Democratic National Convention Countdown!

For pity's sake. I've lost count. I think it's only 72 days before the Democratic National Convention. Stories, stories, stories:

Colorado DNC delegate wants to show Obama his electric car:

Nate Vanderschaaf has a dream:

Slip his car keys to Barack Obama - and off they'd go.

He's not a crazed fan. He's the owner of one of the world's few truly electric cars and also a Colorado delegate to the Democratic National Convention - which falls in a summer when most poor souls are getting poorer paying $4 a gallon for gasoline.

The Longmont man sees a chance to sell the idea of electric cars to a national audience and - hope against hope - offer a test drive to the possible next president of the United States.

Darwinian Nagging Catastrophe. Rocky columnist Sam Adams asks, "What does DNC mean to me?" There's even a Sam-ulcast.

Crap cannon tests underway:

The helicopters flying over parts of Denver tonight are part of a U.S. Department of Justice training exercise, according to Denver police.

"They gave us a heads up," said Det. John White, spokesman with Denver police.

Few details were known about the exercise Monday.

It was not clear where the helicopters were taking off from.

Gee, anything else you don't know?

Greenest ever:

Chances that ground-level ozone will spike during the Democratic National Convention, blanketing the metro area in bad air and triggering public health alerts, are keeping air quality officials up at night.

Denver is already in violation of the ozone standard in the Clean Air Act, thanks to a series of bad air days last summer.

State health officials and Denver planners are hoping Mother Nature, as well as the use of shuttles, bicycles and car pools, will prevent ozone levels from tripping monitors that ring the metro area during the last week of August, while the convention is in full swing.

Still, the prospect that bad air will cloud what's touted as the most environmentally sensitive political confab in history is taking some of the shine off the event.

"I give credit to the DNC for trying to make it the greenest convention ever, but bringing in tens of thousands of people who are going to be flying in on planes and renting cars is going to be a strain as far as air quality is concerned," said Jeremy Nichols, director of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action. "The reality is we have a significant challenge ahead of us."

Strategically placed: Webcams along the protest route. Somebody tell Revo the Rabbit.

Update: Sorry, only 71 days until the Democratic National Convention. El Presidente is going to be pissed. He thinks he made the trains run on time.