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I caught Fred Thompson speaking at the Republican National Convention tonight. He spoke in length about John McCain's service to this country, the discipline he showed and hope he held as he was a captive in a POW camp. While the story is a powerful one, it does not qualify one to be president. (Perhaps it just shows how emotionally unstable he might be.) This story came right after Thompson joked about McCain's discipline problems in the US Naval Academy. And his womanizing. So much for family values.

He also spoke of Sarah Palin, and bragged that she has run a municipality and a state, and that she can properly dress a freshly killed moose. Lovely. He assured the crowd that Palin and McCain, if they are elected, "they're not going to care if the alligators get upset -- they're going to drain that swamp!" I believe it. This judgment is reflected in their record of consistently voting against the environment.

Thompson went on to knock Obama for his lack of experience, but with his vice-presidential candidate a heartbeat away from the presidency has far less experience.

On John McCain's 72nd birthday, he declared Gov. Sarah Palin (R - AK) to be his running mate. While some claim that this was expected, or a good move, many of us were shocked and a bit disturbed. If McCain is elected, he would be the oldest person to ever be inaugurated as president of the US. Couple that with his recent health problems, and you must realize that whoever he chooses as a running mate must be ready and able to take the highest seat of the nation. While Barack Obama chose a running mate that was a presedential candidate in the democratic primaries earlier this year, McCain has choosen someone with absolutely no national or international experience. In fact, two years ago, she was just the mayor of a small town in Alaska, population 9,000. This comes after McCain has repeatedly criticized Obama for not having enough experience to lead our country.

So who is this Sarah Palin?

• She is a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience.¹
• She was became governor of Alaska a little over a year and ahalf ago.
• Before that, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a small town outside Anchorage.
• She is adamantly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.²
• She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.³
• She holds that creationism should be taught in public schools.⁴
• She still claims that humans are not the cause of climate change.⁵
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years.
• She sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species —- she was worried their endangered status would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.⁶

John McCain must have considered his choice very carefully. Right?

Apparently, McCain met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her to offer her the position of Vice President.⁷

What do folks from Alaska think about this news? According to MoveOn:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

Sarah Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil and is woefully inexperienced. While this decision might have made religious right happy, McCain has made a dangerous choice for our country.

Sources:

Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the MoveOn team.

¹ "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008.

² "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008.

³ "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008.

⁴ "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006.

⁵ "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008.

⁶ "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008.

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008.

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008.

⁷ "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008.

Chalk this one up under "Yet another funny Mac vs. PC story".

I find it hilarious and a bit ironic that we used to refer to PCs by the brand-name "IBM", just as some of us call tissues "Kleenex". Now, in a bold move, IBM is offering some of its employees Mac laptops or PCs running Linux in a break from the all-Windows environment that I still suffer from in my Department. About 100 IBM employees are now taking advantage of this program.

"Of the 22 testers who provided feedback, 18 said that compared with their previous computers, the Mac notebooks offered a "better or best experience," one said it was "equal or good," and three said the Apple machine provided a "worse experience," according to Dilger. Fully 19 of the participants chose to keep the MacBook Pro and use VMware virtualization technology to run Windows when needed."

Read the article.

BMW is working on a new concept called GINA (Geometry and function In N-Arrangements). Check out the new concept car:

Last night, Al Gore and Barack Obama both spoke in Detroit. And I almost went! See what I missed:

In my first radio broadcast, and my first scientific debate, I went head-to-head with Roy Spencer, a famous global warming denier on the radio show Political Animals. You can listen to the show here. My part begins about 25 minutes into the show. I debate Roy Spencer for about 30 minutes. Then I am on for another hour with the hosts and callers.

According to the New York Times, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico is endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president.

"I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America's moral leadership in the world," Richardson said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

FOX News continues its tirade against Obama, only this time, their half-witted comments are starting to spread to other media outlets! They must be stopped. Rupert Murdock should have higher standards (but doesn't). He's a spineless half-wit, too!

Barack still maintains a near-100 point lead in the delegate count While fans of Barack Obama might be a bit discouraged by Hillary Clinton's wins in 3 of 4 states yesterday, the most important point to realize is that through these wins, Barack still maintains a near-100 point lead in the delegate count, just as he started the day with.

Update: Hillary gained 187 delegates, while Barack gained 183. That's a net gain of 4 delegates out of the more than 370 delegates available from all the states that voted yesterday.

Of course, many analysts are saying that Hillary's come-from-behind victories in Texas and Ohio are due to her "Red Phone" commercial (below if you've missed it). But we should all rest easy to know that Hillary is awake, with make-up and a pants-suit on, even at 3am. What is Barack doing at 3am? He's probably still wearing his pajamas.

Check out her ridiculous commercial here:

If you watch FOX News, you probably think that Barack Obama is an evil smoking terrorist with no redeeming values other than being black. Yet another attack by Rupert Murcock and his evil empire. So much for "Fair and Balanced" reporting that you can trust.