the correct information.)
• What's up with these crazy Hurricane names? Gustav? We can't even protect our weather borders anymore.
• The press loves a hurricane. I think it's the "anticipation factor." (One of the funniest, but truest, lines from a Simpsons episode was uttered by a guy Marge was about to - but didn't - cheat with, "Better than the moment. Better than the memory. The moment of . . . Anticipation!")
• I finally finished the Scott McClellan's book, What Happened, and he called the above photo of Bush doing a flyover of New Orleans after Katrina on of his "worst political blunders" because he appeared detached and uncaring. I've never thought that at all. (And that book was nothing more than a rehashing of old headlines - no inside info whatsoever.)
• Now this photo, that was different.

Oh, My!

Box Score.

We're Not Mature Enough To Vote For A President

Mild language warning.

Friday Night Stuff

Perrin-Whitt 34 Chico 26 Electra 6 Alvord 21 Breckenridge 6 Bridgeport 52 Boyd 6 Bowie 13 Paradise 42 Van Alstyne 28 Decatur 45 Dallas Madison 42