I spent last night, the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention at one of the thousands of Party for the Presidents nationwide. I drove up to Gloucester, MA to attend the Party hosted by Pat and Russell K. I got to meet some good people, including State Senator Bruce Tarr, State Representative Brad Hill, and the owner of BlogPatriot (the hostess, Pat, also contributes to BlogPatriot). It was a great party, with the New England Patriots game on one TV, and the RNC on the other (we found it in ourselves to watch the Red Sox too). Pictures of the party will come soon.

It was great to be with so many Republicans, especially in Massachusetts.

I didn’t catch Tommy Franks’ speech, but from what I’ve read, it seems like a very shining endorsement. Having just received his book, American Soldier, I’m even more anxious to start reading it.

I orginally had mild expectations for Governor Pataki’s speech, but afterwards, found it to be quite appropriate and well done.

Of course, the moment we were all waiting for, was the President’s speech. I found myself giddy with excitement after Pataki left the stage, wondering how George W. Bush would enter the arena. As possibilities crossed my mind, and a wonderful tribute video played, we saw the two large screens adorned with images of the American flag criss-cross the stage. After the two screens passed each other, there was the Commander in Chief, there was President Bush. Unbelievable, I thought, it was almost like a magic trick (you have to watch the video to really get a grasp of the moment). The applause then and throughout the speech were very fitting, and you could tell he loved it.

Without going through the entire speech line by line, my overall impression was that the speech accomplished what it was supposed to, and had the appropriate mix of topics and focus on issues. It was not unexpected that the typical view to the delegation was not a sea of Bush-Cheney placards, rather, they were countless American flags, and placards reading “USA” and “We Support the Troops,” and other inspiring words, as well as the familiar signs reading “Four More Years.” I’m sure we can remember the view of the DNC, where we saw plenty of the tall Kerry signs. There were only a handful of flags (you could probably count the number flags on one hand). I saw no signs that said “Support the Troops.”

And that is the difference between George W. Bush and John Kerry. For Kerry and the Democrats, it’s all about him. For George W. Bush and the Republicans, it’s about America.

And Americans know it; they saw it. We can already see that more Americans are beginning to open their eyes. Both the Zogby Poll and Rasmussen Report have Bush in the lead and we can expect more polls to come out showing Bush in a steady lead. (UPDATE 3:46PM : Time Magazine gives Bush 52-41 lead!)

Kerry continued to help himself drive his numbers down with his ridiculous statement last night, mere moments after the President stepped off the podium. But you don’t have to listen to him say that amongst other things that the economy has failed. Look at the 144,000 jobs created last month, and the addition of nearly 60,000 jobs to the previous two month’s numbers. Look at the 5.4% unemployment rate, the lowest since October 2001, and lower than the average unemployment for each decade since 1960.

John Kerry said in his statement last night, “if you believe this country is heading in the right direction, you should support George Bush.”

I think we should take his advice.

President Bush said in his speech last night, “tonight, my fellow Americans, I ask you to stand with me.”

I stand with you, Mr. President.

If you want to know how well a president (particularly a conservative one) is doing, all you have to do is hang around their party’s nominating convention and see how many people show up outside who are diametrically opposed to everything that president is doing. And President Bush must be doing an outstanding job, judging from the hundreds of thousands of members of the looney left who showed up in New York City to cause mayhem this week.

More than 500 of them had been arrested by the time the convention began on Monday – 11 of those were naked AIDS activists arrested on Friday. Many of the ones who had clothes on were wearing T-shirts that said “STOP AIDS”. Apparently, these folks don’t understand that the U.S. leads the world in AIDS research and our country was actually the first country, way back in the early 80s to devote resources to the AIDS research cause – and that was started under the presidency of Ronald Reagan – another president I’m sure they were convinced was evil personified.

Police estimated that 120,000 people took to the streets on Sunday, most of those from the group United for Peace and Justice. Of course the deluded leftist wackos who led this group wildy overestimated their numbers at 400,000. The New York Sun went out and took an informal poll to find out what was up with these members of the leftist fringe. The results were not surprising: Most of the lunatics they surveyed were planning on voting for Kerry:

A survey conducted by The New York Sun of 253 protesters who took part in the United for Peace and Justice march found that 76% plan to vote for Senator Kerry in November’s presidential election.

Sounds like Senator Kerry has a real constituency to pander to here. If he panders real hard he might still be able to get the other 24% of these nutcases who plan on voting for Jerry Garcia.

