I was drawn to the protest rallies and marches on days one and four and can tell you first hand that both were peaceful even if one was unlawful. I did photograph a half dozen victims of pepper spray being treated by volunteer Red Cross. The only violence I witnessed erupted inside the Xcel Center when a protester from Code Pink interrupted John McCain's address. It has been posted on YouTube. Near the center of the screen you see plainclothes security "reposition her to the floor." Later she valiantly flashes double peace signs as she is forced out. In the background you hear John McCain's quip, "Don't be diverted by ground noise and the static." No doubt this is a prepared response to hecklers, but it sounds like it might also have been his misguided motto as Navy pilot (Mayday! Mayday!). He then adds words that are unintelligible to me, ending: "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other." My question for no one in particular: Who is us?

--Tom Hodges

So what next? Or is that even a viable question any more?  The other day I mentioned how watching Sarah Palin made me wonder what Hillary must be thinking.  Even more than Obama's victory, I think Sarah Palin's rise must be a bitter and enraging pill for her to swallow. Not to mention, does anyone else think Obama might currently be second-guessing his decision not to make Hil his VP pick? I wonder. Here's the funny part- I think in a debate or elsewhere Hillary has the ability to squash Sarah Palin in a heartbeat; her grasp of policy and the calm manner she mastered when facing down opponents during the primaries I think would quickly show up Palin's act. Probably this is one of the reasons Obama has "dispatched" Hillary to Florida. (A side note: Does Hillary really get "dispatched"? My guess is Obama asked nicely and she said okay). But Joe Biden? Not so much.  I am a long-time fan of Biden's, but I suspect he may have met his match in Palin where the upcoming VP debate is concerned (speaking of which, will this be the first time ever a VP debate will be considered prime time fare?).

Biden is famous for his pugnacious debate style, as well as his verbal gaffes. During the primary debates he rarely took on Hillary--actually he often made a point of siding with her--and I think tangling with Palin may require him to rein in some of his great debating strengths, particularly in an environment that has now become so overly-sensitized to sexist language of any shade. Of course all of this could be completely moot. For one, and I think I've said this before, the Palin diversion could prove the best thing for Obama, who a week ago was fighting accusations of celebrity. Two weeks from now the country may return to him as the familiar steady figure of this election season. And two, practically every newspaper in the land currently had a reporter(s) digging around in Alaska. There really is just no telling.

--Glynnis MacNicol
 

What would Nixon have done with YouTube? The mind shudders. More so because I imagine him shutting it down, a la Beijing, than because of the vids he might have subjected us to. In his recent book Nixonland, Rick Perlstein traces the roots of the current Red state/Blue state divide (an idea I subscribe to somewhat more willingly after two weeks in "middle America") to Nixon's political career, which ostensibly began back in the thirties when he was elected student-body president. And yet, after eight years of Bush and the true insanity of yesterday's RNC intro videos, it may be easier to wax nostalgic at times. One wonders if we'll ever get a piano-playing president again.

--Glynnis MacNicol 

It is five in the morning and I am in the Minneapolis airport awaiting a SunCountry flight to JFK (the flight attendant later tells me that Levi
Johnston flew Sun Country from Alaska the other day, along with six Secret
Service men). On the television I can hear the newscaster announce that the
music group Heart does not want the GOP to use the song "Barracuda" as they did at the end of the convention festivities last night, and has sent them a cease-and-desist notice. There are a lot of familiar faces slumped in chairs
here at Gate H3 as the convention exodus out of Minneapolis begins. My cab driver told me he intends to work straight through the busy day shift until
it slows down sometime tomorrow. I have now been on the road for two weeks and quite honestly the thing I find most difficult to wrap my head around is the fact that Sarah Palin was only been on the scene for half that time.  I feel like Obama is a distant memory, belonging to a different political landscape.

After all the hoopla the conventions end on a conventional note. McCain's speech last night was a bit of a snooze-fest compared to Palin's. Most disappointing, I think, was McCain's inability to talk emotionally about his time in Hanoi‹is this really something he needs to read off a Teleprompter? The only genuine excitement of the evening were the numerous protesters who amazingly (and admirably, I think) managed to divert camera and crowd attention more than once. Watching the speech on television I kept wondering, probably along with everyone else, how the professionals responsible for organizing these things had allowed McCain to be framed by that green screen. Afterward, I merely wondered whether, in light of all the pundits declaring this the Sarah Palin Convention, McCain was having a Be Careful What You Wish For moment. That said, I think the honeymoon will soon be over. Palin has had an introductory trial by fire, and after this amazing and unexpected diversion I imagine the public will quickly grow accustomed to her and want a return to issues, or as close as we ever manage to get to them.

