Filmmaker Michael Moore, brandishing a messenger's pass, tried to get past Secret Service agents and onto the floor of the Republican National Convention this evening.

He ended up in the "cheap seats" during Senator John McCain's speech.

When McCain referred to Moore and his lies, Moore flashed the "'L' for Loser" sign at him.

While McCain's tone was mostly conciliatory, he criticized Michael Moore, whose documentary film "Fahrenheit 9-11" attacks Bush over Iraq and has been popular with liberal audiences. Without mentioning Moore by name, McCain called him "a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace."

Oops, I forgot....he already is a quivvering mass of gelatin!

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Actress Rosario Dawson, from Kids, Josie & the Pussycats, and the in-production Frank Miller's Sin City, was arrested along with the director of the upcoming This Revolution, Stephen Marshall.

According to the criminal complaint, Dawson and Marshall were spotted in a road with about 30 people gathered around them. She and another person were wearing handkerchiefs as masks with only their eyes showing.

A police officer told Dawson and the other person that they had to leave the roadway, the complaint said, but they reportedly refused. Marshall reportedly tried to show police his city film permit but was arrested anyway.

Each was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and one charge of obstructing governmental administration. They were released without bail and told to return to court Nov. 9.

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Well, as you can see from the rail over there on the right side, I've received my first BlogAd, coming from Joel Gaines at No Pundit Intended.

Thanks, Joel! I really appreciate it!

And to anyone else, (yes, this is a shameless plug) please feel free to buy an ad or perhaps to buy some swag, as noted down on the left rail. I've got mugs and t-shirts that say "Black and Unapologetically Conservative" and "Unapologetically Conservative" (for those who aren't as "melanin endowed" as I am).

I'm looking at adding a few other things over the next few weeks, so feel free!

And once again, to Joel and to everyone, thanks for your support!

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1 Congrats to you and congrats to Joel, two of my favorite bloggers!

Posted by: Pat Curley at August 30, 2004 10:03 AM (PJWdB)

2 Congrats!

Posted by: SparseMatrix at August 30, 2004 11:26 AM (935pb)

3 Are you kidding??? I jumped on that space like a chicken on a June Bug. You are one of my favorite bloggers and I stop by here several times a day. Plus you have that Toucan Sam magic happening. Thanks for all you do. I was introduced to Project 21 and Amy Ridenour's work because of you. regards, JG

Posted by: Joel (No Pundit Intended) at August 30, 2004 11:40 AM (iGAEH)

4 You'll see mine on your site soon, Michael. I'm trying to get more traffic because I want to feature blogads, too.

Posted by: LB at August 31, 2004 03:37 AM (Qa+f/)

5 La Shawn's face sure is a lot prettier than my dusty, old hat! Great looking ad!

Posted by: Joel (No Pundit Intended) at September 02, 2004 01:08 PM (iGAEH)

6 Don’t provide me guidance, give me money. tubal reversal

Posted by: tubal reversal at January 03, 2013 05:24 AM (WI134)

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With the Republican National Convention in full stride, one of the early speakers, former Democratic NYC mayor Ed Koch, stopped by the "Bloggers Row" area of the convention hall to talk with the folks in attendance, and discuss his support for the President.

• Blogs For Bush
• Captain's Quarters
• Slant Point
• Power Line

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Former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell has been indicted on corruption charges.

Campbell is accused of a long string of corruption, racketeering and tax fraud charges.

The detailed 48-page indictment was returned by the federal grand jury on Aug. 18, but was unsealed this morning.

It accuses Campbell of:

• Taking payoffs from individuals and companies doing business with and seeking business and licenses with the city;
• Defrauding the citizens of Atlanta by depriving them of his "good, faithful and honest services as mayor;"
• Failing to disclose cash payments and other things of value he received while serving as mayor.
• Encouraging and accepting illegal campaign contributions for his re-election as mayor in 1997.
• Participating in a scheme to defraud contributors to and creditors of his re-election campaign;
• Recruiting others, including city employees, to "knowingly and unknowingly participate in the pattern of racketeering activity."

