Now that all of the candidate’s speeches are over, I’d like to take you back in time. The day is August 3rd in the year 2000 and we’re at the Republican National Convention. A younger, spunkier Gov. George W. Bush is at the podium giving his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States of America.

As a teaser, I wanted to share with you a clip highlighting the hypocrisy I eluded to in my post yesterday. As we come up on the last eight years of Bush’s term I ask that you take the time to read the full speech. It’s interesting to see how history actually played out and play close attention to the promises he delivered on.

Governor Bush delivers remarks at the Republican National Convention

source

Mr. Chairman…

(APPLAUSE)

Mr. Chairman… (APPLAUSE)

Thank you all.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you very much. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Mr. Chairman — Mr. Chairman, delegates and my fellow citizens, I proudly accept your nomination.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. Thank you for this honor.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you for this honor. Together, we will renew America’s purpose.

Our founders first defined that purpose here in Philadelphia. Ben Franklin was here, Thomas Jefferson and, of course, George Washington, or, as his friends, called him, George W.

I am proud to have Dick Cheney by my side.

He is a man — he is a man of integrity and sound judgment who has proven that public service can be noble service.

American will be proud to have a leader of such character to succeed Al Gore as vice president of the United States.

I’m grateful for Senator John McCain. I appreciate so very much his speech two nights ago. I appreciate his friendship. I love his spirit for America. And I want to thank the other candidates who sought this office, as well. Their convictions have strengthened our party.

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Here is a video clip about the Sarah Palin Gender Card from The Daily Show with John Stewart. Last night the Bulldog with Lipstick took the gloves off and proved herself ready for the fight.

Ding, Ding! Round 1.

Hilarious! Thanks JG.

There’s been a lot of debate over Sarah Palin and whether she can “do it all” as a Vice Presidential mom. It’s become a hot topic over the last couple of days, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before. My wife works and she has had this same discussion with other moms many times. Being the soft-spoken, politically-correct Democrat that I am, I tend to keep my mouth shut regarding the subject. But I do have my own opinion and after seeing Sarah’s speech I was inspired to write this little post.

Being raised in a Christian household, I was taught the Bible has the answer to any situation you can face. While it may not always give you the exact answer, through prayer and studying there’s enough to get you on the right path.

Here’s a post from gotquestions.org regarding women in the workplace. I heard a similar response in a family ministry Bible study my wife and I attended a couple of years ago:

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I’ve been away from the blog for a couple of days and in my absence a couple of thinks have happened. So I thought I’d group my opinions of those events all together in one post. As always, I’d like to know what you think.

The Democratic National Convention was a historic event. Michelle Obama did a good job kicking off the convention with her speech. She seemed a little nervous, but did well and got her message across about her husband. I had mixed feelings about Hillary’s speech, but she had to speak to the many volunteers that spent countless hours working to get her elected. I thought she spent too much time on herself, but in all fairness it may have been necessary. I do have to say, I was proud to see them officially endorse Obama and move to the suspend the roll call making him the presidential candidate. It was a special moment.

I thought “Wild” Bill Clinton’s speech was on point! He gave one of the best speeches I’ve seen him give and he did exactly as he was supposed to do. The comparisons between himself and Obama were pretty funny. This was the Bill Clinton black people have come to love. The Republicans are good at standing behind their nominee even when it’s obvious they don’t agree with them. That’s the way politics works. Stand by your man (or woman).

Barack closed out the DNC with his speech at Mile High Stadium in front of more than 75,000 supporters. The Nielsen ratings were ridiculous with his speech being seen by more than 38.4 million viewers. This was a bigger US TV audience than the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, this year’s American Idol final and Oscars coverage. I like the way he “talked” to the crowd and didn’t try to preach to us. In my opinion he delivered on his speech. Whether or not all he said can be done isn’t a big deal to me. We hear promises from the politicians all the time and I realize that it takes an act of Congress to get things done.

And finally the big story. John McCain’s choice for Vice President. Sarah Palin seems to be an amazing person. As a mom, wife, governor and future grandma she has a lot on her plate. I think the pregnancy of her daughter is a non-issue, but I’m not surprised at the media reaction. This is what they do and I’m sure Palin is not surprised by it. I do question McCain’s choosing her. I think it was a way to pull in the Clinton votes and I also think it might have been done to cause division in the Democratic Party. I’m sure Hillary is a little peeved, but she’ll be well taken care of if Obama wins.

I’ve heard rumors of McCain really wanting Liberman on the ticket, but it was stopped by members in the party. While Palin may be a great governor, I don’t see her as a Vice President. For the longest time we heard so much about Obama’s inexperience, so I’m confused why it’s not a big deal anymore. Palin was a choice to get the female votes (see the Civil Rights Movement was important). I guess they figured women would rise up in support since Hillary was not in the running. Insulting.

There’s more to comment on, but I think I’ll save it for another post. How do you feel about all this stuff?

I found these on the MSNBC website and thought they were pretty funny. Don’t worry, there aren’t any baby ones. More commentary to come.

