Alas, the Blotter will be flying the friendly skies tonight and won’t have Internet access to post today’s videos. I’d say the best places to find video clips of full RNC speeches would be here or here.

I’ll be out of pocket from tonight through the weekend, so I must post this today rather than Friday and then catch up next week.

Topping this week’s list of big ($25,000 or more) spenders on California campaigns and committees is $2.25 million given Tuesday by Arizona education magnate Peter Sperling to the campaign for Proposition 7, which would require California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California put $1.2 million Wednesday into the campaign against Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. David S. Christensen of Alamo, co-president and COO of real estate investment and development firm Nearon Enterprises; Christianne Danielson of Santa Monica; John D. Tanner, owner of Tanner Industries in Granite Bay; and former Palo Alto Mayor Jack R. Wheatley each gave $25,000 Monday to support Prop. 8, and Mesa, Ariz., farmer David LeSueur gave $25,000 Tuesday to support the measure.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings of Santa Cruz gave $105,268.87 Wednesday to support Proposition 11, the legislative redistricting reform measure.

Fresh from the convention’s press office…

On running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:

“I’m very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming.”

On solving problems in Washington:

“The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom. It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you.

“Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.”

On love of country:

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”

I utterly reject the notion that it’s “sexist” to vigorously question Sarah Palin’s qualifications. It’s my job as a journalist — and your job, dear reader, as an American — to question the qualifications of anyone who seeks any public office, regardless of race, age and gender. Nobody should get a free pass; to imply otherwise might be… well, sexist.

As governor, Palin has served more than 20 months at the helm of the nation’s fourth-least-populous state, with fewer residents than San Francisco; Alaska in 2007 ranked 45th among the 50 states by gross state product, a measure of economic activity (and for context, Alaska’s GSP was about 2.5 percent of California’s). She has racked up several accomplishments as governor, including an overhaul of state ethics laws; blindsiding lawmakers from both sides of the aisle by using her line-item veto power to make deep cuts in their state construction budget; and pushing to build a natural gas pipeline despite some big oil companies’ opposition.

She is, however, now the subject of an ethics investigation herself; the Alaska Legislature wants to know whether she abused her power in firing a cabinet member who claims she wanted him to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a messy divorce with her sister. An independent investigator’s report is due by Oct. 31, but while Palin initially had said she and her staff would cooperate fully, her lawyer is now questioning the Legislature’s jurisdiction and wants the probe delayed.

The notion that her status as head of Alaksa’s National Guard qualifies as military experience seems like an insult to people with actual military experience. I asked a spokesperson to send me a list of Alaska Army National Guard and Alaska Air National Guard activations and deployments since Palin took office, and here it is, verbatim:

1. The AKNG was trained up and on standby to provide military assistance for civil disturbance during the International Whaling Commission meeting in May 2007.
2. The AKNG provided aviation support (personnel and helicopters) to help fight the Mat-Su wildfires in June 2007.
3. The AKNG provided security forces for the Adjutants’ General Association of the United States conference in June 2007.
4. The AKNG provides on a daily basis search and rescue assets for civilian search and rescue missions across the state.
*since Dec. 2006:

MISSIONS: 521

SAVES: 200 (Lives saved)

ASSISTS: 77 (Lives assisted to safety)

SORTIES FLOWN: 826

HOURS FLOWN: 2012.6

Outside of Alaska … providing state-to-state assistance through EMAC
***5. The AKNG sent a C-17 with two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters and Guard members to Mississippi to support search and rescue efforts expected in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav in September 2008.

All other deployments have been for federalized, overseas service — instances in which the Pentagon is in charge, and the governor really has nothing to do with it. And while I respect her son’s decision to enlist (he ships out to Iraq next week), this qualifies Palin no more than any of the other hundreds of thousands of U.S. parents who’ve seen their children go off to war in Iraq in the past five and a half years.

I’l also venture to say that — contrary to statements made by Cindy McCain and John Bolton (who as the former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations really should know better) — being a governor whose state is close to Russia and Canada doesn’t constitute “foreign-policy experience.”

As for her earlier experience, she was a city councilwoman and mayor in a town that at the time was about two-thirds the size of Emeryville. It’s a town that at the time (according to the 2000’s U.S. Census) was 85.46 percent white, 0.59 percent black, 5.25 percent Native American, 1.32 percent Asian, 0.13 percent Pacific Islander, 1.32 percent from other races and 5.94 percent from two or more races; 3.68 percent of the population was Latino. That’s no bastion of diversity, even by Alaskan standards – the same census found the state in its entirety was 69.3 percent white, 15.6 percent Native American, 3.7 percent black. She reportedly won the mayor’s office — in 1996, with 651 votes — by running an aggressively partisan, socially conservative race for a nonpartisan office. The biggest municipal budget she ever handled there was $14.4 million. And though she would later make waves as a reformer tough on lobbyists and earmarks, she was responsible for hiring lobbyists who brought that tiny town almost $27 million in federal earmarks, earning her town a place three years running on John McCain’s own annual lists of objectionable pork.

Education-wise, Palin holds a Bachelor’s degree in communications/journalism with a political science minor from the University of Idaho. Incidentally, I also have a Bachelor’s degree in journalism with a poli-sci minor; I’m proud of it — I think it fits my career — but I don’t think it’s all that impressive (or, at least, academically rigorous) for someone who’s supposed to be of the very best and brightest, seeking our nation’s second-highest office.