The poll found that 59% of the protesters interviewed live in New York City, while an additional 21% reside in the tri-state area. Of those marching who were surveyed, 52% said they agreed with the statement that “America is overall a negative force in the world.” Moreover, 67% said they agreed with the statement that “Iraqi attacks on American troops occupying Iraq are legitimate resistance.”

Perhaps these folks should try conducting their protest in a place that they would consider less of a “negative force” like China maybe, or Cuba, or Syria or North Korea.

Half of those polled answered yes when asked if the United States should cut off military aid to Israel. United for Peace and Justice provided marchers with blue-and-white signs reading, “Occupation: Wrong in Iraq, Wrong in Palestine. End U.S. Support for Israel’s Occupation.”

As the banner at the top of our quaint blog is known to say “we still can’t find Palestine on a map.” Apparently these folks can after ingesting the right type and quantity of psychadelic drugs.

Of those surveyed, 62% said they opposed the American war in Afghanistan in 2001,and 58% said they agreed with the claim that “a few neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle who have close ties to Israel’s Likud party manipulated America into going to war in Iraq.”

And they call us conservatives conspiracy theorists. (more…)

Democrats quickly rebutted Zell Miller’s intense speech Wednesday night, with a web video called “Zell Miller: Then and Now” and with links to “donate to REAL Democrats who DO get it.”

You see video of Zell being critical of George Bush, saying that “George Bush just doesn’t get it,” and repeats that line many times. You hear Zell Miller say that George Bush doesn’t deserve “four more years.”

The video then cuts to the “Now” Zell Miller, with a quote of his from August 1, 2004, saying “I am for President George W. Bush because he is the right man at the right place at the right time.”

At first glance, this video makes you think that Zell has “flip-flopped” on George W. Bush… but that is not the case.

Look carefully at the “Then” Zell Miller footage. Look at the “fine print.” The footage of Zell Miller saying “George Bush just doesn’t get it,” is from the 1992 Democratic Convention. In that video, he’s talking about George H. W. Bush, not George W. Bush. They want you to think he’s talking about the same George Bush… they want you to think he’s talking about George W. Bush.

We are smarter than that. We get it. And I think Zell gets it, too. It’s the Democrats that just don’t get it.

Tonight’s live blogging of the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention depends on my internet access at the Party For The President I’m attending this evening.

Stay tuned for–hopefully–live blogging coverage of the fourth and final evening of the Republican National Convention. Should live blogging be impossible, a post-convention commentary will be in order.

UPDATE 12:17am OK, there was no live blogging, I was at the Party for the President watching the convention with over 20 supporters of the president. I will give a commentary on the convention later on today.

You can’t make this stuff up:

Rachel Sammis is 14. The child from New Hampshire spent her first grown-up protest march carrying a huge picture of the president of the United States - decorated with a Hitler-style moustache scribbled in pen.

Rachel - What the hell were you thinking?

“He lies a lot,” she recited about President Bush. “He’s misogynistic. And he sent us to war without a real reason.”

But, child - do you know what Adolf Hitler did?

“He killed, like, hundreds of Jews,” Rachel offered, pausing as if to make sure she gave the correct answer.

“Thousands!” her friend Rachel Brooks corrected, demonstrating the superior nature of New England public education. And it wasn’t even 10 a.m.

Or this:

Typically clueless was Bryan Martin, 25, a New Yorker carrying a “No Draft, No Way” placard. Following is a verbatim transcript of this columnists’ conversation with Mr. Martin:

Q: “What are you protesting?”

A: “I’m protesting a war we shouldn’t be fighting.”

Q: “Are you protesting the Democrats with that sign?”

A: “No, the Republicans.”

Q: “Are you aware that the Democrats are the only ones proposing a reinstatement of the draft?”

A: “Wasn’t that tongue-in-cheek?”

Q: “No.”

A: “Oh. Well, they just gave me the sign at 14th Street (the demonstration’s starting point). I don’t really know what it means.”

Hat tip The Club For Growth and Dog Snot Diaries.

Yesterday got a bit too busy to properly note that it was in fact Pardon My English’s 1 year “Blogaversary.” We officially launched on September 1, 2003. At that time, I figured we’d see how things were, privately hoping we’d last more than a month.

Now, it’s a year later, two months shy of the election, and things have been looking pretty good. We broke the 100,000 hits mark just a few days ago, and we are a Large Mammal in the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, consistantly ranking in the top 100 - 200 of over 14,000 blogs in the system (today, we are at 169). Over the course of the past year, 15 individual writers (some are still here) have written over 700 articles that in turn generated nearly 10,000 comments, by over 700 unique visitors.

