Photo, above: Tropical Storm Isaac passed over Miami enroute to New Orleans, bypassing Tampa.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: Nan Hayworth (NY-19)

Tampa Bay under the clouds of Isaac.

Monday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time):  Mona Charen, NRO, and David Drucker, Roll Call, in re: Why Do We Still Have Conventions? Mike Murphy: "Political conventions are over. Once, they meant something. I'd leap into the most terrifying of time machines to attend an old school political convention with armies of local pols battling it out under a thick cloud of blue tobacco smoke in a stuffy convention hall, while the string-pulling bosses cut pragmatic deals over whiskey and judicial appointments in lavish hotel suites. Those conventions had drama because outcomes were unknown and stakes were high. Today, delegates are bound through the application of TV ad ratings points, not machine deals. They sit in the convention hall like the background actors in a TV show, milling about to the director's orders, wearing costumes and denied a single line. It seems a shabby ending to a great tradition. It's time for a mercy killing."

Mona Charen: Love Murphy but disagree. What else do Americans watch all together? Are we to engage with nothing except Monday Night Football? Conventions are shows now, but at least they're about politics and policy and, at some level, engagement with public policy -- not Snooki. Politically engaged delegates get their moment to speak to the folks back home via the national media. Also, no substitute for the enthusiasm of a live audience for the big speech.

Monday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time):   Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board, in re: Floridian weather; coastal zones and hurricanes; conventions and storms.  "My parents fired up the generator: 'It'll run the refrigerator and the TV, so we're fine.'  . . . "The Republican convention needs to introduce the two candidates; only an hour of network TV."  NH: looking forward to a presidency of Mitt Romney (or disaster otherwise).

Monday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time):   .Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Lara Brown, Villanova; Larry Johnson, No Quarter ("and my tax-refugee man"), in re: Mitt Romney's early attendance in Tampa, starting on Tuesday, was supposed to be embargoed, but the press abjured its promise so now it's all over.  His wife will speak on how he is as a father, a grandfather, husband, and about her struggles with multiple sclerosis and even with breast cancer. NH: She'll be a marvellous speaker. We don't know more about her because the media have preferred not to cover that pleasing part of the story.  LJ: In 1964, when I was nine years old, I watched the convention (odd though that may seem). This is all scripted. No real drama exists. My [sophisticated] pal is reading abut Mormons and LDS because he's convinced Romney will win.  With the advent of the Internet, the mainstream media no longer has control over public information.  JB: Awful, grim economic numbers, every direction. LB:  Agree, but we're in a time of extraordinary polarization; people are not tuning in to objective realities as much as to their party's ideological statements on objective realities.  LJ: It's once again the economy, stupid, Obama amazingly hasn’t figured this out. They're gonna have to close the Volt factory for the second time this year.  UK in recession Germany heading there; not seen since the 1930s, and taxmageddon coming in January, these realities are becoming more evident, esp to elders.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (C-R) gestures from atop the stairs at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, during final preparations for the opening of the Republican National Convention on August 27, 2012. Due to tropical storm Isaac, the convention will come to order later today, Monday August 27th, and then immediately recess until the afternoon on Tuesday, August 28th.

Monday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time):   .Congressman Devin Nunes (California 19), in re:  Jerry Brown called "an old retread." At lunch I was with former Cal Gov Pete Wilson, who was slightly mocking Gov Brown, as Pete could have had a third term had he ignored the two-term limit, which Gov Brown has escaped.   Pete Wilson promoting Prop 32; the army of pubic employees has to be defeated or we won’t have a penny left.  As you know, Paul Ryan and I have been close friends for a while worked closely; been discussing these ideas for year and now they're the platform. I want Paul Ryan to do what he's been doing for a decade: lay out his work for the American people, explaining what'll happen if we don’t change course, ad then put the country on the right path. NH:  Milton Friedman said, Hold on to great ideas because eventually history will [bring them to the fore].