So, based on what we know of Sarah Palin from her background and from what we’ve seen and heard of her this week, everyone — Democrat, Republican or other — owes it to this country to ask himself or herself:

Do you think where she has been and what she has done gives her insight into the day-to-day lives of most Americans?

Are you OK with her making decisions that affect the lives of U.S. troops and the security of U.S. interests at home and abroad?

Can you comfortably envision her representing the United States before the United Nations General Assembly, or at a meeting of the G-8, or at some other international gathering or summit?

And, as a friend of mine put it, do you believe a person with these very same qualifications would’ve been picked as a vice-presidential nominee if that person was a man?

Former presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee:

Former presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney:

Former presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani:

And I’ll add vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as soon as I can find clean video…

UPDATE @ 8:26 A.M. THURSDAY: Sorry for the long delay… here we are:

Republican National Convention staffers just issued a news release with excerpts from the speech presumptive vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin will deliver there tonight.

On her experience as a public servant:

“I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

On why she is going to Washington, D.C.:

“I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country.”

On energy policies that the McCain-Palin administration will implement:

“Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems - as if we all didn’t know that already. But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines…build more nuclear plants…create jobs with clean coal…and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers.”

On John McCain:

“Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”

“Are You Experienced?” (Jimi Hendrix)
“Wonderful World” (Sam Cooke)
“It Gets Lonely in the White House” (Perry Como)
“Elected” (Alice Cooper)
“Mrs. Robinson” (Simon & Garfunkel)
“Teach Your Children” (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
“Love and Marriage” (Frank Sinatra)
“Having My Baby” (Paul Anka)
“Seventeen” (Winger)

Feel free to post comments with your own suggestions.

First Lady Laura Bush and President George W. Bush:

U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.:

Former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.:

Wow. What a first few days for Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate:

She has hired a personal lawyer to represent her in the Alaksa Legislature’s investigation of whether she abused her powers by pressuring a cabinet member – whom she later fired – to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a nasty divorce with her sister.

She quashed rumors that her son, born in April with Down Syndrome, is actually her 17-year-old daughter’s son by revealing that her daughter is pregnant now.

Her husband for years was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, which wants to call a vote on having the state secede from the United States.

Though a crusader against political pork-barrel spending now, she had no problem a few years back hiring a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for the town of 6,700 where she was mayor. Also, she apparently was for that famous “bridge to nowhere” before she was against it.

And questions remain about her experience in foreign policy and military matters should she be required to step into the Oval Office in John McCain’s place (or even to confer with and advise McCain in times of crisis.) The campaign has argued that Alaska’s proximity to Russia and Palin’s status as commander-in-chief of Alaska’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard demonstrate her experience.

Yet former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who chairs the Republican National Committee’s RNC Victory 2008 effort and so has been a prominent proxy for McCain, today implied questions about Palin’s experience are somehow off-limits:

“The facts are that Sarah Palin has made more executive decisions as a Mayor and Governor than Barack Obama has made in his life. Because of Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the Presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognize and decry sexism in all its forms. They will not tolerate sexist treatment of Governor Palin.”

Is “keep drawing the fouls” the whole strategy behind the Palin pick? I’d guess her speech to the Republican National Convention tomorrow night will have a very large television viewing audience.

Republican and Democratic members of the “Al-Costa Budget Coalition” — self-described as a group of more than 40 schools and nonprofits serving the elderly, people with disabilities, families with health problems and other residents of Contra Costa County and the Tri-Valley area — met this morning with Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-Livermore, to urge a resolution to the state budget impasse.

In a news release, Health Access organizer Jessica Rothhaar said “a growing number of local Republicans believe that the state GOP leadership is behaving irresponsibly by continuing to insist that the budget be balanced through cuts and borrowing alone. He should listen to them.”

Added Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District board member Bill Morrison: “I’m a fiscally conservative Republican, but I cannot see any way out of this big hole we are in without some reasonable tax increases.”

Margo Dutton of Walnut Creek, the CEO of Rehabilitation Services of Northern California — a Pleasant Hill agency serving seniors and people with disabilities — said lawmakers are elected to represent their constituents and make hard decisions. “I come from three generations of Republicans and have supported Republican candidates, but it looks to me like GOP legislators are pursing a partisan agenda at the expense of their constituents. If they want to be fiscally responsible, why would they close down adult day health care centers and force participants into nursing homes that cost four times as much?”

And Mt. Diablo Education Association President Mike Noce, a Republican, said he wants a budget signed as much as anyone “but it makes no sense to pass a budget that just kicks the can down the road to next year, like the Governor said. Assemblyman Houston has to represent his constituents, and polls show that the majority of the people in this district support new revenues.”

It’s not the first time the Al-Costa Budget Coalition has targeted Houston, the Bay Area’s lone Republican lawmaker and now a lame duck, but bringing local Republicans to the fore as it did today is an interesting tactic aimed at weakening Houston’s argument that he’s faithfully representing his base.

Not that I doubt these Republicans’ bona fides (though I see Dutton never actually says she’s a Republican), but it’s worth noting that press for this event was handled by Paschal/Roth Public Affairs, whose current clients include only Together for California’s Future and the Sacramento Rivercats. And since I’m reasonably sure a minor league baseball team isn’t pressuring Houston to give ground on the budget, it would seem the Al-Costa Budget Coalition is a project of a bigger, more-left-leaning coalition of labor unions, anti-poverty organizations and social-service agencies.

UPDATE @ 2:45 P.M.: This just in from Kimberly Cox, Houston’s press secretary, whom I’d contacted earlier about the coalition’s visit: “Mr. Houston does not have any comments.”