Successful, or not, it’s been a lot of fun. The writing team has evolved a bit since our conception, and much of the success of Pardon My English is due to them. Some came and went quickly. Some stuck it out for a months and moved on. One blogged from Bosnia and just weeks after coming stateside, volunteered to help out in Iraq. One came from the National Guard, and is currently serving with his company, andis anxious to return to blogging. Another wrote an article that so infuriated a reader, that they started a parody blog called “Pardon Your Stupidity.” Others have stayed and enjoyed at least one extended hiatus, but are still here.

Of course, we can’t forget the commenters here, both conservative and liberal (especially the liberals) who contribute to the often heated debate. Emotions have run high; insults aplenty; bickering, that’s commonplace.

Other thanks are still in order. Mike from Owl Eye Designs has been the man behind the scenes keeping the site looking good and has helped me in the two major site design revisions this past year. All the bloggers who have linked to our site and our articles have also been crucial to our success.

Pardon My English started as a blog for people who did not have one, so they could have a chance to speak their minds. As I said in the maiden post, “it is my pleasure to provide an opportunity for people to exercise their constitutional right to free speech, rather than wonder what it would be like.” For that, I think we have been successful.

Stay tuned for live blogging coverage of the RNC Third Night…

UPDATE 7:49pm : Continuing the roll per the rules…
Earlier today, Pennsylvania cast the “over the top” vote.

UPDATE 8:08pm : George W. Bush gets all 2508 delegates, a unaminous vote.

UPDATE 8:16pm : George W. Bush is being officially informed of his nomination by select delegates.

Now comes the process of nominating the Vice President–to be nominated by acclimation, rather than roll call vote.

Vice President Dick Cheney is the official nominee for the office of Vice President. Wow, big shock there…

Cheney will now be officially notified of his nomination.

Anyone find it strange that they are signing, “Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight.” ??

UPDATE 8:26pm : A New York City Firefighters Union has officially endorsed President Bush’s reelection. Bush is eating pizza with some New York City firemen….

UPDATE 8:30pm : Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell is now on stage… and just introduced his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, a Taiwanese immigrant. She is reiterating the “land of opportunity” theme that Arnold Schwarzenegger touched on a bit last night… her story about her first Halloween in America is kind of funny… eh, not really.

She just said that the current unemployment level is lower now than the average during the 1970s, 80s and 90s–but Democrats don’t care about that.

Ohio Representative Rob Portman is now taking the stage.

33,000 jobs lost in the manufacturing sector in Ohio during the last year of the Clinton Administration.

Government doesn’t create jobs… it creates the environment for job growth… we need to keep the Bush tax cuts.

“Four more years!”

UPDATE 8:43pm : Video, “President Bush: Fulfilling America’s Promise”

Lurita Doan and Patricia Stout, representing Women Small Business Owners, are going to speak now.

Doan praises Bush’s tax cuts as playing a major role in the success of her small business. Because of tax cuts, she can hire 75 more people.

UPDATE 8:55pm : Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan … typical stuff, nothing exciting, followed by a video praising tax cuts that helped small businesses and homeowners.

Remote video feed with Renee Amoore, a third generation Republican and small business owner, giving praise to President Bush… “Not only am I Republican, I’m African American.”

UPDATE 9:10pm : Music from Third Day.… “I Got a Feeling” (Links to iTunes Music Store). Lead singer just reworked a part of the song to say “Four more years! Four more years! Four More Years!”

Michael Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan, takes the stage.

He said he was lucky because his parents were pro-life (Michael was adopted by the Reagans in 1945).

Invoking the words of his father, and now a video tribute to his father, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Excellent video… reminded me of the week of his funeral, and the countless hours of footage in his honor. It’s good to be reminded of his great legacy. A more complete version of the video is available at ReaganLibrary.com

UPDATE 9:38pm : My Lt. Governor, Kerry Healy, from my hometown… Bring on the John Kerry bashing. She holds the same job Kerry had once, and failed at–and of course doesn’t mention. She reminds us that Kerry doesn’t mention his Senate record, because it stinks.

“John Kerry can’t win by telling the truth.”

She’s alluding to the activists judges who forced gay marriage on us.

Here comes… MITT ROMNEY!

It’s Mitt!

“I’m proud to from Massachusetts, where John Kerry will be the junior senator for four more years.”

Message to Edwards… “if you don’t like hearing that, sue me!”

“This nation can’t afford presidential leadership that comes in 57 varieties.”