Specifically, the indictment charges that Campbell took $55,000 in illegal payments from a computer subcontractor in June, July and August of 1999. The payments were made to secure city contracts, according to the indictment.

The indictment claims in the spring of 1999 the computer subcontractor, the business' name is not disclosed, approached Campbell about a contract.

Campbell, now an attorney with Willie Gary's law firm in Florida, calls the investigation a "witch hunt of unbelieveable proportions," and that his name will be cleared in court.

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Florida-based Lisy Corporation is at the center of another toy scandal.

If you'll remember the story from late last week, Lisy Corporation distributed bags of candy that contained a toy depicting the 9/11 disaster. Lisy recalled the candy in question, and said that a Miami importer got the toy for them.

The importer, L and M Imports, claimed that they didn't see the problem.

This week, a toy has been found with an image of Osama bin Laden standing between two towers.

"Importers did not realize what they were buying. They were buying assortments of toys and they get to people like us trying to sell authentic Mexican candies. Nobody caught it and it went out into the stores," explains Lisy Corporation manager Luis Pardon.

The manager of Lisy Corporation says the candy was originally purchased sight unseen, but now he'll send back all he's collected.

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Live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the RNC can be found online from C-Span (Real Player) and from ABC News Now (Real Player - check your broadband portal news page for the link -- it varies from service to service). Off and on continuing coverage is also available from BBC World (WMP).

As with the DNC in Boston last month, broadcast television coverage is more fleeting as the networks only carry an hour per night on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Of course, everyone will carry Vice President Dick Cheney's speech on Wednesday, and President Bush's speech on Thursday night.

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A new tropical storm, Tropical Storm Hermine, has formed off of Cape Hattaras, NC. This is on the heels of Tropical Storm Gaston, which came ashore earlier today near Charleston, SC.

And of course, as most weather watchers know by now, powerful Hurricane Frances looms east of Puerto Rico, headed toward Florida. By Friday, Frances is expected to be in the Bahamas, with it's US target anyone's guess (as if Florida needed any more heartache).

This is going to make for an interesting week, to say the least.

Jim Williams at HurricaneCity.com has started live broadcasting coverage of the storms. They are going to run several hours tonight, and throughout the week.

I anticipate that non-stop coverage from Jim will start once Hurricane Warnings are issued for Florida. Stay tuned.

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The 167 black delegates at the Republican National Convention beginning Monday are more than double the number that attended in 2000, according to a new study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

“This dramatic increase in African American delegate participation is a remarkable showing for the Republican convention, and it will be interesting to see whether it filters into the voting booths come November,” said Joint Center president Eddie N. Williams. “Our polling since the 2000 election has indicated some increasing support for Republicans among younger African Americans, although as shown in the 2002 midterms, this generally has not translated into more votes for the GOP.”

Increases in the black Republican vote have been fleeting though. The black vote for George W. Bush was around 9% of the total black vote in 2000, and the expectation is that a number of 10-11% will vote Republican this fall.

While most people feel that this represents a failure in the GOP's overall outreach, I count a single percentage point increase as a victory -- it indicates that there is an increase in conservative political thought in black America, and as I've said repeatedly, we (as conservatives in general, and black conservatives in particular) must "crawl before we walk."

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A captured Al Qaeda operative says that a man from Montreal, who trained with the 9/11 hijackers in Afghanistan, was responsible for the downing of American Airlines flight 587 shortly after it took off from JFK November 12, 2001.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents were told during five days of interviews with the source that Abderraouf Jdey, a Canadian citizen also known as Farouk the Tunisian, had downed the plane with explosives on Nov. 12, 2001.

The source claimed Jdey had used his Canadian passport to board Flight 587 and "conducted a suicide mission" with a small bomb similar to the one used by convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid, a "Top Secret" Canadian government report says.

Jdey, 39, came to Canada from Tunisia in 1991 and became a citizen in 1995. Shortly after getting his Canadian passport, he left for Afghanistan and trained with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, according to the 9/11 commission in the United States.

