OY ... LIVE MICS ARE SUCH DANGEROUS THINGS  —  Just watch (the voices are Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan) ...  And if you're interested, the transcript ...

Palin E-Mails Show Intense Interest in Trooper's Discipline  —  Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the running mate for GOP presidential candidate John McCain, wrote e-mails that harshly criticized Alaska state troopers for failing to fire her former brother-in-law and ridiculed an internal affairs investigation into his conduct.

Text of Sarah Palin's speech  —  ST. PAUL, Minn. (MarketWatch) - Here is the prepared text of a speech given by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, as released by the party.  —  Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored to be considered …

Clinton aides: Palin treatment sexist  —  ST. PAUL, Minn. — Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCain's running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats.

Focus Group: Palin Was (Alarmingly) Strong  —  Several moderate-Democrat friends of mine have been emailing—few if any would ever vote for McCain—but all agree that Palin was very strong.  The more liberal among them are a little panicked.  —  I completely misjudged how negative she would be.

Live-blogging night 3 — Sarah Palin alert! — of the Republican Convention.  —  5:43 Central Time: I'm just setting this up so you can get started talking and to let you know that I'll be here — on what is obviously a very exciting night.  —  7:48: I'm just settling in for some serious blogging …

Official: Palin's never issued an order to Alaska Guard  —  ANCHORAGE, Alaska — When presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate last Friday, the Arizona senator emphasized her role as the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard.

Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush  —  Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.  —  Biden's comments, first reported by ABC news …

Don't Blow It, Netroots Bloggers  —  Marc Ambinder, blogger-journalist for The Atlantic, asks aloud: … The answer is, most definitively, yes.  —  And the question reveals the very hubris on the part of so much of the media that makes such a war an irresistible and smart gambit by the McCain-Palin campaign.

Video: Megyn Kelly destroys Us Weekly bottom-feeder over Palin story  —  “Babies, Lies, and Scandal” runs the front-cover headline over a photo of the Barracuda.  What exactly are the “lies,” asks Kelly?  Simply the lies that are being told about Palin, comes the reply from this galactic tool …

Jews for Jesus and Sarah Palin  —  Of all the arrant, preposterous, and ludicrous attacks yet launched on Sarah Palin, there is none more absurd than the notion that she should have stood up in a huff and stormed out of church in her hometown of Wasilla because her pastor had invited a Jews for Jesus nutcase to speak there.

UMMM  —  Is Sarah Palin really comparing herself to Harry Truman since he only served as vice president for a few months?  —  11:06 PM ... This really does put the party in party rally.  —  11:07 PM ... A few other thoughts.  You'll notice that Rudy Giuliani apparently ran too long …

One Very Off Moment  —  The one moment that stays with me tonight, oddly enough, was not Palin's speech.  It was a line from Giuliani, a New York mayor with a young third wife and gay friends, mocking a “cosmopolitan” who was brought up by a single mother.  It was that Barack Obama's rise could “only happen in America.”

GERALDINE FERRARO WAS NEVER LIKE THIS.  —  After a middling start of her speech, Sarah Palin hit her stride.  Palin's speech so far is MILES better than Biden's — and will probably be better than McCain's.