“George W. Bush is right, and the blame America first crowd is wrong.”

“We recognize that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Text of Mitt’s speech.

UPDATE 9:50pm : Music by Sara Evans. “Born to Fly”

“George W. Bush, you were born to fly!”

Nice video of the Bush family. George, Laura, Jenna, Barbara.

UPDATE 10:02pm : Democrat Senator Zell Miller takes the stage… we love Zell! (Check out his book Corps Values and A National Party No More.

“The conscience of the Democratic Party.” -RNC announcer

“My family is more important than my party. There is one man I willing to trust with their future and that man is George W. Bush.”

Zell is really kicking some ass up there… sounding like a good ol’ southerner.

Ooh, he’s hitting the Democrats really good.

“Today’s Democrats see America as an occupier…” We are liberators, not occupiers.

He just slammed Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, my unfortunate Senators, who are being massacred by Miller.

He’s listing now all the military devices that Kerry opposed that were integral in our nation’s fight against tyrants and the war on terror. “This is the man who wants to be the commander in chief of our armed forces?”

“Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending… I want Bush to decide!”

An unbelievable speech! ROCK ON SENATOR ZELL MILLER!!!

UPDATE 10:19pm : Lynne Cheney has the difficult task of following that great speech by Zell Miller.

Now time for Vice President Dick Cheney… endless chants of “Four more years!”

“I’m sure glad Zell Miller is on our side.”

Cheney accepts the nomination for the Republican party’s nominee for Vice President.

Cheney is delivering his speech like a natural.

“The Bush Tax Cuts are working!”

“We are in a war we didn’t start, it’s a war we’re going to win… we will prevail.”

Cheney said we honor Kerry for his service in Vietnam, and the crowd applauded.

The vice President is doing a good job of defending the administration, and the President, smacking down the rhetorical criticism from the left.

“George W. Bush will never seek a permission slip to defend the American people.”

In talking about Kerry, the crowd is chanting “flip-flop , flip-flop…”

“Kerry’s liveliest disagreement is with himself.” Delegates: “flip-flop , flip-flop…”

Kerry sees two Americas, America sees two John Kerrys.

Cheney just wrapped up, and we saw his young granchildren on the podium. How sweet… time for Brooks and Dunn… they’re doing the national anthem in a Jimi Hendrix-like style, pretty slick.

UPDATE 11:03pm : Thus ends the third night of the RNC…

Today is September 1st–I originally intended to use my lunchtime to write about Pardon My English’s first “blogaversary” today, but that will have to wait, as something else has taken my attention.
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Anyone who picked up the New York Times this morning had to have been completely jarred by the “above the fold” photograph from the twin suicide bus bombings in Beersheba, Israel (a town in southern Israel I’ve visited before), abruptly ending the 6 months of “quiet.”

Click image for enlargement

Six months of relative quiet in Israel ended in carnage on Tuesday, as two suicide bombers blew up two buses 100 yards apart in this southern desert town, killing at least 16 people, including a 4-year-old child, and wounding more than 100 others, many of them seriously.

Sixteen of the wounded were school-age children; 18 people remained hospitalized, three in critical condition and five in serious condition, Israeli hospital officials said, in the worst bombing in the country in nearly a year. The terrorist group Hamas claimed responsibility, calling it a retaliation for the assassinations in Gaza months ago of two of its leaders, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, its founder, and his successor, Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

In Beersheba, a town of 180,000 people 50 miles south of Tel Aviv, what for many was a trip to market on the day before the start of the school year concluded with families shattered and shocked, and the main street strewn with glass, pencils, schoolbooks, groceries, bank cards, purses and body parts. A book in Russian lay on the pavement; a plastic bottle of laundry detergent, punctured by shrapnel, leached on the cloth covering one of the victims.

The two bombers also died, the severed head of one sharing the bloody floor of a bus with a mound of human limbs, shreds of clothing and the stuff of ordinary life - onions and grapes. Forensic experts and Orthodox Jewish medical workers who collect human remains for burial stepped carefully around the remains.

Look at that picture again.

For anyone who has selectively forgotten, Hamas, a terrorist organization, up until last spring, was partially funded by Saddam Hussein. Suicide bombers would get thousands of dollars for their families from Saddam for successfully executing suicide attacks. The picture above is not an isolated incident–it is unfortunately preceded by numerous similarly shocking images that are all too familiar for Israelis. The picture above is terrorism.

Terrorism.

