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In the first nights of the convention we beheld the spectacle of deceptive speeches by such leftists as Michelle Obama, Mark Warner, Bill and Hill and others who made big speeches about how America will be Utopia on earth when they control the congress the senate and the white house and that everything wrong with America is the fault of George W Bush and the republican party. When Clinton ran things things were smooth, then the minute Bush took office everything went to hell. We at MainestateGop were also nearly sucked into the brouhaha of bashing Bush and praising Democrat...

DENVER--The Democratic Party has boasted that its convention here will be "the most environmentally-sustainable" gathering in the party's history, complete with a director of sustainability, low-power lighting in some areas, and calculations of carbon footprints. Some of the goals include diverting 85 percent of waste that would normally go to a landfill, finding hundreds of people to sort waste into recycling-compost-landfill containers, and devising what The Wall Street Journal described as "lean 'n' green" catering guidelines that say food described thusly must not be fried and shall contain three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white. That...

Here is the schedule for day one of the DNC that was emailed to me. • 7:00 pm ~ Opening flag burning, (U.S., U.K. and Israeli flags will be in attendance.) • 7:15 pm ~ Pledge of Allegiance to the U. N. and the future "One World Government." • 7:20 pm ~ Ted Kennedy proposes a toast. • 7:25 pm ~ Nonreligious prayer and worship with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Back-up chants provided by the local Wiccan Organization. • 7:45 pm ~ Ceremonial tree hugging. A fake Oak tree will be provided. • 7:55 pm ~ Ted Kennedy proposes...

DENVER—Denver police have issued some advice to protesters at the Democratic convention about what they can and can't do.

A college-age protest group that wants to camp overnight in City Park during the Democratic National Convention next month is going to have to find another place to sleep. Mayor John Hickenlooper told radio host Mike Rosen, who writes a column for the Rocky, that Tent State University's plans for a sleepover for as many as 50,000 protesters are out of the question. The mayor also told Rosen that the city might turn on the sprinklers if the protesters don't abide by Denver's 11 p.m. curfew. Councilwoman Carla Madison, whose district includes City Park, said overnight camping is not an...

LINK“Over The Top” By Peggy NoonanWhile anyone on the left would immediately discount the source because she was one of President Reagan’s speech writers, they’d be smart to at least look at this one. Whether it’s bombing a recruiting station as a demonstration of their support for peace and “the troops,” or calls on liberal websites demanding that the DNC convention “re-create 68,” or perhaps it’s the growing Dem vs Dem punditry on tv…it really doesn’t matter. The point is the same: there is a deep fracture in the Democratic Party between Senator Obama’s supporters and Senator Clinton’s supporters. This...

Well, the Democrats have gone and messed it up again. I came back from a one-week vacation, out of reach of the news, to learn that the Democratic National Committee in its wisdom had further muddled the calendar of events for choosing the 2008 presidential nominee. At a meeting in Chicago Aug. 19, the committee decided by voice vote to insert Nevada between Iowa and New Hampshire and to follow New Hampshire with a contest in South Carolina. The revised calendar, at least tentatively, has the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Jan. 14, 2008, with Nevada holding its caucuses five days...

Question: How do you increase the influence of minorities and working people in the selection of the next Democratic presidential candidate? Answer: Add Nevada and South Carolina to the first two weeks of the schedule. That’s what the Democrats voted to do this week, and supposedly they did it to make the process of picking a candidate for president in 2008 more representative of the diversity of the party. But watch out. If a few decades as what we call a “rules junkie” has taught me anything, it’s to watch out for unintended consequences. And this rules change has that...

To boost diversity in presidential nominating votes, they put Nevada's and South Carolina's soonerMove over Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina are now members of the Democratic Party's "early nominators" club.By adding new states to its early roster of presidential nominating contests, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) aims to add racial and geographic diversity to the selection process.