He recorded a "martyrdom" video, but was dropped from the 9/11 mission after returning to Canada in the summer of 2001. The planner of the World Trade Center attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, claims Jdey was recruited for a "second wave" of suicide attacks.

American Airlines flight 587 descended into a Brooklyn neighborhood shortly after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 265 people aboard.

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A company in Miami has pulled more than 17,000 toys that were in bags of candy after a customer complained.

The toy in question appears to depict a plane hitting one of two "twin towers," not unlike the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster in New York.

A company called Lisy Corporation distributes the candy bags. They said they are also offended by the toy and have pulled 17,000 of the toys.

Lisy says they bought the toys, sight unseen, from L and M Import/Export of Miami. We talked to L and M and they say they have no problem at all with the toy and don't consider it offensive at all.

We even pointed out to the import company that every single toy has a stock number on the front that reads "9011." L and M Imports didn't find it all coincidental and said it's just a toy. Asked if they'd talk on camera, they said there is nothing to talk about.

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Nobody in their right mind (at least on THIS side of the pond) thought the US basketball team was serious about winning this year.

The team, who had been beaten even before they left the States, didn't look like they were serious on the floor in any of their wins.

The team didn't play as a cohesive unit -- they were a team of "stars" who didn't know how to play together. Their defensive skills were pathetic at best. Their "holier-than-thou" attitude off the court didn't help much either. They refused to stay in the Olympic Village, opting to stay in the Athens Harbor aboard the Queen Mary 2.

And ultimately, they were outplayed by a better team in Argentina.

Argentina, with almost the same roster that made history in 2002 by becoming the first team to defeat a U.S. squad of NBA players, will compete for the gold medal against the winner of Friday's late game between Lithuania and Italy.

The Argentines were the better passers, shooters and defenders. They confronted the Americans with a mixture of man-to-man and zone defenses, and confounded them with an assortment of back picks that turned the start of the second half into a layup drill.

The Americans shot just 36 percent in the first half and didn't hit their first 3-pointer -- missing their first five -- until LeBron James made one 30 seconds before halftime.

Message to the NBA players: Take a lesson from the USA women. They are hungry, they know how to play as a team, and they understand the significance of The Games. You obviously don't.

Message to the USOC: Go back to collegiate players -- they are hungry, and are able to play ball with the rest of the world without turning their game into a joke.

Message to NBA Commissioner David Stern (who was at the game): Congratulations. You've turned the US national basketball team into a joke and laughing stock.

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From C-Span's coverage of recently returned Vietnam veteran John Kerry's statements before a Congressional Subcommittee on November 9, 1971:

"For a lot of these guys, particularly and these are the most significant numbers of people who saw combat in Vietnam --your minority groups . . . the one thing they have been taught how to do as one of them said very well, he said this at hearings before congress he said “you know I learned how to do two things while I was in the army one was to be an accountant and I can’t get a job as an accountant in this country, and the other thing I was taught how to do was kill” And I think that all of these men have a intense capacity for violence."

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Russian investigators have found traces of explosives in at least one of the two plane crashes there this week. The FSB says this prooves that at least one of the crashes was a "terrorist act."

Details of the discovery came after an Islamic group claimed responsibility for the crashes in a website statement.

Investigators are still working to decode the flight data recorders from the crashes, which left 89 people dead.

Russian aviation officials have confirmed that one of the planes, a Sibir Airlines Tu-154, sent out a hijack alert just before it crashed, Russian media report.

The FSB says the traces of explosive were found amid the debris of the Tu-154, which was flying to the Black Sea resort of Sochi when it disappeared from radar shortly after the pilot pressed the SOS button.

The same explosive, hexogen, was apparently used in a series of apartment bombings in 1999 that killed around 200 people.

In a website statement on Friday, a group called the Islamic Brigades said it had five people on board each aircraft. It warned this act would be followed by others "until the killings of our Muslim brothers in Chechnya cease".

Chechnya has elections scheduled for next week. Terroristic acts designed to change the public's opinion of local elections has worked previously, earlier this year in Spain.