Sarah Palin, VP Candidate Political Cartoons

I got this text message from the Obama campaign asking everyone to donate to the Red Cross:

Barack asks that you give to the Red Cross: give 5 dollars by texting GIVE to 24357 or give more by calling 1-800-435-7669 or at redcross.org/donate. Please fwd

Now this is how you mobilize people to get things done. Before he even considered running for President, Joel introduced me to his podcast that he put together. In it he gave good information on bills and voting in the Senate we needed to be aware of. He’s definitely on top of his technology game and understands the importance of how it can be used to reach a large mass of people.

See other ways Obama has embraced technology

Just as a side note, I will be posting on the other events over the past couple of days. This is some good stuff to debate, so be on the lookout.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., was interviewed on the Public Schools Insight blog regarding his new idea behind helping African-American students in the classroom. Gates’ goal is to use genealogy and DNA research to revolutionize the way history and science is taught to inner-city African-American Students. He want to give students the chance to examine their own DNA and family histories with hopes they’ll become more engaged in their history and science classes.

I read a book a while back called “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, that states people are inherently interested in themselves and are likely to befriend someone who focuses on their needs. If given the opportunity, I think these kids will be able to see how science and history can be used in real life situations. Since they are able to research their own family history, the lesson becomes more personal and gets the entire family involved in the child’s learning experience. How many times have you sat in a classroom wondering whether you’d use any of the stuff you learned outside of school? This is one way to bring that information to life.

The fact that it is a six week course is good because it’s long enough to get the kids interested in learning. The question is what happens after the course is complete? Do the students return to studying for state exams (remember we can’t leave any child behind) or will the teacher build off of what they’ve just learned? I’d also like to see the trial program initiated in a school in the south. There’s a rich history of Black America here and it would be interesting to see that information shared with the public.

I’m curious to see how well this idea will take off. According to the interview Gates has had a positive response, but as we all know anytime something new is presented to help kids learn it’ll be scrutinized by some. My opinion is if it can spark excitement in the minds of young kids in regards to learning, I’m all for giving it a try. I’ll be keeping an eye on this to see what happens.

I want to hear from the teachers and parents out there. What do you think of this?

Here’s the full interview with Gates.

Not since the 1992 Olympics have I personally followed the games with much scrutiny. Several factors contributed to an uninteresting 2004 Olympics including an unexciting USA Men’s basketball roster being among those. Well, the 2008 Olympics have “redeemed” anything that happened in Athens and basketball has actually been far down the list of redeeming factors. For something so grandiose I could never do it justice with just one posting so I offer for your approval my first in a series of three reviews of the Games we know and love as the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

How better to begin a recap than beginning with the Opening Ceremony? I know some folks weren’t fans but I thought it was SPECTACULAR! All commendations go to the Chinese for organizing such a visually appealing show. Obviously, a lot of hard work, practice, and dedication went into the production of such a grand performance. I thought the drummers, with their excellent precision, were off the chain. My wife nearly had a conniption because she has a phobia of too many things moving simultaneously. I guess anything involving China shouldn’t be part of her daily dose of television.

The other thing that struck awe for me during the intro ceremony were the moving Chinese printing blocks. The blocks represented China’s legacy as the first country to use paper or to print words. Again, the synchrony and precision involved with performing inside of something so large certainly took hundreds of hours to prepare.

Moving on to the beginning of the actual games, there were several benchmark moments that kicked off these games. Several performances come to mind such as Nastia Liukin, the flop of the US Boxing team, and Mr. Indelible himself; Michael Phelps. His performance during the Beijing Olympics has been so well-documented his surname has been made an adjective; Phelps-ian. Still, even Michael Phelps would admit that he wouldn’t have been able to achieve his, um, Phelpsian feat without the contributions of teammates like Cullen Jones. Cullen was born in Bronx, New York and grew up in New Jersey having once almost drowned at an early age. Jones was able to take that experience and turn it into a strength as now he’s the first African-American to share a world record in swimming and only the THIRD African-American to ever make the US Swimming Team. His story is reminiscent of Shani Davis during the Winter Olympics a couple of years ago. I just wish we could have seen more of Cullen in other competitions. A million congratulations go to both Cullen and Shani as they tear away at preconceived notions of what a Black athlete should be.

Check back for the Part II portion of my Olympics recap as I dive into the Jamaican assault on track sprint competitions, Keeth Smart, and how NBC’s camera crews can’t discern Dateline investigative work from giving Lola Jones her space after a heartbreaking loss. Until then, enjoy this video from Cullen Jones on his victory.

Shawn Williams interviews Aaron Paz of El Paso about a petition he’s circulating to get Hillary Clinton on the Obama ticket as Vice President. I thought this was interesting because it’s a long shot that Hillary will accept the petition. I wish people could just rally around Obama and leave this issue alone. Paz at the time had collected 100 signatures and the minimum needed to submit the petition is 300. Guess we’ll see how it goes later.

I personally think this is Hillary’s fault. After loosing the nomination, she failed to do a better job with moving her supporters to the Obama camp and made things worse when she made known her wanting to be the vice president. It was a spirited primary and both sides did what they had to do, but there could only be one winner. No matter who Obama chose, it would have been the “wrong” person. If he would have chosen Clinton, then all the Obama supporters would have been up in arms.

Interested in following the coverage of the Democratic National Convention from a blogger of color’s perspective? Check out the widget on the right sidebar. I’ll have it up this whole week. It will make keeping up with the credentialed blogs a little easier.

If you want to add it to your blog, go to pspauld’s Grazr page.