It's lunchtime on the East coast. I'm back at work. Here's an open thread for you, with the caveat below still in effect.

This site will not host personal attacks against Sarah Palin, rumors of a personal nature or a discussion of her personal life or that of her children. All such comments will be deleted and repeat offenders banned.

Our comment policy is here.

Bumped 10:45 am Monday: The ban remains in effect. Zero tolerance.

Bump 9:35 pm Sunday: Some of you aren't getting the message:

11:15 a.m. Sunday: This site will not host personal attacks against Sarah Palin, rumors of a personal nature or a discussion of her personal life or that of her children. All such comments will be deleted and repeat offenders banned.

There are no comments to this thread. (Despite the comment box still appearing, they won't post.) More...

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters rips the Mainstream Media for its coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

How 15,000 credentialed journalists could descend on Denver and produce such unvaryingly weak and shoddy coverage of a staged news event -- and do it with coverage that celebrated sameness and shallowness -- was a sad spectacle that newsrooms nationwide ought to ponder.

The police were busy in St. Paul yesterday.

Police arrested 284 people Monday after firing projectiles, pepper spray and tear gas to disperse a crowd demonstrating near the convention site.

So much for freedom of assembly. Exercising that right in St. Paul apparently results in an arrest for conspiracy to riot.

Some of the arrests were probably legitimate (there have been scattered reports of vandalism), but the pattern at political conventions has been to arrest first, ask questions later. It will be interesting to see how many of the arrestees are never charged, and how many charges are ultimately dismissed.

Those of you who rely on sleeping pills or a shot of bourbon to help you fall asleep will not need your sleeping aids tonight. Simply tune in the Republican National Convention, where the prime time speaking agenda will include the sleep-talking Sen. Fred Thompson and the equally snooze-inducing Sen Joe Lieberman. George Bush, rumored to still be the President of the United States, will appear by satellite.

Thompson is pinch hitting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger, who suddenly found himself with better things to do.

A personal note --I am not comfortable with writing about this election right now. I am not comfortable with the behavior of some Democrats and Left blogs regarding Sarah Palin. Of course everyone is entitled to their own views on this and I respect that. But I am entitled to mine as well. I am going to take a break and see how I feel next week.

I want to add that I believe the Obama/Biden campaign has handled the Palin matter with considerable decency and political aplomb. I applaud their behavior.

One last thing, I recommend Bob Herbert's column today.

I speak for me only of course.

This is an Open Thread.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, with the caveat I stated below. Please read it before commenting.

(This site will not host personal attacks against Sarah Palin, rumors of a personal nature or a discussion of her personal life or that of her children. All such comments will be deleted and repeat offenders banned.)

The day John McCain appointed Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential nominee, I wrote:

Did John McCain just repeat George McGovern's fatal mistake? How long will Palin stay on the ticket? Will McCain recover any better than McGovern?

It had nothing to do with Eagleton's particular problems, but how McGovern came to choose him, failed to adequately vet him, and then waffled when the problems arose, effectively costing him the election. I wrote about this recently when reviewing the new Gonzo film about Hunter S. Thompson:

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now was arrested in Minneapolis today. According to the description of the video, she and two others are charged with conspiracy to riot. According to Coldsnaplegal, she was pepper-sprayed while handcuffed.

Karl Rove was not speaking about himself when he used the phrase "big, blowhard dufus" at the Republican National Convention. He pinned that label instead on Joe Biden. Told of the insult, Biden

smiled and called Rove “a great American.” Then he turned and walked away.

It's nice to see that Biden wasn't goaded into an insult-hurling contest by Rove's tactics. Asked when he and Barack Obama would resume full-fledged campaigning in light of Hurricane Gustav, Biden responded:

“I don’t think we’ll have any problem resuming the campaign,” Biden said, and then smiled again. “You see Karl Rove doesn’t have any problem resuming the campaign. He didn’t get the memo.”

Three poll results are out today, showing a substantial convention bounce for Sen. Barack Obama and Joe Biden..

• CBS: Obama leads McCain by 8, poll results here (pdf.)
• USA Today: Obama leads McCain by 7.
• Gallup: Obama leads McCain by 6.

A CNN poll shows no bounce. The question is, will it hold and what will McCain's be? Gallup says McCain went up 2 points because of his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, while there was no increase for Obama selecting Biden.

Some analysis of convention bumps is here. I like the Obama campaign's position that it is not interested in polls, only in the battleground states and getting out Obama voters. I've always thought the big battleground states are the key to this election.

Cindy McCain and Laura Bush spoke at the Republican National Convention today, urging support for victims of Hurricane Gustav.

Originally, President Bush and Dick Cheney had been scheduled to speak but the storm caused them to cancel those plans.