The vast majority appear to have been ethnic Russians while there has been some speculation that a woman passenger aboard the Tu-154 may have been a Chechen.

"We have no information that she was a terrorist," said Mr Levitin, adding that investigators wanted to know why no one had come to claim her body.

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John Kerry made a faux pas of monumental proportions -- at least as far as us football fans are concerned -- yesterday.

While in Green Bay, WI for a campaign appearance, Kerry actually made the unthinkable mistake of referring to the "frozen tundra of Lambert Field."

As he was taking questions from the audience, he referred to the legendary Packers stadium, Lambeau Field (which has been called that for 39 years) as "Lambert Field."

(shaking head) Lambert field? Lambert field? Has this man never watched Sportscenter? Never listened to Chris Berman? Has he never heard John Facenda's NFL Films voice? The low, rumbling Voice-of-God? As in, "the Frozen tundra of (already-deep voice dropping another four octaves) Lammmbeauuuu Field..."

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1 Never thought I'd comment in defense of Kerry, but fair is fair. The Green Bay Packers was always one of my favorite teams. Heck, I SAW the first Super Bowl game. But like Kerry, I'm not from that area of the country and I could have honestly made the same mistake. Lambeau and Lambert is almost interchangeable to an East Coaster. But I'm still not voting for him!

Posted by: Indigo at August 26, 2004 05:17 PM (mzrBm)

2 And of course, for decades, the St. Louis airport was called Lambert Field. Now it's Lambert St. Louis International Airport. As a hub, he probably flew through there for years on TWA, traveling to California vacation houses, Rocky Mountain ski trips, etc.

Posted by: lpdbw at August 27, 2004 05:16 AM (e87Rn)

3 Kind of reminds me of Ted Kennedy talking about "Sammy Sooser & Mike McGuire". These people really are out of the realm... TV (Harry)

Posted by: Inspector Callahan at August 27, 2004 07:24 AM (qKXq+)

4 "Remember, as Vince Lombardo said, whining isn't everything, it's the only thing!"

Posted by: Pat Curley at August 27, 2004 08:50 AM (PJWdB)

5 Whatsa matter, din't ya never hear of Charley Lambert, founder and first coach of the Packers? If only I could not vote for him again, but I can make a www.kerrysloganator.com/gallery poster to commemorate the misstatment. But first I have to listen to the Packers beat Jacksonville on Realone FieldPass Internet radio.

Posted by: Rodney Dill at August 27, 2004 02:29 PM (AHMXA)

6 I need to state, first, that I am a Bears fan born and bred. Having said that, calling the home of the Packers "Lambert Field" would be like calling Papa Bear "George Halls." I sentence Kerry to Minnesota. Let the Vikings fans have him.

Posted by: Wonderduck at August 28, 2004 09:43 PM (AaBEz)

7 Hey! Hey! Hey! This dislocated Cheesehead doesn't want any of that crap in my back yard. I'd rather see him stuck in O'Hare!

Posted by: OldWhig at August 28, 2004 10:11 PM (Mz8Cw)

8 As promised here's the link to the kerrysloganator poster commemorating Lambert field. No picture though, as I decided not to desecrate the "G" logo. http://www.kerrysloganator.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=499

Posted by: Rodney Dill at August 29, 2004 07:28 AM (AHMXA)

9 LOL. He's so out of touch with the rest of us.

Posted by: Jeff at August 29, 2004 08:36 AM (pg85z)

10 Perhaps it's easier to get season tickets at Lambert Field? The downside might be that one might have to watch the Green Bay Peckers and Brett Fart... 78 miles Southwest of GB. Vikings...Good one!

Posted by: Sergeant America at August 30, 2004 05:58 PM (iCDeH)

11 As long as college students in Wisconsin vote a half a dozen times each as they did last election, the Dems will still get the electors.

Posted by: Puzzled at August 31, 2004 02:40 PM (znsR5)

12 Considerably, the article is in reality the most effective on this noteworthy topic.You'll get exact price of watches at our website i.e. pulsar watches price

Posted by: Sandra at November 02, 2012 05:19 AM (5pwul)

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According to Al Jazeera, Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni has been "executed" in Iraq by a group calling itself the "Islamic Army in Iraq."