 

Monday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):   .John Fund, American Spectator;  Taegan Goddard, Political Wire; in re:  The federal govt contributes $37 million to the convention; Senators rejected ceasing that because "These are the best parties we go to" – and Congress set aside $56mill for each so it’s ['way over] $100 mil of taxpayers' funds. 

Monday 1020P (720P Pacific Time):   .continued.   

Monday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):   . Hotel Mars. David Livingston, The Space Show, and Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:  during the ferocious and deadly Cold War competition, both sides decided for competition for the high ground – circumplanetary satellites, the Moon.  July 20, 1969, first man ever to stand on another heavenly orb. Neil Alden Armstrong, b  in a small town in Ohio, has now left us for eternity.   His long history shows a coolness under fire. The Flying Bedspread – an ungainly thing with which to practice lunar landing – nearly crashed, but he stayed cool till the last minute , when he ejected.  Gemini 8 (March 1966): finally got target vehicle launched, and he successfully completed a docking, Then one of the thrusters began to fire uncontrollably – extremely fast.  Armstrong stayed cool, figured out where the problem was, deactivated all the thrusters, activated a different group and immediately returned to Earth, saving everyone's life. A thoroughly decent, kindly, deeply modest man.

Monday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):   .continued. 

Monday 1105P (805P Pacific Time):   .  Reza Kahlili, A Time to Betray, in re: Iran's plan to attack US bases in Israel; Iran's threat to Saudi Arabia

Monday 1120P (820P Pacific Time):   .  Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re:  Iran's threat to Israel. Time is running out; will the US defend Israel? What is Iran's threat after the US election?

Monday 1135P (835P Pacific Time):   .  Aaron Klein, author and WABC radio, in re: Syria's threat to Israel. HizbAllah's threat to Israel. The Turkish-NATO intervention in northern Syria. What casualties in Israel?

Monday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):   .Don Amundsen, in re: Bair Family Museum in Montana 

Monday/Tues 1205A (905 Pacific Time):   Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind by Mallory Factor and Elizabeth Factor; 1 of 2

Monday/Tues  1220A (920 Pacific Time):   .Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind by Mallory Factor and Elizabeth Factor; 2 of 2

Monday/Tues  1235A (935P Pacific Time):   .Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Lara Brown, Villanova; Larry Johnson, No Quarter ("and my tax-refugee man"), in re: Mitt Romney's early attendance in Tampa, starting on Tuesday, was supposed to be embargoed, but the press abjured its promise so now it's all over.  His wife will speak on how he is as a father, a grandfather, husband, and about her struggles with multiple sclerosis and even with breast cancer. NH: She'll be a marvellous speaker. We don't know more about her because the media have preferred not to cover that pleasing part of the story.  LJ: In 1964, when I was nine years old, I watched the convention (odd though that may seem). This is all scripted. No real drama exists. My [sophisticated] pal is reading abut Mormons and LDS because he's convinced Romney will win.  With the advent of the Internet, the mainstream media no longer has control over public information.  JB: Awful, grim economic numbers, every direction. LB:  Agree, but we're in a time of extraordinary polarization; people are not tuning in to objective realities as much as to their party's ideological statements on objective realities.  LJ: It's once again the economy, stupid, Obama amazingly hasn’t figured this out. They're gonna have to close the Volt factory for the second time this year.  UK in recession Germany heading there; not seen since the 1930s, and taxmageddon coming in January, these realities are becoming more evident, esp to elders

Monday/Tues  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Kate Galbraith, Texas Tribune, in re: Texas vs the EPA.Texas wins.

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Music (using New York City broadcast times)

9-hour:  Wag the Dog, Mad Max, Open Range  ; 10-hour: Open Range, Wag the Dog, Starshiptroopers    ; 11-hour: Land of the Dead, Open Range   midnight hour:  The Sentinel, Mad Max, Wag the Dog.