CHICAGO -- New Hampshire maple sugar and Iowa corn dogs have been the staples of early presidential campaigning for decades. Now, add mint juleps and a roll of the dice. Democrats vaulted South Carolina and Nevada into the first wave of 2008 presidential contests on Saturday, creating a compressed, politically saturated but far more diverse schedule for candidates seeking the White House. Party officials embraced the change, though New Hampshire Democrats joined several likely presidential candidates and former President Clinton in opposing the move. "It's an opportunity for the candidates to speak in a broader way to Democrats across the...

Secretary of State William Gardner said he will choose when New Hampshire Democrats vote for their Presidential candidates -- not the Democratic National Committee, which yesterday ordered the state to share more of the nominating spotlight in 2008. "As chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean is not going to pick the date of the New Hampshire primary," Gardner told the New Hampshire Sunday News. Democrats in Chicago approved a calendar calling for New Hampshire to retain its first-in-the nation primary with residents casting votes Jan. 22, three days after Nevada would conduct its caucuses. "The primary's going to be...

CHICAGO, Aug. 19 — The Democratic National Committee voted Saturday to penalize 2008 presidential candidates who defied a new nominating calendar devised to lessen the longtime influence of New Hampshire and Iowa, the two states that have traditionally kicked off the nominating process.

Democrats agreed to shake up tradition Saturday by wedging Nevada between Iowa's leadoff caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in the 2008 presidential nominating calendar and adding South Carolina soon afterward.The addition of Nevada's caucuses and the South Carolina primary to a presidential calendar long dominated by Iowa and New Hampshire is intended to give a greater voice to Hispanics and blacks-minorities critical to Democrats' success.

DEMS VOW SANCTIONS AGAINST CANDIDATES WHO THWART NEW CALENDER Sat Aug 19 2006 11:16:47 ET The Democratic National Committee moved on Saturday to penalize 2008 presidential candidates who defied a new nominating calendar designed to lessen the longtime influence of New Hampshire and Iowa -- the two states that have traditionally kicked off the nominating process. The NEW YORK TIMES will report on Sunday: The sanctions would be directed at candidates who campaigned in any state that refused to follow a proposed calendar that the committee was preparing to approve. Any candidate who campaigned in a state that did not...

CHICAGO Aug 19, 2006 (AP)— Come 2008, Democrats don't want their presidential candidates spending the entire month of January in high boots and barn jackets. The Democratic National Committee on Saturday was expected to add Nevada and South Carolina to the early presidential voting states, a detour into gambling glitz and Southern gentility from the traditional cold winds and snow of Iowa and New Hampshire. The change is designed to address a nagging problem for Democrats: How to give a greater voice in selecting a presidential nominee to minorities who are among the party's most loyal supporters.

CHICAGO Aug 18, 2006 (AP)— The Democrats are moving to enforce discipline in the battle between states over early presidential primary slots, punishing candidates who campaign in states that violate the party's rejuggled 2008 schedule. A rule change recommended Friday by the party's rules and bylaws committee would deny national convention delegates to any presidential candidates who campaign in states that leapfrog their primaries over others.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has recommended that Nevada and South Carolina join Iowa and New Hampshire in holding presidential nominating contests in January 2008. This ill-conceived recommendation demonstrates that the Democratic Party has not yet learned the painful lessons of 2004. Early in the 2004 presidential election cycle, Democrats in Michigan and the District of Columbia challenged the first-in-the-nation status of Iowa and New Hampshire, arguing that those two unrepresentative states had undue power in choosing the party’s presidential nominee. Both threatened to move their contests to January, in violation of national party rules. Michigan and D.C. backed off...

Move over, Hillary: Russ Feingold is going to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. For far too long the assumption has been that the former first lady would be the Dems' obvious pick. The storyline had dynastic flair, plus the sexy-milestone first-woman-president aspect. It had the wronged-woman-coming-out-on-top Style-section and glossy-headline opportunities. The idea launched many a Clinton-hater (hey, nothing wrong with that, I'm a card-carrier) book. It was scary while it lasted. But the moment's gone. He's positioned himself as the antiwar alternative. He's got the advantage of being able to say to anyone disillusioned about Iraq that...