DNC Convention Day One

First things first. If you currently don't have kids and want to know how life changes for you once you do, let me outline the following:

E in 2000: Attended the convention in LA, the parties, the whole crazy thing
E in 2004: Attended the convention in Boston, the parties, the whole crazy thing
E in 2008: Watching the convention in Denver--on TV--after drawing pictures with Bambina to help her get to sleep. Wearing pajamas and looking weirder than that conventioneer on TV wearing the gigantic red, white and blue hat while dancing Elaine Bennis-style to 'Are You Gonna Go My Way' by Lenny Kravitz.

Your kids are indeed the future of America. But they are also the death knell of your 5-day party bender under the guise of restoring America. Belee'dat, yo.

Other thoughts:

If you are watching it on CNN or MSNBC you are seeing a vastly different and lamer show than if you just turn on C-SPAN. Seriously. Never has it been more obvious how the media chooses the news to report. While a really interesting piece on the DNC's efforts with Homes For Our Troops (where the DNC volunteers to build homes for injured Iraq war veterans during the convention) was airing on C-SPAN, CNN was airing riveting footage of...people walking into the convention hall, with inane voiceover courtesy of whatever CNN tool was talking at the time. MSNBC had a talking head thing going on too. It's pretty annoying and yet par for the course.

In an interesting act of journalistic clairvoyance, AP News.Myway.com, apparently Michelle Obama has already spoken. Now, I'm sitting here watching Mrs. Robinson's intro of her daughter, and yet the AP website is reporting it like it's already happened. apnews.myway.com Note that that the time has been changed to 10:02pm from the 6:56pm it had been previously. I know the speeches are released in advance, but note how the piece makes it sound like it has already happened. That's curious, to say the least.

There are tons of bloggers at the convention, my favorites being Oliver Willis ("Like Kryptonite to Stupid"): oliverwillis.com and Ty Harrell (a wonderful man and friend who is currently a North Carolina State Representative): votetyharrell.com/blog/. Neither of these men's reputations should be besmirched by the fact that I like them, by the way. No one needs that kind of baggage. I'd rather read daily updates from actual people than watch CNN. Because, as my favorite site, fark.com, taunts: "It's not news; it's CNN."