"Clintons are lizard people and they are punishing Obama."

Links mentioned:

David Icke's theory of the lizard people

Skeptoid on Reptoids

It's me and Megan McArdle on Bloggingheads!

Topics:

Joe Biden: the exciting/boring choice (06:07)
Is Hillary better off if Obama loses? (04:13)
Don’t we all aspire to own so many houses that we lose count? (03:46)
Irreligious Megan defends religion’s role in politics (13:53)
The psychology of online trolls (07:44)
Why Ann and Megan drive the commenters crazy (06:47)

Some good stuff in there. I'll resist doing a whole lot of clips, but will try to find something very short and pithy to amuse you.

Maybe that would be a charming reenvisioning of the talking heads commentary....

... but if you're going to shake a blurry camera around at least turn off the tinny background music.

Stuff like this is irritating too.

Call me a hypocrite — I know I'm a hypocrite vlogger — but I couldn't watch either of those things. So bloggers go to the convention, but why? To say: Here I am, a blogger at the convention? That was cute in 2004, but it's cloying now.

Bill Maher: Christianity is "not mainly about doing the right thing or being ethical."

"It's mainly about getting your butt saved when you die. And that's why I think they're less moral than ethicists."

Oh, yeah, like ethicists don't have ulterior motives.

Jay Leno to John McCain: "For $1 million, how many houses do you have?"

ADDED: This clip goes beyond the subject of McCain's innumerable houses, to the question of why the ads have gotten so negative. McCain blames Obama for failing to agree to do town hall sessions.

Was Day 1 of the convention too sweet?

Josh Marshall kept yelling "Attack, Attack, Attack."

And James Carville groused that the night was wasted on emotional, personal fluff (and the Republicans will go right for the jugular).

Do these hardcore political males have any sense of how ordinary Americans — especially female Americans — feel about politics?

Should Obama not respond to attacks based on his association with Bill Ayers?

Here's the Obama response, which Shannen Coffin thinks is terrible:

It starts with: "Why is John McCain talking about the Sixties?" Well, McCain wasn't talking about anything; it was an unrelated (but supportive) group.

Ugh! How awful to set about correcting others for connecting Obama to Ayers and to begin by misstating McCain's connection to the ad.

"Why is McCain trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?" asks the ad? ... [T]his seems to be the first time Obama has described his seemingly close associate as a radical.

Maybe they thought we'd hear "radical Bill Ayers" as the Bill Ayers of the distant past — as distinguished from present-day Ayers, who's become a fine, upstanding, mainstream citizen. But it would be stupid to think Americans have such a subtle picture of Bill Ayers. If they did, you wouldn't need to run the ad at all. So if you're going to wade into this, you have to bring us up to speed at the same time. It's sort of like they thought they could say: If you are aware of this issue, here is our answer. If you're not, please don't start thinking about it.

The ad explains that Obama "denounced Ayers' crime." Whether that is true or not, his recent association with Ayers is not addressed. And again, Obama suggests that it is somehow relevant that the crimes were committed when he was just eight years old. As I recall, Charles Manson was committing crimes in the same time frame, but are any Presidential candidates jumping on the Manson express?

You don't get off the hook for association with a bad person by saying that you denounce whatever bad things he's done. Are we not to judge the candidate by the company he keeps? The point needs to be that Ayers has become a completely different person, one who would never commit the kind of crimes he once advocated.

Jennifer Rubin calls the ad Obama's "biggest goof yet":

He took a story largely confined to the internet, (only briefly raised in the primary) ...

Actually, Rush Limbaugh talks about this story often. Back to Rubin:

... about Obama’s connection to former terrorist Bill Ayers, put it in his own ad, and then filed a claim trying to force the third-party 527 ad that first brought up the Obama-Ayers connection off the air. In the next 24 hours thousands if not millions of voters who never heard of or didn’t understand the extent of the Obama-Ayers relationship are going to get a full education.

Here's the story about the effort to block the 527 ad:

Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the “American Issues Project,” the vehicle through which Dallas investor Harold Simmons is financing the advertisements. The Obama campaign — and tens of thousands of supporters — also is pressuring television networks and affiliates to reject the ads. The effort has met with some success: CNN and Fox News are not airing the attacks.

I imitation-live-blog Michelle Obama's speech.

I missed most of Michelle Obama's speech last night, and the good thing about that is that now I've got the text, and it's much faster to read and much easier to blog. So I'll imitation-live-blog:

As you might imagine, for Barack, running for president is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother, Craig.

Why might I imagine that? What a strange first line!

And at six-foot-six, I've often felt like Craig was looking down on me, too, literally.

