Here's to Gov. Palin and her PTA experience. Can someone please tell her she's running for the Vice Presidency of the United States, not Cheerleader in Chief for John McCain.

For her cheap shot at Miranda rights, my gloves are coming off.

Oh, and her praise of the line item veto? Her first use of it cut funding for homes for unwed mothers.

More speech thoughts?

The pre-scripted, ready made for prime time Sarah Palin is beginning her speech.

Live blog in comments.

Updates below.

A condensation of Rudy Giuliani's convention speech:

We always tell you that this is the most important election ever. It's never true. Except this time.

If you were hiring someone for a job, would you hire a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution or a [guffaw and sneer] "community organizer"?

Did you know John McCain was a POW?

It was so tough for Obama to decide whether to vote yes or no in the Illinois legislature that he voted "present" 130 times. When I was mayor, and when Palin was mayor and governor, we didn't vote "present." (Of course, mayors and governors don't vote at all, but let's move on.)

Obama was a celebrity senator. Republicans don't have celebrity politicians, unless you count Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sonny Bono.

A president needs to stay awake until 3 a.m. Hillary could do that. Can Obama stay awake that late? I don't think so. [more ...]

A condensation of Mike Huckabee's convention speech.

The elite media have unified Republicans. The media are tacky and so is Madonna.

I respect Obama's historic achievement [tepid applause] but he'll raise your taxes and get us all killed.

Gas is expensive. You want something to change -- but not the party that controls the White House.

Obama was brainwashed by European ideas when he went overseas. Americans want American ideas.

Republican heroes are Jesus, Elvis, and FDR. We're not elite and we don't need no stinkin' government.

[more ...]

A condensation of Mitt Romney's convention speech:

Liberals are bad. Ronald Reagan and John McCain and Sarah Palin are good. George Bush goes unmentioned.

Drilling is good. Al Gore is bad.

Republicans believe there is good and evil in the world. Islam is evil. So is Barack Obama.

Republicans prefer straight talk to politically correct talk. In other words, we make fun of anyone who isn't straight.

I'm proud to be an American even though I'm not wearing a flag pin on my lapel.

I think we are all getting a little punchy waiting for the speech of the century to begin.

While I don't want to watch because I know it's scripted and not the real candidate but the candidate as reinvented by campaign and media professionals, how could I not?

The content of what she says is the least important part. It's not her. It's what they prepared for her to say, with a few modifications for her own personality.

Update: Oh, and Gov. Sarah Palin's aide is now refusing to be deposed in TrooperGate. First, she tries to move the investigation from the legislature to the Executive Branch (of which she's a part) and now her aide says he won't cooperate or be deposed. Stall, stall, stall. Whatever happened to "Hold me accountable." See, her words mean nothing.

So I'm trying to think of a song for our late night post. Suggestions?

This is another open thread before the speech open thread.

Here's an interesting article on Gov. Sarah Palin from CQ that posits Palin would be more like Spiro Agnew than Dick Cheney on foreign policy.

What about on the other issues, from health care to social security to prisoners' rights to reproductive rights to global warming, energy and the economy.

Dick Cheney fortunately will soon be history. It's up to us, the voters, who we get next.

Gov. Sarah Palin will give her speech tonight to the Republican National Convention. CNN provides punditry on what she is expected to say and what she should say.

The time to listen to Gov. Palin for clues as to who she is and what she believes has passed. That was last week, before the McCain campaign professionals took control to remake her in their image.

Whatever Palin says tonight is practiced, scripted and reflective of the Repubicans, not her. They would no more send her out there to speak on her own than they would their surrogates. In fact, as I reported the other day, the McCain campaign acknowledged pre-scripting her speech:

[McCain spokesman Rick]Davis said a generic, "masculine" speech was being prepared before the pick was made and, now that Palin is the choice, she is adapting the speech to her own needs and personality.

That's why its so important to review what she said and did and who she was before becoming a VP candidate. She's the product of image makers now, not reality.

Moving on to issues closer to home for us, I was wondering about Governor Sarah Palin's record on prisons and prisoners. As Governor, the Alaska Department of Corrections is within her purview.

Alaska's prisons are sorely overcrowded. Since I don't have access to Alaska state court pleadings, I searched PACER for federal lawsuits against Palin on civil rights violations. Palin has been sued at least twice in federal court in Alaska during her year and a half term, once by a prisoner named Berry Jack who claimed he was raped for 3 days, treated at a medical facility, and then denied recommended therapy thereafter. His complaint is here (pdf.)

The Court ordered him to file an Amended Complaint. In his Amended Complaint (pdf), he said he wrote to Gov. Palin and she wrote back, saying she stood behind Anchorage Correctional Complex Superintendant Debbie Miller's decision to refuse him therapy. He states he wrote her again and "she called Alaska State troopers on me." He put in another request for treatment after which, he alleges, the Department of Corrections destroyed all his records. [More...]

Cindy McCain was interviewed by Katie Couric this morning on CBS about Gov. Sarah Palin's views on abortion:

COURIC: Some, even Republicans seem surprised that Senator McCain picked a running mate who opposes abortion even in-- in the cases of rape and incest and believes creationism should be taught in schools. And I'm just curious, do you believe--or do you agree with that?

More...

On Sunday, before the news about Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter was announced, I initiated a ban on TalkLeft prohibiting mention of her personal or family matters. I was one of the only, if not the only, liberal blog instituting this policy.

I was determined that my criticism of her, which has been limited to her lack of experience and preparedness to take over the Presidency if the need arises, her record and her lack of record while in Government service, the pending allegations of misuse of power while in office, and her position on issues, not be misconstrued by others as an attack on her gender or her personal life. By never mentioning her personal and family issues, I thought that it would be clear that gossip, rumor and innuendo of a personal nature were not related to my criticism.

Readers on both sides were upset with my decision. Some wanted to praise her, others want to point out her hypocrisy given her adverse positions on teaching sex-ed and making birth control available, even in her state which has one of the highest rates of sexually-transmitted diseases in the country. I have spent hours deleting comments and banning commenters who violated my ban over the past few days. That's fine. Almost all of the comments were objectionable under any standard, and I refuse to have a site that bears my name be associated with them.

Now, I feel tooled. [More...]

Thousands of people attended Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis today. Paul explained the minimalist philosophy that motivated his presidential run.

"I did not want to run people's lives, I did not want to run the economy and I did not want to run the world. I didn't have the authority to do it, and I didn't have the Constitution behind me to do it," said Paul, who has served in the House of Representatives for more than 30 years.

Paul was only a little bit welcome at the Republican National Convention.

The Republican National Committee told Paul he would have to pick up his pass at the gate and couldn't have any guests.

Jesse Ventura wowed the crowd by suggesting that he might be a presidential candidate in 2012, promising (or threatening) to "give them a race they'll never forget."