I'm torturing myself as I write this post--by watching Palin do her RNC duty.

I'm frightened. She talks about being a champion for families with special-needs kids, and as a mom of a kid with an autism-spectrum disorder, I'm terrified to have her as my champion.

Palin's speech is being interrupted, with protestors scattered about and being escorted out. That's always fun to watch. Cindy McCain looks uncomfortable at certain points--that's pretty fun to watch, too. And Palin's youngest daughter, as if directed, licks her hand and then gently wets down her baby brother's hair. Kind of a Little House on the Prairie moment.

The site I'm watching it on is a citizen journalism site called theuptake.org. What's equally frightening is its live blog of people grossed out watching the little girl fix her brother's hair with spit ... hey, sorry, but this is a perfect moment, and folks ate it up.

Can't wait to hear the pundits discuss it--and I wonder if any other special-needs moms out there are as disgusted as I am tonight.

But I'm also wondering if the deal was sealed tonight. Were swing voters seduced tonight with words like snow machine, hockey mom, and her hero, hero, hero, and better be your hero, too--John McCain?

Up above: Democracy Now Amy Goodman's report on her arrest, and the arrest of two producers, on Monday, Sept. 1.

I just love how elections bring out the goodness in all people, don't you?

Nothing has touched me more since I began writing in Tucson than sitting down and talking with Jose and Adriana Rincon about their son, little Jose, killed while riding his bicycle on Jan. 12, 2008.

I have a 7-year-old son, but with children or without, I don't think anyone can truly understand the pain this family has suffered--though I think many in the community have felt the loss in some way of 14-year-old Jose.

Look at the picture above. What a beautiful son, and what a beautiful family.

A neighbor of the Rincons, Brad Rollings, came up with the idea of renaming the 500 north block of Jones Boulevard off Fifth Avenue as "Guapo Way." Guapo is little Jose's nickname. This Friday, Sept. 5, 6 p.m., the family, along with friends and neighbors will host a special street dedication. It's open to the public.

Rollings evidently took his idea to the El Encanto Estates Homeowners Association and El Conquistador Estates where the family resides. It was supported there, and then taken to the Tucson City Council by Ward 6's Nina Trasoff; the council approved the move Aug. 6 in a unanimous vote.

So now the street where Guapo played with his sisters will be named after him. I can't imagine a better gift to the Rincons, as well as the community. Part of the statement sent by the family says it all:

"The renaming of this street on Aug. 6, 2008 by Tucson's Mayor and Council is a fitting tribute to this exemplary young man. It is with gratitude and humility that his family and friends accept this gesture to honor and celebrate his accomplishments. It is not he who needed more time, but us. We are left feeling cheated that his potential could never be fully realized, asking and wondering ... 'What might have been?'"

When I drive home from the office, I often detour past the Santa Cruz Church on South Sixth Avenue. There's a lot of family history here, but physically driving by this building always brings back lots of odd memories. Like the fact that my cousin Jackie's house was right across the street (now demolished), and my other cousins and I would go over to her house and play this old 1970s board game where you open this door, and on the other side is the man you'll marry: hunk or dog.

Really great for young women growing up during those days. Phyllis Schlafly probably bought tons of these for gifts back then.

But what I also think about as I drive by Santa Cruz are all the different things my family members would do while driving by Catholic churches. My mother would--and still does--a sign of the cross every Catholic church drive-by. My grandmother, who picked me up from kindergarten down the street from Santa Cruz, would make a little fist and beat her heart area gently, and then touch a little statue of the Virgin stuck on the dash of her Dodge Dart--all while driving past Santa Cruz going east on 22nd Street. A friend of mine touches the car ceiling then makes a sign of the cross. Seems everyone has a ritual, and I don't really understand where it started, but I realize I've been cataloging who does what and how.

I'm curious if anyone else has a few rituals out there. (No, Red Star, anything you share can't have anything about Mrs. Red Star and the car you owned when you moved here in the 1980s ... )

... It's about THE issue, as in the new Weekly issue, which is online and ready for reading.

Comment on its contents here if ya want to. And here's Gustavo!

Hey, Kids! Looking for results from tonight's primary election? We've got The Skinny over at ScrambleWatch ’08!

We're told the first returns will be released around 8 p.m. The crew at the county's election division say that they hope to be done counting by 1 a.m. tomorrow.

I wish I'd had the chance to ask Tucson Dems attending the Democratic National Convention to pick up some of these cool John McCain condoms distributed during the party in Denver.

I hope the folks distributing these condoms--Planned Parenthood--distribute them where they are needed most: at the Republican National Convention. At the DNC, Planned Parenthood handed out more than 700 pounds of condoms (even though logic tells us that any good Democrat would have brought their own condoms to the party, or wouldn't be afraid to go buy some at the Mile High Circle K).

Each condom is enclosed in a hot pink matchbook bearing the message: "Protect Yourself From John McCain (in This Election)." The back lists one of Planned Parenthood’s Top 10 reasons to NOT vote for McCain, such as the frightening No. 10: John McCain has voted against women’s reproductive rights and privacy 125 times in his 25 years in Washington, D.C.

McCain’s pathetic record on women’s health issues has earned him the lowest possible rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. For more information or to get involved, check out www.plannedparenthoodaction.org.