Now that the conventions are over--and at the moment they are one big blur in my mind punctuated by Palin's Wednesday night speech and multiple visits to the CNN grill--we are finally moving into the final act of this story. Hard to believe after 20 months of talking about it, the election is almost upon us. Hard to imagine what could happen in the next 58 days. There are
times when I wonder how this country will cope with the post-election hangover of November 5.

--Glynnis MacNicol

SomethingAwful.com imagines what Levi Johnston would be blogging on his MySpace page if the GOP had not persuaded him to take it down:

So whats up. I just wanted to introduce myself to America. Say how are things with you and whats going on.

Things have been really hecktic for me. First I found out Bristol was pregnant and I was like...you know...whoa. 

Continue reading here.  

After Senator McCain's limp speech last night, it's clear who on the ticket
is keeping the Republican base stimulated. (And yes, we agree it's
unfortunate that little Piper is in this pic.) 

--Antonia Simigis 

The Stargate franchise has become science fiction’s equivalent of Law & Order.  Now, with Stargate: Atlantis currently airing it’s fifth and final season (before moving onto made for DVD movies), I spoke to veteran character actor Robert Picardo, who joined the cast as Commander Richard Woolsey, the main in charge of the Atlantis expedition.  He talked about being the first actor to appear full-time on both Stargate and Star Trek, why the key to good sci-fi is fast talking and his goal of breaking a highly unusual barrier in Playboy.

Q:  Do you think your experience on Star Trek: Voyager has prepared you for Stargate: Atlantis?
A:  I think it did help in the sense that I have a long history with sci-fi fans, and the reason why they used me as a guest performer on Stargate: SG-1 and Atlantis is because the audience knows me and they seem to get a kick seeing me in another show that they enjoy.  So it helped me get the job and I certainly am used to the live events and meeting sci-fi fans.  With regard to the character, I tended, due to the nature of my character, to have much more techno-babble on Voyager.  Playing a medical hologram, I spewed medical information, so it’s a nice change having people reporting to me and ask nice little three word interrogatives.  

Continue reading »

Continue reading »

I just returned from closing-night festivities at the RNC holding tank. It was finally John McCain's night and that is not sarcasm. Is it me or do you feel like we, not John McCain, have been held prisoner? If we heard John McCain's service record rattled off once, we heard it 10, 20, 30 times. At least once per speaker, sometimes twice. Do we not get it? Are we going to be dragged through this narrative every night into November? Are we serving as the publisher's test audience for potential audiobook narrators? Are we supposed to forget everything we hear 15 minutes later? Is a working memory the latest bad social habit? What!?!

It feels like we might be the subject of deprogramming (the opposite of brainwashing and not the preemption of your favorite TV by two weeks of convention coverage). It's an intervention, folks. A team of exit counselors enter your mind space and suffer you with John McCain's distress over and over in different tones of voice. First halting, then defiant, once sober, now boyishly insouciant, everyone has their favorite. What then is the object of this deprogramming? Obama detox? Actually Nobama is the word coined on buttons, caps and t-shirts.

To fill gaps between speakers there are short biopics of the McCain experience. One video features Gary Sinise on the voiceover, on another it's Fred Thompson. I still think Fred Thompson would be a first-rate 21st president (sic).

For you film buffs, has it ever struck you John McCain might have inspired the Manchurian Candidate (1962) only the chronology is faulty. Think about it: Years in captivity with possible brainwashing. Domineering mother. Trouble in his first marriage. Well, it's been several years since I mostly slept through that video as well. Actually, I did enjoy McCain's big speech... OK, who flashed the queen of diamonds? That reminds me, Cindy McCain spoke tonight as well. Stay tuned for more tidings from St. Paul.

—Tom Hodges

I'm not sure I have anything to add to this, except I woke up from a nap just after it had started and asked my friend if we were still watching The Colbert Report.

--Glynnis MacNicol