Michelle Obama is 6'6"?! That's a little grammar humor. But okay, I get it now. Craig was standing right there and he's really tall, and so she started off with some warm, casual family and sports talk.

... I come here tonight as a sister.... And I come here as a wife....

And I come here as a mom....

And I come here as a daughter....

My feminist alarm goes off, and I think of Hillary, the woman who would have come here as the nominee.

And, you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that... his family was so much like mine.

He was raised by grandparents who were working-class folks just like my parents and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. And like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities that they never had for themselves.

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values....

She's reaching out to those middle-class white voters Obama needs to win over. Michelle is saying that her family shared the values of the demographic group she's trying to persuade, but she subtly points to what should be more obvious, that Obama was raised by middle-class white people.

In keeping with the campaign's (sometimes elusive) transracial theme, she doesn't say that her family is black and his primary caregivers were white. In fact, nowhere in the speech do we hear the words "black" — or "African-American" — or "white" — except for "White House." A search of the text for "race" turned up only "grace" (twice!) and "embrace," which felt very sweet.

And I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history, knowing that my piece of the American dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me, all of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work, the same conviction that drives the men and women I've met all across this country.

She's putting herself in her place, the place that the polls say she needs to be in, where she is not arrogant, not "entitled" and angry, and she loves America. At this point, she lists various kinds of people, people who work hard, who serve in the military, young people, and Hillary Clinton. And Joe Biden.

All of us driven by the simple belief that the world as it is just won't do, that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

She's trying to repackage her erstwhile criticism of America into a respect for it, or at least for its hardworking people, and to use that as a premise for idealism.

And that is the thread that connects our hearts.

Who wrote that line? I can just hear them brainstorming about a way to put the message in really feminine terms: Let's see, there's childcare, cooking... sewing! Thread! And love, feeling... hearts! The thread that connects our hearts. Hey, that's a rather grisly image: sewn thoracic organs. No, no, don't worry about it. No one is that concrete. Maybe some inane blogger somewhere. Forget it. People will hear thread and hearts and feel all the love and connection.

That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack's journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.

More thread. And journey. It's always a journey. The current of history meets this new tide of hope. Currents and tides... hey, is that Teddy Kennedy's yacht? (I need to dig up the link to the Ted Kennedy video with its theme of The Sea. [ADDED: Here.])

And, you see, that is why I love this country.

That is the line she needed to say. I imagine it was the first line of the speech that was written and everything else was built around it.

In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities, because I believe....

Wait. Doesn't her job pay $300,000 a year? And is there really something wrong with working in jobs that can't be labeled "public service"? She goes on to talk about Barack's choice to work in public service, which, of course, includes working as a state and U.S. senator and — if you'll elect him — as a President. This launches the part of the speech that resembles one of Barack Obama's own speeches. And then it becomes more intimate, with this image:

He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering at us anxiously at -- through the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her something he never had, the affirming embrace of a father's love.

As President, Barack can be our father too. And he will drive that Car of State very, very carefully, inching along. He'll grip that steering wheel at the 11 and 1 positions and peer anxiously in the rearview mirror. A strikingly conservative image, no?

And as I tuck that little girl in -- as I tuck that little girl in and her little sister into bed at night, you see, I think about how, one day, they'll have families of their own and how, one day, they -- and your sons and daughters -- will tell their own children about what we did together in this election.

And so the wife ends her day in proper feminine form, tucking in the little children. Somewhere, a Hillary supporter is weeping.

"Do you think they were really plotting to kill Obama?"

"I don't want to say yes. I don't want to say no."

The Corner says:

Maybe Sen. Obama will have a new appreciation for law-enforcement, and for the fact (which most on the Left won't entertain) that sometimes when police stop and search someone — without a warrant! — for mere erratic driving, they really do discover far more serious crime. Let's also hope the media cover this responsibly rather than framing white supremacists named Adolph as rank-and-file Republicans.

It's always a good time to bash the Left, the media, and constitutional rights.

UPDATE: Fizzle.

The Democratic Convention.

7:??: I'll do a little live-blogging... as suits my mood.

7:58 Central Time: I'm just settling in to watch. I've got everything TiVo'd and I'm scrolling along. Has it started yet? This last hour seems to be very Nancy Pelosi-oriented. I don't think this part is supposed to count for much. I'm fast-forwarding like mad. Ehghgd! It's Jimmy Carter!

8:19: Caroline Kennedy is a terrible speaker, but her speech makes me cry nonetheless.