Baldoni's captors, a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, had on Tuesday threatened to kill their hostage unless Italy withdrew its 3 000 troops from Iraq within 48 hours.

The Italian government initially rejected the kidnappers' ultimatum, saying it would maintain its "civil and military" presence in Iraq, but early on Thursday Rome said it was prepared to pull its soldiers out if the interim government in Baghdad requested it.

Damned animals.

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The US Olympic Committee is getting into the Bush-Kerry race for the White House in an unanticpated way.

The USOC is requesting that President Bush's campaign pull an ad that mentions the Olympics, even though the recognizable trademark of the Games, the five rings, does not appear in the ad.

The ad has angered Olympic officials because they feel it hijacks the Olympic brand -- a registered trademark -- even though it does not display the Games logo.

The U.S. Olympic Committee had asked the Bush election "campaign to withdraw the advertisement they are running," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies told reporters.

The television advertisement, ahead of the presidential elections in November, does not feature the five Olympic rings -- one of the world's most recognizable images -- but an announcer tells viewers that at "this Olympics there will be two more free nations," referring to the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq under Bush's presidency.

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While the Southwest Florida coast continues to clean up from Hurricane Charley earlier this month, Hurricane Frances has formed out in the Atlantic Ocean.

As of 5P ET this afternoon, Frances is located near 13.7° North 46.4° West, or about 1000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. It's moving to the west-northwest at 16 miles per hour.

Sustained winds on Frances are at 80 MPH.

According to the National Hurricane Center, forward motion is expected to decrease over the next 24 hours, while strengthening is also forcast, with Frances being expected to become a Category 2 storm by this time tomorrow.

Hurricane City is tracking the storm, but not expecting to do any livecasting just yet.

The current forecast track is expected to take Frances to the north of Puerto Rico, but of course, this is an inexact science.

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13 years ago, William Kennedy Smith was found not guilty of rape in a Florida trial that, among other things, helped to create CourtTV.

Kennedy Smith, nephew of US Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), is in the hotseat again, this time, accused of raping his personal assistant.

He forced my head into his lap and wouldn't let me sit up," says Audra Soulias.

This Chicago woman is talking about her former boss, William Kennedy Smith.

"I was gasping for air. It was like I was being held under water," she said.

"I continued to cry. I continued to plead," said Soulias.

The same William Kennedy Smith who is now a doctor in charge of a world renown non-profit group headquartered in Chicago that helps landmine victims.

"He dragged me into his house, dragged me to his upstairs bedroom, and he raped me," she said.

Soulias was Smith's office assistant. She claims smith showed up at a small office party for her 23rd birthday.

It was there where she says smith was buying drinks for everyone, and said he would make sure she got home safely.

Instead she says he took her to his Lakeview house and allegedly dragged her into his bedroom.

"He pushed my shirt over my waist, pulled my tights down and forced his hand inside me."

Paul Ciolino, a private investigator working with Soulias' legal team says he checked out her story, gave her a lie detector test and she passed.

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This is getting real old, real fast.

An Islamic militant group posted pictures on its Web site on Wednesday of what it said was the beheading of a man it called a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spy in Iraq. Army of Ansar al-Sunna's site showed five sequential photographs of the apparent beheading and threatened the same fate for other people who it caught spying. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures.

The group said in an accompanying statement that Jamal Tewefic Salman, who became an U.S. citizen in 1980, confessed to be masquerading as a journalist in Iraq to spy on Islamic fighters for the CIA. "A group of mujahideen were able to kidnap a spy called Jamal Tewefic Salman, who got U.S. citizenship in 1980. He changed his name to Khaled Abdul Messih," it said. "We have implemented God's judgment on him and the accompanying pictures show his beheading. We call on those living off the blood of the mujahideen to repent to God and stop what they are doing ... or else the mujahideen's and God's hands will reach their necks one by one," it added.

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