Congratulations to former University of Tennessee Volunteer Justin Gatlin for winning 100m gold in Athens.

Headed to New York City to protest the Republican convention? I’ll likely not make it, but don’t let that stop you. This lengthy post offers you much of what you need to know. A shot sample (on bathrooms):

This brings up another interesting corollary for the more violently inclined. The caf� whose window you smash today may be your restroom tomorrow. Or, more accurately, it won’t be your bathroom, because you will have forced it to close. And even the most infamous rebel loses some of his or her romanticism with big pee-pee stains on the front of his or her black bloc outfit. In short, don’t do it.

Indeed. I hope these protests make a loud statement . . . without any violence. We don’t need to provide the media with another reason to not cover the real issues at stake this campaign.

Does anyone have any confidence in the Florida election?

Some 46,000 New Yorkers are registered to vote in both the city and Florida, a shocking finding that exposes both states to potential abuses that could alter the outcome of elections, a Daily News investigation shows.
Registering in two places is illegal in both states, but the massive snowbird scandal goes undetected because election officials don’t check rolls across state lines.
. . .
Computer records analyzed by The News don’t allow for an exact count of how many people vote in both places, because millions of names are regularly purged between elections.
But The News found that between 400 and 1,000 registered voters have voted twice in at least one election, a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
. . .
Nearly 1,700 of those registered in both states requested that absentee ballots be mailed to their home in the other state, where they are also registered. But that doesn’t raise red flags with officials in either place.

It’s surprising that election officials don’t at least conduct an effective check when they mail ballots to other states. Then again, I guess we’ve to the point where nothing should be surprising anymore.

This looks like a bad combination:

The Rev. Jerry Falwell will open a law school this month in hopes of training a generation of attorneys who will fight for conservative causes.
“We want to infiltrate the culture with men and women of God who are skilled in the legal profession,” Falwell said in a telephone interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. “We’ll be as far to the right as Harvard is to the left.”
Graduates of the law school — part of Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, which is affiliated with his Baptist ministry — could tackle such issues as abortion rights and gay marriage, Falwell said. Classes begin Aug. 23 for the first-year class of 61 law students.
. . .
Classroom lectures and discussions will fuse the teachings of the Bible with the U.S. Constitution, stressing the connections between faith, law and morality, said law school Dean Bruce Green, who has experience in civil liberties litigation.
. . .
Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the law school is part of a crusade by Falwell to get the government to carry out his religious agenda.

I don’t have a problem with religious universities; I was an undergraduate at one. And it’s not a bad idea for law students to have the option of taking a class which examines “moral” issues. But you don’t need to set up an entire law school to teach someone how to fight abortion. My guess is that Mr. Conn is right when he suggests this is more an effort to train future government leaders who will pursue a religious agenda.
This is implicitly confirmed on the school’s website:

We believe the rule of law is rooted in transcendent principles and objective moral order and, as a result, law places an extrinsic restraint on people�s actions, especially morally deficient people.
We believe that law should not be wielded as an instrument of political, social, or personal change, but that it should serve the common good of mankind.

Interesting phrase there, morally deficient people. Anyway, who is it that wields the law as an instrument of change? Those liberal judicial activists, of course. We must reverse their handiwork and get our country back to the religious mooring the founders intended.

Lest there was any doubt, this NY Times piece and accompanying graph details how angry Vietnam veterans and Texas Republicans united to form the so-called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”
I’m not sure if it was a coincidence or not that Kerry finally came out swinging against Bush and the group yesterday. Perhaps he got tipped off that this type of disclosure was in the works. These revelations, coupled with Michelle Malkin’s meltdown after accusing Kerry of shooting himself, should be a real credibility hit for the “Swift Boat Veterans.” It will be interesting to see if the TV news continues to play up their claims.