8:30: We've seen a film about Teddy Kennedy. It focused on his love for the sea. He encounters the sea on a beautiful yacht, with his elite family. But he's dying. I don't know what to think. It's supposed to be about Barack Obama and the future of the Democratic Party, but I'm hearing bathos about the sea... and then there is this terribly rich man with his yacht. But we are called to celebrate him. He's dying. We see that in the tear that Maria Shriver brushes off her razor-sharp cheek. Ah, woe beyond politics! But now he's speaking. He wants health care for everyone.

8:35: "Barack Obama will close the book on ... straight against gay." Now, why would that be? I wonder. Teddy imbues Barack with powers.

9:48: "And that is why I love this country," says Michelle Obama.

9:58: Those kids are cute! "I love you, Daddy!"

7:12, next morning: I barely watched the post-Teddy stuff. Just not in the mood. I should check out Michelle's speech on line today. I did see the parading of the cute kids. It seemed pretty clear to me that the younger girl had been coached to cry out "I love you, Daddy" when she saw her father on the video screen, because she did it repeatedly. I think a kid behaving naturally would be really intimidated to find herself on the stage and would cling to the mother, who is there on the flesh. A big head of your father on a video screen in front of a huge audience is a very weird thing. I don't think it would make a little kid call out "I love you, Daddy." If she'd say anything, it would be to the mother: "Why is Daddy on the screen?"

Anyway, I see there are a lot of comments on this post, and that some of the commenters got mad at each other sometime around midnight. It's not easy, dropping in this morning, to figure out why. Did you drink too much blog? I'll just say I hope you all kiss and make up.

Video puzzle of the day.

What is this? Who am I talking to?

Why the hell is Giuliani the keynote speaker for the Republican convention?

ADDED: Tomasky is from Guardian America and The New York Review of Books, and Lowry is from The National Review. There's something really gloomy about this clip, but the mood is lightened when Tomasky eats what appears to be a cookie. That's a Bloggingheads first, perhaps. Who eats on Bloggingheads? Drinking is the norm, but eating? That's wild. Oh, now I'm remembering that Mickey Kaus ate pizza that time....

Let's look at the new Obama ad.

Nicely done. I'm glad to see the return of the light touch.

The source material is the great old Sam Cooke song "What a Wonderful World," and you can hear it on this video, which, like the new ad, has a political theme:

Should I live-blog the Democratic Convention?

Should I live-blog the Democratic Convention?
	Yes, in detail, please.
	Yes, if you're in the mood, but only what strikes your fancy.
	No. It's not worth the trouble. Just put up a post, and let commenters take over.
	No. I'm not interested in this subject at all.
pollcode.com free polls

Is class participation obligatory for law students?

Eugene Volokh says:

[Law students] are not just customers of legal education, but are also in a sense a sort of employee: Law school classes rely on students' participating in the class, as a means of helping educate the other students. Learning, the theory goes, is a cooperative endeavor, in which students benefit from hearing each other's comments.

You can read the whole thing. What I have to offer is a thought experiment, based on years of work on admissions, which at my law school (Wisconsin), involves carefully considering a multitude of factors and not just making offers to the people with the best GPA and LSAT.

I have pored over hundreds of applications, looking at different life and work experiences and different educational backgrounds, trying to understand the character and frame of mind of the applicant. Much effort is put into assembling a student body, and it seems well worth it to produce a classroom full of interesting individuals, with diverse knowledge, goals, and points of view.

But if these individuals sit through class silently, why did any of those factors matter? We could have programmed the computers to admit students based on their numerical scores and saved a lot of time. You might argue the law school has an interest in the larger community that needs its supply of lawyers, but why does it matter who goes to which law school? And yes, the students (may) interact with each other outside of the class and (may) maintain ties with the school as alumni, but it is the interest is in the quality of the classroom experience that drives the complex admissions process.

So here's the thought experiment. What if the law school application required a short essay, asking the prospective students to describe how they planned to behave in the classroom? Now, imagine an applicant who writes:

I intend to sit quietly and never volunteer. It suits my learning style to listen and take notes and to think about things on my own. I hope not to be called upon to speak, but if that happens, I intend to pass or, if that is not permitted, to give a short simple answer that will get me off the hook as quickly and easily as possible.

Who would admit that student?

Do law school applicants tacitly represent that they will actively participate in classroom discussion? They answer the questions and write the personal essay that they should know we use to in our efforts to find students who will make a strong contribution. They should feel an ethical responsibility to the classroom community they asked to join and to the rejected applicants they are displacing.

They should know that we wouldn't have accepted them if we had thought they would sit passively and keep their thoughts to themselves.

"Obamans think the smartest veep pick for Senator McCain would be ... MIKE HUCKABEE."

So that means it's the dumbest, right?