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After the Olympics, a political convention is definitely a letdown. The dilemma for this only mildly interested viewer is ... CSPAN or CNN?

The advantage of CSPAN is that you actually get to see the convention ... all the videos, all the musical acts, all the speeches.

But those speeches! Mercy! It really tells you how much the Dems will grovel to Big Labor if they'll put AFL-CIO boss John Squeaky, I mean Sweeney, on the podium during prime time. Quick, switch to CNN!

Yes, Cable News Network presents "the best political team in America." The talking heads are literally lined up in rows ... and rows ... and rows. If everyone gets just a little face time, there's no time for the convention.

The evening's story line is "Hillary's Big Night." What? That's bull.

"This is Hillary's little night," my wife astutely remarks.

"Her very, very little night," I affirm.

Back to CSPAN ... Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is reciting the list of failed presidential candidates from her state and wishing for the losing streak to continue. I guess she wants Arizona to be the Cubs of politics.

Back to CNN ... where we're promised we're soon going to hear from ... Rudy Giuliani! Give me a break. He gets his turn next week.

Back to CSPAN. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is leading some kind of "town meeting" on energy. It's totally canned. Duke CEO Jim Rogers is part of it, talking about conservation. When did he join the Obama campaign? (He doesn't mention building a great big new coal-fired generator, which would get him booed off the stage by this crowd, if anyone actually were paying attention).

Back to CNN ... where John King is laying out the electoral map. My gosh, is CNN going to call the election for Obama already? Not quite, but he's just about got all the pieces put in place. (North Carolina is red on his map but don't worry, Democrats, you don't really need us.)

Back to CSPAN ... We're hearing hard-luck stories from ordinary working people, including a former Pillowtex employee from North Carolina. Thousands lost their jobs when the plants closed and government failed them. President Bush only told them to go to college, but 65 percent of them "could barely read and write." Oops, not a good commentary about North Carolina. Government failed those folks long before the plants closed.

A DNC video presents Obama saying in a speech that government can't solve all our problems, that Americans need to pitch in and take care of each other. But it strikes me that most of the speakers I've heard at this convention so far seem to think that government will solve all their problems just as soon as Obama's elected. Democrats are setting very high expectations. But that's what conventions are all about these days. Everything's decided, everything's scripted, there's no drama -- unless ...

Come on, Hillary. Rally your troops. Call you delegates. Vow to fight to the bitter end. Make this your Big Night after all.

Oh, what a disappointment. Michael Phelps, she ain't.

I enjoyed this piece on Marketplace yesterday:

"Is there an enviromaniac loose in your office?"

Have a listen if you missed it.

The best quote describing one office enviromaniac: "She's the Osama Bin Laden of green terrorists. If she saw you throw away a plastic fork, she would take that fork out of the trash and come after you with it. And then she'd rinse it off and recycle it."

A more serious note was sounded by Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University in San Francisco (of all places):

"I'm calling it the dark green movement that is just blatantly hostile. The point is not really protecting the environment, the point is an opportunity to be able to feel superior to someone else and to kind of get off on releasing a little bit of anger."

Know anyone like that?

Al Gore, maybe?

Mike Barber's likely to win support, from the public and fellow council members, for his proposed ordinance to ban registered sex offenders from city parks and recreation facilities.

It's easy to go along, hard to say no.

I've written about this before, highlighting N.C. Appeals Court Judge Martha Geer's dissent in the Standley v. Woodfin case.

Since then, the state Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the Court of Appeals decision, leaving Geer out on a legal limb with no support at all.

So be it. It's permissible for a city or county to enact an ordinance like Barber proposes. In fact, Mecklenburg County put such an ordinance in place this month and already has recorded the first arrest.

City leaders can congratulate themselves on making their parks safe from fiends who prey on children.

Except they're doing no such thing. As information in the Standley v. Woodfin case record showed, most sex crimes are committed by people who are NOT registered sex offenders. And certainly most sex crimes are NOT committed in parks.

The fact that you can find a registered sex offender in a park, as an officer did in Charlotte, hardly means that a horrendous crime was about to occur. You also could find registered sex offenders in grocery stores, movie theaters and maybe even churches.

Nevertheless, I'm sure the greater good will be served to see to it that a registered sex offender -- one who's not considered dangerous enough to be locked up, by the way -- isn't allowed to play tennis or jog in a city park, or watch a ballgame at War Memorial Stadium.

The greater feel-good, anyway.

Thomas Friedman notes the 33 foreign-born athletes on the U.S. Olympic team and adds:

"It is amazing that with our Noah's Ark of an Olympic team doing so well 'that at the same time you have this rising call in America to restrict immigration,' said Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. 'Some people want to choke off the very thing that makes us strong and unique.' "

This isn't news to me. I wrote a blog entry titled "Immigrant Olympians" last month.

This isn't a phenomenon limited to the U.S. I noticed a number of Kenyan distance runners competing for other countries. You also might have noted that Usain Bolt was called the first man to win the 100 meters for Jamaica, not the first Jamaican to win. Native Jamaicans Linford Christie for Britain and Donovan Bailey for Canada were earlier winners.

But let's define what we're talking about. Foreign-born athletes must be naturalized U.S. citizens in order to compete on the U.S. Olympic team. Illegal immigrants are not eligible.

I don't know of many Americans trying to "choke off" legal immigration.

I'm not. Keep them coming; in fact, we could take a lot more if we could stem the flow of illegals.

All the better if we can bring in people with special talents and training.

Frankly, our foreign-born distance runners were a big disappointment. Surely, we can find faster Kenyans.

Tougher on demonstrators: Beijing or Denver?

Media favorite: Michael Phelps or Barack Obama?

More anticipated: Tonight's speech by the candidate's wife, or the water polo final?

Dream Team: USA Basketball or Obama-Biden?

Biggest losers: Trash-talking French swimmers or the Clintons?

Best backflips: Shawn Johnson or Biden on Obama's qualifications?

Most notable no-show: Tyson Gay in the 100 finals or John Edwards?

Younger: The Obama girls or China's "women" gymnasts?

Most fakery: The Olympics opening ceremonies or a political convention?