If we as a nation are not steadfast and resolved in the fight against terrorism, pretty soon that bus pictured above won’t be on the streets of Beersheba, or Tel Aviv, or Jerusalem–rather, it will be on the streets of New York, Boston, or Los Angeles, or a small town near you, or your town… your backyard.

Do you want to wait till that bus is the one you, or someone you care about is sitting on? Of course not, at least I hope not. And you know something, George W. Bush doesn’t want wait for that either. George W. Bush wants to stop the buses from exploding by ridding the world of terrorists that are willing to blow themselves up for a senseless cause. George W. Bush will not falter, he will not submit to the demands and delays of a corrupt international body or a “status quo” satisfied nation.

The war on terror is not something we wanted, it something we had to do. In this time of uncertainty, this issue is the most important, yet somehow, we seem to forget about it. Our commander in chief can’t go back and forth for months trying to seek permission to keep Americans safe. We need a strong leader. We need a determined commander. We need a dedicated president. We need George W. Bush.

Opponents of the President talk down the economy, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President question the necessity of the war on Iraq, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President ignore the good things occurring in Iraq on a daily basis, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President deny the successes in education and health care, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President tell you that the Patriot Act is limiting your rights, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President debate the legitimacy of his presidency, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President say we are losing the war on terror, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President lie to you, in order to defeat him.

Opponents of the President do all this, and more. Why? Because they, like the terrorists who committed the act pictured above, are filled with hate. They don’t want to acknowledge the rights of the President and those who agree with him to have an opposing viewpoint, they’d rather silence you with a lawsuit, or violent protests, or a filibuster.

Whether you choose to believe what the President’s opponents have to say, or not, one thing is for sure: President George W. Bush is the right man to initiate the defeat of terrorism. If we are losing the war on terror, nothing else matters. What good is a job, or cheap prescriptions, if you are dead?

Don’t forget that image of the bombed out bus, don’t forget the image of those two lifeless children in the bus, who will not make it to their first day of school this year. And don’t forget, it is our 43rd President, George W. Bush, who will do whatever is necessary, without delay, to keep that bombed bus out of our backyard.

Among the positive, pro-Bush festivities of the RNC, I received an email crushing the liberals hatred of the War in Iraq. I’m also a big fan of facts, rather than blatant lies (i.e. Clinton, Kerry, Pelosi, Daschle, et al.).

Liberals claim President Bush shouldn’t have started this war. They complain about his prosecution of it. One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history.

Let’s clear up one point: President Bush didn’t start the war on terror. Try to remember, it was started by terrorists BEFORE 9/11. Let’s look at the worst president and mismanagement claims.

FDR led us into World War II.
Germany never attacked us, Japan did.
From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.

Truman finished that war and started one in Korea.
North Korea never attacked us.
From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,333 per year.

John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962.
Vietnam never attacked us.
Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire.
From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.

Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.
Bosnia never attacked us.
He was offered Osama bin Laden’s head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

Over 2,900 lives lost on 9/11. In the two years since terrorists attacked us:
President Bush has liberated two countries;
crushed the Taliban;
crippled al-Qaida;
put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot;
captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
We’ve lost 900 soldiers, an average of 450 a year.
Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist attack at home.

Worst president in history? Come on!
The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but…
It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound - that was a 51 day operation.
We’ve been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Teddy Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!!

It looks to me like our President is doing a damn good job in our War on Terror.

Lately, I’ve been handing out Bush-Cheney buttons for my Wictory Wednesday contributions. But now, thank to Travis at All Encompassingly, I will also be taking part in his gmail invite program.

I just got 6 new Gmail invites, and with the last day before the nomination acceptance by President Bush, this is the last chance to send donations.

Here is what you need to do:

Donate any amount at GeorgeWBush.com,

then

1. send me an email [aaron@pardonmyenglish.com]

2. make the subject “gbush”

3. include the confirmation number you received after making your donation.

The first 6 people who send confirmation numbers today will get an invitation to Gmail. Future Gmail giveaways will hinge on how many additional invites I get from Gmail, and how many winners there are this week.

Anyone currently serving in the armed forces who would benefit from having 1GB of e-mail storage, please contact me about getting an invite to Gmail!

Like All Encompassingly and Pardon My English, over one hundred bloggers ask their readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign. If you would like to play your part in the campaign in the same way I have, go place an order at the George W. Bush Store to get some buttons, and you’ll soon be on your way.

If you’re a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And then e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com so that you’ll be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:

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Disclaimer

Entering contest does not guarantee a Gmail invitation. This promotion is not affiliated with the official Bush-Cheney campaign.